Eur. Phys. J. B 69, 65-70 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00114-7

Stochastic resonance and energy optimization in spatially extended dynamical systems

¹ Department of Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 85287, USA
² Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 85287, USA

Corresponding author: ^a yclai@chaosl.la.asu.edu

Received: 25 November 2008
Revised: 19 January 2009
Published online: 25 March 2009

Abstract

We investigate a class of nonlinear wave equations subject to periodic forcing and noise, and address the issue of energy optimization. Numerically, we use a pseudo-spectral method to solve the nonlinear stochastic partial differential equation and compute the energy of the system as a function of the driving amplitude in the presence of noise. In the fairly general setting where the system possesses two coexisting states, one with low and another with high energy, noise can induce intermittent switchings between the two states. A striking finding is that, for fixed noise, the system energy can be optimized by the driving in a form of resonance. The phenomenon can be explained by the Langevin dynamics of particle motion in a double-well potential system with symmetry breaking. The finding can have applications to small-size devices such as microelectromechanical resonators and to waves in fluid and plasma.