Experimental study on interaction between a positive mass and a negative effective mass through a mass-spring system

Weinvestigatetheinteractionbetweenapositivemassandanegativeeffectivemassthroughathreemasschainconnectedwithelasticsprings,apairofmassesisdesignedtohaveaneffectivenegativemass,anditinteractswiththethirdpositiveoneasifanequivalenttwo-masschain.Thedynamicsoftheequivalenttwo-masschainshowsthatthetwobodiesmaybeself-acceleratedinsamedirectionwhentheeffectivemassbecomesnegative,theexperimentisalsoconductedtodemonstratethistypeofmotion.Wefurthershowthattheenergyprinciple(Hamilton’sprinciple)isapplicableiftheenergyofthenegativemassunitisproperlycharacterized.Theresultmayberelevanttocompositewithcellsofeffectivenegativemass,theirinteractionwithmatrixmayleadtomorericherunexpectedmacroscopicresponses.