title: Hopping over a heat barrier.
abstract: We analyze diffusion in a finite domain with a position-dependent diffusion coefficient in terms of a stochastic hopping process. Via a coordinate transformation, we map the original system onto a problem with constant diffusion but nontrivial potential. In this way we show that a regime with enhanced diffusion acts as a potential barrier. We compute first-passage time distributions, hopping rates, and eigenvalues of the Fokker-Planck operator, and thereby verify that diffusion with a heat barrier is equivalent to a hopping process between metastable states.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Strasse 38, D01187 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garber
authors.forename: Nicholas R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Moloney
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kantz