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FLUCTUATION-INDUCED SYMMETRY BREAKING IN A BISTABLE SYSTEM: A GENERIC MECHANISM OF SELECTION BETWEEN COMPETING OPTIONS

S. C. NICOLIS

Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bvd du Triomphe, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium

Current address: Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition animale, CNRs, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218127404010667Cited by:3 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

A two-variable bistable system modeling the selection between competing options is considered in the presence of additive white noise, representing environmental or internal variability. It is shown that when the strengths of the noises acting on the evolution equations of the two variables are different a symmetry-breaking process takes place, whereby the state in which the excess variable is perturbed by the strongest noise becomes predominant.

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