Speeding up Brownian escape via intermediate finite potential barriers
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866917096307294208 |
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| author | Kumar, Vishwajeet Shpielberg, Ohad Pal, Arnab |
| author_facet | Kumar, Vishwajeet Shpielberg, Ohad Pal, Arnab |
| contents | The mean first-passage time (MFPT) for a Brownian particle to surmount a potential barrier of height $ΔU$ is a fundamental quantity governing a wide array of physical and chemical processes. According to the Arrhenius Law, the MFPT typically grows exponentially with increasing barrier height, reflecting the rarity of thermally activated escape events. In this work, we demonstrate that the MFPT can be significantly reduced by reshaping the original single-barrier potential into a structured energy landscape comprising multiple intermediate barriers of lower heights, while keeping the total barrier height $ΔU$ unchanged. Furthermore, this counterintuitive result holds across both linear and nonlinear potential profiles. Our findings suggest that tailoring the energy landscape -- by introducing well-placed intermediate barriers -- can serve as an effective control strategy to accelerate thermally activated transitions. These predictions are amenable to experimental validation using optical trapping techniques. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_03449 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Speeding up Brownian escape via intermediate finite potential barriers Kumar, Vishwajeet Shpielberg, Ohad Pal, Arnab Statistical Mechanics Soft Condensed Matter Chemical Physics The mean first-passage time (MFPT) for a Brownian particle to surmount a potential barrier of height $ΔU$ is a fundamental quantity governing a wide array of physical and chemical processes. According to the Arrhenius Law, the MFPT typically grows exponentially with increasing barrier height, reflecting the rarity of thermally activated escape events. In this work, we demonstrate that the MFPT can be significantly reduced by reshaping the original single-barrier potential into a structured energy landscape comprising multiple intermediate barriers of lower heights, while keeping the total barrier height $ΔU$ unchanged. Furthermore, this counterintuitive result holds across both linear and nonlinear potential profiles. Our findings suggest that tailoring the energy landscape -- by introducing well-placed intermediate barriers -- can serve as an effective control strategy to accelerate thermally activated transitions. These predictions are amenable to experimental validation using optical trapping techniques. |
| title | Speeding up Brownian escape via intermediate finite potential barriers |
| topic | Statistical Mechanics Soft Condensed Matter Chemical Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03449 |