System Size Stochastic Resonance from the Viewpoint of the Nonequilibrium Potential

Abstract

We analyze the phenomenon of system size stochastic resonance in a simple spatially extended system by exploiting the knowledge of the nonequilibrium potential. We show that through the analysis of that potential, and particularly its "symmetry", we can obtain a clear physical interpretation of this phenomenon in a wide class of extended systems, and also analyze, for the same simple model, the effect of a general class of boundary conditions (albedo) on this kind of phenomena.