Debye formulas for a relaxing system with memory.

Rate (master) equations are ubiquitous in statistical physics, yet, to the best of our knowledge, a rate equation with memory has previously never been considered. We write down an integro-differential rate equation for the evolution of a thermally relaxing system with memory. For concreteness we adopt as a model a single-domain magnetic particle driven by a small ac field and derive the modified Debye formulas. For any memory time Θ the in-phase component of the resultant ac susceptibility is positive at small probing frequencies ω, but becomes negative at large ω. The system thus exhibits frequency induced diamagnetism. For comparison we also consider particle pairs with dipolar coupling. The memory effect is found to be enhanced by ferromagnetic coupling and suppressed by antiferromagnetic coupling. Numerical calculations support the prediction of a negative susceptibility which arises from a phase shift induced by the memory effect. It is proposed that the onset of frequency induced diamagnetism represents a viable experimental signature of correlated noise.