Different regimes for water wave turbulence

We present an experimental study on gravity capillary wave turbulence in water. By using space-time resolved Fourier transform profilometry, the behavior of the wave energy density |η(k,ω)|(2) in the 3D (k,ω) space is inspected for various forcing frequency bandwidths and forcing amplitudes. Depending on the bandwidth, the gravity spectral slope is found to be either forcing dependent, as classically observed in laboratory experiments, or forcing independent. In the latter case, the wave spectrum is consistent with the Zakharov-Filonenko cascade predicted within wave turbulence theory.     

Warm cascade states in a forced-dissipated Boltzmann gas of hard spheres

We study the homogeneous isotropic Boltzmann equation for an open system. For the case of a hard spheres gas, we look for nonequilibrium steady solutions in the presence of forcing and dissipation. Using the language of weak turbulence theory, we analyze the possibility of observing the Kolmogorov-Zakharov steady distributions, i.e. solutions characterized by constant fluxes of conserved quantities. We derive a differential approximation model and we find that the expected nonequilibrium steady solutions have always the form of warm cascades. We propose an analytical prediction for the relation between the forcing and dissipation and the thermodynamic quantities of the system. Specifically, we find that the temperature of the system is independent of the forcing amplitude and determined only by the forcing and dissipation scales. Finally, we perform direct numerical simulations of the Boltzmann equation finding consistent results with our theoretical predictions.     

“Escape” of a periodically driven particle from a metastable state in a noisy system

We consider the statistical properties of the escape time of a particle initially sitting in a potential well subject to a combination of white noise and a periodic forcing term. As one finds in the case of the much-studied bistable potential, different kinds of resonant effects can occur, as measured by the survival probability and the average residence time. When this time is considered as a function of the noise strength, then we show that for small amplitudes of the forcing term there are no resonant effects, while for large amplitudes such effects can appear. We also show that a resonant phenomenon is possible in terms of the amplitude of a periodic forcing term.     

Flexomagnetoelectric interaction in multiferroics

We present a theoretical analysis of phase separation in the presence of a spatially periodic forcing of wavenumber q traveling with a velocity v. By an analytical and numerical study of a suitably generalized 2d-Cahn-Hilliard model we find as a function of the forcing amplitude and the velocity three different regimes of phase separation. For a sufficiently large forcing amplitude a spatially periodic phase separation of the forcing wavenumber takes place, which is dragged by the forcing with some phase delay. These locked solutions are only stable in a subrange of their existence and beyond their existence range the solutions are dragged irregularly during the initial transient period and otherwise rather regular. In the range of unstable locked solutions a coarsening dynamics similar to the unforced case takes place. For small and large values of the forcing wavenumber analytical approximations of the nonlinear solutions as well as for the range of existence and stability have been derived.     

Influence of the vertical profile of Saharan dust on the visible direct radiative forcing

The vertical profile of Saharan dust in the atmosphere is generally characterized by a large aerosol concentration in the mid troposphere, differently from the climatological distribution of other types of particles, that show a peak at the surface and a rapid decrease with height. Saharan dust is also characterized by particles of relatively large size of irregular shape, and variable values of the single scattering albedo (the ratio between radiation scattering and extinction). The dust's peculiar vertical distribution is expected to produce an effect on the calculation of the direct aerosol radiative forcing at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere. This effect is investigated by comparing estimates of aerosol direct visible radiative forcing at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere for dust vertical profiles measured in the Mediterranean, and for the climatological profile. The radiative forcing is estimated by means of an accurate radiative transfer model, and for the ocean surface. The sensitivity of the results on the solar zenith angle, aerosol optical depth, and aerosol absorption is also investigated. The aerosol radiative forcing at the surface shows a very small dependency on the aerosol vertical profile. At the top of the atmosphere, the radiative forcing is weakly dependent on the vertical profile (up to 10% variation on the daily average forcing) for low absorbing particles; conversely, it shows a strong dependency (the daily radiative forcing may vary up to 100%) for absorbing particles. The top of the atmosphere visible radiative forcing efficiency produced by dust having single scattering albedo <0.7 is higher by 4 W m⁻² when the observed vertical profile instead of the standard profile is used in the calculations (i.e. it produces a lower cooling). For values of the single scattering albedo around 0.67, the sign of the forcing depends on the vertical profile. The influence of the vertical distribution on the radiative forcing is largest at small values of the solar zenith angle, and at short wavelengths.     

Entrainment Versus Chaos in a Model for a Circadian Oscillator Driven by Light-Dark Cycles

Circadian rhythms occur in nearly all living organisms with a period close to 24 h. These rhythms constitute an important class of biological oscillators which present the characteristic of being naturally subjected to forcing by light-dark (LD) cycles. In order to investigate the conditions in which such a forcing might lead to chaos, we consider a model for a circadian limit cycle oscillator and assess its dynamic behavior when a light-sensitive parameter is periodically forced by LD cycles. We determine as a function of the forcing period and of the amplitude of the light-induced changes in the light-sensitive parameter the occurrence of various modes of dynamic behavior such as quasi-periodicity, entrainment, period-doubling and chaos. The type of oscillatory behavior markedly depends on the forcing waveform; thus the domain of entrainment grows at the expense of the domain of chaos as the forcing function progressively goes from a square wave to a sine wave. Also studied is the dependence of the phase of periodic or aperiodic oscillations on the amplitude of the light-induced changes in the control parameter. The results are discussed with respect to the main physiological role of circadian rhythms which is to allow organisms to adapt to their periodically varying environment by entrainment to the natural LD cycle.     

Evaluating Ecohydrological Model Sensitivity to Input Variability with an Information-Theory-Based Approach

Ecohydrological models vary in their sensitivity to forcing data and use available information to different extents. We focus on the impact of forcing precision on ecohydrological model behavior particularly by quantizing, or binning, time-series forcing variables. We use rate-distortion theory to quantize time-series forcing variables to different precisions. We evaluate the effect of different combinations of quantized shortwave radiation, air temperature, vapor pressure deficit, and wind speed on simulated heat and carbon fluxes for a multi-layer canopy model, which is forced and validated with eddy covariance flux tower observation data. We find that the model is more sensitive to radiation than meteorological forcing input, but model responses also vary with seasonal conditions and different combinations of quantized inputs. While any level of quantization impacts carbon flux similarly, specific levels of quantization influence heat fluxes to different degrees. This study introduces a method to optimally simplify forcing time series, often without significantly decreasing model performance, and could be applied within a sensitivity analysis framework to better understand how models use available information.     

Anticipating the response of excitable systems driven by random forcing

We study the regime of anticipated synchronization in unidirectionally coupled model neurons subject to a common external aperiodic forcing that makes their behavior unpredictable. We show numerically and by analog hardware electronic circuits that, under appropriate coupling conditions, the pulses fired by the slave neuron anticipate (i.e., predict) the pulses fired by the master neuron. This anticipated synchronization occurs even when the common external forcing is white noise.     

Force-driven micro-rheology

Within a microscopic formalism for the nonequilibrium response of colloidal suspensions driven by an external force, we study the active micro-rheology of a glass-forming colloidal suspensions. In this technique, a probe particle is subject to an external force, and its nonequilibrium dynamics is monitored. Strong external forcing delocalizes the particle from its nearest-neighbor cage, resulting in a pronounced force-thinning behavior of the single-particle friction. We discuss the dynamics in the vicinity of this delocalization transition, and how long-range transport is induced for a particle that is localized in the quiescent case.     

The saturation bifurcation in coupled oscillators

We examine examples of weakly nonlinear systems whose steady states undergo a bifurcation with increasing forcing, such that a forced subsystem abruptly ceases to absorb additional energy, instead diverting it into an initially quiescent, unforced subsystem. We derive and numerically verify analytical predictions for the existence and behavior of such saturated states for a class of oscillator pairs. We also examine related phenomena, including zero-frequency response to periodic forcing, Hopf bifurcations to quasiperiodicity, and bifurcations to periodic behavior with multiple frequencies.     

Coherence and stochastic resonance in threshold crossing detectors with delayed feedback

We consider the dynamical behavior of threshold systems driven by external periodic and stochastic signals and internal delayed feedback. Specifically, the effect of positive delayed feedback on the sensitivity of a threshold crossing detector (TCD) to periodic forcing embedded in noise is investigated. The system has an intrinsic ability to oscillate in the presence of positive feedback. We first show conditions under which such reverberatory behavior is enhanced by noise, which is a form of coherence resonance (CR) for this system. Further, for input signals that are subthreshold in the absence of feedback, the open-loop stochastic resonance (SR) characteristic can be sharply enhanced by positive delayed feedback. This enhancement is shown to depend on the stimulus period, and is maximal when this period is matched to an integer multiple of the delay. Reverberatory oscillations, which are particularly prominent after the offset of periodic forcing, are shown to be eliminated by a summing network of such TCDs with local delayed feedback. Theoretical analysis of the crossing rate dynamics qualitatively accounts for the existence of CR and the resonant behavior of the SR effect as a function of delay and forcing frequency.     

Global climate models violate scaling of the observed atmospheric variability

We test the scaling performance of seven leading global climate models by using detrended fluctuation analysis. We analyze temperature records of six representative sites around the globe simulated by the models, for two different scenarios: (i) with greenhouse gas forcing only and (ii) with greenhouse gas plus aerosol forcing. We find that the simulated records for both scenarios fail to reproduce the universal scaling behavior of the observed records and display wide performance differences. The deviations from the scaling behavior are more pronounced in the first scenario, where also the trends are clearly overestimated.     

Spatiotemporal chaos in an electric current driven ionic reaction-diffusion system

Two types of transitions from the time-periodic spatiotemporal patterns to chaotic ones in the spatially one-dimensional ionic reaction-diffusion system forced either with direct or alternating electric field are described and analyzed by numerical techniques. An ionic version of the Brusselator kinetic scheme is considered. The Karhunen-Loeve decomposition technique is shown to be a possible tool for the global representation of dynamic behavior, but fails as a tool in the identification of the route of transition to chaos in the case of direct current forcing. Higher dimensional chaos with two positive Lyapunov exponents has been identified for the case of alternating current forcing. Results of the Karhunen-Loeve analysis are compared to results of classical analysis of local time series (attractor dimensions, Lyapunov exponents).     

Forcing and control of localized states in optical single feedback systems

Under feedback extended nonlinear optical systems spontaneously show a variety of periodic patterns and structures. Control gives new insight into these phenomena and it can open the way for potential application of nonlinear optical structures. We briefly review methods to control localized states in single feedback experiments. Application of a Fourier control method allows to modify interaction behavior of the localized states. As a further approach we study a forcing method, using externally created light fields as additional input to the system. Recent experiments show that the forcing method enables to favor addressing positions for localized structures. We demonstrate static addressing and favoring of addressing positions. We extend the forcing method to a dynamic forcing scheme, which allows to move and reposition localized states. Additionally forcing is used to balance experimental imperfections. PACS 05.45.Gg; 42.60.Jf; 42.65.Tg     

From simple to complex oscillatory behavior in metabolic and genetic control networks

We present an overview of mechanisms responsible for simple or complex oscillatory behavior in metabolic and genetic control networks. Besides simple periodic behavior corresponding to the evolution toward a limit cycle we consider complex modes of oscillatory behavior such as complex periodic oscillations of the bursting type and chaos. Multiple attractors are also discussed, e.g., the coexistence between a stable steady state and a stable limit cycle (hard excitation), or the coexistence between two simultaneously stable limit cycles (birhythmicity). We discuss mechanisms responsible for the transition from simple to complex oscillatory behavior by means of a number of models serving as selected examples. The models were originally proposed to account for simple periodic oscillations observed experimentally at the cellular level in a variety of biological systems. In a second stage, these models were modified to allow for complex oscillatory phenomena such as bursting, birhythmicity, or chaos. We consider successively (1) models based on enzyme regulation, proposed for glycolytic oscillations and for the control of successive phases of the cell cycle, respectively; (2) a model for intracellular Ca(2+) oscillations based on transport regulation; (3) a model for oscillations of cyclic AMP based on receptor desensitization in Dictyostelium cells; and (4) a model based on genetic regulation for circadian rhythms in Drosophila. Two main classes of mechanism leading from simple to complex oscillatory behavior are identified, namely (i) the interplay between two endogenous oscillatory mechanisms, which can take multiple forms, overt or more subtle, depending on whether the two oscillators each involve their own regulatory feedback loop or share a common feedback loop while differing by some related process, and (ii) self-modulation of the oscillator through feedback from the system's output on one of the parameters controlling oscillatory behavior. However, the latter mechanism may also be viewed as involving the interplay between two feedback processes, each of which might be capable of producing oscillations. Although our discussion primarily focuses on the case of autonomous oscillatory behavior, we also consider the case of nonautonomous complex oscillations in a model for circadian oscillations subjected to periodic forcing by a light-dark cycle and show that the occurrence of entrainment versus chaos in these conditions markedly depends on the wave form of periodic forcing. (c) 2001 American Institute of Physics.     

Complex bifurcations in a periodically forced normal form

The effect of a periodic forcing on the normal form of a two-dimensional dynamical system, in which both roots of the characteristic equation can vanish simultaneously, is analyzed. In the space spanned by the system's parameters, the onset of nonperiodic behavior and subharmonic behavior are determined analytically using standard perturbation theory. Moreover it is shown that complex behavior can already appear in the immediate vicinity of singular points. An example of physico-chemical system amenable to the normal form is also constructed.     

Critical scaling in linear response of frictionless granular packings near jamming

We study the origin of the scaling behavior in frictionless granular media above the jamming transition by analyzing their linear response. The response to local forcing is non-self-averaging and fluctuates over a length scale that diverges at the jamming transition. The response to global forcing becomes increasingly nonaffine near the jamming transition. This is due to the proximity of floppy modes, the influence of which we characterize by the local linear response. We show that the local response also governs the anomalous scaling of elastic constants and contact number.     

Power injected in dissipative systems and the fluctuation theorem

We consider three examples of dissipative dynamical systems involving many degrees of freedom, driven far from equilibrium by a constant or time dependent forcing. We study the statistical properties of the injected and dissipated power as well as the fluctuations of the total energy of these systems. The three systems under consideration are: a shell model of turbulence, a gas of hard spheres colliding inelastically and excited by a vibrating piston, and a Burridge-Knopoff spring-block model. Although they involve different types of forcing and dissipation, we show that the statistics of the injected power obey the “fluctuation theorem" demonstrated in the case of time reversible dissipative systems maintained at constant total energy, or in the case of some stochastic processes. Although this may be only a consequence of the theory of large deviations, this allows a possible definition of “temperature" for a dissipative system out of equilibrium. We consider how this “temperature" scales with the energy and the number of degrees of freedom in the different systems under consideration. Received 26 June 2000 and Received in final form 24 October 2000     

Synchronized Firing in Coupled Inhomogeneous Excitable Neurons

We study the firing synchronization behavior of the inhomogeneous excitable media. Phase synchronization of neuron firings is observed with increasing the coupling, while the phases of neurons are different (out-of-phase synchronization). We found the synchronization of bursts can be greatly enhanced by applying an external forcing (in-phase synchronization). The external forcing can be either a periodic or just homogeneous thermal noise. The mechanism responsible for this enhancement is discussed.