New Study Paves the Way for Better Control of Interactions Between Oscillators

Study coauthors (l to r) Alexander Carney Th'23, Juan S. Salcedo-Gallo, and Professor Mattias Fitzpatrick in the Fitz Lab at Dartmouth.

"It is often said that much of physics can be reduced to models involving simple harmonic oscillators, as this is one of the few systems we can solve analytically," explained Mattias Fitzpatrick, assistant professor of engineering, senior author on the study, and leader of the ⁠Fitz Lab. "Even the vibrations of atoms in materials can be described using harmonic oscillators. In this work, we discovered a novel method for controlling the amplitude and phase interactions between two harmonic oscillators, leading to a wealth of new phenomena such as synchronization and self-sustained limit cycles. I am incredibly proud of the entire team, especially the lead author, Juan S. Salcedo-Gallo, for developing this project from the ground up and turning a seemingly simple system into a rich experimental platform and discovering a new way to control the interactions between some of nature's simplest building blocks, harmonic oscillators."

"I'm deeply grateful to my advisor, Mattias Fitzpatrick, whose exceptional leadership and guidance were instrumental in launching this project from the ground up while also establishing a new lab," said Salcedo-Gallo, an engineering PhD student in the Fitz Lab. "I'm also grateful to my co-authors and collaborators for their incredible support, hard work, and invaluable contributions in this work, paving the way for advances in sensing, quantum networks, and synthetic photonic materials. I'm excited to see how this work will continue to develop and inspire future advances across the broader community!"

Listen and learn more: Professor Fitzpatrick recently hosted a podcast in which he and Salcedo-Gallo discuss the new study as well as his academic journey and building the ⁠Fitz Lab⁠. (Listen on Spotify)