Taming Chaotic Dynamics With Weak Periodic Perturbations: An Elucidation and Critique.
Taming Chaotic Dynamics With Weak Periodic
Perturbations: An Elucidation and Critique.
(228 K)
Abbadi, Z.; Simiu, E.
Nanotechnology, Vol. 13, No. 2, 153-156, April 2002.
Keywords:
chaotic dynamics; nanoscale technology
Abstract:
Techniques for controlling chaos are needed for, among
other applications, control of friction at the
nanoscale. According to Braiman and Goldhirsch, the
possibility of doing so by adding a weak periodic
external forcing to a chaotic system was demonstrated by
the results of numerical simulations performed on an
asymmetrically multistable system. We discuss those
simulations and show that, rather than being a means of
controlling chaos, the additional forcing used by
Braiman and Goldhirsch has the trival effect of inducing
a transition to periodic rotational motion. For the
particular case of the system used as an example by
these authors the forcing required to achieve this
effect is weak because the system parameters were chosen
so that height of the potential barrier be
correspondingly low.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899