We explain the mechanism leading to directed chaotic transport in Hamiltonian systems with spatial and temporal periodicity. We show that a mixed phase space comprising both regular and chaotic motion is required and we derive a classical sum rule which allows one to predict the chaotic transport velocity from properties of regular phase-space components. Transport in quantum Hamiltonian ratchets arises by the same mechanism as long as uncertainty allows one to resolve the classical phase-space structure. We derive a quantum sum rule analogous to the classical one, based on the relation between quantum transport and band structure.

We study directed transport in classical and quantum area-preserving maps, periodic in space and momentum. On the classical level, we show that a sum rule excludes directed transport of the entire phase space, leaving only the possibility of transport in (dynamically defined) subsets, such as regular islands or chaotic areas. As a working example, we construct a mapping with a mixed phase space where both the regular and the chaotic components support directed currents, but with opposite sign. The corresponding quantum system shows transport of similar strength, associated to the same subsets of phase space as in the classical map.

We report the failure of the semiclassical eigenfunction hypothesis if regular classical transport coexists with chaotic dynamics. All eigenstates, instead of being restricted to either a regular island or the chaotic sea, ignore these classical phase-space structures. We argue that this is true even in the semiclassical limit for extended systems with transporting regular islands such as the standard map with accelerator modes.

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