Genetic switch systems with mutual repression of two transcription factors are studied using deterministic methods (rate equations) and stochastic methods (the master equation and Monte Carlo simulations). These systems exhibit bistability, namely two stable states such that spontaneous transitions between them are rare. Induced transitions may take place as a result of an external stimulus. We...

We report the observation of optical bistability in Si-based photonic crystal cavities operating around 4.5 µm. Time domain measurements indicate that the source of this optical bistability is thermal, with a time constant on the order of 5 µs. Quality (Q) factor improvement is shown by the use of surface treatments (wet processes and annealing), resulting in a significant increase in Q-factor,...

Optical bistability typically occurs only when the optical thickness in the device or the input light power is unfavorably large. Here we show that, for a class of plasmonic metamaterials consisting of ultrathin holey metallic plates filled with nonlinear materials, the optical bistability can occur with an ultralow excitation power. We present a realistic design working at 0.2 THz and perform ...

This paper considers the problem of stiction in electrostatic-elastic deflections whereby elastic surfaces adhere to one another after coming into physical contact under attracting Coulomb interactions. This phenomenon is studied in a family of recently derived models which account for forces which become important when the elastic surfaces are in close proximity. The presence of bistability in...

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, optical bistability on a highly integrated silicon device, using a 5-microm-radius ring resonator. The strong light-confinement nature of the resonator induces nonlinear optical response with low pump power. We show that the optical bistability allows all-optical functionalities, such as switching and memory with microsecond time response and...

We predict the existence of a thermal bistability in many-body systems out of thermal equilibrium which exchange heat by thermal radiation using insulator-metal transition materials. We propose a writing-reading procedure and demonstrate the possibility to exploit the thermal bistability to make a volatile thermal memory. We show that this thermal memory can be used to store heat and thermal in...

Biochemical models that exhibit bistability are of interest to biologists and mathematicians alike. Chemical reaction network theory can provide sufficient conditions for the existence of bistability, and on the other hand can rule out the possibility of multiple steady states. Understanding small networks is important because the existence of multiple steady states in a subnetwork of a biochem...

In this paper we analyse the phenomenon of \bistability" in nite population evolutionary dynamics, especially with regard to recombination. Bistability, where the steady-state population distribution depends on the initial state of the population, has recently been observed in an (innnite population) quasi-species model of viral recombination Boerlijst et al., 1996]. We analyse a comparable nit...

Observations of optical bistability are reported for a system composed of multiple atomic beams passing through a high-finesse optical cavity. Both the transmitted power and the intracavity fluorescent intensity have been recorded as functions of incident laser power for zero cavity and atomic detunings. A quantitative study has been made of the evolution of the steady-state switching intensiti...