Adaptive minimum action method for the study of rare events

An adaptive minimum action method is proposed for computing the most probable transition paths between stable equilibria in metastable systems that do not necessarily have an underlying energy function, by minimizing the action functional associated with such transition paths. This new algorithm uses the moving mesh strategy to adaptively adjust the grid points over the time interval of transition. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the adaptive minimum action method. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.