INDUCED STOCHASTIC RESONANCE NEAR A SUBCRITICAL BIFURCATION

The effects of variations in potential barrier height on stochastic re sonance in a multistable system are investigated in this experimental work. It is found that small reductions in the potential barrier heigh t tend to shift the stochastic resonance peak to lower values of input noise intensity. For demonstration purposes the work relies on the de stabilizing shift produced by near-resonant perturbations on bistable subcritical bifurcations. It is proposed that multistable systems may take advantage of induced stochastic resonance in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, especially in cases where only a limited or fi xed amount of input noise is available.