| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/L99562/01 |
| Title: |
LARGE FLUCTUATIONS, ESCAPE, & OTHER STOCHASTIC PHENOMENA IN NONEQUILIBRIUM SYSTEMS |
| Principal Investigator: |
McClintock, Professor P |
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| Department: |
Physics |
| Organisation: |
Lancaster University |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 May 1998 |
Ends: |
30 April 2001 |
Value (£): |
132,953
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| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Fluctuations around some locally stable state occur universally in physical systems. Large fluctuations - fluctuations that are much larger than average - occur only occasionally but underlie many important physical processes, such as nucleation at phase transitions, chemical reactions, protein transport in cells and failures of electronic devices. They are rare events but, when they do occur, they do so in an almost deterministic way, along a so-called optimal path. The theory of large fluctuations, built up over the last 60 years, remains almost untested experimentally. This is partly because of the inherent rarity of the events, and partly for lack of the necessary statistical quantity (prehistory probability distribution). We have just reported [1] the first quantitative experiments on large fluctuations, following more than 60 years of exhaustively analysed thought experiments.The research now proposed lies within the huge area of investigation opened up by these initial results [1]. It relies partly on digital simulation and partly on analogue electronic experiments, exploiting the greatly enhanced facilities of the Lancaster nonlinear laboratory, currently being refurbished by EPSRC.[1] D G Luchinsky and P V E McClintock, Nature 389, 463-466 (1997)
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.lancs.ac.uk |