EFFECT OF PERIODIC DRIVING ON THE ESCAPE IN PERIODIC POTENTIALS

We consider activation processes in multistable systems exposed to external fluctuations and periodic modulation. The concept of defining escape rates out of a basin of attraction as the ratio of total flux over the basin boundary and the population inside the basin of attraction is generalized for periodically driven systems. Thereby, the escape rate is connected with the Floquet-spectrum of the time inhomogeneous Fokker-Planck operator. Our formalism is demonstrated for the particular case of a multistable washboard potential. Numerical results are compared with theoretical results in the limits of small and large driving frequencies, respectively.