Evaluation of transition rates from nonequilibrium instantons

Abstract

Equilibrium rate theories play a crucial role in understanding rare, reactive events. However, they are inapplicable to a range of irreversible processes in systems driven far from thermodynamic equilibrium like active and biological matter. Here we develop an efficient numerical method to compute the rate constant of rare nonequilibrium events in the weak-noise limit based on an instanton approximation to the stochastic path integral and illustrate its wide range of application. We demonstrate excellent agreement of the instanton rates with numerically exact results for a particle under a nonconservative force. We also study phase transitions in an active field theory. We elucidate how activity alters the stability of the two phases and their rates of interconversion in a manner that can be well described by modifying classical nucleation theory. Published by the American Physical Society 2024