arXiv subjects

Juan M. Lopez

Publications and source records attributed to Juan M. Lopez.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Lyapunov vectors and excited energy levels of the directed polymer in random media

The scaling behavior of the excited energy levels of the directed polymer in random media is analyzed numerically. We find that the spatial correlations of polymer energies scale as $\sim k^{-δ}$ for small enough wavenumbers $k$ with a nontrivial exponent $δ\approx 1.3$. The equivalence between the stochastic-field equation that describes the partition function of the directed polymer and that governing the time evolution of infinitesimal perturbations in space-time chaos is exploited to connect this exponent $δ$ with the spatial correlations of Lyapunov vectors reported in the literature. The relevance of our results for other problems involving optimization in random systems is discussed.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Efficient harmonic oscillator chain energy harvester driven by colored noise

We study the performance of an electromechanical harmonic oscillator chain as an energy harvester to extract power from finite-bandwidth ambient random vibrations, which are modelled by colored noise. The proposed device is numerically simulated and its performance assessed by means of the net electrical power generated and its efficiency in converting the external noise-supplied power into electrical power. Our main result is a much enhanced performance, both in the net electrical power delivered and in efficiency, of the harmonic chain with respect to the popular single oscillator resonator. Our numerical findings are explained by means of an analytical approximation, in excellent agreement with numerics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2016

Diverging fluctuations of the Lyapunov exponents

We show that in generic one-dimensional Hamiltonian lattices the diffusion coefficient of the maximum Lyapunov exponent diverges in the thermodynamic limit. We trace this back to the long-range correlations associated with the evolution of the hydrodynamic modes. In the case of normal heat transport, the divergence is even stronger, leading to the breakdown of the usual single-function Family-Vicsek scaling ansatz. A similar scenario is expected to arise in the evolution of rough interfaces in the presence of a suitably correlated background noise.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2012

Hopf bifurcation with zero frequency and imperfect SO(2) symmetry

Rotating waves are periodic solutions in SO(2) equivariant dynamical systems. Their precession frequency changes with parameters and it may change sign, passing through zero. When this happens, the dynamical system is very sensitive to imperfections that break the SO(2) symmetry and the waves may become trapped by the imperfections, resulting in steady solutions that exist in a finite region in parameter space. This is the so-called pinning phenomenon. In this study, we analyze the breaking of the SO(2) symmetry in a dynamical system close to a Hopf bifurcation whose frequency changes sign along a curve in parameter space. The problem is very complex, as it involves the complete unfolding of high codimension. A detailed analysis of different types of imperfections indicates that a pinning region surrounded by infinite-period bifurcation curves appears in all cases. Complex bifurcational processes, strongly dependent on the specifics of the symmetry breaking, appear very close to the intersection of the Hopf bifurcation and the pinning region. Scaling laws of the pinning region width, and partial breaking of SO(2) to Zm, are also considered. Previous and new experimental and numerical studies of pinned rotating waves are reviewed in light of the new theoretical results.

math.DS↗

arXiv2010

Activity statistics, avalanche kinetics, and velocity correlations in surface growth

We investigate the complex spatio-temporal dynamics in avalanche driven surface growth by means of scaling theory. We study local activity statistics, avalanche kinetics, and temporal correlations in the global interface velocity, obtaining different scaling relationships among the involved critical exponents depending on how far from or close to a critical point the system is. Our scaling arguments are very general and connect local and global magnitudes through several scaling relationships. We expect our results to be applicable in a wide range of systems exhibiting interface kinetic roughening driven by avalanches of local activity, either critical or not. As an example we apply the scaling theory to analyze avalanches and roughening of forced-flow imbibition fronts in excellent agreement with phase-field numerical simulations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2009

Optimization and plasticity in disordered media

We study the plastic yielding of disordered media using the perfectly plastic random fuse model. The yield surfaces are shown to be different from those obtained minimizing the sum of the local yield thresholds, i.e. the so-called minimum 'energy' surfaces. As a result, the global yield stress is lower than expected from naive optimization and the difference persists as the sample size increases. At variance with minimum energy surfaces, height-height fluctuations of yield surfaces exhibit multiscaling. We provide a theoretical argument that explains how this behavior arises from the very different nature of the optimization problem in both cases.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Energy dissipation statistics in the random fuse model

We study the statistics of the dissipated energy in the two-dimensional random fuse model for fracture under different imposed strain conditions. By means of extensive numerical simulations we compare different ways to compute the dissipated energy. In the case of a infinitely slow driving rate (quasi-static model) we find that the probability distribution of the released energy shows two different scaling regions separated by a sharp energy crossover. At low energies, the probability of having an event of energy $E$ decays as $\sim E^{-1/2}$, which is robust and independent of the energy quantifier used (or lattice type). At high energies fluctuations dominate the energy distribution leading to a crossover to a different scaling regime, $\sim E^{-2.75}$, whenever the released energy is computed over the whole system. On the contrary, strong finite-size effects are observed if we only consider the energy dissipated at microfractures. In a different numerical experiment the quasi-static dynamics condition is relaxed, so that the system is driven at finite strain load rates, and we find that the energy distribution decays as $\mathcal{P} (E) \sim E^{-1}$ for all the energy range.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Dynamics of perturbations in disordered chaotic systems

We study the time evolution of perturbations in spatially extended chaotic systems in the presence of quenched disorder. We find that initially random perturbations tend to exponentially localize in space around static pinning centers that are selected by the particular configuration of disorder. The spatial structure of typical perturbations, $δu(x,t)$, is analyzed in terms of the Hopf-Cole transform, $h(x,t) \equiv\ln|δu(x,t)|$. Our analysis shows that the associated surface $h(x,t)$ self-organizes into a faceted structure with scale-invariant correlations. Scaling analysis of critical roughening exponents reveals that there are three different universality classes for error propagation in disordered chaotic systems that correspond to different symmetries of the underlying disorder. Our conclusions are based on numerical simulations of disordered lattices of coupled chaotic elements and equations for diffusion in random potentials. We propose a phenomenological stochastic field theory that gives some insights on the path for a generalization of these results for a broad class of disordered extended systems exhibiting space-time chaos.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2006

Glassy dynamics, aging and thermally activated avalanches in interface pinning at finite temperatures

We study numerically the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of interfaces at finite temperatures when driven well below the zero-temperature depinning threshold. We go further than previous analysis by including the most relevant non-equilibrium correction to the elastic Hamiltonian. We find that the relaxation dynamics towards the steady-state shows glassy behavior, aging and violation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The interface roughness exponent alpha approx 0.7 is found to be robust to temperature changes. We also study the instantaneous velocity signal in the low temperature regime and find long-range temporal correlations. We argue 1/f-noise arises from the merging of local thermally-activated avalanches of depinning events.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2005

Spontaneous emergence of contrarian-like behaviour in an opinion spreading model

We introduce stochastic driving in the Sznajd model of opinion spreading. This stochastic effect is meant to mimic a social temperature, so that agents can take random decisions with a varying probability. We show that a stochastic driving has a tremendous impact on the system dynamics as a whole by inducing an order-disorder nonequilibrium phase transition. Interestingly, under certain conditions, this stochastic dynamics can spontaneously lead to agents in the system who are analogous to Galam's contarians.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2004

Scaling properties of growing noninfinitesimal perturbations in space-time chaos

We study the spatiotemporal dynamics of random spatially distributed noninfinitesimal perturbations in one-dimensional chaotic extended systems. We find that an initial perturbation of finite size $ε_0$ grows in time obeying the tangent space dynamic equations (Lyapunov vectors) up to a characteristic time $t_{\times}(ε_0) \sim b - (1/λ_{max}) \ln (ε_0)$, where $λ_{max}$ is the largest Lyapunov exponent and $b$ is a constant. For times $t < t_{\times}$ perturbations exhibit spatial correlations up to a typical distance $ξ\sim t^z$. For times larger than $t_{\times}$ finite perturbations are no longer described by tangent space equations, memory of spatial correlations is progressively destroyed and perturbations become spatiotemporal white noise. We are able to explain these results by mapping the problem to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class of surface growth.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2004

Rare Events and Scale--Invariant Dynamics of Perturbations in Delayed Dynamical Systems

We study the dynamics of perturbations in time delayed dynamical systems. Using a suitable space-time coordinate transformation, we find that the time evolution of the linearized perturbations (Lyapunov vector) can be mapped to the linear Zhang surface growth model [Y.-C. Zhang, J. Phys. France {\bf 51}, 2129 (1990)], which is known to describe surface roughening driven by power-law distributed noise. As a consequence, Lyapunov vector dynamics is dominated by rare random events that lead to non-Gaussian fluctuations and multiscaling properties.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2003

Dynamic Scaling of Bred Vectors in Chaotic Extended Systems

We argue that the spatiotemporal dynamics of bred vectors in chaotic extended systems are related to a kinetic roughening process in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. This implies that there exists a characteristic length scale corresponding to the typical extend over which the finite-size perturbation is actually correlated in space. This can be used as a quantitative parameter to characterize the degree of projection of the bred vectors into the dynamical attractor.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2001

Generic model of morphological changes in growing colonies of fungi

Fungal colonies are able to exhibit different morphologies depending on the enviromental conditions. This allows them to cope with and adapt to external changes. When grown in solid or semi-solid media the bulk of the colony is compact and several morphological transitions have been reported to occur as the external conditions are varied. Here we show how a unified simple mathematical model, which includes the effect of the accumulation of toxic metabolites, can account for the morphological changes observed. Our numerical results are in excellent agreement with experiments carried out with the fungus Aspergillus oryzae on solid agar.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2001

Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Directed Small-World Networks

Many social, biological, and economic systems can be approached by complex networks of interacting units. The behaviour of several models on small-world networks has recently been studied. These models are expected to capture the essential features of the complex processes taking place on real networks like disease spreading, formation of public opinion, distribution of wealth, etc. In many of these systems relations are directed, in the sense that links only act in one direction (outwards or inwards). We investigate the effect of directed links on the behaviour of a simple spin-like model evolving on a small-world network. We show that directed networks may lead to a highly nontrivial phase diagram including first and second-order phase transitions out of equilibrium.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Scaling Approach to Calculate Critical Exponents in Anomalous Surface Roughening

We study surface growth models exhibiting anomalous scaling of the local surface fluctuations. An analytical approach to determine the local scaling exponents of continuum growth models is proposed. The method allows to predict when a particular growth model will have anomalous properties ($α\neq α_{loc}$) and to calculate the local exponents. Several continuum growth equations are examined as examples.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1999

Comment on "Macrospopic Equation for the Roughness of Growing Interfaces in Quenched Disorder"

We comment on a recent Letter by Braunstein and Buceta [PRL vol.81, 630 (1998)], in which a novel equation has been proposed to describe the dynamics of interfaces in the presence of quenched disorder. We argue that the ansatz Braunstein and Buceta presented is just an effective description of the very short times regime and has no significance for the macroscopic (large scale) behaviour of the interface. We calculate an expression for the short time behaviour of the interface that is valid for any q (and not only at q_c).

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv1998

Anomalous roughening of wood fractured surfaces

Scaling properties of wood fractured surfaces are obtained from samples of three different sizes. Two different woods are studied: Norway spruce and Maritime pine. Fracture surfaces are shown to display an anomalous dynamic scaling of the crack roughness. This anomalous scaling behavior involves the existence of two different and independent roughness exponents. We determine the local roughness exponents $ζ_{loc}$ to be 0.87 for spruce and 0.88 for pine. These results are consistent with the conjecture of a universal local roughness exponent. The global roughness exponent is different for both woods, $ζ$ = 1.60 for spruce and $ζ$ = 1.35 for pine. We argue that the global roughness exponent $ζ$ is a good index for material characterization.

cond-mat↗