Influence of tether dynamics on forced Kramers escape from a kinetic trap.

When a trapped particle is subject to the tension of a massive frictional spring (the "tether"), the escape rate increases due to a lowering of the escape barrier. However, in addition, the escape-rate prefactor is influenced by the mass and drag contributed by the spring. We solve the full Kramers escape problem for the coupled system using a technique attributed to Langer. The prefactor in the escape rate is significantly modified by the spring parameters even in the strong-damping limit. The biophysical relevance of this problem is briefly discussed.