Abstract:
Using recent mathematical advances, a geometric approach to rare noise-driven transition events in
nonequilibrium systems is given, and an algorithm for computing the maximum likelihood transition
curve is generalized to the case of state-dependent noise. It is applied to a model of electronic
transport in semiconductor superlattices to investigate transitions between metastable electric field
distributions. When the applied voltage V is varied near a saddle-node bifurcation at Vth , the mean
life time T of the initial metastable state is shown to scale like log T \propto |Vth − V |^{3/2}.