Vibrational Resonance and Electrical Activity Behavior of a Fractional-Order FitzHugh–Nagumo Neuron System

Making use of the numerical simulation method, the phenomenon of vibrational resonance and electrical activity behavior of a fractional-order FitzHugh–Nagumo neuron system excited by two-frequency periodic signals are investigated. Based on the definition and properties of the Caputo fractional derivative, the fractional L1 algorithm is applied to numerically simulate the phenomenon of vibrational resonance in the neuron system. Compared with the integer-order neuron model, the fractional-order neuron model can relax the requirement for the amplitude of the high-frequency signal and induce the phenomenon of vibrational resonance by selecting the appropriate fractional exponent. By introducing the time-delay feedback, it can be found that the vibrational resonance will occur with periods in the fractional-order neuron system, i.e., the amplitude of the low-frequency response periodically changes with the time-delay feedback. The weak low-frequency signal in the system can be significantly enhanced by selecting the appropriate time-delay parameter and the fractional exponent. In addition, the original integer-order model is extended to the fractional-order model, and the neuron system will exhibit rich dynamical behaviors, which provide a broader understanding of the neuron system.

Towards complete assignment of the infrared spectrum of the protonated water cluster H+(H2O)21

The spectroscopic features of protonated water species in dilute acid solutions have been long sought after for understanding the microscopic behavior of the proton in water with gas-phase water clusters H+(H2O)n extensively studied as bottom-up model systems. We present a new protocol for the calculation of the infrared (IR) spectra of complex systems, which combines the fragment-based Coupled Cluster method and anharmonic vibrational quasi-degenerate perturbation theory, and demonstrate its accuracy towards the complete and accurate assignment of the IR spectrum of the H+(H2O)21 cluster. The site-specific IR spectral signatures reveal two distinct structures for the internal and surface four-coordinated water molecules, which are ice-like and liquid-like, respectively. The effect of inter-molecular interaction between water molecules is addressed, and the vibrational resonance is found between the O-H stretching fundamental and the bending overtone of the nearest neighboring water molecule. The revelation of the spectral signature of the excess proton offers deeper insight into the nature of charge accommodation in the extended hydrogen-bonding network underpinning this aqueous cluster.

Effect of Modulated Signals on Vibrational Resonance in a Harmonically Trapped Potential System

We consider a harmonically trapped potential system driven by modulated signals with two widely different frequencies ω and Ω, where Ω >> ω. The forms of modulated signals are amplitude modulated (AM) and frequency-modulated (FM) signals. An amplitude-modulated external signal is consisting of a low-frequency (ω) component and two high-frequencies (Ω + ω) and (Ω − ω) whereas the frequency modulated signal consisting of the frequency components such as f sinωt cos(g cosΩt) and f sin(g cosΩt) cosωt. Depending upon the values of the parameters in the potential function, an odd number of potential wells of different depths can be generated. We numerically investigate the effect of these modulated signals on vibrational resonance (VR) in single-well, three-well, five-well and seven-well potentials. Different from traditional VR theory in the present paper, the enhancement of VR is made by the amplitudes of the AM and FM signals. We show the enhanced response amplitude (Q) at the low-frequency ω, showing the greater number of resonance peaks and non-decay response amplitude on the response amplitude curve due to the modulated signals in all the potential wells. Furthermore, the response amplitude of the system driven by the AM signal exhibits hysteresis and a jump phenomenon. Such behavior of Q is not observed in the system driven by the FM signal.