Chaotic Scattering and the $n$-bounce Resonance in Solitary Wave Interactions
Roy Goodman and Richard Haberman. Physical Review Letters, 2007.
Abstract
We present a new and complete analysis of the n-bounce resonance and chaotic scattering in solitary wave collisions. In these phenomena, the speed at which a wave exits a collision depends in a complicated fractal way on its input speed. We present a new asymptotic analysis of collective-coordinate ODEs, reduced models that reproduce the dynamics of these systems. We reduce the ODEs to discrete-time iterated separatrix maps and obtain new quantitative results unraveling the fractal structure of the scattering behavior. These phenomena have been observed repeatedly in many solitary-wave systems over 25 years.
Type
Publication
Physical Review Letters, 98, 104103
Authors
Professor, Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, Department of Mathematical Sciences
I am a professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at NJIT. My research applies methods of dynamical systems to (conservative, dispersive) nonlinear wave equations arising, for example, in optics and fluid mechanics. I am interested in dynamical and bifurcation phenomena, and I use techniques from Hamiltonian mechanics and perturbation theory, as well as extensive computations. My current research in vortex dynamics is supported by the NSF under DMS-2206016.
I led the effort to start the SIAM New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania Section (SIAM NNP) and was its first president in 2023-2024. I have handed over the reins to a new leadership group.
Authors
Professor
Roy approached Rich with a problem that he was stuck on in 2002. Thus began a long-term friendship and collaboration. Rich passed away in December 2018. See a remembrance here.