28,354 research outputs found
Structural and topological phase transitions on the German Stock Exchange
We find numerical and empirical evidence for dynamical, structural and
topological phase transitions on the (German) Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FSE) in
the temporal vicinity of the worldwide financial crash. Using the Minimal
Spanning Tree (MST) technique, a particularly useful canonical tool of the
graph theory, two transitions of the topology of a complex network representing
FSE were found. First transition is from a hierarchical scale-free MST
representing the stock market before the recent worldwide financial crash, to a
superstar-like MST decorated by a scale-free hierarchy of trees representing
the market's state for the period containing the crash. Subsequently, a
transition is observed from this transient, (meta)stable state of the crash, to
a hierarchical scale-free MST decorated by several star-like trees after the
worldwide financial crash. The phase transitions observed are analogous to the
ones we obtained earlier for the Warsaw Stock Exchange and more pronounced than
those found by Onnela-Chakraborti-Kaski-Kert\'esz for S&P 500 index in the
vicinity of Black Monday (October 19, 1987) and also in the vicinity of January
1, 1998. Our results provide an empirical foundation for the future theory of
dynamical, structural and topological phase transitions on financial markets
Regimes of heating and dynamical response in driven many-body localized systems
We explore the response of many-body localized (MBL) systems to periodic
driving of arbitrary amplitude, focusing on the rate at which they exchange
energy with the drive. To this end, we introduce an infinite-temperature
generalization of the effective "heating rate" in terms of the spread of a
random walk in energy space. We compute this heating rate numerically and
estimate it analytically in various regimes. When the drive amplitude is much
smaller than the frequency, this effective heating rate is given by linear
response theory with a coefficient that is proportional to the optical
conductivity; in the opposite limit, the response is nonlinear and the heating
rate is a nontrivial power-law of time. We discuss the mechanisms underlying
this crossover in the MBL phase, and comment on its implications for the
subdiffusive thermal phase near the MBL transition.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure
Output-Feedback Control of Nonlinear Systems using Control Contraction Metrics and Convex Optimization
Control contraction metrics (CCMs) are a new approach to nonlinear control
design based on contraction theory. The resulting design problems are expressed
as pointwise linear matrix inequalities and are and well-suited to solution via
convex optimization. In this paper, we extend the theory on CCMs by showing
that a pair of "dual" observer and controller problems can be solved using
pointwise linear matrix inequalities, and that when a solution exists a
separation principle holds. That is, a stabilizing output-feedback controller
can be found. The procedure is demonstrated using a benchmark problem of
nonlinear control: the Moore-Greitzer jet engine compressor model.Comment: Conference submissio
A survey of random processes with reinforcement
The models surveyed include generalized P\'{o}lya urns, reinforced random
walks, interacting urn models, and continuous reinforced processes. Emphasis is
on methods and results, with sketches provided of some proofs. Applications are
discussed in statistics, biology, economics and a number of other areas.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-PS094 in the Probability
Surveys (http://www.i-journals.org/ps/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Statistical-Mechanical Measure of Stochastic Spiking Coherence in A Population of Inhibitory Subthreshold Neurons
By varying the noise intensity, we study stochastic spiking coherence (i.e.,
collective coherence between noise-induced neural spikings) in an inhibitory
population of subthreshold neurons (which cannot fire spontaneously without
noise). This stochastic spiking coherence may be well visualized in the raster
plot of neural spikes. For a coherent case, partially-occupied "stripes"
(composed of spikes and indicating collective coherence) are formed in the
raster plot. This partial occupation occurs due to "stochastic spike skipping"
which is well shown in the multi-peaked interspike interval histogram. The main
purpose of our work is to quantitatively measure the degree of stochastic
spiking coherence seen in the raster plot. We introduce a new spike-based
coherence measure by considering the occupation pattern and the pacing
pattern of spikes in the stripes. In particular, the pacing degree between
spikes is determined in a statistical-mechanical way by quantifying the average
contribution of (microscopic) individual spikes to the (macroscopic)
ensemble-averaged global potential. This "statistical-mechanical" measure
is in contrast to the conventional measures such as the "thermodynamic" order
parameter (which concerns the time-averaged fluctuations of the macroscopic
global potential), the "microscopic" correlation-based measure (based on the
cross-correlation between the microscopic individual potentials), and the
measures of precise spike timing (based on the peri-stimulus time histogram).
In terms of , we quantitatively characterize the stochastic spiking
coherence, and find that reflects the degree of collective spiking
coherence seen in the raster plot very well. Hence, the
"statistical-mechanical" spike-based measure may be used usefully to
quantify the degree of stochastic spiking coherence in a statistical-mechanical
way.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the J. Comput. Neurosc
How stochasticity and emergencies disrupt the surgical schedule
In health care system, the operating theatre is recognized as having an important role, notably in terms of generated income and cost. Its management, and in particular its scheduling, is thus a critical activity, and has been the sub ject of many studies. However, the stochasticity of the operating theatre environment is rarely considered while it has considerable effect on the actual working of a surgical unit. In practice, the planners keep a safety margin, let’s say 15% of the capacity, in order to absorb the effect of unpredictable events. However, this safety margin is most often chosen sub jectively, from experience. In this paper, our goal is to rationalize this process. We want to give insights to managers in order to deal with the stochasticity of their environment, at a tactical–strategic decision level. For this, we propose an analytical approach that takes account of the stochastic operating times as well as the disruptions caused by emergency arrivals. From our model, various performance measures can be computed: the emergency disruption rate, the waiting time for an emergency, the distribution of the working time, the probability of overtime, the average overtime, etc. In particular, our tool is able to tell how many operations can be scheduled per day in order to keep the overtime limited.health care, surgical schedule, emergencies, Markov chain.
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