Resonance phenomena and long-term chaotic advection in volume-preserving systems

Creating chaotic advection is the most efficient strategy to achieve mixing on microscale or in very viscous fluids. In this paper, we present a quantitative theory of the long-time resonant mixing in 3D near-integrable flows. We use the flow between two coaxial elliptic counter-rotating cylinders as a demonstrative model, where multiple scatterings on resonance result in mixing by causing the jumps of adiabatic invariants. We improve the existing estimates of the width of the mixing domain. We show that the resulting mixing both on short and long time scales can be described in terms of a single diffusion-type equation with a diffusion coefficient depending on the averaged effect of multiple passages through resonances. We discuss the exact location of the boundaries of the chaotic domain and show how it affects the properties of mixing.     

Microscopic Chaos and Diffusion

We investigate the connections between microscopic chaos, defined on a dynamical level and arising from collisions between molecules, and diffusion, characterized by a mean square displacement proportional to the time. We use a number of models involving a single particle moving in two dimensions and colliding with fixed scatterers. We find that a number of microscopically nonchaotic models exhibit diffusion, and that the standard methods of chaotic time series analysis are ill suited to the problem of distinguishing between chaotic and nonchaotic microscopic dynamics. However, we show that periodic orbits play an important role in our models, in that their different properties in our chaotic and nonchaotic models can be used to distinguish them at the level of time series analysis, and in systems with absorbing boundaries. Our findings are relevant to experiments aimed at verifying the existence of chaoticity and related dynamical properties on a microscopic level in diffusive systems.     

Hybrid approach to high-frequency microfluidic mixing

We report the experimental verification of the predicted chaotic mixing characteristics for a polydimethylsioxane microfluidic chip, based on the mechanism of multistage cross-channel flows. While chaotic mixing can be achieved within short passage distances, there is an optimal side channel flow pulsation frequency beyond which the mixing becomes ineffective. Based on the physical understanding of a Poincaré section analysis, we propose the installation of passive flow baffles in the main microfluidic channel to facilitate high-frequency mixing. The combined hybrid approach enables chaotic mixing at enhanced frequency and reduced passage distance in two-dimensional flows.     

Transient chaotic mixing during a baroclinic life cycle

We discuss how atmospheric eddies affect transport and mixing of tracers at midlatitudes. To this purpose, we study baroclinic life cycles in a simple dynamical model of the atmosphere. We consider the trapping properties of the developing eddies and the characteristics of meridional transport, and we identify regions of increased mixing. Although the flow is in principle three-dimensional, we illustrate how some of the concepts developed in the study of two-dimensional chaotic advection provide useful information on tracer dynamics in more complicated flows. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.     

Universal Hitting Time Statistics for Integrable Flows

The perceived randomness in the time evolution of “chaotic” dynamical systems can be characterized by universal probabilistic limit laws, which do not depend on the fine features of the individual system. One important example is the Poisson law for the times at which a particle with random initial data hits a small set. This was proved in various settings for dynamical systems with strong mixing properties. The key result of the present study is that, despite the absence of mixing, the hitting times of integrable flows also satisfy universal limit laws which are, however, not Poisson. We describe the limit distributions for “generic” integrable flows and a natural class of target sets, and illustrate our findings with two examples: the dynamics in central force fields and ellipse billiards. The convergence of the hitting time process follows from a new equidistribution theorem in the space of lattices, which is of independent interest. Its proof exploits Ratner’s measure classification theorem for unipotent flows, and extends earlier work of Elkies and McMullen.     

Chaotic scattering and transmission fluctuations

We discuss the phenomenon of chaotic scattering and its application in the study of transmission of electrons in mesoscopic devices as well as the transmission of microwaves through junctions. We show that the fact that the ray optics (classical dynamics) is chaotic, implies fluctuations in the observed transmission coefficients, whose statistics is determined by the theory of random matrices. We also show how the classical distribution functions which reflect the chaotic nature of the classical dynamics, determine the dependence of the correlations observed in the fluctuating transmission coefficients on external parameters. The time domain properties of chaotic scattering systems are also examined, and are shown to depend on the chaotic nature of the classical dynamics, together with a wave mechanical enhancement in time reversal invariant systems. Finally, we study the role of absorption and discuss its effects on the transmission fluctuations and their statistics.     

Broken Ergodicity in Classically Chaotic Spin Systems

A one dimensional classically chaotic spin chain with asymmetric coupling and two different inter-spin interactions, nearest neighbors and all-to-all, has been considered. Depending on the interaction range, dynamical properties such as ergodicity and chaoticity are very different. Indeed, even in the presence of chaoticity, the model displays a lack of ergodicity only in presence of all to all interaction and below an energy threshold, that persists in the thermodynamical limit. The energy threshold can be found analytically and results can be generalized for a generic XY model with asymmetric coupling.     

Regular nonlinear response of the driven Duffing oscillator to chaotic time series

Nonlinear response of the driven Duffng oscillator to periodic or quasi-periodic signals has been well studied.In this paper,we investigate the nonlinear response of the driven Duffng oscillator to non-periodic,more specifically,chaotic time series.Through numerical simulations,we find that the driven Duffng oscillator can also show regular nonlinear response to the chaotic time series with different degree of chaos as generated by the same chaotic series generating model,and there exists a relationship between the state of the driven Duffng oscillator and the chaoticity of the input signal of the driven Duffng oscillator.One real-world and two artificial chaotic time series are used to verify the new feature of Duffng oscillator.A potential application of the new feature of Duffng oscillator is also indicated.     

Temporal chaos versus spatial mixing in reaction-advection-diffusion systems

We develop a theory describing the transition to a spatially homogeneous regime in a mixing flow with a chaotic in time reaction. The transverse Lyapunov exponent governing the stability of the homogeneous state can be represented as a combination of Lyapunov exponents for spatial mixing and temporal chaos. This representation, being exact for time-independent flows and equal Pe clet numbers of different components, is demonstrated to work accurately for time-dependent flows and different Pe clet numbers.     

Classical versus quantum chaos in strongly deformed nuclear potentials

The correspondence of classical dynamical chaos and statistical properties of the energy spectrum has been investigated for the single-particle motion in strongly deformed nuclear potentials with axial symmetry. The properties of the classical and of the quantized system were analyzed for two potentials: the two-center well potential of finite depth and the two-center oscillator shell model. It has been found that in such mean fields the occurrence of fully developed random matrix statistics is a generic feature corresponding to a global instability of classical trajectories. But due to the absence of scaling invariance, for the general case with a mixed phase space a significant energy dependence of the chaotic phase-space volume has been obtained so that the over-all level-spacing distribution cannot be specified by the chaotic volume as a single parameter. The reason for the appearance of chaoticity turns out to be rather complex. Besides the expected important role of large deformations of high multipolarity, including the neck degree of freedom, the spin-orbit part of the nuclear interaction can also be responsible for the occurrence of dynamical chaos.We gratefully acknowledge discussions with V.V. Pashkevitch. His computer code and the friendly support of G.R. Tillack made possible the calculation of the level spacing distributions in the twocenter Buck-Put potential. We thank the GSI Darmstadt for the warm hospitality during our stay when parts of this work were completed.     

IBFM for Ba isotopes and chaoticity

Fluctuation properties have been analysed for the energy levels predicted by IBFM calculations in the Ba isotopes¹²¹Ba to¹³¹Ba. The results indicate, in general, a situation which is close to the chaotic limit. For the lighter isotopes studied (121 and 123), a phase transition is obtained in the low-spin, positive parity states, from a situation close to regularity at low excitation energies, towards chaoticity at higher excitations.     

Review: Characterizing and quantifying quantum chaos with quantum tomography

We explore quantum signatures of classical chaos by studying the rate of information gain in quantum tomography. The tomographic record consists of a time series of expectation values of a Hermitian operator evolving under the application of the Floquet operator of a quantum map that possesses (or lacks) time-reversal symmetry. We find that the rate of information gain, and hence the fidelity of quantum state reconstruction, depends on the symmetry class of the quantum map involved. Moreover, we find an increase in information gain and hence higher reconstruction fidelities when the Floquet maps employed increase in chaoticity. We make predictions for the information gain and show that these results are well described by random matrix theory in the fully chaotic regime. We derive analytical expressions for bounds on information gain using random matrix theory for different classes of maps and show that these bounds are realized by fully chaotic quantum systems.     

Chaotic mixing in a steady flow in a microchannel

We report experiments on mixing of a passively advected fluorescent dye in a low Reynolds number flow in a microscopic channel. The channel is a chain of repeating segments with a custom designed profile that generates a steady three-dimensional flow with stretching and folding, and chaotic mixing. A few statistical characteristics of mixing in the flow are studied and are all found to agree with theoretical and experimental results for the flows in the Batchelor regime of mixing that are chaotic in time. The proposed microchannel provides fast and efficient mixing and is simple to fabricate.     

Analysis of chaotic non-isothermal solutions of thermomechanical shape memory oscillators

Shape memory materials exhibit strong thermomechanical coupling, so that temperature variations occur during mechanical loading and unloading. In previous works the nonlinear dynamics of pseudoelastic oscillators subject to an harmonic force has been studied and the possibility of non-regular chaotic responses has been thoroughly documented. Instead of the standard Lyapunov exponent treatment, the statistical 0–1 test based on the asymptotic properties of a Brownian motion chain was successively applied to reveal the chaotic nature of trajectories in the special case in which temperature variations were neglected. In this work, the 0–1 test is applied to fully non-isothermal trajectories. To improve its reliability the test has been applied to the time-histories of maxima and minima of each trajectory, in each component. The obtained results have been validated and confirmed by the corresponding Fourier spectra. Non-regular solutions with different levels of chaoticity have been analyzed and their qualitative difference is reflected by the different values to which the control parameter K asymptotically converge.     

Controlling chaos: Stabilization of unstable orbits using exponential control for maps and flows

We demonstrate that chaos can be controlled using multiplicative exponential feedback control. Unstable fixed points, unstable limit cycles and unstable chaotic trajectories can all be stabilized using such control which is effective both for maps and flows. The control is of particular significance for systems with several degrees of freedom, as knowledge of only one variable on the desired unstable orbit is sufficient to settle the system onto that orbit. We find in all cases that the transient time is a decreasing function of the stiffness of control. But increasing the stiffness beyond an optimum value can increase the transient time. We have also used such a mechanism to control spatiotemporal chaos is a well-known coupled map lattice model.     

Almost-invariant sets and invariant manifolds — Connecting probabilistic and geometric descriptions of coherent structures in flows

We study the transport and mixing properties of flows in a variety of settings, connecting the classical geometrical approach via invariant manifolds with a probabilistic approach via transfer operators. For non-divergent fluid-like flows, we demonstrate that eigenvectors of numerical transfer operators efficiently decompose the domain into invariant regions. For dissipative chaotic flows such a decomposition into invariant regions does not exist; instead, the transfer operator approach detects almost-invariant sets. We demonstrate numerically that the boundaries of these almost-invariant regions are predominantly comprised of segments of co-dimension 1 invariant manifolds. For a mixing periodically driven fluid-like flow we show that while sets bounded by stable and unstable manifolds are almost-invariant, the transfer operator approach can identify almost-invariant sets with smaller mass leakage. Thus the transport mechanism of lobe dynamics need not correspond to minimal transport.The transfer operator approach is purely probabilistic; it directly determines those regions that minimally mix with their surroundings. The almost-invariant regions are identified via eigenvectors of a transfer operator and are ranked by the corresponding eigenvalues in the order of the sets’ invariance or “leakiness”. While we demonstrate that the almost-invariant sets are often bounded by segments of invariant manifolds, without such a ranking it is not at all clear which intersections of invariant manifolds form the major barriers to mixing. Furthermore, in some cases invariant manifolds do not bound sets of minimal leakage.Our transfer operator constructions are very simple and fast to implement; they require a sample of short trajectories, followed by eigenvector calculations of a sparse matrix.     

On passage through resonances in volume-preserving systems

Resonance processes are common phenomena in multiscale (slow-fast) systems. In the present paper we consider capture into resonance and scattering on resonance in 3D volume-preserving multiscale systems. We propose a general theory of those processes and apply it to a class of kinematic models inspired by viscous Taylor-Couette flows between two counter-rotating cylinders. We describe the phenomena during a single passage through resonance and show that multiple passages lead to the chaotic advection and mixing. We calculate the width of the mixing domain and estimate a characteristic time of mixing. We show that the resultant mixing can be described using a diffusion equation with a diffusion coefficient depending on the averaged effect of the passages through resonances.     

Level statistics for the even-even Yb isotopes

The level statistics of the even-even Yb isotopes are studied by using the energy levels calculated by the projected shell model. The spectrum of intrinsic states and band energies are also studied to discuss the generation of chaoticity. The energy dependence of the chaoticity is investigated, and a chaos to order transition is found.     

Front propagation in chaotic and noisy reaction-diffusion systems: a discrete-time map approach

We study the front propagation in reaction-diffusion systems whose reaction dynamics exhibits an unstable fixed point and chaotic or noisy behaviour. We have examined the influence of chaos and noise on the front propagation speed and on the wandering of the front around its average position. Assuming that the reaction term acts periodically in an impulsive way, the dynamical evolution of the system can be written as the convolution between a spatial propagator and a discrete-time map acting locally. This approach allows us to perform accurate numerical analysis. They reveal that in the pulled regime the front speed is basically determined by the shape of the map around the unstable fixed point, while its chaotic or noisy features play a marginal role. In contrast, in the pushed regime the presence of chaos or noise is more relevant. In particular the front speed decreases when the degree of chaoticity is increased, but it is not straightforward to derive a direct connection between the chaotic properties (e.g. the Lyapunov exponent) and the behaviour of the front. As for the fluctuations of the front position, we observe for the noisy maps that the associated mean square displacement grows in time as t ^1/2 in the pushed case and as t ^1/4 in the pulled one, in agreement with recent findings obtained for continuous models with multiplicative noise. Moreover we show that the same quantity saturates when a chaotic deterministic dynamics is considered for both pushed and pulled regimes. Received 17 July 2001     

Weak mixing and anomalous kinetics along filamented surfaces

We consider chaotic properties of a particle in a square billiard with a horizontal bar in the middle. Such a system can model field-line windings of the merged surfaces. The system has weak-mixing properties with zero Lyapunov exponent and entropy, and it can be also interesting as an example of a system with intermediate chaotic properties, between the integrability and strong mixing. We show that the transport is anomalous and that its properties can be linked to the ergodic properties of continued fractions. The distribution of Poincare recurrences, distribution of the displacements, and the moments of the truncated distribution of the displacements are obtained. Connections between different exponents are found. It is shown that the distribution function of displacements and its truncated moments as a function of time exhibit log-periodic oscillations (modulations) with a universal period T(log)=pi(2)/12 ln 2. We note that similar results are valid for a family of billiard, particularly for billiards with square-in-square geometry. (c) 2001 American Institute of Physics.