37,454 research outputs found
Simulation for competition of languages with an ageing sexual population
Recently, individual-based models originally used for biological purposes
revealed interesting insights into processes of the competition of languages.
Within this new field of population dynamics a model considering sexual
populations with ageing is presented. The agents are situated on a lattice and
each one speaks one of two languages or both. The stability and quantitative
structure of an interface between two regions, initially speaking different
languages, is studied. We find that individuals speaking both languages do not
prefer any of these regions and have a different age structure than individuals
speaking only one language.Comment: submitted to International Journal of Modern Physics
Mapping the train model for earthquakes onto the stochastic sandpile model
We perform a computational study of a variant of the ``train'' model for
earthquakes [PRA 46, 6288 (1992)], where we assume a static friction that is a
stochastic function of position rather than being velocity dependent. The model
consists of an array of blocks coupled by springs, with the forces between
neighbouring blocks balanced by static friction. We calculate the probability,
P(s), of the occurrence of avalanches with a size s or greater, finding that
our results are consistent with the phenomenology and also with previous models
which exhibit a power law over a wide range. We show that the train model may
be mapped onto a stochastic sandpile model and study a variant of the latter
for non-spherical grains. We show that, in this case, the model has critical
behaviour only for grains with large aspect ratio, as was already shown in
experiments with real ricepiles. We also demonstrate a way to introduce
randomness in a physically motivated manner into the model.Comment: 14 pages and 6 figures. Accepted in European Physical Journal
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