Dynamics of a metastable state nonlinearly coupled to a heat bath driven by external noise

Abstract

Based on a system-reservoir model, where the system is nonlinearly coupled to a heat bath and the heat bath is modulated by an external stationary Gaussian noise, we derive the generalized Langevin equation with space-dependent friction and multiplicative noise and construct the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation, valid for short correlation time, with space-dependent diffusion coefficient to study the escape rate from a metastable state in the moderate- to large-damping regime. By considering the dynamics in a model cubic potential we analyze the results numerically which are in good agreement with theoretical predictions. It has been shown numerically that enhancement of the rate is possible by properly tuning the correlation time of the external noise. © 2006 The American Physical Society.