Fluctuations, Escape, and Nucleation in Driven Systems: Logarithmic Susceptibility

V. N. Smelyanskiy; M. I. Dykman; H. Rabitz; B. E. Vugmeister

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.3113

Fluctuations, Escape, and Nucleation in Driven Systems: Logarithmic Susceptibility

V. N. Smelyanskiy, M. I. Dykman, H. Rabitz, and B. E. Vugmeister

Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 3113 – Published 27 October 1997

Abstract

We analyze the probabilities of large infrequent fluctuations in nonadiabatically driven systems. In a broad range of the driving field magnitudes, the logarithm of the fluctuation probability is linear in the field, and the response can be characterized by a logarithmic susceptibility (LS). We evaluate the activation energies for nucleation, with account taken of the field-induced lifting of time and spatial degeneracy of instantonlike nucleation trajectories. LS for nucleation in systems with nonconserved order parameter is shown to be a nonmonotonic function of $ω$ and $k$ .

Received 11 March 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.3113

Authors & Affiliations

V. N. Smelyanskiy¹, M. I. Dykman¹, H. Rabitz², and B. E. Vugmeister²

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824
²Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544