Near the liquid-gas critical point, thermal disturbances can generate sounds. We study the acoustic emission over four decades of reduced temperatures [defined as $\varepsilon =(T-T_c)/T_c$, with $T_c$ the critical temperature] along the critical isochore, under linear and nonlinear temperature perturbations, respectively. We identify various thermoacoustic behaviors by numerically solving the governing equations. It is shown that a homogeneous thermoacoustic-wave pattern dominates in the linear case, largely independent of ɛ; whereas under the nonlinear perturbation, variation in ɛ could lead to severe wavefront deformation. The strong nonlinear effect is found to be of a transient nature because, in due time, both cases tend to converge in terms of the energy yield of the adiabatic process.

In this paper, we investigate the quest for a single target, which remains fixed in a lattice, by a set of independent walkers. The target exhibits fluctuating behavior between a trap and an ordinary site of the lattice, whereas the walkers perform an intermittent kind of search strategy. Our searchers carry out their movements in one of two states, between which they switch randomly. One of these states (the exploratory phase) is a symmetric nearest-neighbor random walk and the other state (the relocating phase) is a symmetric next-nearest-neighbor random walk. By using the multistate continuous-time random-walk approach we are able to show that for dynamical targets, the intermittent strategy (despite the simplicity of the kinetics chosen for searching) improves detection, in comparison to displacements in a single state. We have obtained analytic results, which can be numerically evaluated, for the survival probability and for the lifetime of the target. Thus, we have studied the dependence of these quantities both in terms of the transition probability that describes the dynamics of the target and in terms of the parameter that characterizes the walkers’ intermittency. In addition to our analytical approach, we have implemented Monte Carlo simulations, finding excellent agreement between the theoretical-numerical results and simulations.

We study dynamic field theories for nonconserving $N$-vector models that are subject to spatial-anisotropic bias perturbations. We first investigate the conditions under which these field theories can have a single length scale. When $N=2$ or $N⩾4$, it turns out that there are no such field theories and, hence, the corresponding models are pushed by the bias into the Ising class. We further construct nontrivial field theories for the $N=3$ case with certain bias perturbations and analyze the renormalization-group flow equations. We find that the three-component systems can exhibit rich critical behavior belonging to two different universality classes.

We show by direct calculation that the replica and cavity methods are exactly equivalent for the spectrum of an Erdős-Rényi random graph. We introduce a variational formulation based on the cavity method and use it to find approximate solutions for the density of eigenvalues. We also use this variational method for calculating spectra of sparse covariance matrices.

Mixtures of hard hyperspheres in odd-space dimensionalities are studied with an analytical approximation method. This technique is based on the so-called rational function approximation and provides a procedure for evaluating equations of state, structure factors, radial distribution functions, and direct correlation functions of additive mixtures of hard hyperspheres with any number of components and in arbitrary odd-dimension space. The method gives the exact solution of the Ornstein-Zernike equation coupled with the Percus-Yevick closure, thus, extending the solution for hard-sphere mixtures [J. L. Lebowitz, Phys. Rev. 133, A895 (1964)] to arbitrary odd dimensions. Explicit evaluations for binary mixtures in five dimensions are performed. The results are compared with computer simulations, and a good agreement is found.

By means of Monte Carlo simulations in the isothermal-isobaric ensemble, we perform a finite-size scaling analysis of the isotropic-nematic (IN) phase transition. Our model consists of egg-shaped anisometric Lennard-Jones molecules. We employ the cumulant intersection method to locate the pressure $P^{*}$ at which the IN phase transition occurs at a given temperature $T$. In particular, we focus on second-order cumulants of the largest and middle eigenvalues of the alignment tensor. At fixed $T$, cumulants for various system sizes intersect at a unique pressure $P^{*}$. Various known scaling relations for these cumulants are verified numerically. At $P^{*}$, the isobaric heat capacity passes through a maximum value $c_{\mathrm{P}}^{\mathrm{m}}$, which depends on the number of molecules $N$. This dependency can accurately be described by a power law such that ${lim}_{N\to \infty }{c}_{\mathrm{P}}^{\mathrm{m}}(N)\to \infty$. For sufficiently large $N$, the pressure at which $c_{\mathrm{P}}^{\mathrm{m}}$ is located shifts only very slightly in agreement with the apparent insensitivity of the cumulant intersection to $N$. In addition, we analyze our data in terms of Landau’s theory of phase transitions. Our results are consistent with a weakly discontinuous entropy-driven phase transition.

We consider a coarse-grained neural field model for synaptic activity in spatially extended cortical tissue that possesses an underlying periodicity in its microstructure. The model is written as an integrodifferential equation with periodic modulation of a translationally invariant spatial kernel. This modulation can have a strong effect on wave propagation through the tissue, including the creation of pulsating fronts with widely varying speeds and wave-propagation failure. Here we develop a new analysis for the study of such phenomena, using two complementary techniques. The first uses linearized information from the leading edge of a traveling periodic wave to obtain wave speed estimates for pulsating fronts, and the second develops an interface description for waves in the full nonlinear model. For weak modulation and a Heaviside firing rate function the interface dynamics can be analyzed exactly and gives predictions that are in excellent agreement with direct numerical simulations. Importantly, the interface dynamics description improves on the standard homogenization calculation, which is restricted to modulation that is both fast and weak.

Stavskaya’s model is a one-dimensional probabilistic cellular automaton (PCA) introduced in the end of the 1960s as an example of a model displaying a nonequilibrium phase transition. Although its absorbing state phase transition is well understood nowadays, the model never received a full numerical treatment to investigate its critical behavior. In this Brief Report we characterize the critical behavior of Stavskaya’s PCA by means of Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis. The critical exponents of the model are calculated and indicate that its phase transition belongs to the directed percolation universality class of critical behavior, as would be expected on the basis of the directed percolation conjecture. We also explicitly establish the relationship of the model with the Domany-Kinzel PCA on its directed site percolation line, a connection that seems to have gone unnoticed in the literature so far.

For a mechanical perturbation, the microscopic response method is equivalent to and more convenient to use than the Kubo formula. When the gradient of the carrier density is small, the current density reduces to that used by Greenwood.

A high-finesse suspended-mirror Fabry-Perot cavity is experimentally studied in a regime where radiation pressure and photothermal effect are both relevant. The competition between these phenomena, operating at different timescales, produces unobserved dynamical scenarios where an initial Hopf instability is followed by the birth of small-amplitude chaotic attractors that erratically but deterministically trigger optical spikes. The observed dynamical regimes are well reproduced by a detailed physical model of the system.

We study quasiscarring phenomena and mode branching at an exceptional point (EP) in typically deformed microcavities. It is shown that quasiscarred (QS) modes are dominant in some mode group and their pattern can be understood by short-time ray dynamics near the critical line. As cavity deformation increases, high-$Q$ and low-$Q$ QS modes are branching in opposite ways, at an EP, into two robust mode types showing QS and diamond patterns, respectively. Similar branching behavior can also be found at another EP appearing at a higher deformation. This branching behavior of QS modes has its origin in the fact that an EP is a square-root branch point.

Stochastic blockmodels have been proposed as a tool for detecting community structure in networks as well as for generating synthetic networks for use as benchmarks. Most blockmodels, however, ignore variation in vertex degree, making them unsuitable for applications to real-world networks, which typically display broad degree distributions that can significantly affect the results. Here we demonstrate how the generalization of blockmodels to incorporate this missing element leads to an improved objective function for community detection in complex networks. We also propose a heuristic algorithm for community detection using this objective function or its non-degree-corrected counterpart and show that the degree-corrected version dramatically outperforms the uncorrected one in both real-world and synthetic networks.

A technique, first introduced in the context of pseudoperiodic sound waves, is here applied to the problem of detecting the phase of phase coherent and also phase noncoherent chaotic oscillators. The approach is based on finding sinusoidal fits to segments of the signal, therefore obtaining, for each segment, an appropriate frequency from which a phase can be derived. Central to the method is a judicious choice for the size of a sliding window and for the frequency range, as well as for the window advancing step. The approach is robust against moderate noise levels and three cases are presented for demonstrating the applicability of the method.

Experiments are carried out with three locally coupled phase coherent chaotic electrochemical oscillators ($A$-$B$-$C$) in nickel dissolution in sulfuric acid. As the interaction strength is increased among the electrodes, an onset of synchronization is observed where the frequencies become identical and the phase differences are bounded. The precision of the period of the oscillators is characterized by phase diffusion coefficients from phases and phase differences. The transition to synchronization with increase of coupling strength was found to be accompanied by enhanced phase fluctuations that cause the precision of the oscillations to deteriorate. A parallel synchrony analysis showed that the direct (between $A$ and $B$ and $B$ and $C$) and the indirect (between $A$ and $C$) couplings can be correctly identified with the use of a partial phase synchrony index; therefore, the network topology can be deduced from dynamical measurements. Numerical simulations with a locally coupled model for electrochemical chaos confirm the presence of enhanced phase fluctuations close to the transition to synchronization and the usefulness of the partial phase synchrony index for differentiation of direct from indirect interactions in a small network of oscillators.

Studies of materials under extreme conditions have relevance to a broad area of research, including planetary physics, fusion research, materials science, and structural biology with x-ray lasers. We study such extreme conditions and experimentally probe the interaction between ultrashort soft x-ray pulses and solid targets (metals and their deuterides) at the FLASH free-electron laser where power densities exceeding ${10}^{17}$ W/cm${}^2$ were reached. Time-of-flight ion spectrometry and crater analysis were used to characterize the interaction. The results show the onset of saturation in the ablation process at power densities above ${10}^{16}$ W/cm${}^2$. This effect can be linked to a transiently induced x-ray transparency in the solid by the femtosecond x-ray pulse at high power densities. The measured kinetic energies of protons and deuterons ejected from the surface reach several keV and concur with predictions from plasma-expansion models. Simulations of the interactions were performed with a nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium code with radiation transfer. These calculations return critical depths similar to the observed crater depths and capture the transient surface transparency at higher power densities.

An analysis of the interaction between modes involving two species with different pressures in the presence of a static-neutralizing ion background is presented using a quantum hydrodynamic model. It is shown that quantum electron plasma waves can nonlinearly interact with quantum electron acoustic waves in a time scale much longer than electron plasma oscillation response time. A set of coupled nonlinear differential equations is obtained that is similar to the Zakharov equations but includes quantum correction terms. These equations are solved in a moving frame, showing that solitary-wave-like solutions may also be possible in quantum Zakharov equations. It is also shown that quantum effects can reduce the growth rate of the usual caviton instability. Possible applications of the theory are also outlined.

A simple renormalization theory of plasma particle interactions is proposed. It primarily stems from generic properties of equilibrium distribution functions and allows one to obtain the so-called generalized Poisson-Boltzmann equation for an effective interaction potential of two chosen particles in the presence of a third one. The same equation is then strictly derived from the Bogolyubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon (BBGKY) hierarchy for equilibrium distribution functions in the pair correlation approximation. This enables one to construct a self-consistent chemical model of partially ionized plasmas, correctly accounting for the close interrelation of charged and neutral components thereof. Minimization of the system free energy provides ionization equilibrium and, thus, permits one to study the plasma composition in a wide range of its parameters. Unlike standard chemical models, the proposed one allows one to study the system correlation functions and thereby to obtain an equation of state which agrees well with exact results of quantum-mechanical activity expansions. It is shown that the plasma and neutral components are strongly interrelated, which results in the short-range order formation in the corresponding subsystem. The mathematical form of the results obtained enables one to both firmly establish this fact and to determine a characteristic length of the structure formation. Since the cornerstone of the proposed self-consistent chemical model of partially ionized plasmas is an effective pairwise interaction potential, it immediately provides quite an efficient calculation scheme not only for thermodynamical functions but for transport coefficients as well.

Ideal transformation optics cloaking at positive frequency, besides rendering the cloaked region invisible to detection by scattering of incident waves, also shields the region from those same waves. In contrast, we demonstrate that approximate cloaking permits a strong coupling between the cloaked and uncloaked regions; careful choice of parameters allows this coupling to be amplified, leading to effective cloaks with degraded shielding. The sensor modes we describe are close to but distinct from interior resonances, which destroy cloaking. As one application, we describe how to use transformation optics to hide sensors in the cloaked region and yet enable the sensors to efficiently measure incident waves on the exterior of the cloak, an effect similar to the plasmon-based approach of Alù and Engheta.