Surmounting Oscillating Barriers

TL;DR

This paper develops novel time-dependent path-integral methods to derive precise weak-noise escape rate formulas for thermally activated processes over oscillating barriers, with results validated against numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a new analytical approach for calculating escape rates in periodically driven systems, improving accuracy over existing methods.

Findings

Excellent agreement with numerical results across various driving parameters.

Asymptotically exact weak-noise expressions for escape rates.

Applicable to a wide range of driving strengths and frequencies.

Abstract

Thermally activated escape over a potential barrier in the presence of periodic driving is considered. By means of novel time-dependent path-integral methods we derive asymptotically exact weak-noise expressions for both the instantaneous and the time-averaged escape rate. The agreement with accurate numerical results is excellent over a wide range of driving strengths and driving frequencies.