Bona fide stochastic resonance under nonGaussian active fluctuations

Abstract

We report on the experimental observation of stochastic resonance (SR) in a nonGaussian active bath without any periodic modulation. A Brownian particle hopping in a nanoscale double-well potential under the influence of nonGaussian correlated noise, with mean interval ${{\tau }_{P}}$ and correlation time ${{\tau }_{c}}$, shows a series of equally-spaced peaks in the residence time distribution at integral multiples of ${{\tau }_{P}}$. The strength of the first peak is found to be maximum when the mean residence time ${{\bar{\tau }}_{d}}$ matches the double condition, $4{{\tau }_{c}}\approx {{\tau }_{P}}\approx {{\bar{\tau }}_{d}}\text{/}2$, demonstrating a new type of bona fide SR. The experimental findings agree with a simple model that explains the emergence of SR without periodic modulation of the double-well potential. Additionally, we show that generic SR under periodic modulation, known to degrade in strongly correlated continuous noise, is recovered by the discrete nonGaussian kicks.