Resetting transition is governed by an interplay between thermal and potential energy

A dynamical process that takes a random time to complete, e.g., a chemical reaction, may either be accelerated or hindered due to resetting. Tuning system parameters, such as temperature, viscosity, or concentration, can invert the effect of resetting on the mean completion time of the process, which leads to a resetting transition. Although the resetting transition has been recently studied for diffusion in a handful of model potentials, it is yet unknown whether the results follow any universality in terms of well-defined physical parameters. To bridge this gap, we propose a general framework that reveals that the resetting transition is governed by an interplay between the thermal and potential energy. This result is illustrated for different classes of potentials that are used to model a wide variety of stochastic processes with numerous applications.