Measurements and efficient simulations of bowed bars

Bowing bar percussion instruments is an increasing part of the repertoire of modern composition and performance. Yet the system has not been studied systematically. In this paper experimental measurements of bars of bar percussion instruments bowed by a double bass bow and by a bowing machine are presented. They examine the relationships between performance parameters and perceptional parameters which are relevant for musical performance. In addition, a new efficient simulation method using a time-domain approach has been developed and the measured results are compared to the simulation. Most measurement results are in good qualitative agreement with the known results of the bowed string. The spectrum of the bowed bar is observed to be harmonic, independent of the harmonicity or inharmonicity of the eigenfrequencies of the bar. Important distinctions from the known results of the bowed string are the weakness or independence of bowing force and velocity on the fundamental frequency and the spectral content of the produced sound. Simulations show qualitative agreement with the measurements.     

Bowed-string multiphonics analyzed by use of impulse response and the Poisson summation formula

By carefully positioning the bow and a lightly touching finger on the string, the string spectrum can be conditioned to provide narrow bands of pronounced energy. This leaves the impression of multiple complex tones with the normal (Helmholtz) fundamental as the lowest pitch. The phenomenon is seen to be caused by two additional signal loops, one on each side of the finger, which through the repeating slip pattern get phase locked to the full loop of the fundamental. Within the nominal period, however, the slip pulses will not be uniform like they are during the production of a normal "harmonic" or "flageolet" but may vary considerably in shape, size, and timing. For each string, there is a large number of bow/finger combinations that bear the potential of producing such tones. There are also two classes, depending on whether the bow or the finger is situated closest to the bridge. Touching the string with the finger closest to the bridge will somewhat emphasize the (Helmholtz) fundamental. The technique is applicable to double bass and cello, while less practical on shorter-stringed instruments. Analyses based on impulse responses and the Poisson summation formula provide an explanation to the underlying system properties.     

Desynchronization of chaos in coupled logistic maps

When identical chaotic oscillators interact, a state of complete or partial synchronization may be attained in which the motion is restricted to an invariant manifold of lower dimension than the full phase space. Riddling of the basin of attraction arises when particular orbits embedded in the synchronized chaotic state become transversely unstable while the state remains attracting on the average. Considering a system of two coupled logistic maps, we show that the transition to riddling will be soft or hard, depending on whether the first orbit to lose its transverse stability undergoes a supercritical or subcritical bifurcation. A subcritical bifurcation can lead directly to global riddling of the basin of attraction for the synchronized chaotic state. A supercritical bifurcation, on the other hand, is associated with the formation of a so-called mixed absorbing area that stretches along the synchronized chaotic state, and from which trajectories cannot escape. This gives rise to locally riddled basins of attraction. We present three different scenarios for the onset of riddling and for the subsequent transformations of the basins of attraction. Each scenario is described by following the type and location of the relevant asynchronous cycles, and determining their stable and unstable invariant manifolds. One scenario involves a contact bifurcation between the boundary of the basin of attraction and the absorbing area. Another scenario involves a long and interesting series of bifurcations starting with the stabilization of the asynchronous cycle produced in the riddling bifurcation and ending in a boundary crisis where the stability of an asynchronous chaotic state is destroyed. Finally, a phase diagram is presented to illustrate the parameter values at which the various transitions occur.     

Stability and the maintenance of balance following a perturbation from quiet stance

We investigate stability and the maintenance of balance with the use of tools from dynamical systems. In particular we investigate the application of such tools to the study of the ground reaction forces resulting from an athlete being perturbed from quiet stance. We develop a nonlinear model consisting of a set of coupled vector fields for the derivative with respect to time of the angles between the resultant ground reaction forces and the vertical in the anteroposterior and mediolateral directions. This model contains a basin of attraction bound by a closed curve which we call the critical curve. It is only inside this curve that perturbations can be corrected, with the orbit spiraling onto an attractor corresponding to quiet stance. We show how the critical curve and also the strength of the attractor found in the basin of attraction can be fit to model the experimental data (time series) for an individual athlete. We also discuss how our model can be used to identify nonsymmetric behavior caused by muscle imbalances and differences in the ranges of motion on either side of the body.     

Riddled basins of attraction for synchronized type-I intermittency

Chaotic motion restricted to an invariant subspace of total phase space may be associated with basins of attraction that are riddled with holes belonging to the basin of another limiting state. We study the emergence of such basins for a system of two coupled one-dimensional maps, each exhibiting type-I intermittency.     

Violin f-hole contribution to far-field radiation via patch near-field acoustical holography

The violin radiates either from dual ports (f-holes) or via surface motion of the corpus (top+ribs+back), with no clear delineation between these sources. Combining "patch" near-field acoustical holography over just the f-hole region of a violin with far-field radiativity measurements over a sphere, it was possible to separate f-hole from surface motion contributions to the total radiation of the corpus below 2.6 kHz. A0, the Helmholtz-like lowest cavity resonance, radiated essentially entirely through the f-holes as expected while A1, the first longitudinal cavity mode with a node at the f-holes, had no significant f-hole radiation. The observed A1 radiation comes from an indirect radiation mechanism, induced corpus motion approximately mirroring the cavity pressure profile seen for violinlike bowed string instruments across a wide range of sizes. The first estimates of the fraction of radiation from the f-holes F(f) indicate that some low frequency corpus modes thought to radiate only via surface motion (notably the first corpus bending modes) had significant radiation through the f-holes, in agreement with net volume changes estimated from experimental modal analysis. F(f) generally trended lower with increasing frequency, following corpus mobility decreases. The f-hole directivity (top/back radiativity ratio) was generally higher than whole-violin directivity.     

Chaos and generalised multistability in a mesoscopic model of the electroencephalogram

We present evidence for chaos and generalised multistability in a mesoscopic model of the electroencephalogram (EEG). Two limit cycle attractors and one chaotic attractor were found to coexist in a two-dimensional plane of the ten-dimensional volume of initial conditions. The chaotic attractor was found to have a moderate value of the largest Lyapunov exponent (3.4 s⁻¹ base e) with an associated Kaplan-Yorke (Lyapunov) dimension of 2.086. There are two different limit cycles appearing in conjunction with this particular chaotic attractor: one multiperiodic low amplitude limit cycle whose largest spectral peak is within the alpha band (8-13 Hz) of the EEG; and another multiperiodic large-amplitude limit cycle which may correspond to epilepsy. The cause of the coexistence of these structures is explained with a one-parameter bifurcation analysis. Each attractor has a basin of differing complexity: the large-amplitude limit cycle has a basin relatively uncomplicated in its structure while the small-amplitude limit cycle and chaotic attractor each have much more finely structured basins of attraction, but none of the basin boundaries appear to be fractal. The basins of attraction for the chaotic and small-amplitude limit cycle dynamics apparently reside within each other. We briefly discuss the implications of these findings in the context of theoretical attempts to understand the dynamics of brain function and behaviour.     

Chaotic phenomena of charged particles in crystal lattices

In this article, we have applied the methods of chaos theory to channeling phenomena of positive charged particles in crystal lattices. In particular, we studied the transition between two ordered types of motion; i.e., motion parallel to a crystal axis (axial channeling) and to a crystal plane (planar channeling), respectively. The transition between these two regimes turns out to occur through an angular range in which the particle motion is highly disordered and the region of phase space spanned by the particle is much larger than the one swept in the two ordered motions. We have evaluated the maximum Lyapunov exponent with the method put forward by Rosenstein et al. [Physica D 65, 117 (1993)] and by Kantz [Phys. Lett. A 185, 77 (1994)]. Moreover, we estimated the correlation dimension by using the Grassberger-Procaccia method. We found that at the transition the system exhibits a very complex behavior showing an exponential divergence of the trajectories corresponding to a positive Lyapunov exponent and a noninteger value of the correlation dimension. These results turn out to be linked to a physical interpretation. The Lyapunov exponents are in agreement with the model by Akhiezer et al. [Phys. Rep. 203, 289 (1991)], based on the equivalence between the ion motion along the crystal plane described as a "string of strings" and the "kicked" rotator. The nonintegral value of the correlation dimension can be explained by the nonconservation of transverse energy at the transition.     

Oscillations vs. chaotic waves: Attractor selection in bistable stochastic reaction–diffusion systems

In bistable systems, the long-term behavior of solutions depends on the location of the initial conditions. In a deterministic setting, where the initial condition is kept fixed in one particular basin of attraction, repeated numerical simulations will always lead to the same long-term behavior. The other possible asymptotic solution type will never be observed. This clear distinction does not hold anymore if the system is forced by random fluctuations. In this case, both asymptotic solutions can be attained, and the relative frequency of different long-term behaviors observed in many repeated simulation runs will follow a certain probability distribution. We present a simple reaction–diffusion model of spatial predator–prey interaction, where depending on the initial spatial distribution of the two populations either spatially homogeneous or spatiotemporal irregular oscillations may be observed. We show by repeated stochastic simulations that, when starting in the basin of attraction of the spatiotemporal irregular solution, in the randomly forced system the probability to observe spatially homogeneous oscillations instead of spatiotemporally irregular oscillations follows a non-trivial bimodal distribution.     

Quantization of the open string on plane-wave limits of and non-commutativity outside branes

The open string on the plane-wave limit of dS_n×Sⁿ with constant B₂ and dilaton background fields is canonically quantized. This entails solving the classical equations of motion for the string, computing the symplectic form, and defining from its inverse the canonical commutation relations. Canonical quantization is proved to be perfectly suited for this task, since the symplectic form is unambiguously defined and non-singular. The string position and the string momentum operators are shown to satisfy equal-time canonical commutation relations. Noticeably the string position operators define non-commutative spaces for all values of the string world-sheet parameter σ, thus extending non-commutativity outside the branes on which the string endpoints may be assumed to move. The Minkowski space–time limit is smooth and reproduces the results in the literature, in particular non-commutativity gets confined to the endpoints.     

The violin: Chladni patterns,plates, shells and sounds

In this article we consider the vibrations and radiated sound of the bowed violin. The vibrations are discussed in terms of the normal modes of the instrument involving the coupled vibrations of the bowed string, the supporting bridge, the hollow shell comprising the body of the instrument and, ultimately, the acoustic modes of the performance space in which the instrument is played. We show that damping plays an important role in characterizing the normal modes in what can be distinguished as weak and strong coupling limits. The historic and modern application of Chladni pattern measurements to enhance our understanding of the acoustics and as an aid to the making of violins is highlighted, alongside the modern equivalents of experimental modal and computational finite-element analysis. The symmetry-breaking properties of the internal soundpost is shown to have a profound affect on the intensity and quality of sound radiated by the bowed instrument.     

Mechanical characteristics of strained vibrating strings and a vibration-induced electric field

The mechanical characteristics of vibrating strings strained between rigid supports and a vibration-induced electric field are studied. Experiments are conducted with nylon, rubber, and metallic strings. Vibrations are excited by a pinch at different sites along the string. The motion of the string is filmed, and the attendant electric field is detected. Experimental data are analyzed under the assumption that the field is induced by unlike charges generated by the moving string. It is found that the field allows one to determine the time characteristics of the motion of the string and discriminate the types of its deformations. Young moduli observed under the static extension of thin nylon strings are compared with those calculated from the natural frequencies of vibration measured for differently strained strings. The mathematical pattern of the motion of the string is compared with the real situation.     

Chaotic oscillations in a coupled system of bistable oscillators

The influence of the asymmetry of the nonlinear element characteristic on the chaotic oscillations of Chua’s bistable oscillator is studied. It is shown that such asymmetry causes asymmetry of a chaotic attractor that maps the switching of motions between two basins of attraction up to the concentration of oscillations in one basin. Oscillation control in a bistable chaotic self-oscillating system (two coupled Chua’s oscillators) is considered. It is demonstrated that oscillations excited in two basins of attraction may pass to one of them and that oscillations may build up in two basins when they are autonomously excited in different basins. It is also found that chaotic oscillations in a coupled system may be excited at parameter values for which the autonomous chaotic oscillations of partial oscillators are absent. The influence of external noiselike oscillations is investigated.     

考虑绳及圆盘质量时对Atwood机运动的影响

求解Atwood机动力学问题,教材中通常把绳子及滑轮当做理想模型(不考虑它们的质量).本文利用动力学的方法,考虑了Atwood机中滑轮、绳的质量,对其实际情况下的运动进行了求解,分析了两者质量及重物的初位移对系统运动的影响,指出了与理想模型之间的差异.     

Why are chaotic attractors rare in multistable systems?

We show that chaotic attractors are rarely found in multistable dissipative systems close to the conservative limit. As we approach this limit, the parameter intervals for the existence of chaotic attractors as well as the volume of their basins of attraction in a bounded region of the state space shrink very rapidly. An important role in the disappearance of these attractors is played by particular points in parameter space, namely, the double crises accompanied by a basin boundary metamorphosis. Scaling relations between successive double crises are presented. Furthermore, along this path of double crises, we obtain scaling laws for the disappearance of chaotic attractors and their basins of attraction.     

A self-adaptative oscillator

The dynamics of a system where a mass is free to slide on a vibrating string is investigated as the excitation frequency is varied. One degree of freedom is thus added to the system studied by Helmholtz in which a mass was fixed on a vibrating string. This new system exhibits a specific dynamics characterized by the existence of a self- adaptative behaviour. When the driving frequency falls into wide and well defined frequency bands, a long transient is observed by which the mass adjusts its position so that the whole system becomes resonant. In the gaps between these bands, bifurcations give other equilibrium positions. A theoretical model is proposed. It accounts for all the experimental results. In the case where two masses are present on the string, two degrees of freedom are added and the set of equilibrium positions would be expected to be infinite. However, in the experiment, the two masses are observed to go to positions where they are symmetrical with respect to the middle of the string. A selection mechanism due to the string stretching is pointed out. Received 15 October 1998     

The Dynamics of Relativistic Strings Moving in the Minkowski Space $$\mathbb{R}^{1+n}$$

In this paper we investigate the dynamics of relativistic (in particular, closed) strings moving in the Minkowski space . We first derive a system with n nonlinear wave equations of Born-Infeld type which governs the motion of the string. This system can also be used to describe the extremal surfaces in . We then show that this system enjoys some interesting geometric properties. Based on this, we give a sufficient and necessary condition for the global existence of extremal surfaces without space-like point in with given initial data. This result corresponds to the global propagation of nonlinear waves for the system describing the motion of the string in . We also present an explicit exact representation of the general solution for such a system. Moreover, a great deal of numerical analyses are investigated, and the numerical results show that, in phase space, various topological singularities develop in finite time in the motion of the string. Finally, some important discussions related to the theory of extremal surfaces of mixed type in are given.     

Normal modes of a model radiating system

In order to gain insight into normal modes of realistic radiating systems, we study the simple model problem of a finite string and a semi-infinite string coupled by a spring. As expected there is a family of modes which are basically the modes of the finite string slowly damped by the radiation of energy to infinity on the semi-infinite string. But we also study another family of modes, found by Dyson in a different model problem, which are strongly damped modes of the semi-infinite string itself. These may be analogous to the modes of black holes, and they are likely to be present in relativistic stars as well. The question of whether the instability in these modes which Dyson found is present in realistic stars remains open.     

Violin bow vibrations

The modal frequencies and bending mode shapes of a freely supported tapered violin bow are investigated by finite element analysis and direct measurement, with and without tensioned bow hair. Such computations are used with analytic models to model the admittance presented to the stretched bow hairs at the ends of the bow and to the string at the point of contact with the bow. Finite element computations are also used to demonstrate the influence of the lowest stick mode vibrations on the low frequency bouncing modes, when the hand-held bow is pressed against the string. The possible influence of the dynamic stick modes on the sound of the bowed instrument is briefly discussed.