How spatiotemporal dynamics can enhance ecosystem resilience.

We study how self-organization in systems showing complex spatiotemporal dynamics can increase ecosystem resilience. We consider a general simple model that includes positive feedback as well as negative feedback mediated by an inhibitor. We apply this model to meadows, where positive and negative feedbacks are well documented, and there is empirical evidence of the role of sulfide accumulation, toxic for the plant, in driving complex spatiotemporal dynamics.

Optimal wave reflection as a mechanism for seagrass self-organization.

Ecosystems threatened by climate change can boost their resilience by developing spatial patterns. Spatially regular patterns in wave-exposed seagrass meadows are attributed to self-organization, yet underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we show that these patterns could emerge from feedbacks between wave reflection and seagrass-induced bedform growth.

Subharmonic instabilities in Kerr microcombs.

We report experimental observation of subharmonic mode excitation in primary Kerr optical frequency combs generated using crystalline whispering-gallery mode resonators. We show that the subcombs can be controlled and span a single or multiple free spectral ranges around the primary comb modes. In the spatial domain, the resulting multiscale combs correspond to an amplitude modulation of intracavity roll patterns.

Self-organized sulfide-driven traveling pulses shape seagrass meadows.

Seagrasses provide multiple ecosystem services and act as intense carbon sinks in coastal regions around the globe but are threatened by multiple anthropogenic pressures, leading to enhanced seagrass mortality that reflects in the spatial self-organization of the meadows. Spontaneous spatial vegetation patterns appear in such different ecosystems as drylands, peatlands, salt marshes, or seagrass meadows, and the mechanisms behind this phenomenon are still an open question in many cases. Here, we report on the formation of vegetation traveling pulses creating complex spatiotemporal patterns and rings in Mediterranean seagrass meadows.

Bifurcation structure of traveling pulses in type-I excitable media.

We study the scenario in which traveling pulses emerge in a prototypical type-I one-dimensional excitable medium, which exhibits two different routes to excitable behavior, mediated by a homoclinic (saddle-loop) and a saddle-node on the invariant cycle bifurcations. We characterize the region in parameter space in which traveling pulses are stable together with the different bifurcations behind either their destruction or loss of stability. In particular, some of the bifurcations delimiting the stability region have been connected, using singular limits, with the two different scenarios that mediated type-I local excitability.

Traveling pulses in type-I excitable media.

We consider a general model exhibiting type-I excitability mediated by a homoclinic and a saddle node on the invariant circle bifurcations. We show how the distinct properties of type-I with respect to type-II excitability confer unique features to traveling pulses in excitable media. They inherit the characteristic divergence of type-I excitable trajectories at threshold exhibiting analogous scalings in the spatial thickness of the pulses.

Effects of demand control on the complex dynamics of electric power system blackouts.

The propagation of failures and blackouts in electric networks is a complex problem. Typical models, such as the ORNL-PSerc-Alaska (OPA), are based on a combination of fast and slow dynamics. The first describes the cascading failures while the second describes the grid evolution through line and generation upgrades as well as demand growth, all taking place in time scales from days to years.

Fluctuations and correlations in Kerr optical frequency combs with additive Gaussian noise.

We investigate the effects of environmental stochastic fluctuations on Kerr optical frequency combs. This spatially extended dynamical system can be accurately studied using the Lugiato-Lefever equation, and we show that when additive noise is accounted for, the correlations of the modal field fluctuations can be determined theoretically. We propose a general theory for the computation of these field fluctuations and correlations, which is successfully compared to numerical simulations.

Fairy circle landscapes under the sea.

Short-scale interactions yield large-scale vegetation patterns that, in turn, shape ecosystem function across landscapes. Fairy circles, which are circular patches bare of vegetation within otherwise continuous landscapes, are characteristic features of semiarid grasslands. We report the occurrence of submarine fairy circle seascapes in seagrass meadows and propose a simple model that reproduces the diversity of seascapes observed in these ecosystems as emerging from plant interactions within the meadow.

Origin and stability of dark pulse Kerr combs in normal dispersion resonators.

We analyze dark pulse Kerr frequency combs in optical resonators with normal group-velocity dispersion using the Lugiato-Lefever model. We show that in the time domain the combs correspond to interlocked switching waves between the upper and lower homogeneous states, and explain how this fact accounts for many of their experimentally observed properties. Modulational instability does not play any role in their existence.

Theory for the spatiotemporal dynamics of domain walls close to a nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch transition.

We derive a generic model for the interaction of domain walls close to a nonequilibrium-Bloch transition. The universal scenario predicted by the model includes stationary Ising and Bloch localized structures (dissipative solitons), as well as drifting and oscillating Bloch structures. Our theory also explains the behavior of Bloch walls during a collision.

Third-order chromatic dispersion stabilizes Kerr frequency combs.

Using numerical simulations of an extended Lugiato-Lefever equation we analyze the stability and nonlinear dynamics of Kerr frequency combs generated in microresonators and fiber resonators, taking into account third-order dispersion effects. We show that cavity solitons underlying Kerr frequency combs, normally sensitive to oscillatory and chaotic instabilities, are stabilized in a wide range of parameter space by third-order dispersion. Moreover, we demonstrate how the snaking structure organizing compound states of multiple cavity solitons is qualitatively changed by third-order dispersion, promoting an increased stability of Kerr combs underlined by a single cavity soliton.

Minimal model dynamics for twelvefold quasipatterns.

A dynamical model of the Swift-Hohenberg type is proposed to describe the formation of twelvefold quasipattern as observed, for instance, in optical systems. The model incorporates the general mechanisms leading to quasipattern formation and does not need external forcing to generate them. Besides quadratic nonlinearities, the model takes into account an angular dependence of the nonlinear couplings between spatial modes with different orientations.

Self-localized states in species competition.

We study the conditions under which species interaction, as described by continuous versions of the competitive Lotka-Volterra model (namely the nonlocal Kolmogorov-Fisher model, and its differential approximation), can support the existence of localized states, i.e., patches of species with enhanced population surrounded in niche space by species at smaller densities.

Formation of localized structures in bistable systems through nonlocal spatial coupling. II. The nonlocal Ginzburg-Landau equation.

We study the influence of a linear nonlocal spatial coupling on the interaction of fronts connecting two equivalent stable states in the prototypical 1-dimensional real Ginzburg-Landau equation. While for local coupling the fronts are always monotonic and therefore the dynamical behavior leads to coarsening and the annihilation of pairs of fronts, nonlocal terms can induce spatial oscillations in the front, allowing for the creation of localized structures, emerging from pinning between two fronts. We show this for three different nonlocal influence kernels.

Formation of localized structures in bistable systems through nonlocal spatial coupling. I. General framework.

The present work studies the influence of nonlocal spatial coupling on the existence of localized structures in one-dimensional extended systems. We consider systems described by a real field with a nonlocal coupling that has a linear dependence on the field. Leveraging spatial dynamics we provide a general framework to understand the effect of the nonlocality on the shape of the fronts connecting two stable states.

Phase-space structure of two-dimensional excitable localized structures.

In this work we characterize in detail the bifurcation leading to an excitable regime mediated by localized structures in a dissipative nonlinear Kerr cavity with a homogeneous pump. Here we show how the route can be understood through a planar dynamical system in which a limit cycle becomes the homoclinic orbit of a saddle point (saddle-loop bifurcation). The whole picture is unveiled, and the mechanism by which this reduction occurs from the full infinite-dimensional dynamical system is studied.

Coupled-mode theory for photonic band-gap inhibition of spatial instabilities.

We study the inhibition of pattern formation in nonlinear optical systems using intracavity photonic crystals. We consider mean-field models for singly and doubly degenerate optical parametric oscillators. Analytical expressions for the new (higher) modulational thresholds and the size of the "band gap" as a function of the system and photonic crystal parameters are obtained via a coupled-mode theory.

Excitability mediated by localized structures in a dissipative nonlinear optical cavity.

We find and characterize an excitability regime mediated by localized structures in a dissipative nonlinear optical cavity. The scenario is that stable localized structures exhibit a Hopf bifurcation to self-pulsating behavior, that is followed by the destruction of the oscillation in a saddle-loop bifurcation. Beyond this point there is a regime of excitable localized structures under the application of suitable perturbations.

Photonic band-gap inhibition of modulational instabilities.

Spatial structures as a result of a modulational instability are studied in a nonlinear cavity with a photonic crystal. The interaction of the modulated refractive index with the nonlinearity inhibits the instability via the creation of a photonic band gap. A novel mechanism of light localization due to defects and pattern inhibition is also described.

Secondary bifurcations of hexagonal patterns in a nonlinear optical system: alkali metal vapor in a single-mirror arrangement.

Secondary bifurcations of hexagonal patterns are analyzed in a model of a single-mirror arrangement with an alkali metal vapor as the nonlinear medium. A stability analysis of the hexagonal structures is performed numerically. Different instabilities are predicted in dependency on the wave number of the hexagons.

Fluctuations and correlations in hexagonal optical patterns.

We analyze the influence of noise in transverse hexagonal patterns in nonlinear Kerr cavities. The near-field fluctuations are determined by the neutrally stable Goldstone modes associated to translational invariance and by the weakly damped soft modes. However, these modes do not contribute to the far-field intensity fluctuations that are dominated by damped perturbations with the same wave vectors than the pattern.