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In a classical context, synchronization means adjustment of rhythms of self-sustained periodic oscillators due to their weak interaction. The history of synchronization goes back to the 17th century when the famous Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens reported on his observation of synchronization of pendulum clocks: when two such clocks were put on a common support, their pendula moved in a perfect agreement. In rigorous terms, it means that due to coupling the clocks started to oscillate with identical frequencies and tightly related phases. Being, probably, the oldest scientifically studied nonlinear effect, synchronization was understood only in 1920-ies when E. V. Appleton and B. Van der Pol systematically - theoretically and experimentally - studied synchronization of triode generators. Since that the theory was well developed and found many applications. Nowadays it is well-known that certain systems, even rather simple ones, can exhibit chaotic behaviour. It means that their rhythms are irregular, and cannot be characterized only by one frequency. However, as is shown in the Habilitation work, one can extend the notion of phase for systems of this class as well and observe their synchronization, i.e., agreement of their (still irregular!) rhythms: due to very weak interaction there appear relations between the phases and average frequencies. This effect, called phase synchronization, was later confirmed in laboratory experiments of other scientific groups. Understanding of synchronization of irregular oscillators allowed us to address important problem of data analysis: how to reveal weak interaction between the systems if we cannot influence them, but can only passively observe, measuring some signals. This situation is very often encountered in biology, where synchronization phenomena appear on every level - from cells to macroscopic physiological systems; in normal states as well as in severe pathologies. With our methods we found that cardiovascular and respiratory systems in humans can adjust their rhythms; the strength of their interaction increases with maturation. Next, we used our algorithms to analyse brain activity of Parkinsonian patients. The results of this collaborative work with neuroscientists show that different brain areas synchronize just before the onset of pathological tremor. Morevoever, we succeeded in localization of brain areas responsible for tremor generation.
One of the classical ways to describe the dynamics of nonlinear systems is to analyze theur Fourier spectra. For periodic and quasiperiodic processes the Fourier spectrum consists purely of discrete delta-functions. On the contrary, the spectrum of a chaotic motion is marked by the presence of the continuous component. In this work, we describe the peculiar, neither regular nor completely chaotic state with so called singular-continuous power spectrum. Our investigations concern various cases from most different fields, where one meets the singular continuous (fractal) spectra. The examples include both the physical processes which can be reduced to iterated discrete mappings or even symbolic sequences, and the processes whose description is based on the ordinary or partial differential equations.
Line driven winds are accelerated by the momentum transfer from photons to a plasma, by absorption and scattering in numerous spectral lines. Line driving is most efficient for ultraviolet radiation, and at plasma temperatures from 10^4 K to 10^5 K. Astronomical objects which show line driven winds include stars of spectral type O, B, and A, Wolf-Rayet stars, and accretion disks over a wide range of scales, from disks in young stellar objects and cataclysmic variables to quasar disks. It is not yet possible to solve the full wind problem numerically, and treat the combined hydrodynamics, radiative transfer, and statistical equilibrium of these flows. The emphasis in the present writing is on wind hydrodynamics, with severe simplifications in the other two areas. I consider three topics in some detail, for reasons of personal involvement. 1. Wind instability, as caused by Doppler de-shadowing of gas parcels. The instability causes the wind gas to be compressed into dense shells enclosed by strong shocks. Fast clouds occur in the space between shells, and collide with the latter. This leads to X-ray flashes which may explain the observed X-ray emission from hot stars. 2. Wind runaway, as caused by a new type of radiative waves. The runaway may explain why observed line driven winds adopt fast, critical solutions instead of shallow (or breeze) solutions. Under certain conditions the wind settles on overloaded solutions, which show a broad deceleration region and kinks in their velocity law. 3. Magnetized winds, as launched from accretion disks around stars or in active galactic nuclei. Line driving is assisted by centrifugal forces along co-rotating poloidal magnetic field lines, and by Lorentz forces due to toroidal field gradients. A vortex sheet starting at the inner disk rim can lead to highly enhanced mass loss rates.
The behaviour of an adhering cell is strongly influenced by the chemical, topographical and mechanical properties of the surface it attaches to. During recent years, it has been found experimentally that adhering cells actively sense the elastic properties of their environment by pulling on it through numerous sites of adhesion. The resulting build-up of force at sites of adhesion depends on the elastic properties of the environment and is converted into corresponding biochemical signals, which can trigger cellular programmes like growth, differentiation, apoptosis, and migration. In general, force is an important regulator of biological systems, for example in hearing and touch, in wound healing, and in rolling adhesion of leukocytes on vessel walls. In the habilitation thesis by Ulrich Schwarz, several theoretical projects are presented which address the role of forces and elasticity in cell adhesion. (1) A new method has been developed for calculating cellular forces exerted at sites of focal adhesion on micro-patterned elastic substrates. The main result is that cell-matrix contacts function as mechanosensors, converting internal force into protein aggregation. (2) A one-step master equation for the stochastic dynamics of adhesion clusters as a function of cluster size, rebinding rate and force has been solved both analytically and numerically. Moreover this model has been applied to the regulation of cell-matrix contacts, to dynamic force spectroscopy, and to rolling adhesion. (3) Using linear elasticity theory and the concept of force dipoles, a model has been introduced and solved which predicts the positioning and orientation of mechanically active cells in soft material, in good agreement with experimental observations for fibroblasts on elastic substrates and in collagen gels.
Concerns have been raised that anthropogenic climate change could lead to large-scale singular climate events, i.e., abrupt nonlinear climate changes with repercussions on regional to global scales. One central goal of this thesis is the development of models of two representative components of the climate system that could exhibit singular behavior: the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) and the Indian monsoon. These models are conceived so as to fulfill the main requirements of integrated assessment modeling, i.e., reliability, computational efficiency, transparency and flexibility. The model of the THC is an interhemispheric four-box model calibrated against data generated with a coupled climate model of intermediate complexity. It is designed to be driven by global mean temperature change which is translated into regional fluxes of heat and freshwater through a linear down-scaling procedure. Results of a large number of transient climate change simulations indicate that the reduced-form THC model is able to emulate key features of the behavior of comprehensive climate models such as the sensitivity of the THC to the amount, regional distribution and rate of change in the heat and freshwater fluxes. The Indian monsoon is described by a novel one-dimensional box model of the tropical atmosphere. It includes representations of the radiative and surface fluxes, the hydrological cycle and surface hydrology. Despite its high degree of idealization, the model satisfactorily captures relevant aspects of the observed monsoon dynamics, such as the annual course of precipitation and the onset and withdrawal of the summer monsoon. Also, the model exhibits the sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gas and sulfate aerosol concentrations that are known from comprehensive models. A simplified version of the monsoon model is employed for the identification of changes in the qualitative system behavior against changes in boundary conditions. The most notable result is that under summer conditions a saddle-node bifurcation occurs at critical values of the planetary albedo or insolation. Furthermore, the system exhibits two stable equilibria: besides the wet summer monsoon, a stable state exists which is characterized by a weak hydrological cycle. These results are remarkable insofar, as they indicate that anthropogenic perturbations of the planetary albedo such as sulfur emissions and/or land-use changes could destabilize the Indian summer monsoon. The reduced-form THC model is employed in an exemplary integrated assessment application. Drawing on the conceptual and methodological framework of the tolerable windows approach, emissions corridors (i.e., admissible ranges of CO2- emissions) are derived that limit the risk of a THC collapse while considering expectations about the socio-economically acceptable pace of emissions reductions. Results indicate, for example, a large dependency of the width of the emissions corridor on climate and hydrological sensitivity: for low values of climate and/or hydrological sensitivity, the corridor boundaries are far from being transgressed by any plausible emissions scenario for the 21st century. In contrast, for high values of both quantities low non-intervention scenarios leave the corridor already in the early decades of the 21st century. This implies that if the risk of a THC collapse is to be kept low, business-as-usual paths would need to be abandoned within the next two decades. All in all, this thesis highlights the value of reduced-form modeling by presenting a number of applications of this class of models, ranging from sensitivity and bifurcation analysis to integrated assessment. The results achieved and conclusions drawn provide a useful contribution to the scientific and policy debate about the consequences of anthropogenic climate change and the long-term goals of climate protection. --- Anmerkung: Die Autorin ist Trägerin des von der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam vergebenen Michelson-Preises für die beste Promotion des Jahres 2003/2004.
A polymer is a large molecule made up of many elementary chemical units, joined together by covalent bonds (for example, polyethylene). Polyelectrolytes (PELs) are polymer chains containing a certain amount of ionizable monomers. With their specific properties PELs acquire big importance in molecular and cell biology as well as in technology. Compared to neutral polymers the theory of PELs is less understood. In particular, this is valid for PELs in poor solvents. A poor solvent environment causes an effective attraction between monomers. Hence, for PELs in a poor solvent, there occurs a competition between attraction and repulsion. Strong or quenched PELs are completely dissociated at any accessible pH. The position of charges along the chain is fixed by chemical synthesis. On the other hand, in weak or annealed PELs dissociation of charges depends on solution pH. For the first time the simulation results have given direct evidence that at rather poor solvents an annealed PEL indeed undergoes a first-order phase transition when the chemical potential (solution pH) reaches at a certain value. The discontinuous transition occurs between a weakly charged compact globular structure and a strongly charged stretched configuration. At not too poor solvents theory predicts that globule would become unstable with respect to the formation of pearl-necklaces. The results show that pearl-necklaces exist in annealed PELs indeed. Furthermore, as predicted by theory, the simulation results have shown that annealed PELs display a sharp transition from a highly charged stretched state to a weakly charged globule at a critical salt concentration.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Charakterisierung von Seismizität anhand von Erdbebenkatalogen. Es werden neue Verfahren der Datenanalyse entwickelt, die Aufschluss darüber geben sollen, ob der seismischen Dynamik ein stochastischer oder ein deterministischer Prozess zugrunde liegt und was daraus für die Vorhersagbarkeit starker Erdbeben folgt. Es wird gezeigt, dass seismisch aktive Regionen häufig durch nichtlinearen Determinismus gekennzeichent sind. Dies schließt zumindest die Möglichkeit einer Kurzzeitvorhersage ein. Das Auftreten seismischer Ruhe wird häufig als Vorläuferphaenomen für starke Erdbeben gedeutet. Es wird eine neue Methode präsentiert, die eine systematische raumzeitliche Kartierung seismischer Ruhephasen ermöglicht. Die statistische Signifikanz wird mit Hilfe des Konzeptes der Ersatzdaten bestimmt. Als Resultat erhält man deutliche Korrelationen zwischen seismischen Ruheperioden und starken Erdbeben. Gleichwohl ist die Signifikanz dafür nicht hoch genug, um eine Vorhersage im Sinne einer Aussage über den Ort, die Zeit und die Stärke eines zu erwartenden Hauptbebens zu ermöglichen.
Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Annahme, dass den Erdbeben ein selbstorganisiert kritischer Zustand der Erdkruste zugrunde liegt. Mit Hilfe einer Erweiterung bisheriger Modelle wird gezeigt, dass ein solcher Zustand nicht nur für die Grössenverteilung der Erdbeben (Gutenberg-Richter Gesetz), sondern auch für das beobachtete raumzeitliche Auftreten, z.B. für das Omori-Gesetz für Nachbebenserien, verantwortlich sein kann. Desweiteren wird die Frage nach der Vorhersagbarkeit grosser Erdbeben in solchen Modellsimulationen untersucht.
We theoretically discuss the interaction of neutral particles (atoms, molecules) with surfaces in the regime where it is mediated by the electromagnetic field. A thorough characterization of the field at sub-wavelength distances is worked out, including energy density spectra and coherence functions. The results are applied to typical situations in integrated atom optics, where ultracold atoms are coupled to a thermal surface, and to single molecule probes in near field optics, where sub-wavelength resolution can be achieved.
This thesis presents new approaches to evolutions of binary black hole systems in numerical relativity. We analyze and compare evolutions from various physically motivated initial data sets, in particular presenting the first evolutions of Thin Sandwich data generated by the Meudon group. For the first time two different quasi-circular orbit initial data sequences are compared through fully 3d numerical evolutions: Puncture data and Thin Sandwich data (TSD) based on a helical killing vector ansatz. The two different sets are compared in terms of the physical quantities that can be measured from the numerical data, and in terms of their evolutionary behavior. The evolutions demonstrate that for the latter, "Meudon" datasets, the black holes do in fact orbit for a longer amount of time before they merge, in comparison with Puncture data from the same separation. This indicates they are potentially better estimates of quasi-circular orbit parameters. The merger times resulting from the numerical simulations are consistent with independent Post-Newtonian estimates that the final plunge phase of a black hole inspiral should take 60% of an orbit.