Percolation games, probabilistic cellular automata, and the hard-core model

Let each site of the square lattice $\mathbb{Z}^2$ be independently assigned one of three states: a \textit{trap} with probability $p$, a \textit{target} with probability $q$, and \textit{open} with probability $1-p-q$, where $0<p+q<1$. Consider the following game: a token starts at the origin, and two players take turns to move, where a move consists of moving the token from its current site $x$ to either $x+(0,1)$ or $x+(1,0)$. A player who moves the token to a trap loses the game immediately, while a player who moves the token to a target wins the game immediately. Is there positive probability that the game is \emph{drawn} with best play -- i.e.\ that neither player can force a win? This is equivalent to the question of ergodicity of a certain family of elementary one-dimensional probabilistic cellular automata (PCA). These automata have been studied in the contexts of enumeration of directed lattice animals, the golden-mean subshift, and the hard-core model, and their ergodicity has been noted as an open problem by several authors. We prove that these PCA are ergodic, and correspondingly that the game on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ has no draws. On the other hand, we prove that certain analogous games \emph{do} exhibit draws for suitable parameter values on various directed graphs in higher dimensions, including an oriented version of the even sublattice of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ in all $d\geq3$. This is proved via a dimension reduction to a hard-core lattice gas in dimension $d-1$. We show that draws occur whenever the corresponding hard-core model has multiple Gibbs distributions. We conjecture that draws occur also on the standard oriented lattice $\mathbb{Z}^d$ for $d\geq 3$, but here our method encounters a fundamental obstacle.Comment: 35 page

The Jammed Phase of the Biham-Middleton-Levine Traffic Model

Initially a car is placed with probability p at each site of the two-dimensional integer lattice. Each car is equally likely to be East-facing or North-facing, and different sites receive independent assignments. At odd time steps, each North-facing car moves one unit North if there is a vacant site for it to move into. At even time steps, East-facing cars move East in the same way. We prove that when p is sufficiently close to 1 traffic is jammed, in the sense that no car moves infinitely many times. The result extends to several variant settings, including a model with cars moving at random times, and higher dimensions.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures; revised journal versio

Self-management of recurrent headache

Na primeira parte desta revisão sobre terapêutica não-farmacológica das cefaléias, são discutidos os príncipios e a eficácia das principais formas de intervenção psicológica para enxaqueca recorrente e cefaléia tensional (técnicas de relaxamento ou de “biofeedback”e controle do estresse). Na segunda parte, são apresentados programas detalhados de treinamento de relaxamento ou de biofeedback pelo aquecimento das mãos. Finalmente, são discutidas brevemente os critérios para alterar ou terminar o tratamento.In this first part of this review of nonpharmacological therapies for headache, principles and efficacy of main categories of psychological interventions for recurrent migraine and tension-type headache (relaxation training, biofeedback training and stress management) are discussed. In the second part, detailed programs of relaxation training and handwarming biofeedback training are presented. Finally, criteria for altering or terminating treatment are briefly discussed

Percolation in invariant Poisson graphs with i.i.d. degrees

Let each point of a homogeneous Poisson process in R^d independently be equipped with a random number of stubs (half-edges) according to a given probability distribution mu on the positive integers. We consider translation-invariant schemes for perfectly matching the stubs to obtain a simple graph with degree distribution mu. Leaving aside degenerate cases, we prove that for any mu there exist schemes that give only finite components as well as schemes that give infinite components. For a particular matching scheme that is a natural extension of Gale-Shapley stable marriage, we give sufficient conditions on mu for the absence and presence of infinite components

Bootstrap Percolation on Complex Networks

We consider bootstrap percolation on uncorrelated complex networks. We obtain the phase diagram for this process with respect to two parameters: $f$, the fraction of vertices initially activated, and $p$, the fraction of undamaged vertices in the graph. We observe two transitions: the giant active component appears continuously at a first threshold. There may also be a second, discontinuous, hybrid transition at a higher threshold. Avalanches of activations increase in size as this second critical point is approached, finally diverging at this threshold. We describe the existence of a special critical point at which this second transition first appears. In networks with degree distributions whose second moment diverges (but whose first moment does not), we find a qualitatively different behavior. In this case the giant active component appears for any $f>0$ and $p>0$, and the discontinuous transition is absent. This means that the giant active component is robust to damage, and also is very easily activated. We also formulate a generalized bootstrap process in which each vertex can have an arbitrary threshold.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Finitary Coloring

Suppose that the vertices of ${\mathbb Z}^d$ are assigned random colors via a finitary factor of independent identically distributed (iid) vertex-labels. That is, the color of vertex $v$ is determined by a rule that examines the labels within a finite (but random and perhaps unbounded) distance $R$ of $v$, and the same rule applies at all vertices. We investigate the tail behavior of $R$ if the coloring is required to be proper (that is, if adjacent vertices must receive different colors). When $d\geq 2$, the optimal tail is given by a power law for 3 colors, and a tower (iterated exponential) function for 4 or more colors (and also for 3 or more colors when $d=1$). If proper coloring is replaced with any shift of finite type in dimension 1, then, apart from trivial cases, tower function behavior also applies.Comment: 35 pages, 3 figure