4,551 research outputs found
Memory effects on the statistics of fragmentation
We investigate through extensive molecular dynamics simulations the
fragmentation process of two-dimensional Lennard-Jones systems. After
thermalization, the fragmentation is initiated by a sudden increment to the
radial component of the particles' velocities. We study the effect of
temperature of the thermalized system as well as the influence of the impact
energy of the ``explosion'' event on the statistics of mass fragments. Our
results indicate that the cumulative distribution of fragments follows the
scaling ansatz , where is
the mass, and are cutoff parameters, and is a scaling
exponent that is dependent on the temperature. More precisely, we show clear
evidence that there is a characteristic scaling exponent for each
macroscopic phase of the thermalized system, i.e., that the non-universal
behavior of the fragmentation process is dictated by the state of the system
before it breaks down.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure
Plurality Voting: the statistical laws of democracy in Brazil
We explore the statistical laws behind the plurality voting system by
investigating the election results for mayor held in Brazil in 2004. Our
analysis indicate that the vote partition among mayor candidates of the same
city tends to be "polarized" between two candidates, a phenomenon that can be
closely described by means of a simple fragmentation model. Complex concepts
like "government continuity" and "useful vote" can be identified and even
statistically quantified through our approach.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Model for erosion-deposition patterns
We investigate through computational simulations with a pore network model
the formation of patterns caused by erosion-deposition mechanisms. In this
model, the geometry of the pore space changes dynamically as a consequence of
the coupling between the fluid flow and the movement of particles due to local
drag forces. Our results for this irreversible process show that the model is
capable to reproduce typical natural patterns caused by well known erosion
processes. Moreover, we observe that, within a certain range of porosity
values, the grains form clusters that are tilted with respect to the horizontal
with a characteristic angle. We compare our results to recent experiments for
granular material in flowing water and show that they present a satisfactory
agreement.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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