RELAXATION OF CLASSICAL PARTICLES IN ANHARMONIC MULTIWELL POTENTIALS

Using extensive numerical and some exact asymptotic analyses, we argue that the canonical ensemble relaxation of a classical particle in an anharmonic multi-well potential landscape with leading quartic anharmo nicity exhibits a 1/t decay to equilibrium. In addition, we provide nu merical evidence of algebraic decay of form 1/t(phi), 0 < phi < 1, for stronger leading anharmonicities. Our results have important conseque nces for relaxation studies in several problems of considerable intere st in condensed matter physics such as in the Krumhansl-Schrieffer mod el of displacive structural phase transitions, and in various complex systems.