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Hysteresis



 
 
A system with hysteresis can be summarized as a system that may be in any number of states, independent of the inputs to the system. To be exact, a system with hysteresis exhibits path-dependence, or "rate-independent memory". By contrast, consider a deterministic system
Deterministic system (philosophy)

A deterministic system is a conceptual model of the philosophy doctrine of determinism applied to a system for understanding everything that has and will occur in the system, based on the physical outcomes of causality....
 with classical dynamics
Dynamical system

The dynamical system concept is a mathematics formalization for any fixed "rule" which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space....
 but no hysteresis. In that case, one can predict the output of the system at some instant in time, given only the input to the system at that instant.






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A system with hysteresis can be summarized as a system that may be in any number of states, independent of the inputs to the system. To be exact, a system with hysteresis exhibits path-dependence, or "rate-independent memory". By contrast, consider a deterministic system
Deterministic system (philosophy)

A deterministic system is a conceptual model of the philosophy doctrine of determinism applied to a system for understanding everything that has and will occur in the system, based on the physical outcomes of causality....
 with classical dynamics
Dynamical system

The dynamical system concept is a mathematics formalization for any fixed "rule" which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space....
 but no hysteresis. In that case, one can predict the output of the system at some instant in time, given only the input to the system at that instant. If the system has hysteresis, then this is not the case; one cannot predict the output without looking at the history of the input, i.e., the state of the system for a given input. In order to predict the output, one must look at the path that the output followed before it reached its current value.

Many physical
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
 systems naturally exhibit hysteresis. A piece of iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
 that is brought into a magnetic field retains some magnetization, even after the external magnetic field is removed. Once magnetized, the iron will stay magnetized indefinitely. To demagnetize the iron, it would be necessary to apply a magnetic field in the opposite direction. This effect is exploited commercially; for example, it provides the element of memory in a hard disk drive.

Human-designed systems will sometimes intentionally exhibit hysteresis. For example, consider a thermostat
Thermostat

A thermostat is a Measuring instrument for regulating the temperature of a system so that the system's temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint temperature....
 that controls a furnace. The furnace is either off or on
Binary

Binary means composed of two parts or two pieces. It contrasts with Unary, Ternary, Quaternary , and so on.Binary may also refer to:* Binary option, also known as digital option OR all-or-nothing option...
, with nothing in between. The thermostat is a system; the input is the temperature, and the output is the furnace state. If one wishes to maintain a temperature of 20 degrees, then one might set the thermostat to turn the furnace on when the temperature drops below 18 degrees, and turn it off when the temperature exceeds 22 degrees. This thermostat has hysteresis. Let us say that the temperature is 21 degrees. Given this information, one cannot predict whether the furnace will be on or off; it's not possible to predict the instantaneous output of the thermostat, knowing only its instantaneous input.

The term is derived from , an ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 word meaning "deficiency" or "lagging behind". It was coined by Sir James Alfred Ewing
James Alfred Ewing

Sir James Alfred Ewing KCB was a Scotland physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetism properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, hysteresis....
.

Introduction


Hysteresis phenomena occur in magnetic
Magnetism

In physics, magnetism is one of the phenomena by which materials exert attractive or repulsive forces on other materials. Some well-known materials that exhibit easily detectable magnetic properties are nickel, iron, cobalt, and their alloys; however, all materials are influenced to greater or lesser degree by the presence of a magnetic fiel...
 and ferromagnetic materials, as well as in the elastic, electric
Electricity

Electricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction....
, and magnetic
Magnetism

In physics, magnetism is one of the phenomena by which materials exert attractive or repulsive forces on other materials. Some well-known materials that exhibit easily detectable magnetic properties are nickel, iron, cobalt, and their alloys; however, all materials are influenced to greater or lesser degree by the presence of a magnetic fiel...
 behavior of materials, in which a lag occurs between the application and the removal of a force
Force

In physics, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity. Force has both Euclidean_vector#Length of a vector and Direction , making it a Vector quantity....
 or field
Field (physics)

In physics, a field is a physical quantity associated to each point of spacetime. A field can be classified as a scalar field, a vector field, or a tensor field, according to whether the value of the field at each point is a scalar , a vector , or, more generally, a tensor, respectively....
 and its subsequent effect. Electric hysteresis occurs when applying a varying electric field
Electric field

In physics, the space surrounding an electric charge or in the presence of a time-varying magnetic field has a property called an electric field ....
, and elastic hysteresis
Hysteresis

A system with hysteresis can be summarized as a system that may be in any number of states, independent of the inputs to the system. To be exact, a system with hysteresis exhibits path-dependence, or "rate-independent memory"....
 occurs in response to a varying force. The term "hysteresis" is sometimes used in other fields, such as economics
Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
 or biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
; where it describes a memory, or lagging effect, in which the order of previous events can influence the order of subsequent events.

The word "lag" above should not necessarily be interpreted as a time lag. After all, even relatively simple linear systems such as an electric circuit containing resistors and capacitors exhibit a time lag between the input and the output. For most hysteretic systems, there is a very short time scale when its dynamic behavior and various related time dependences are observed. In magnetism, for example, the dynamic processes occurring on this very short time scale have been referred to as Barkhausen jumps
Barkhausen effect

The Barkhausen effect is a name given to the noise in the magnetic output of a ferromagnet when the magnetizing force applied to it is changed....
. If observations are carried out over very long periods, creep or slow relaxation typically toward true thermodynamic equilibrium (or other types of equilibria that depend on the nature of the system) can be noticed. When observations are carried out without regard for very swift dynamic phenomena or very slow relaxation phenomena, the system appears to display irreversible behavior whose rate is practically independent of the driving force rate. This rate-independent irreversible behavior is the key feature that distinguishes hysteresis from most other dynamic processes in many systems.

If the displacement of a system with hysteresis is plotted on a graph against the applied force, the resulting curve is in the form of a loop. In contrast, the curve for a system without hysteresis is a single, not necessarily straight, line. Although the hysteresis loop depends on the material's physical properties, there is no complete theoretical description that explains the phenomenon. The family of hysteresis loops, from the results of different applied varying voltage
Voltage

Electrical tension is the potential difference between two points of an electrical or electronic circuit, expressed in volts. It is the measurement of the potential for an electric field to cause an electric current in an electrical conductor....
s or forces, form a closed space in three dimensions, called the hysteroid.

Hysteresis was initially seen as problematic, but is now thought to be of great importance in technology. For example, the properties of hysteresis are applied when constructing non-volatile storage for computers; as hysteresis allows most superconductors to operate at the high currents needed to create strong magnetic fields. Hysteresis is also important in living systems. Many critical processes occurring in living (or dying) cells use hysteresis to help stabilize them against the various effects of random chemical fluctuations.

Some early work on describing hysteresis in mechanical systems was performed by James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell was a Scotland Mathematical physics. His most significant achievement was the development of the classical electromagnetic theory, synthesizing all previous unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and even optics into a consistent theory....
. Subsequently, hysteresis models have received significant attention in the works of Preisach (Preisach model of hysteresis
Preisach model of hysteresis

The Preisach model of hysteresis generalizes hysteresis loops as the parallel connection of independent relay hysterons. It was first suggested in 1938 by P....
), Neel and Everett in connection with magnetism and absorption. A simple parametric description of various hysteresis loops may be found here (with the model, substitution of rectangle, triangle or trapezoidal pulses instead of the harmonic functions also allows to built piecewise-linear hysteresis loops frequently used in discrete automatics). More formal mathematical theory of systems with hysteresis was developed in 1970s, by a group of Russian mathematicians, which was led by Mark Krasnosel'skii
Mark Krasnosel'skii

Mark Alexandrovich Krasnosel'skii was a Russian and Ukraine mathematician renowned for his work on nonlinear functional analysis and its applications....
, one of the founders of nonlinear analysis. He suggested an investigation of hysteresis phenomena using the theory of nonlinear operators.

Informal definition


The phenomenon of hysteresis can conceptually be explained as follows: a system can be divided into subsystems or domain
Domain

Domain has several meanings:...
s, much larger than an atom
Atom

|-! bgcolor=gray | Properties|-||}The atom is a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central atomic nucleus surrounded by a electron cloud of electric charge electrons....
ic volume, but still microscopic. Such domains occur in ferroelectric and ferromagnetic systems, since individual dipole
Dipole

In physics, there are two kinds of dipoles :*An electric dipole is a separation of positive and negative charge. The simplest example of this is a pair of electric charges of equal magnitude but opposite sign, separated by some, usually small, distance....
s tend to group with each other, forming a small isotropic
Isotropy

Isotropy is uniformity in all directions. Precise definitions depend on the subject area. The word is made up from Greek iso and tropos ....
 region. Each of the system's domains can be shown to have a metastable state. The metastable domains can in turn have two or more substates. Such a metastable state fluctuates widely from domain to domain, but the average represents the configuration of lowest energy. The hysteresis is simply the sum of all domains, or the sum of all metastable states.

Magnetic hysteresis


Hysteresis is well known in ferromagnetic
Ferromagnetism

Ferromagnetism is the basic mechanism by which certain materials form permanent magnets and/or exhibit strong interactions with magnets; it is responsible for most phenomena of magnetism Magnet#Common uses of magnets ....
 materials. When an external magnetic field
Magnetic field

A magnetism field is a vector field which can exert a magnetic force on moving electric charges and on magnetic dipoles . When placed in a magnetic field, magnetic dipoles tend to align their axes parallel to the magnetic field....
 is applied to a ferromagnet, the atomic dipole
Dipole

In physics, there are two kinds of dipoles :*An electric dipole is a separation of positive and negative charge. The simplest example of this is a pair of electric charges of equal magnitude but opposite sign, separated by some, usually small, distance....
s align themselves with the external field. Even when the external field is removed, part of the alignment will be retained: the material has become magnetized.

B H Loop
The relationship between magnetic field strength (H) and magnetic flux density (B) is not linear in such materials. If the relationship between the two is plotted for increasing levels of field strength, it will follow a curve up to a point where further increases in magnetic field strength will result in no further change in flux density. This condition is called magnetic saturation
Saturation (magnetic)

Seen in some magnetic materials, saturation is the state reached when an increase in applied external magnetizing field H cannot increase the magnetization of the material further, so the total magnetic field B levels off....
.

If the magnetic field is now reduced linearly, the plotted relationship will follow a different curve back towards zero field strength at which point it will be offset from the original curve by an amount called the remanent flux density or remanence
Remanence

[Image:B-H loop.png|thumb|A family of hysteresis loops for grain-oriented electrical steel Remanence is the magnetization left behind in a medium after an external magnetic field is removed....
.

If this relationship is plotted for all strengths of applied magnetic field the result is a sort of S- shaped loop. The 'thickness' of the middle bit of the S describes the amount of hysteresis, related to the coercivity
Coercivity

In materials science, the coercivity, also called the coercive field, of a ferromagnet is the intensity of the applied magnetic field required to reduce the magnetization of that material to zero after the magnetization of the sample has been driven to saturation ....
 of the material.

Its practical effects might be, for example, to cause a relay to be slow to release due to the remaining magnetic field continuing to attract the armature
Armature (electrical engineering)

In electrical engineering, an armature generally refers to one of the two principal electrical components of an electromechanical machine - a Electric motor or Electrical generator, but may also mean the pole piece of a permanent magnet or electromagnet, or the moving iron part of a solenoid or relay....
 when the applied electric current to the operating coil is removed. This curve for a particular material influences the design of a magnetic circuit.

This is also a very important effect in magnetic tape
Magnetic tape

Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording generally consisting of a thin magnetizable coating on a long and narrow strip of plastic. Nearly all recording tape is of this type, whether used for recording Audio frequency or video or for computer data storage....
 and other magnetic storage media like hard disk
Hard disk

A hard disk drive , commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating hard disk platters with magnetic surfaces....
s. In these materials it would seem obvious to have one polarity represent a bit
Bit

A bit is a binary numeral system numerical digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. Binary digits are a basic unit of information Computer data storage and transmission in digital computing and digital information theory....
, say north for 1 and south for 0. However, to change the storage from one to the other, the hysteresis effect requires the knowledge of what was already there, because the needed field will be different in each case. In order to avoid this problem, recording systems first overdrive the entire system into a known state using a process known as bias
Tape bias

Tape bias is the term for two phenomena, DC bias and AC bias, that improve the fidelity of analogue magnetic tape sound recordings. DC bias is the addition of a direct current to the audio signal that is being recorded....
. Analog magnetic recording also uses this technique. Different materials require different biasing, which is why there is a selector for this on the front of most cassette recorders.

In order to minimize this effect and the energy losses associated with it, ferromagnetic substances with low coercivity and low hysteresis loss are used, like permalloy
Permalloy

Permalloy is the term for a nickel iron magnetic alloy. Generically, it refers to an alloy with about 20% iron and 80% nickel content. Permalloy has a high Permeability , low coercivity, near zero magnetostriction, and significant anisotropic magnetoresistance....
.

In many applications small hysteresis loops are driven around points in the B-H plane. Loops near the origin have a higher µ
Permeability (electromagnetism)

In electromagnetism, permeability is the degree of magnetization of a material that responds linearly to an applied magnetic field. Magnetic permeability is typically represented by the Greek letter Mu ....
. The smaller loops the more they have a soft magnetic (lengthy) shape. As a special case, a damped AC field demagnetizes any material.

Electrical hysteresis


Electrical hysteresis typically occurs in ferroelectric material, where domains of polarization contribute to the total polarization. Polarization is the electrical dipole moment (either C
Coulomb

The coulomb is the SI unit of electric charge. It is named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb....
·m
Metre

The metre or meter is a Unit of measurement of length. It is the SI base unit of length in the metric system and in the International System of Units , used around the world for general and scientific purposes....
-2 or C
Coulomb

The coulomb is the SI unit of electric charge. It is named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb....
·m
Metre

The metre or meter is a Unit of measurement of length. It is the SI base unit of length in the metric system and in the International System of Units , used around the world for general and scientific purposes....
).

Elastic hysteresis


Elastic hysteresis is analogous to magnetic hysteresis and was one of the first types of hysteresis to be examined.

A simple way to understand it is in terms of a rubber band with weights attached to it. If the top of a rubber band is hung on a hook and small weights are attached to the bottom of the band one at a time, it will get longer. As more weights are loaded onto it, the band will continue to extend because the force the weights are exerting on the band is increasing. When each weight is taken off, or unloaded, it will get shorter as the force is reduced. As the weights are taken off, each weight that produced a specific length as it was loaded onto the band now produces a slightly longer length as it is unloaded. This is because the band doesn't obey Hooke's law
Hooke's law

In mechanics, and physics, Hooke's law of theory of elasticity is an approximation that states that the extension of a spring is in direct proportion with the load added to it as long as this load does not exceed the elastic limit....
 perfectly.

In one sense the rubber band was harder to stretch when it was being loaded than when it was being unloaded. In another sense, as one unloads the band, the cause (the force of the weights) lags behind the effect (the length) because a smaller value of weight produces the same length. In another sense more energy was required during the loading than the unloading; that energy must have gone somewhere, it was dissipated or "lost" as heat.

Elastic hysteresis is more pronounced when the loading and unloading is done quickly than when it's done slowly. Some materials such as hard metals don't show elastic hysteresis under a moderate load, whereas other hard materials like granite and marble do. Materials such as rubber exhibit a high degree of elastic hysteresis.

Liquid-solid phase transitions

Hysteresis manifests itself in state transitions when melting temperature
Melting temperature

Melting temperature may refer to:* Melting point, the temperature at which a substance changes from solid to liquid state.* DNA melting temperature, the temperature at which a DNA double helix dissociates into single strands....
 and freezing temperature do not agree. For example, agar
Agar

Agar or agar agar is a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed. Historically and in a modern context, it is chiefly used as an ingredient in desserts throughout Japan, but in the past century has found extensive use as a solid substrate to contain Growth medium for microbiology work....
 melts at 85 °C
Celsius

Celsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death....
 and solidifies from 32 to 40 °C. This is to say that once agar is melted at 85 degrees, it retains a liquid state until cooled to 40 degrees Celsius. Therefore, from the temperatures of 40 to 85 degrees Celsius, agar can be either solid or liquid, depending on which state it was before.

Contact angle hysteresis

The contact angle
Contact angle

The contact angle is the angle at which a liquid/vapor interface meets the solid surface. The contact angle is specific for any given system and is determined by the interactions across the three interfaces....
 formed between a liquid and solid phase can be measured dynamically. When the maximum liquid volume is removed from the drop without the interfacial area decreasing the receding contact angle is thus measured. When volume is added to the maximum before the interfacial area increases, this is the advancing contact angle. The difference between the advancing and receding contact angles is referred to as the contact angle hysteresis.

Adsorption hysteresis

Hysteresis can also occur during physical adsorption
Adsorption

Adsorption is a process that occurs when a gas or liquid solute accumulates on the surface of a solid or a liquid , forming a film of molecules or atoms ....
 processes. In this type of hysteresis, the quantity adsorbed is different when gas is being added than it is when being removed. The specific causes of adsorption hysteresis are still an active area of research, but it linked to differences in the nucleation and evaporation mechanisms inside mesopores. These mechanisms are further complicated by effects such as cavitation
Cavitation

Cavitation is defined as the phenomenon of formation of vapour bubbles of a flowing liquid in a region where the pressure of the liquid falls below its vapour pressure....
 and pore blocking.

In physical adsorption, hysteresis is evidence of mesoporosity---indeed, the definition of mesopores (2--50 nm) is associated with the appearance (50 nm) and disappearance (2 nm) of mesoporosity in nitrogen adsorption isotherms as a function of Kelvin radius. An adsorption isotherm showing hysteresis is said to be of Type IV (for a wetting adsorbate) or Type V (for a non-wetting adsorbate), and hysteresis loops themselves are classified according to how symmetric the loop is. Adsorption hysteresis loops also have the unusual property that it is possible to scan within a hysteresis loop by reversing the direction of adsorption while on a point on the loop. The resulting scans are called "crossing," "converging," or "returning," depending on the shape of the isotherm at this point.

Matric potential hysteresis

The relationship between matric water potential
Water potential

Water potential is the potential energy of water relative to pure free water in reference conditions. It quantifies the tendency of water to move from one area to another due to osmosis, gravity, mechanical pressure, or matrix effects including surface tension....
 and water content
Water content

Water content or moisture content is the quantity of water contained in a material, such as soil , Rock , ceramics, or wood on a volumetric or gravimetric basis....
 is the basis of the water retention curve
Water retention curve

Water retention curve is the relationship between the water content, ?, and the soil water potential, ?. This curve is characteristic for different types of soil, and is also called the soil moisture characteristic....
. Matric potential measurements are converted to volumetric water content measurements based on a site or soil specific calibration curve. Hysteresis is a source of water content measurement error. Matric potential hysteresis arises from differences in wetting behaviour causing dry medium to re-wet; that is, it depends on the saturation history of the porous medium. Hysteretic behaviour means that, for example, at a matric potential of , the volumetric water content of a fine sandy soil matrix could be anything between 8% to 25%.

Tensiometer
Tensiometer

A tensiometer is a device used to determine matric water potential in the vadose zone. The tensiometer consists of a glass or plastic tube with a porous ceramic cup, and is filled with water....
s are directly influenced by this type of hysteresis. Two other types of sensors used to measure soil water matric potential are also influenced by hysteresis effects within the sensor itself. Resistance blocks, both nylon and gypsum based, measure matric potential as a function of electrical resistance. The relation between the sensor’s electrical resistance and sensor matric potential is hysteretic. Thermocouples measure matric potential as a function of heat dissipation. Hysteresis occurs because measured heat dissipation depends on sensor water content, and the sensor water content–matric potential relationship is hysteretic. , only desorption curves are usually measured during calibration of soil moisture sensors. Despite the fact that it can be a source of significant error, the sensor specific effect of hysteresis is generally ignored.

Energy


When hysteresis occurs with extensive and intensive variable
Intensive and extensive properties

In the physical sciences, an intensive property , is a physical property of a system that does not depend on the system size or the amount of material in the system....
s, the work done on the system is the area under the hysteresis graph.

Economics


Some economic systems show signs of hysteresis. For example, export
Export

Export goods or services are provided to foreign consumers by domestic Production theory basics. It is a good that is sent to another country for sale....
 performance is subject to strong hysteresis effects: it may take a big push (ie sizable changes in incentives) to start a country's exports, but once the transition is made, not much may be required to keep them going.

Hysteresis is a hypothesized property of unemployment rates: that there is a ratchet effect
Ratchet effect

The ratchet effect is the commonly observed phenomenon that some processes cannot go backwards once certain things have happened, by analogy with the mechanical ratchet that holds the spring tight as a clock is wound up....
, so a short-term rise in unemployment rates tends to persist. An example is the notion that inflationary policy leads to a permanently higher 'natural' rate of unemployment (NAIRU
NAIRU

The term NAIRU is an acronym for Non-Accelerating inflation Rate of unemployment. It is a concept in economics theory significant in the interplay of macroeconomics and microeconomics....
), due to the proposition that inflationary expectations are 'sticky
Sticky (economics)

Sticky is a term used in the social sciences and particularly economics to describe a situation in which a variable is resistant to change. For example, nominal wages are often said to be sticky....
' downward because of wage rigidities and imperfections in the labour market.

Many economists also argue that unemployment itself is subject to hysteresis effects. Unemployment persistence is argued to arise from various factors that include demand deficiency and labour market institutions.

Hysteresis shows in game theory
Game theory

Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences , biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science , and philosophy....
, for example, applied to quality, honesty or corruption
Corruption

Corruption is essentially termed as an "impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle; depravity, decay, and/or an inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means, a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct, and/or an agency or influence that corrupts."...
. Slightly different initial conditions can lead to opposite results, stable "good" and "bad" equilibria.

Behavioral economists attempt to measure the utility
Utility

In economics, utility is a measure of the relative satisfaction from, or desirability of, consumption of various goods and services. Given this measure, one may speak meaningfully of increasing or decreasing utility, and thereby explain economic behavior in terms of attempts to increase one's utility....
 gain from obtaining an item, and the utility loss from losing the same item. With great regularity, the utility loss is greater than the utility gain, meaning that if a person goes through a complete cycle of gaining and losing, the person may be worse off than if he or she had never received the initial gain.

User interface design


The field of user interface design
User interface design

User interface design or user interface engineering is the design of computers, appliances, machines, Communication, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user experience and interaction....
 has borrowed the term hysteresis to refer to times when the state of the user interface intentionally lags behind the apparent user input. For example, a menu that was drawn in response to a mouse-over event may remain on-screen for a brief moment after the mouse has moved out of the trigger region and the menu region. This allows the user to move the mouse directly to an item on the menu, even if part of that direct mouse path is outside of both the trigger region and the menu region. For instance, right-clicking on the desktop in most Windows interfaces will create a menu that exhibits this behavior.

Electronics


Hysteresis Sharp Curve
Hysteresis can be used to filter signals so that the output reacts slowly by taking recent history into account. For example, a thermostat
Thermostat

A thermostat is a Measuring instrument for regulating the temperature of a system so that the system's temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint temperature....
 controlling a heater may turn the heater on when the temperature drops below A degrees, but not turn it off until the temperature rises above B degrees. Thus the on/off output of the thermostat to the heater when the temperature is between A and B depends on the history of the temperature. This prevents rapid switching on and off as the temperature drifts around the set point.

A Schmitt trigger
Schmitt trigger

In electronics, a Schmitt trigger is a comparator electrical network that incorporates positive feedback.When the input is higher than a certain chosen threshold, the output is high; when the input is below another chosen threshold, the output is low; when the input is between the two, the output retains its value....
 is a simple electronic circuit that also exhibits this property. Often, some amount of hysteresis is intentionally added to an electronic circuit (or digital algorithm) to prevent unwanted rapid switching. This and similar techniques are used to compensate for contact bounce
Switch

In electronics, a switch is an electrical component which can break an electrical circuit, interrupting the Electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another....
 in switches, or noise in an electrical signal.

A latching relay
Relay

A relay is an electrical switch that opens and closes under the control of another electrical circuit. In the original form, the switch is operated by an magnet to open or close one or many sets of contacts....
 uses a solenoid to actuate a ratcheting motion that keeps the relay closed even if power to the relay is terminated.

Hysterisis is essential to the workings of the memristor
Memristor

Memristors are a class of Passive circuit element two-terminal circuit elements that maintain a function al relationship between the time integrals of electric current and voltage....
, a circuit component which "remembers" changes in the current passing through it by changing its resistance.

Cell biology

Cells undergoing cell division
Cell division

Cell division is a process by which a cell , called the parent cell, divides into two or more cells, called daughter cells. Cell division is usually a small segment of a larger cell cycle....
 exhibit hysteresis in that it takes a higher concentration of cyclin
Cyclin

Cyclins are a family of proteins involved in the progression of cells through the cell cycle. They are the "regulatory subunits of the heterodimeric protein kinases that control cell cycle events."...
s to switch them from G2 phase into mitosis
Mitosis

Mitosis is the process in which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus, into two identical sets in two daughter nuclei....
 than to stay in mitosis once begun.

Neuroscience


The property by which some neuron
Neuron

Neurons are responsive cell in the nervous system that process and transmit information by electrochemical Signal . They are the core components of the brain, the vertebrate spinal cord, the invertebrate ventral nerve cord, and the peripheral nerves....
s do not return to their basal conditions from a stimulated condition immediately after removal of the stimulus is an example of hysteresis. See also: Refractory period
Refractory period

In physiology, a refractory period is a period of time during which an organ or cell is incapable of repeating a particular action, or the amount of time it takes for an excitable membrane to be ready for a second stimulus once it returns to its resting state following an excitation....
.

Respiratory physiology


The Pressure vs Volume curve of inhalation is different from the Pressure vs Volume curve of exhalation, the difference being described as hysteresis. Lung volume at any given pressure during inhalation is less than the lung volume at any given pressure during exhalation.

Applications


Hysteresis represents states, and the characteristic curve shape is sometimes remiscent of a two-value state, also called a bistable
Bistability

Something that is bistable can be resting in two states. In physics, for an Statistical ensemble of particles, the bistability comes from the fact that its Thermodynamic free energy has three critical points....
 state. The hysteresis curve really contains infinitely many states, but a simple application is to let the threshold regions (usually to the left and to the right) represent respectively the on and off states. In this way, the system can be regarded as bistable. Note that even if no external field is applied, the position of the hysteresis curve might change with time: it is not necessarily stationary; i.e. the system may not stay in the exact same state as it had previously. The system might need new energy transfer to be stationary.

The hysteresis effect can be used when connecting complex circuits with the so-called passive matrix addressing
Passive matrix addressing

sv:Passiv matrisadresseringPassive matrix addressing is an addressing scheme used in earlier LCD displays, and may be used in future LCD displays....
. This scheme is praised as a technique that can be used in modern nanoelectronics, electrochrome cells, memory effect
Memory effect

Memory effect, also known as lazy battery effect or battery memory, is an effect observed in nickel cadmium rechargeable batteries that causes them to hold less charge....
, etc. In this scheme, shortcuts are made between adjacent components (see crosstalk) and the hysteresis helps to keep the components in a particular state while the other components change states. That is, one can address all rows at the same time instead of doing each individually.

In economics, hysteresis is used extensively in the area of Labour markets. According to theories based on hysteresis, Economic downturns (Recession) result in an individual becoming unemployed, losing his/her skills (commonly developed 'on the job'), demotivated/disillusioned, and employers may use time spent in unemployment as a screen. In times of an Economic upturn or 'boom', the workers affected will not share in the prosperity, remaining Long-Term Unemployed (>52 weeks). Hysteresis has been put forward as a possible explanation for the poor unemployment performance of many economies in the 1990s. Labour market reform, and/or strong economic growth, may not therefore aid this pool of long-term unemployed, and thus specific targeted training programs are presented as a possible policy solution.

In the field of audio electronics, a noise gate
Noise gate

A Noise Gate or gate is an electronic device or software logic that is used to control the volume of an audio signal. In its most simple form, a noise gate allows a Signal to pass through only when it is above a set threshold: the gate is 'open'....
 often implements hysteresis intentionally to prevent the gate from "chattering" when signals close to its threshold are applied.

Small vehicle suspensions using rubber
Rubber

Natural rubber is an elastomer?an Elasticity_ hydrocarbon polymer?that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex , found in the sap of some plants....
 (or other elastomer
Elastomer

An elastomer is a polymer with the property of elasticity. The term, which is derived from elastic polymer, is often used interchangeably with the term rubber, and is preferred when referring to vulcanization....
s) can achieve the dual function of springing and damping because rubber, unlike metal springs, has pronounced hysteresis and does not return all the absorbed compression energy on the rebound. Mountain bike
Mountain bike

A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling, including jumps, and traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines,...
s have frequently made use of elastomer suspension, as did the original Mini
Mini

The Mini is a small Automobile that was produced by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered an icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers....
 car.

See also

  • Remanence
    Remanence

    [Image:B-H loop.png|thumb|A family of hysteresis loops for grain-oriented electrical steel Remanence is the magnetization left behind in a medium after an external magnetic field is removed....
  • Hysteresivity
    Hysteresivity

    Hysteresivity derives from ?hysteresis?, meaning ?lag?. It is the tendency to react slowly to an outside force, or to not return completely to its original state....
  • Path dependence
    Path dependence

    Path-dependence explains how the set of decisions one faces for any given circumstance is limited by the decisions one has made in the past, even though past circumstances may no longer be relevant....
  • Backlash (engineering)
    Backlash (engineering)

    In mechanical engineering, backlash, sometimes called lash or play, is clearance between mating components, sometimes described as the amount of lost motion due to clearance or slackness when movement is reversed and contact is re-established....
  • Metastability
    Metastability

    Metastability is a general scientific concept which describes states of delicate equilibrium. A system is in a metastable state when it is in equilibrium but is susceptible to fall into lower-energy states with only slight interaction....


Further reading

  • Mark Krasnosel'skii and Alexei Pokrovskii, Systems with Hysteresis, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1989.
  • Isaak D. Mayergoyz, Mathematical Models of Hysteresis and their Applications: Second Edition (Electromagnetism), Academic Press, 2003.
  • The Science of Hysteresis (3-volume set), ed. by Isaak D. Mayergoyz, Giorgio Bertotti, Academic, 2005.


External links