Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

We consider Klein-Gordon equations with an external potential and cubic nonlinearity in three spatial dimensions. It is assumed that the linear operator has internal modes, and hence the unperturbed linear equation has multiple time-periodic solutions known as bound states. In 1999, Soffer and Weinstein treated the case when the linear operator has one large eigenvalue and proved the decay of the solution. In 2022, we solved the general one eigenvalue case. In our recent work, we solved the multiple internal modes case: the operator can has multiple and possibly degenerate eigenvalues. Indeed, we determined the sharp decay rate of the overall solution, as well as distinct decay rates for different modes of the solution. This is a joint work with Prof. Zhen Lei and Dr. Jie Liu.

Statistical mechanics explains that systems in thermal equilibrium spend a greater fraction of their time in states with apparent order because these states have lower energy. This explanation is remarkable, and powerful, because energy is a "local" property of states. While non-equilibrium steady states can similarly exhibit order, there can be no local property analogous to energy that explains why, as Landauer argued 50 years ago. However, recent experiments suggest that a local property called “rattling” predicts which states are favored, at least for a broad class of non-equilibrium systems.

I will present a Markov chain theory that explains when and why rattling predicts non-equilibrium order. In brief, it "works" when the correlation between a Markov chain's effective potential and the logarithm of its exit rates is high. It is therefore important to estimate this correlation in different classes of Markov chains. As an example, I will discuss estimates of the correlation exhibited by reaction kinetics on disordered energy landscapes, including dynamics of the random energy model and the Sherrington–Kirkpatrick spin glass. (Joint work with Dana Randall.)

A knot is slice if it bounds a smoothly embedded disk in the four-ball and a knot is ribbon if it bounds such a disk with no local maxima. The slice-ribbon conjecture posits that every slice knot is ribbon. We prove that a linear combination of iterated cables of tight fibered knots is ribbon if and only if it is of the form K # -K, generalizing work of Miyazaki and Baker. Consequently, either iterated cables of tight fibered knots are linearly independent in the smooth concordance group, or the slice–ribbon conjecture fails.