Modern Physics Letters B

Much empirical evidence shows that many real-world networks fall into the broad class of small-world networks and have a modular structure. The modularity has been revealed to have an important effect on cascading failure in isolated networks. However, the corresponding results for interdependent modular small-world networks remain missing. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between cascading failures and the intra-modular rewiring probabilities and inter-modular connections under different coupling preferences, i.e. random coupling with modules (RCWM), assortative coupling in modules (ACIM) and assortative coupling with modules (ACWM). The size of the largest connected component is used to evaluate the robustness from global and local perspectives. Numerical results indicate that increasing intra-modular rewiring probabilities and inter-modular connections can improve the robustness of interdependent modular small-world networks under intra-attacks and inter-attacks. Meanwhile, experiments on three coupling strategies demonstrate that ACIM has a better effect on preventing the cascading failures compared with RCWM and ACWM. These results can be helpful to allocate and optimize the topological structure of interdependent modular small-world networks to improve the robustness of such networks.

Under investigation in this paper is a fifth-order Korteweg–de Vries type (fKdV-type) equation with time-dependent coefficients, which can be used to describe many nonlinear phenomena in fluid mechanics, ocean dynamics and plasma physics. The binary Bell polynomials are employed to find its Hirota’s bilinear formalism with an extra auxiliary variable, based on which its $N$-soliton solutions can be also directly derived. Furthermore, by considering multi-dimensional Riemann theta function, a lucid and straightforward generalization of the Hirota–Riemann method is presented to explicitly construct the multiperiodic wave solutions of the equation. Finally, the asymptotic properties of these periodic wave solutions are strictly analyzed to reveal the relationships between periodic wave solutions and soliton solutions.

We present a method to calculate the effective material parameters of beam acoustic metamaterials. The effective material parameters of a periodic beam are calculated as an example. The dispersion relations and energy band structures of this beam are calculated. Subsequently, the effective material parameters of the beam are investigated by using the energy band structures. Then, the modal analysis and transmission properties of the beams with finite cells are simulated in order to confirm the correctness of effective approximation. The results show that the periodic beam can be equivalent to the homogeneous beam with dynamic effective material parameters in passband.

In this paper, we examine gel creep behavior and develop a material model for useful and simple numerical simulation of this behavior. This study has three stages and aims: (1) gel creep behavior is examined; (2) the material model is determined and the material constants are identified; and (3) the versatility of the material model and the constants are evaluated. The creep behavior is found to be independent of the initial stress level in the present experiment. Thus, the viscoelastic model proposed by Simo is selected, and its material constants are identified using the results of creep tests. Moreover, from the results of numerical calculations and experiments, it is found that the chosen material model has good reproducibility, predictive performance and high versatility.

Infrared (IR) reflectivities are registered in the frequency range of 50–2000 cm${}^{-1}$ for Ag₃In₅Se₉ and Ag₃In₅Te₉ single crystals grown by Bridgman method. Three infrared-active modes are detected in spectra. The optical parameters, real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function, the function of energy losses, refractive index, absorption index and absorption coefficient were calculated from reflectivity experiments. The frequencies of transverse and longitudinal optical modes (TO and LO modes) and oscillator strength were also determined. The bands detected in infrared spectra were tentatively attributed to various vibration types (valence and valence-deformation). The inversion of LO- and TO-mode frequencies of the sandwiched pair was observed for studied crystals.

ZnFe${}_{1.96}$La${}_{0.04}$O₄ nanocrystalline powders were synthesized by auto-combustion with the aid of glycine as fuel. The synthesized powders were subjected to heat treatment in air at constant temperatures (600–970${}^{\circ }$C) for a period of 2 h. The annealed powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy. The as-synthesized and annealed powders formed spongy porous network structure with voids and pores. All the powders were found to be single phase nanomaterial with cubic spinel crystal structure and the desired composition; however, they contained strains, dislocations and lattice distortions. Some of these strains and dislocations are relaxed as a function of annealing temperature. The powders displayed direct and indirect optical band gaps. The energies of these band gaps were found to vary as a function of the induced strains and dislocations. It is suggested that the energy of the optical band gap in lanthanum-doped zinc ferrite nanocrystalline powders can be varied as a function of induced strains if the initial preparation conditions and the following heat treatments are controlled.

A novel polarization insensitive metasurface with over 25 dB monostatic radar cross-section (RCS) reduction is introduced. The proposed metasurface is comprised of carefully arranged unit cells with spatially varied dimension, which enables approximate uniform diffusion of incoming electromagnetic (EM) energy and reduces the threat from bistatic radar system. An iterative fast Fourier transform (FFT) method for conventional antenna array pattern synthesis is innovatively applied to find the best unit cell geometry parameter arrangement. Finally, a metasurface sample is fabricated and tested to validate RCS reduction behavior predicted by full wave simulation software Ansys HFSS${}^{\mathrm{\text{TM}}}$ and marvelous agreement is observed.

We present the control and synchronization of spatiotemporal chaos in the photo-refractive ring oscillator systems with coupling technology. First, we realize the synchronization of spatiotemporal chaos in the two photorefractive ring oscillator systems via mutual coupling by choosing a suitable coupling strength. With the mutual coupling strength enlarging, the two mutual coupling photorefractive ring oscillator systems are controlled into periodic state, period number differs on account of the coupling strength and lattice coordinates. By increasing the coupling strength, the photorefractive ring oscillator is converted into period 8, subsequently it is converted into periods 4 and 2, periodic synchronization of the photorefractive ring oscillator systems is achieved at the same time. Calculation results show that period 1 is impossible by mutual coupling technology. Then, we investigate the influence of noise and parameter deviation on chaotic synchronization. We find that mutual coupling chaotic synchronization method can synchronize two chaotic systems with the weak noise and parameter deviation and has very good robustness. Given that the weak noise and parameter deviation have a slight effect on synchronization. Furthermore, we investigate two dimension control and synchronization of spatiotemporal chaos in the photorefractive ring osillator systems with coupling technology and get successful results. Mutual coupling technology is suitable in practical photorefractive ring oscillator systems.

In this paper, a new car-following model is proposed by considering the drivers’ aggressive characteristics. The stable condition and the modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equation are obtained by the linear stability analysis and nonlinear analysis, which show that the drivers’ aggressive characteristics can improve the stability of traffic flow. Furthermore, the numerical results show that the drivers’ aggressive characteristics increase the stable region of traffic flow and can reproduce the evolution and propagation of small perturbation.

TiO₂-(Ti${}_{0.5}$Si${}_{0.5})$O₂ nanopowders (TS-NPs) with average particle size around 90 nm were successfully synthesized by controlled auto-combustion method by using citric acid/nitric acid (AC:NA) and urea/metal cation (U:MC). The structure of powders was studied based on their X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The XRD of TS-NPs shows that rutile and anatase are the main phases of TS-NPs for AC:NA and U:MC, respectively. Particle size and histogram of nanopowders were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Optical properties of TS-NPs were calculated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Kramers–Kroning (KK) relation. Plasma frequencies of TS-NPs obtained from energy loss functions depend on fuels as a result of changes in crystal structure, particle size distribution, and morphology.

The effects of the electric field on the coherence time of a 2D RbCl parabolic quantum dot (PQD) qubit are studied by using the variational method of Pekar type (VMPT) and the Fermi Golden Rule. We calculate the excitation energy of an electron strongly coupled to bulk longitudinal optical (LO) phonons in the 2D RbCl PQD under an applied electric field. The phonon spontaneous emission causes the decoherence of the qubit. The investigated results indicate that the coherence time increases with increasing strength of the electric field and the effective confinement length, whereas it decreases with increasing polaron radius. Our research results would be useful for the design and implementation of the solid-state quantum computation.

We report a systematic study of large-scale growth of high-quality WSe₂ atomic layers directly on SiO₂/Si substrates using a convenient method. Various parameters, especially growth temperatures, flow rate of carrier gas and tube pressure, are investigated in affecting the properties of as-grown WSe₂ flakes in terms of their sizes, shapes and thickness. The pre-annealing step is demonstrated to be a key role in achieving the large-scale growth. Under an optimized condition, the lateral size of triangular single-crystal monolayer WSe₂ is up to 30 $\mu$m and the area of the monolayer thin film can be up to 0.25 mm². And some other interesting features, such as nanoflowers, are observed, which are a promising for catalyzing research. Raman spectrum and microphotoluminescence indicate distinct layer dependent efficiency. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) studies demonstrate the atomic concentration of the as-grown WSe₂. Electrical transport further shows that the $p$-type WSe₂ field-effect transistors exhibit excellent electrical properties with carrier mobility of $\sim$64 cm${}^2\cdot$V${}^{-1}\cdot$s${}^{-1}$ and current on/off ratio over 10⁵. These results are comparable to the exfoliated materials.

In this work, vitreous samples were prepared in two series by normal melt-quenching technique and under controlled conditions. The amorphous nature of specimens was confirmed using XRD spectra. To perform FT-IR and UV-vis studies, the thin blown films were also prepared. Different ratios of transition metals are assumed to cause depolymerization of the phosphate glass network. Infrared spectra showed absorption bands related to characteristic bonds of phosphate. The P=O bond at about 1200 cm${}^{-1}$ was observed, as a direct consequence of meta-phosphate bond group. The almost unchanged peak position and intensity of P=O bond (in the presence of two transition metal ions) indicated the glass modifying nature of transition metal oxides (TMOs). The spectra of two series are almost identical, except for 890–1100 cm${}^{-1}$ range, which can be attributed to presence of second TMO in the first glass series. UV-vis spectra also showed that the absorption edge, optical band gap and Urbach energy of the prepared samples are highly dependent on the kind and percentage of their reagents. The most striking result of UV-vis measurements was increasing and decreasing of optical band gap in the first and the second series with MoO₃ content, respectively. The shape of the absorption edge (a plot of ${(\alpha h\upsilon )}^{1/2}$ versus $h\upsilon$) demonstrated the indirect nature of the band gap in the prepared specimens.

In this paper, the memristor-based fractional-order neural networks with time delay are analyzed. Based on the theories of set-value maps, differential inclusions and Filippov’s solution, some sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability of this neural network model are obtained when the external inputs are constants. Besides, uniform stability condition is derived when the external inputs are time-varying, and its attractive interval is estimated. Finally, numerical examples are given to verify our results.

Network traffic is an important and direct acting factor of network reliability and performance. To understand the behaviors of network traffic, chaotic dynamics models were proposed and helped to analyze nondeterministic network a lot. The previous research thought that the chaotic dynamics behavior was caused by random factors, and the deterministic networks would not exhibit chaotic dynamics behavior because of lacking of random factors. In this paper, we first adopted chaos theory to analyze traffic data collected from a typical deterministic network testbed — avionics full duplex switched Ethernet (AFDX, a typical deterministic network) testbed, and found that the chaotic dynamics behavior also existed in deterministic network. Then in order to explore the chaos generating mechanism, we applied the mean field theory to construct the traffic dynamics equation (TDE) for deterministic network traffic modeling without any network random factors. Through studying the derived TDE, we proposed that chaotic dynamics was one of the nature properties of network traffic, and it also could be looked as the action effect of TDE control parameters. A network simulation was performed and the results verified that the network congestion resulted in the chaotic dynamics for a deterministic network, which was identical with expectation of TDE. Our research will be helpful to analyze the traffic complicated dynamics behavior for deterministic network and contribute to network reliability designing and analysis.