Internal mode mechanism for collective energy transport in extended systems

We study directed energy transport in homogeneous nonlinear extended systems in the presence of homogeneous ac forces and dissipation. We show that the mechanism responsible for unidirectional motion of topological excitations is the coupling of their internal and translation degrees of freedom. Our results lead to a selection rule for the existence of such motion based on resonances that explain earlier symmetry analysis of this phenomenon. The direction of motion is found to depend both on the initial and the relative phases of the two harmonic drivings, even in the presence of noise.     

Stochastic resonance and energy optimization in spatially extended dynamical systems

We investigate a class of nonlinear wave equations subject to periodic forcing and noise, and address the issue of energy optimization. Numerically, we use a pseudo-spectral method to solve the nonlinear stochastic partial differential equation and compute the energy of the system as a function of the driving amplitude in the presence of noise. In the fairly general setting where the system possesses two coexisting states, one with low and another with high energy, noise can induce intermittent switchings between the two states. A striking finding is that, for fixed noise, the system energy can be optimized by the driving in a form of resonance. The phenomenon can be explained by the Langevin dynamics of particle motion in a double-well potential system with symmetry breaking. The finding can have applications to small-size devices such as microelectromechanical resonators and to waves in fluid and plasma.     

Frequency locking in spatially extended systems

A variant of the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation is used to investigate the frequency-locking phenomena in spatially extended systems. With appropriate parameter values, a variety of frequency-locked patterns including flats, pi fronts, labyrinths, and 2pi/3 fronts emerge. We show that in spatially extended systems, frequency locking can be enhanced or suppressed by diffusive coupling. Novel patterns such as chaotically bursting domains and target patterns are also observed during the transition to locking.     

Chaotic transients in spatially extended systems

Different transient-chaos related phenomena of spatiotemporal systems are reviewed. Special attention is paid to cases where spatiotemporal chaos appears in the form of chaotic transients only. The asymptotic state is then spatially regular. In systems of completely different origins, ranging from fluid dynamics to chemistry and biology, the average lifetimes of these spatiotemporal transients are found, however, to grow rapidly with the system size, often in an exponential fashion. For sufficiently large spatial extension, the lifetime might turn out to be larger than any physically realizable time. There is increasing numerical and experimental evidence that in many systems such transients mask the real attractors. Attractors may then not be relevant to certain types of spatiotemporal chaos, or turbulence. The observable dynamics is governed typically by a high-dimensional chaotic saddle. We review the origin of exponential scaling of the transient lifetime with the system size, and compare this with a similar scaling with system parameters known in low-dimensional problems. The effect of weak noise on such supertransients is discussed. Different crisis phenomena of spatiotemporal systems are presented and fractal properties of the chaotic saddles underlying high-dimensional supertransients are discussed. The recent discovery according to which turbulence in pipe flows is a very long lasting transient sheds new light on chaotic transients in other spatially extended systems.     

Self-parametric instability in spatially extended systems

We study the stability of almost homoclinic homogeneous limit cycles with respect to spatiotemporal perturbations. It is shown that they are generically unstable. The instability is either the phase instability or a finite wavelength period doubling instability.     

Time-dependent mechanical symmetries and extended Hamiltonian systems

Time-dependent mechanical symmetries are discussed in the framework of an extended Hamiltonian system. The Lie-algebraic structure of the time-dependent symmetry is made clear by introducing an extended Poisson bracket. Moreover, the relationship between the symmetry algebras of the classical and the quantum system is established.     

Synchronization in networks of spatially extended systems

Synchronization processes in networks of spatially extended dynamical systems are analytically and numerically studied. We focus on the relevant case of networks whose elements (or nodes) are spatially extended dynamical systems, with the nodes being connected with each other by scalar signals. The stability of the synchronous spatio-temporal state for a generic network is analytically assessed by means of an extension of the master stability function approach. We find an excellent agreement between the theoretical predictions and the data obtained by means of numerical calculations. The efficiency and reliability of this method is illustrated numerically with networks of beam-plasma chaotic systems (Pierce diodes). We discuss also how the revealed regularities are expected to take place in other relevant physical and biological circumstances.     

Lie symmetries and solitons in nonlinear systems with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities

Using Lie group theory and canonical transformations, we construct explicit solutions of nonlinear Schr?dinger equations with spatially inhomogeneous nonlinearities. We present the general theory, use it to show that localized nonlinearities can support bound states with an arbitrary number solitons, and discuss other applications of interest to the field of nonlinear matter waves.     

Symmetry and control: spatially extended chaotic systems

In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. E 57 (1998) 1550] it was demonstrated that the symmetries of the evolution equation and the target state have a profound effect on controlling the chaotic behavior. In the present paper we extend these results to the cases of time-periodic target trajectories and inexact symmetries, and apply the developed formalism to the problem of controlling spatiotemporal chaos. We use the example of a lattice dynamical system in arbitrary spatial dimension to show that there exists an intimate relationship between the geometry of an extended system and the geometry of feedback control.     

Scaling properties of spatially extended chaotic systems

We investigate the scaling properties of Lyapunov eigenvectors and exponents in coupled-map lattices exhibiting space-time chaos. A deep interrelation between spatiotemporal chaos and kinetic roughening of surfaces is postulated. We show that the logarithm of unstable eigenvectors exhibits scale-invariance with roughness exponents that can be predicted by a simple scaling conjecture. We argue that these scaling properties should be generic in spatially homogeneous extended systems with local diffusive-like couplings.     

Systematic approach to conformal systems with extended Virasoro symmetries

The Toda field theories, which exist for every simple Lie group, are shown to give realizations of extended Virasoro algebras that involve generators of spins higher than or equal to two. They are uniquely determined from the canonical lagrangian formalism. The quantization of the Toda field theories gives a systematic treatment of generalized conformal bosonic models. The well-known pattern of conformal field theories with non-extended Virasoro algebra, appears to be repeated for any simple group, leading to a “periodic table”, parallel to the mathematical classification of simple Lie groups.     

Generalised equal areas rules for spatially extended systems

It is shown that equal areas rules which exist in such different fields as thermodynamics (Maxwell construction), chemical reaction theory (nonequilibrium phase transitions), and semiconductor physics (Gunn-Hilsum effect; current filamentation; grain boundaries) arise as special cases of a general relation between control parameters and boundary values of a second order ordinary differential equation,. They allow one to extract relevant information about spatial profiles of some physical variable in extended systems directly from the constitutive differential equation without explicitly solving it.     

Chaotic synchronization in coupled spatially extended beam–plasma systems

The appearance of the chaotic synchronization regimes has been discovered for the coupled spatially extended beam–plasma Pierce systems. The coupling was introduced only on the right bound of each subsystem. It has been shown that with coupling increase the spatially extended beam–plasma systems show the transition from asynchronous behavior to the phase synchronization and then to the complete synchronization regime. For the consideration of the chaotic synchronization we used the concept of time-scale synchronization described in work [A.E. Hramov, A.A. Koronovskii, Chaos 14 (3) (2004) 603] and based on the introduction of the continuous set of phases of chaotic signal. In case of unidirectional coupling the generalized synchronization regime has been observed in the spatially extended beam–plasma systems. The generalized synchronization appearance mechanism has been analyzed by means of the offered modified system approach [A.E. Hramov, A.A. Koronovskii, Phys. Rev. E 71 (6) (2005) 067201].     

Broken chiral symmetries and light composite fermions

We elaborate on a mechanism for obtaining naturally light composite fermions in a strongly interacting gauge theory. A simple toy model is used to illustrate the basic ideas.     

Universal features of hydrodynamic Lyapunov modes in extended systems with continuous symmetries

Numerical and analytical evidence is presented to show that hydrodynamic Lyapunov modes (HLMs) do exist in lattices of coupled Hamiltonian and dissipative maps. More importantly, we find that HLMs in these two classes of systems are different with respect to their spatial structure and their dynamical behavior. To be concrete, the corresponding dispersion relations of Lyapunov exponent versus wave number are characterized by lambda approximately k and lambda approximately k2, respectively. The HLMs in Hamiltonian systems are propagating, whereas those of dissipative systems show only diffusive motion. Extensive numerical simulations of various systems confirm that the existence of HLMs is a very general feature of extended dynamical systems with continuous symmetries and that the above-mentioned differences between the two classes of systems are universal in large extent.     

Asymmetric coupling effects in the synchronization of spatially extended chaotic systems

We analyze the effects of asymmetric couplings in setting different synchronization states for a pair of unidimensional fields obeying complex Ginzburg-Landau equations. Novel features such as asymmetry enhanced complete synchronization, limits for the appearance of phase synchronized states, and selection of the final synchronized dynamics are reported and characterized.