1,075 research outputs found
Cnoidal Waves on Fermi-Pasta-Ulam Lattices
We study a chain of infinitely many particles coupled by nonlinear springs,
obeying the equations of motion [\ddot{q}_n = V'(q_{n+1}-q_n) -
V'(q_n-q_{n-1})] with generic nearest-neighbour potential . We show that
this chain carries exact spatially periodic travelling waves whose profile is
asymptotic, in a small-amlitude long-wave regime, to the KdV cnoidal waves. The
discrete waves have three interesting features: (1) being exact travelling
waves they keep their shape for infinite time, rather than just up to a
timescale of order wavelength suggested by formal asymptotic analysis,
(2) unlike solitary waves they carry a nonzero amount of energy per particle,
(3) analogous behaviour of their KdV continuum counterparts suggests long-time
stability properties under nonlinear interaction with each other. Connections
with the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence phenomena are indicated. Proofs involve an
adaptation of the renormalization approach of Friesecke and Pego (1999) to a
periodic setting and the spectral theory of the periodic Schr\"odinger operator
with KdV cnoidal wave potential.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure
Observation of Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou Recurrence and Its Exact Dynamics
One of the most controversial phenomena in nonlinear dynamics is the reappearance of initial
conditions. Celebrated as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou problem, the attempt to understand how these
recurrences form during the complex evolution that leads to equilibrium has deeply influenced the entire
development of nonlinear science. The enigma is rendered even more intriguing by the fact that integrable
models predict recurrence as exact solutions, but the difficulties involved in upholding integrability for a
sufficiently long dynamic has not allowed a quantitative experimental validation. In natural processes,
coupling with the environment rapidly leads to thermalization, and finding nonlinear multimodal systems
presenting multiple returns is a long-standing open challenge. Here, we report the observation of more than
three Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou recurrences for nonlinear optical spatial waves and demonstrate the
control of the recurrent behavior through the phase and amplitude of the initial field. The recurrence period
and phase shift are found to be in remarkable agreement with the exact recurrent solution of the nonlinear
Schrödinger equation, while the recurrent behavior disappears as integrability is lost. These results identify
the origin of the recurrence in the integrability of the underlying dynamics and allow us to achieve one of
the basic aspirations of nonlinear dynamics: the reconstruction, after several return cycles, of the exact
initial condition of the system, ultimately proving that the complex evolution can be accurately predicted in
experimental conditions
Nonlinear Lattice Dynamics of Bose-Einstein Condensates
The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) model, which was proposed 50 years ago to examine
thermalization in non-metallic solids and develop ``experimental'' techniques
for studying nonlinear problems, continues to yield a wealth of results in the
theory and applications of nonlinear Hamiltonian systems with many degrees of
freedom. Inspired by the studies of this seminal model, solitary-wave dynamics
in lattice dynamical systems have proven vitally important in a diverse range
of physical problems--including energy relaxation in solids, denaturation of
the DNA double strand, self-trapping of light in arrays of optical waveguides,
and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in optical lattices. BECS, in particular,
due to their widely ranging and easily manipulated dynamical apparatuses--with
one to three spatial dimensions, positive-to-negative tuning of the
nonlinearity, one to multiple components, and numerous experimentally
accessible external trapping potentials--provide one of the most fertile
grounds for the analysis of solitary waves and their interactions. In this
paper, we review recent research on BECs in the presence of deep periodic
potentials, which can be reduced to nonlinear chains in appropriate
circumstances. These reductions, in turn, exhibit many of the remarkable
nonlinear structures (including solitons, intrinsic localized modes, and
vortices) that lie at the heart of the nonlinear science research seeded by the
FPU paradigm.Comment: 10 pages, revtex, two-columns, 3 figs, accepted fpr publication in
Chaos's focus issue on the 50th anniversary of the publication of the
Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem; minor clarifications (and a couple corrected typos)
from previous versio
The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem: 50 years of progress
A brief review of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) paradox is given, together with
its suggested resolutions and its relation to other physical problems. We focus
on the ideas and concepts that have become the core of modern nonlinear
mechanics, in their historical perspective. Starting from the first numerical
results of FPU, both theoretical and numerical findings are discussed in close
connection with the problems of ergodicity, integrability, chaos and stability
of motion. New directions related to the Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum
systems of interacting Bose-particles are also considered.Comment: 48 pages, no figures, corrected and accepted for publicatio
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