Stochastic analysis of explosive behaviour: A qualitative approach

In many instances, the evolution of physico-chemical systems involves a long slow induction period followed by an abrupt switching to a final stable attractor. In the present paper the properties of fluctuations during this explosive stage of evolution are analyzed. Qualitative arguments, confirmed by an exactly soluble model, establish that this regime is characterized by the development of long tails and multiple humps in the probability distribution. The implications of this phenomenon of transient bimodality are discussed.