Phase transitions in rolling of irregular cylinders and spheres

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Qian, Daoyuan, Jung, Yeonsu, Mahadevan, L.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Qian, Daoyuan
Jung, Yeonsu
Mahadevan, L.
author_facet Qian, Daoyuan
Jung, Yeonsu
Mahadevan, L.
contents When placed on an inclined plane, a perfect 2D disk or 3D sphere simply rolls down in a straight line under gravity. But how is the rolling affected if these shapes are irregular or random? Treating the terminal rolling speed as an order parameter, we show that phase transitions arise as a function of the dimension of the state space and inertia. We calculate the scaling exponents and the macroscopic lag time associated with the presence of first and second order transitions, and describe the regimes of co-existence of stable states and the accompanying hysteresis. Experiments with rolling cylinders corroborate our theoretical results on the scaling of the lag time. Experiments with spheres reveal closed orbits and their period-doubling in the overdamped and inertial limits respectively, providing visible manifestations of the hairy ball theorem and the doubly-connected nature of SO(3), the space of 3-dimensional rotations. Going beyond simple curiosity, our study might be relevant in a number of natural and artificial systems that involve the rolling of irregular objects, in systems ranging from nanoscale cellular transport to robotics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_19861
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Phase transitions in rolling of irregular cylinders and spheres
Qian, Daoyuan
Jung, Yeonsu
Mahadevan, L.
Classical Physics
When placed on an inclined plane, a perfect 2D disk or 3D sphere simply rolls down in a straight line under gravity. But how is the rolling affected if these shapes are irregular or random? Treating the terminal rolling speed as an order parameter, we show that phase transitions arise as a function of the dimension of the state space and inertia. We calculate the scaling exponents and the macroscopic lag time associated with the presence of first and second order transitions, and describe the regimes of co-existence of stable states and the accompanying hysteresis. Experiments with rolling cylinders corroborate our theoretical results on the scaling of the lag time. Experiments with spheres reveal closed orbits and their period-doubling in the overdamped and inertial limits respectively, providing visible manifestations of the hairy ball theorem and the doubly-connected nature of SO(3), the space of 3-dimensional rotations. Going beyond simple curiosity, our study might be relevant in a number of natural and artificial systems that involve the rolling of irregular objects, in systems ranging from nanoscale cellular transport to robotics.
title Phase transitions in rolling of irregular cylinders and spheres
topic Classical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.19861