We study both experimentally and theoretically modulation of light in a planar aligned deformed-helix ferroelectric liquid crystal (DHFLC) cell with subwavelength helix pitch, which is also known as a short-pitch DHFLC. In our experiments, the azimuthal angle of the in-plane optical axis and electrically controlled parts of the principal in-plane refractive indices are measured as a function of voltage applied across the cell. Theoretical results giving the effective optical tensor of a short-pitch DHFLC expressed in terms of the smectic tilt angle and the refractive indices of the ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) are used to fit the experimental data. The optical anisotropy of the FLC material is found to be weakly biaxial. For both the transmissive and reflective modes, the results of fitting are applied to model the phase and amplitude modulation of light in the DHFLC cell. We demonstrate that if the thickness of the DHFLC layer is about $50\mu \text{m}$, the detrimental effect of field-induced rotation of the in-plane optical axes on the characteristics of an axicon designed using the DHFLC spatial light modulator in the reflective mode is negligible.

We introduce shape variations in a liquid-crystalline system by considering an elementary Maier-Saupe lattice model for a mixture of uniaxial and biaxial molecules. Shape variables are treated in the annealed (thermalized) limit. We analyze the thermodynamic properties of this system in terms of temperature $T$, concentration $c$ of intrinsically biaxial molecules, and a parameter $\mathrm{\Delta }$ associated with the degree of biaxiality of the molecules. At the mean-field level, we use standard techniques of statistical mechanics to draw global phase diagrams, which are shown to display a rich structure, including uniaxial and biaxial nematic phases, a reentrant ordered region, and many distinct multicritical points. Also, we use the formalism to write an expansion of the free energy in order to make contact with the Landau–de Gennes theory of nematic phase transitions.

We report multiplicative noise-induced threshold shift of electroconvection (EC) in the presence of a magnetic field $\mathit{H}$. Controlling the thermal fluctuation (i.e., additive noise) of the rodlike molecules of nematic liquid crystals by $\mathit{H}$, the EC threshold is examined at various noise levels [characterized by their intensity and cutoff frequency $\left(f_c\right)$]. For a sufficiently strong $\mathit{H}$ (i.e., ignorable additive noise), a modified noise sensitivity characterizing the shift problem is in good agreement with experimental results for colored as well as white noise $\left(f_c\to \infty \right)$; until now, there was a large deviation for (sufficiently) colored noises. The present study shows that $\mathit{H}$ provides us with ideal conditions for studying the corresponding Carr-Helfrich theory considering pure multiplicative noise.

A recently proposed dimensional reduction approach for studying synchronization in the Kuramoto model is employed to build optimal network topologies to favor or to suppress synchronization. The approach is based in the introduction of a collective coordinate for the time evolution of the phase locked oscillators, in the spirit of the Ott-Antonsen ansatz. We show that the optimal synchronization of a Kuramoto network demands the maximization of the quadratic function ${\omega }^{T}L\omega$, where $\omega$ stands for the vector of the natural frequencies of the oscillators and $L$ for the network Laplacian matrix. Many recently obtained numerical results can be reobtained analytically and in a simpler way from our maximization condition. A computationally efficient hill climb rewiring algorithm is proposed to generate networks with optimal synchronization properties. Our approach can be easily adapted to the case of the Kuramoto models with both attractive and repulsive interactions, and again many recent numerical results can be rederived in a simpler and clearer analytical manner.

A defining feature of nonstationary systems is the time dependence of their statistical parameters. Measured time series may exhibit Gaussian statistics on short time horizons, due to the central limit theorem. The sample statistics for long time horizons, however, averages over the time-dependent variances. To model the long-term statistical behavior, we compound the local distribution with the distribution of its parameters. Here, we consider two concrete, but diverse, examples of such nonstationary systems: the turbulent air flow of a fan and a time series of foreign exchange rates. Our main focus is to empirically determine the appropriate parameter distribution for the compounding approach. To this end, we extract the relevant time scales by decomposing the time signals into windows and determine the distribution function of the thus obtained local variances.

In a recent experiment at the Trident laser facility, a laser-driven beam of quasimonoenergetic aluminum ions was used to heat solid gold and diamond foils isochorically to 5.5 and 1.7 eV, respectively. Here theoretical calculations are presented that suggest the gold and diamond were heated uniformly by these laser-driven ion beams. According to calculations and SESAME equation-of-state tables, laser-driven aluminum ion beams achievable at Trident, with a finite energy spread of Δ$E/E\sim 20\%$, are expected to heat the targets more uniformly than a beam of 140-MeV aluminum ions with zero energy spread. The robustness of the expected heating uniformity relative to the changes in the incident ion energy spectra is evaluated, and expected plasma temperatures of various target materials achievable with the current experimental platform are presented.

Despite their self-reconstruction properties in heterogeneous media, Bessel beams are known to degenerate when they are refracted from an isotropic to an anisotropic medium. In this paper, we study the converse situation wherein an anisotropic Bessel beam is refracted into an isotropic medium. It is shown that these anisotropic Bessel beams also degenerate, leading to confined vortical waves that may serve as localized particle trap for acoustical tweezers. The linear nature of this degeneration allows the three-dimensional control of this trap position by wavefront correction. Theory is confronted to experiments performed in the field of acoustics. A swirling surface acoustic wave is synthesized at the surface of a piezoelectric crystal by a microelectromechanical integrated system and radiated inside a miniature liquid vessel. The wavefront correction is operated with inverse filter technique. This work opens perspectives for contactless on-chip manipulation devices.

In a recent paper [M. Cristelli, A. Zaccaria, and L. Pietronero, Phys. Rev. E 85, 066108 (2012)], the authors analyzed the relation between skewness and kurtosis for complex dynamical systems, and they identified two power-law regimes of non-Gaussianity, one of which scales with an exponent of 2 and the other with $4/3$. They concluded that the observed relation is a universal fact in complex dynamical systems. In this Comment, we test the proposed universal relation between skewness and kurtosis with a large number of synthetic data, and we show that in fact it is not a universal relation and originates only due to the small number of data points in the datasets considered. The proposed relation is tested using a family of non-Gaussian distribution known as $q$-Gaussians. We show that this relation disappears for sufficiently large datasets provided that the fourth moment of the distribution is finite. We find that kurtosis saturates to a single value, which is of course different from the Gaussian case $\left(K=3\right)$, as the number of data is increased, and this indicates that the kurtosis will converge to a finite single value if all moments of the distribution up to fourth are finite. The converged kurtosis value for the finite fourth-moment distributions and the number of data points needed to reach this value depend on the deviation of the original distribution from the Gaussian case.

The maximum efficiency of autonomous engines with a finite chemical potential difference is investigated. We show that, without a particular type of singularity, autonomous engines cannot attain the Carnot efficiency. This singularity is realized in two ways: single particle transports and the thermodynamic limit. We demonstrate that both of these ways actually lead to the Carnot efficiency in concrete setups. Our results clearly illustrate that the singularity plays a crucial role in the maximum efficiency of autonomous engines.

Chimera states in spatially extended networks of oscillators have some oscillators synchronized while the remainder are asynchronous. These states have primarily been studied in networks with nonlocal coupling, and more recently in networks with global coupling. Here, we present three networks with only local coupling (diffusive, to nearest neighbors) which are numerically found to support chimera states. One of the networks is analyzed using a self-consistency argument in the continuum limit, and this is used to find the boundaries of existence of a chimera state in parameter space.

The fluctuation theorem has a very special place in the study of nonequilibrium dynamics of physical systems. The form in which it is used most extensively is the Gallavoti-Cohen fluctuation theorem which is in terms of the distribution of the work $p\left(W\right)/p(-W)=exp\left(\alpha W\right)$. We derive the general form of the fluctuation theorems for an arbitrary multidimensional Gaussian Markov process. Interestingly, the parameter $\alpha$ is by no means universal, hitherto taken for granted in the case of linear Gaussian processes. As a matter of fact, conditions under which $\alpha$ does become a universal parameter $1/KT$ are found to be rather restrictive. As an application we consider fluctuation theorems for classical cyclotron motion of an electron in a parabolic potential. The motion of the electron is described by four coupled Langevin equations and thus is nontrivial. The generalized theorems are equally valid for nonequilibrium steady states and could be especially important in the presence of anisotropic diffusion.

We study the spatial evolutionary prisoner's dilemma game with updates of imitation max on triangular, hexagonal, and square lattices. We use the weak prisoner's dilemma game with a single parameter $b$. Due to the competition between the temptation value $b$ and the coordination number $z$ of the base lattice, a greater variety of percolation properties is expected to occur on the lattice with the larger $z$. From the numerical analysis, we find six different regimes on the triangular lattice $\left(z=6\right)$. Regardless of the initial densities of cooperators and defectors, cooperators always percolate in the steady state in two regimes for small $b$. In these two regimes, defectors do not percolate. In two regimes for the intermediate value of $b$, both cooperators and defectors undergo percolation transitions. The defector always percolates in two regimes for large $b$. On the hexagonal lattice $\left(z=3\right)$, there exist two distinctive regimes. For small $b$, both the cooperators and the defectors undergo percolation transitions while only defectors always percolate for large $b$. On the square lattice $\left(z=4\right)$, there exist three regimes. Combining with the finite-size scaling analyses, we show that all the observed percolation transitions belong to the universality class of the random percolation. We also show how the detailed growth mechanism of cooperator and defector clusters decides each regime.

Flow in channel networks may involve a redistribution of flux following the blockage or failure of an individual link. Here we consider a simplified model consisting of $N_c$ parallel channels conveying a particulate flux. Particles enter these channels according to a homogeneous Poisson process and an individual channel blocks if more than $N$ particles are simultaneously present. The behavior of the composite system depends strongly on how the flux of entering particles is redistributed following a blockage. We consider two cases. In the first, the intensity on each open channel remains constant while in the second the total intensity is evenly redistributed over the open channels. We obtain exact results for arbitrary $N_c$ and $N$ for a system of independent channels and for arbitrary $N_c$ and $N=1$ for coupled channels. For $N>1$ we present approximate analytical as well as numerical results. Independent channels block at a decreasing rate due to a simple combinatorial effect, while for coupled channels the interval between successive blockages remains constant for $N=1$ but decreases for $N>1$. This accelerating cascade is due to the nonlinear dependence of the mean blocking time of a single channel on the entering particle flux that more than compensates for the decrease in the number of active channels.

The selection of an equilibrium state by maximizing the entropy of a system, subject to certain constraints, is often powerfully motivated as an exercise in logical inference, a procedure where conclusions are reached on the basis of incomplete information. But such a framework can be more compelling if it is underpinned by dynamical arguments, and we show how this can be provided by stochastic thermodynamics, where an explicit link is made between the production of entropy and the stochastic dynamics of a system coupled to an environment. The separation of entropy production into three components allows us to select a stationary state by maximizing the change, averaged over all realizations of the motion, in the principal relaxational or nonadiabatic component, equivalent to requiring that this contribution to the entropy production should become time independent for all realizations. We show that this recovers the usual equilibrium probability density function (pdf) for a conservative system in an isothermal environment, as well as the stationary nonequilibrium pdf for a particle confined to a potential under nonisothermal conditions, and a particle subject to a constant nonconservative force under isothermal conditions. The two remaining components of entropy production account for a recently discussed thermodynamic anomaly between over- and underdamped treatments of the dynamics in the nonisothermal stationary state.

We consider the dynamics of self-propelled particles subject to external torques. Two models for the reorientation of self-propulsion are considered: run-and-tumble particles and active Brownian particles. Using the standard tools of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics we show that the run and tumble particles have a more robust response to torques. This macroscopic signature of the underlying reorientation statistics can be used to differentiate between the two types of self-propelled particles.

We study in this work a steady shearing laminar flow with null heat flux (usually called “uniform shear flow”) in a gas-solid suspension at low density. The solid particles are modeled as a gas of smooth hard spheres with inelastic collisions while the influence of the surrounding interstitial fluid on the dynamics of grains is modeled by means of a volume drag force, in the context of a rheological model for suspensions. The model is solved by means of three different but complementary routes, two of them being theoretical (Grad's moment method applied to the corresponding Boltzmann equation and an exact solution of a kinetic model adapted to granular suspensions) and the other being computational (Monte Carlo simulations of the Boltzmann equation). Unlike in previous studies on granular sheared suspensions, the collisional moment associated with the momentum transfer is determined in Grad's solution by including all the quadratic terms in the stress tensor. This theoretical enhancement allows for the detection and evaluation of the normal stress differences in the plane normal to the laminar flow. In addition, the exact solution of the kinetic model gives the explicit form of the velocity moments of the velocity distribution function. Comparison between our theoretical and numerical results shows in general a good agreement for the non-Newtonian rheological properties, the kurtosis (fourth velocity moment of the distribution function), and the velocity distribution of the kinetic model for quite strong inelasticity and not too large values of the (scaled) friction coefficient characterizing the viscous drag force. This shows the accuracy of our analytical results that allows us to describe in detail the flow dynamics of the granular sheared suspension.

We numerically simulate mechanically stable packings of soft-core, frictionless, bidisperse disks in two dimensions, above the jamming packing fraction ${\varphi }_J$. For configurations with a fixed isotropic global stress tensor, we investigate the fluctuations of the local packing fraction $\varphi \left(\mathbf{r}\right)$ to test whether such configurations display the hyperuniformity that has been claimed to exist exactly at ${\varphi }_J$. For our configurations, generated by a rapid quench protocol, we find that hyperuniformity persists only out to a finite length scale and that this length scale appears to remain finite as the system stress decreases towards zero, i.e., towards the jamming transition. Our result suggests that the presence of hyperuniformity at jamming may be sensitive to the specific protocol used to construct the jammed configurations.

We theoretically study the rotation induced on a metal sphere immersed in an electrolyte and subjected to a rotating electric field. The rotation arises from the interaction of the field with the electric charges induced at the metal-electrolyte interface, i.e., the induced electrical double layer (EDL). Particle rotation is due to the torque on the induced dipole, and also from induced-charge electro-osmostic flow (ICEO). The interaction of the electric field with the induced dipole on the system gives rise to counterfield rotation, i.e., the direction opposite to the rotation of the electric field. ICEO generates co-field rotation of the sphere. For thin EDL, ICEO generates negligible rotation. For increasing size of EDL, co-field rotation appears and, in the limit of very thick EDL, it compensates the counter-field rotation induced by the electrical torque. We also report computations of the rotating fluid velocity field around the sphere.

A binary mixture of oppositely charged colloids can be used to stabilize water-in-oil or oil-in-water emulsions. A Monte Carlo simulation study to address the effect of charge ratio of colloids on the stability of Pickering emulsions is presented. The colloidal particles at the interface are modeled as aligned dipolar hard spheres, with attractive interaction between unlike-charged and repulsive interaction between like-charged particles. The optimum composition (fraction of positively charged particles) required for the stabilization corresponds to a minimum in the interaction energy per particle. In addition, for each charge ratio, there is a range of compositions where emulsions can be stabilized. The structural arrangement of particles or the pattern formation at the emulsion interface is strongly influenced by the charge ratio. We find well-mixed isotropic, square, and hexagonal arrangements of particles on the emulsion surface for different compositions at a given charge ratio. The distribution of coordination numbers is calculated to characterize structural features. The simulation study is useful for the rational design of Pickering emulsifications wherein oppositely charged colloids are used, and for the control of pattern formation that can be useful for the synthesis of colloidosomes and porous shells derived thereof.

We present a study of the dynamic shear ordering of viscoelastic photonic crystals, based on core-shell polymeric composite particles. Using an adapted shear-cell arrangement, the crystalline ordering of the material under conditions of oscillatory shear is interrogated in real time, through both video imaging and from the optical transmission spectra of the cell. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the macroscopic influences of shear on the crystallization process in this solvent-free system, the development of bulk ordering is studied as a function of the key parameters including duty cycle and shear-strain magnitude. In particular, optimal ordering is observed from a prerandomized sample at shear strains of around 160%, for 1-Hz oscillations. This ordering reaches completion over time scales of order 10 s. These observations suggest significant local strains are needed to drive nanoparticles through energy barriers, and that local creep is needed to break temporal symmetry in such high-viscosity nanoassemblies. Crystal shear-melting effects are also characterized under conditions of constant shear rate. These quantitative experiments aim to stimulate the development of theoretical models which can deal with the strong local particle interactions in this system.