Based on linear response theory, Kramers-Kronig relations, and diagram techniques of perturbation theory, it is shown that the second sum rule is satisfied for hot plasma permittivity. An explicit analytical expression for the second sum rule in the limit of weak nonideality is derived.

We investigate a vibrated granular system composed of millimeter-size glass beads. When the system is submitted to a perturbation with decreasing intensity, below the fluidization limit, it evolves in a way similar to glass-forming liquids until it reaches an amorphous jammed state. This jamming transition is observed by the means of an immersed oscillator, either in the free or forced mode, while the granular medium is submitted to an external perturbation at a fixed frequency or within a frequency band. The complex susceptibility of the oscillator is measured as a function of the probe forcing frequency or as a function of the perturbation intensity. Data show that the jamming dynamics is “activated,” similarly to thermal systems. The empirical control parameter is found proportional to the square root of the vibration intensity and inversely proportional to the vibration frequency. In the case of broadband external vibration, the average frequency of the power spectrum has to be considered.

The dependence of velocity slip at a liquid–solid interface upon the character of the solid is studied using atomistic simulation methods for Lennard-Jones model systems. The effect of the thermostatting mechanisms, often used in such simulations, is also investigated. The solid atom vibrational frequency is shown not to have a significant effect on the slip length for the range of parameters investigated; however, it is found that application of a thermostat to the fluid changes the slip length at low shear rates and results in an unphysical divergent slip behavior at high shear rates. On the other hand, removing the generated heat through the walls, which is more analogous to a laboratory condition, results in a nonlinearly decreasing slip length with shear rate that asymptotes to the no-slip limit at high shear rates. This effect is due to viscous heating, which increases the fluid temperature and pressure. A nonlinear relationship between the slip length and the shear rate collapses the shear-rate–slip-length dependence onto a single curve for a range of cases when heat is more realistically removed through the walls.

We have found an unusual and unexpected link between micro- (nematic director) and macro- (velocity) fields in nematodynamics, which exhibits itself in extended defects of a new type. In particular, we have shown that black lines (BLs) observed in electroconvection of a homeotropically aligned nematic layer are simultaneously Bloch’s domain walls for the director field and lines of zero velocity intersecting a roll pattern for the convection. A detailed experimental study revealing the fine structure of BLs and their point defects is presented.

We present a model of synchronization in networks of autonomous agents where the topology changes due to agents motion. We introduce two timescales, one for the topological change and another one for local synchronization. If the former scale is much shorter, an approximation that averages out the effect of motion is available. Here we show, however, that the time required for synchronization achievement is larger than the prediction of the approximation in the opposite case, especially close to the continuum percolation transition point. The simulation results are confirmed by means of spectral analysis of the time-dependent Laplacian matrix. Our results show that the tradeoff between these two timescales, which have opposite effects on synchronization, should be taken into account for the design of mobile device networks.

The development of a high-speed microactuator in water is difficult because of hydrodynamic resistance and the lack of the knowledge of complex electrostatic problems combined with flow fields and ion dynamics. Previously, to overcome these problems, we proposed rotary microvalves in water using hydrodynamic force due to induced-charge electrophoresis (ICEP). In this study, by using an elliptical conductive carbon element fabricated by the pyrolysis of a photoresist film coated with gold, we experimentally demonstrate that microvalves can rotate near conductive electrodes. Namely, by numerically analyzing video data, we show the time evolution of the rotation angle, the flow field, and the center position of the microvalve. Further, we compare them with the theoretical results and find that they are in good agreement qualitatively. In the future, by using ICEP valves as a latch device, we can significantly improve the size and processing speed of a fluidic integrated circuit.

We have investigated the structural change of an immiscible blend consisting of two polymers with equal viscosity subjected to a step electric field under shear flow. During the process, three-dimensional images were successfully acquired with a confocal scanning laser microscope, and at the same time, the transient shear stress was also measured. From the images, the interface tensor was calculated. In a blend of polymers with equal viscosity, the total shear stress may consist of the viscous, interfacial, and electric stresses. An experiment was performed to separate these stresses, and the results are discussed in terms of the interface tensor.

Mechanosensitive channels are ion channels activated by membrane tension. We investigate the influence of the spatial distribution of bacterial mechanosensitive channels on activation (gating). Based on elastic short-range interactions we map this physical process onto an Ising-like model, which enables us to predict the clustering of channels and the effects of clustering on their gating. We conclude that the aggregation of channels and the consequent interactions among them leads to a global cooperative gating behavior with potentially dramatic consequences for the cell.

Using molecular dynamics based on Langevin equations with a coordinate- and velocity-dependent damping coefficient, we study the frictional properties of a thin layer of “soft” lubricant (where the interaction within the lubricant is weaker than the lubricant-substrate interaction) confined between two solids. At low driving velocities the system demonstrates stick-slip motion. The lubricant may or may not be melted during sliding, thus exhibiting either the “liquid sliding” (LS) or the “layer over layer sliding” (LoLS) regimes. The LoLS regime mainly operates at low sliding velocities. We investigate the dependence of friction properties on the misfit angle between the sliding surfaces and calculate the distribution of static frictional thresholds for a contact of polycrystalline surfaces.

A self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm can generate a topographic map from a high-dimensional stimulus space to a low-dimensional array of units. Because a topographic map preserves neighborhood relationships between the stimuli, the SOM can be applied to certain types of information processing such as data visualization. During the learning process, however, topological defects frequently emerge in the map. The presence of defects tends to drastically slow down the formation of a globally ordered topographic map. To remove such topological defects, it has been reported that an asymmetric neighborhood function is effective, but only in the simple case of mapping one-dimensional stimuli to a chain of units. In this paper, we demonstrate that even when high-dimensional stimuli are used, the asymmetric neighborhood function is effective for both artificial and real-world data. Our results suggest that applying the asymmetric neighborhood function to the SOM algorithm improves the reliability of the algorithm. In addition, it enables processing of complicated, high-dimensional data by using this algorithm.

Nonthermal acceleration of relativistic electrons is investigated with an intensive laser pulse. An energy distribution function of energetic particles in the universe or cosmic rays is well represented by a power-law spectrum, therefore, nonthermal acceleration is essential to understand the origin of cosmic rays. A possible candidate for the origin of cosmic rays is wakefield acceleration at relativistic astrophysical perpendicular shocks. The wakefield is considered to be excited by large-amplitude precursor light waves in the upstream of the shocks. Substituting an intensive laser pulse for the large amplitude light waves, we performed a model experiment of the shock environments in a laboratory plasma. An intensive laser pulse was propagated in a plasma tube created by imploding a hollow polystyrene cylinder, as the large amplitude light waves propagated in the upstream plasma at an astrophysical shock. Nonthermal electrons were generated, and the energy distribution functions of the electrons have a power-law component with an index of $~2$. We described the detailed procedures to obtain the nonthermal components from data obtained by an electron spectrometer.

Many scientific fields—including astronomy, climatology, and biology, among others—require the calculation of the scattered optical fields from multiparticle distributions. In the present study, we combine the established results for the scattering from clusters of homogeneous spheres and from single core-shell particles into a computationally tractable solution that is valid for irregular configurations of nonidentical, coated particles. The presented multiparticle scattering (MPS) model is based on a generalized Lorenz-Mie theory framework and the vector translation theorems for the vector spherical harmonics. We provide the MPS model in both the near and far fields, and for plane-wave and Gaussian beam illumination. A message-passing-interface protocol is used for the computational implementation of the model in a parallel computer program. The computer model is validated by verifying the accuracy of the vector translation theorems utilized in our theoretical methods and by qualitative comparison to existing multiparticle scattering data. We conclude by presenting the scattering profiles from several examples of particle distributions. This MPS model is a practicable method of calculating the optical fields arising in the scattering from particle aggregates and is straightforwardly extensible to arbitrary illumination and to more complex internal-particle structures, such as stratified spheres. Vital applications of this model include the exact computation of forces exerted on irregular objects in optical traps and the simulation of light propagation through biological tissues.

The rectification of noise into directed movement or useful energy is utilized by many different systems. The peculiar nature of the energy source and conceptual differences between such Brownian motor systems makes a characterization of the performance far from straightforward. In this work, where the Brownian motor consists of atoms interacting with dissipative optical lattices, we adopt existing theory and present experimental measurements for both the efficiency and the transport coherence. We achieve up to 0.3% for the efficiency and 0.01 for the Péclet number.

The survival probability and the first-passage-time statistics are important quantities in different fields. The Wiener process is the simplest stochastic process with continuous variables, and important results can be explicitly found from it. The presence of a constant drift does not modify its simplicity; however, when the process has a time-dependent component the analysis becomes difficult. In this work we analyze the statistical properties of the Wiener process with an absorbing boundary, under the effect of an exponential time-dependent drift. Based on the backward Fokker-Planck formalism we set the time-inhomogeneous equation and conditions that rule the diffusion of the corresponding survival probability. We propose as the solution an expansion series in terms of the intensity of the exponential drift, resulting in a set of recurrence equations. We explicitly solve the expansion up to second order and comment on higher-order solutions. The first-passage-time density function arises naturally from the survival probability and preserves the proposed expansion. Explicit results, related properties, and limit behaviors are analyzed and extensively compared to numerical simulations.

A hierarchical structure model is developed for anomalous scaling of the Lagrangian velocity structure functions in fully developed turbulence. This model is an extension of the Eulerian hierarchical structure model of She and Leveque [Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 366 (1994)] to the Lagrangian velocity structure functions, where the straining and sweeping hypotheses are used to build up the relationship between the singular scalings of Lagrangian and Eulerian intermittent structures. The Lagrangian scaling exponents obtained from the straining hypothesis are in good agreement with the experimental results of the Bodenschatz group.

We study the critical effect of quarantine on the propagation of epidemics on an adaptive network of social contacts. For this purpose, we analyze the susceptible-infected-recovered model in the presence of quarantine, where susceptible individuals protect themselves by disconnecting their links to infected neighbors with probability $w$ and reconnecting them to other susceptible individuals chosen at random. Starting from a single infected individual, we show by an analytical approach and simulations that there is a phase transition at a critical rewiring (quarantine) threshold $w_c$ separating a phase ($w<w_c$) where the disease reaches a large fraction of the population from a phase ($w⩾w_c$) where the disease does not spread out. We find that in our model the topology of the network strongly affects the size of the propagation and that $w_c$ increases with the mean degree and heterogeneity of the network. We also find that $w_c$ is reduced if we perform a preferential rewiring, in which the rewiring probability is proportional to the degree of infected nodes.

We have realized real-time steering of the directed transport in a Brownian motor based on cold atoms in optical lattices and demonstrate drifts along predesigned paths. The transport is induced by spatiotemporal asymmetries in the system, where we can control the spatial part, and we show that the response to changes in asymmetry is very fast. In addition to directional steering, a real-time control of the magnitude of the average drift velocity and an on-off switching of the motor are also demonstrated. We use a noninvasive real-time detection of the transport, enabling feedback control of the system.

For a system in which free quantum Brownian particles interact with a non-Markovian heat bath with product initial states, the quantum heat-fluctuation theorems and the Jarzynski relation of the reduced system are derived using the path integral technique. They are not a direct generalization of the classical case. The validity of the second law of quantum thermodynamics is shown. The forms of these theorems and relations have to do with the specified nonequilibrium initial states, and are dependent on the structure of the bath (ergodic or nonergodic) in the quantum case as well as the classical case under some initial states.

Continuum diffusion models are often used to represent the collective motion of cell populations. Most previous studies have simply used linear diffusion to represent collective cell spreading, while others found that degenerate nonlinear diffusion provides a better match to experimental cell density profiles. In the cell modeling literature there is no guidance available with regard to which approach is more appropriate for representing the spreading of cell populations. Furthermore, there is no knowledge of particular experimental measurements that can be made to distinguish between situations where these two models are appropriate. Here we provide a link between individual-based and continuum models using a multiscale approach in which we analyze the collective motion of a population of interacting agents in a generalized lattice-based exclusion process. For round agents that occupy a single lattice site, we find that the relevant continuum description of the system is a linear diffusion equation, whereas for elongated rod-shaped agents that occupy $L$ adjacent lattice sites we find that the relevant continuum description is connected to the porous media equation (PME). The exponent in the nonlinear diffusivity function is related to the aspect ratio of the agents. Our work provides a physical connection between modeling collective cell spreading and the use of either the linear diffusion equation or the PME to represent cell density profiles. Results suggest that when using continuum models to represent cell population spreading, we should take care to account for variations in the cell aspect ratio because different aspect ratios lead to different continuum models.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of linear peptides reveals configurational subdiffusion at equilibrium extending from 10${}^{-12}$ to 10${}^{-8}$ s. Rouse chain and continuous-time random walk models of the subdiffusion are critically discussed. Network approaches to analyzing MD simulations are shown to reproduce the time dependence of the subdiffusive mean squared displacement, which is found to arise from the fractal-like geometry of the accessible volume in the configuration space. Convergence properties of the simulation pertaining to the subdiffusive dynamics are characterized and the effect on the subdiffusive properties of representing the solvent explicitly or implicitly is compared. Non-Markovianity and other factors limiting the range of applicability of the network models are examined.