From hindrance to catalyst: Potential roughness accelerates escape far from equilibrium.

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Physical Chemistry
• Statistical Mechanics

Background:

• Activated escape from metastable states is crucial in various scientific fields.
• Traditional rate theory suggests landscape roughness impedes kinetics by trapping particles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To challenge the paradigm that landscape roughness always hinders kinetics.
• To investigate the role of non-equilibrium shot noise in particle escape dynamics.
• To explore the relationship between landscape roughness and escape rates.

Main Methods:

• Investigating particles driven by discrete, non-equilibrium shot noise.
• Analyzing the dependence of escape rate on roughness amplitude.
• Identifying the underlying non-equilibrium mechanism.

Main Results:

• Landscape roughness can act as a catalyst, accelerating escape rates.
• Escape rate shows a non-monotonic dependence on roughness, with an optimal peak.
• A novel mechanism termed "slide inhibition" was identified, utilizing transient anchors in local minima.
• Thermal noise was found to be detrimental to this accelerated escape.

Conclusions:

• Spatial disorder and non-equilibrium fluctuations can synergize to enhance activated transport.
• Landscape roughness can be repurposed from a kinetic impediment to a functional element.
• This work fundamentally recasts the understanding of activated escape far from equilibrium.