2,369 research outputs found
Windings of the 2D free Rouse chain
We study long time dynamical properties of a chain of harmonically bound
Brownian particles. This chain is allowed to wander everywhere in the plane. We
show that the scaling variables for the occupation times T_j, areas A_j and
winding angles \theta_j (j=1,...,n labels the particles) take the same general
form as in the usual Brownian motion. We also compute the asymptotic joint laws
P({T_j}), P({A_j}), P({\theta_j}) and discuss the correlations occuring in
those distributions.Comment: Latex, 17 pages, submitted to J. Phys.
How long does it take to pull an ideal polymer into a small hole?
We present scaling estimates for characteristic times and
of pulling ideal linear and randomly branched polymers of
monomers into a small hole by a force . We show that the absorbtion process
develops as sequential straightening of folds of the initial polymer
configuration. By estimating the typical size of the fold involved into the
motion, we arrive at the following predictions: and , and we also confirm them by
the molecular dynamics experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Statistical Mechanics of the Chinese Restaurant Process: lack of self-averaging, anomalous finite-size effects and condensation
The Pitman-Yor, or Chinese Restaurant Process, is a stochastic process that
generates distributions following a power-law with exponents lower than two, as
found in a numerous physical, biological, technological and social systems. We
discuss its rich behavior with the tools and viewpoint of statistical
mechanics. We show that this process invariably gives rise to a condensation,
i.e. a distribution dominated by a finite number of classes. We also evaluate
thoroughly the finite-size effects, finding that the lack of stationary state
and self-averaging of the process creates realization-dependent cutoffs and
behavior of the distributions with no equivalent in other statistical
mechanical models.Comment: (5pages, 1 figure
Dobinski-type relations and the Log-normal distribution
We consider sequences of generalized Bell numbers B(n), n=0,1,... for which
there exist Dobinski-type summation formulas; that is, where B(n) is
represented as an infinite sum over k of terms P(k)^n/D(k). These include the
standard Bell numbers and their generalizations appearing in the normal
ordering of powers of boson monomials, as well as variants of the "ordered"
Bell numbers. For any such B we demonstrate that every positive integral power
of B(m(n)), where m(n) is a quadratic function of n with positive integral
coefficients, is the n-th moment of a positive function on the positive real
axis, given by a weighted infinite sum of log-normal distributions.Comment: 7 pages, 2 Figure
Volume and geographical distribution of ecological research in the Andes and the Amazon, 1995-2008
Random tree growth by vertex splitting
We study a model of growing planar tree graphs where in each time step we
separate the tree into two components by splitting a vertex and then connect
the two pieces by inserting a new link between the daughter vertices. This
model generalises the preferential attachment model and Ford's -model
for phylogenetic trees. We develop a mean field theory for the vertex degree
distribution, prove that the mean field theory is exact in some special cases
and check that it agrees with numerical simulations in general. We calculate
various correlation functions and show that the intrinsic Hausdorff dimension
can vary from one to infinity, depending on the parameters of the model.Comment: 47 page
Thirty-eight years of CO<sub>2</sub> fertilization has outpaced growing aridity to drive greening of Australian woody ecosystems
Climate change is projected to increase the imbalance between the supply (precipitation) and atmospheric demand for water (i.e., increased potential evapotranspiration), stressing plants in water-limited environments. Plants may be able to offset increasing aridity because rising CO2 increases water use efficiency. CO2 fertilization has also been cited as one of the drivers of the widespread "greening" phenomenon. However, attributing the size of this CO2 fertilization effect is complicated, due in part to a lack of long-term vegetation monitoring and interannual- to decadalscale climate variability. In this study we asked the question of how much CO2 has contributed towards greening. We focused our analysis on a broad aridity gradient spanning eastern Australia's woody ecosystems. Next we analyzed 38 years of satellite remote sensing estimates of vegetation greenness (normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI) to examine the role of CO2 in ameliorating climate change impacts. Multiple statistical techniques were applied to separate the CO2-attributable effects on greening from the changes in water supply and atmospheric aridity. Widespread vegetation greening occurred despite a warming climate, increases in vapor pressure deficit, and repeated record-breaking droughts and heat waves. Between 1982-2019 we found that NDVI increased (median 11.3 %) across 90.5 % of the woody regions. After masking disturbance effects (e.g., fire), we statistically estimated an 11.7 % increase in NDVI attributable to CO2, broadly consistent with a hypothesized theoretical expectation of an 8.6 % increase in water use efficiency due to rising CO2. In contrast to reports of a weakening CO2 fertilization effect, we found no consistent temporal change in the CO2 effect. We conclude rising CO2 has mitigated the effects of increasing aridity, repeated record-breaking droughts, and record-breaking heat waves in eastern Australia. However, we were unable to determine whether trees or grasses were the primary beneficiary of the CO2-induced change in water use efficiency, which has implications for projecting future ecosystem resilience. A more complete understanding of how CO2-induced changes in water use efficiency affect trees and non-tree vegetation is needed
Examining the evidence for decoupling between photosynthesis and transpiration during heat extremes
Recent experimental evidence suggests that during heat extremes, wooded
ecosystems may decouple photosynthesis and transpiration, reducing
photosynthesis to near zero but increasing transpiration into the boundary
layer. This feedback may act to dampen, rather than amplify, heat extremes in
wooded ecosystems. We examined eddy covariance databases (OzFlux and
FLUXNET2015) to identify whether there was field-based evidence to support
these experimental findings. We focused on two types of heat extremes:
(i)Â the 3Â days leading up to a temperature extreme, defined as including
a daily maximum temperature >37 ∘C (similar to the widely used
TXx metric), and (ii)Â heatwaves, defined as 3 or more consecutive days
above 35 ∘C. When focusing on (i), we found some evidence of
reduced photosynthesis and sustained or increased latent heat fluxes at seven
Australian evergreen wooded flux sites. However, when considering the role of
vapour pressure deficit and focusing on (ii), we were unable to conclusively
disentangle the decoupling between photosynthesis and latent heat flux from
the effect of increasing the vapour pressure deficit. Outside of Australia, the
Tier-1 FLUXNET2015 database provided limited scope to tackle this issue as it
does not sample sufficient high temperature events with which to probe the
physiological response of trees to extreme heat. Thus, further work is
required to determine whether this photosynthetic decoupling occurs widely,
ideally by matching experimental species with those found at eddy covariance
tower sites. Such measurements would allow this decoupling mechanism to be
probed experimentally and at the ecosystem scale. Transpiration during
heatwaves remains a key issue to resolve, as no land surface model includes a
decoupling mechanism, and any potential dampening of the land–atmosphere
amplification is thus not included in climate model projections.</p
Extreme value statistics from the Real Space Renormalization Group: Brownian Motion, Bessel Processes and Continuous Time Random Walks
We use the Real Space Renormalization Group (RSRG) method to study extreme
value statistics for a variety of Brownian motions, free or constrained such as
the Brownian bridge, excursion, meander and reflected bridge, recovering some
standard results, and extending others. We apply the same method to compute the
distribution of extrema of Bessel processes. We briefly show how the continuous
time random walk (CTRW) corresponds to a non standard fixed point of the RSRG
transformation.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure
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