Transition times in the low-noise limit of stochastic dynamics

Abstract

We study the transition time distribution for a particle moving between two wells of a multidimensional potential in the low-noise limit of overdamped Langevin dynamics. Possible transition paths are restricted to a thin tube surrounding the most probable trajectory. We demonstrate that finding the transition time distribution reduces to a one-dimensional problem. The resulting transition time distribution has a universal and compact form. We suggest that transition barriers can be estimated from a single-temperature experiment if both the life times and the transition times are measured.