5,105 research outputs found
A primer of swarm equilibria
We study equilibrium configurations of swarming biological organisms subject
to exogenous and pairwise endogenous forces. Beginning with a discrete
dynamical model, we derive a variational description of the corresponding
continuum population density. Equilibrium solutions are extrema of an energy
functional, and satisfy a Fredholm integral equation. We find conditions for
the extrema to be local minimizers, global minimizers, and minimizers with
respect to infinitesimal Lagrangian displacements of mass. In one spatial
dimension, for a variety of exogenous forces, endogenous forces, and domain
configurations, we find exact analytical expressions for the equilibria. These
agree closely with numerical simulations of the underlying discrete model.The
exact solutions provide a sampling of the wide variety of equilibrium
configurations possible within our general swarm modeling framework. The
equilibria typically are compactly supported and may contain
-concentrations or jump discontinuities at the edge of the support. We
apply our methods to a model of locust swarms, which are observed in nature to
consist of a concentrated population on the ground separated from an airborne
group. Our model can reproduce this configuration; quasi-two-dimensionality of
the model plays a critical role.Comment: 38 pages, submitted to SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Sy
Structural Phases of Bounded Three-Dimensional Screened Coulomb Clusters (Finite Yukawa System)
The formation of three-dimensional (3D) dust clusters within a complex plasma
modeled as a spatially confined Yukawa system is simulated using the box_tree
code. Similar to unscreened Coulomb clusters, the occurrence of concentric
shells with characteristic occupation numbers was observed. Both the occupation
numbers and radii were found to depend on the Debye length. Ground and low
energy meta-stable states of the shielded 3D Coulomb clusters were determined
for 4<N<20. The structure and energy of the clusters in different states was
analyzed for various Debye lengths. Structural phase transitions, including
inter-shell structural phase transitions and intra-shell structural phase
transitions, were observed for varying Debye length and the critical value for
transitions calculated
Parameter Estimation in a Noisy 1D Environment via Two Absorbing Receivers
This paper investigates the estimation of different parameters, e.g.,
propagation distance and flow velocity, by utilizing two fully-absorbing
receivers (RXs) in a one-dimensional (1D) environment. The time-varying number
of absorbed molecules at each RX and the number of absorbed molecules in a time
interval as time approaches infinity are derived. Noisy molecules in this
environment, that are released by sources in addition to the transmitter, are
also considered. A novel estimation method, namely difference estimation (DE),
is proposed to eliminate the effect of noise by using the difference of
received signals at the two RXs. For DE, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) on
the variance of estimation is derived. Independent maximum likelihood
estimation is also considered at each RX as a benchmark to show the performance
advantage of DE. Aided by particle-based simulation, the derived analytical
results are verified. Furthermore, numerical results show that DE attains the
CRLB and is less sensitive to the change of noise than independent estimation
at each RX.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Globecom 202
The ideal energy of classical lattice dynamics
We define, as local quantities, the least energy and momentum allowed by
quantum mechanics and special relativity for physical realizations of some
classical lattice dynamics. These definitions depend on local rates of
finite-state change. In two example dynamics, we see that these rates evolve
like classical mechanical energy and momentum.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, includes revised portion of arXiv:0805.335
Self-diffusion in two-dimensional hard ellipsoid suspensions
We studied the self-diffusion of colloidal ellipsoids in a monolayer near a
flat wall by video microscopy. The image processing algorithm can track the
positions and orientations of ellipsoids with sub-pixel resolution. The
translational and rotational diffusions were measured in both the lab frame and
the body frame along the long and short axes. The long-time and short-time
diffusion coefficients of translational and rotational motions were measured as
functions of the particle concentration. We observed sub-diffusive behavior in
the intermediate time regime due to the caging of neighboring particles. Both
the beginning and the ending times of the intermediate regime exhibit power-law
dependence on concentration. The long-time and short-time diffusion
anisotropies change non-monotonically with concentration and reach minima in
the semi-dilute regime because the motions along long axes are caged at lower
concentrations than the motions along short axes. The effective diffusion
coefficients change with time t as a linear function of (lnt)/t for the
translational and rotational diffusions at various particle densities. This
indicates that their relaxation functions decay according to 1/t which provides
new challenges in theory. The effects of coupling between rotational and
translational Brownian motions were demonstrated and the two time scales
corresponding to anisotropic particle shape and anisotropic neighboring
environment were measured
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