Kinks in a stochastic PDE

摘要

We consider a stochastic PDE with localized coherent structures known as kinks. The availability of exact results for the steady state and increasing computer power means that precise quantitative comparison between theory and numerics is possible. One of the quantities of interest is the steady-state density of kinks, maintained by a balance between nucleation and annihilation of kink-antikink pairs. The density as measured from numerical solutions is sufficiently accurate to resolve the difference between analytical predictions based on the exact value of the correlation length, and those based on the WKB approximation to it.