We estimate the critical size of the initial nucleus of the low current state
in a bistable resonant tunneling structure which is needed for this nucleus to
develop into a lateral switching front. Using the results obtained for
deterministic switching fronts, we argue that for realistic structural
parameters the critical nucleus has macroscopic dimensions and therefore is too
large to be created by stochastic electron noise.Comment: the extended version of the Comment on "Lifetime of metastable states
in resonant-tunneling structures" to appear in Phys. Rev.
