Mpemba-Like Behavior in Carbon Nanotube Resonators

PA Greaney and G Lani and G Cicero and JC Grossman, METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A-PHYSICAL METALLURGY AND MATERIALS SCIENCE, 42A, 3907-3912 (2011).

DOI: 10.1007/s11661-011-0843-4

Surprising Mpemba-like dissipation is observed during computer simulated ring-down of the flexural modes of a single-walled carbon nanotube resonator. Vibrations are made to decay to zero faster by adding a larger initial excitation. We liken this counterintuitive observation to the well-known Mpemba effect in which hot water freezes faster that cold water. In both cases, the system seems to pose a memory of its thermal history; a paradoxical result that is reconciled if the dissipative state of the system is not described uniquely by the system's average temperature. A vibrational mode projection algorithm is used to track the dissipation pathway, showing that dissipation is dependent strongly on the development of an athermal phonon population. The implications of Mpemba-like behavior in more general, and continuously driven, nanomechanical systems are discussed.

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