Nonlinear normal modes and spectral submanifolds: Existence, uniqueness and use in model reduction

We propose a unified approach to nonlinear modal analysis in dissipative oscillatory systems. This approach eliminates conflicting definitions, covers both autonomous and time-dependent systems, and provides exact mathematical existence, uniqueness and robustness results. In this setting, a nonlinear normal mode (NNM) is a set filled with small-amplitude recurrent motions: a fixed point, a periodic orbit or the closure of a quasiperiodic orbit. In contrast, a spectral submanifold (SSM) is an invariant manifold asymptotic to a NNM, serving as the smoothest nonlinear continuation of a spectral subspace of the linearized system along the NNM. The existence and uniqueness of SSMs turns out to depend on a spectral quotient computed from the real part of the spectrum of the linearized system. This quotient may well be large even for small dissipation, thus the inclusion of damping is essential for firm conclusions about NNMs, SSMs and the reduced-order models they yield.Comment: To appear in Nonlinear Dynamic

Breathers in inhomogeneous nonlinear lattices: an analysis via centre manifold reduction

We consider an infinite chain of particles linearly coupled to their nearest neighbours and subject to an anharmonic local potential. The chain is assumed weakly inhomogeneous. We look for small amplitude discrete breathers. The problem is reformulated as a nonautonomous recurrence in a space of time-periodic functions, where the dynamics is considered along the discrete spatial coordinate. We show that small amplitude oscillations are determined by finite-dimensional nonautonomous mappings, whose dimension depends on the solutions frequency. We consider the case of two-dimensional reduced mappings, which occurs for frequencies close to the edges of the phonon band. For an homogeneous chain, the reduced map is autonomous and reversible, and bifurcations of reversible homoclinics or heteroclinic solutions are found for appropriate parameter values. These orbits correspond respectively to discrete breathers, or dark breathers superposed on a spatially extended standing wave. Breather existence is shown in some cases for any value of the coupling constant, which generalizes an existence result obtained by MacKay and Aubry at small coupling. For an inhomogeneous chain the study of the nonautonomous reduced map is in general far more involved. For the principal part of the reduced recurrence, using the assumption of weak inhomogeneity, we show that homoclinics to 0 exist when the image of the unstable manifold under a linear transformation intersects the stable manifold. This provides a geometrical understanding of tangent bifurcations of discrete breathers. The case of a mass impurity is studied in detail, and our geometrical analysis is successfully compared with direct numerical simulations

Cooperative surmounting of bottlenecks

The physics of activated escape of objects out of a metastable state plays a key role in diverse scientific areas involving chemical kinetics, diffusion and dislocation motion in solids, nucleation, electrical transport, motion of flux lines superconductors, charge density waves, and transport processes of macromolecules, to name but a few. The underlying activated processes present the multidimensional extension of the Kramers problem of a single Brownian particle. In comparison to the latter case, however, the dynamics ensuing from the interactions of many coupled units can lead to intriguing novel phenomena that are not present when only a single degree of freedom is involved. In this review we report on a variety of such phenomena that are exhibited by systems consisting of chains of interacting units in the presence of potential barriers. In the first part we consider recent developments in the case of a deterministic dynamics driving cooperative escape processes of coupled nonlinear units out of metastable states. The ability of chains of coupled units to undergo spontaneous conformational transitions can lead to a self-organised escape. The mechanism at work is that the energies of the units become re-arranged, while keeping the total energy conserved, in forming localised energy modes that in turn trigger the cooperative escape. We present scenarios of significantly enhanced noise-free escape rates if compared to the noise-assisted case. The second part deals with the collective directed transport of systems of interacting particles overcoming energetic barriers in periodic potential landscapes. Escape processes in both time-homogeneous and time-dependent driven systems are considered for the emergence of directed motion. It is shown that ballistic channels immersed in the associated high-dimensional phase space are the source for the directed long-range transport

Refined Analytical Approximations to Limit Cycles for Non-Linear Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Systems

This paper presents analytical higher order approximations to limit cycles of an autonomous multi-degree-of-freedom system based on an integro-differential equation method for obtaining periodic solutions to nonlinear differential equations. The stability of the limit cycles obtained was then investigated using a method for carrying out Floquet analysis based on developments to extensions of the method for solving Hill's Determinant arising in analysing the Mathieu equation, which have previously been reported in the literature. The results of the Floquet analysis, together with the limit cycle predictions, have then been used to provide some estimates of points on the boundary of the domain of attraction of stable equilibrium points arising from a sub-critical Hopf bifurcation. This was achieved by producing a local approximation to the stable manifold of the unstable limit cycle that occurs. The integro-differential equation to be solved for the limit cycles involves no approximations. These only arise through the iterative approach adopted for its solution in which the first approximation is that which would be obtained from the harmonic balance method using only fundamental frequency terms. The higher order approximations are shown to give significantly improved predictions for the limit cycles for the cases considered. The Floquet analysis based approach to predicting the boundary of domains of attraction met with some success for conditions just following a sub-critical Hopf bifurcation. Although this study has focussed on cubic non-linearities, the method presented here could equally be used to refine limit cycle predictions for other non-linearity types.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Nonlinear analysis of spacecraft thermal models

We study the differential equations of lumped-parameter models of spacecraft thermal control. Firstly, we consider a satellite model consisting of two isothermal parts (nodes): an outer part that absorbs heat from the environment as radiation of various types and radiates heat as a black-body, and an inner part that just dissipates heat at a constant rate. The resulting system of two nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the satellite's temperatures is analyzed with various methods, which prove that the temperatures approach a steady state if the heat input is constant, whereas they approach a limit cycle if it varies periodically. Secondly, we generalize those methods to study a many-node thermal model of a spacecraft: this model also has a stable steady state under constant heat inputs that becomes a limit cycle if the inputs vary periodically. Finally, we propose new numerical analyses of spacecraft thermal models based on our results, to complement the analyses normally carried out with commercial software packages.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figure

Non-commutative lattice modified Gel'fand-Dikii systems

We introduce integrable multicomponent non-commutative lattice systems, which can be considered as analogs of the modified Gel'fand-Dikii hierarchy. We present the corresponding systems of Lax pairs and we show directly multidimensional consistency of these Gel'fand-Dikii type equations. We demonstrate how the systems can be obtained as periodic reductions of the non-commutative lattice Kadomtsev-Petviashvilii hierarchy. The geometric description of the hierarchy in terms of Desargues maps helps to derive non-isospectral generalization of the non-commutative lattice modified Gel'fand-Dikii systems. We show also how arbitrary functions of single arguments appear naturally in our approach when making commutative reductions, which we illustrate on the non-isospectral non-autonomous versions of the lattice modified Korteweg-de Vries and Boussinesq systems.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure; types corrected, conclusion section and new references added (v2