Mean first passage times of Brownian rotators from differential recurrencerelations

An exact method of calculation of mean first passage times (analogous to th at previously used [W. T. Coffey, Yu. P. Kalmykov, E. S. Massawe, and J. T. Waldron, J. Chem. Phys. 99, 4011 (1993)] for the correlation time! is deve loped in terms of continued fractions from the zero frequency limit of the Laplace transform of the set of differential recurrence relations generated by the Fokker-Planck or Langevin equations. The method because it is based on a Floquet representation avoids the use of quadratures and so may be ea sily generalized to multidegree of freedom systems by the use of matrix con tinued fractions. The procedure is illustrated by considering the mean firs t passage time of a fixed axis rotator with two equivalent sites. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)51242-7].