Rectangular Layouts and Contact Graphs

Contact graphs of isothetic rectangles unify many concepts from applications including VLSI and architectural design, computational geometry, and GIS. Minimizing the area of their corresponding {\em rectangular layouts} is a key problem. We study the area-optimization problem and show that it is NP-hard to find a minimum-area rectangular layout of a given contact graph. We present O(n)-time algorithms that construct $O(n^2)$-area rectangular layouts for general contact graphs and $O(n\log n)$-area rectangular layouts for trees. (For trees, this is an $O(\log n)$-approximation algorithm.) We also present an infinite family of graphs (rsp., trees) that require $\Omega(n^2)$ (rsp., $\Omega(n\log n)$) area. We derive these results by presenting a new characterization of graphs that admit rectangular layouts using the related concept of {\em rectangular duals}. A corollary to our results relates the class of graphs that admit rectangular layouts to {\em rectangle of influence drawings}.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, 55 references, 1 appendi

Squeezed thermal reservoirs as a resource for a nano-mechanical engine beyond the Carnot limit

The efficient conversion of thermal energy to mechanical work by a heat engine is an ongoing technological challenge. Since the pioneering work of Carnot, it is known that the efficiency of heat engines is bounded by a fundamental upper limit, the Carnot limit. Theoretical studies suggest that heat engines may be operated beyond the Carnot limit by exploiting stationary, non-equilibrium reservoirs that are characterized by a temperature as well as further parameters. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we demonstrate that the efficiency of a nano-beam heat engine coupled to squeezed thermal noise is not bounded by the standard Carnot limit. Remarkably, we also show that it is possible to design a cyclic process that allows for extraction of mechanical work from a single squeezed thermal reservoir. Our results demonstrate a qualitatively new regime of non-equilibrium thermodynamics at small scales and provide a new perspective on the design of efficient, highly miniaturized engines.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The Yang-Lee zeros of the 1D Blume-Capel model on connected and non-connected rings

We carry out a numerical and analytic analysis of the Yang-Lee zeros of the 1D Blume-Capel model with periodic boundary conditions and its generalization on Feynman diagrams for which we include sums over all connected and non-connected rings for a given number of spins. In both cases, for a specific range of the parameters, the zeros originally on the unit circle are shown to departure from it as we increase the temperature beyond some limit. The curve of zeros can bifurcate and become two disjoint arcs as in the 2D case. We also show that in the thermodynamic limit the zeros of both Blume-Capel models on the static (connected ring) and on the dynamical (Feynman diagrams) lattice tend to overlap. In the special case of the 1D Ising model on Feynman diagrams we can prove for arbitrary number of spins that the Yang-Lee zeros must be on the unit circle. The proof is based on a property of the zeros of Legendre Polynomials.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

A spanning tree model for the Heegaard Floer homology of a branched double-cover

Given a diagram of a link K in S^3, we write down a Heegaard diagram for the branched-double cover Sigma(K). The generators of the associated Heegaard Floer chain complex correspond to Kauffman states of the link diagram. Using this model we make some computations of the homology \hat{HF}(Sigma(K)) as a graded group. We also conjecture the existence of a delta-grading on \hat{HF}(Sigma(K)) analogous to the delta-grading on knot Floer and Khovanov homology.Comment: 43 pages, 20 figure