Bistability and noise-enhanced velocity of rolling motion

TL;DR

This paper studies how a hard cylinder rolls down a soft incline under noise, revealing bistability in velocity and how noise can increase or decrease average speed, supported by analytical and numerical results.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical framework explaining noise-induced velocity changes and bistability in rolling motion on soft inclined planes.

Findings

Bistability observed in the cylinder's rolling velocity.

Noise can both increase and decrease average velocity.

Analytical theory aligns with numerical simulations.

Abstract

We investigate the motion of a hard cylinder rolling down a soft inclined plane. The cylinder is subjected to a viscous drag force and stochastic fluctuations due to the surrounding medium. In a wide range of parameters we observe bistability of the rolling velocity. In dependence on the parameters, increasing noise level may lead to increasing or decreasing average velocity of the cylinder. The approximative analytical theory agrees with numerical results.