Averaging of equations of viscoelasticity with singularly oscillating external forces

Given $\rho\in[0,1]$, we consider for $\varepsilon\in(0,1]$ the nonautonomous viscoelastic equation with a singularly oscillating external force $$\partial_{tt} u-\kappa(0)\Delta u - \int_0^\infty \kappa'(s)\Delta u(t-s) d s +f(u)=g_{0}(t)+\varepsilon ^{-\rho }g_{1}(t/\varepsilon )$$ together with the {\it averaged} equation $$\partial_{tt} u-\kappa(0)\Delta u - \int_0^\infty \kappa'(s)\Delta u(t-s) d s +f(u)=g_{0}(t).$$ Under suitable assumptions on the nonlinearity and on the external force, the related solution processes $S_\varepsilon(t,\tau)$ acting on the natural weak energy space ${\mathcal H}$ are shown to possess uniform attractors ${\mathcal A}^\varepsilon$. Within the further assumption $\rho<1$, the family ${\mathcal A}^\varepsilon$ turns out to be bounded in ${\mathcal H}$, uniformly with respect to $\varepsilon\in[0,1]$. The convergence of the attractors ${\mathcal A}^\varepsilon$ to the attractor ${\mathcal A}^0$ of the averaged equation as $\varepsilon\to 0$ is also established

Measurement of scaling laws for shock waves in thermal nonlocal media

We are able to detect the details of spatial optical collisionless wave-breaking through the high aperture imaging of a beam suffering shock in a fluorescent nonlinear nonlocal thermal medium. This allows us to directly measure how nonlocality and nonlinearity affect the point of shock formation and compare results with numerical simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Tunneling into fractional quantum Hall liquids

Motivated by the recent experiment by Grayson et.al., we investigate a non-ohmic current-voltage characteristics for the tunneling into fractional quantum Hall liquids. We give a possible explanation for the experiment in terms of the chiral Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid theory. We study the interaction between the charge and neutral modes, and found that the leading order correction to the exponent $\alpha$ $(I\sim V^\alpha)$ is of the order of $\sqrt{\epsilon}$ $(\epsilon=v_n/v_c)$, which reduces the exponent $\alpha$. We suggest that it could explain the systematic discrepancy between the observed exponents and the exact $\alpha =1/\nu$ dependence.Comment: Latex, 5 page

Phase ordering with a global conservation law: Ostwald ripening and coalescence

Globally conserved phase ordering dynamics is investigated in systems with short range correlations in the initial condition. A Ginzburg-Landau equation with a global conservation law is employed as the phase field model. The conditions are found under which the sharp-interface limit of this equation is reducible to the area-preserving motion by curvature. Numerical simulations show that, for both critical and off-critical quench, the equal time pair correlation function exhibits dynamic scaling, and the characteristic coarsening length obeys a power law in time with a 1/2 exponent. For the critical quench, our results are in excellent agreement with earlier results. For off-critical quench (Ostwald ripening) we investigate the dynamics of the size distribution function of the minority phase domains. The simulations show that, at large times, this distribution function has a self-similar form with growth exponent 1/2. The scaled distribution, however, strongly differs from the classical Wagner distribution. We attribute this difference to coalescence of domains. A new theory of Ostwald ripening is developed that takes into account binary coalescence events. The theoretical scaled distribution function agrees very well with that obtained in the simulations.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, more details adde

Shock waves in disordered media

We experimentally investigate the interplay between spatial shock waves and the degree of disorder during nonlinear optical propagation in a thermal defocusing medium. We characterize the way the shock point is affected by the amount of disorder and scales with wave amplitude. Evidence for the existence of a phase diagram in terms of nonlinearity and amount of randomness is reported. The results are in quantitative agreement with a theoretical approach based on the hydrodynamic approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

A random laser tailored by directional stimulated emission

A disordered structure embedding an active gain material and able to lase is called random laser (RL). The RL spectrum may appear either like a set of sharp resonances or like a smooth line superimposed to the fluorescence. A recent letter accounts for this duality with the onset of a mode locked regime in which increasing the number of activated modes results in an increased inter mode correlation and a pulse shortening ascribed to a synchronization phenomenon. An extended discussion of our experimental approach together with an original study of the spatial properties of the RL is reported here.Comment: 9 Pages; 16 Figure

Continuum elasticity theory of edge excitations in a two-dimensional electron liquid with finite range interactions

We make use of continuum elasticity theory to investigate the collective modes that propagate along the edge of a two-dimensional electron liquid or crystal in a magnetic field. An exact solution of the equations of motion is obtained with the following simplifying assumptions: (i) The system is {\it macroscopically} homogeneous and isotropic in the half-plane delimited by the edge (ii) The electron-electron interaction is of finite range due to screening by external electrodes (iii) The system is nearly incompressible. At sufficiently small wave vector $q$ we find a universal dispersion curve $\omega \sim q$ independent of the shear modulus. At larger wave vectors the dispersion can change its form in a manner dependent on the comparison of various length scales. We obtain analytical formulas for the dispersion and damping of the modes in various physical regimes.Comment: 3 figure

Phase diagram and complexity of mode-locked lasers: from order to disorder

We investigate mode-locking processes in lasers displaying a variable degree of structural randomness, from standard optical cavities to multiple-scattering media. By employing methods mutuated from spin-glass theory, we analyze the mean-field Hamiltonian and derive a phase-diagram in terms of the pumping rate and the degree of disorder. Three phases are found: i) paramagnetic, corresponding to a noisy continuous wave emission, ii) ferromagnetic, that describes the standard passive mode-locking, and iii) the spin-glass in which the phases of the electromagnetic field are frozen in a exponentially large number of configurations. The way the mode-locking threshold is affected by the amount of disorder is quantified. The results are also relevant for other physical systems displaying a random Hamiltonian, like Bose-Einstein condensates and nonlinear optical beams.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Room temperature GW bar detector with opto-mechanical readout

We present the full implementation of a room-temperature gravitational wave bar detector equipped with an opto-mechanical readout. The mechanical vibrations are read by a Fabry--Perot interferometer whose length changes are compared with a stable reference optical cavity by means of a resonant laser. The detector performance is completely characterized in terms of spectral sensitivity and statistical properties of the fluctuations in the system output signal. The new kind of readout technique allows for wide-band detection sensitivity and we can accurately test the model of the coupled oscillators for thermal noise. Our results are very promising in view of cryogenic operation and represent an important step towards significant improvements in the performance of massive gravitational wave detectors.Comment: 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.