Approach to Equilibrium of a Relaxing System. I. Classical 3-Level System

Abstract

A complete investigation of the properties of a classical stochastic three-level system is made. The existence of a circulatory probability current is deduced for the system considered. A geometrical representation for the probability vector in the case of complex eigenvectors is given, and it is further shown that the probability vector reaches the equilibrium state asymptotically, sweeping smaller and smaller areas of a spiral as $t\to \infty$, irrespective of what "state" we start with.