The slow passage problem through a resonance is considered. As a model problem, we consider a damped harmonically forced oscillator whose forcing frequency is slowly ramped linearly in time. The setup is similar to the familiar slow passage through a Hopf bifurcation problem, where for slow variations of the control parameter, oscillations are delayed until the parameter has exceeded the critic...

The authors present in this study a damped oscillator model that provides a direct mathematical basis for testing the notion of emotion as a self-regulatory thermostat. Parameters from this model reflect individual differences in emotional lability and the ability to regulate emotion. The authors discuss concepts such as intensity, rate of change, and acceleration in the context of emotion, and...

The response of a weakly damped bistable oscillator to an external periodic force is considered theoretically. In the approximation of weak signals we can write a linearized equation for the signal and the corresponding nonlinear equation for the noise. These equations contain two unknown parameters: An effective stiffness and an additional damping factor. In the case of the weakly damped bista...

The paper analyzes the interaction of an atomic system with a quantum damped harmonic oscillator. Such an oscillator is the building block in the recently proposed models of bulk dielectrics and may also serve as a simple model of a small dielectric body. Dispersion and losses are taken into account by assuming the oscillator to be coupled to a zero-temperature reservoir consisting of an infini...

Insects inhabiting the temperate zones measure seasonal changes in day or night length to enter the overwintering diapause. Diapause induction occurs after the duration of the night exceeds a critical night length (CNL). Our understanding of the time measurement mechanisms is continuously evolving subsequent to Bünning's proposal that circadian systems play the clock role in photoperiodic time ...