Kramers escape rate in the overdamped systems with the power-law distribution is studied. By using the mean first passage time, we derive the escape rate for the power-law distribution and obtain the Kramers' infinite barrier escape rate in this case. It is shown that the escape rate for the power-law distribution extends the Kramers' overdamped result to the relatively low barrier. Furthermore, we apply the escape rate for the power-law distribution to the unfolding of titin and show a better agreement with the experimental rate than the traditional escape rate.
We compare the thermal escape rates of a Brownian particle, initially trapped into one of the two wells of an asymmetric double-well potential, for thermal Markovian and non-Markovian noise. The Markovian treatment of this problem goes originally back to the studies of Kramers in 1940 and is therefore often referred to as "Kramers's escape rate problem". We solve the generalized Langevin equation for the trajectories of the particles numerically and analytically for both limiting cases, Markovian and non-Markovian thermal noise. We compute the escape rate and work out the fundamental differenc…
The original perturbative Kramers' method (starting from the phase space coordinates) (Kramers, 1940) of determining the energy-controlled-diffusion equation for Newtonian particles with separable and additive Hamiltonians is generalized to yield the energy-controlled diffusion equation and thus the very low damping (VLD) escape rate including spin-transfer torque for classical giant magnetic spins with two degrees of freedom. These have dynamics governed by the magnetic Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations and thus are generally based on non-separable and non-additive Hamiltonians. The deriva…
The theory of stochastic resetting asserts that restarting a search process at certain times may accelerate the finding of a target. In the case of a classical diffusing particle trapped in a potential well, stochastic resetting may decrease the escape times due to thermal fluctuations. Here, we numerically explore the Kramers problem for a cubic potential, which is the simplest potential with a escape. Both deterministic and Poisson resetting times are analyzed. We use a Monte Carlo approach, which is necessary for generic complex potentials, and we show that the optimal rate is related to th…
The escape problem is defined in the context of quantum field theory. The escape rate is explicitly derived for a scalar field governed by fluctuation-dissipation dynamics, through generalizing the standard Kramers problem. In the presence of thermal fluctuations, there is a nonvanishing probability for a classical background field, initially located at a minimum of its potential in a homogeneous configuration, to escape from the well. The simple and well-known related problem of the escape of a classical point particle due to random forces is first reviewed. We then discuss the difficulties a…
The probability per unit time for a thermally activated Brownian particle to escape over a potential well is in general well-described by Kramers theory. Kramers showed that the escape time decreases exponentially with increasing barrier height. The dynamics slow down when the particle is charged and subjected to a Lorentz force due to an external magnetic field. This is evident via a rescaling of the diffusion coefficient entering as a prefactor in the Kramers escape rate without any impact on the barrier-height-dependent exponent. Here we show that the barrier height can be effectively chang…
The problem of noise-induced transitions is often associated with Hendrik Kramers due to his seminal paper of 1940, where an archetypal example - one-dimensional potential system subject to linear damping and weak white noise - was considered and the quasi-stationary rate of escape over a potential barrier was estimated for the ranges of extremely small and moderate-to-large damping. The gap between these ranges was covered in the 80th by one of Rashba's favourite disciples Vladimir Ivanovich Mel'nikov. It is natural to pose a question: how does the escape rate achieve the quasi-stationary sta…
We consider a simple model of a bistable system under the influence of multiplicative noise. We provide a path integral representation of the overdamped Langevin dynamics and compute conditional probabilities and escape rates in the weak noise approximation. The saddle-point solution of the functional integral is given by a diluted gas of instantons and anti-instantons, similarly to the additive noise problem. However, in this case, the integration over fluctuations is more involved. We introduce a local time reparametrization that allows its computation in the form of usual Gaussian integrals…
Kramer's theory of activation over a potential barrier consists in computing the mean exit time from the boundary of a basin of attraction of a randomly perturbed dynamical system. Here we report that for some systems, crossing the boundary is not enough, because stochastic trajectories return inside the basin with a high probability a certain number of times before escaping far away. This situation is due to a shallow potential. We compute the mean and distribution of escape times and show how this result explains the large distribution of interburst durations in neuronal networks.
Brownian escape is key to a wealth of physico-chemical processes, including polymer folding, and information storage. The frequency of thermally activated energy barrier crossings is assumed to generally decrease exponentially with increasing barrier height. Here, we show experimentally that higher, fine-tuned barrier profiles result in significantly enhanced escape rates in breach of the intuition relying on the above scaling law, and address in theory the corresponding conditions for maximum speed-up. Importantly, our barriers end on the same energy on which they start. For overdamped dynami…
We study the dynamics of one-dimensional active particles confined in a double-well potential, focusing on the escape properties of the system, such as the mean escape time from a well. We first consider a single-particle both in near and far-from-equilibrium regimes by varying the persistence time of the active force and the swim velocity. A non-monotonic behavior of the mean escape time is observed with the persistence time of the activity, revealing the existence of an optimal choice of the parameters favoring the escape process. For small persistence times, a Kramers-like formula with an e…
Modern view of activated rate processes: unidirectional fluxes at equilibrium, correlation functions, and splitting probabilities
University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校奥登计算工程与科学学院）；Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校化学系）
Barrier crossing calculations in chemical reaction-rate theory typically assume that the barrier is large compared to the temperature. When the barrier vanishes, however, there is a qualitative change in behavior. Instead of crossing a barrier, particles slide down a sloping potential. We formulate a renormalization group description of this noisy saddle-node transition. We derive the universal scaling behavior and corrections to scaling for the mean escape time in overdamped systems with arbitrary barrier height. We also develop an accurate approximation to the full distribution of barrier es…
