English

Noise Enhanced Stability

Statistical Mechanics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

The noise can stabilize a fluctuating or a periodically driven metastable state in such a way that the system remains in this state for a longer time than in the absence of white noise. This is the noise enhanced stability phenomenon, observed experimentally and numerically in different physical systems. After shortly reviewing all the physical systems where the phenomenon was observed, the theoretical approaches used to explain the effect are presented. Specifically the conditions to observe the effect: (a) in systems with periodical driving force, and (b) in random dichotomous driving force, are discussed. In case (b) we review the analytical results concerning the mean first passage time and the nonlinear relaxation time as a function of the white noise intensity, the parameters of the potential barrier, and of the dichotomous noise.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0405392,
  title  = {Noise Enhanced Stability},
  author = {Bernardo Spagnolo and Nikolay V. Agudov and Alexander A. Dubkov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0405392},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

18 pages, 6 figures, in press Acta Physica Polonica (2004)