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1. Localized states in passive and active phase-field-crystal models

   https://doi.org/10.1093/imamat/hxab025  

   Holl, Max Philipp ; Archer, Andrew J ; Gurevich, Svetlana V ; Knobloch, Edgar ; Ophaus, Lukas ; Thiele, Uwe ( July 2021 , IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics)

   Abstract The passive conserved Swift–Hohenberg equation (or phase-field-crystal [PFC] model) describes gradient dynamics of a single-order parameter field related to density. It provides a simple microscopic description of the thermodynamic transition between liquid and crystalline states. In addition to spatially extended periodic structures, the model describes a large variety of steady spatially localized structures. In appropriate bifurcation diagrams the corresponding solution branches exhibit characteristic slanted homoclinic snaking. In an active PFC model, encoding for instance the active motion of self-propelled colloidal particles, the gradient dynamics structure is broken by a coupling between density and an additional polarization field. Then, resting and traveling localized states are found with transitions characterized by parity-breaking drift bifurcations. Here, we briefly review the snaking behavior of localized states in passive and active PFC models before discussing the bifurcation behavior of localized states in systems of (i) two coupled passive PFC models with common gradient dynamics, (ii) two coupled passive PFC models where the coupling breaks the gradient dynamics structure and (iii) a passive PFC model coupled to an active PFC model.
2. Delayed Hopf Bifurcation and Space–Time Buffer Curves in the Complex Ginzburg–Landau Equation

   https://doi.org/10.1093/imamat/hxac001  

   Goh, Ryan ; Kaper, Tasso J ; Vo, Theodore ( March 2022 , IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics)

   Abstract In this article, the recently discovered phenomenon of delayed Hopf bifurcations (DHB) in reaction–diffusion partial differential equations (PDEs) is analysed in the cubic Complex Ginzburg–Landau equation, as an equation in its own right, with a slowly varying parameter. We begin by using the classical asymptotic methods of stationary phase and steepest descents on the linearized PDE to show that solutions, which have approached the attracting quasi-steady state (QSS) before the Hopf bifurcation remain near that state for long times after the instantaneous Hopf bifurcation and the QSS has become repelling. In the complex time plane, the phase function of the linearized PDE has a saddle point, and the Stokes and anti-Stokes lines are central to the asymptotics. The non-linear terms are treated by applying an iterative method to the mild form of the PDE given by perturbations about the linear particular solution. This tracks the closeness of solutions near the attracting and repelling QSS in the full, non-linear PDE. Next, we show that beyond a key Stokes line through the saddle there is a curve in the space-time plane along which the particular solution of the linear PDE ceases to be exponentially small, causing the solution of the non-linearmore »PDE to diverge from the repelling QSS and exhibit large-amplitude oscillations. This curve is called the space–time buffer curve. The homogeneous solution also stops being exponentially small in a spatially dependent manner, as determined also by the initial data and time. Hence, a competition arises between these two solutions, as to which one ceases to be exponentially small first, and this competition governs spatial dependence of the DHB. We find four different cases of DHB, depending on the outcomes of the competition, and we quantify to leading order how these depend on the main system parameters, including the Hopf frequency, initial time, initial data, source terms, and diffusivity. Examples are presented for each case, with source terms that are a uni-modal function, a smooth step function, a spatially periodic function and an algebraically growing function. Also, rich spatio-temporal dynamics are observed in the post-DHB oscillations. Finally, it is shown that large-amplitude source terms can be designed so that solutions spend substantially longer times near the repelling QSS, and hence, region-specific control over the delayed onset of oscillations can be achieved.« less
3. Energy Exchange between Two Sub-systems Coupled with a Nonlinear Elastic Path

   Sen, O.T. ; Singh, R. ( May 2018 , NOVEM 2018 Conference)

   The chief objective of this paper is to explore energy transfer mechanism between the sub-systems that are coupled by a nonlinear elastic path. In the proposed model (via a minimal order, two degree of freedom system), both sub-systems are defined as damped harmonic oscillators with linear springs and dampers. The first sub-system is attached to the ground on one side but connected to the second sub-system on the other side. In addition, linear elastic and dissipative characteristics of both oscillators are assumed to be identical, and a harmonic force excitation is applied only on the mass element of second oscillator. The nonlinear spring (placed in between the two sub-systems) is assumed to exhibit cubic, hardening type nonlinearity. First, the governing equations of the two degree of freedom system with a nonlinear elastic path are obtained. Second, the nonlinear differential equations are solved with a semi-analytical (multi-term harmonic balance) method, and nonlinear frequency responses of the system are calculated for different path coupling cases. As such, the nonlinear path stiffness is gradually increased so that the stiffness ratio of nonlinear element to the linear element is 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 while the absolute value of linear spring stiffness ismore »kept intact. In all solutions, it is observed that the frequency response curves at the vicinity of resonant frequencies bend towards higher frequencies as expected due to the hardening effect. However, at moderate or higher levels of path coupling (say 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0), additional branches emerge in the frequency response curves but only at the first resonant frequency. This is due to higher displacement amplitudes at the first resonant frequency as compared to the second one. Even though the oscillators move in-phase around the first natural frequency, high amplitudes increase the contribution of the stored potential energy in the nonlinear spring to the total mechanical energy. The out-of-phase motion around the second natural frequency cannot significantly contribute due to very low motion amplitudes. Finally, the governing equations are numerically solved for the same levels of nonlinearity, and the motion responses of both sub-systems are calculated. Both in-phase and out-of-phase motion responses are successfully shown in numerical solutions, and phase portraits of the system are generated in order to illustrate its nonlinear dynamics. In conclusion, a better understanding of the effect of nonlinear elastic path on two damped harmonic oscillators is gained.« less
4. Chimerapedia: coherence–incoherence patterns in one, two and three dimensions

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab3f6b  

   Omel’chenko, Oleh E. ; Knobloch, Edgar ( September 2019 , New Journal of Physics)

   Chimera states, or coherence–incoherence patterns in systems of symmetrically coupled identical oscillators, have been the subject of intensive study for the last two decades. In particular it is now known that the continuum limit of phase-coupled oscillators allows an elegant mathematical description of these states based on a nonlinear integro-differential equation known as the Ott–Antonsen equation. However, a systematic study of this equation usually requires a substantial computational effort. In this paper, we consider a special class of nonlocally coupled phase oscillator models where the above analytical approach simplifies significantly, leading to a semi-analytical description of both chimera states and of their linear stability properties. We apply this approach to phase oscillators on a one-dimensional lattice, on a two-dimensional square lattice and on a three-dimensional cubic lattice, all three with periodic boundary conditions. For each of these systems we identify multiple symmetric coherence–incoherence patterns and compute their linear stability properties. In addition, we describe how chimera states in higher-dimensional models are inherited from lower-dimensional models and explain how they can be grouped according to their symmetry properties and global order parameter.
5. Continuous Time Analysis of Momentum Methods

   Kovachki, Nikola ; Stuart, Andrew M. ( January 2021 , Journal of machine learning research)

   Gradient descent-based optimization methods underpin the parameter training of neural networks, and hence comprise a significant component in the impressive test results found in a number of applications. Introducing stochasticity is key to their success in practical problems, and there is some understanding of the role of stochastic gradient descent in this context. Momentum modifications of gradient descent such as Polyak’s Heavy Ball method (HB) and Nesterov’s method of accelerated gradients (NAG), are also widely adopted. In this work our focus is on understanding the role of momentum in the training of neural networks, concentrating on the common situation in which the momentum contribution is fixed at each step of the algorithm. To expose the ideas simply we work in the deterministic setting. Our approach is to derive continuous time approximations of the discrete algorithms; these continuous time approximations provide insights into the mechanisms at play within the discrete algorithms. We prove three such approximations. Firstly we show that standard implementations of fixed momentum methods approximate a time-rescaled gradient descent flow, asymptotically as the learning rate shrinks to zero; this result does not distinguish momentum methods from pure gradient descent, in the limit of vanishing learning rate. We then proceedmore »to prove two results aimed at understanding the observed practical advantages of fixed momentum methods over gradient descent, when implemented in the non-asymptotic regime with fixed small, but non-zero, learning rate. We achieve this by proving approximations to continuous time limits in which the small but fixed learning rate appears as a parameter; this is known as the method of modified equations in the numerical analysis literature, recently rediscovered as the high resolution ODE approximation in the machine learning context. In our second result we show that the momentum method is approximated by a continuous time gradient flow, with an additional momentum-dependent second order time-derivative correction, proportional to the learning rate; this may be used to explain the stabilizing effect of momentum algorithms in their transient phase. Furthermore in a third result we show that the momentum methods admit an exponentially attractive invariant manifold on which the dynamics reduces, approximately, to a gradient flow with respect to a modified loss function, equal to the original loss function plus a small perturbation proportional to the learning rate; this small correction provides convexification of the loss function and encodes additional robustness present in momentum methods, beyond the transient phase.« less