Noise induced transitions and topological study of a periodically driven system

Noise induced transitions of an overdamped periodically driven oscillator are investigated theoretically and numerically in the limit of weak noise due to the Freidlin-Wentzell large deviation theory. Heteroclinic trajectories are found to approach the unstable orbit with fluctuational force tending to zeros. The global minimizer of the action functional corresponds to the most probable escape path and it shows a good agreement with statistical results. We then study the origins of singularities from a topological point of view by considering structures of the Lagrangian manifold and action surface. The switching line and cusp point turn out to have physical significance since they may impact the prehistory distributions, making the optimal path invalid. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.