NSF Award
2307718
This project will enhance the foundational understanding of Dynamical Systems through the development of theories, models, and techniques that could potentially address a range of contemporary scientific and technological issues, such as production of sustainable energy and space exploration. The main objective of this research is to devise mechanisms to gain energy in mechanical systems subject to dissipation and forcing. The project will study mathematical models for energy harvesting devices, which convert external vibrations into electrical energy, and will optimize their energy output. It will also investigate the dynamics of comets, asteroids, and spacecraft, with applications to the design of fuel-efficient space missions. Partial support will be provided to graduate and undergraduate students, including members of underrepresented groups.<br/> <br/><br/>The project will open new research directions in the study of Hamiltonian systems subject to general perturbations. It will advance the understanding of the Arnold diffusion phenomenon, describing that integrable Hamiltonian systems subject to small, generic, Hamiltonian perturbations, exhibit orbits along which the energy changes by a significant amount. The project will investigate this phenomenon in concrete systems, such as from celestial mechanics. It will also explore the case of perturbations given by conformally symplectic vector fields, which model the effect of dissipation. Additionally, the project will develop novel methods to use natural perturbations of a system as controllers, in order to drive the system from some given state to any desired state.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
