Comment on "Classical Mechanics of Nonconservative Systems"

A Comment on the Letter by C. R. Galley, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 174301 (2013)

Chain Paradoxes

For nearly two centuries the dynamics of chains have offered examples of paradoxical theoretical predictions. Here we propose a theory for the dissipative dynamics of one-dimensional continua with singularities which provides a unified treatment for chain problems that have suffered from paradoxical solutions. These problems are duly solved within the present theory and their paradoxes removed---we hope

Dissipative Shocks behind Bacteria Gliding

Gliding is a means of locomotion on rigid substrates utilized by a number of bacteria includingmyxobacteria and cyanobacteria. One of the hypotheses advanced to explain this motility mechanism hinges on the role played by the slime filaments continuously extruded from gliding bacteria. This paper solves in full a non-linear mechanical theory that treats as dissipative shocks both the point where the extruded slime filament comes in contact with the substrate, called the filament's foot, and the pore on the bacterium outer surface from where the filament is ejected. We prove that kinematic compatibility for shock propagation requires that the bacterium uniform gliding velocity (relative to the substrate) and the slime ejecting velocity (relative to the bacterium) must be equal, a coincidence that seems to have already been observed.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1402.636

Octupolar order in two dimensions

Octupolar order is described in two space dimensions in terms of the maxima (and conjugated minima) of the probability density associated with a third-rank, fully symmetric and traceless tensor. Such a representation is shown to be equivalent to diagonalizing the relevant third-rank tensor, an equivalence which however is only valid in the two-dimensional case

Dissipative shocks in a chain fountain

The fascinating and anomalous behaviour of a chain that instead of falling straight down under gravity, first rises and then falls, acquiring a steady shape in space that resembles a fountain's sprinkle, has recently attracted both popular and academic interest. The paper presents a complete mathematical solution of this problem, whose distinctive feature is the introduction of a number of dissipative shocks which can be resolved exactly

The symmetries of octupolar tensors

Octupolar tensors are third order, completely symmetric and traceless tensors. Whereas in 2D an octupolar tensor has the same symmetries as an equilateral triangle and can ultimately be identified with a vector in the plane, the symmetries that it enjoys in 3D are quite different, and only exceptionally reduce to those of a regular tetrahedron. By use of the octupolar potential that is, the cubic form associated on the unit sphere with an octupolar tensor, we shall classify all inequivalent octupolar symmetries. This is a mathematical study which also reviews and incorporates some previous, less systematic attempts

Explicit excluded volume of cylindrically symmetric convex bodies

We represent explicitly the excluded volume Ve{B1,B2} of two generic cylindrically symmetric, convex rigid bodies, B1 and B2, in terms of a family of shape functionals evaluated separately on B1 and B2. We show that Ve{B1,B2} fails systematically to feature a dipolar component, thus making illusory the assignment of any shape dipole to a tapered body in this class. The method proposed here is applied to cones and validated by a shape-reconstruction algorithm. It is further applied to spheroids (ellipsoids of revolution), for which it shows how some analytic estimates already regarded as classics should indeed be emended

Octupolar Tensors for Liquid Crystals

A third-order three-dimensional symmetric traceless tensor, called the \emph{octupolar} tensor, has been introduced to study tetrahedratic nematic phases in liquid crystals. The octupolar \emph{potential}, a scalar-valued function generated on the unit sphere by that tensor, should ideally have four maxima capturing the most probable molecular orientations (on the vertices of a tetrahedron), but it was recently found to possess an equally generic variant with \emph{three} maxima instead of four. It was also shown that the irreducible admissible region for the octupolar tensor in a three-dimensional parameter space is bounded by a dome-shaped surface, beneath which is a \emph{separatrix} surface connecting the two generic octupolar states. The latter surface, which was obtained through numerical continuation, may be physically interpreted as marking a possible \emph{intra-octupolar} transition. In this paper, by using the resultant theory of algebraic geometry and the E-characteristic polynomial of spectral theory of tensors, we give a closed-form, algebraic expression for both the dome-shaped surface and the separatrix surface. This turns the envisaged intra-octupolar transition into a quantitative, possibly observable prediction. Some other properties of octupolar tensors are also studied