We consider principal properties of various wave regimes in two selected excitable systems with linear cross diffusion in one spatial dimension observed at different parameter values. This includes fixed-shape propagating waves, envelope waves, multienvelope waves, and intermediate regimes appearing as waves propagating at a fixed shape most of the time but undergoing restructuring from time to time. Depending on parameters, most of these regimes can be with and without the “quasisoliton” property of reflection of boundaries and penetration through each other. We also present some examples of the behavior of envelope quasisolitons in two spatial dimensions.

The leading amplified spike in backward Raman amplifiers can reach nearly relativistic intensities before the saturation by the relativistic electron nonlinearity. The saturation sets an upper limit to the largest achievable leading spike intensity. It is shown here that this limit can be substantially exceeded by the initially subdominant spikes, which surprisingly outgrow the leading spike after its nonlinear saturation. Furthermore, an initially negligible group velocity dispersion of the amplified pulse in strongly undercritical plasma appears to be capable of delaying the longitudinal filamentation instability in the nonlinear saturation regime. This enables further amplification of the pulse to even larger output fluences.

The paper presents a concept to compress and synthesize complex material morphologies that is based on Wang tilings. Specifically, a microstructure is stored in a set of Wang tiles and its reconstruction is performed by means of a stochastic tiling algorithm. A substantial part of the study is devoted to the setup of optimal parameters of the automatic tile design by means of parametric studies with statistical descriptors at heart. The performance of the method is demonstrated on four two-dimensional two-phase target systems, monodisperse media with hard and soft disks, sandstone, and high porosity metallic foam.

We introduce a model-independent approximation for the branching ratio of Hawkes self-exciting point processes. Our estimator requires knowing only the mean and variance of the event count in a sufficiently large time window, statistics that are readily obtained from empirical data. The method we propose greatly simplifies the estimation of the Hawkes branching ratio, recently proposed as a proxy for market endogeneity and formerly estimated using numerical likelihood maximization. We employ our method to support recent theoretical and experimental results indicating that the best fitting Hawkes model to describe S&P futures price changes is in fact critical (now and in the recent past) in light of the long memory of financial market activity.

We present a method to control the two-dimensional shape of traveling wave solutions to reaction-diffusion systems, such as, interfaces and excitation pulses. Control signals that realize a pregiven wave shape are determined analytically from nonlinear evolution equation for isoconcentration lines as the perturbed nonlinear phase diffusion equation or the perturbed linear eikonal equation. While the control enforces a desired wave shape perpendicular to the local propagation direction, the wave profile along the propagation direction itself remains almost unaffected. Provided that the one-dimensional wave profile of all state variables and its propagation velocity can be measured experimentally, and the diffusion coefficients of the reacting species are given, the new approach can be applied even if the underlying nonlinear reaction kinetics are unknown.

We study the influence of bubble-bubble interactions on the propagation of linear acoustic waves in bubbly liquids. Using the full model proposed by Fuster and Colonius [J. Fluid Mech. 688, 253 (2011)], numerical simulations reveal that direct bubble-bubble interactions have an appreciable effect for frequencies above the natural resonance frequency of the average size bubble. Based on the new results, a modification of the classical wave propagation theory is proposed. The results obtained are in good agreement with previously reported experimental data where the classical linear theory systematically overpredicts the effective attenuation and phase velocity.

In time-reversal acoustics, waves recorded at the boundary of a strongly scattering medium are sent back into the medium to focus at the original source position. This requires that the medium can be accessed from all sides. We discuss a focusing method for media that can be accessed from one side only. We show how complex focusing functions, emitted from the top surface into the medium, cause independent foci for compressional and shear waves. The focused fields are isotropic and act as independent virtual sources for these wave types inside the medium. We foresee important applications in nondestructive testing of construction materials and seismological monitoring of processes inside the Earth.

We numerically simulated the diffusion of a charged Brownian particle confined to a plane under the action of an orthogonal magnetic field with intensity depending on the distance from a center. Despite its apparent simplicity, this system exhibits anomalous diffusion. For positive field gradients, radial and angular dynamics are asymptotically subdiffusive, with exponents given by simple analytical expressions. In contrast, when driven by a weakly decaying field, the particle attains normal diffusion only after exceedingly long superdiffusive transients. These mechanisms can be related to Bohm diffusion in magnetized plasmas.

Adding perforations to a continuum sheet allows new modes of deformation, and thus modifies its elastic behavior. The failure behavior of such a perforated sheet is explored, using a model experimental system: a material containing a one-dimensional array of rectangular holes. In this model system, a transition in failure mode occurs as the spacing and aspect ratio of the holes are varied: rapid failure via a running crack is completely replaced by quasistatic failure, which proceeds via the breaking of struts at random positions in the array of holes. I demonstrate that this transition can be connected to the loss of stress enhancement, which occurs as the material geometry is modified.

We explore the conditions on a pair interaction for the validity of the Vlasov equation to describe the dynamics of an interacting $N$-particle system in the large $N$ limit. Using a coarse graining in phase space of the exact Klimontovich equation for the $N$-particle system, we evaluate, neglecting correlations of density fluctuations, the scalings with $N$ of the terms describing the corrections to the Vlasov equation for the coarse-grained one-particle phase space density. Considering a generic interaction with radial pair force $F\left(r\right)$, with $F\left(r\right)\sim 1/r^{\gamma }$ at large scales, and regulated to a bounded behavior below a “softening” scale $\varepsilon$, we find that there is an essential qualitative difference between the cases $\gamma <d$ and $\gamma >d$, i.e., depending on the the integrability at large distances of the pair force. In the former case, the corrections to the Vlasov dynamics for a given coarse-grained scale are essentially insensitive to the softening parameter $\varepsilon$, while for $\gamma >d$ the amplitude of these terms is directly regulated by $\varepsilon$, and thus by the small scale properties of the interaction. This corresponds to a simple physical criterion for a basic distinction between long-range $\left(\gamma \le d\right)$ and short-range $\left(\gamma >d\right)$ interactions, different from the canonical one ($\gamma \le d+1$ or $\gamma >d+1$) based on thermodynamic analysis. This alternative classification, based on purely dynamical considerations, is relevant notably to understanding the conditions for the existence of so-called quasistationary states in long-range interacting systems.

Connections between the wall-normal turbulent velocity spectrum $E_{ww}\left(k\right)$ at wave number $k$ and the mean velocity profile (MVP) are explored in pressure-driven flows confined within smooth walls at moderate to high bulk Reynolds numbers (Re). These connections are derived via a cospectral budget for the longitudinal ($u^{\prime }$) and wall-normal ($w^{\prime }$) velocity fluctuations, which include a production term due to mean shear interacting with $E_{ww}\left(k\right)$, viscous effects, and a decorrelation between $u^{\prime }$ and $w^{\prime }$ by pressure-strain effects [$=\pi \left(k\right)$]. The $\pi \left(k\right)$ is modeled using a conventional Rotta-like return-to-isotropy closure but adjusted to include the effects of isotropization of the production term. The resulting cospectral budget yields a generalization of a previously proposed “spectral link” between the MVP and the spectrum of turbulence. The proposed cospectral budget is also shown to reproduce the measured MVP across the pipe with changing Re including the MVP shapes in the buffer and wake regions. Because of the links between $E_{ww}\left(k\right)$ and the MVP, the effects of intermittency corrections to inertial subrange scales and the so-called spectral bottleneck reported as $k$ approaches viscous dissipation eddy sizes ($\eta$) on the MVP shapes are investigated and shown to be of minor importance. Inclusion of a local Reynolds number correction to a parameter associated with the spectral exponential cutoff as $k\eta \to 1$ appears to be more significant to the MVP shape in the buffer region. While the bulk shape of the MVP is reasonably reproduced in all regions of the pipe, the solution to the cospectral budget systematically underestimates the negative curvature of the MVP within the buffer layer.

A vortex sheet formalism is used to search for equilibrium shapes in the centrifugally driven interfacial elastic fingering problem. We study the development of interfacial instabilities when a viscous fluid surrounded by another of smaller density flows in the confined environment of a rotating Hele-Shaw cell. The peculiarity of the situation is associated to the fact that, due to a chemical reaction, the two-fluid boundary becomes an elastic layer. The interplay between centrifugal and elastic forces leads to the formation of a rich variety of stationary shapes. Visually striking equilibrium morphologies are obtained from the numerical solution of a nonlinear differential equation for the interface curvature (the shape equation), determined by a zero vorticity condition. Classification of the various families of shapes is made via two dimensionless parameters: an effective bending rigidity (ratio of elastic to centrifugal effects) and a geometrical radius of gyration.

We measured the average deuterium cluster size within a mixture of deuterium clusters and helium gas by detecting Rayleigh scattering signals. The average cluster size from the gas mixture was comparable to that from a pure deuterium gas when the total backing pressure and temperature of the gas mixture were the same as those of the pure deuterium gas. According to these measurements, the average size of deuterium clusters depends on the total pressure and not the partial pressure of deuterium in the gas mixture. To characterize the cluster source size further, a Faraday cup was used to measure the average kinetic energy of the ions resulting from Coulomb explosion of deuterium clusters upon irradiation by an intense ultrashort pulse. The deuterium ions indeed acquired a similar amount of energy from the mixture target, corroborating our measurements of the average cluster size. As the addition of helium atoms did not reduce the resulting ion kinetic energies, the reported results confirm the utility of using a known cluster source for beam-target-fusion experiments by introducing a secondary target gas.

We study a nanosecond electro-optic response of a nematic liquid crystal in a geometry where an applied electric field $\mathbf{E}$ modifies the tensor order parameter but does not change the orientation of the optic axis (director $\widehat{\mathbf{N}}$). We use a nematic with negative dielectric anisotropy with the electric field applied perpendicularly to $\widehat{\mathbf{N}}$. The field changes the dielectric tensor at optical frequencies (optic tensor) due to the following mechanisms: (a) nanosecond creation of the biaxial orientational order, (b) uniaxial modification of the orientational order that occurs over time scales of tens of nanoseconds, and (c) the quenching of director fluctuations with a wide range of characteristic times up to milliseconds. We develop a model to describe the dynamics of all three mechanisms. We design the experimental conditions to selectively suppress the contributions from the quenching of director fluctuations (c) and from the biaxial order effect (a) and thus, separate the contributions of the three mechanisms in the electro-optic response. As a result, the experimental data can be well fitted with the model parameters. The analysis provides a rather detailed physical picture of how the liquid crystal responds to a strong electric field on a time scale of nanoseconds. The paper provides a useful guidance in the current search for the biaxial nematic phase. Namely, the temperature dependence of the biaxial susceptibility allows one to estimate the temperature of the potential uniaxial-to-biaxial phase transition. An analysis of the quenching of director fluctuations indicates that on a time scale of nanoseconds, the classic model with constant viscoelastic material parameters might reach its limit of validity. The effect of nanosecond electric modification of the order parameter can be used in applications in which one needs to achieve ultrafast (nanosecond) changes in optical characteristics, such as birefringence.

Algorithms to find communities in networks rely just on structural information and search for cohesive subsets of nodes. On the other hand, most scholars implicitly or explicitly assume that structural communities represent groups of nodes with similar (nontopological) properties or functions. This hypothesis could not be verified, so far, because of the lack of network datasets with information on the classification of the nodes. We show that traditional community detection methods fail to find the metadata groups in many large networks. Our results show that there is a marked separation between structural communities and metadata groups, in line with recent findings. That means that either our current modeling of community structure has to be substantially modified, or that metadata groups may not be recoverable from topology alone.

We apply the refined composite multiscale entropy (MSE) method to a one-dimensional directed small-world network composed of nodes whose states are binary and whose dynamics obey the majority rule. We find that the resulting fluctuating signal becomes dynamically complex. This dynamical complexity is caused (i) by the presence of both short-range connections and long-range shortcuts and (ii) by how well the system can adapt to the noisy environment. By tuning the adaptability of the environment and the long-range shortcuts we can increase or decrease the dynamical complexity, thereby modeling trends found in the MSE of a healthy human heart rate in different physiological states. When the shortcut and adaptability values increase, the complexity in the system dynamics becomes uncorrelated.

The complete synchronization between the outermost oscillators using the mixed coupling in relay coupled systems is studied. Mixed coupling has two types of coupling functions: coupling between similar or dissimilar variables. We examine the complete synchronization in relay-coupled systems by the largest transverse Lyapunov exponent and synchronization error. We show numerically for Rössler and Lorenz oscillators that the combination of these two types of coupling functions is able to decrease the critical coupling strength for complete synchronization as well as it also suppress oscillations for larger coupling strength.