Sensitivity of explosion to departure from partial equilibrium.
We study a thermochemical gaseous system in the vicinity of the bifurcation related to the emergence of bistability. Corrections to the standard deterministic dynamics induced by the perturbation of the particle velocity distribution are obtained from the solution of the Boltzmann equation. Using these results, analytical expressions including the nonequilibrium effects are derived for the ignition time in the explosive regime and mean first passage time in the bistable regime. It is demonstrated that a departure from partial equilibrium can shift the bifurcation point. The system which was bistable according to the standard deterministic approach, can become monostable and explosive in the presence of nonequilibrium effects. Even when the system remains in the bistable regime, the mean first passage time can be changed by several orders of magnitude. In the monostable domain, the ignition time can be about ten times smaller than the unperturbed value. These analytical predictions agree well with the results of the microscopic simulations of the dilute gas system.