Role of unstable directions in the equilibrium and aging dynamics of supercooled liquids

The connectivity of the potential energy landscape in supercooled atomic liquids is investigated through a calculation of the instantaneous normal modes spectrum and a detailed analysis of the unstable directions in configuration space. We confirm the hypothesis that the mode-coupling critical temperature is the T at which the dynamics crosses over from free to activated exploration of configuration space. We also observe changes in the local connectivity of configuration space sampled during aging, following a temperature jump from a liquid to a glassy state.     

Saddles in the energy landscape probed by supercooled liquids

We numerically investigate the supercooled dynamics of two simple model liquids exploiting the partition of the multidimensional configuration space in basins of attraction of the stationary points (inherent saddles) of the potential energy surface. We find that the inherent saddle order and potential energy are well-defined functions of the temperature T. Moreover, by decreasing T, the saddle order vanishes at the same temperature (T(MCT)) where the inverse diffusivity appears to diverge as a power law. This allows a topological interpretation of T(MCT): it marks the transition from a dynamics between basins of saddles (T > T(MCT)) to a dynamics between basins of minima (T < T(MCT)).     

Ultrafast reciprocal space investigation of cavity-waveguide coupling

Local information on the coupling mechanism between the photonic crystal nanocavity and the feeding waveguide is crucial to enable further improvements of the performance of these systems. Although several investigations on such a coupling have already been performed, information on the local dynamic properties remains hidden. Here, we present a reciprocal space investigation of the dynamics of light side-coupled to a photonic crystal nanocavity. We find that the coupling is promoted by Bloch harmonics having greater transverse momentum.     

Periodically driven ergodic and many-body localized quantum systems

We study dynamics of isolated quantum many-body systems whose Hamiltonian is switched between two different operators periodically in time. The eigenvalue problem of the associated Floquet operator maps onto an effective hopping problem. Using the effective model, we establish conditions on the spectral properties of the two Hamiltonians for the system to localize in energy space. We find that ergodic systems always delocalize in energy space and heat up to infinite temperature, for both local and global driving. In contrast, many-body localized systems with quenched disorder remain localized at finite energy. We support our conclusions by numerical simulations of disordered spin chains. We argue that our results hold for general driving protocols, and discuss their experimental implications.     

Statistics of Wave Functions for a Point Scatterer on the Torus

Quantum systems whose classical counterpart have ergodic dynamics are quantum ergodic in the sense that almost all eigenstates are uniformly distributed in phase space. In contrast, when the classical dynamics is integrable, there is concentration of eigenfunctions on invariant structures in phase space. In this paper we study eigenfunction statistics for the Laplacian perturbed by a delta-potential (also known as a point scatterer) on a flat torus, a popular model used to study the transition between integrability and chaos in quantum mechanics. The eigenfunctions of this operator consist of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian which vanish at the scatterer, and new, or perturbed, eigenfunctions. We show that almost all of the perturbed eigenfunctions are uniformly distributed in configuration space.     

Experimental characterization of domain walls dynamics in a photorefractive oscillator

We report on the experimental characterization of domain wall dynamics in a photorefractive resonator in a degenerate four-wave mixing configuration. We show how the non-flat profile of the emitted field affects the velocity of domain walls as well as the variations of intensity and phase gradient during their motion. We find a clear correlation between these two last quantities that allows the experimental determination of the chirality that governs the domain walls’ dynamics. PACS 42.65.Sf; 47.54.+r; 42.65.Hw     

A generalization of Fermat's principle for classical and quantum systems

The analogy between dynamics and optics had a great influence on the development of the foundations of classical and quantum mechanics. We take this analogy one step further and investigate the validity of Fermat's principle in many-dimensional spaces describing dynamical systems (i.e., the quantum Hilbert space and the classical phase and configuration space). We propose that if the notion of a metric distance is well defined in that space and the velocity of the representative point of the system is an invariant of motion, then a generalized version of Fermat's principle will hold. We substantiate this conjecture for time-independent quantum systems and for a classical system consisting of coupled harmonic oscillators. An exception to this principle is the configuration space of a charged particle in a constant magnetic field; in this case the principle is valid in a frame rotating by half the Larmor frequency, not the stationary lab frame.     

Origin of dynamic heterogeneities in miscible polymer blends: A quasielastic neutron scattering study

In order to investigate the origin of the often invoked nanoheterogeneities in miscible polymer blends, we have performed quasielastic neutron scattering experiments on the component dynamics within the miscible polymer blend polyisoprene/polyvinyl ether including the pure components as a reference. We find that the apparent local heterogeneities observed by spectroscopic techniques originate from the chain specific crossover properties between entropy driven and local chain dynamics and are, thus, a purely dynamical phenomenon.     

Breakdown of order preservation in symmetric oscillator networks with pulse-coupling

Symmetric networks of coupled dynamical units exhibit invariant subspaces with two or more units synchronized. In time-continuously coupled systems, these invariant sets constitute barriers for the dynamics. For networks of units with local dynamics defined on the real line, this implies that the units' ordering is preserved and that their winding number is identical. Here, we show that in permutation-symmetric networks with pulse-coupling, the order is often no longer preserved. We analytically study a class of pulse-coupled oscillators (characterizing for instance the dynamics of spiking neural networks) and derive quantitative conditions for the breakdown of order preservation. We find that in general pulse-coupling yields additional dimensions to the state space such that units may change their order by avoiding the invariant sets. We identify a system of two symmetrically pulse-coupled identical oscillators where, contrary to intuition, the oscillators' average frequencies and thus their winding numbers are different.     

Nondispersive two-electron wave packets in driven helium

We provide a detailed quantum treatment of the spectral characteristics and of the dynamics of nondispersive two-electron wave packets along the periodically driven, collinear frozen planet configuration of helium. These highly correlated, long-lived wave packets arise as a quantum manifestation of regular islands in a mixed classical phase space, which are induced by nonlinear resonances between the external driving and the unperturbed dynamics of the frozen-planet configuration. Particular emphasis is given to the dependence of the ionization rates of the wave packet states on the driving field parameters and on the quantum mechanical phase space resolution, preceded by a comparison of 1D and 3D life times of the unperturbed frozen planet. Furthermore, we study the effect of a superimposed static electric field component, which, on the grounds of classical considerations, is expected to stabilize the real 3D dynamics against large (and possibly ionizing) deviations from collinearity. Received 7 November 2002 / Received in final form 2 December 2002 Published online 28 January 2003     

Dynamics below the depinning threshold in disordered elastic systems

We study the steady-state low-temperature dynamics of an elastic line in a disordered medium below the depinning threshold. Analogously to the equilibrium dynamics, in the limit T-->0, the steady state is dominated by a single configuration which is occupied with probability 1. We develop an exact algorithm to target this dominant configuration and to analyze its geometrical properties as a function of the driving force. The roughness exponent of the line at large scales is identical to the one at depinning. No length scale diverges in the steady-state regime as the depinning threshold is approached from below. We do find a divergent length, but it is associated only with the transient relaxation between metastable states.     

Pauli-Fierz Type Operators with Singular Electromagnetic Potentials on General Domains

We consider Dirichlet realizations of Pauli-Fierz type operators generating the dynamics of non-relativistic matter particles which are confined to an arbitrary open subset of the Euclidean position space and coupled to quantized radiation fields. We find sufficient conditions under which their domains and a natural class of operator cores are determined by the domains and operator cores of the corresponding Dirichlet-Schrödinger operators and the radiation field energy. Our results also extend previous ones dealing with the entire Euclidean space, since the involved electrostatic potentials might be unbounded at infinity with local singularities that can only be controlled in a quadratic form sense, and since locally square-integrable classical vector potentials are covered as well. We further discuss Neumann realizations of Pauli-Fierz type operators on Lipschitz domains.     

A model for the self-organization of microtubules driven by molecular motors

We propose a two-dimensional model for the organization of stabilized microtubules driven by molecular motors in an unconfined geometry. In this model two kinds of dynamics are competing. The first one is purely diffusive, with an interaction between the rotational degrees of freedom, while the second one is a local drive, dependent on microtubule polarity. As a result, there is a configuration dependent driving field. Applying a molecular field approximation, we are able to derive continuum equations. A study on the solutions of these equations shows non-equilibrium inhomogeneous steady states in various regions of the parameter space. The presence and stability of such self-organized states are investigated in terms of entropy production. Numerical simulations confirm our analytic results. Received 4 August 1999 and Received in final form 24 November 1999     

Statistical Mechanical Theory of a Closed Oscillating Universe

Based on Newton’s laws reformulated in the Hamiltonian dynamics combined with statistical mechanics, we formulate a statistical mechanical theory supporting the hypothesis of a closed universe oscillating in phase-space. We find that the behavior of this universe as a whole can be represented by a free entropic oscillator whose lifespan is nonhomogeneous, thus implying that time is shorter or longer according to the state of this universe given through its entropy. We conclude that time reduces to the entropy production of this universe and that a nonzero entropy production means that local fluctuations could exist giving rise to the appearance of masses and to the curvature of the space.     

Quantum phase transition and dynamics induced by atom-pair tunnelling of Bose-Einstein condensates in a double-well potential

We investigate the quantum phase transition (QPT) and dynamics induced by atom-pair tunnelling of Bose-Einstein condensates in a symmetric double well under the mean-field approximation. We find the system undergoes a new QPT towards phase-locking state when atom-pair tunnelling is strong enough, and the critical point of self-trapping QPT is shifted by atom-pair tunnelling. As for the dynamics, the system displays localized dynamical behaviour: phase-locking motion and self-trapping motion. We further study the correlation between this localized dynamics and QPT, and find that the area of the localized trajectories in the phase space can serve as an order parameter for both QPTs. The critical exponent of this order parameter is also discussed.     

Symbolic synchronization and the detection of global properties of coupled dynamics from local information

We study coupled dynamics on networks using symbolic dynamics. The symbolic dynamics is defined by dividing the state space into a small number of regions (typically 2), and considering the relative frequencies of the transitions between those regions. It turns out that the global qualitative properties of the coupled dynamics can be classified into three different phases based on the synchronization of the variables and the homogeneity of the symbolic dynamics. Of particular interest is the homogeneous unsynchronized phase, where the coupled dynamics is in a chaotic unsynchronized state, but exhibits qualitative similar symbolic dynamics at all the nodes in the network. We refer to this dynamical behavior as symbolic synchronization. In this phase, the local symbolic dynamics of any arbitrarily selected node reflects global properties of the coupled dynamics, such as qualitative behavior of the largest Lyapunov exponent and phase synchronization. This phase depends mainly on the network architecture, and only to a smaller extent on the local chaotic dynamical function. We present results for two model dynamics, iterations of the one-dimensional logistic map and the two-dimensional Henon map, as local dynamical function.     

Dynamics of rigid and flexible extended bodies in viscous films and membranes

We study the dynamics of extended rodlike bodies in (or associated with) membranes and films. We demonstrate a striking difference between the mobilities in films and bulk fluids, even when the dissipation is dominated by the fluid stress: For large inclusions, we find that rotation and motion perpendicular to the rod axis exhibit purely local drag, in which the drag coefficient is algebraic in the rod dimensions. We also study the dynamics of the internal modes of a semiflexible inclusion and find two dynamical regimes in the relaxation spectrum.     

Dynamics of the peel front and the nature of acoustic emission during peeling of an adhesive tape

We investigate the peel front dynamics and acoustic emission (AE) of an adhesive tape within the context of a recent model by including an additional dissipative energy that mimics bursts of acoustic signals. We find that the nature of the peeling front can vary from a smooth to a stuck-peeled configuration depending on the values of dissipation coefficient, inertia of the roller, and mass of the tape. Interestingly, we find that the distribution of AE bursts shows power law statistics with two scaling regimes with increasing pull velocity as observed in experiments. In these regimes, the stuck-peeled configuration is similar to the "edge of peeling" reminiscent of a system driven to a critical state.     

Sharp diffraction peaks from chaotic structures

Recently various models for spatially chaotic structures have been proposed. We study the diffraction patterns produced by plane chaotic waves incident on one-dimensional chaotic point scatterers. The spacing between the scatterers and the dynamics of the incident wave are given by a logistic map or standard map. We find a sharp diffraction peak when the incident dynamics is produced by the same map as the structure of the spatial configuration. The diffraction pattern is symmetric about the incident direction only if the map dynamics is invertible. Diffraction patterns with chaotic incident waves have a large signal-to-noise ratio and are well suited for pattern identification. We discuss possible applications to the scattering of microwaves from aperiodic structures. (c) 1997 American Institute of Physics.