Flow equations for disordered Floquet systems

In this work, we present a new approach to disordered, periodically driven (Floquet) quantum many-body systems based on flow equations. Specifically, we introduce a continuous unitary flow of Floquet operators in an extended Hilbert space, whose fixed point is both diagonal and time-independent, allowing us to directly obtain the Floquet modes. We first apply this method to a periodically driven Anderson insulator, for which it is exact, and then extend it to driven many-body localized systems within a truncated flow equation ansatz. In particular we compute the emergent Floquet local integrals of motion that characterise a periodically driven many-body localized phase. We demonstrate that the method remains well-controlled in the weakly-interacting regime, and allows us to access larger system sizes than accessible by numerically exact methods, paving the way for studies of two-dimensional driven many-body systems.

Vertically forced stably stratified cavity flow: instabilities of the basic state

The linear stability of a stably stratified fluid-filled cavity subject to vertical oscillations is determined via Floquet analysis. Retaining the viscous and diffusion terms in the Navier–Stokes–Boussinesq equations, with no-slip velocity boundary conditions, no-flux temperature conditions on the sidewalls and constant temperatures on the top and bottom walls, we find that the instabilities are primarily subharmonic (as is typical in many parametrically forced systems), except for in a few low-forcing-frequency ranges where the instabilities are synchronous. When the viscosity is small, the Floquet modes resemble the inviscid eigenmodes of the unforced problem, except in boundary layers. We establish scaling laws quantifying how viscosity regularizes the degeneracy associated with the inviscid idealization, and how it scales the thickness and intensity of the boundary layers. The product of boundary layer thickness and intensity remains constant with decreasing viscosity, leading to a delta distribution of vorticity on the walls in the limit of zero viscosity. This is in contrast to the zero wall vorticity in the inviscid case.

Approximate Floquet Analysis of Parametrically Excited Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Systems With Application to Wind Turbines

General responses of multi-degrees-of-freedom (MDOF) systems with parametric stiffness are studied. A Floquet-type solution, which is a product between an exponential part and a periodic part, is assumed, and applying harmonic balance, an eigenvalue problem is found. Solving the eigenvalue problem, frequency content of the solution and response to arbitrary initial conditions are determined. Using the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors, the system response is written in terms of “Floquet modes,” which are nonsynchronous, contrary to linear modes. Studying the eigenvalues (i.e., characteristic exponents), stability of the solution is investigated. The approach is applied to MDOF systems, including an example of a three-blade wind turbine, where the equations of motion have parametric stiffness terms due to gravity. The analytical solutions are also compared to numerical simulations for verification.