Surmounting Oscillating Barriers: Path-integral approach for Weak Noise
Abstract
We consider the thermally activated escape of an overdamped Brownian particle over a potential barrier in the presence of periodic driving. A time-dependent path-integral formalism is developed which allows us to derive asymptotically exact weak-noise expressions for both the instantaneous and the time-averaged escape rate. Our results comprise a conceptionally new, systematic treatment of the rate prefactor multiplying the exponentially leading Arrhenius factor. Moreover, an estimate for the deviations at finite noise-strengths is provided and a supersymmetry-type property of the time averaged escape rate is verified. For piecewise parabolic potentials, the rate-expression can be evaluated in closed analytical form, while in more general cases, as exemplified by a cubic potential, an action-integral remains to be minimized numerically. Our comparison with very accurate numerical results demonstrates an excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions over a wide range of driving strengths and driving frequencies.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0007206,
title = {Surmounting Oscillating Barriers: Path-integral approach for Weak Noise},
author = {Jörg Lehmann and Peter Reimann and Peter Hänggi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0007206},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
23 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. E