Academic Background

• I am a theoretical physicist. I work in the Department of Complex Systems of the Institute of Physics,  National Autonomous University of Mexico.
• I obtained my Ph. D. in Physics in 1992, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City.
• From 1994-1995 I  did a Postdoctoral stay at the  Physics Department at Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts. During that stay I initiate a collaboration with Prof. Jorge V. José, the director of  The Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems at Northeastern University

Research Interests

• My main field of interest nowadays is Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos. This is a very broad subject. I am doing research mainly on Hamiltonian Chaos and its Quantum Manifestations: the so called Quantum Chaos. In particular, I am interested in the problem of tunneling times, that is, the determination of the time that a particle spent during the process of tunneling through a potential barrier.
• Another line of research that I am starting is related with the problem of transport in Stochastic or Thermal Ratchets and Stochastic Resonance. Both problems deal with the constructive role of noise in nonlinear systems. The study of thermal ratchets is motivated in part by the problem of molecular motors in Biology and by the problem of extracting usable work from nonequilibrium fluctuations. The phenomenon of stochastic resonance has to do with the enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio by adding noise, and has been found recently in many physical and biological systems.
• I use to do research on seismology. During my Ph. D. I worked in the problem of seismic wave propagation and the resonant trapping of seismic waves in sedimentary basins. This problem was motivated in part by the large earthquake of September 19, 1985 that stroke Mexico City.
• I am also interested in the analogies between the classical waves and quantum mechanics: that is, the analogies between electromagnetic, acoustic or elastic waves, and the wave properties in quantum mechanics. In particular, I studied the analogy of the Wannier-Stark resonances in elastic waves.

Selected Publications

O. Novaro, T. H. Seligman, J. M. Alvarez-Tostado, J. L. Mateos and J. Flores. ``Two-dimensional model for site-effects studies of microtremors in the San Fernando Valley''. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 1990. Vol. 80, pp. 239-251.

J. L. Mateos, J. Flores, O. Novaro, J. M. Alvarez-Tostado and T. H. Seligman. ``Generation of inhomogeneous P waves in a layered medium''. Tectonophysics, 1993. Vol. 218, pp. 247-256.

J. L. Mateos, J. Flores, O. Novaro, T. H. Seligman and J. M. Alvarez-Tostado. ``Resonant response models for the Valley of Mexico-II; the trapping of horizontal P waves''.
Geophysical Journal International, 1993. Vol. 113, pp. 449-462.

G. García-Calderón, J. L. Mateos and M. Moshinsky. ``Relation between decay and delay times''. Revista Mexicana de Física, 1993. Vol. 39, Suplemento 2, pp. 76-86.

José Luis Mateos and Guillermo Monsivais. ``Stark-Ladder resonances in elastic waves''.
Physica A, 1994. Vol. 207, pp. 445-451.

G. Báez, J. Flores, J. L. Mateos, R. A. Méndez, O. Novaro and T. H. Seligman. ``Comment on `The Origin of Long Coda Observed in the Lake-Bed Strong-Motion Records of Mexico City'
by Shri Krishna Singh and Mario Ordaz''. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 1994. Vol. 84, pp. 2015-2018.

G. García-Calderón, J. L. Mateos and M. Moshinsky. ``Description of the survival and escape probabilities''. Revista Mexicana de Física, 1994. Vol. 40, Suplemento 1, pp. 155-160.

G. García-Calderón, J. L. Mateos and M. Moshinsky. "Resonant spectra and the time
evolution of the survival and nonescape probabilities". Physical Review Letters, 1995.
Vol. 74, pp. 337-340.

G. García-Calderón, J. L. Mateos and M. Moshinsky. "Survival and nonescape probabilities for resonant and nonresonant decay". Annals of Physics, 1996. Vol. 249, pp. 430-453.

J. L. Mateos, O. Novaro, T. H. Seligman and J. Flores. ``Comment on: `Can horizontal P waves be trapped and resonate in a shallow sedimentary basin?' by F. J. Sánchez-Sesma and F. Luzón''. Geophysical Journal International, 1997. Vol. 129, pp. 212-214.

G. García-Calderón, J. L. Mateos and M. Moshinsky. "Reply to the comment on: Resonant spectra and the time evolution of the survival and nonescape probabilities". Physical Review Letters, 1998. Vol. 80, p. 4354.

José L. Mateos and Jorge V. José. ``Energy transfer of a chaotic particle in a classical oscillating potential barrier''. Physica A, 1998. Vol. 257, pp. 434-438.

José L. Mateos. ``Traversal-time distribution for a classical time-modulated barrier'', Physics Letters A, 1999. Vol. 256, pp. 113-121.

José L. Mateos. ``Chaotic transport and current reversal in deterministic ratchets''. Physical Review Letters, 2000. Vol. 84, pp. 258-261.

José L. Mateos. ``Current Reversals in Chaotic Ratchets'', Acta Physica Polonica B, 2001. Vol. 32, pp. 307-320.
 

Students

Former students:
Cuauhtémoc García, now a graduate student at the Department of Biophysics at The Johns Hopkins University.

Déborah Berebichez, now a graduate student in the group of  Prof. Robert Laughlin at the Department of Physics at Stanford University.

Links