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NJIT Mathematical Biology Seminar

Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 4:00 pm
Cullimore Hall 611
New Jersey Institute of Technology

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Finite-size effects and stochastic resonance

R. E. Lee DeVille

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
New York University

Many biological and chemical systems are modeled by stochastic processes which become deterministic in an infinite-volume limit. For finite system sizes, however, stochastic effects are still present. In many of these systems, on the appropriate time- and space-scales, large deviation effects become important. We discuss a class of systems (which contains some well-known neuronal models) for which these effects induce non-trivial dynamics even in the infinite-volume limit. Moreover, we show that there are subtleties which can arise in the modeling of the finite-size effect which only become apparent when large deviation effects are taken into account.