We study the susceptible-infected model with power-law waiting time distributions $P(\tau )~{\tau }^{-\alpha }$, as a model of spreading dynamics under heterogeneous human activity patterns. We found that the average number of new infections $n(t)$ at time $t$ decays as a power law in the long-time limit, $n(t)~t^{-\beta }$, leading to extremely slow prevalence decay. We also found that the exponent in the spreading dynamics $\beta$ is related to that in the waiting time distribution $\alpha$ in a way depending on the interactions between agents but insensitive to the network topology. These observations are well supported by both the theoretical predictions and the long prevalence decay time in real social spreading phenomena. Our results unify individual activity patterns with macroscopic collective dynamics at the network level.

Newtonian and special-relativistic predictions, based on the same model parameters and initial conditions for the trajectory of a low-speed scattering system are compared. When the scattering is chaotic, the two predictions for the trajectory can rapidly diverge completely, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively, due to an exponentially growing separation taking place in the scattering region. In contrast, when the scattering is nonchaotic, the breakdown of agreement between predictions takes a very long time, since the difference between the predictions grows only linearly. More importantly, in the case of low-speed chaotic scattering, the rapid loss of agreement between the Newtonian and special-relativistic trajectory predictions implies that special-relativistic mechanics must be used, instead of the standard practice of using Newtonian mechanics, to correctly describe the scattering dynamics.

The scaling laws governing the concentration moments of a passive scalar released from a ground-level localized source in a neutrally stratified wall-shear layer are investigated using a theoretical framework recently formulated by Lebedev and Turitsyn [Phys. Rev. E 69, 036301 (2004)]. For the current application, this theoretical framework is generalized from the smooth random velocity field applicable in the viscous sublayer to the nonsmooth random velocity field that applies to the bulk of the wall-shear layer. Theoretical relationships for the passive scalar concentration moments are compared to a water-channel simulation of turbulent diffusion from a ground-level source in a wall-shear layer. The diffusion measurements in the wall-shear layer are shown to be consistent with the theoretical description and also imply the robustness of the identified scaling laws for the scalar concentration moments.

The results of a theoretical investigation of the low-velocity stopping power of ions in a magnetized collisional and classical plasma are reported. The stopping power for an ion is calculated through the linear-response (LR) theory. The collisions, which lead to a damping of the excitations in the plasma, are taken into account through a number-conserving relaxation time approximation in the LR function. In order to highlight the effects of collisions and magnetic field, we present a comparison of our analytical and numerical results obtained for nonzero damping or magnetic field with those for vanishing damping or magnetic field. It is shown that the collisions remove the anomalous friction obtained previously [Nersisyan et al., Phys. Rev. E 61, 7022 (2000)] for the collisionless magnetized plasmas at low ion velocities. One of the major objectives of this paper is to compare and to contrast our theoretical results with those obtained through a diffusion coefficient formulation based on the Dufty-Berkovsky relation evaluated for a magnetized one-component plasma modeled with target ions and electrons.

We address the problem of directional mobility of discrete solitons in two-dimensional rectangular lattices, in the framework of a discrete nonlinear Schrödinger model with saturable on-site nonlinearity. A numerical constrained Newton-Raphson method is used to calculate two-dimensional Peierls-Nabarro energy surfaces, which describe a pseudopotential landscape for the slow mobility of coherent localized excitations, corresponding to continuous phase-space trajectories passing close to stationary modes. Investigating the two-parameter space of the model through independent variations of the nonlinearity constant and the power, we show how parameter regimes and directions of good mobility are connected to the existence of smooth surfaces connecting the stationary states. In particular, directions where solutions can move with minimum radiation can be predicted from flatter parts of the surfaces. For such mobile solutions, slight perturbations in the transverse direction yield additional transverse oscillations with frequencies determined by the curvature of the energy surfaces, and with amplitudes that for certain velocities may grow rapidly. We also describe how the mobility properties and surface topologies are affected by inclusion of weak lattice anisotropy.

We present the stochastic approach of the polarization state of an electromagnetic wave traveling through randomly twisted optical fiber. We treat the case of the weak randomness. When the geometric torsion of the fiber is distributed as a Gaussian law, we can write explicitly the Fokker-Planck equation for the Stokes parameters of the wave, and find the complete solution of the polarization-state distribution.

We study stochastic transport through a lattice network with quenched disorder and evaluate the limits of predictability of the transport behavior across realizations of spatial heterogeneity. Within a Lagrangian framework, we perform coarse graining, noise averaging, and ensemble averaging, to obtain an effective transport model for the average particle density and its fluctuations between realizations. We show that the average particle density is described exactly by a continuous time random walk (CTRW), and the particle density variance is quantified by a novel two-particle CTRW.

Oscillatory regulatory networks have been discovered in many cellular pathways. An especially challenging area is studying dynamics of cellular oscillators interacting with one another in a population. Synchronization is only one of and the simplest outcome of such interaction. It is suggested that the outcome depends on the structure of the network. Phase-attractive (synchronizing) and phase-repulsive coupling structures were distinguished for regulatory oscillators. In this paper, we question this separation. We study an example of two interacting repressilators (artificial regulatory oscillators based on cyclic repression). We show that changing the cooperativity of transcription repression (Hill coefficient) and reaction timescales dramatically alter synchronization properties. The network becomes birhythmic—it chooses between the in-phase and antiphase synchronization. Thus, the type of synchronization is not characteristic for the network structure. However, we conclude that the specific scenario of emergence and stabilization of synchronous solutions is much more characteristic.

Space-time patterns of wall shear stress (WSS) resulting from the numerical simulation of pulsating hemodynamic flows in semicoronal domains are analyzed, in the case of both regular semicoronal domains and semicoronal domains with bumpy insertions, mimicking aneurysm-like geometries. A new family of cardiovascular risk indicators, which we name three-band diagrams (TBDs), are introduced, as a sensible generalization of the two standard indicators, i.e., the time-averaged WSS and the oscillatory shear index. TBDs provide a handy access to additional information contained in the dynamic structure of the WSS signal as a function of the physiological risk threshold, thereby allowing a quick visual assessment of the risk sensitivity to individual fluctuations of the physiological risk thresholds. Due to its generality, TBD analysis is expected to prove useful for a wide host of applications in science, engineering, and medicine, where risk assessment plays a central role.

We find the probability for $N$ particles to exit an anisometric (having unequal dimensions) hopper before jamming to have a broad power-law decay with exponent $\alpha =-2$, in marked contrast to the exponential decay seen in hoppers with symmetric apertures. The transition from exponential to power law is explained by amodel that assumes particle motion is correlated over a distinct length scale. Hoppers with lengths larger than this length are modeled as a series of adjacent, statistically independent “cells.” Experiments with apertures 27–37 particle diameters $D$ long are well fit by a three-cell model, implying that the correlation length is $\approx 9$–$12D$.

We consider renewal stochastic processes generated by nonindependent events from the perspective that their basic distribution and associated generating functions obey the statistical-mechanical structure of systems with interacting degrees of freedom. Based on this fact we look briefly into the less-known case of processes that display phase transitions along time. When the density distribution ${\psi }_n(t)$ for the occurrence of the $n$th event at time $t$ is considered to be a partition function, of a “microcanonical” type for $n$ “degrees of freedom” at fixed “energy” $t$, one obtains a set of four partition functions of which that for the generating function variable $z$ and Laplace transform variable $\epsilon$, conjugate to $n$ and $t$, respectively, plays a central role. These partition functions relate to each other in the customary way and in accordance to the precepts of large deviations theory, while the entropy, or Massieu potential, derived from ${\psi }_n(t)$ satisfies an Euler relation. We illustrate this scheme first for an ordinary renewal process of events generated by a simple exponential waiting-time distribution $\psi (t)$. Then we examine a process modeled after the so-called Hamiltonian mean-field model that is representative of agents that perform a repeated task with an associated outcome, such as an opinion poll. When a sequence of (many) events takes place in a sufficiently short time the process exhibits clustering of the outcome, but for larger times the process resembles that of independent events. The two regimes are separated by a sharp transition, technically of the second order. Finally we point out the existence of a similar scheme for random-walk processes.

Formulating a statistical mechanics for granular matter remains a significant challenge, in part due to the difficulty associated with a complete characterization of the systems under study. We present a fully characterized model of a granular material consisting of $N$ two-dimensional, frictionless hard disks, confined between hard walls, including a complete enumeration of all possible jammed structures. We show that the properties of the jammed packings are independent of the distribution of defects within the system and that all the packings are isostatic. This suggests that the assumption of equal probability for states of equal volume, which provides one possible way of constructing the equivalent of a microcanonical ensemble, is likely to be valid for our model. An application of the second law of thermodynamics involving two subsystems in contact shows that the expected spontaneous equilibration of defects between the two is accompanied by an increase in entropy and that the equilibrium, obtained by entropy maximization, is characterized by the equality of compactivities. Finally, we explore the properties of the equivalent to the canonical ensemble for this system.

Sznajd-Weron [Phys. Rev. E 82, 031120 (2010)] suggested that the one-dimensional Ising model subject to the zero-temperature synchronous Glauber dynamics exhibits a discontinuous phase transition. We show here that the phase transition instead is of a continuous nature, and we identify critical exponents, $\beta \approx 0$, $\nu \approx 1$, and $z\approx 2$, via a systematic finite-size scaling analysis.

The dynamo instability is investigated in the limit of infinite magnetic Prandtl number. In this limit the fluid is assumed to be very viscous so that the inertial terms can be neglected and the flow is enslaved to the forcing. The forcing consist of an external forcing function that drives the dynamo flow and the resulting Lorentz force caused by the back reaction of the magnetic field. The flows under investigation are the Archontis flow and the ABC flow forced at two different scales. The investigation covers roughly 3 orders of magnitude of the magnetic Reynolds number above onset. All flows show a weak increase of the averaged magnetic energy as the magnetic Reynolds number is increased. Most of the magnetic energy is concentrated in flat elongated structures that produce a Lorentz force with small solenoidal projection so that the resulting magnetic field configuration is almost force free. Although the examined system has zero kinetic Reynolds number at sufficiently large magnetic Reynolds number the structures are unstable to small scale fluctuations that result in a chaotic temporal behavior.

We study experimentally and theoretically the transition phenomena caused by external forcing from Rayleigh-Bénard convection with large-scale circulation (LSC) to the limiting regime of unstably stratified turbulent flow without LSC, where the temperature field behaves like a passive scalar. In the experiments we use the Rayleigh-Bénard apparatus with an additional source of turbulence produced by two oscillating grids located near the sidewalls of the chamber. When the frequency of the grid oscillations is larger than $2$ Hz, the LSC in turbulent convection is destroyed, and the destruction of the LSC is accompanied by a strong change of the mean temperature distribution. However, in all regimes of the unstably stratified turbulent flow the ratio $[({\ell }_x{\nabla }_{x}T){}^2+({\ell }_y{\nabla }_{y}T){}^2+({\ell }_z{\nabla }_{z}T){}^2]/\langle {\theta }^2\rangle$ varies slightly (even in the range of parameters where the behavior of the temperature field is different from that of the passive scalar). Here ${\ell }_i$ are the integral scales of turbulence along the $x,y,z$ directions, and $T$ and $\theta$ are the mean and fluctuating parts of the fluid temperature. At all frequencies of the grid oscillations we have detected long-term nonlinear oscillations of the mean temperature. The theoretical predictions based on the budget equations for turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent temperature fluctuations, and turbulent heat flux, are in agreement with the experimental results.

Parameter estimation by nonlinear least-squares minimization is a common problem that has an elegant geometric interpretation: the possible parameter values of a model induce a manifold within the space of data predictions. The minimization problem is then to find the point on the manifold closest to the experimental data. We show that the model manifolds of a large class of models, known as sloppy models, have many universal features; they are characterized by a geometric series of widths, extrinsic curvatures, and parameter-effect curvatures, which we describe as a hyper-ribbon. A number of common difficulties in optimizing least-squares problems are due to this common geometric structure. First, algorithms tend to run into the boundaries of the model manifold, causing parameters to diverge or become unphysical before they have been optimized. We introduce the model graph as an extension of the model manifold to remedy this problem. We argue that appropriate priors can remove the boundaries and further improve the convergence rates. We show that typical fits will have many evaporated parameters unless the data are very accurately known. Second, “bare” model parameters are usually ill-suited to describing model behavior; cost contours in parameter space tend to form hierarchies of plateaus and long narrow canyons. Geometrically, we understand this inconvenient parametrization as an extremely skewed coordinate basis and show that it induces a large parameter-effect curvature on the manifold. By constructing alternative coordinates based on geodesic motion, we show that these long narrow canyons are transformed in many cases into a single quadratic, isotropic basin. We interpret the modified Gauss-Newton and Levenberg-Marquardt fitting algorithms as an Euler approximation to geodesic motion in these natural coordinates on the model manifold and the model graph, respectively. By adding a geodesic acceleration adjustment to these algorithms, we alleviate the difficulties from parameter-effect curvature, improving both efficiency and success rates at finding good fits.

One-way or unidirectional coupling is a striking example of how topological considerations—the parity of an array of multistable elements combined with periodic boundary conditions—can qualitatively influence dynamics. Here we introduce a simple electronic model of one-way coupling in one and two dimensions and experimentally compare it to an improved mechanical model and an ideal mathematical model. In two dimensions, computation and experiment reveal richer one-way coupling phenomenology: In media where two-way coupling would dissipate all excitations, one-way coupling enables solitonlike waves to propagate in different directions with different speeds.

In a recent paper, Ding, Liang, Zhang, Zhou, and Yuan [Phys. Rev. E 79, 016604 (2009)] reported a negative refraction of double-ring resonator structure at the normal incidence based on an intrinsical electric and an antisymmetric resonances. We argue that the antisymmetric resonance does not respond to a negative permeability, and the left-handed nature comes from the single-negative refraction rather than the double-negative one.