Barrier-crossing transition-path times for non-Markovian systems

Abstract

By simulation and asymptotic theory, we investigate the transition-path time of a one-dimensional finite-mass reaction coordinate crossing a double-well potential in the presence of non-Markovian friction. First, we consider single-exponential memory kernels and demonstrate that memory accelerates transition paths compared to the Markovian case, especially in the low-mass/high-friction limit. Then, we generalize to multi-exponential kernels and construct an asymptotic formula for the transition-path time that compares well with simulation data.