1,921 research outputs found
Universal statistical properties of poker tournaments
We present a simple model of Texas hold'em poker tournaments which retains
the two main aspects of the game: i. the minimal bet grows exponentially with
time; ii. players have a finite probability to bet all their money. The
distribution of the fortunes of players not yet eliminated is found to be
independent of time during most of the tournament, and reproduces accurately
data obtained from Internet tournaments and world championship events. This
model also makes the connection between poker and the persistence problem
widely studied in physics, as well as some recent physical models of biological
evolution, and extreme value statistics.Comment: Final longer version including data from Internet and WPT tournament
AUTOMATED MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF APM GALAXIES BY SUPERVISED ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS
We train Artificial Neural Networks to classify galaxies based solely on the
morphology of the galaxy images as they appear on blue survey plates. The
images are reduced and morphological features such as bulge size and the number
of arms are extracted, all in a fully automated manner. The galaxy sample was
first classified by 6 independent experts. We use several definitions for the
mean type of each galaxy, based on those classifications. We then train and
test the network on these features. We find that the rms error of the network
classifications, as compared with the mean types of the expert classifications,
is 1.8 Revised Hubble Types. This is comparable to the overall rms dispersion
between the experts. This result is robust and almost completely independent of
the network architecture used.Comment: The full paper contains 25 pages, and includes 22 figures. It is
available at ftp://ftp.ast.cam.ac.uk/pub/hn/apm2.ps . The table in the
appendix is available on request from [email protected]. Mon. Not. R. Astr.
Soc., in pres
Hydration of an apolar solute in a two-dimensional waterlike lattice fluid
In a previous work, we investigated a two-dimensional lattice-fluid model,
displaying some waterlike thermodynamic anomalies. The model, defined on a
triangular lattice, is now extended to aqueous solutions with apolar species.
Water molecules are of the "Mercedes Benz" type, i.e., they possess a D3
(equilateral triangle) symmetry, with three equivalent bonding arms. Bond
formation depends both on orientation and local density. The insertion of inert
molecules displays typical signatures of hydrophobic hydration: large positive
transfer free energy, large negative transfer entropy (at low temperature),
strong temperature dependence of the transfer enthalpy and entropy, i.e., large
(positive) transfer heat capacity. Model properties are derived by a
generalized first order approximation on a triangle cluster.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; submitted to Phys. Rev.
Weak Disorder in Fibonacci Sequences
We study how weak disorder affects the growth of the Fibonacci series. We
introduce a family of stochastic sequences that grow by the normal Fibonacci
recursion with probability 1-epsilon, but follow a different recursion rule
with a small probability epsilon. We focus on the weak disorder limit and
obtain the Lyapunov exponent, that characterizes the typical growth of the
sequence elements, using perturbation theory. The limiting distribution for the
ratio of consecutive sequence elements is obtained as well. A number of
variations to the basic Fibonacci recursion including shift, doubling, and
copying are considered.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Power-law velocity distributions in granular gases
We report a general class of steady and transient states of granular gases.
We find that the kinetic theory of inelastic gases admits stationary solutions
with a power-law velocity distribution, f(v) ~ v^(-sigma). The exponent sigma
is found analytically and depends on the spatial dimension, the degree of
inelasticity, and the homogeneity degree of the collision rate. Driven
steady-states, with the same power-law tail and a cut-off can be maintained by
injecting energy at a large velocity scale, which then cascades to smaller
velocities where it is dissipated. Associated with these steady-states are
freely cooling time-dependent states for which the cut-off decreases and the
velocity distribution is self-similar.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Kinetics of Heterogeneous Single-Species Annihilation
We investigate the kinetics of diffusion-controlled heterogeneous
single-species annihilation, where the diffusivity of each particle may be
different. The concentration of the species with the smallest diffusion
coefficient has the same time dependence as in homogeneous single-species
annihilation, A+A-->0. However, the concentrations of more mobile species decay
as power laws in time, but with non-universal exponents that depend on the
ratios of the corresponding diffusivities to that of the least mobile species.
We determine these exponents both in a mean-field approximation, which should
be valid for spatial dimension d>2, and in a phenomenological Smoluchowski
theory which is applicable in d<2. Our theoretical predictions compare well
with both Monte Carlo simulations and with time series expansions.Comment: TeX, 18 page
Random Geometric Series
Integer sequences where each element is determined by a previous randomly
chosen element are investigated analytically. In particular, the random
geometric series x_n=2x_p with 0<=p<=n-1 is studied. At large n, the moments
grow algebraically, n^beta(s) with beta(s)=2^s-1, while the typical
behavior is x_n n^ln 2. The probability distribution is obtained explicitly in
terms of the Stirling numbers of the first kind and it approaches a log-normal
distribution asymptotically.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure
A lattice model of hydrophobic interactions
Hydrogen bonding is modeled in terms of virtual exchange of protons between
water molecules. A simple lattice model is analyzed, using ideas and techniques
from the theory of correlated electrons in metals. Reasonable parameters
reproduce observed magnitudes and temperature dependence of the hydrophobic
interaction between substitutional impurities and water within this lattice.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Europhysics Letter
How to Choose a Champion
League competition is investigated using random processes and scaling
techniques. In our model, a weak team can upset a strong team with a fixed
probability. Teams play an equal number of head-to-head matches and the team
with the largest number of wins is declared to be the champion. The total
number of games needed for the best team to win the championship with high
certainty, T, grows as the cube of the number of teams, N, i.e., T ~ N^3. This
number can be substantially reduced using preliminary rounds where teams play a
small number of games and subsequently, only the top teams advance to the next
round. When there are k rounds, the total number of games needed for the best
team to emerge as champion, T_k, scales as follows, T_k ~N^(\gamma_k) with
gamma_k=1/[1-(2/3)^(k+1)]. For example, gamma_k=9/5,27/19,81/65 for k=1,2,3.
These results suggest an algorithm for how to infer the best team using a
schedule that is linear in N. We conclude that league format is an ineffective
method of determining the best team, and that sequential elimination from the
bottom up is fair and efficient.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Nonlinear Integral-Equation Formulation of Orthogonal Polynomials
The nonlinear integral equation P(x)=\int_alpha^beta dy w(y) P(y) P(x+y) is
investigated. It is shown that for a given function w(x) the equation admits an
infinite set of polynomial solutions P(x). For polynomial solutions, this
nonlinear integral equation reduces to a finite set of coupled linear algebraic
equations for the coefficients of the polynomials. Interestingly, the set of
polynomial solutions is orthogonal with respect to the measure x w(x). The
nonlinear integral equation can be used to specify all orthogonal polynomials
in a simple and compact way. This integral equation provides a natural vehicle
for extending the theory of orthogonal polynomials into the complex domain.
Generalizations of the integral equation are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, result generalized to include integration in the complex
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