A drop impacting a solid surface with sufficient velocity will emit many small droplets creating a splash. However, splashing is completely suppressed if the surrounding gas pressure is lowered. The mechanism by which the gas affects splashing remains unknown. We use high-speed interference imaging to measure the air beneath all regions of a spreading viscous drop as well as optical absorption to measure the drop thickness. Although an initial air bubble is created on impact, no significant air layer persists until the time a splash is created. This suggests that splashing in our experimentally accessible range of viscosities is initiated at the edge of the drop as it encroaches into the surrounding gas.

We have directly resolved shock structures in pure aluminum in the first few hundred picoseconds subsequent to a dynamic load at peak stresses up to 43 GPa and strain rates in excess of ${10}^{10}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. For strong shocks we obtain peak stresses, strain rates, and rise times. From these data, we directly validate the invariance of the dissipative action in the strong shock regime, and by comparing with data obtained at much lower strain rates show that this invariance is observed over at least 5 orders of magnitude in the strain rate. Over the same range, we similarly validate the fourth-power scaling of the strain rate with the peak stress (the Swegle-Grady relation).

Nanometer-scale friction measurements on a Au(111) surface have been performed at temperatures between 30 and 300 K by means of atomic force microscopy. Stable stick slip with atomic periodicity is observed at all temperatures, showing only weak dependence on temperature between 300 and 170 K. Below 170 K, friction increases with time and a distortion of the stick-slip characteristic is observed. Low friction and periodic stick slip can be reestablished by pulling the tip out of contact and subsequently restoring the contact. A comparison with molecular dynamics simulations indicates that plastic deformation within a growing gold junction leads to the observed frictional behavior at low temperatures. The regular stick slip with atomic periodicity observed at room temperature is the result of a dynamic equilibrium shape of the contact, as microscopic wear damage is observed to heal in the sliding contact.

We theoretically study the propagation of a femtosecond laser pulse in negative-index metamaterials, and show that its propagation velocity can be easily controlled at a certain wavelength range simply by changing the initial chirp. This phenomenon may be used as an extremely simple way to control the propagation velocity of a femtosecond laser pulse.

We investigate the interaction of light and gas in strongly scattering nano- and macroporous media. Manufacturing and structural characterization of ${\mathrm{ZrO}}_2$, ${\mathrm{Al}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$ and ${\mathrm{TiO}}_2$ ceramics with different pore sizes, measurements of optical properties using photon time-of-flight spectroscopy, and high-resolution laser spectroscopy of ${\mathrm{O}}_2$ at 760 nm are reported. We show that extreme light scattering can be utilized to realize miniature spectroscopic gas cells. Path length enhancement factors up to 750 are reached (5.4 m path through gas for light transmitted through a 7 mm ${\mathrm{ZrO}}_2$ with 49% porosity and 115 nm pores).

The spontaneous emission decay dynamics of nanocrystal quantum dots embedded into biotemplated titania photonic crystals with a diamond-based lattice are investigated. Modification of the decay rate of quantum dot emission over wide frequency bandwidths in the visible by the photonic crystals is observed. Frequency-dependent analysis reveals both inhibition and enhancement of emission with a radiative lifetime variation by more than a factor of 10.

We study the spatiotemporal dynamics of a crack front propagating at the interface between a rigid substrate and an elastomer. We first characterize the kinematics of the front when the substrate is homogeneous and find that the equation of motion is intrinsically nonlinear. We then pattern the substrate with a single defect. Steady profiles of the front are well described by a standard linear theory with nonlocal elasticity, except for large slopes of the front. In contrast, this theory seems to fail in dynamical situations, i.e., when the front relaxes to its steady shape, or when the front pinches off after detachment from a defect. More generally, these results may impact the current understanding of crack fronts in heterogeneous media.

Compressible isothermal turbulence is analyzed under the assumption of homogeneity and in the asymptotic limit of a high Reynolds number. An exact relation is derived for some two-point correlation functions which reveals a fundamental difference with the incompressible case. The main difference resides in the presence of a new type of term which acts on the inertial range similarly as a source or a sink for the mean energy transfer rate. When isotropy is assumed, compressible turbulence may be described by the relation $-\frac{2}{3}{\epsilon }_{\mathrm{eff}}r={\mathcal{F}}_r(r)$, where ${\mathcal{F}}_r$ is the radial component of the two-point correlation functions and ${\epsilon }_{\mathrm{eff}}$ is an effective mean total energy injection rate. By dimensional arguments, we predict that a spectrum in $k^{-5/3}$ may still be preserved at small scales if the density-weighted fluid velocity ${\rho }^{1/3}\mathbf{u}$ is used.

We identify a dominant mechanism in the interaction between a slender flexible structure undergoing free vibrations in sheared cross-flow and the vortices forming in its wake: energy is transferred from the fluid to the body under a resonance condition, defined as wake-body frequency synchronization close to a natural frequency of the structure; this condition occurs within a well-defined region of the span, which is dominated by counterclockwise, figure-eight orbits. Clockwise orbits are associated with damping fluid forces.

We contrast the extensional and shear dynamics of non-Brownian suspensions as a function of particle concentration. We show that the thinning rate selected during the viscoelastic pinch-off of a liquid bridge is related to the shear rate at which normal stresses become positive, which differs from the shear rate at the onset of shear thickening. By tracking particles, we demonstrate that the extensional flow is heterogeneous, with local variations of the volume fraction consistent with self-dilution. This nonuniform structure is the cause of the buckling of the threads formed after breakup.

We consider two-component nonlinear dissipative spatially extended systems of reaction-cross-diffusion type. Previously, such systems were shown to support “quasisoliton” pulses, which have a fixed stable structure but can reflect from boundaries and penetrate each other. Herein we demonstrate a different type of quasisolitons, with a phenomenology resembling that of the envelope solitons in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation: spatiotemporal oscillations with a smooth envelope, with the velocity of the oscillations different from the velocity of the envelope.

We present a comprehensive study of enhanced light funneling through a subwavelength aperture with realistic (lossy) epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials. We realize experimentally an inclusion-free ENZ material layer operating at optical frequencies and characterize its performance. An analytical expression describing light funneling through several structures involving ENZ coupling layers is developed, validated with numerical solutions of Maxwell equations, and utilized to relate the performance of the ENZ coupling systems to their main limiting factor, material losses.

The waveforms of attosecond pulses produced by high-harmonic generation carry information on the electronic structure and dynamics in atomic and molecular systems. Current methods for the temporal characterization of such pulses have limited sensitivity and impose significant experimental complexity. We propose a new linear and all-optical method inspired by widely used multidimensional phase retrieval algorithms. Our new scheme is based on the spectral measurement of two attosecond sources and their interference. As an example, we focus on the case of spectral polarization measurements of attosecond pulses, relying on their most fundamental property—being well confined in time. We demonstrate this method numerically by reconstructing the temporal profiles of attosecond pulses generated from aligned ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ molecules.

Until now, the analysis of long wave run-up on a plane beach has been focused on finding its maximum value, failing to capture the existence of resonant regimes. One-dimensional numerical simulations in the framework of the nonlinear shallow water equations are used to investigate the boundary value problem for plane and nontrivial beaches. Monochromatic waves, as well as virtual wave-gage recordings from real tsunami simulations, are used as forcing conditions to the boundary value problem. Resonant phenomena between the incident wavelength and the beach slope are found to occur, which result in enhanced run-up of nonleading waves. The evolution of energy reveals the existence of a quasiperiodic state for the case of sinusoidal waves. Dispersion is found to slightly reduce the value of maximum run-up but not to change the overall picture. Run-up amplification occurs for both leading elevation and depression waves.

A small hole etched in the top of a wide microchannel creates a well of surface energy for a confined drop. This produces an attractive force $F_{\gamma }$ equal to the energy gradient, which is estimated from geometric arguments. We use the drag $F_d$ from an outer flow to probe the trapping mechanism. When $F_d<F_{\gamma }$, the drop deforms but remains anchored to the hole. Its shape provides information about the pressure field. At higher flow velocities, the drop detaches, defining a critical capillary number for which $F_d=F_{\gamma }$. The measured anchoring force agrees with the geometric model.

Using a combination of analytical and numerical techniques, we show that chaos in globally coupled identical dynamical systems, whether dissipative or Hamiltonian, is both extensive and subextensive: their spectrum of Lyapunov exponents is asymptotically flat (thus extensive) at the value ${\lambda }_0$ given by a single unit forced by the mean field, but sandwiched between subextensive bands containing typically $\mathcal{O}(\log N)$ exponents whose values vary as $\lambda \simeq {\lambda }_{\infty }+c/\log N$ with ${\lambda }_{\infty }\ne {\lambda }_0$.

High-harmonic generation is shown to be capable of providing time-resolved information about the particle density of a complex system. As an example, we study numerically high-harmonic generation from expanding xenon clusters in a pump-probe laser scheme, where the pump laser pulse induces the cluster explosion and the probe pulse generates harmonics in the expanding cluster. We show that the high-harmonic spectra characterize the properties of the expanding cluster. Hence, measuring the dependence of the harmonic signal on the pump-probe delay suggests itself as an experimental tool to monitor many-particle dynamics with unique temporal resolution; based on optical measurements, this technique is naturally free from any spatial charge effects.

We study the growth rate and saturation level of the turbulent dynamo in magnetohydrodynamical simulations of turbulence, driven with solenoidal (divergence-free) or compressive (curl-free) forcing. For models with Mach numbers ranging from 0.02 to 20, we find significantly different magnetic field geometries, amplification rates, and saturation levels, decreasing strongly at the transition from subsonic to supersonic flows, due to the development of shocks. Both extreme types of turbulent forcing drive the dynamo, but solenoidal forcing is more efficient, because it produces more vorticity.

In this Letter, we show that the analysis of Lyapunov-exponent fluctuations contributes to deepen our understanding of high-dimensional chaos. This is achieved by introducing a Gaussian approximation for the large-deviation function that quantifies the fluctuation probability. More precisely, a diffusion matrix $\mathbf{D}$ (a dynamical invariant itself) is measured and analyzed in terms of its principal components. The application of this method to three (conservative, as well as dissipative) models allows (i) quantifying the strength of the effective interactions among the different degrees of freedom, (ii) unveiling microscopic constraints such as those associated to a symplectic structure, and (iii) checking the hyperbolicity of the dynamics.

Experiments and simulations lend mounting evidence for the edge state hypothesis on subcritical transition to turbulence, which asserts that simple states of fluid motion mediate between laminar and turbulent shear flow as their stable manifolds separate the two in state space. In this Letter we describe flows homoclinic to a time-periodic edge state that display the essential properties of turbulent bursting. During a burst, vortical structures and the associated energy dissipation are highly localized near the wall, in contrast with the familiar regeneration cycle.