Complex magnetic oxides represent a unique intersection of immense technological importance and fascinating physical phenomena originating from interwoven structural, electronic and magnetic degrees of freedom. The resulting energetically close competing orders can be controllably selected through external fields. Competing interactions and disorder represent an additional opportunity to systematically manipulate the properties of pure magnetic systems, leading to frustration, glassiness, and other novel phenomena while finite sample dimension plays a similar role in systems with long-range cooperative effects or large correlation lengths. A rigorous understanding of these effects in strongly correlated oxides is key to manipulating their functionality and device performance, but remains a challenging task. In this dissertation, we examine a number of problems related to intrinsic and extrinsic low dimensionality, disorder, and competing interactions in magnetic oxides by applying a unique combination of standard magnetometry techniques and unconventional magnetocaloric effect and transverse susceptibility measurements. The influence of dimensionality and disorder on the nature and critical properties of phase transitions in manganites is illustrated in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3, in which both size reduction to the nanoscale and chemically-controlled quenched disorder are observed to induce a progressive weakening of the first-order nature of the transition, despite acting through the distinct mechanisms of surface effects and site dilution. In the second-order material La0.8Ca0.2MnO3, a strong magnetic field is found to drive the system toward its tricritical point as competition between exchange interactions in the inhomogeneous ground state is suppressed. In the presence of large phase separation stabilized by chemical disorder and long-range strain, dimensionality has a profound effect. With the systematic reduction of particle size in microscale-phase-separated (La, Pr, Ca)MnO3 we observe a disruption of the long-range glassy strains associated with the charge-ordered phase in the bulk, lowering the field and pressure threshold for charge-order melting and increasing the ferromagnetic volume fraction as particle size is decreased. The long-range charge-ordered phase becomes completely suppressed when the particle size falls below 100 nm. In contrast, low dimensionality in the geometrically frustrated pseudo-1D spin chain compound Ca3Co2O6 is intrinsic, arising from the crystal lattice. We establish a comprehensive phase diagram for this exotic system consistent with recent reports of an incommensurate ground state and identify new sub-features of the ferrimagnetic phase. When defects in the form of grain boundaries are incorporated into the system the low-temperature slow-dynamic state is weakened, and new crossover phenomena emerge in the spin relaxation behavior along with an increased distribution of relaxation times. The presence of both disorder and randomness leads to a spin-glass-like state, as observed in γFe2O3 hollow nanoparticles, where freezing of surface spins at low temperature generates an irreversible magnetization component and an associated exchange-biasing effect. Our results point to distinct dynamic behaviors on the inner and outer surfaces of the hollow structures. Overall, these studies yield new physical insights into the role of dimensionality and disorder in these complex oxide systems and highlight the sensitivity of their manifested magnetic ground states to extrinsic factors, leading in many cases to crossover behaviors where the balance between competing phases is altered, or to the emergence of entirely new magnetic phenomena.

Cette thèse concerne les propriétés dynamiques des endomorphismes holomorphes du plan projectif complexe. La première partie introduit et minore les dimensions directionnelles du courant de Green. Nos résultats mènent une analyse multifractale des tranches de ce courant par des coordonnées locales, relativement aux mesures ergodiques dilatantes. Une première application montre que, relativement à toute mesure ergodique de grande entropie, tout courant positif fermé possède une dimension directionnelle strictement plus grande que deux, ce qui répond à une question de de Thélin-Vigny. Comme deuxième application, nous décrivons les dimensions directionnelles du courant de Green des endomorphismes semi-extrémaux de Dujardin, c'est à dire ceux dont la mesure d'équilibre est absolument continue par rapport à la mesure trace du courant de Green. Dans la deuxième partie, nous majorons les dimensions directionnelles du courant de Green en utilisant des techniques de Théorie du pluripotentiel. En combinant ces résultats à ceux de la première partie, nous montrons une propriété de séparation des dimensions directionnelles du courant de Green relativement à la mesure d'équilibre. Dans la dernière partie, nous étudions la régularité des tranches du courant de Green dans deux situations semi-extrémales. Nous montrons que la dérivée de Radon-Nikodym des tranches stables est bornée presque partout. Cette propriété, proche de l'absolue continuité par rapport à la mesure de Lebesgue, apporte une précision à nos résultats précédents. Les techniques utilisées ont également permis d'obtenir une nouvelle majoration de la dimension locale des mesures ergodiques dilatantes. Cette majoration nous rapproche de la conjecture de Binder-DeMarco concernant la dimension de la mesure d'équilibre. / This thesis studies the dynamical properties of holomorphic endomorphisms of the complex projective plane. The first part introduces and proves lower bounds for the directional dimensions of the Green current. We give there a multifractal analysis of the slices of that current by local coordinates, with respect to dilating ergodic measures. A first application shows that, with respect to every measure of large entropy, every closed positive current has a directional dimension strictly larger than two, which answers a question by de Thélin and Vigny. A second application describes the directional dimensions of the Green current of Dujardin's semi-extremal endomorphisms, which have an equilibrium measure absolutely continuous with respect to the trace measure of the Green current. The second part provides upper bounds for the directional dimensions of the Green current by using Pluripotential Theory. Combining these results with those of the first part, we obtain a separation property of the directional dimensions of the Green current with respect to the equilibrium measure. In the last part, we focus on the regularity of one-dimensional slices of the Green current in two semi-extremal situations. We show that the Radon-Nikodym derivative of the stable slices is bounded almost everywhere. This property is close to the absolute continuity with respect to the Lebesgue measure, and specifies our previous results. Our methods also allow to prove an upper bound for the local dimension of dilating ergodic measures, which is a new step towards Binder-DeMarco's conjecture concerning the dimension of the equilibrium measure.

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Time varying flow structures are involved in a large percentage of fluid flows although there is still much unknown regarding their behavior. With the development of high spatiotemporal resolution measurement systems it is becoming more feasible to measure these complex flow structures, which in turn will lead to a better understanding of their impact. One method that has been developed for studying these flow structures is finite time Lyapunov exponents (FTLEs). These exponents can reveal regions in the fluid, referred to as Lagragnian coherent structures (LCSs), where fluid elements diverge or attract. Better knowledge of how these time varying structures behave can greatly impact a wide range of applications, from aircraft design and performance, to an improved understanding of mixing and transport in the human body. This work provides the development of new methodologies for measuring and studying three-dimensional time varying structures. Provided herein is a method to improve replacement of erroneous measurements in particle image velocimetry data, which leads to increased accuracy in the data. Also, a method for directly measuring the finite time Lyapunov exponents from particle images is developed, as well as an experimental demonstration in a three-dimensional flow field. This method takes advantage of the information inherently contained in these images to improve accuracy and reduce computational requirements. Lastly, this work provides an in depth look at the flow field for developing wall jets across a wide range of Reynolds numbers investigating the mechanisms that contribute to their development. / Ph. D.

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions les fonctions propres de l'opérateur de Laplace-Beltrami - ou simplement laplacien - sur une surface fermée, c'est-à-dire une variété riemannienne lisse, compacte et sans bord de dimension 2. Ces fonctions propres satisfont l'équation $\Delta_g \phi_\lambda + \lambda \phi_\lambda = 0$ et les valeurs propres forment une suite infinie. L'ensemble nodal d'une fonction propre du laplacien est celui de ses zéros et est d'intérêt depuis les expériences de plaques vibrantes de Chladni qui remontent au début du 19ème siècle et, plus récemment, dans le contexte de la mécanique quantique. La taille de cet ensemble nodal a été largement étudiée ces dernières années, notamment par Donnelly et Fefferman, Colding et Minicozzi, Hezari et Sogge, Mangoubi ainsi que Sogge et Zelditch. L'étude de la croissance de fonctions propres n'est pas en reste, avec entre autres les récents travaux de Donnelly et Fefferman, Sogge, Toth et Zelditch, pour ne nommer que ceux-là. Notre thèse s'inscrit dans la foulée du travail de Nazarov, Polterovich et Sodin et relie les propriétés de croissance des fonctions propres avec la taille de leur ensemble nodal dans l'asymptotique $\lambda \nearrow \infty$. Pour ce faire, nous considérons d'abord les exposants de croissance, qui mesurent la croissance locale de fonctions propres et qui sont obtenus à partir de la norme uniforme de celles-ci. Nous construisons ensuite la croissance locale moyenne d'une fonction propre en calculant la moyenne sur toute la surface de ces exposants de croissance, définis sur de petits disques de rayon comparable à la longueur d'onde. Nous montrons alors que la taille de l'ensemble nodal est contrôlée par le produit de cette croissance locale moyenne et de la fréquence $\sqrt{\lambda}$. Ce résultat permet une reformulation centrée sur les fonctions propres de la célèbre conjecture de Yau, qui prévoit que la mesure de l'ensemble nodal croît au rythme de la fréquence. Notre travail renforce également l'intuition répandue selon laquelle une fonction propre se comporte comme un polynôme de degré $\sqrt{\lambda}$. Nous généralisons ensuite nos résultats pour des exposants de croissance construits à partir de normes $L^q$. Nous sommes également amenés à étudier les fonctions appartenant au noyau d'opérateurs de Schrödinger avec petit potentiel dans le plan. Pour de telles fonctions, nous obtenons deux résultats qui relient croissance et taille de l'ensemble nodal. / In this thesis, we study eigenfunctions of the Laplace-Beltrami operator - or simply the Laplacian - on a closed surface, i.e. a two dimensional smooth, compact Riemannian manifold without boundary. These functions satisfy $\Delta_g \phi_\lambda + \lambda \phi_\lambda = 0$ and the eigenvalues form an infinite sequence. The nodal set of a Laplace eigenfunction is its zero set and is of interest since the vibrating plates experiments of Chladni at the beginning of the 19th century as well as, more recently, in the context of quantum mechanics. The size of the nodal sets has been largely studied recently, notably by Donnelly and Fefferman, Colding and Minicozzi, Hezari and Sogge, Mangoubi as well as Sogge and Zelditch.The study of eigenfunction growth is also an active topic, with the recent works of Donnelly and Fefferman, Sogge, Toth and Zelditch to name only a few. Our thesis follows the work of Nazarov, Polterovich and Sodin and links growth and nodal sets of eigenfunctions in the asymptotic $\lambda \nearrow \infty$. To do so, we first consider growth exponents, which measure the local growth of eigenfunctions via their uniform norm. The average local growth of an eigenfunction is built by averaging growth exponents defined on small disks of wavelength like radius over the whole surface. We show that the size of the nodal set is controlled by the product of this average local growth with the frequency $\sqrt{\lambda}$. This result allows a function theoretical reformulation of the famous conjecture of Yau, which predicts that the size of the nodal set grows like the frequency. Our work also strengthens the common intuition that an eigenfunction behaves in many ways like a polynomial of degree $\sqrt{\lambda}$. We then generalize our results to growth exponents built upon $L^q$ norms. We are also led to study functions belonging to the kernel of Schrödinger operators with small potential in the plane. For such functions, we obtain two results linking growth and size of nodal sets.

Many chemical reactions can be described as the crossing of an energetic barrier. This process is mediated by an invariant object in phase space. One can construct a normally hyperbolic invariant manifold (NHIM) of the reactive dynamical system which is an invariant sphere that can be considered as the geometric representation of the transition state itself. The NHIM has invariant cylinders (reaction channels) attached to it. This invariant geometric structure survives as long as the invariant sphere is normally hyperbolic. We applied this theory to the hydrogen exchange reaction in three degrees of freedom in order to figure out the reason of the transition state theory (TST) failure. Energies high above the reaction threshold, the dynamics within the transition state becomes partially chaotic. We have found that the invariant sphere first ceases to be normally hyperbolic at fairly low energies. Surprisingly normal hyperbolicity is then restored and the invariant sphere remains normally hyperbolic even at very high energies. This observation shows two different energy values for the breakdown of the TST and the breakdown of the NHIM. This leads to seek another phase space object that is related to the breakdown of the TST. Using theory of the dividing surface including reactive islands (RIs), we can investigate such an object. We found out that the first nonreactive trajectory has been found at the same energy values for both collinear and full systems, and coincides with the first bifurcation of periodic orbit dividing surface (PODS) at the collinear configuration. The bifurcation creates the unstable periodic orbit (UPO). Indeed, the new PODS (UPO) is the reason for the TST failure. The manifolds (stable and centre-stable) of the UPO clarify these expectations by intersecting the dividing surface at the boundary of the reactive island (on the collinear and the three (full) systems, respectively).

Friction compensation is challenging but imperative for control engineers. For high-performance engineering systems, a friction-model-based controller is typically required to accommodate the nonlinearities arisen from the friction model employed. It is well known that the parameters of the friction model used in the friction compensation are nearly impossible to be accurately identified. Therefore, the objective of this research is to study the effect of these parametric uncertainties on the stability of a set-point position control system. With the above goal in mind, a variety of aspects are investigated in this work. Firstly, several common friction features and friction models are surveyed to provide background knowledge which helps select the friction model with the highest accuracy for our study. Secondly, an experimental setup is proposed and fabricated to validate the levels of accuracy given by the candidate friction models. The comparisons between the numerical and experimental results confirm that the LuGre friction model is the best approximation of the observed friction behaviours among all models selected. Moreover, a series of profound discussions addressing the relation between the candidate models’ structures and their numerical friction feature predictions are provided and followed by a summary table that recapitulates the properties of the candidate friction models. Last but not least, the state space models of the proposed setup formulated by the improved version of the LuGre model and the two controllers of interest, namely input-output linearization controller and nominal characteristic trajectory following (NCTF) controller, are derived for the stability analysis under the parametric uncertainties. Two parameters in the friction model used, σ_0 and σ_1, are perturbed for the stability analysis in which the results applying the concept of Lyapunov exponents (LEs) clearly illustrate the significant effect of the varying σ_0 and σ_1 values on the system stability. The effect of parametric uncertainties can depend quite significantly on the incorporated controller, and the stability results obtained here are applicable to the design and analysis of other systems that are inherently similar to our setup. The stability analysis conducted is this work is recommended for other control systems to avoid unwanted qualitative behaviours under parametric perturbations. / October 2016

Neste trabalho nós estudamos os expoentes de Lyapunov de aplicações f : Td → Td homotópicas a uma aplicação Anosov linear e a continuidade absoluta de folheações. Nós mostramos para algumas classes de homotopia de aplicações que a soma dos expoentes de Lyapunov está limitado pela soma dos expoentes de Lyapunov da aplicação Anosov linear. Além disso, admitindo uma propriedade conhecida como densidade uniformemente limitada (UBD) nas folheações, mostramos uma igualdade entre a soma dos expoentes de Lyapunov de f e do Anosov linear. Também construímos um conjunto C1 aberto de difeomorfismos parcialmente hiperbólicos do toro T4, preservando volume, com folheação central bidimensional não compacta e não absolutamente contínua. Ainda construímos um exemplo parcialmente hiperbólico com folhas centrais bidimensionais, não compactas onde a desintegração do volume ao longo da folheação central não é nem Lebesgue nem atômica. / In this work we study the Lyapunov exponents of maps f : Td → Td homotopic to a linear Anosov map. We proof for some homotopic classes of maps which the sum of Lyapunov exponents is bounded by the sum of the Lyapunov exponents of the linear Anosov map. Moreover, by assuming a property known as uniformly bounded density (UBD) in the foliations, we show an equality between the sum of the Lyapunov exponents of f and the linear Anosov. We also construct an C1 open set of volume preserving partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms with non compact two dimensional center foliation and non absolutely continuous. We still build an example of partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism with non compact bidimensional center leaves where the disintegration of volume along the center foliation is neither Lebesgue nor atomic.