Perturbation-induced emergence of Poisson-like behavior in non-Poisson systems

The response of a system with ON–OFF intermittency to an external harmonic perturbation is discussed. ON–OFF intermittency is described by means of a sequence of random events, i.e., the transitions from the ON to the OFF state and vice versa. The unperturbed waiting times (WTs) between two events are assumed to satisfy a renewal condition, i.e., the WTs are statistically independent random variables. The response of a renewal model with non-Poisson ON–OFF intermittency, associated with non-exponential WT distribution, is analyzed by looking at the changes induced in the WT statistical distribution by the harmonic perturbation. The scaling properties are also studied by means of diffusion entropy analysis. It is found that, in the range of fast and relatively strong perturbation, the non-Poisson system displays a Poisson-like behavior in both WT distribution and scaling. In particular, the histogram of perturbed WTs becomes a sequence of equally spaced peaks, with intensity decaying exponentially in time. Further, the diffusion entropy detects an ordinary scaling (related to normal diffusion) instead of the expected unperturbed anomalous scaling related to the inverse power-law decay