Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Henry A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4971225 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Henry Adrien A Martin Olivier C OC
Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 20160701 120
When relaxation towards an equilibrium or steady state is exponential at large times, one usually considers that the associated relaxation time τ, i.e. the inverse of the decay rate, is the longest characteristic time in the system. However, that need not be true, other times such as the lifetime of an infinitesimal perturbation can be much longer. In the present work, we demonstrate that this paradoxical property can arise even in quite simple systems such as a linear chain of reactions obeying ...[more]