Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 23: Nonlinear Waves/ Nonlinear Lattices

DY 23.1: Topical Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 14:00–14:30, ZEU 255

Nonlinear waves in localizing media — •Sergej Flach — Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany

Linear wave propagation is inhibited in a variety of structured media, such as disorder potentials (Anderson localization), Wannier-Stark ladders (Bloch oscillations), quantum kicked rotors (dynamical localization), and quasiperiodic potentials (Aubry-Andre localization). All cases were experimentally studied with light and/or matter waves, and confirmed the expected localization of waves. An additional nonlinear response couples the localized eigenmodes of the linear equations and makes them nonintegrable. Wave packets tend to spread subdiffusively. I will review recent theoretical studies of the dynamical details of wave packet spreading, and discuss recent experimental data obtained with interacting matter waves.