A simple introduction to the Stochastic Resonance phenomenon
The Stochastic Resonance phenomenon
Since its introduction over ten years ago [see bibliography], ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ stochastic resonance (SR) has become very popular in many fields of natural science as a paradigm which epitomizes noise-controlled onset of order in a complex system.
Although in the recent literature the notion of SR gained broader significance, the archetype of SR models is represented by a simple symmetric bistable process x(t) driven by both an additive random noise, for simplicity, white and gaussian, and an external sinusoidal bias. On keeping the forcing amplitude and frequency fixed, the amplitude of the periodic component of the process, x, grows sharply with the noise intensity until it reaches a maximum and, then, decreases slowly according to a certain power-law.
It was initially suggested that such a behavior results from the attuning of a deterministic with a stochastic time scale, that is, the forcing period To and the switching time T(D) of the un-biased bistable process x(t), respectively.