Critical Phenomena and Diffusion in Complex Systems

Editorial of the International Conference on Critical Phenomena and Diffusion in Complex Systems held on 5--7 December, 2006 in Nizhniy Novgorod State University, Russia and was dedicated to the memory and 80th anniversary of Professor Askold N. Malakhov.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in International Journal of Bifurcation and Chao

Noise Enhanced Stability

The noise can stabilize a fluctuating or a periodically driven metastable state in such a way that the system remains in this state for a longer time than in the absence of white noise. This is the noise enhanced stability phenomenon, observed experimentally and numerically in different physical systems. After shortly reviewing all the physical systems where the phenomenon was observed, the theoretical approaches used to explain the effect are presented. Specifically the conditions to observe the effect: (a) in systems with periodical driving force, and (b) in random dichotomous driving force, are discussed. In case (b) we review the analytical results concerning the mean first passage time and the nonlinear relaxation time as a function of the white noise intensity, the parameters of the potential barrier, and of the dichotomous noise.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, in press Acta Physica Polonica (2004

Exact Results for Spectra of Overdamped Brownian Motion in Fixed and Randomly Switching Potentials

The exact formulae for spectra of equilibrium diffusion in a fixed bistable piecewise linear potential and in a randomly flipping monostable potential are derived. Our results are valid for arbitrary intensity of driving white Gaussian noise and arbitrary parameters of potential profiles. We find: (i) an exponentially rapid narrowing of the spectrum with increasing height of the potential barrier, for fixed bistable potential; (ii) a nonlinear phenomenon, which manifests in the narrowing of the spectrum with increasing mean rate of flippings, and (iii) a nonmonotonic behaviour of the spectrum at zero frequency, as a function of the mean rate of switchings, for randomly switching potential. The last feature is a new characterization of resonant activation phenomenon.Comment: in press in Acta Physica Polonica, vol. 35 (4), 200

Noise Enhanced Stability in Fluctuating Metastable States

We derive general equations for the nonlinear relaxation time of Brownian diffusion in randomly switching potential with a sink. For piece-wise linear dichotomously fluctuating potential with metastable state, we obtain the exact average lifetime as a function of the potential parameters and the noise intensity. Our result is valid for arbitrary white noise intensity and for arbitrary fluctuation rate of the potential. We find noise enhanced stability phenomenon in the system investigated: the average lifetime of the metastable state is greater than the time obtained in the absence of additive white noise. We obtain the parameter region of the fluctuating potential where the effect can be observed. The system investigated also exhibits a maximum of the lifetime as a function of the fluctuation rate of the potential.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. E vol. 69 (6),200

L\'evy flights versus L\'evy walks in bounded domains

L\'evy flights and L\'evy walks serve as two paradigms of random walks resembling common features but also bearing fundamental differences. One of the main dissimilarities are discontinuity versus continuity of their trajectories and infinite versus finite propagation velocity. In consequence, well developed theory of L\'evy flights is associated with their pathological physical properties, which in turn are resolved by the concept of L\'evy walks. Here, we explore L\'evy flights and L\'evy walks models on bounded domains examining their differences and analogies. We investigate analytically and numerically whether and under which conditions both approaches yield similar results in terms of selected statistical observables characterizing the motion: the survival probability, mean first passage time and stationary PDFs. It is demonstrated that similarity of models is affected by the type of boundary conditions and value of the stability index defining asymptotics of the jump length distribution.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure

Linear and nonlinear approximations for periodically driven bistable systems

We analyze periodically driven bistable systems by two different approaches. The first approach is a linearization of the stochastic Langevin equation of our system by the response on small external force. The second one is based on the Gaussian approximation of the kinetic equations for the cumulants. We obtain with the first approach the signal power amplification and output signal-to-noise ratio for a model piece-wise linear bistable potential and compare with the results of linear response approximation. By using the second approach to a bistable quartic potential, we obtain the set of nonlinear differential equations for the first and the second cumulants

New analytical approach to analyze the nonlinear regime of stochastic resonance

We propose some approximate methods to explore the nonlinear regime of the stochastic resonance phenomenon. These approximations correspond to different truncation schemes of cumulants. We compare the theoretical results for the signal power amplification, obtained by using ordinary cumulant truncation schemes, that is Gaussian and excess approximations, the modified two-state approximation with those obtained by numerical simulations of the Langevin equation describing the dynamics of the system

Harmony perception and regularity of spike trains in a simple auditory model

A probabilistic approach for investigating the phenomena of dissonance and consonance in a simple auditory sensory model, composed by two sensory neurons and one interneuron, is presented. We calculated the interneuron’s firing statistics, that is the interspike interval statistics of the spike train at the output of the interneuron, for consonant and dissonant inputs in the presence of additional "noise", representing random signals from other, nearby neurons and from the environment. We find that blurry interspike interval distributions (ISIDs) characterize dissonant accords, while quite regular ISIDs characterize consonant accords. The informational entropy of the non-Markov spike train at the output of the interneuron and its dependence on the frequency ratio of input sinusoidal signals is estimated. We introduce the regularity of spike train and suggested the high or low regularity level of the auditory system’s spike trains as an indicator of feeling of harmony during sound perception or disharmony, respectively

Transport in a Levy ratchet: Group velocity and distribution spread

We consider the motion of an overdamped particle in a periodic potential lacking spatial symmetry under the influence of symmetric L\'evy noise, being a minimal setup for a ``L\'evy ratchet.'' Due to the non-thermal character of the L\'evy noise, the particle exhibits a motion with a preferred direction even in the absence of whatever additional time-dependent forces. The examination of the L\'evy ratchet has to be based on the characteristics of directionality which are different from typically used measures like mean current and the dispersion of particles' positions, since these get inappropriate when the moments of the noise diverge. To overcome this problem, we discuss robust measures of directionality of transport like the position of the median of the particles displacements' distribution characterizing the group velocity, and the interquantile distance giving the measure of the distributions' width. Moreover, we analyze the behavior of splitting probabilities for leaving an interval of a given length unveiling qualitative differences between the noises with L\'evy indices below and above unity. Finally, we inspect the problem of the first escape from an interval of given length revealing independence of exit times on the structure of the potential.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figure