Computing stationary distributions in equilibrium and nonequilibrium systems with forward flux sampling

Abstract

We present a method for computing stationary distributions for activated processes in equilibrium and nonequilibrium systems using forward flux sampling. In this method, the stationary distributions are obtained directly from the rate constant calculations for the forward and backward reactions; there is no need to perform separate calculations for the stationary distribution and the rate constant. We apply the method to the nonequilibrium rare event problem proposed by Maier and Stein, to nucleation in a 2-dimensional Ising system, and to the flipping of a genetic switch.