Stability of domain walls coupled to Abelian gauge fields

Rozowsky, Volkas and Wali recently found interesting numerical solutions to the field equations for a gauged U1xU1 scalar field model. Their solutions describe a reflection-symmetric domain wall with scalar fields and coupled gauge configurations that interpolate between constant magnetic fields on one side of the wall and exponentially decaying ones on the other side. This corresponds physically to an infinite sheet of supercurrent confined to the domain wall with a linearly rising gauge potential on one side and Meissner suppression on the other. While it was shown that these static solutions satisfied the field equations, their stability was left unresolved. In this paper, we analyse the normal modes of perturbations of the static solutions to demonstrate their perturbative stability.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Bug propagation and debugging in asymmetric software structures

Software dependence networks are shown to be scale-free and asymmetric. We then study how software components are affected by the failure of one of them, and the inverse problem of locating the faulty component. Software at all levels is fragile with respect to the failure of a random single component. Locating a faulty component is easy if the failures only affect their nearest neighbors, while it is hard if the failures propagate further.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Computational Processes and Incompleteness

We introduce a formal definition of Wolfram's notion of computational process based on cellular automata, a physics-like model of computation. There is a natural classification of these processes into decidable, intermediate and complete. It is shown that in the context of standard finite injury priority arguments one cannot establish the existence of an intermediate computational process

The Pagoda Sequence: a Ramble through Linear Complexity, Number Walls, D0L Sequences, Finite State Automata, and Aperiodic Tilings

We review the concept of the number wall as an alternative to the traditional linear complexity profile (LCP), and sketch the relationship to other topics such as linear feedback shift-register (LFSR) and context-free Lindenmayer (D0L) sequences. A remarkable ternary analogue of the Thue-Morse sequence is introduced having deficiency 2 modulo 3, and this property verified via the re-interpretation of the number wall as an aperiodic plane tiling

A Concrete View of Rule 110 Computation

Rule 110 is a cellular automaton that performs repeated simultaneous updates of an infinite row of binary values. The values are updated in the following way: 0s are changed to 1s at all positions where the value to the right is a 1, while 1s are changed to 0s at all positions where the values to the left and right are both 1. Though trivial to define, the behavior exhibited by Rule 110 is surprisingly intricate, and in (Cook, 2004) we showed that it is capable of emulating the activity of a Turing machine by encoding the Turing machine and its tape into a repeating left pattern, a central pattern, and a repeating right pattern, which Rule 110 then acts on. In this paper we provide an explicit compiler for converting a Turing machine into a Rule 110 initial state, and we present a general approach for proving that such constructions will work as intended. The simulation was originally assumed to require exponential time, but surprising results of Neary and Woods (2006) have shown that in fact, only polynomial time is required. We use the methods of Neary and Woods to exhibit a direct simulation of a Turing machine by a tag system in polynomial time

On the boundaries of solvability and unsolvability in tag systems. Theoretical and Experimental Results

Several older and more recent results on the boundaries of solvability and unsolvability in tag systems are surveyed. Emphasis will be put on the significance of computer experiments in research on very small tag systems

The clash of symmetries in a Randall-Sundrum-like spacetime

We present a toy model that exhibits clash-of-symmetries style Higgs field kink configurations in a Randall-Sundrum-like spacetime. The model has two complex scalar fields Phi_{1,2}, with a sextic potential obeying global U(1)xU(1) and discrete Phi_1 Phi_2 interchange symmetries. The scalar fields are coupled to 4+1 dimensional gravity endowed with a bulk cosmological constant. We show that the coupled Einstein-Higgs field equations have an interesting analytic solution provided the sextic potential adopts a particular form. The 4+1 metric is shown to be that of a smoothed-out Randall-Sundrum type of spacetime. The thin-brane Randall-Sundrum limit, whereby the Higgs field kinks become step functions, is carefully defined in terms of the fundamental parameters in the action. The ``clash of symmetries'' feature, defined in previous papers, is manifested here through the fact that both of the U(1) symmetries are spontaneously broken at all non-asymptotic points in the extra dimension $w$. One of the U(1)'s is asymptotically restored as w --> -infinity, with the other U(1) restored as w --> +infinity. The spontaneously broken discrete symmetry ensures topological stability. In the gauged version of this model we find new flat-space solutions, but in the warped metric case we have been unable to find any solutions with nonzero gauge fields.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures; minor changes including added references and an updated figure; to appear in Phys Rev

Multi-Head Finite Automata: Characterizations, Concepts and Open Problems

Multi-head finite automata were introduced in (Rabin, 1964) and (Rosenberg, 1966). Since that time, a vast literature on computational and descriptional complexity issues on multi-head finite automata documenting the importance of these devices has been developed. Although multi-head finite automata are a simple concept, their computational behavior can be already very complex and leads to undecidable or even non-semi-decidable problems on these devices such as, for example, emptiness, finiteness, universality, equivalence, etc. These strong negative results trigger the study of subclasses and alternative characterizations of multi-head finite automata for a better understanding of the nature of non-recursive trade-offs and, thus, the borderline between decidable and undecidable problems. In the present paper, we tour a fragment of this literature