Modeling and simulating thin molecular films: a modified 2D nonlinear Schroedinger equation with noise and nonlinear damping (Barron Whitehead, College of Charleston)

Abstract: A thin molecular film (Scheib aggregate) can be modeled as 2D exciton-phonon coupled system, leading to the cubic Schroedinger equation (CSE). It is of interest to study how the addition of first noise, then damping, can affect the self-focusing and singularity formation seen in the CSE.

Previous studies have used a further simplification of the model, giving a small system of ODEs. This talk describes work on the full PDE model and the underlying large ODE system describing the molecular aggregate. Some challenges in the design of numerical methods will be discussed, as well as observations from simulations, starting in the reduced case of radial symmetry.

This is an abstract of a talk to be presented at the 2004 SEAMS Workshop in Charleston, SC. For more information, visit the workshop's homepage at math.cofc.edu/SEAMS.