Escape from a metastable state with fluctuating barrier

We investigate the escape of a Brownian particle from fluctuating metastable states. We find the conditions for the noise enhanced stability (NES) effect for periodical driving force. We obtain general equations useful to calculate the average escape time for randomly switching potential profiles. For piece-wise linear potential profile we reveal the noise enhanced stability (NES) effect, when the height of “reverse” potential barrier of metastable state is comparatively small. We obtain analytically the condition for the NES phenomenon and the average escape time as a function of parameters, which characterize the potential and the driving dichotomous noise.