arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Michael Herrmann.
We prove the existence of solitary waves in a lattice where all particles interact with each other by pair-wise repulsive forces that decay with distance. The variational existence proof is based on constrained optimization and provides a one-parameter family of unimodal solutions. We also describe the asymptotic behavior of large, fast, high-energy waves.
Animal welfare education could greatly benefit from customized robots to help children learn about animals and their behavior, and thereby promote positive, safe child-animal interactions. To this end, we ran Participatory Design workshops with animal welfare educators and children to identify key requirements for zoomorphic robots from their perspectives. Our findings encompass a zoomorphic robot's appearance, behavior, and features, as well as concepts for a narrative surrounding the robot. Through comparing and contrasting the two groups, we find the importance of: negative reactions to undesirable behavior from children; using the facial features and tail to provide cues signaling an animal's internal state; and a natural, furry appearance and texture. We also contribute some novel activities for Participatory Design with children, including branching storyboards inspired by thematic apperception tests and interactive narratives, and reflect on some of the key design challenges of achieving consensus between the groups, despite much overlap in their design concepts.
In a dissipative Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou chain particles interact with their nearest neighbors through anharmonic potentials and linear dissipative forces. We prove the existence of front solutions connecting two different uniformly compressed (or stretched) states at $\pm \infty$ using an implicit function argument starting at a suitable continuum limit in the case of large damping. A detailed analysis allows us to show monotonicity of waves and to determine sharp exponential decay rates for a wide class of potentials including Hertzian potentials.
The Riemann problem for the discrete conservation law $2 \dot{u}_n + u^2_{n+1} - u^2_{n-1} = 0$ is classified using Whitham modulation theory, a quasi-continuum approximation, and numerical simulations. A surprisingly elaborate set of solutions to this simple discrete regularization of the inviscid Burgers' equation is obtained. In addition to discrete analogues of well-known dispersive hydrodynamic solutions -- rarefaction waves (RWs) and dispersive shock waves (DSWs) -- additional unsteady solution families and finite time blow-up are observed. Two solution types exhibit no known conservative continuum correlates: (i) a counterpropagating DSW and RW solution separated by a symmetric, stationary shock and (ii) an unsteady shock emitting two counter-propagating periodic wavetrains with the same frequency connected to a partial DSW or a RW. Another class of solutions called traveling DSWs, (iii), consists of a partial DSW connected to a traveling wave comprised of a periodic wavetrain with a rapid transition to a constant. Portions of solutions (ii) and (iii) are interpreted as shock solutions of the Whitham modulation equations.
We study single-interface solutions to a free boundary problem that couples bilinear bulk diffusion to the Stefan condition and a hysteretic flow rule for phase boundaries. We introduce a time-discrete approximation scheme and establish its convergence in the limit of vanishing step size. The main difficulty in our proof are strong microscopic oscillations which are produced by a propagating phase interface and need to be controlled on the macroscopic scale. We also present numerical simulations and discuss the link to the viscous regularization of ill-posed diffusion equations.
We study random walks on sub-Riemannian manifolds using the framework of retractions, i.e., approximations of normal geodesics. We show that such walks converge to the correct horizontal Brownian motion if normal geodesics are approximated to at least second order. In particular, we (i) provide conditions for convergence of geodesic random walks defined with respect to normal, compatible, and partial connections and (ii) provide examples of computationally efficient retractions, e.g., for simulating anisotropic Brownian motion on Riemannian manifolds.
The viscous regularization of an ill-posed diffusion equation with bistable nonlinearity predicts a hysteretic behavior of dynamical phase transitions but a complete mathematical \mbox{understanding} of the intricate multiscale evolution is still missing. We shed light on the fine structure of \mbox{propagating} phase boundaries by carefully examining traveling wave solutions in a special case. Assuming a trilinear constitutive relation we characterize all waves that possess a monotone \mbox{profile} and connect the two phases by a single interface of positive width. We further study the two sharp-interface regimes related to either vanishing viscosity or the bilinear limit.
We consider a one-dimensional peridynamical medium and show the existence of solitary waves with small amplitudes and long wavelength. Our proof uses nonlinear Bochner integral operators and characterizes their asymptotic properties in a singular scaling limit.
We study a system of non-identical bistable particles that is driven by a dynamical constraint and coupled through a non-local mean-field. Assuming piecewise affine constitutive laws we prove the existence of traveling wave solutions and characterize their dynamical stability. Our findings explain the two dynamical regimes for phase interface that can be observed in numerical simulations with different parameters. We further discuss the convergence to a rate-independent model with strong hysteresis in the limit of vanishing relaxation time.
Dispersive shock waves (DSWs), which connect states of different amplitude via a modulated wave train, form generically in nonlinear dispersive media subjected to abrupt changes in state. The primary tool for the analytical study of DSWs is Whitham's modulation theory. While this framework has been successfully employed in many space-continuous settings to describe DSWs, the Whitham modulation equations are virtually intractable in most spatially discrete systems. In this article, we illustrate the relevance of the reduction of the DSW dynamics to a planar ODE in a broad class of lattice examples. Solutions of this low-dimensional ODE accurately describe the orbits of the DSW in self-similar coordinates and the local averages in a manner consistent with the modulation equations. We use data-driven and quasi-continuum approaches within the context of a discrete system of conservation laws to demonstrate how the underlying low dimensional structure of DSWs can be identified and analyzed. The connection of these results to Whitham modulation theory is also discussed.
According to a version of Donsker's theorem, geodesic random walks on Riemannian manifolds converge to the respective Brownian motion. From a computational perspective, however, evaluating geodesics can be quite costly. We therefore introduce approximate geodesic random walks based on the concept of retractions. We show that these approximate walks converge in distribution to the correct Brownian motion as long as the geodesic equation is approximated up to second order. As a result we obtain an efficient algorithm for sampling Brownian motion on compact Riemannian manifolds.
We study the eigenvalue problem for a superlinear convolution operator in the special case of bilinear constitutive laws and establish the existence and uniqueness of a one-parameter family of nonlinear eigenfunctions under a topological shape constraint. Our proof uses a nonlinear change of scalar parameters and applies Krein-Rutmann arguments to a linear substitute problem. We also present numerical simulations and discuss the asymptotics of two limiting cases.
We study a class of nonlinear eigenvalue problems which involves a convolution operator as well as a superlinear nonlinearity. Our variational existence proof is based on constrained optimization and provides a one-parameter family of solutions with positive eigenvalues and unimodal eigenfunctions. We also discuss the decay properties and the numerical computations of those eigenfunctions, and conclude with two asymptotic results concerning small and large eigenvalues.
Peridynamics describes the nonlinear interactions in spatially extended Hamiltonian systems by nonlocal integro-differential equations, which can be regarded as the natural generalization of lattice models. We prove the existence of solitary traveling waves for super-quadratic potentials by maximizing the potential energy subject to both a norm and a shape constraint. We also discuss the numerical computation of waves and study several asymptotic regimes.
We consider Fokker-Planck equations with tilted periodic potential in the subcritical regime and characterize the spatio-temporal dynamics of the partial masses in the limit of vanishing diffusion. Our convergence proof relies on suitably defined substitute masses and bounds the approximation error using the energy-dissipation relation of the underlying Wasserstein gradient structure. In the appendix we also discuss the case of an asymmetric double-well potential and derive the corresponding limit dynamics in an elementary way.
The dynamical stability of solitary lattice waves in non-integrable FPUT chains is a longstanding open problem and has been solved so far only in a certain asymptotic regime, namely by Friesecke and Pego for the KdV limit, in which the waves propagate with near sonic speed, have large wave length, and carry low energy. In this paper we derive a similar result in a complementary asymptotic regime related to fast and strongly localized waves with high energy. In particular, we show that the spectrum of the linearized FPUT operator contains asymptotically no unstable eigenvalues except for the neutral ones that stem from the shift symmetry and the spatial discreteness. This ensures that high-energy waves are linearly stable in some orbital sense, and the corresponding nonlinear stability is granted by the general, non-asymptotic part of the seminal Friesecke-Pego result and the extension by Mizumachi. Our analytical work splits into two principal parts. First we refine two-scale techniques that relate high-energy wave to a nonlinear asymptotic shape ODE and provide accurate approximation formulas. In this way we establish the existence, local uniqueness, smooth parameter dependence, and exponential localization of fast lattice waves for a wide class of interaction potentials with algebraic singularity. Afterwards we study the crucial eigenvalue problem in exponentially weighted spaces, so that there is no unstable essential spectrum. Our key argument is that all proper eigenfunctions can asymptotically be linked to the unique bounded and normalized solution of the linearized shape ODE, and this finally enables us to disprove the existence of unstable eigenfunctions in the symplectic complement of the neutral ones.
We prove the existence of solitary waves in the KdV limit of two-dimensional FPU-type lattices using asymptotic analysis of nonlinear and singularly perturbed integral equations. In particular, we generalize the existing results by Friesecke and Matthies since we allow for arbitrary propagation directions and non-unidirectional wave profiles.
We present numerical simulations of magnetic billiards inside a convex domain in the plane.