Physics

With the rich dynamics studies of single-state processes, the two-state processes attract more and more interests of people, since they are widely observed in complex system and have effective applications in diverse fields, say, foraging behavior of animals. This report builds the theoretical foundation of the process with two states: Lévy walk and Brownian motion, having been proved to be an efficient intermittent search process. The sojourn time distributions in two states are both assumed to be heavy-tailed with exponents α ± ∈(0,2) . The dynamical behaviors of this two-state process are obtained through analyzing the ensemble-averaged and time-averaged mean squared displacements (MSDs) in weak and strong aging cases. It is discovered that the magnitude relationship of α ± decides the fraction of two states for long times, playing a crucial role in these MSDs. According to the generic expressions of MSDs, some inherent characteristics of the two-state process are detected. The effects of the fraction on these observables are detailedly presented in six different cases. The key of getting these results is to calculate the velocity correlation function of the two-state process, the techniques of which can be generalized to other multi-state processes.

An analytical method of calculating eddy current in a metallic spinning gyroscope in external magnetic field is presented. With reasonable assumptions, the problem is simplified from the time-dependent one governed by Maxwell equations to the boundary value problem of Poisson equation, which yields a closed form expression of the eddy current. The rotation frequency as a function of time is calculated, compared with experiment and the relative error is found to be 8.61%.

A simple procedure is presented to study the conservation of energy equation with dissipation in continuum mechanics in 1D. This procedure is used to transform this nonlinear evolution-diffusion equation into a hyperbolic PDE; specifically, a second order quasi-linear wave equation. An immediate implication of this procedure is the formation of a least action principle for the balance of energy with dissipation. The corresponding action functional enables us to establish a complete analytic mechanics for thermomechanical systems: a Lagrangian-Hamiltonian theory, integrals of motion, bracket formalism, and Noether's theorem. Furthermore, we apply our procedure iteratively and produce an infinite sequence of interlocked variational principles, a variational hierarchy, where at each level or iteration the full implication of the least action principle can be shown again.

In this paper, we completely eliminate all numerical integrations needed to compute the far-field envelope cross-correlation (ECC) in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems by deriving accurate and efficient analytical expressions for the frequency-domain cross-correlation Green's functions (CGF), the most fundamental electromagnetic kernel needed for understanding and estimating spatial correlation metrics in multiple-antenna configurations. The analytical CGF is derived for the most general three-dimensional case, which can be used for fast CGF-based correlation matrix calculations in MIMO systems valid for arbitrary locations and relative polarizations of the constituent elements.

A simple analytical model based on the transmission-matrix approach is proposed for equivalent wire-medium (WM) interfaces. The obtained ABCD matrices for equivalent interfaces capture the non-local effects due to the evanescent transverse magnetic (TM) WM mode and in part due to the propagating transverse electromagnetic (TEM) WM mode. This enables one to characterize the overall response of bounded WM structures by cascading the ABCD matrices of equivalent WM interfaces and WM slabs as transmission lines supporting only the propagating TEM WM mode, resulting in a simple circuit-model formalism for bounded WM structures with arbitrary terminations, including the open-end, patch/slot arrays, and thin metal/2D material, among others. The individual ABCD matrices for equivalent WM interfaces apparently violate the conservation of energy and reciprocity, and therefore, the equivalent interfaces apparently behave as non-reciprocal lossy or active systems. However, the overall response of a bounded WM structure is consistent with the lossless property maintaining the conservation of energy and reciprocity. These unusual features are explained by the fact that in the non-local WM the Poynting vector has an additional correction term which takes into account a "hidden power" due to non-local effects. Results are obtained for various numerical examples demonstrating a rapid and efficient solution for bounded WM structures, including the case of geometrically complex multilayer configurations with arbitrary terminations, subject to the condition that WM interfaces are decoupled by the evanescent TM WM mode below the plasma frequency.

FFT-based solvers are increasingly used by many researcher groups interested in modelling the mechanical behavior associated to a heterogeneous microstructure. A development is reported here that concerns the viscoelastic behavior of composite structures generally studied experimentally through Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA). A parallelized computation code developed under complex-valued quantities provides virtual DMA experiments directly in the frequency domain on a heterogenous system described by a voxel grid of mechanical properties. The achieved precision and computation times are very good. An effort has been made to show the application of such virtual DMA tool starting from two examples found in the literature: the modelling of glassy/amorphous systems at a small scale and the modelling of experimental data obtained in temperature sweeping mode by DMA on a particulate composite made of glass beads and a polystyrene matrix, at a larger scale. Both examples show how virtual DMA can contribute to question, analyze, understand relaxation phenomena either on the theoretical or experimental point of view.

We extend the usual derivation of the wave equation from Maxwell's equations in vacuum to the case of electromagnetic fields in dispersive homogeneous isotropic linear media. Usually, dispersive properties of materials are studied in Fourier space. However, it can be rewarding to consider these properties as causal functions of time. Due to temporal non locality, this procedure gives rise to an integrodifferential equation for the electromagnetic fields, which we also call a wave equation. We have not found this equation in the literature and we show in this paper why it can be useful.

The characteristics of drive-free oscillations of a damped simple pendulum under sinusoidal potential force field differ from those of the damped harmonic oscillations. The frequency of oscillation of a large amplitude simple pendulum decreases with increasing amplitude. Many prototype mechanical simple pendulum have been fabricated with precision and studied earlier in view of introducing them in undergraduate physics laboratories. However, fabrication and maintenance of such mechanical pendulum require special skill. In this work, we set up an analog electronic simulation experiment to serve the purpose of studying the force-free oscillations of a damped simple pendulum. We present the details of the setup and some typical results of our experiment. The experiment is simple enough to implement in undergraduate physics laboratories.

Elastic material with its elastic tensor losing minor symmetry is considered impossible without introducing artificially body torque. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of such material by introducing rotational resonance, the amplified rotational inertia of the microstructure during dynamical loading breaks naturally the shear stress symmetry, without resorting to external body torque or any other active means. This concept is illustrated through a realistic mass-spring model together with analytical homogenization technique and band structure analysis. It is also proven that this metamaterial model can be deliberately tuned to meet the material requirement defined by transformation method for full control of elastic wave, and the relation bridging the microstructure and the desired wave functionality is explicitly given. Application of this asymmetric metamaterial to design elastic wave cloak is demonstrated and validated by numerical simulation. The study paves the way for material design used to construct the transformation media for controlling elastic wave and related devices.

We consider a periodic array of resonators, formed from Euler-Bernoulli beams, attached to the surface of an elastic half-space. Earlier studies of such systems have concentrated on compressional resonators. In this paper we consider the effect of the flexural motion of the resonators, adapting a recently established asymptotic methodology that leads to an explicit scalar hyperbolic equation governing the propagation of Rayleigh-like waves. Compared with classical approaches, the asymptotic model yields a significantly simpler dispersion relation, with closed form solutions, shown to be accurate for surface wave-speeds close to that of the Rayleigh wave. Special attention is devoted to the effect of various junction conditions joining the beams to the elastic half-space which arise from considering flexural motion and are not present for the case of purely compressional resonators. Such effects are shown to provide significant and interesting features and, in particular, the choice of junction conditions dramatically changes the distribution and sizes of stop bands. Given that flexural vibrations in thin beams are excited more readily than compressional modes and the ability to model elastic surface waves using the scalar wave equation (i.e. waves on a membrane), the paper provides new pathways toward novel experimental set-ups for elastic metasurfaces.