title: Solution of Kramers' problem for a moderately to heavily damped elastic string.
abstract: We obtain the nucleation rate of critical droplets for an elastic string moving in a double-well potential and subject to noise and damping forces. We obtain this rate for a class of potentials that includes both the asymmetric straight phi(4) and the straight phi(6) potentials. The frequencies of small oscillations about the critical droplet are obtained from a Heun equation. We solve the Fokker-Planck equation for the phase-space probability density by projecting onto the eigenfunction basis. We present a comparison with simulations for the case of the asymmetric straight phi(4) potential.
authors.affiliation: Olin Physical Laboratory, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109-7507, USA.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Kerr