Noise-Assisted Metastability: From L\'evy Flights to Memristors, Quantum Escape, and Josephson-based Axion Searches

Abstract

Many-body and complex systems, both classical and quantum, often exhibit slow, nonlinear relaxation toward stationary states due to the presence of metastable configurations and environmental fluctuations. Nonlinear relaxation in a wide variety of natural systems proceeds through metastable states, which arise in condensed-matter physics as well as in fields ranging from cosmology and biology to high-energy physics. Moreover, noise-induced phenomena play a central role in shaping the dynamics of such systems far from equilibrium. This review develops a unifying perspective centered on noise-assisted stabilization and the statistical properties of metastable dynamics. We first discuss escape processes driven by L\'evy flights in smooth metastable potentials, emphasizing the emergence of nonmonotonic residence-time behavior. We then connect these concepts to stochastic resistive switching in memristive devices, where noise-induced effects can enhance stability and reproducibility. We further examine driven dissipative quantum bistability, showing how the interplay between external driving and system-environment coupling reshapes escape pathways and lifetimes. Finally, we outline how switching-time statistics in current-biased Josephson junctions can provide an experimentally accessible strategy for axion detection, based on an axion-induced resonant-activation signature.