Unexpected and stunning new physical phenomena result when light interacts with a shock wave or shocklike dielectric modulation propagating through a photonic crystal. These new phenomena include the capture of light at the shock wave front and reemission at a tunable pulse rate and carrier frequency across the band gap, and bandwidth narrowing as opposed to the ubiquitous bandwidth broadening. To our knowledge, these effects do not occur in any other physical system and are all realizable under experimentally accessible conditions. Furthermore, their generality make them amenable to observation in a variety of time-dependent photonic crystal systems, which has significant technological implications.

We report the observation of nonexponential decay of pulsed microwave transmission through quasi-one-dimensional random dielectric media signaling the breakdown of the diffusion model. The decay rate of transmission falls nearly linearly in time corresponding to a nearly Gaussian distribution of the coupling strengths of quasinormal electromagnetic modes to free space at the sample surfaces. The peak and width of this distribution scale as $L^{-2.05}$ and $L^{-1.81}$, respectively.

We study the regime of anticipated synchronization in unidirectionally coupled model neurons subject to a common external aperiodic forcing that makes their behavior unpredictable. We show numerically and by analog hardware electronic circuits that, under appropriate coupling conditions, the pulses fired by the slave neuron anticipate (i.e., predict) the pulses fired by the master neuron. This anticipated synchronization occurs even when the common external forcing is white noise.

Analyses of many different types of nonlinear wave equations indicate that a collapsing wave will transform into a universal blowup profile regardless of its initial shape; that is, the amplitude of the wave increases as the spatial extent decreases in a self-similar fashion. We show experimentally that the spatial profile of a collapsing optical wave evolves to a specific circularly symmetric shape, known as the Townes profile, for elliptically shaped or randomly distorted input beams. These results represent the first experimental confirmation of this universal collapsing behavior and provide deeper insight into the high-power filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in air.

We present direct measurements of a new geometric phase acquired by optical beams carrying orbital angular momentum. This phase arises when the transverse mode of a beam is transformed following a closed path in the space of modes. The measurements were done via the interference of two copropagating optical beams that pass through the same interferometer parts but acquire different geometric phases. The method is insensitive to dynamical phases. The magnitude and sign of the measured phases are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions.

We propose a general Langevin equation describing the universal properties of synchronization transitions in extended systems. By means of theoretical arguments and numerical simulations we show that the proposed equation exhibits, depending on parameter values: (i) a continuous transition in the bounded Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class, with a zero largest Lyapunov exponent at the critical point; (ii) a continuous transition in the directed percolation class, with a negative Lyapunov exponent, or (iii) a discontinuous transition (that is argued to be possibly just a transient effect). Cases (ii) and (iii) exhibit coexistence of synchronized and unsynchronized phases in a broad (fuzzy) region. This reproduces almost all of the reported features of synchronization transitions, providing a unified theoretical framework for the analysis of synchronization transitions in extended systems.

An abrupt change in the dielectric constant of media filling a microwave cavity was predicted by Prange et al. [Phys. Rev. E 53, 207 (1996)] to produce a ray splitting correction to the Weyl formula for the mean staircase function of resonances. We present the first experimental confirmation of this effect. Our results with a quasi-two-dimensional cavity are directly relevant to the ray-splitting correction in two-dimensional quantal ray-splitting billiards.

We investigate the relevance of the absorption limit concept in the optimization of high harmonic generation. Thanks to the first direct observation of the coherence length of the process from high-contrast Maker fringes, we unravel experimental conditions for which the harmonic dipole response is enhanced when phase matching is realized within the absorption limit, leading to record conversion efficiencies in argon. Moreover, we show that harmonic generation in guided or freely propagating geometries are equivalent in the loose focusing regime. This analysis is generalized to other advanced phase-matching schemes, thereby predicting the possibility to boost the conversion efficiencies using light noble gases.

We have studied in detail the early dynamics of laser-induced molecular reorientation in a dye-doped liquid crystalline (LC) medium that exhibits a significant enhancement of the optical Kerr nonlinearity due to guest-host interaction. Experimental results agree quantitatively with theory based on a model in which the anisotropic dye excitation helps reorient the LC molecules through a mean-field intermolecular interaction.

Experimental observation of both anticipated and retarded synchronization is demonstrated using unidirectionally coupled semiconductor lasers with delayed optoelectronic feedback. Depending on the difference between the transmission time and the feedback delay time, the lasers fall into either the anticipated or the retarded synchronization regime, where the driven receiver laser leads or lags behind the driving transmitter laser. The two regimes are observed to have the same stability of chaos synchronization in the presence of small perturbations by noise and parameter mismatches. In both regimes the observed time shift between the synchronized chaotic waveforms is found to be equal to the difference between the transmission time and the feedback delay time.

We report on craters formed by balls dropped into dry, noncohesive, granular media. By explicit variation of ball density ${\rho }_b$, diameter $D_b$, and drop height $H$, the crater diameter is confirmed to scale as the $1/4$ power of the energy of the ball at impact: $D_c\sim ({\rho }_b{D}_b^{3}H{)}^{1/4}$. Against expectation, a different scaling law is discovered for the crater depth: $d\sim ({\rho }_b^{3/2}{D}_b^{2}H{)}^{1/3}$. The scaling with properties of the medium is also established. The crater depth has significance for granular mechanics in that it relates to the stopping force on the ball.

We observe experimentally that particle systems that would otherwise mix can be made to segregate and vice versa simply by adding moisture. Using a newly developed theoretical approach, we generate phase diagrams that exhibit both mixed and segregated phases and show how the location of phase boundaries may be manipulated via modifying the mechanical and surface properties of the particles. These results have implications for industrial mixing/separation processes as well as novel particle production methods (e.g., engineered agglomerates with precisely prescribed compositions).

We introduce a dynamic light scattering technique capable of resolving motion that changes systematically, and rapidly, with time. It is based on the visibility of a speckle pattern for a given exposure duration. Applying this to a vibrated layer of glass beads, we measure the granular temperature and its variation with phase in the oscillation cycle. We observe several transitions involving jammed states, where the grains are at rest during some portion of the cycle. We also observe a two-step decay of the temperature on approach to jamming.

When a viscous liquid hits a pool of liquid of the same nature, the impact region is hollowed by the shock. Its bottom becomes extremely sharp if increasing the impact velocity, and we report that the curvature at that place increases exponentially with the flow velocity, in agreement with a theory by Jeong and Moffatt. Such a law defines a characteristic velocity for the collapse of the tip, which explains both the cusplike shape of this region, and the instability of the cusp if increasing (slightly) the impact velocity. Then, a film of the upper phase is entrained inside the pool. We characterize the critical velocity of entrainment of this phase and compare our results with recent predictions by Eggers.

We show that a weak probe light beam can form spatial solitons in an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) medium composed of four-level atoms and a coupling light field. We find that the coupling light beam can induce a highly controllable nonlinear waveguide and exert very strong effects on the dynamical behavior of the solitons. Hence, in the EIT medium, it is not only possible to produce spatial solitons at very low light intensities but also simultaneously control these solitons by using the coupling-light-induced nonlinear waveguide.

An innovative approach to finding limit cycles is proposed and illustrated on the van der Pol equation. The technique developed in this Letter is similar to the Ritz’s method in variational theory. The present theory can be applied to not only weakly nonlinear equations, but also strongly nonlinear ones, and the obtained results are valid for the whole solution domain.

We study sound propagation in a triangular lattice of spherical beads under isotropic stress. Polydispersity of real beads breaks some contacts, creating a disordered lattice of contacting beads. At large stress, the sound velocity behaves according to Hertz contact law and departs from it at lower stress. This evolution is reversible, with the same crossover when increasing or decreasing the stress, for a given piling. Correlations are much more sensitive to disorder. When calculated with signals propagated in the same lattice, they evolve reversibly with the stress, being much higher at large stress when the contact lattice is more regular. This leads to an interpretation of the non-Hertzian behavior in terms of progressive activation of contacts, in discrepancy with previous models involving buckling of force chains.

We report an experimental study of the magnetic field $\overrightarrow{B}$ induced by a turbulent swirling flow of liquid sodium submitted to a transverse magnetic field ${\overrightarrow{B}}_0$. We show that the induced field can behave nonlinearly as a function of the magnetic Reynolds number, $R_m$. At low $R_m$, the induced mean field along the axis of the flow, $⟨B_x⟩$, and the one parallel to ${\overrightarrow{B}}_0$, $⟨B_y⟩$, first behave like $R_m^2$, whereas the third component, $⟨B_z⟩$, is linear in $R_m$. The sign of $⟨B_x⟩$ is determined by the flow helicity. At higher $R_m$, $\overrightarrow{B}$ strongly depends on the local geometry of the mean flow: $⟨B_x⟩$ decreases to zero in the core of the swirling flow but remains finite outside. We compare the experimental results with the computed magnetic induction due to the mean flow alone.

We detect hints of determinism in an apparently stochastic corrosion problem. This experimental system has industrial relevance as it mimics the corrosion processes of pipelines transporting water, hydrocarbons, or other fuels to remote destinations. We subject this autonomous system to external periodic perturbations. Keeping the amplitude of the superimposed perturbations constant and varying the frequency, the system’s response is analyzed. It reveals the presence of an optimal forcing frequency for which maximal response is achieved. These results are consistent with those for a deterministic system and indicate a classical resonance between the forcing signal and the autonomous dynamics. Numerical studies using a generic corrosion model are carried out to complement the experimental findings.

We show that the onset of global chaos in a time periodically perturbed Hamiltonian system may occur at unusually small magnitudes of perturbation if the unperturbed system possesses more than one separatrix. The relevant scenario is the combination of the overlap in the phase space between resonances of the same order and their overlap in energy with chaotic layers associated with separatrices of the unperturbed system. We develop the asymptotic theory and verify it in simulations.