Abstract
It is shown that the stationary states of stochastic systems are stable. Therefore one cannot use the stationary probability distributions for describing the stochastic systems in metastable states. It is shown that the nonstationary stochastic processes can have sample paths with stationary parts. It is proposed to consider these stationary parts as the metastable states.
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Kirillov, A.I. On the theory of metastable states. Found Phys 27, 1701–1708 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02551446
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02551446