290 research outputs found
Sports Heroes and Mass Sports Participation â the (Double) Paradox of the 'German Tennis Boom'
Hamiltonian Hopf bifurcations in the discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger trimer: oscillatory instabilities, quasiperiodic solutions and a 'new' type of self-trapping transition
Oscillatory instabilities in Hamiltonian anharmonic lattices are known to
appear through Hamiltonian Hopf bifurcations of certain time-periodic solutions
of multibreather type. Here, we analyze the basic mechanisms for this scenario
by considering the simplest possible model system of this kind where they
appear: the three-site discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger model with periodic
boundary conditions. The stationary solution having equal amplitude and
opposite phases on two sites and zero amplitude on the third is known to be
unstable for an interval of intermediate amplitudes. We numerically analyze the
nature of the two bifurcations leading to this instability and find them to be
of two different types. Close to the lower-amplitude threshold stable
two-frequency quasiperiodic solutions exist surrounding the unstable stationary
solution, and the dynamics remains trapped around the latter so that in
particular the amplitude of the originally unexcited site remains small. By
contrast, close to the higher-amplitude threshold all two-frequency
quasiperiodic solutions are detached from the unstable stationary solution, and
the resulting dynamics is of 'population-inversion' type involving also the
originally unexcited site.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, to be published in J. Phys. A: Math. Gen.
Revised and shortened version with few clarifying remarks adde
Time evolution of models described by one-dimensional discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation
The dynamics of models described by a one-dimensional discrete nonlinear
Schr\"odinger equation is studied. The nonlinearity in these models appears due
to the coupling of the electronic motion to optical oscillators which are
treated in adiabatic approximation. First, various sizes of nonlinear cluster
embedded in an infinite linear chain are considered. The initial excitation is
applied either at the end-site or at the middle-site of the cluster. In both
the cases we obtain two kinds of transition: (i) a cluster-trapping transition
and (ii) a self-trapping transition. The dynamics of the quasiparticle with the
end-site initial excitation are found to exhibit, (i) a sharp self-trapping
transition, (ii) an amplitude-transition in the site-probabilities and (iii)
propagating soliton-like waves in large clusters. Ballistic propagation is
observed in random nonlinear systems. The effect of nonlinear impurities on the
superdiffusive behavior of random-dimer model is also studied.Comment: 16 pages, REVTEX, 9 figures available upon request, To appear in
Physical Review
The Feel-Good Effect at Mega Sport Events - Recommendations for Public and Private Administration Informed by the Experience of the FIFA World Cup 2006
Reading faces: differential lateral gaze bias in processing canine and human facial expressions in dogs and 4-year-old children
Sensitivity to the emotions of others provides clear biological advantages. However, in the case of heterospecific relationships, such as that existing between dogs and humans, there are additional challenges since some elements of the expression of emotions are species-specific. Given that faces provide important visual cues for communicating emotional state in both humans and dogs, and that processing of emotions is subject to brain lateralisation, we investigated lateral gaze bias in adult dogs when presented with pictures of expressive human and dog faces. Our analysis revealed clear differences in laterality of eye movements in dogs towards conspecific faces according to the emotional valence of the expressions. Differences were also found towards human faces, but to a lesser extent. For comparative purpose, a similar experiment was also run with 4-year-old children and it was observed that they showed differential processing of facial expressions compared to dogs, suggesting a species-dependent engagement of the right or left hemisphere in processing emotions
- âŚ