title: Asymmetric kinks: stabilization by entropic forces.
abstract: Asymmetric kinks bridging two adjacent potential valleys of equal depth but different curvature are unstable against phonon modes. When coupled to a heat bath, a kink-bearing string tends to cross over into the shallower valley; kinks are thus predicted to drift in the appropriate direction with velocity proportional to the temperature, in close agreement with numerical simulation. When contrasted by a mechanical bias, these entropic forces give rise to a rich phenomenology that includes configurational phase transitions, double-kink dissociation, and noise-directed signal transmission.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, Universitá di Camerino, I-62032 Camerino, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Costantini
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marchesoni