RESUMO

This Focus Issue on instabilities and nonequilibrium structures includes invited contributions from leading researchers across many different fields. The issue was inspired in part by the "VII Instabilities and Nonequilibrium Structures 2019" conference that took place at the Pontifica Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, Chile in December 2019. The conference, which is devoted to nonlinear science, is one of the oldest conferences in South America (since December 1985). This session has an exceptional character since it coincides with the 80th anniversary of Professor Enrique Tirapegui. We take this opportunity to highlight Tirapegui's groundbreaking contributions in the field of random perturbations experienced by macroscopic systems and in the formation of spatiotemporal structures in such systems operating far from thermodynamic equilibrium. This issue addresses a cross-disciplinary area of research as can be witnessed by the diversity of systems considered from inert matter such as photonics, chemistry, and fluid dynamics, to biology.

Assuntos

RESUMO

We provide numerical solutions based on the path integral representation of stochastic processes for non-gradient drift Langevin forces in the presence of noise, to follow the temporal evolution of the probability density function and to compute exit times even for arbitrary noise. We compare the results with theoretical calculations, obtaining excellent agreement in the weak noise limit.This article is part of the theme issue 'Dissipative structures in matter out of equilibrium: from chemistry, photonics and biology (part 2)'.