Eur. Phys. J. B 55, 333-336 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2007-00061-3

Nonequilibrium fluctuation induced escape from a metastable state

¹ Department of Physics, Katwa College, Katwa, Burdwan 713130, West Bengal, India
² Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata, 700032, India
³ Department of Physics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061-0435, USA

Corresponding authors: ^a jprc_8@yahoo.com - ^b pcdb5@mahendra.iacs.res.in - ^c skbanik@phys.vt.edu

Received: 10 January 2007
Published online: 2 March 2007

Abstract

Based on a simple microscopic model where the bath is in a non-equilibrium state we study the escape from a metastable state in the over-damped limit. Making use of Fokker-Planck-Smoluchowski description we derive the time dependent escape rate in the non-stationary regime in closed analytical form which brings on to fore a strong non-exponential kinetic of the system mode.