Precision Numerical Modeling of the Decay of a Metastable State at High Temperatures

The thermal decay of a metastable state over an asymmetric cusped barrier in the regime of overdamping (strong friction) is considered. This seems to be of importance for the nanoscale experiments on pulling polymeric molecules. The decay process is simulated numerically through computer solving of the Langevin equation. The quasistationary rates RD , as well as the mean lifetimes and transient times, are extracted from the numerical time-dependent rates Rn (t). The impact of the backscattering on the value of RD is discussed. The approximate analytical decay rate is derived for the asymmetric cusped barrier. The numerical results are confronted with this formula and with another analytical formula (the integral Kramers rate) available in the literature.

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Average lifetimes of a metastable state at low barrier in the overdamped regime

Chushnyakova

Gontchar

2021

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Thermal decay of a metastable state is a process revealing itself in particular in the contemporary single-molecule pulling experiments. Unfortunately, some approaches used for the interpretations of these experiments in the literature are incorrect and misleading. We prove this statement in the present work. For this aim, the most important characteristic of the decay process which is the average lifetime of a Brownian particle in a metastable state is considered. For this state two typical potentials are used: the Lennard-Jones and cubic potentials. We concentrate on the case of strong friction (overdamped regime) and low barrier since these conditions are typical for the mentioned experiments. We calculate the average lifetimes using five approaches, including dynamical modeling, and compare them with each other.

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Precision Numerical Modeling of the Decay of a Metastable State at High Temperatures

Cited by 4 publications

References 26 publications

Activated decay of a metastable state: transient times for small and large dissipation

Activated decay of a metastable state: transient times for small and large dissipation

Thermal decay rates for an asymmetric cusped barrier at strong friction

Average lifetimes of a metastable state at low barrier in the overdamped regime

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