Deb Shankar Ray

Noise properties of stochastic processes and entropy production

Based on a Fokker-Planck description of external Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise and cross-correlated noise processes driving a dynamical system we examine the interplay of the properties of noise processes and the dissipative characteristic of the dynamical system in the steady state entropy production and flux. Our analysis is illustrated with appropriate examples.

Entropic resonant activation

Varying cross section of confinement of a Brownian particle in two or higher dimensions results in an effective entropic barrier in reduced dimension. When the boundaries are subjected to periodic modulation, it is possible to observe a resonance of the mean first passage time between the lobes of a bilobal confined system as a function of the modulating frequency of the walls of the enclosure. The entropic resonant activation and the associated features, which are characteristic of the shape and size of the confinement, are amenable to a theoretical analysis in terms of a two-state model.

Langevin dynamics with dichotomous noise; direct simulation and applications

We consider the motion of a Brownian particle moving in a potential field and driven by dichotomous noise with exponential correlation. Traditionally, the analytic as well as the numerical treatments of the problem, in general, rely on a Fokker–Planck description. We present a method for direct numerical simulation of dichotomous noise to solve the Langevin equation. The method is applied to calculate the nonequilibrium fluctuation induced current in a symmetric periodic potential using asymmetric dichotomous noise and compared to a Fokker–Planck–master equation based algorithm for a range of parameter values. Our second application concerns the study of resonant activation over a fluctuating barrier.

Theory of nonstationary activated rate processes: Nonexponential kinetics

We have explored a simple microscopic model to simulate a thermally activated rate process where the associated bath which comprises a set of relaxing modes is not in an equilibrium state. The model captures some of the essential features of non-Markovian Langevin dynamics with a fluctuating barrier. Making use of the Fokker-Planck description, we calculate the barrier dynamics in the steady-state and nonstationary regimes. The Kramers-Grote-Hynes reactive frequency has been computed in closed form in the steady state to illustrate the strong dependence of the dynamic coupling of the system with the relaxing modes. The influence of nonequilibrium excitation of the bath modes and its relaxation on the kinetics of activation of the system mode are demonstrated. We derive the dressed time-dependent Kramers rate in the nonstationary regime in closed analytical form which exhibits strong nonexponential kinetics of the reaction coordinate. The feature can be identified as a typical non-Markovian dynamical effect.

The generalized Kramers theory for nonequilibrium open one-dimensional systems

The Kramers theory of activated processes is generalized for nonequilibrium open one-dimensional systems. We consider both the internal noise due to thermal bath and the external noise which are stationary, Gaussian and are characterized by arbitrary decaying correlation functions. We stress the role of a nonequilibrium stationary state distribution for this open system which is reminiscent of an equilibrium Boltzmann distribution in calculation of rate. The generalized rate expression we derive here reduces to the specific limiting cases pertaining to the closed and open systems for thermal and nonthermal steady state activation processes.

Exact solutions of Fisher and Burgers equations with finite transport memory

The Fisher and Burgers equations with finite memory transport, describing reaction–diffusion and convection–diffusion processes, respectively have recently attracted a lot of attention in the context of chemical kinetics, mathematical biology and turbulence. We show here that they admit exact solutions. While the speed of the travelling wavefront is dependent on the relaxation time in the Fisher equation, memory effects significantly smoothen out the shock wave nature of the Burgers solution, without any influence on the corresponding wave speed. We numerically analyse the ansatz for the exact solution and show that for the reaction–diffusion system the strength of the reaction term must be moderate enough not to exceed a critical limit to allow a travelling wave solution to exist for appreciable finite memory effect.

Quantum State-Dependent Diffusion and Multiplicative Noise: A Microscopic Approach

The state-dependent diffusion, which concerns the Brownian motion of a particle in inhomogeneous media has been described phenomenologically in a number of ways. Based on a system-reservoir nonlinear coupling model we present a microscopic approach to quantum state-dependent diffusion and multiplicative noise in terms of a quantum Markovian Langevin description and an associated Fokker–Planck equation in position space in the overdamped limit. We examine the thermodynamic consistency and explore the possibility of observing a quantum current, a generic quantum effect, as a consequence of this state-dependent diffusion similar to one proposed by Büttiker [Z. Phys. B 68:161 (1987)] in a classical context several years ago.

Noise-induced transition in a quantum system

We examine the noise-induced transition in a fluctuating bistable potential of a driven quantum system in thermal equilibrium. Making use of a Wigner canonical thermal distribution for description of the statistical properties of the thermal bath, we explore the generic effects of quantization like vacuum field fluctuation and tunneling in the characteristic stationary probability distribution functions undergoing transition from unimodal to bimodal nature and in signal-to-noise ratio characterizing the cooperative effect among the noise processes and the weak periodic signal.

Generalized quantum Fokker-Planck, diffusion, and Smoluchowski equations with true probability distribution functions

Traditionally, quantum Brownian motion is described by Fokker-Planck or diffusion equations in terms of quasiprobability distribution functions, e.g., Wigner functions. These often become singular or negative in the full quantum regime. In this paper a simple approach to non-Markovian theory of quantum Brownian motion using true probability distribution functions is presented. Based on an initial coherent state representation of the bath oscillators and an equilibrium canonical distribution of the quantum mechanical mean values of their coordinates and momenta, we derive a generalized quantum Langevin equation in c numbers and show that the latter is amenable to a theoretical analysis in terms of the classical theory of non-Markovian dynamics. The corresponding Fokker-Planck, diffusion, and Smoluchowski equations are the exact quantum analogs of their classical counterparts. The present work is independent of path integral techniques. The theory as developed here is a natural extension of its classical version and is valid for arbitrary temperature and friction (the Smoluchowski equation being considered in the overdamped limit).

A simple semiclassical approach to the Kramers’ problem

We show that the Wigner–Leggett–Caldeira equation for Wigner phase space distribution function which describes the quantum Brownian motion of a particle in a force field in a high temperature, ohmic environment can be identified as a semiclassical version of Kramers’ equation. Based on an expansion in powers of ℏ, we solve this equation to calculate the semiclassical correction to Kramers’ rate.