28,445 research outputs found
Numerical Verification of Affine Systems with up to a Billion Dimensions
Affine systems reachability is the basis of many verification methods. With
further computation, methods exist to reason about richer models with inputs,
nonlinear differential equations, and hybrid dynamics. As such, the scalability
of affine systems verification is a prerequisite to scalable analysis for more
complex systems. In this paper, we improve the scalability of affine systems
verification, in terms of the number of dimensions (variables) in the system.
The reachable states of affine systems can be written in terms of the matrix
exponential, and safety checking can be performed at specific time steps with
linear programming. Unfortunately, for large systems with many state variables,
this direct approach requires an intractable amount of memory while using an
intractable amount of computation time. We overcome these challenges by
combining several methods that leverage common problem structure. Memory is
reduced by exploiting initial states that are not full-dimensional and safety
properties (outputs) over a few linear projections of the state variables.
Computation time is saved by using numerical simulations to compute only
projections of the matrix exponential relevant for the verification problem.
Since large systems often have sparse dynamics, we use Krylov-subspace
simulation approaches based on the Arnoldi or Lanczos iterations. Our method
produces accurate counter-examples when properties are violated and, in the
extreme case with sufficient problem structure, can analyze a system with one
billion real-valued state variables
Casimir Forces at Tricritical Points: Theory and Possible Experiments
Using field-theoretical methods and exploiting conformal invariance, we study
Casimir forces at tricritical points exerted by long-range fluctuations of the
order-parameter field. Special attention is paid to the situation where the
symmetry is broken by the boundary conditions (extraordinary transition).
Besides the parallel-plate configuration, we also discuss the geometries of two
separate spheres and a single sphere near a planar wall, which may serve as a
model for colloidal particles immersed in a fluid. In the concrete case of
ternary mixtures a quantitative comparison with critical Casimir and van der
Waals forces shows that, especially with symmetry-breaking boundaries, the
tricritical Casimir force is considerably stronger than the critical one and
dominates also the competing van der Waals force.Comment: 18 pages, Latex, 3 postscript figures, uses Elsevier style file
Stable Generalized Finite Element Method (SGFEM)
The Generalized Finite Element Method (GFEM) is a Partition of Unity Method
(PUM), where the trial space of standard Finite Element Method (FEM) is
augmented with non-polynomial shape functions with compact support. These shape
functions, which are also known as the enrichments, mimic the local behavior of
the unknown solution of the underlying variational problem. GFEM has been
successfully used to solve a variety of problems with complicated features and
microstructure. However, the stiffness matrix of GFEM is badly conditioned
(much worse compared to the standard FEM) and there could be a severe loss of
accuracy in the computed solution of the associated linear system. In this
paper, we address this issue and propose a modification of the GFEM, referred
to as the Stable GFEM (SGFEM). We show that the conditioning of the stiffness
matrix of SGFEM is not worse than that of the standard FEM. Moreover, SGFEM is
very robust with respect to the parameters of the enrichments. We show these
features of SGFEM on several examples.Comment: 51 pages, 4 figure
Two-dimensional hydrodynamic lattice-gas simulations of binary immiscible and ternary amphiphilic fluid flow through porous media
The behaviour of two dimensional binary and ternary amphiphilic fluids under
flow conditions is investigated using a hydrodynamic lattice gas model. After
the validation of the model in simple cases (Poiseuille flow, Darcy's law for
single component fluids), attention is focussed on the properties of binary
immiscible fluids in porous media. An extension of Darcy's law which explicitly
admits a viscous coupling between the fluids is verified, and evidence of
capillary effects are described. The influence of a third component, namely
surfactant, is studied in the same context. Invasion simulations have also been
performed. The effect of the applied force on the invasion process is reported.
As the forcing level increases, the invasion process becomes faster and the
residual oil saturation decreases. The introduction of surfactant in the
invading phase during imbibition produces new phenomena, including
emulsification and micellisation. At very low fluid forcing levels, this leads
to the production of a low-resistance gel, which then slows down the progress
of the invading fluid. At long times (beyond the water percolation threshold),
the concentration of remaining oil within the porous medium is lowered by the
action of surfactant, thus enhancing oil recovery. On the other hand, the
introduction of surfactant in the invading phase during drainage simulations
slows down the invasion process -- the invading fluid takes a more tortuous
path to invade the porous medium -- and reduces the oil recovery (the residual
oil saturation increases).Comment: 48 pages, 26 figures. Phys. Rev. E (in press
User-friendly Support for Common Concepts in a Lightweight Verifier
Machine verification of formal arguments can only increase our confidence in the correctness of those arguments, but the costs of employing machine verification still outweigh the benefits for some common kinds of formal reasoning activities. As a result, usability is becoming increasingly important in the design of formal verification tools. We describe the "aartifact" lightweight verification system, designed for processing formal arguments involving basic, ubiquitous mathematical concepts. The system is a prototype for investigating potential techniques for improving the usability of formal verification systems. It leverages techniques drawn both from existing work and from our own efforts. In addition to a parser for a familiar concrete syntax and a mechanism for automated syntax lookup, the system integrates (1) a basic logical inference algorithm, (2) a database of propositions governing common mathematical concepts, and (3) a data structure that computes congruence closures of expressions involving relations found in this database. Together, these components allow the system to better accommodate the expectations of users interested in verifying formal arguments involving algebraic and logical manipulations of numbers, sets, vectors, and related operators and predicates. We demonstrate the reasonable performance of this system on typical formal arguments and briefly discuss how the system's design contributed to its usability in two case studies
Current distribution modelling in electroconductive fabrics
In this paper the current distribution within woven electroconductive textile sheets is investigated.The iterative method of solving very large resistor networks, which is used to model current density in textile sheets, is discussed. Factors taken into account are the conductivity of the fibres, the contact resistance between the fibres, the contact angle between the fibres and supply electrodes, as well as the size and aspect ratio of textile sheets. The influence of these factors on sheet resistivity is discussed. Maps of the current distribution generated with a computer program are included
Continuum limit of amorphous elastic bodies: A finite-size study of low frequency harmonic vibrations
The approach of the elastic continuum limit in small amorphous bodies formed
by weakly polydisperse Lennard-Jones beads is investigated in a systematic
finite-size study. We show that classical continuum elasticity breaks down when
the wavelength of the sollicitation is smaller than a characteristic length of
approximately 30 molecular sizes. Due to this surprisingly large effect
ensembles containing up to N=40,000 particles have been required in two
dimensions to yield a convincing match with the classical continuum predictions
for the eigenfrequency spectrum of disk-shaped aggregates and periodic bulk
systems. The existence of an effective length scale \xi is confirmed by the
analysis of the (non-gaussian) noisy part of the low frequency vibrational
eigenmodes. Moreover, we relate it to the {\em non-affine} part of the
displacement fields under imposed elongation and shear. Similar correlations
(vortices) are indeed observed on distances up to \xi~30 particle sizes.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, 3 table
Performance and scalability of indexed subgraph query processing methods
Graph data management systems have become very popular
as graphs are the natural data model for many applications.
One of the main problems addressed by these systems is subgraph
query processing; i.e., given a query graph, return all
graphs that contain the query. The naive method for processing
such queries is to perform a subgraph isomorphism
test against each graph in the dataset. This obviously does
not scale, as subgraph isomorphism is NP-Complete. Thus,
many indexing methods have been proposed to reduce the
number of candidate graphs that have to underpass the subgraph
isomorphism test. In this paper, we identify a set of
key factors-parameters, that influence the performance of
related methods: namely, the number of nodes per graph,
the graph density, the number of distinct labels, the number
of graphs in the dataset, and the query graph size. We then
conduct comprehensive and systematic experiments that analyze
the sensitivity of the various methods on the values of
the key parameters. Our aims are twofold: first to derive
conclusions about the algorithms’ relative performance, and,
second, to stress-test all algorithms, deriving insights as to
their scalability, and highlight how both performance and
scalability depend on the above factors. We choose six wellestablished
indexing methods, namely Grapes, CT-Index,
GraphGrepSX, gIndex, Tree+∆, and gCode, as representative
approaches of the overall design space, including the
most recent and best performing methods. We report on
their index construction time and index size, and on query
processing performance in terms of time and false positive
ratio. We employ both real and synthetic datasets. Specifi-
cally, four real datasets of different characteristics are used:
AIDS, PDBS, PCM, and PPI. In addition, we generate a
large number of synthetic graph datasets, empowering us to
systematically study the algorithms’ performance and scalability
versus the aforementioned key parameters
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