We consider a dimer lattice of the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou (FPUT) type, where alternating linear couplings have a controllably small difference and the cubic nonlinearity (β-FPUT) is the same for all interaction pairs. We use a weakly nonlinear formal reduction within the lattice band gap to obtain a continuum, nonlinear Dirac-type system. We derive the Dirac soliton profiles and the model's conservation laws analytically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTopological physics has revolutionized materials science, introducing topological phases of matter in diverse settings ranging from quantum to photonic and phononic systems. Herein, we present a family of topological systems, which we term "strain topological metamaterials", whose topological properties are hidden and unveiled only under higher-order (strain) coordinate transformations. We firstly show that the canonical mass dimer, a model that can describe various settings such as electrical circuits and optics, among others, belongs to this family where strain coordinates reveal a topological nontriviality for the edge states at free boundaries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe discovery of topologically nontrivial electronic systems has opened a new age in condensed matter research. From topological insulators to topological superconductors and Weyl semimetals, it is now understood that some of the most remarkable and robust phases in electronic systems (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhilos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci
August 2018
Recently, there have been significant efforts to guide mechanical energy in structures by relying on a novel topological framework popularized by the discovery of topological insulators. Here, we propose a topological metamaterial system based on the design of the Stewart Platform, which can not only guide mechanical waves robustly in a desired path, but also can be tuned in situ to change this wave path at will. Without resorting to any active materials, the current system harnesses bistablilty in its unit cells, such that tuning can be performed simply by a dial-in action.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present an active, purely mechanical stress wave isolator that consists of short cylindrical particles arranged in a helical architecture. This phononic structure allows us to change inter-particle stiffness dynamically by controlling the contact angles of the cylinders. We use torsional travelling waves to control the contact angles, thereby imposing a desired spatio-temporal stiffness variation to the phononic crystal along the longitudinal direction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious studies of the first author and others have focused on low audible frequency (<1 kHz) shear and surface wave motion in and on a viscoelastic material comprised of or representative of soft biological tissue. A specific case considered has been surface (Rayleigh) wave motion caused by a circular disk located on the surface and oscillating normal to it. Different approaches to identifying the type and coefficients of a viscoelastic model of the material based on these measurements have been proposed.
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