Zhonghuai Hou

Internal noise stochastic resonance in a circadian clock system

We have studied the influence of internal noise on a circadian clock system using stochastic simulation methods and chemical Langevin equations. It is found that internal noise can induce circadian oscillations, when the corresponding deterministic system does not oscillate. The performance of the noise induced circadian oscillation undergoes a maximum with the variation of the internal noise level, showing the occurrence of internal noise stochastic resonance. Since the magnitude of the internal noise is changed via the variation of the system size, these phenomena also demonstrate a kind of system size resonance.

Lattice Mismatch Induced Nonlinear Growth of Graphene

As a two-dimensional material, graphene can be naturally obtained via epitaxial growth on a suitable substrate. Growth condition optimization usually requires an atomistic level understanding of the growth mechanism. In this article, we perform a mechanistic study about graphene growth on Ir(111) surface by combining first principles calculations and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulations. Small carbon clusters on the Ir surface are checked first. On terraces, arching chain configurations are favorable in energy and they are also of relatively high mobilities. At steps, some magic two-dimensional compact structures are identified, which show clear relevance to the nucleation process. Attachment of carbon species to a graphene edge is then studied. Due to the effect of substrate, at some edge sites, atomic carbon attachment becomes thermodynamically unfavorable. Graphene growth at these difficult sites has to proceed via cluster attachment, which is the growth rate determining step. Based on such an inhomogeneous growth picture, kMC simulations are made possible by successfully separating different timescales, and they well reproduce the experimentally observed nonlinear kinetics. Different growth rates and nonlinear behaviors are predicted for different graphene orientations, which is consistent with available experimental results. Importantly, as a phenomenon originated from lattice mismatch, inhomogeneity revealed in this case is expected to be quite universal and it should also make important roles in many other hetero-epitaxial systems.As a two-dimensional material, graphene can be obtained via epitaxial growth on a suitable substrate. Recently, an interesting nonlinear behavior of graphene growth has been observed on some metal surfaces, but the underlying mechanism is still elusive. Taking the Ir(111) surface as an example, we perform a mechanistic study on graphene growth using a combined approach of first-principles calculations and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulations. Small carbon clusters on the terrace or at step sites are studied first. Then, we investigate how these small carbon species are attached to graphene edges. Generally, attachment of carbon atoms is thermodynamically favorable. However, due to substrate effect, there are also some edge sites where graphene growth must proceed via cluster attachment. The overall growth rate is determined by these cluster attachment processes, which have a much lower chance of happening compared to the monomer attachment. On the basis of such an inhomogeneous growth picture, kMC simulations are performed by separating different time scales, and the experimentally found quintic-like behavior is well reproduced. Different nonlinear growth behaviors are predicted for different graphene orientations, which is consistent with previous experiments. Inhomogeneity induced by lattice mismatch revealed in this study is expected to be a universal phenomenon and will play an important role in the growth of many other heteroepitaxial systems.

Stochastic resonance in the absence and presence of external signals for a chemical reaction

A catalytic reduction of NO with CO on Pt(100) surface is adopted to study its response under random perturbation. Noise-induced oscillations and noise-induced frequency shifts have been observed when the system works in the vicinity of the oscillatory region and meanwhile is subjected to random modulation of its feeding speed. Stochastic resonance behavior can be recognized from the noise-induced peak in the power spectrum even though in the absence of external signals. The numerical results have been obtained near supercritical Hopf bifurcation points, but are not confined to the classification of bifurcation. When the system falls into bistable regions, noise can help an external weak signal to induce state-to-state transitions and also shows a stochastic resonance behavior except for the case that the system has an isolated bifurcation scheme.

Stochastic resonance in catalytic reduction of NO with CO on Pt(100)

This paper presents a stochastic resonance occurring in a chemical reaction Pt(100)/NO+CO. The results were from numerical simulation of the nonlinear kinetic behavior of a three-variable reaction model obtained from the law of mass actions. The model exhibits a special region in the bifurcation scheme, where a stable node coexists with a stable limit cycle. When one of the control parameters is perturbed by a weak, low frequency periodic signal riding on a suitable external noisy background, transitions between the steady state and oscillatory state may become regular unexpectedly, and signal to noise ratio is thus enhanced at the signal frequency in the Fourier transform power spectrum of the time series output. That refers to stochastic resonance, in which the noise may play a constructive role in the detection of weak signals. The findings may suggest a new method to develop chemical sensitive devices in the field of applications. The paper also discusses the conditions of occurrence of stochastic res...

Effects of internal noise in mesoscopic chemical systems near Hopf bifurcation

The effects of internal noise in mesoscopic chemical oscillation systems have been studied analytically, in the parameter region close to the deterministic Hopf bifurcation. Starting from chemical Langevin equations, stochastic normal form equations are obtained, governing the evolution of the radius and phase of the stochastic oscillation. By stochastic averaging, the normal form equation can be solved analytically. Stationary distributions of the radius and auto-correlation functions of the phase variable are obtained. It is shown that internal noise can induce oscillation; even no deterministic oscillation exists. The radius of the noise-induced oscillation (NIO) becomes larger when the internal noise increases, but the correlation time becomes shorter. The trade-off between the strength and regularity of the NIO leads to a clear maximum in its signal-to-noise ratio when the internal noise changes, demonstrating the occurrence of internal noise coherent resonance. Since the intensity of the internal noise is inversely proportional to the system size, the phenomenon also indicates the existence of an optimal system size. These theoretical results are applied to a circadian clock system and excellent agreement with the numerical results is obtained.

Internal noise-enhanced phase synchronization of coupled chemical chaotic oscillators

The effect of internal noise on phase synchronization of two coupled chemical chaotic oscillators is investigated numerically using chemical Langevin equations. It is found that internal noise can enhance the phase synchronization, and there exists an optimal internal noise level such that the best phase synchronization is achieved. Since the magnitude of the internal noise is changed via the variation of the system size, these phenomena also indicate the existence of an optimal system size.

Stochastic resonance in surface catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide

Stochastic resonance is a nonlinear cooperative effect between external signal and noise, in which the noise can play a constructive role to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in the detection of a weak signal. A surface catalytic reaction model, to describe oxidization of carbon monoxide carrying out far from equilibrium, was adopted to study the stochastic resonance. By computer simulation, we found noise can induce state-to-state transitions, and stochastic resonance behavior may appear at narrow bistable states or near discontinuous Hopf bifurcations, while a weak periodic signal riding on noise is input controlling.

Stochastic bi-resonance without external signal in the CO+O2 catalytic oxidation reaction system

The noisy dynamic behavior of a surface catalytic reaction model to describe the oxidation of carbon monoxide is investigated when the control parameter is perturbed by external noise near a supercritical Hopf bifurcation point. Noise induced coherent oscillation (NICO) is observed and the NICO strength goes through two maxima with the increment of the noise intensity D from zero, characteristic of the occurrence of stochastic multiresonance without external signal. The frequency of the NICO also increases with the increment of D.

Delay-enhanced spatiotemporal order in coupled neuronal systems

In a network of noisy neuron oscillators with time-delayed coupling, we uncover a phenomenon of delay-enhanced spatiotemporal order. We find that time delay in the coupling can dramatically enhance the temporal coherence and spatial synchrony of the noise-induced spike trains. In addition, if the delay time is tuned to nearly match the intrinsic spiking period of the neuronal network, both the coherence and the synchrony reach maximum levels, demonstrating an interesting type of resonance phenomenon with delay. Such findings are shown to be robust to the change of the noise intensity and the rewiring probability of small-world network.

Stochastic resonance in the presence or absence of external signal in the continuous stirred tank reactor system

A two variable model, which has been proposed to describe a first-order, exothermic, irreversible reaction A→B carried out in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), is investigated when the control parameter is modulated by random and/or periodic forces. Within the bistable region where a limit cycle and a stable node coexist, stochastic resonance (SR) is observed when both random and periodic modulations are present. In the absence of periodic external signal noise induced coherent oscillations (NICO) appear when the control parameter is randomly modulated near the supercritical Hopf bifurcation point. In addition, the NICO-strength goes through a maximum with the increment of the noise intensity, characteristic for the occurrence of internal signal stochastic resonance (ISSR).