Katie Newhall, CIMS
The Causes of Metastability and Their Effects on Transition Times

Abstract:
Many experimental systems can spend extended periods of time relative to their natural time scale in localized regions of phase space, transiting infrequently between them.  This display of metastability can arise in stochastically driven systems due to the presence of large energy barriers, or in deterministic systems due to the presence of narrow passages in phase space.  To investigate metastability in these different cases, we take the Langevin equation and determine the effects of small damping, small noise, and dimensionality on the dynamics and mean transition time.  In finite dimensions, we show the limit of small noise and small damping do not interchange.  In the limit of infinite dimensions, we argue the equivalence of the finitely-damped system and the zero-damped infinite energy Hamiltonian system.