Strain waves, earthquakes, slow earthquakes, and afterslip in the framework of the Frenkel-Kontorova model

Collective transport in the discrete Frenkel-Kontorova model

Through multiscale analysis of the adjoint Fokker-Planck equation, strict bounds are derived for the center of mass diffusivity of an overdamped harmonic chain in a periodic potential, often known as the discrete Frenkel-Kontorova model. Significantly, it is shown that the free energy barrier is a lower bound to the true finite temperature migration barrier for this general and popular system. Numerical simulation confirms the analysis, while effective migration potentials implied by the bounds are employed to give a surprisingly accurate prediction of the nonlinear response.

Enhanced response of regular networks to local signals in the presence of a fast impurity

We consider an array of inductively coupled Josephson junctions with a fast impurity (a junction with a smaller value of the critical current) and study the consequences of imposing a small amplitude periodic signal at some point in the array. We find that when the external signal is imposed at the impurity, the response of the array is boosted and a small amplitude signal can be detected throughout the array. When the signal is imposed elsewhere, minor effects are seen on the dynamics of the array. The same results have also been seen in the presence of a single fast-spiking neuron in a chain of diffusively coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo neurons.