Optimal synchronizability of bearings.

Bearings are mechanical dissipative systems that, when perturbed, relax toward a synchronized (bearing) state. Here we find that bearings can be perceived as physical realizations of complex networks of oscillators with asymmetrically weighted couplings. Accordingly, these networks can exhibit optimal synchronization properties through fine-tuning of the local interaction strength as a function of node degree [Motter, Zhou, and Kurths, Phys.

Deposition of general ellipsoidal particles.

We present a systematic overview of granular deposits composed of ellipsoidal particles with different particle shapes and size polydispersities. We study the density and anisotropy of such deposits as functions of small to moderate size polydispersity and two shape parameters that fully describe the shape of a general ellipsoid. Our results show that, while shape influences significantly the macroscopic properties of the deposits, polydispersity in the studied range plays apparently a secondary role.

Obtaining the size distribution of fault gouges with polydisperse bearings.

We generalize a recent study of random space-filling bearings to a more realistic situation, where the spacing offset varies randomly during the space-filling procedure, and show that it reproduces well the size distributions observed in recent studies of real fault gouges. In particular, we show that the fractal dimensions of random polydisperse bearings sweep predominantly the low range of values in the spectrum of fractal dimensions observed along real faults, which strengthen the evidence that polydisperse bearings may explain the occurrence of seismic gaps in nature. In addition, the influence of different distributions on the offset is studied and we find that a uniform distribution is the best choice for reproducing the size distribution of fault gouges.

Space-filling bearings in three dimensions.

We present the first space-filling bearing in three dimensions. It is shown that a packing which contains only loops of an even number of spheres can be constructed in a self-similar way and that it can act as a three-dimensional bearing in which spheres can rotate without slip and with negligible torsion friction.