title: Entropically enhanced excitability in small systems.
abstract: We consider the dynamics of small excitable systems, ubiquitous in physics, chemistry, and biology. Spontaneous excitation rates induced by system-size fluctuations exhibit sharp maxima at multiple, small system sizes at which also the system's response to external perturbations is strongly enhanced. This novel effect is traced back to algebraic features of small integers and thus generic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy and Quantitative Biology Institute, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Shuai
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jung