Nucleation theory of overdamped soliton motion

Abstract

A ring of tightly torsion-coupled, overdamped pendulums is subject to fluctuations and to a static applied torque. Over a wide range of forces, motion in this system occurs through the nucleation of a kink and antikink pair, their subsequent separation through the driving force, and eventual annihilation by collision with other kinks. This picture is used to calculate the mean angular pendulum velocity as a function of applied torque. © 1979 The American Physical Society.