Transient multimodality in the presence of potential fluctuations

When a stochastic system evolves from its unstable state the phenomenon of transient multimodality may appear, namely for a period of time, probability distribution develops a larger number of maxima than it possesses in the initial and in the stationary states. We investigate the influence of potential fluctuations generated by a Gaussian white noise on this effect. Some general conditions which suffice for the occurrence of noise induced transient multimodality are presented. The opposite phenomenon, namely the noise suppression of transient multimodality, is shown as well.