Conformal gravity: light deflection revisited and the galactic rotation curve failure

We show how Conformal Gravity (CG) has to satisfy a fine-tuning condition to describe the rotation curves of disk galaxies without the aid of dark matter. Interpreting CG as a gauge natural theory yields conservation laws and their associated superpotentials without ambiguities. We consider the light deflection of a point-like lens and impose that the two Schwarzschild-like metrics with and without the lens are identical at infinite distances from the lens. The energy conservation law implies that the parameter $\gamma$ in the linear term of the metric has to vanish, otherwise the two metrics are physically inaccessible from each other. This linear term is responsible to mimic the role of dark matter in disk galaxies and gravitational lensing systems. Our analysis shows that removing the need of dark matter with CG thus relies on a fine-tuning condition on $\gamma$. We also illustrate why the results of previous investigations of gravitational lensing in CG largely disagree. These discrepancies derive from the erroneous use of the deflection angle definition adopted in General Relativity, where the vacuum solution is asymptotically flat, unlike CG. In addition, the lens mass is identified with various combinations of the metric parameters. However, these identifications are arbitrary, because the mass is not a conformally invariant quantity, unlike the conserved charge associated to the energy conservation law. Based on this conservation law and by removing the fine-tuning condition on $\gamma$, i.e. by setting $\gamma=0$, the energy difference between the metric with the point-like lens and the metric without it defines a conformally invariant quantity that can in principle be used for (1) a proper derivation of light deflection in CG, and (2) the identification of the lens mass with a function of the parameters $\beta$ and $k$ of the Schwarzschild-like metric.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. Revised version according to the referees comments. The results reported in the original version remain unchange

Application and flight test of linearizing transformations using measurement feedback to the nonlinear control problem

The design of nonlinear controllers has relied on the use of detailed aerodynamic and engine models that must be associated with the control law in the flight system implementation. Many of these controllers were applied to vehicle flight path control problems and have attempted to combine both inner- and outer-loop control functions in a single controller. An approach to the nonlinear trajectory control problem is presented. This approach uses linearizing transformations with measurement feedback to eliminate the need for detailed aircraft models in outer-loop control applications. By applying this approach and separating the inner-loop and outer-loop functions two things were achieved: (1) the need for incorporating detailed aerodynamic models in the controller is obviated; and (2) the controller is more easily incorporated into existing aircraft flight control systems. An implementation of the controller is discussed, and this controller is tested on a six degree-of-freedom F-15 simulation and in flight on an F-15 aircraft. Simulation data are presented which validates this approach over a large portion of the F-15 flight envelope. Proof of this concept is provided by flight-test data that closely matches simulation results. Flight-test data are also presented

Stability Analysis of Integral Delay Systems with Multiple Delays

This note is concerned with stability analysis of integral delay systems with multiple delays. To study this problem, the well-known Jensen inequality is generalized to the case of multiple terms by introducing an individual slack weighting matrix for each term, which can be optimized to reduce the conservatism. With the help of the multiple Jensen inequalities and by developing a novel linearizing technique, two novel Lyapunov functional based approaches are established to obtain sufficient stability conditions expressed by linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). It is shown that these new conditions are always less conservative than the existing ones. Moreover, by the positive operator theory, a single LMI based condition and a spectral radius based condition are obtained based on an existing sufficient stability condition expressed by coupled LMIs. A numerical example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.Comment: 14 page

Discrete time piecewise affine models of genetic regulatory networks

We introduce simple models of genetic regulatory networks and we proceed to the mathematical analysis of their dynamics. The models are discrete time dynamical systems generated by piecewise affine contracting mappings whose variables represent gene expression levels. When compared to other models of regulatory networks, these models have an additional parameter which is identified as quantifying interaction delays. In spite of their simplicity, their dynamics presents a rich variety of behaviours. This phenomenology is not limited to piecewise affine model but extends to smooth nonlinear discrete time models of regulatory networks. In a first step, our analysis concerns general properties of networks on arbitrary graphs (characterisation of the attractor, symbolic dynamics, Lyapunov stability, structural stability, symmetries, etc). In a second step, focus is made on simple circuits for which the attractor and its changes with parameters are described. In the negative circuit of 2 genes, a thorough study is presented which concern stable (quasi-)periodic oscillations governed by rotations on the unit circle -- with a rotation number depending continuously and monotonically on threshold parameters. These regular oscillations exist in negative circuits with arbitrary number of genes where they are most likely to be observed in genetic systems with non-negligible delay effects.Comment: 34 page

Measures of Analysis of Time Series (MATS): A MATLAB Toolkit for Computation of Multiple Measures on Time Series Data Bases

In many applications, such as physiology and finance, large time series data bases are to be analyzed requiring the computation of linear, nonlinear and other measures. Such measures have been developed and implemented in commercial and freeware softwares rather selectively and independently. The Measures of Analysis of Time Series ({\tt MATS}) {\tt MATLAB} toolkit is designed to handle an arbitrary large set of scalar time series and compute a large variety of measures on them, allowing for the specification of varying measure parameters as well. The variety of options with added facilities for visualization of the results support different settings of time series analysis, such as the detection of dynamics changes in long data records, resampling (surrogate or bootstrap) tests for independence and linearity with various test statistics, and discrimination power of different measures and for different combinations of their parameters. The basic features of {\tt MATS} are presented and the implemented measures are briefly described. The usefulness of {\tt MATS} is illustrated on some empirical examples along with screenshots.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, two tables, the software can be downloaded at http://eeganalysis.web.auth.gr/indexen.ht

Theory on the Dynamics of Oscillatory Loops in the Transcription Factor Networks

We develop a detailed theoretical framework for various types of transcription factor gene oscillators. We further demonstrate that one can build genetic-oscillators which are tunable and robust against perturbations in the critical control parameters by coupling two or more independent Goodwin-Griffith oscillators through either -OR- or -AND- type logic. Most of the coupled oscillators constructed in the literature so far seem to be of -OR- type. When there are transient perturbations in one of the -OR- type coupled-oscillators, then the overall period of the system remains constant (period-buffering) whereas in case of -AND- type coupling the overall period of the system moves towards the perturbed oscillator. Though there is a period-buffering, the amplitudes of oscillators coupled through -OR- type logic are more sensitive to perturbations in the parameters associated with the promoter state dynamics than -AND- type. Further analysis shows that the period of -AND- type coupled dual-feedback oscillators can be tuned without conceding on the amplitudes. Using these results we derive the basic design principles governing the robust and tunable synthetic gene oscillators without compromising on their amplitudes.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures, 2 table

Locally optimal control of continuous variable entanglement

We consider a system of two bosonic modes each subject to the dynamics induced by a thermal Markovian environment and we identify instantaneous, local symplectic controls that minimise the loss of entanglement in the Gaussian regime. By minimising the decrease of the logarithmic negativity at every instant in time, it will be shown that a non-trivial, finite amount of local squeezing helps to counter the effect of decoherence during the evolution. We also determine optimal control routines in the more restrictive scenario where the control operations are applied on only one of the two modes. We find that applying an instantaneous control only at the beginning of the dynamics, i.e. preparing an appropriate initial state, is the optimal strategy for states with symmetric correlations and when the dynamics is the same on both modes. More generally, even in asymmetric cases, the delayed decay of entanglement resulting from the optimal preparation of the initial state with no further action turns out to be always very close to the optimised control where multiple operations are applied during the evolution. Our study extends directly to mono-symmetric systems of any number of modes, i.e. to systems that are invariant under any local permutation of the modes within any one partition, as they are locally equivalent to two-mode systems.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, still no joke

Dynamics of a Limit Cycle Oscillator under Time Delayed Linear and Nonlinear Feedbacks

We study the effects of time delayed linear and nonlinear feedbacks on the dynamics of a single Hopf bifurcation oscillator. Our numerical and analytic investigations reveal a host of complex temporal phenomena such as phase slips, frequency suppression, multiple periodic states and chaos. Such phenomena are frequently observed in the collective behavior of a large number of coupled limit cycle oscillators. Our time delayed feedback model offers a simple paradigm for obtaining and investigating these temporal states in a single oscillator.We construct a detailed bifurcation diagram of the oscillator as a function of the time delay parameter and the driving strengths of the feedback terms. We find some new states in the presence of the quadratic nonlinear feedback term with interesting characteristics like birhythmicity, phase reversals, radial trapping, phase jumps and spiraling patterns in the amplitude space. Our results may find useful applications in physical, chemical or biological systems.Comment: VERSION 4: Fig. 10(d) added, an uncited reference removed; (To appear in Physica D) (17 pages, 21 figures, two column, aps RevTeX); VERSION 3: Revised. In Section 2, small tau approximation added; Section 3 is divided into subsections; periodic solution discussed in detail; Figs. 7 and 11 discarded; Figs. 12 and 14 altered; three new figures (now Figs. 10, 11 and 21) added. VERSION 2: Figs. 1 and 2 replace