Universality in Escape from a Modulated Potential Well

摘要

We show that the rate of activated escape W from a periodically modulated potential displays scaling behavior versus modulation amplitude A. For adiabatic modulation of an optically trapped Brownian particle, measurements yield lnW ∞(A_c ― A)~μ with μ = 1.5. The theory gives +μ= 3/2 in the adiabatic limit and predicts a crossover to μ = 2 scaling as A approaches the bifurcation point where the metastable state disappears.