Energy Barrier Scalings in Driven Systems
  Energy landscape mappings are performed for two different molecular systems under mechanical loads. Barrier heights are observed to scale as $\Delta U\sim\delta^{3/2}$, where $\delta$ is a residual load. Catastrophe theory predicts that this scaling should arise for vanishing $\delta$, however, this region is irrelevant in physical processes at finite temperature because thermal fluctuations cause the system to cross over the barrier before reaching the small $\delta$ regime. Surprisingly, we find that the $\Delta U\sim\delta^{3/2}$ scaling is valid far beyond the vanishing $\delta$ regime described by catastrophe theory. This scaling will therefore be relevant at finite temperatures, and can be the basis for corrections to standard rate theoretic approaches. 
Craig E. Maloney and Daniel J. Lacks