Phys. Rev. E 70, 031102 (2004) [11 pages]Influence of tether dynamics on forced Kramers escape from a kinetic trapReceived 16 March 2004; published 3 September 2004 When a trapped particle is subject to the tension of a massive frictional spring (the “tether”), the escape rate increases due to a lowering of the escape barrier. However, in addition, the escape-rate prefactor is influenced by the mass and drag contributed by the spring. We solve the full Kramers escape problem for the coupled system using a technique attributed to Langer. The prefactor in the escape rate is significantly modified by the spring parameters even in the strong-damping limit. The biophysical relevance of this problem is briefly discussed. © 2004 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.70.031102
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.70.031102
PACS:
82.20.Uv, 82.39.−k, 02.50.Ey, 05.40.−a
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