Decay of a metastable state activated by non-Gaussian noise: A critical review of the generalized Kramers problem

We review the problem of the noise activated escape from a metastable state in the presence of non-Gaussian noise, and present connections between various theoretical approaches. We also respond to criticism of our work by Tomáš Novotný [–J. Stat. Mech. (2009) P 01050] concerning the weak damping limit. The discrepancy between our results is linked to approximations made by Novotný.