We investigate Bloch oscillations of interacting cold atoms in a mean-field framework. In general, atom-atom interaction causes dephasing and destroys Bloch oscillations. Here, we show that Bloch oscillations are persistent if the interaction is modulated harmonically with suitable frequency and phase. For other modulations, Bloch oscillations are rapidly damped. We explain this behavior in terms of collective coordinates whose Hamiltonian dynamics permits to predict a whole family of stable solutions. In order to describe also the unstable cases, we carry out a stability analysis for Bogoliubov excitations. Using Floquet theory, we are able to predict the unstable modes as well as their growth rate, found to be in excellent agreement with numerical simulations.

The Peyrard-Bishop-Holstein model has been previously introduced as an appropriate framework for the description of polaronic effects for charge migration in DNA. We study numerically the Peyrard-BishopHolstein model when the charge carrier is also subjected to an applied uniform electric field. We find that the polaron undergoes coherent oscillations when the electric field is applied along the stacking direction. The frequency of the oscillations is the same as in the rigid lattice ͑Bloch frequency͒ provided that the carrier-lattice coupling is not large. Increasing the coupling the single peak of the Fourier spectrum splits into side peaks around the Bloch frequency.

We consider Bloch oscillations of Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of a time-modulated s-wave scattering length. Generically, the interaction leads to dephasing and decay of the wave packet. Based on a cyclic-time argument, we find-in addition to the linear Bloch oscillation and a rigid soliton solution-an infinite family of modulations that lead to a periodic time evolution of the wave packet. In order to quantitatively describe the dynamics of Bloch oscillations in the presence of time-modulated interactions, we employ two complementary methods: collective coordinates and the linear stability analysis of an extended wave packet. We provide instructive examples and address the question of robustness against external perturbations.

The morphological and wetting properties of chitosan films containing dansyl derivatives have been investigated. By means of dynamic contact angle measurements, we study the modification of surface properties of chitosan-based films due to UV irradiation. The results were analyzed in the light of the molecular-kinetic theory which describes the wetting phenomena in terms of the statistical dynamics for the displacement of liquid molecules in a solid substrate. Our results show that the immobilization of dansyl groups in the chitosan backbone leads to a pronounced enhancement of the UV sensitivity of polymeric films.