A variational approach to nonlinear dynamics of nanoscale surface modulations

In this paper, we propose a variational formulation to study the singular evolution equations that govern the dynamics of surface modulations on crystals below the roughening temperature. The basic idea of the formulation is to expand the surface shape in terms of a complete set of basis functions and to use a variational principle equivalent to the continuum evolution equations to obtain coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the expansion coefficients. Unlike several earlier approaches that rely on ad hoc regularization procedures to handle the singularities in the evolution equations, the only inputs required in the present approach are the orientation dependent surface energies and the diffusion constants. The method is applied to study the morphological equilibration of patterned unidirectional and bidirectional sinusoidal modulations through surface diffusion. In the case of bidirectional modulations, particular attention is given to the analysis of the profile decay as a function of ratio of the modulating wavelengths in the coordinate directions. A key question that we resolve is whether the one-dimensional decay behavior is recovered as one of the modulating wavelengths of the two-dimensional profiles diverges, or whether one-dimensional decay has qualitatively distinct features that cannot be described as a limiting case of the two-dimensional behavior. In contrast to some earlier suggestions, our analytical and numerical studies clearly show that the former situation is true; we find that the one-dimensional profiles, like the highly elongated two-dimensional profiles, decay with formation of facets. While our results for the morphological equilibration of symmetric one-dimensional profiles are in agreement with the free-boundary formulation of Spohn, the present approach can also be used to study the evolution of asymmetric profile shapes where the free-boundary approach is difficult to apply. The variational method is also used to analyze the decay of unidirectional modulations in the presence of steps that arise in most experimental studies due to a small misorientation from the singular surface.     

Deconstructing spatiotemporal chaos using local symbolic dynamics

We find that the global symbolic dynamics of a diffusively coupled map lattice is well approximated by a very small local model for weak to moderate coupling strengths. A local symbolic model is a truncation of the full symbolic model to one that considers only a single element and a few neighbors. Using interval analysis, we give rigorous results for a range of coupling strengths and different local model widths. Examples are presented of extracting a local symbolic model from data and of controlling spatiotemporal chaos.     

The origin of stacking modulations

The explanations for the origin of stacking modulated structures observed in as grown SiC crystals as well as during restacking transitions induced in short period structures by thermal annealing are reviewed.     

Specific external forcing of spatiotemporal dynamics in reaction-diffusion systems

Self-organization behavior and in particular pattern forming spatiotemporal dynamics play an important role in far from equilibrium chemical and biochemical systems. Specific external forcing and control of self-organizing processes might be of great benefit in various applications ranging from technical systems to modern biomedical research. We demonstrate that in a cellular chemotaxis system modeled by one-dimensional reaction-diffusion equations particular forms of spatiotemporal dynamics can be induced and stabilized by controlling spatially distributed influx patterns of a chemical species as a function of time. In our model study we show that a propagating wave with certain shape and velocity and static symmetrical and asymmetrical patterns can be forced and manipulated by numerically computing open-loop optimal influx controls.     

Fronts between rhythms: spatiotemporal dynamics of extended polyrhythmic media

We study the propagation of fronts in extended oscillatory reaction-diffusion systems that contain several coexisting limit cycles. In contrast with the variational behavior, fronts between regions oscillating in two different limit cycles are found to propagate not necessarily towards the region of the less stable limit cycle, but towards the regions of the largest amplitudes, provided that the frequency mismatch between the cycles is sufficiently large. In other words, the smaller oscillations can always be made to control the whole system.     

Origin of transient and intermittent dynamics in spatiotemporal chaotic systems

Nonattracting chaotic sets (chaotic saddles) are shown to be responsible for transient and intermittent dynamics in an extended system exemplified by a nonlinear regularized long-wave equation, relevant to plasma and fluid studies. As the driver amplitude is increased, the system undergoes a transition from quasiperiodicity to temporal chaos, then to spatiotemporal chaos. The resulting intermittent time series of spatiotemporal chaos displays random switching between laminar and bursty phases. We identify temporally and spatiotemporally chaotic saddles which are responsible for the laminar and bursty phases, respectively. Prior to the transition to spatiotemporal chaos, a spatiotemporally chaotic saddle is responsible for chaotic transients that mimic the dynamics of the post-transition attractor.     

运动光格中玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚系统的混沌时空动力学

本文研究了运动光格中原子间呈排斥作用的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚系统的混沌时空动力学。通过理论分析,我们得到了具有简单零点的Melnikov函数,这表明系统存在Smale马蹄混沌。数值模拟显示,在一定的参数条件下,光格势强度的增大或s波散射长度的减小,都将迫使系统由规则状态进入混沌状态。     

Noise can prevent onset of chaos in spatiotemporal population dynamics

Many theoretical approaches predict the dynamics of interacting populations to be chaotic but that has very rarely been observed in ecological data. It has therefore risen a question about factors that can prevent the onset of chaos by, for instance, making the population fluctuations synchronized over the whole habitat. One such factor is stochasticity. The so-called Moran effect predicts that a spatially correlated noise can synchronize the local population dynamics in a spatially discrete system, thus preventing the onset of spatiotemporal chaos. On the whole, however, the issue of noise has remained controversial and insufficiently understood. In particular, a well-built nonspatial theory infers that noise enhances chaos by making the system more sensitive to the initial conditions. In this paper, we address the problem of the interplay between deterministic dynamics and noise by considering a spatially explicit predator-prey system where some parameters are affected by noise. Our findings are rather counter-intuitive. We show that a small noise (i.e. preserving the deterministic skeleton) can indeed synchronize the population oscillations throughout space and hence keep the dynamics regular, but the dependence of the chaos prevention probability on the noise intensity is of resonance type. Once chaos has developed, it appears to be stable with respect to a small noise but it can be suppressed by a large noise. Finally, we show that our results are in a good qualitative agreement with some available field data.     

Instability and spatiotemporal dynamics of alternans in paced cardiac tissue

We derive an equation that governs the spatiotemporal dynamics of small amplitude alternans in paced cardiac tissue. We show that a pattern-forming linear instability leads to the spontaneous formation of stationary or traveling waves whose nodes divide the tissue into regions with opposite phase of oscillation of action potential duration. This instability is important because it creates dynamically a heterogeneous electrical substrate for the formation of conduction blocks and the induction of fibrillation if the tissue size exceeds a fraction of the pattern wavelength. We derive an analytical expression for this wavelength as a function of three basic length scales related to dispersion and intercellular electrical coupling.     

Curvature fields, topology, and the dynamics of spatiotemporal chaos

The curvature field is measured from tracer-particle trajectories in a two-dimensional fluid flow that exhibits spatiotemporal chaos and is used to extract the hyperbolic and elliptic points of the flow. These special points are pinned to the forcing when the driving is weak, but wander over the domain and interact in pairs at stronger driving, changing the local topology of the flow. Their behavior reveals a two-stage transition to spatiotemporal chaos: a gradual loss of spatial and temporal order followed by an abrupt onset of topological changes.     

Transition to spatiotemporal chaos in the fronts dynamics of a subcritical state

The evolution of the isolated domains of a bifurcated structure in a subcritical state is experimentally studied along the hysteresis branch, up to the critical point at which a chaotic regime is found to develop. The width of the domains is unstable and the fronts dynamics exhibit a cascade of bifurcations as the constraint increases. The chaotic regime is initiated by a splitting of the isolated domains, controlled by a width-selection mechanism. Most of these results are qualitatively reproduced in a fifth-order Ginzburg-Landau model.     

Role of delays in shaping spatiotemporal dynamics of neuronal activity in large networks

We study the effect of delays on the dynamics of large networks of neurons. We show that delays give rise to a wealth of bifurcations and to a rich phase diagram, which includes oscillatory bumps, traveling waves, lurching waves, standing waves arising via a period-doubling bifurcation, aperiodic regimes, and regimes of multistability. We study the existence and the stability of the various dynamical patterns analytically and numerically in a simplified rate model as a function of the interaction parameters. The results derived in that framework allow us to understand the origin of the diversity of dynamical states observed in large networks of spiking neurons.     

随机中毒对神经元网络时空动力学行为的影响

神经元细胞膜上的离子通道能够被一些有毒的化学物质阻断. 离子通道阻断会降低离子通道的电导率和激活通道数, 影响神经元的放电活动, 进而影响神经网络时空模式的动力学行为. 本文采用具有周期边界的近邻耦合Hodgkin-Huxley神经元网络, 数值研究了钠离子和钾离子通道随机中毒时神经网络时空模式的演化过程. 发现钠离子和钾离子通道随机中毒可以导致螺旋波破裂. 通过分析网络的放电概率, 发现钠离子通道随机中毒降低了神经网络的兴奋性, 且其对中毒的敏感程度与噪声强度有关; 钾离子通道随机中毒增强了神经网络的兴奋性. 与均匀的通道中毒相比, 随机通道中毒的神经网络具有更丰富的动力学行为. 最后, 采用无流边界条件对神经网络进行数值仿真, 得到了类似的结果. 该研究更真实地反映神经系统中毒时整体兴奋性的变化, 从另一个方面揭示离子通道中毒对网络时空行为的影响, 有利于更进一步理解离子通道在网络整体行为中的作用. 关键词： 神经网络 离子通道 随机中毒 时空动力学     

Red solitons: evidence of spatiotemporal instability in chi 2 spatial soliton dynamics

In chi(2) three-wave mixing, the noise-seeded spatiotemporal modulational instability has a dramatic impact on the spatial soliton formation and on their stability, leading to the occurrence of a temporal breakup on the 20 fs scale and to the counterintuitive observation of spatial solitons with no apparent participation of the high-frequency field in the self-trapping.     

时空调制对可激发介质螺旋波波头动力学行为影响及控制研究

本文首先研究了时空调制对可激发介质中周期螺旋波波头动力学行为的影响. 随着时空调制的增大, 螺旋波经历了周期螺旋波、外滚螺旋波、旅行螺旋波和内滚螺旋波的显著变化. 通过定义序参量来定量的描述由时空调制引起的螺旋波在不同态之间非平衡跃迁的临界条件, 及漫游螺旋波波头圆滚圆半径随调制参数的变化情况. 当时空调制增大到某个临界值时, 螺旋波发生了破碎; 再增加时空调制, 螺旋波则发生了衰减, 系统最终演化为空间均匀静息态. 在文中给出了螺旋波发生破碎和衰减的机理和原因. 最后将时空调制方法运用于漫游螺旋波, 实现了将漫游螺旋波控制成周期螺旋波, 或将其控制为空间均匀静息态.     

Effects of synaptic depression and adaptation on spatiotemporal dynamics of an excitatory neuronal network

We analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of a system of integro-differential equations that describes a one-dimensional excitatory neuronal network with synaptic depression and spike frequency adaptation. Physiologically suggestive forms are used for both types of negative feedback. We also consider the effects of employing two different types of firing rate function, a Heaviside step function and a piecewise linear function. We first derive conditions for the existence of traveling fronts and pulses in the case of a Heaviside step firing rate, and show that adaptation plays a relatively minor role in determining the characteristics of traveling waves. We then derive conditions for the existence and stability of stationary pulses or bumps, and show that a purely excitatory network with synaptic depression cannot support stable bumps. However, bumps do not exist in the presence of adaptation. Finally, in the case of a piecewise linear firing rate function, we show numerically that the network also supports self-sustained oscillations between an Up state and a Down state, in which a spatially localized oscillating core periodically emits pulses at each cycle.     

Systematic study of spatiotemporal dynamics of intense femtosecond laser pulses in BK-7 glass

In this paper we present a systematic study of the spatial and temporal effects of intense femtosecond laser pulses in BK-7 over a broad range of input powers, 1–1000 times the critical power for self-focusing (P _cr) by numerically solving the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS). Most numerical studies have not been extended to such high powers. A clear-cut classification of spatio-temporal dynamics up to very high powers into three regimes — the group-velocity dispersion (GVD) regime, the ionization regime and the dominant plasma regime — as done here, is a significant step towards a better understanding. Further, we examine in detail the role of GVD in channel formation by comparing BK-7 to an ‘artificial’ medium. Our investigations bring forth the important observation that diffraction plays a minimal role in the formation of multiple cones and that plasma plays a diffraction-like role at very high powers. A detailed study of the spatio-temporal dynamics in any condensed medium over this range of powers has not been reported hitherto, to the best of our knowledge. We also suggest appropriate operational powers for various applications employing BK-7 on the basis of our results.