Dynamical Casimir effect in a periodically changing domain: A dynamical systems approach

We study the problem of the behavior of a quantum massless scalar field in the space between two parallel infinite perfectly conducting plates, one of them stationary, the other moving periodically. We reformulate the physical problem into a problem about the asymptotic behavior of the iterates of a map of the circle, and then apply results from theory of dynamical systems to study the properties of the map. Many of the general mathematical properties of maps of the circle translate into properties of the field in the cavity. For example, we give a complete classification of the possible resonances in the system, and show that small enough perturbations do not destroy the resonances. We use some mathematical identities to give transparent physical interpretation of the processes of creation and amplification of the quantum field due to the motion of the boundary and to elucidate the similarities and the differences between the classical and quantum fields in domains with moving boundaries.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure

Energy Dissipation in Fractal-Forced Flow

The rate of energy dissipation in solutions of the body-forced 3-d incompressible Navier-Stokes equations is rigorously estimated with a focus on its dependence on the nature of the driving force. For square integrable body forces the high Reynolds number (low viscosity) upper bound on the dissipation is independent of the viscosity, consistent with the existence of a conventional turbulent energy cascade. On the other hand when the body force is not square integrable, i.e., when the Fourier spectrum of the force decays sufficiently slowly at high wavenumbers, there is significant direct driving at a broad range of spatial scales. Then the upper limit for the dissipation rate may diverge at high Reynolds numbers, consistent with recent experimental and computational studies of "fractal-forced'' turbulence.Comment: 14 page

Boundaries of Siegel Disks: Numerical Studies of their Dynamics and Regularity

Siegel disks are domains around fixed points of holomorphic maps in which the maps are locally linearizable (i.e., become a rotation under an appropriate change of coordinates which is analytic in a neighborhood of the origin). The dynamical behavior of the iterates of the map on the boundary of the Siegel disk exhibits strong scaling properties which have been intensively studied in the physical and mathematical literature. In the cases we study, the boundary of the Siegel disk is a Jordan curve containing a critical point of the map (we consider critical maps of different orders), and there exists a natural parametrization which transforms the dynamics on the boundary into a rotation. We compute numerically this parameterization and use methods of harmonic analysis to compute the global Holder regularity of the parametrization for different maps and rotation numbers. We obtain that the regularity of the boundaries and the scaling exponents are universal numbers in the sense of renormalization theory (i.e., they do not depend on the map when the map ranges in an open set), and only depend on the order of the critical point of the map in the boundary of the Siegel disk and the tail of the continued function expansion of the rotation number. We also discuss some possible relations between the regularity of the parametrization of the boundaries and the corresponding scaling exponents. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.NSFMathematic

Theory of Circle Maps and the Problem of One-Dimensional Optical Resonator with a Periodically Moving Wall

We consider the electromagnetic field in a cavity with a periodically oscillating perfectly reflecting boundary and show that the mathematical theory of circle maps leads to several physical predictions. Notably, well-known results in the theory of circle maps (which we review briefly) imply that there are intervals of parameters where the waves in the cavity get concentrated in wave packets whose energy grows exponentially. Even if these intervals are dense for typical motions of the reflecting boundary, in the complement there is a positive measure set of parameters where the energy remains bounded.Comment: 34 pages LaTeX (revtex) with eps figures, PACS: 02.30.Jr, 42.15.-i, 42.60.Da, 42.65.Y

Stratus cloud structure from MM-radar transects and satellite images: scaling properties and artifact detection with semi-discrete wavelet analysis

Spatial and/or temporal variabilities of clouds is of paramount importance for at least two in tensely researched sub-problems in global and regional climate modeling: (1) cloud-radiation interaction where correlations can trigger 3D radiative transfer effects; and (2) dynamical cloud modeling where the goal is to realistically reproduce the said correlations. We propose wavelets as a simple yet powerful way of quantifying cloud variability. More precisely, we use 'semi-discrete' wavelet transforms which, at least in the present statistical applications, have advantages over both its continuous and discrete counterparts found in the bulk of the wavelet literature. With the particular choice of normalization we adopt, the scale-dependence of the variance of the wavelet coefficients (i.e,, the wavelet energy spectrum) is always a better discriminator of transition from 'stationary' to 'nonstationary' behavior than conventional methods based on auto-correlation analysis, second-order structure function (a.k.a. the semi-variogram), or Fourier analysis. Indeed, the classic statistics go at best from monotonically scale- or wavenumber-dependent to flat at such a transition; by contrast, the wavelet spectrum changes the sign of its derivative with respect to scale. We apply 1D and 2D semi-discrete wavelet transforms to remote sensing data on cloud structure from two sources: (1) an upward-looking milli-meter cloud radar (MMCR) at DOE's climate observation site in Oklahoma deployed as part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Progrm; and (2) DOE's Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI), a high-resolution space-borne instrument in sunsynchronous orbit that is described in sufficient detail for our present purposes by Weber et al. (1999). For each type of data, we have at least one theoretical prediction - with empirical validation already in existence - for a power-law relation for wavelet statistics with respect to scale. This is what is expected in physical (i.e., finite scaling range) fractal phenomena. In particular, we find long-range correlations in cloud structure coming from the important nonstationary regime. More surprisingly, we also uncover artifacts the data that are traceable either to instrumental noise (in the satellite data) or to smoothing assumptions (in the MMCR data processing). Finally, we discuss the potentially damaging ramifications the smoothing artifact can have on both cloud-radiation and cloud-modeling studies using MMCR data

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe