Properties of resonant activation phenomena

The phenomenon of resonant activation of a Brownian particle over a fluctuating barrier is revisited. We discuss the important distinctions between barriers that can fluctuate among up and down configurations, and barriers that are always up but that can fluctuate among different heights. A resonanc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Boguñá, Marián, Porrà i Rovira, Josep Maria, Masoliver, Jaume, 1951-, Lindenberg, Katja
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:1998
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/18823
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/18823
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Física estadística
Termodinàmica
Química física
Física matemàtica
Statistical physics
Thermodynamics
Physical and theoretical chemistry
Mathematical physics
Descripción
Sumario:The phenomenon of resonant activation of a Brownian particle over a fluctuating barrier is revisited. We discuss the important distinctions between barriers that can fluctuate among up and down configurations, and barriers that are always up but that can fluctuate among different heights. A resonance as a function of the barrier fluctuation rate is found in both cases, but the nature and physical description of these resonances is quite distinct. The nature of the resonances, the physical basis for the resonant behavior, and the importance of boundary conditions are discussed in some detail. We obtain analytic expressions for the escape time over the barrier that explicitly capture the minima as a function of the barrier fluctuation rate, and show that our analytic results are in excellent agreement with numerical results.