FIG. 1. Color online Phase portrait of a two-variable system with two stable states A1 and A2. The saddle point S lies on the separatrix that separates the corresponding basins of attraction. The thin solid lines show the downhill deterministic trajectories from the saddle to the attractors. A portion of the separatrix near the saddle point is shown as the dashed line. The thick solid line shows the most probable trajectory that the system follows in a fluctuation from A1 to the saddle. The MPSP from A1 to A2 is comprised by this uphill trajectory and the downhill trajectory from S to A2. The plot refers to the system studied experimentally, see Sec. V.
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