Experiments on Critical Phenomena in a Noisy Exit Problem

Abstract

We consider noise-driven exit from a domain of attraction in a two-dimensional bistable system lacking detailed balance. Through analog and digital stochastic simulations, we find a theoretically predicted bifurcation of the most probable exit path as the parameters of the system are changed, and a corresponding nonanalyticity of the activation energy. We also investigate the extent to which the bifurcation is related to the local breaking of time-reversal invariance.

4 pages, 5 figures, REVTEX

References in corpus (6)

• The Escape Problem for Irreversible Systems
• A Scaling Theory of Bifurcations in the Symmetric Weak-Noise Escape Problem
• Observable and hidden singular features of large fluctuations in nonequilibrium systems
• The Effect of Focusing and Caustics on Exit Phenomena in Systems Lacking Detailed Balance
• Oscillatory Behavior of the Rate of Escape through an Unstable Limit Cycle
• The Use of Hamiltonian Mechanics in Systems Driven by Colored Noise

Cited by in corpus (9)

• The large deviation approach to statistical mechanics
• Forward Flux Sampling-type schemes for simulating rare events: Efficiency analysis
• Singularities in large deviation functions
• Transition times in the low-noise limit of stochastic dynamics
• Exit from a basin of attraction for stochastic weakly damped nonlinear Schrödinger equations
• The Barrier Method: A Technique for Calculating Very Long Transition Times
• How an Anomalous Cusp Bifurcates
• Noise assisted transport in the Wannier-Stark system
• Control of diffusion of nano-particles in an optical vortex lattice