NON-DYNAMICAL STOCHASTIC RESONANCE - THEORY AND EXPERIMENTS WITH WHITE AND VARIOUS COLORED NOISES

We describe the simplest system which shows stochastic resonance. A linear(ized) theory for white and (almost) arbitrarily coloured noise is presented. The presented new system has new, unique properties which originate from its non-dynamical character; for example, the strength and phase shift of periodic response of the system is independent of the frequency. Experiments have been carried out with the following noise processes: (physical) white noise, (physical) Lorentzian noise and (physical) 1/f noise. With a small extension of the system, its linear-response regime can be significantly increased. As the system is similar to some simple models of neurones, the new results might have not only physical but also biological importance.