8,888 research outputs found
Kinetics of stochastically-gated diffusion-limited reactions and geometry of random walk trajectories
In this paper we study the kinetics of diffusion-limited, pseudo-first-order
A + B -> B reactions in situations in which the particles' intrinsic
reactivities vary randomly in time. That is, we suppose that the particles are
bearing "gates" which interchange randomly and independently of each other
between two states - an active state, when the reaction may take place, and a
blocked state, when the reaction is completly inhibited. We consider four
different models, such that the A particle can be either mobile or immobile,
gated or ungated, as well as ungated or gated B particles can be fixed at
random positions or move randomly. All models are formulated on a
-dimensional regular lattice and we suppose that the mobile species perform
independent, homogeneous, discrete-time lattice random walks. The model
involving a single, immobile, ungated target A and a concentration of mobile,
gated B particles is solved exactly. For the remaining three models we
determine exactly, in form of rigorous lower and upper bounds, the large-N
asymptotical behavior of the A particle survival probability. We also realize
that for all four models studied here such a probalibity can be interpreted as
the moment generating function of some functionals of random walk trajectories,
such as, e.g., the number of self-intersections, the number of sites visited
exactly a given number of times, "residence time" on a random array of lattice
sites and etc. Our results thus apply to the asymptotical behavior of the
corresponding generating functions which has not been known as yet.Comment: Latex, 45 pages, 5 ps-figures, submitted to PR
The Loewner equation: maps and shapes
In the last few years, new insights have permitted unexpected progress in the
study of fractal shapes in two dimensions. A new approach, called
Schramm-Loewner evolution, or SLE, has arisen through analytic function theory
and probability theory, and given a new way of calculating fractal shapes in
critical phenomena, the theory of random walks, and of percolation. We present
a non-technical discussion of this development aimed to attract the attention
of condensed matter community to this fascinating subject
A Simple Model for the DNA Denaturation Transition
We study pairs of interacting self-avoiding walks on the 3d simple cubic
lattice. They have a common origin and are allowed to overlap only at the same
monomer position along the chain. The latter overlaps are indeed favored by an
energetic gain.
This is inspired by a model introduced long ago by Poland and Sheraga [J.
Chem. Phys. {\bf 45}, 1464 (1966)] for the denaturation transition in DNA
where, however, self avoidance was not fully taken into account. For both
models, there exists a temperature T_m above which the entropic advantage to
open up overcomes the energy gained by forming tightly bound two-stranded
structures.
Numerical simulations of our model indicate that the transition is of first
order (the energy density is discontinuous), but the analog of the surface
tension vanishes and the scaling laws near the transition point are exactly
those of a second order transition with crossover exponent \phi=1. Numerical
and exact analytic results show that the transition is second order in modified
models where the self-avoidance is partially or completely neglected.Comment: 29 pages, LaTeX, 20 postscript figure
Spacetime Approach to Phase Transitions
In these notes, the application of Feynman's sum-over-paths approach to
thermal phase transitions is discussed. The paradigm of such a spacetime
approach to critical phenomena is provided by the high-temperature expansion of
spin models. This expansion, known as the hopping expansion in the context of
lattice field theory, yields a geometric description of the phase transition in
these models, with the thermal critical exponents being determined by the
fractal structure of the high-temperature graphs. The graphs percolate at the
thermal critical point and can be studied using purely geometrical observables
known from percolation theory. Besides the phase transition in spin models and
in the closely related theory, other transitions discussed from this
perspective include Bose-Einstein condensation, and the transitions in the
Higgs model and the pure U(1) gauge theory.Comment: 59 pages, 18 figures. Write-up of Ising Lectures presented at the
National Academy of Sciences, Lviv, Ukraine, 2004. 2nd version: corrected
typo
A Multiscale Guide to Brownian Motion
We revise the Levy's construction of Brownian motion as a simple though still
rigorous approach to operate with various Gaussian processes. A Brownian path
is explicitly constructed as a linear combination of wavelet-based "geometrical
features" at multiple length scales with random weights. Such a wavelet
representation gives a closed formula mapping of the unit interval onto the
functional space of Brownian paths. This formula elucidates many classical
results about Brownian motion (e.g., non-differentiability of its path),
providing intuitive feeling for non-mathematicians. The illustrative character
of the wavelet representation, along with the simple structure of the
underlying probability space, is different from the usual presentation of most
classical textbooks. Similar concepts are discussed for fractional Brownian
motion, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, Gaussian free field, and fractional
Gaussian fields. Wavelet representations and dyadic decompositions form the
basis of many highly efficient numerical methods to simulate Gaussian processes
and fields, including Brownian motion and other diffusive processes in
confining domains
Statistics of reduced words in locally free and braid groups: Abstract studies and application to ballistic growth model
We study numerically and analytically the average length of reduced
(primitive) words in so-called locally free and braid groups. We consider the
situations when the letters in the initial words are drawn either without or
with correlations. In the latter case we show that the average length of the
reduced word can be increased or lowered depending on the type of correlation.
The ideas developed are used for analytical computation of the average number
of peaks of the surface appearing in some specific ballistic growth modelComment: 29 pages, LaTeX, 7 separated Postscript figures (available on
request), submitted to J. Phys. (A): Math. Ge
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