Noise-induced escape from the metastable part of a potential is considered on time scales preceding the formation of quasiequilibrium within that part of the potential. It is shown that, counterintuitively, the escape flux may then depend exponentially strongly, and in a complicated manner, on time and friction.
Copyright 2001 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Chaos, 11 (2), 2001 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/chaos/11/3/10.1063/1.1378788