Modeling noisy oscillations of active systems is one of the current
challenges in physics and biology. Because the physical mechanisms of
such processes are often difficult to identify, we propose a linear
stochastic model driven by a non-Markovian bistable noise that is
capable of generating self-sustained periodic oscillation. We derive
analytical predictions for most relevant dynamical and thermodynamic
properties of the model. This minimal model turns out to describe
accurately bistablelike oscillatory motion of hair bundles in bullfrog
sacculus, extracted from experimental data. Based on and in agreement
with these data, we estimate the power required to sustain such active
oscillations to be of the order of 100 kBT per oscillation cycle.
