Accurate evaluation of self-heterodyne laser linewidth measurements using Wiener filters.

Self-heterodyne beat note measurements are widely used for the experimental characterization of the frequency noise power spectral density (FN-PSD) and the spectral linewidth of lasers. The measured data, however, must be corrected for the transfer function of the experimental setup in a post-processing routine. The standard approach disregards the detector noise and thereby induces reconstruction artifacts in the reconstructed FN-PSD.

Beyond just "flattening the curve": Optimal control of epidemics with purely non-pharmaceutical interventions.

When effective medical treatment and vaccination are not available, non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, home quarantine and far-reaching shutdown of public life are the only available strategies to prevent the spread of epidemics. Based on an extended SEIR (susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered) model and continuous-time optimal control theory, we compute the optimal non-pharmaceutical intervention strategy for the case that a vaccine is never found and complete containment (eradication of the epidemic) is impossible. In this case, the optimal control must meet competing requirements: First, the minimization of disease-related deaths, and, second, the establishment of a sufficient degree of natural immunity at the end of the measures, in order to exclude a second wave.

Delay-induced patterns in a two-dimensional lattice of coupled oscillators.

We show how a variety of stable spatio-temporal periodic patterns can be created in 2D-lattices of coupled oscillators with non-homogeneous coupling delays. The results are illustrated using the FitzHugh-Nagumo coupled neurons as well as coupled limit cycle (Stuart-Landau) oscillators. A "hybrid dispersion relation" is introduced, which describes the stability of the patterns in spatially extended systems with large time-delay.

Bifurcation analysis of delay-induced patterns in a ring of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons.

Rings of delay-coupled neurons possess a striking capability to produce various stable spiking patterns. In order to reveal the mechanisms of their appearance, we present a bifurcation analysis of the Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) system with delayed feedback as well as a closed loop of HH neurons. We consider mainly the effects of external currents and communication delays.