This paper is devoted to a numerical study of the familiar α+β FPU model. Precisely, we here discuss, revisit and combine together two main ideas on the subject: (i) In the system, at small specific energy ε = E/N, two well separated time-scales are present: in the former one a kind of metastable state is produced, while in the second much larger one, such an intermediate state evolves and reaches statistical equilibrium. (ii) FPU should be interpreted as a perturbed Toda model, rather than (as is typical) as a linear model per- turbed by nonlinear terms. In the view we here present and support, the former time scale is the one in which FPU is essentially integrable, its dynamics being almost indistinguishable from the Toda dynamics: the Toda actions stay constant for FPU too (while the usual linear normal modes do not), the angles fill their almost invariant torus, and nothing else happens. The second time scale is instead the one in which the Toda actions significantly evolve, and statistical equilibrium is possible. We study both FPU-like initial states, in which only a few degrees of freedom are excited, and generic initial states extracted randomly from an (ap- proximated) microcanonical distribution. The study is based on a close comparison between the behavior of FPU and Toda in various situations. The main technical novelty is the study of the correlation functions of the Toda constants of motion in the FPU dynamics; such a study allows us to provide a good definition of the equilibrium time τ , i.e. of the second time scale, for generic initial data. Our investigation shows that τ is stable in the thermodynamic limit, i.e. the limit of large N at fixed ε, and that by reducing ε (ideally, the temperature), τ approximately grows following a power law τ ∼ ε^{-a} , with a = 5/2
We investigate numerically the common α+β and the pure β FPU models, as well as some higher order generalizations. We consider initial conditions in which only low-frequency normal modes are excited, and perform a very accurate systematic study of the equilibrium time as a function of the number N of particles, the specific energy ε, and the parameters α and β. While at any fixed N the equilibrium time is found to be a stretched exponential in 1/ε, in the thermodynamic limit, i.e. for N→∞ at fixed ε, we observe a crossover to a power law. Concerning the (usually disregarded) dependence of T eq on α and β, we find it is nontrivial, and propose and test a general law. A central role is played by the comparison of the FPU models with the Toda model
A numerical and analytical study of the relaxation to equilibrium of both the FermiPasta-Ulam (FPU) α-model and the integrable Toda model, when the fundamental mode is initially excited, is reported. We show that the dynamics of both systems is almost identical on the short term, when the energies of the initially unexcited modes grow in geometric progression with time, through a secular avalanche process. At the end of this first stage of the dynamics the time-averaged modal energy spectrum of the Toda system stabilizes to its final profile, well described, at low energy, by the spectrum of a q-breather. The Toda equilibrium state is clearly shown to describe well the long-living quasi-state of the FPU system. On the long term, the modal energy spectrum of the FPU system slowly detaches from the Toda one by a diffusive-like rising of the tail modes, and eventually reaches the equilibrium flat shape. We find a simple law describing the growth of tail modes, which enables us to estimate the time-scale to equipartition of the FPU system, even when, at small energies, it becomes unobservable.
Numerical evidence on the relevance of the initial conditions to the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem is reported, supported by analytic estimates. In particular, we analyze the special, crucial role played by the phases of the low frequency normal modes initially excited, their energy being the same. The results found are the following. When the phases of the initially excited modes are randomly chosen, the parameter ruling the first stage of the transfer of energy to higher frequency modes turns out to be the energy per degree of freedom (or specific energy) of the system, i.e. an intensive parameter. On the other hand, if the initial phases are “coherently” selected (e.g. they are all equal or equispaced on the unit circle), then the energy cascade is ruled by the total energy of the system, i.e. an extensive parameter. Finally, when a few modes are initially excited, in which case specifying the randomness or coherence of the phases becomes meaningless, the relevant parameter turns out to be again the specific energy (this is the case of the original Fermi-Pasta-Ulam experiment)
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