Abstract
Activated escape is investigated for systems that are driven by noise whose power spectrum peaks at a finite frequency. Analytic theory and analog and digital experiments show that the system dynamics during escape exhibit a symmetry-breaking transition as the width of the fluctuational spectral peak is varied. For double-well potentials, even a small asymmetry may result in a parametrically large difference of the activation energies for escape from different wells.
- Received 10 November 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.5470
©2000 American Physical Society