Unidirectional mechanical amplification as a design principle for an active microphone

Amplification underlies the operation of many biological and engineering systems. Simple electrical, optical, and mechanical amplifiers are reciprocal: the backward coupling of the output to the input equals the forward coupling of the input to the output. Unidirectional amplifiers that occur often in electrical and optical systems are special non-reciprocal devices in which the output does not couple back to the input even though the forward coupling persists. Here we propose a scheme for unidirectional mechanical amplification that we utilize to construct an active microphone. We show that amplification improves the microphone's threshold for detecting weak signals and that unidirectionality prevents distortion.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures plus supplementary informatio

Discrimination of low-frequency tones employs temporal fine structure

An auditory neuron can preserve the temporal fine structure of a low-frequency tone by phase-locking its response to the stimulus. Apart from sound localization, however, little is known about the role of this temporal information for signal processing in the brain. Through psychoacoustic studies we provide direct evidence that humans employ temporal fine structure to discriminate between frequencies. To this end we construct tones that are based on a single frequency but in which, through the concatenation of wavelets, the phase changes randomly every few cycles. We then test the frequency discrimination of these phase-changing tones, of control tones without phase changes, and of short tones that consist of a single wavelets. For carrier frequencies below a few kilohertz we find that phase changes systematically worsen frequency discrimination. No such effect appears for higher carrier frequencies at which temporal information is not available in the central auditory system.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Note on clock synchronization and Edwards transformations

Edwards transformations relating inertial frames with arbitrary clock synchronization are reminded and put in more general setting. Their group theoretical context is described.Comment: 11 pages, no figures; final version, to appear in Foundations of Physics Letter

Uncertainties inherent in the decomposition of a Transformation

This contribution adds to the points on the <indeterminacy of special relativity> made by De Abreu and Guerra. We show that the Lorentz Transformation can be composed by the physical observations made in a frame K of events in a frame K-prime viz i) objects in K-prime are moving at a speed v relative to K, ii) distances and time intervals measured by K-prime are at variance with those measured by K and iii) the concept of simultaneity is different in K-prime compared to K. The order in which the composition is executed determines the nature of the middle aspect (ii). This essential uncertainty of the theory can be resolved only by a universal synchronicity as discussed in [1] based on the unique frame in which the one way speed of light is constant in all directions.Comment: 10 pages including an appendix. Published in the European Journal of Physics as a Comment. Eur. J. Phys. 29 (2008) L13-L1

Dual contribution to amplification in the mammalian inner ear

The inner ear achieves a wide dynamic range of responsiveness by mechanically amplifying weak sounds. The enormous mechanical gain reported for the mammalian cochlea, which exceeds a factor of 4,000, poses a challenge for theory. Here we show how such a large gain can result from an interaction between amplification by low-gain hair bundles and a pressure wave: hair bundles can amplify both their displacement per locally applied pressure and the pressure wave itself. A recently proposed ratchet mechanism, in which hair-bundle forces do not feed back on the pressure wave, delineates the two effects. Our analytical calculations with a WKB approximation agree with numerical solutions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Simultaneity as an Invariant Equivalence Relation

This paper deals with the concept of simultaneity in classical and relativistic physics as construed in terms of group-invariant equivalence relations. A full examination of Newton, Galilei and Poincar\'e invariant equivalence relations in $\R^4$ is presented, which provides alternative proofs, additions and occasionally corrections of results in the literature, including Malament's theorem and some of its variants. It is argued that the interpretation of simultaneity as an invariant equivalence relation, although interesting for its own sake, does not cut in the debate concerning the conventionality of simultaneity in special relativity.Comment: Some corrections, mostly of misprints. Keywords: special relativity, simultaneity, invariant equivalence relations, Malament's theore

Coexistence in a One-Dimensional Cyclic Dominance Process

Cyclic (rock-paper-scissors-type) population models serve to mimic complex species interactions. Focusing on a paradigmatic three-species model with mutations in one dimension, we observe an interplay between equilibrium and non-equilibrium processes in the stationary state. We exploit these insights to obtain asymptotically exact descriptions of the emerging reactive steady state in the regimes of high and low mutation rates. The results are compared to stochastic lattice simulations. Our methods and findings are potentially relevant for the spatio-temporal evolution of other non-equilibrium stochastic processes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures and 2 pages of Supplementary Material. To appear in Physical Review

Traffic jams induced by rare switching events in two-lane transport

We investigate a model for driven exclusion processes where internal states are assigned to the particles. The latter account for diverse situations, ranging from spin states in spintronics to parallel lanes in intracellular or vehicular traffic. Introducing a coupling between the internal states by allowing particles to switch from one to another induces an intriguing polarization phenomenon. In a mesoscopic scaling, a rich stationary regime for the density profiles is discovered, with localized domain walls in the density profile of one of the internal states being feasible. We derive the shape of the density profiles as well as resulting phase diagrams analytically by a mean-field approximation and a continuum limit. Continuous as well as discontinuous lines of phase transition emerge, their intersections induce multi-critical behaviour