Simple dynamical system with discrete bound states

Classical helium atom with radiation reaction

We study a classical model of helium atom in which, in addition to the Coulomb forces, the radiation reaction forces are taken into account. This modification brings in the model a new qualitative feature of a global character. Indeed, as pointed out by Dirac, in any model of classical electrodynamics of point particles involving radiation reaction one has to eliminate, from the a priori conceivable solutions of the problem, those corresponding to the emission of an infinite amount of energy. We show that the Dirac prescription solves a problem of inconsistency plaguing all available models which neglect radiation reaction, namely, the fact that in all such models, most initial data lead to a spontaneous breakdown of the atom. A further modification is that the system thus acquires a peculiar form of dissipation. In particular, this makes attractive an invariant manifold of special physical interest, the zero-dipole manifold that corresponds to motions in which no energy is radiated away (in the dipole approximation). We finally study numerically the invariant measure naturally induced by the time-evolution on such a manifold, and this corresponds to studying the formation process of the atom. Indications are given that such a measure may be singular with respect to that of Lebesgue.

Stiff stability of the hydrogen atom in dissipative Fokker electrodynamics

We introduce an ad hoc electrodynamics with advanced and retarded Liénard-Wiechert interactions plus the dissipative Lorentz-Dirac self-interaction force. We study the covariant dynamical system of the electromagnetic two-body problem, i.e., the hydrogen atom. We perform the linear stability analysis of circular orbits for oscillations perpendicular to the orbital plane. In particular, we study the normal modes of the linearized dynamics that have an arbitrarily large imaginary eigenvalue. These large eigenvalues are fast frequencies that introduce a fast (stiff) time scale into the dynamics. As an application, we study the phenomenon of resonant dissipation, i.e., a motion where both particles recoil together in a drifting circular orbit (a bound state), while the atom dissipates center-of-mass energy only. This balancing of the stiff dynamics is established by the existence of a quartic resonant constant that locks the dynamics to the neighborhood of the recoiling circular orbit. The resonance condition quantizes the angular momenta in reasonable agreement with the Bohr atom. The principal result is that the emission lines of quantum electrodynamics agree with the prediction of our resonance condition within 1% average deviation.

Effective charge of colloidal particles

A new dynamical definition of the effective colloidal charge, especially suitable for the Monte Carlo and Molecular-dynamics simulations, is proposed. It is shown that for aqueous colloidal suspensions containing monovalent counterions the "dynamical" effective charge agrees perfectly with the "statistical" effective charge calculated using the Alexander prescription. In the case of multivalent ions, the effective charge behaves in a qualitatively different way from the predictions of the Poisson-Boltzmann theory.

Energy localization in the Peyrard-Bishop DNA model

We study energy localization on the oscillator chain proposed by Peyrard and Bishop to model DNA. We search numerically for conditions with initial energy in a small subgroup of consecutive oscillators of a finite chain and such that the oscillation amplitude is small outside this subgroup on a long time scale. We use a localization criterion based on the information entropy and verify numerically that such localized excitations exist when the nonlinear dynamics of the subgroup oscillates with a frequency inside the reactive band of the linear chain. We predict a mimium value for the Morse parameter (micro>2.25) (the only parameter of our normalized model), in agreement with the numerical calculations (an estimate for the biological value is micro=6.3 ). For supercritical masses, we use canonical perturbation theory to expand the frequencies of the subgroup and we calculate an energy threshold in agreement with the numerical calculations.

Two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian for the time-symmetric two-body problem of the relativistic action-at-a-distance electrodynamics

We find a two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian for the time-symmetric problem of straight line motion of two electrons in direct relativistic interaction. This time-symmetric dynamical system appeared 100 years ago and it was popularized in the 1940s by the work of Wheeler and Feynman in electrodynamics, which was left incomplete due to the lack of a Hamiltonian description. The form of our Hamiltonian is such that the action of a Lorentz transformation is explicitly described by a canonical transformation (with rescaling of the evolution parameter). The method is closed and defines the Hamitonian in implicit form without power expansions. We outline the method with an emphasis on the physics of this complex conservative dynamical system. The Hamiltonian orbits are calculated numerically at low energies using a self-consistent steepest-descent method (a stable numerical method that chooses only the nonrunaway solution). The two-degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian suggests a simple prescription for the canonical quantization of the relativistic two-body problem.