Prefix Codes for Power Laws with Countable Support

In prefix coding over an infinite alphabet, methods that consider specific distributions generally consider those that decline more quickly than a power law (e.g., Golomb coding). Particular power-law distributions, however, model many random variables encountered in practice. For such random variables, compression performance is judged via estimates of expected bits per input symbol. This correspondence introduces a family of prefix codes with an eye towards near-optimal coding of known distributions. Compression performance is precisely estimated for well-known probability distributions using these codes and using previously known prefix codes. One application of these near-optimal codes is an improved representation of rational numbers.Comment: 5 pages, 2 tables, submitted to Transactions on Information Theor

On the complexity of algebraic numbers II. Continued fractions

The continued fraction expansion of an irrational number $\alpha$ is eventually periodic if and only if $\alpha$ is a quadratic irrationality. However, very little is known regarding the size of the partial quotients of algebraic real numbers of degree at least three. Because of some numerical evidence and a belief that these numbers behave like most numbers in this respect, it is often conjectured that their partial quotients form an unbounded sequence. More modestly, we may expect that if the sequence of partial quotients of an irrational number $\alpha$ is, in some sense, "simple", then $\alpha$ is either quadratic or transcendental. The term "simple" can of course lead to many interpretations. It may denote real numbers whose continued fraction expansion has some regularity, or can be produced by a simple algorithm (by a simple Turing machine, for example), or arises from a simple dynamical system... The aim of this paper is to present in a unified way several new results on these different approaches of the notion of simplicity/complexity for the continued fraction expansion of algebraic real numbers of degree at least three

A hierarchy of models for simulating experimental results from a 3D heterogeneous porous medium

In this work we examine the dispersion of conservative tracers (bromide and fluorescein) in an experimentally-constructed three-dimensional dual-porosity porous medium. The medium is highly heterogeneous ($\sigma_Y^2=5.7$), and consists of spherical, low-hydraulic-conductivity inclusions embedded in a high-hydraulic-conductivity matrix. The bi-modal medium was saturated with tracers, and then flushed with tracer-free fluid while the effluent breakthrough curves were measured. The focus for this work is to examine a hierarchy of four models (in the absence of adjustable parameters) with decreasing complexity to assess their ability to accurately represent the measured breakthrough curves. The most information-rich model was (1) a direct numerical simulation of the system in which the geometry, boundary and initial conditions, and medium properties were fully independently characterized experimentally with high fidelity. The reduced models included; (2) a simplified numerical model identical to the fully-resolved direct numerical simulation (DNS) model, but using a domain that was one-tenth the size; (3) an upscaled mobile-immobile model that allowed for a time-dependent mass-transfer coefficient; and, (4) an upscaled mobile-immobile model that assumed a space-time constant mass-transfer coefficient. The results illustrated that all four models provided accurate representations of the experimental breakthrough curves as measured by global RMS error. The primary component of error induced in the upscaled models appeared to arise from the neglect of convection within the inclusions. Interestingly, these results suggested that the conventional convection-dispersion equation, when applied in a way that resolves the heterogeneities, yields models with high fidelity without requiring the imposition of a more complex non-Fickian model.Comment: 27 pages, 9 Figure