Pseudopotential of birhythmic van der Pol type systems with correlated noise

Abstract

We propose to compute the effective activation energy, usually referred to a pseudopotential or quasipotential, of a birhythmic system -- a van der Pol like oscillator -- in the presence of correlated noise. It is demonstrated, with analytical techniques and numerical simulations, that the correlated noise can be taken into account and one can retrieve the low noise rate of the escapes. We thus conclude that a pseudopotential, or an effective activation energy, is a realistic description for the stability of birhythmic attractors also in the presence of correlated noise.