Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 20, 2025

Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving
Published on: March 30, 2017
Arcsine law and multistable Brownian dynamics in a tilted periodic potential
1Institute of Physics, University of Silesia, 41-500 Chorzów, Poland.
Abstract:
Multistability is one of the most important phenomena in dynamical systems, e.g., bistability enables the implementation of logic gates and therefore computation. Recently multistability has attracted a greatly renewed interest related to memristors and graphene structures, to name only a few. We investigate tristability in velocity dynamics of a Brownian particle subjected to a tilted periodic potential. It is demonstrated that the origin of this effect is attributed to the arcsine law for the velocity dynamics at the zero temperature limit. We analyze the impact of thermal fluctuations and construct the phase diagram for the stability of the velocity dynamics. It suggests an efficient strategy to control the multistability by changing solely the force acting on the particle or temperature of the system. Our findings for the paradigmatic model of nonequilibrium statistical physics apply to, inter alia, Brownian motors, Josephson junctions, cold atoms dwelling in optical lattices, and colloidal systems.
Related Concept Videos
Perpendicular-Axis Theorem
Consider a circular disc of mass M and radius R lying along an x-y plane. The origin lies at the center of the disc, and the z-axis is perpendicular to the disc's plane. All three axes coincide at the disc's center. The moment of inertia of this...
First Law: Particles in One-dimensional Equilibrium
First Law: Particles in Two-dimensional Equilibrium
Newton's first law tells us about...
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Relaxation Processes
Oscillations about an Equilibrium Position
The de Broglie Wavelength

