The nonrelativistic Larmor radiation formula, giving the power radiated by an accelerated charged point particle, is generalized for a spatially extended particle in the context of the classical charged harmonic oscillator. The particle is modeled as a spherically symmetric rigid charge distribution that possesses both translational and spinning degrees of freedom. The power spectrum obtained exhibits a structure that depends on the form factor of the particle, but reduces, in the limit of an infinitesimally small particle and for the charge distributions considered, to Larmor’s familiar result. It is found that for finite-duration small-enough accelerations as well as perpetual uniform accelerations the power spectrum of the spatially extended particle reduces to that of a point particle. It is also found that when the acceleration is violent or the size parameter of the particle is very large compared to the wavelength of the emitted radiation the power spectrum is highly suppressed. Possible applications are discussed.

We demonstrate that under certain conditions, fractional Talbot revivals can occur in heterostructures of composite metamaterials, such as multilayer positive- and negative-index media, metallodielectric stacks, and one-dimensional dielectric photonic crystals. Without recourse to the paraxial approximation, we also obtain Talbot images for the feature sizes of transverse patterns smaller than the illumination wavelength. A general expression for the Talbot distance in such structures is derived, and the conditions favorable for observing Talbot effects in layered heterostructures are discussed.

The dynamics of a spatial soliton pulse and interactions under the presence of a linear periodic wave (PW), which dynamically induces a photonic lattice, is investigated. It is shown that appropriate selections of the characteristic parameters of the PW result in different soliton propagation and interaction scenarios, suggesting a reconfigurable soliton control mechanism. The quasiparticle perturbation method is utilized for providing a dynamical system, governing the soliton parameters evolution, for single- and two-soliton propagation under generic conditions for the PW. Results of the perturbation method are shown in good agreement with direct numerical simulations.

Synchronization of stochastic phase-coupled oscillators is known to occur but difficult to characterize because sufficiently complete analytic work is not yet within our reach, and thorough numerical description usually defies all resources. We present a discrete model that is sufficiently simple to be characterized in meaningful detail. In the mean-field limit, the model exhibits a supercritical Hopf bifurcation and global oscillatory behavior as coupling crosses a critical value. When coupling between units is strictly local, the model undergoes a continuous phase transition that we characterize numerically using finite-size scaling analysis. In particular, we explicitly rule out multistability and show that the onset of global synchrony is marked by signatures of the $XY$ universality class. Our numerical results cover dimensions $d=2$, 3, 4, and 5 and lead to the appropriate $XY$ classical exponents $\beta$ and $\nu$, a lower critical dimension $d_{\mathrm{lc}}=2$, and an upper critical dimension $d_{\mathrm{uc}}=4$.

Fractional Brownian motion (fBm) is a ubiquitous nonstationary model for many physical processes with power-law time-averaged spectra. In this paper, we exploit the nonstationarity to derive the full spectral correlation structure of fBm. Starting from the time-varying correlation function, we derive two different time-frequency spectral correlation functions (the ambiguity function and the Kirkwood-Rihaczek spectrum), and one dual-frequency spectral correlation function. The dual-frequency spectral correlation has a surprisingly simple structure, with spectral support on three discrete lines. The theoretical predictions are verified by spectrum estimates of Monte Carlo simulations and of a time series of earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 and higher.

We numerically analyze the statistics of the heat flow between an aging system and its thermal bath, following a method proposed and tested for a spin-glass model in a recent paper [P. Sibani and H. J. Jensen, Europhys. Lett. 69, 563 (2005)]. The present system, which lacks quenched randomness, consists of Ising spins located on a cubic lattice, with each plaquette contributing to the total energy the product of the four spins located at its corners. Similarly to our previous findings, energy leaves the system in rare but large, so-called intermittent, bursts which are embedded in reversible and equilibriumlike fluctuations of zero average. The intermittent bursts, or quakes, dissipate the excess energy trapped in the initial state at a rate which falls off with the inverse of the age. This strongly heterogeneous dynamical picture is explained using the idea that quakes are triggered by energy fluctuations of record size, which occur independently within a number of thermalized domains. From the temperature dependence of the width of the reversible heat fluctuations we surmise that these domains have an exponential density of states. Finally, we show that the heat flow consists of a temperature independent term and a term with an Arrhenius temperature dependence. Microscopic dynamical and structural information can thus be extracted from numerical intermittency data. This type of analysis seems now within the reach of time resolved microcalorimetry techniques.

We have revisited the problem of anomalously diffusing species, modeled at the mesoscopic level using continuous time random walks, to include linear reaction dynamics. If a constant proportion of walkers are added or removed instantaneously at the start of each step then the long time asymptotic limit yields a fractional reaction-diffusion equation with a fractional order temporal derivative operating on both the standard diffusion term and a linear reaction kinetics term. If the walkers are added or removed at a constant per capita rate during the waiting time between steps then the long time asymptotic limit has a standard linear reaction kinetics term but a fractional order temporal derivative operating on a nonstandard diffusion term. Results from the above two models are compared with a phenomenological model with standard linear reaction kinetics and a fractional order temporal derivative operating on a standard diffusion term. We have also developed further extensions of the CTRW model to include more general reaction dynamics.

We study the wetting behavior on spherical walls by ternary mixtures of oil, water, and an amphiphile. We use the Ginzburg-Landau free energy with a single order parameter and find that there are different stable structures of the interface and that a quasiwetting transition is the mechanism involved in the transition among them. We calculate these wetting transitions for two sets of parameters in the bulk free energy which are known to show microemulsion behavior. The surface transitions are thin-thick first-order transitions (continuous transitions are absent), and the phase diagram in surface parameter space is constructed. For the first set of bulk parameters water, oil, and a microemulsion coexist, and we study the first-order transition where the oil phase wets the wall-microemulsion interface and its behavior as the radius of the wall becomes large. Therefore, we recover the known wetting transitions on a planar wall. In the second set of bulk parameters only water and oil coexist, and for some sizes of the solid wall, the oil phase wets the wall-water interface, and the phase behavior is extremely rich. We obtain a coexistence of four surface phases or two triple points followed by three lines of first-order transitions which end at three critical points depending on the radius of the surface. When there are micellar metastable solutions in bulk, the behavior of the thickness of the wetting layer of the oil phase as the radius of the spherical wall gets larger is nonmonotonic. We associate this behavior with the intrinsic micelle structure due to the spontaneous curvature of the model.

Competing modes of electric-field-driven bifurcation have been examined in a planarly aligned nematic liquid crystal with a small positive dielectric anisotropy and large electrical conductivity. The line of bifurcation into the electroconvective state is linear in frequency not only up to the codimension-2 (C2) point but well beyond. This contrasts with the recent theoretical prediction of the absence of further bifurcations within the Freedericksz state, above the C2 frequency. Further, in the frequency regime beyond C2, within the space-filling electroconvective state, a strongly localized dynamical state (SLDS) appears at a voltage threshold which again is linear in frequency. Occurrence of the SLDS through a secondary forward bifurcation is significant in view of the reported observations on the so-called worms, an instability belonging to the SLDS, as the first form of convection seen at the primary subcritical bifurcation.

Experiments performed on droplets breaking up in microfluidic junctions of various angles are described. A critical length is found that controls the breakup process. This quantity depends on the flow geometry only; it is independent of the flow conditions and the fluid characteristics. A theory assuming small capillary numbers describes well the conditions that govern the breakup process.

The surrounding of a vertex in a network can be more or less symmetric. We derive measures of a specific kind of symmetry of a vertex which we call degree symmetry—the property that many paths going out from a vertex have overlapping degree sequences. These measures are evaluated on artificial and real networks. Specifically we consider vertices in the human metabolic network. We also measure the average degree-symmetry coefficient for different classes of real-world network. We find that most studied examples are weakly positively degree symmetric. The exceptions are an airport network (having a negative degree-symmetry coefficient) and one-mode projections of social affiliation networks that are rather strongly degree symmetric.

We have identified the three prominent routes, namely Heagy-Hammel, fractalization, and intermittency routes, and their mechanisms for the birth of strange nonchaotic attractors (SNAs) in a quasiperiodically forced electronic system constructed using a negative conductance series $LCR$ circuit with a diode both numerically and experimentally. The birth of SNAs by these three routes is verified from both experimental and their corresponding numerical data by maximal Lyapunov exponents, and their variance, Poincaré maps, Fourier amplitude spectrum, spectral distribution function, and finite-time Lyapunov exponents. Although these three routes have been identified numerically in different dynamical systems, the experimental observation of all these mechanisms is reported here in a single second order electronic circuit.

The complex Swift-Hohenberg (CSH) equation is a generic order parameter equation that applies to many physical systems. In the case of class C lasers, it can be obtained from the Maxwell-Bloch equations using the assumptions of slow envelope and small detuning. We show that the resulting CSH equation inevitably contains different asymptotic order terms, associated with the dominance of the effect of dispersion over diffusion. These scale disparities are usually overlooked or simply not mentioned in the literature, assuming that a CSH equation with all terms of the same order still provides qualitative information. In this paper, the asymptotically nonuniform CSH equation is carefully deduced using a simpler scaling-free procedure, and a stability analysis of the simplest solutions together with some numerical simulations are presented, in which the mentioned scale disparities are clearly seen.

A model of a thin film elastically attached to a rigid substrate is considered. In the case in which the film expands relative to the substrate and assuming certain nonlinear elastic behavior of the film, expansion ridges may appear, in which the material collapses, and the density is higher on average. By studying numerically this process, the possible morphologies of these collapsed regions are presented. They range from circular spots and straight stripes, to wiggle polygonal patterns and ring-shaped domains. The similarity of some of these results with patterns observed in delamination of thin films and biphase epitaxial growth is emphasized.

As studies of various systems have shown, the sole focus on the eigenvalues in a linear stability analysis can be misleading, especially when the dynamics of disturbances is characterized by strong transient growth. The aim of this paper is to extend the generalized stability analysis, in the context of spatially extended systems, by examining the role of the nonlinear terms in the destabilization process. The critical noise level leading to destabilization is often found to scale as a power of the magnitude of transient amplification. In what follows we show that the power law exponent sensitively depends on the type of nonlinear terms and their potential for generating self-sustaining noise amplification cycles (bootstrapping). We find, however, that the exponents are not universal and also depend on the more subtle details of the transient dynamics. We also show that the basin of attraction of a spatially uniform state is bounded by the stable manifold(s) of nearby saddle(s) which play a major role in the transition.

New stationary solutions of the (Michelson) Sivashinsky equation of premixed flames are obtained numerically in this paper. Some of these solutions, of the bicoalescent type recently described by Guidi and Marchetti, are stable with Neumann boundary conditions. With these boundary conditions, the time evolution of the Sivashinsky equation in the presence of a moderate white noise is controlled by jumps between stationary solutions.

Richtmyer-Meshkov flow is studied by means of an analytical model which describes the asymptotic oscillations of a corrugated interface between two perfectly elastic solids after the interaction with a shock wave. The model shows that the flow stability is due to the restoring effect of the elastic force. It provides a simple approximate but still very accurate formula for the oscillation period. It also shows that as it is observed in numerical simulations, the amplitude oscillates around a mean value equal to the post-shock amplitude, and that this is a consequence of the stress free conditions of the material immediately after the shock interaction. Extensive numerical simulations are presented to validate the model results.

We study a stochastic synchronization of spiking activity in feedforward networks of integrate-and-fire model neurons. A stochastic mean field analysis shows that synchronization occurs only when the network size is sufficiently small. This gives evidence that the dynamics, and hence processing, of finite size populations can be drastically different from that observed in the infinite size limit. Our results agree with experimentally observed synchrony in cortical networks, and further strengthen the link between synchrony and propagation in cortical systems.

We investigate epidemic models with spatial structure based on the cellular automata method. The construction of the cellular automata is from the study by Weimar and Boon about the reaction-diffusion equations [Phys. Rev. E 49, 1749 (1994)]. Our results show that the spatial epidemic models exhibit the spontaneous formation of irregular spiral waves at large scales within the domain of chaos. Moreover, the irregular spiral waves grow stably. The system also shows a spatial period-2 structure at one dimension outside the domain of chaos. It is interesting that the spatial period-2 structure will break and transform into a spatial synchronous configuration in the domain of chaos. Our results confirm that populations embed and disperse more stably in space than they do in nonspatial counterparts.