273,780 research outputs found
Geometrical Ambiguity of Pair Statistics. I. Point Configurations
Point configurations have been widely used as model systems in condensed
matter physics, materials science and biology. Statistical descriptors such as
the -body distribution function is usually employed to characterize
the point configurations, among which the most extensively used is the pair
distribution function . An intriguing inverse problem of practical
importance that has been receiving considerable attention is the degree to
which a point configuration can be reconstructed from the pair distribution
function of a target configuration. Although it is known that the pair-distance
information contained in is in general insufficient to uniquely determine
a point configuration, this concept does not seem to be widely appreciated and
general claims of uniqueness of the reconstructions using pair information have
been made based on numerical studies. In this paper, we introduce the idea of
the distance space, called the space. The pair distances of a
specific point configuration are then represented by a single point in the
space. We derive the conditions on the pair distances that can be
associated with a point configuration, which are equivalent to the
realizability conditions of the pair distribution function . Moreover, we
derive the conditions on the pair distances that can be assembled into distinct
configurations. These conditions define a bounded region in the
space. By explicitly constructing a variety of degenerate point configurations
using the space, we show that pair information is indeed
insufficient to uniquely determine the configuration in general. We also
discuss several important problems in statistical physics based on the
space.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figure
On the number of tetrahedra with minimum, unit, and distinct volumes in three-space
We formulate and give partial answers to several combinatorial problems on
volumes of simplices determined by points in 3-space, and in general in
dimensions. (i) The number of tetrahedra of minimum (nonzero) volume spanned by
points in \RR^3 is at most , and there are point sets
for which this number is . We also present an time
algorithm for reporting all tetrahedra of minimum nonzero volume, and thereby
extend an algorithm of Edelsbrunner, O'Rourke, and Seidel. In general, for
every k,d\in \NN, , the maximum number of -dimensional
simplices of minimum (nonzero) volume spanned by points in \RR^d is
. (ii) The number of unit-volume tetrahedra determined by
points in \RR^3 is , and there are point sets for which this
number is . (iii) For every d\in \NN, the minimum
number of distinct volumes of all full-dimensional simplices determined by
points in \RR^d, not all on a hyperplane, is .Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, a preliminary version has appeard in proceedings
of the ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 200
3D black holes on a 2-brane in 4D Minkowski space
We investigate three-dimensional black hole solutions in the realm of pure
and new massive gravity in 2+1 dimensions induced on a 2-brane embedded in a
flat four-dimensional spacetime. There is no cosmological constant neither on
the brane nor on the four-dimensional bulk. Only gravitational fields are
turned on and we indeed find vacuum solutions as black holes in 2+1 dimensions
even in the absence of any cosmological solution. There is a crossover scale
that controls how far the three- or four-dimensional gravity manifests on the
2-brane. Our solutions also indicate that local BTZ and SdS_3 solutions can
flow to local four-dimensional Schwarzschild like black holes, as one probes
from small to large distances, which is clearly a higher dimensional
manifestation on the 2-brane. This is similar to the DGP scenario where the
effects of extra dimensions for large probed distances along the brane
manifest.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in PL
On distinct distances in homogeneous sets in the Euclidean space
A homogeneous set of points in the -dimensional Euclidean space
determines at least distinct distances
for a constant . In three-space, we slightly improve our general bound
and show that a homogeneous set of points determines at least
distinct distances
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