University Calendar

Eric Forgoston, Mathematical Sciences professor here at Montclair State

Noise plays a fundamental role in a wide variety of physical and biological dynamical systems. The noise may be internal or external - internal noise is inherent to the system itself and arises due to the random interactions of a finite number of agents in the system, while external noise arises from a source outside of the system. In recent years, researchers have identified situations where even weak noise can induce a large fluctuation that leads to population extinction, switching between metastable states in ecological systems, or the escape of a particle from a potential well. This talk will provide an introduction to these noice-induced rare events.