Nonlinear relaxation in quantum and mesoscopic systems

The nonlinear relaxation of three mesoscopic and quantum systems are investigated. Specifically we study the nonlinear relaxation in: (i) a long Josephson junction (LJJ) driven by a non-Gaussian Lévy noise current; (ii) a metastable quantum open system driven by an external periodical driving; and (iii) the electron spin relaxation process in n-type GaAs crystals driven by a fluctuating electric field. In the first system the LJJ phase evolution is described by the perturbed sine-Gordon equation. Two well known noise induced effects are found: the noise enhanced stability and resonant activation phenomena. We investigate the mean escape time as a function of the bias current frequency, nois…