arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Stefano Lepri.
In this chapter we introduce some of the basic models and concepts that will be discussed throughout the volume. In particular we describe systems of nonlinear oscillators arranged on low-dimensional lattices and summarize the phenomenology of their transport properties.
We study the anomalous dynamical scaling of equilibrium correlations in one dimensional systems. Two different models are compared: the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain with cubic and quartic nonlinearity and a gas of point particles interacting stochastically through the multiparticle collision dynamics. For both models -that admit three conservation laws- by means of detailed numerical simulations we verify the predictions of nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics for the structure factors of density and energy fluctuations at equilibrium. Despite this, violations of the expected scaling in the currents correlation are found in some regimes, hindering the observation of the asymptotic scaling predicted by the theory. In the case of the gas model this crossover is clearly demonstrated upon changing the coupling constant.
The standard approach to non-equilibrium thermodynamics describes transport in terms of generalised forces and coupled currents, a typical example being the Fourier law that relates temperature gradient to the heat flux. Here we demonstrate the presence of persistent energy currents in a lattice of classical nonlinear oscillators with uniform temperature and chemical potential. In strong analogy with the well known Josephson effect, the currents are generated only by the phase differences between the oscillators. The phases play the role of additional thermodynamical forces, that drive the system out of equilibrium. Our results apply to a large class of oscillators and indicate novel ways to practically control the propagation of coupled currents and rectification effects in many different devices. They also suggest a simple, macroscopic setup for studying a phenomenon which hitherto have only been observed in microscopic, quantum-mechanical systems.
We investigate numerically the magnetisation dynamics of an array of nano-disks interacting through the magneto-dipolar coupling. In the presence of a temperature gradient, the chain reaches a non-equilibrium steady state where energy and magnetisation currents propagate. This effect can be described as the flow of energy and particle currents in an off-equilibrium discrete nonlinear Schrödinger (DNLS) equation. This model makes transparent the transport properties of the system and allows for a precise definition of temperature and chemical potential for a precessing spin. The present study proposes a novel setup for the spin-Seebeck effect, and shows that its qualitative features can be captured by a general oscillator-chain model
We study Anderson localization of the classical lattice waves in a chain with mass impurities distributed randomly through a power-law relation $s^{-(1+α)}$ with $ s $ as the distance between two successive impurities and $α>0$. This model of disorder is long-range correlated and is inspired by the peculiar structure of the complex optical systems known as Lévy glasses. Using theoretical arguments and numerics, we show that in the regime in which the average distance between impurities is finite with infinite variance, the small-frequency behaviour of the localization length is $ ξ_α(ω) \sim ω^{-α} $. The physical interpretation of this result is that, for small frequencies and long wavelengths, the waves feel an effective disorder whose fluctuations are scale-dependent. Numerical simulations show that an initially localized wavepacket attains, at large times, a characteristic inverse power-law front with an $ α$-dependent exponent which can be estimated analytically.
We study scattering of a periodic wave in a string on two lumped oscillators attached to it. The equations can be represented as a driven (by the incident wave) dissipative (due to radiation losses) system of delay differential equations of neutral type. Nonlinearity of oscillators makes the scattering non-reciprocal: the same wave is transmitted differently in two directions. Periodic regimes of scattering are analysed approximately, using amplitude equation approach. We show that this setup can act as a nonreciprocal modulator via Hopf bifurcations of the steady solutions. Numerical simulations of the full system reveal nontrivial regimes of quasiperiodic and chaotic scattering. Moreover, a regime of a "chaotic diode", where transmission is periodic in one direction and chaotic in the opposite one, is reported.
We consider a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric chain (ladder-shaped) system governed by the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation where the cubic nonlinearity is carried solely by two central "rungs" of the ladder. Two branches of scattering solutions for incident plane waves are found. We systematically construct these solutions, analyze their stability, and discuss non-reciprocity of the transmission associated with them. To relate these results to finite-size wavepacket dynamics, we also perform direct simulations of the evolution of the wavepackets, which confirm that the transmission is indeed asymmetric in this nonlinear system with the mutually balanced gain and loss.
We study the transmission of random walkers through a finite-size inhomogeneous material with a quenched, long-range correlated distribution of scatterers. We focus on a finite one-dimensional structure where walkers undergo random collisions with a subset of sites distributed on deterministic (Cantor-like) or random positions, with Lévy spaced distances. Using scaling arguments, we consider stationary and time-dependent transmission and we provide predictions on the scaling behaviour of particle current as a function of the sample size. We show that, even in absence of bias, for each single realization a non-zero drift can be present, due to the intrinsic asymmetry of each specific arrangement of the scattering sites. For finite systems, this average drift is particularly important for characterizing the transmission properties of individual samples. The predictions are tested against the numerical solution of the associated master equation. A comparison of different boundary conditions is given.
A novel class of nonequilibrium phase-transitions at zero temperature is found in chains of nonlinear oscillators.For two paradigmatic systems, the Hamiltonian XY model and the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation, we find that the application of boundary forces induces two synchronized phases, separated by a non-trivial interfacial region where the kinetic temperature is finite. Dynamics in such supercritical state displays anomalous chaotic properties whereby some observables are non-extensive and transport is superdiffusive. At finite temperatures, the transition is smoothed, but the temperature profile is still non-monotonous.
We investigate the dynamics of two coupled macrospins connected to thermal baths at different temperatures. The system behaves like a diode which allows the propagation of energy and mag- netization currents in one direction only. This effect is described by a simple model of two coupled nonlinear oscillators interacting with two independent reservoirs. It is shown that the rectification phenomenon can be interpreted as a a stochastic phase synchronization of the two spin-oscillators. A brief comparison with realistic micromagnetic simulations is presented. This new effect yields promising opportunities in spin-caloritronics devices.
We present a theoretical and experimental study aimed at characterizing statistical regimes in a random laser. Both the theoretical simulations and the experimental results show the possibility of three region of fluctuations increasing the pumping energy. An initial Gaussian regime is followed by a Lévy statistics and Gaussian statistic is recovered again for high pump pulse energy. These different statistical regimes are possible in a weakly diffusive active medium, while the region of Lévy statistics disappears when the medium is strongly diffusive presenting always a Gaussian regime with smooth emission spectrum. Experiments and theory agree in identification of the key parameters determining the statistical regimes of the random laser.
We present a stochastic model for amplifying, diffusive media like, for instance, random lasers. Starting from a simple random-walk model, we derive a stochastic partial differential equation for the energy field with contains a multiplicative random-advection term yielding intermittency and power-law distributions of the field itself. Dimensional analysis indicate that such features are more likely to be observed for small enough samples and in lower spatial dimensions.
We introduce a system of two parallel-coupled discrete nonlinear Schroedinger (DNLS) inhomogeneous chains. Each one favors the unidirectional transmission of incident packets, in the opposite directions with respect to each other. Two different configurations of the diode-antidiode pair are considered, a ladder and a plaquette. They feature, respectively, the uniform transverse linear coupling, or the coupling limited to the central nonlinear segment of the system. In the case of weak linear coupling, the symmetry breaking is observed (i.e., the pair still features the diode behavior), while the moderately strong coupling restores the symmetry, making the transmission effectively bidirectional. In the case of the ladder, an oscillatory dependence of the transmission on the strength of the coupling is observed and qualitatively explained.
We consider asymmetric (nonreciprocal) wave transmission through a layered nonlinear, non mirror-symmetric system described by the one-dimensional Discrete Nonlinear Schrödinger equation with spatially varying coefficients embedded in an otherwise linear lattice. Focusing on the simplest case of two nonlinear sites (the dimer), we compute exact scattering solutions such that waves with the same frequency and incident amplitude impinging from left and right directions have different transmission coefficients. The stability of some particular solutions is addressed. We show that oscillatory instability may lead to the formation of stable extended states coexisting with a nonlinear defect mode oscillating at a different frequency. Numerical simulations of wave packet scattering are presented. Gaussian wave packets with the same amplitude arriving from opposite directions on the dimer are indeed transmitted very differently. Moreover, asymmetric transmission is sensitively dependent on the input parameters, akin to the case of chaotic scattering.
A mechanism for asymmetric (nonreciprocal) wave transmission is presented. As a reference system, we consider a layered nonlinear, non mirror-symmetric model described by the one-dimensional Discrete Nonlinear Schreodinger equation with spatially varying coefficients embedded in an otherwise linear lattice. We construct a class of exact extended solutions such that waves with the same frequency and incident amplitude impinging from left and right directions have very different transmission coefficients. This effect arises already for the simplest case of two nonlinear layers and is associated with the shift of nonlinear resonances. Increasing the number of layers considerably increases the complexity of the family of solutions. Finally, numerical simulations of asymmetric wavepacket transmission are presented which beautifully display the rectifying effect.
We numerically solve a discretized model of Levy random walks on a finite one-dimensional domain in the presence of sources and with a reflection coefficient $r$. At the domain boundaries, the steady-state density profile is non-analytic. The meniscus exponent $μ$, introduced to characterize this singular behavior, uniquely identifies the whole profile. Numerical data suggest that $μ=α/2 + r(α/2-1)$, where $α$ is the Levy exponent of the step-length distribution. As an application, we show that this model reproduces the temperature profiles obtained for a chain of oscillators displaying anomalous heat conduction. Remarkably, the case of free-boundary conditions in the chain correspond to a Levy walk with negative reflection coefficient.
We study energy propagation in locally time-periodically driven disordered nonlinear chains. For frequencies inside the band of linear Anderson modes, three different regimes are observed with increasing driver amplitude: 1) Below threshold, localized quasiperiodic oscillations and no spreading; 2) Three different regimes in time close to threshold, with almost regular oscillations initially, weak chaos and slow spreading for intermediate times, and finally strong diffusion; 3) Immediate spreading for strong driving. The thresholds are due to simple bifurcations, obtained analytically for a single oscillator, and numerically as turning-points of the nonlinear response manifold for a full chain. Generically, the threshold is nonzero also for infinite chains.
We consider a one-dimensional harmonic crystal with conservative noise, in contact with two stochastic Langevin heat baths at different temperatures. The noise term consists of collisions between neighbouring oscillators that exchange their momenta, with a rate $γ$. The stationary equations for the covariance matrix are exactly solved in the thermodynamic limit ($N\to\infty$). In particular, we derive an analytical expression for the temperature profile, which turns out to be independent of $γ$. Moreover, we obtain an exact expression for the leading term of the energy current, which scales as $1/\sqrt{γN}$. Our theoretical results are finally found to be consistent with the numerical solutions of the covariance matrix for finite $N$.