Analog simulation of a simple system with state-dependent diffusion

We have constructed an electronic simulator of a simple bistable system driven by noise, whose intensity is determined by the instantaneous value of the coordinate. We observe that the most probable state of the system can be reversed by altering the noise intensity only in the neighborhood of the barrier, an effect pointed out by Landauer many years ago in the context of discussions on entropy-related stability criteria for nonequilibrium systems. We compare detailed measurements on the system with the recent white noise calculations of Landauer and van Kampen. The system also has interesting possibilities for tests of contemporary colored noise theory which we illustrate with an example.