J.M. Salazar

Evidence of Chaotic Dynamics of Brain Activity During the Sleep Cycle

The study of complex systems may be performed by analysing experimental data recorded as a series of measurements in time of a pertinent and easily accessible variable of the system. In most cases, such variables describe a global or averaged property of the system.

A 3D mesoscopic approach for discrete dislocation dynamics

In recent years a noticeable renewed interest in modeling dislocations at the mesoscopic scale has been developed leading to significant advances in the field. This interest has arisen from a desire to link the atomistic and macroscopic length scales. In this context, we have recently developed a 3D-discrete dislocation dynamics model (DDD) based on a nodal discretization of the dislocations. We present here the basis of our DDD model and two examples of studies with single and multiple slip planes.

From particle segregation to the granular clock

Recently several authors studied the segregation of particles for a system composed of mono-dispersed inelastic spheres contained in a box divided by a wall in the middle. The system exhibited a symmetry breaking leading to an overpopulation of particles in one side of the box. Here we study the segregation of a mixture of particles composed of inelastic hard spheres and fluidized by a vibrating wall. Our numerical simulations show a rich phenomenology: horizontal segregation and periodic behavior. We also propose an empirical system of ODEs representing the proportion of each type of particles and the segregation flux of particles. These equations reproduce the major features observed by the simulations.

Energy and number of collision fluctuations in inelastic gases

The two-dimensional Inelastic Maxwell Model (IMM) is studied by numerical simulations. It is shown how the inelasticity of collisions together with the fluctuations of the number of collisions undergone by a particle lead to energy fluctuations. These fluctuations are associated to a shrinking of the available phase space. We find the asymptotic scaling of these energy fluctuations and show how they affect the tail of the velocity distribution during long time intervals. We stress that these fluctuations relax like power laws on much slower time scales than the usual exponential relaxations taking place in kinetic theory.

On the dynamics of dislocation patterning

Recent computer simulations on dislocation patterning have provided remarkable results in accordance with empirical laws. Moreover, several analytical models on dislocation dynamics have provided qualitative insight on dislocation patterning. However, a model, based on partial differential equations, which gives a dynamical evolution of dislocation patterns in function of measurable variables still missing. Here, we give a re-formulation of a model proposed some years ago. From this formulation, we obtained that the onset of a dislocation instability is related to the applied stress. The analytical and numerical results reported are partial and studies on this direction are under development.

On high-energy tails in inelastic gases

We study the formation of high-energy tails in a one-dimensional kinetic model for granular gases, the so-called Inelastic Maxwell Model. We introduce a time-discretized version of the stochastic process, and show that continuous time implies larger fluctuations of the particles energies. This is due to a statistical relation between the number of inelastic collisions undergone by a particle and its average energy. This feature is responsible for the high-energy tails in the model, as shown by computer simulations and by analytical calculations on a linear Lorentz model.

Exact results for the homogeneous cooling state of an inelastic hard-sphere gas

The infinite set of moments of the two-particle distribution function is found exactly for the uniform cooling state of a hard-sphere gas with inelastic collisions. Their form shows that velocity correlations cannot be neglected, and consequently the ‘molecular chaos’ hypothesis leading to the inelastic Boltzmann and Enskog kinetic equations must be questioned.