Symmetries and degrees of freedom in 2-dimensional dual models

The 2-dimensional version of the Schwarz and Sen duality model (Tseytlin model) is analyzed at the classical and quantum levels. The solutions are obtained after removing the gauge dependent sector using the Dirac method. The Poincar\`e invariance is verified at both levels. An extension with global supersymmetry is also proposed.Comment: 3 pages, revtex, minor correction

Populations with interaction and environmental dependence: from few, (almost) independent, members into deterministic evolution of high densities

Many populations, e.g. of cells, bacteria, viruses, or replicating DNA molecules, start small, from a few individuals, and grow large into a noticeable fraction of the environmental carrying capacity $K$. Typically, the elements of the initiating, sparse set will not be hampering each other and their number will grow from $Z_0=z_0$ in a branching process or Malthusian like, roughly exponential fashion, $Z_t \sim a^tW$, where $Z_t$ is the size at discrete time $t\to\infty$, $a>1$ is the offspring mean per individual (at the low starting density of elements, and large $K$), and $W$ a sum of $z_0$ i.i.d. random variables. It will, thus, become detectable (i.e. of the same order as $K$) only after around $\log K$ generations, when its density $X_t:=Z_t/K$ will tend to be strictly positive. Typically, this entity will be random, even if the very beginning was not at all stochastic, as indicated by lower case $z_0$, due to variations during the early development. However, from that time onwards, law of large numbers effects will render the process deterministic, though initiated by the random density at time log $K$, expressed through the variable $W$. Thus, $W$ acts both as a random veil concealing the start and a stochastic initial value for later, deterministic population density development. We make such arguments precise, studying general density and also system-size dependent, processes, as $K\to\infty$. As an intrinsic size parameter, $K$ may also be chosen to be the time unit. The fundamental ideas are to couple the initial system to a branching process and to show that late densities develop very much like iterates of a conditional expectation operator.Comment: presented at IV Workshop on Branching Processes and their Applications at Badajoz, Spain, 10-13 April, 201

Effective medium approach for stiff polymer networks with flexible cross-links

Recent experiments have demonstrated that the nonlinear elasticity of in vitro networks of the biopolymer actin is dramatically altered in the presence of a flexible cross-linker such as the abundant cytoskeletal protein filamin. The basic principles of such networks remain poorly understood. Here we describe an effective medium theory of flexibly cross-linked stiff polymer networks. We argue that the response of the cross-links can be fully attributed to entropic stiffening, while softening due to domain unfolding can be ignored. The network is modeled as a collection of randomly oriented rods connected by flexible cross-links to an elastic continuum. This effective medium is treated in a linear elastic limit as well as in a more general framework, in which the medium self-consistently represents the nonlinear network behavior. This model predicts that the nonlinear elastic response sets in at strains proportional to cross-linker length and inversely proportional to filament length. Furthermore, we find that the differential modulus scales linearly with the stress in the stiffening regime. These results are in excellent agreement with bulk rheology data.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Symbolic reduction of block diagrams using FORMAC

Two computer programs - one written in FORMAC to generate the desired symbolic expressions, the other in FORTRAN 4 to numerically evaluate the expressions are announced. The FORTRAN program accepts the symbolic punched output from the FORMAC program in either unexpanded or expanded form. It numerically evaluates the expressions