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Escape from a metastable well under a time-ramped force

Julian Shillcock·Udo Seifert
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Abstract

Thermally activated escape of an over-damped particle from a metastable well under the action of a time-ramped force is studied. We express the mean first passage time (MFPT) as the solution to a partial differential equation, which we solve numerically for a model case. We discuss two approximations of the MFPT, one of which works remarkably well over a wide range of loading rates, while the second is easy to calculate and can provide a valuable first estimate.

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Julian Shillcock, Udo Seifert. 1998-02-17. Escape from a metastable well under a time-ramped force. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.57.7301

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