title: Experimental investigation of resonant activation
abstract: We experimentally investigate the escape from a metastable state over a fluctuating barrier of a physical system. The system is switching between two states under electronic control of a dichotomous noise. We measure the escape time and its probability density function as a function of the correlation rate of the dichotomous noise in a frequency interval spanning more than four frequency decades. We observe resonant activation, namely a minimum of the average escape time as a function of the correlation rate. We detect two regimes in the study of the shape of the escape time probability distribution: (i) a regime of exponential and (ii) a regime of nonexponential probability distribution.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia, Unita di Palermo, and Dipartimento di Energetica ed Applicazioni di Fisica, Universita di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, I-90128, Palermo, Italy.
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Mantegna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Spagnolo