1,024 research outputs found
Linguistics
Contains research objectives and reports on one research project.National Science Foundation (Grant G-7364)National Science Foundation (Grant G-13903
Spectral statistics of random geometric graphs
We use random matrix theory to study the spectrum of random geometric graphs,
a fundamental model of spatial networks. Considering ensembles of random
geometric graphs we look at short range correlations in the level spacings of
the spectrum via the nearest neighbour and next nearest neighbour spacing
distribution and long range correlations via the spectral rigidity Delta_3
statistic. These correlations in the level spacings give information about
localisation of eigenvectors, level of community structure and the level of
randomness within the networks. We find a parameter dependent transition
between Poisson and Gaussian orthogonal ensemble statistics. That is the
spectral statistics of spatial random geometric graphs fits the universality of
random matrix theory found in other models such as Erdos-Renyi, Barabasi-Albert
and Watts-Strogatz random graph.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. Substantially updated from previous versio
Isospectral domains with mixed boundary conditions
We construct a series of examples of planar isospectral domains with mixed
Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions. This is a modification of a classical
problem proposed by M. Kac.Comment: 9 figures. Statement of Theorem 5.1 correcte
Transverse instability for non-normal parameters
We consider the behaviour of attractors near invariant subspaces on varying a
parameter that does not preserve the dynamics in the invariant subspace but is
otherwise generic, in a smooth dynamical system. We refer to such a parameter
as ``non-normal''. If there is chaos in the invariant subspace that is not
structurally stable, this has the effect of ``blurring out'' blowout
bifurcations over a range of parameter values that we show can have positive
measure in parameter space.
Associated with such blowout bifurcations are bifurcations to attractors
displaying a new type of intermittency that is phenomenologically similar to
on-off intermittency, but where the intersection of the attractor by the
invariant subspace is larger than a minimal attractor. The presence of distinct
repelling and attracting invariant sets leads us to refer to this as ``in-out''
intermittency. Such behaviour cannot appear in systems where the transverse
dynamics is a skew product over the system on the invariant subspace.
We characterise in-out intermittency in terms of its structure in phase space
and in terms of invariants of the dynamics obtained from a Markov model of the
attractor. This model predicts a scaling of the length of laminar phases that
is similar to that for on-off intermittency but which has some differences.Comment: 15 figures, submitted to Nonlinearity, the full paper available at
http://www.maths.qmw.ac.uk/~eo
Regular quantum graphs
We introduce the concept of regular quantum graphs and construct connected
quantum graphs with discrete symmetries. The method is based on a decomposition
of the quantum propagator in terms of permutation matrices which control the
way incoming and outgoing channels at vertex scattering processes are
connected. Symmetry properties of the quantum graph as well as its spectral
statistics depend on the particular choice of permutation matrices, also called
connectivity matrices, and can now be easily controlled. The method may find
applications in the study of quantum random walks networks and may also prove
to be useful in analysing universality in spectral statistics.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
On the rate of quantum ergodicity in Euclidean billiards
For a large class of quantized ergodic flows the quantum ergodicity theorem
due to Shnirelman, Zelditch, Colin de Verdi\`ere and others states that almost
all eigenfunctions become equidistributed in the semiclassical limit. In this
work we first give a short introduction to the formulation of the quantum
ergodicity theorem for general observables in terms of pseudodifferential
operators and show that it is equivalent to the semiclassical eigenfunction
hypothesis for the Wigner function in the case of ergodic systems. Of great
importance is the rate by which the quantum mechanical expectation values of an
observable tend to their mean value. This is studied numerically for three
Euclidean billiards (stadium, cosine and cardioid billiard) using up to 6000
eigenfunctions. We find that in configuration space the rate of quantum
ergodicity is strongly influenced by localized eigenfunctions like bouncing
ball modes or scarred eigenfunctions. We give a detailed discussion and
explanation of these effects using a simple but powerful model. For the rate of
quantum ergodicity in momentum space we observe a slower decay. We also study
the suitably normalized fluctuations of the expectation values around their
mean, and find good agreement with a Gaussian distribution.Comment: 40 pages, LaTeX2e. This version does not contain any figures. A
version with all figures can be obtained from
http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ (File:
http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ulm-tp/tp97-8.ps.gz) In case of any
problems contact Arnd B\"acker (e-mail: [email protected]) or Roman
Schubert (e-mail: [email protected]
Affective iconic words benefit from additional sound–meaning integration in the left amygdala
Recent studies have shown that a similarity between sound and meaning of a word (i.e., iconicity) can help more readily access the meaning of that word, but the neural mechanisms underlying this beneficial role of iconicity in semantic processing remain largely unknown. In an fMRI study, we focused on the affective domain and examined whether affective iconic words (e.g., high arousal in both sound and meaning) activate additional brain regions that integrate emotional information from different domains (i.e., sound and meaning). In line with our hypothesis, affective iconic words, compared to their non‐iconic counterparts, elicited additional BOLD responses in the left amygdala known for its role in multimodal representation of emotions. Functional connectivity analyses revealed that the observed amygdalar activity was modulated by an interaction of iconic condition and activations in two hubs representative for processing sound (left superior temporal gyrus) and meaning (left inferior frontal gyrus) of words. These results provide a neural explanation for the facilitative role of iconicity in language processing and indicate that language users are sensitive to the interaction between sound and meaning aspect of words, suggesting the existence of iconicity as a general property of human language
Semiclassical measures and the Schroedinger flow on Riemannian manifolds
In this article we study limits of Wigner distributions (the so-called
semiclassical measures) corresponding to sequences of solutions to the
semiclassical Schroedinger equation at times scales tending to
infinity as the semiclassical parameter tends to zero (when this is equivalent to consider solutions to the non-semiclassical
Schreodinger equation). Some general results are presented, among which a weak
version of Egorov's theorem that holds in this setting. A complete
characterization is given for the Euclidean space and Zoll manifolds (that is,
manifolds with periodic geodesic flow) via averaging formulae relating the
semiclassical measures corresponding to the evolution to those of the initial
states. The case of the flat torus is also addressed; it is shown that
non-classical behavior may occur when energy concentrates on resonant
frequencies. Moreover, we present an example showing that the semiclassical
measures associated to a sequence of states no longer determines those of their
evolutions. Finally, some results concerning the equation with a potential are
presented.Comment: 18 pages; Theorems 1,2 extendend to deal with arbitrary time-scales;
references adde
Binary Tree Approach to Scaling in Unimodal Maps
Ge, Rusjan, and Zweifel (J. Stat. Phys. 59, 1265 (1990)) introduced a binary
tree which represents all the periodic windows in the chaotic regime of
iterated one-dimensional unimodal maps. We consider the scaling behavior in a
modified tree which takes into account the self-similarity of the window
structure. A non-universal geometric convergence of the associated superstable
parameter values towards a Misiurewicz point is observed for almost all binary
sequences with periodic tails. There are an infinite number of exceptional
sequences, however, which lead to superexponential scaling. The origin of such
sequences is explained.Comment: 25 pages, plain Te
From limit cycles to strange attractors
We define a quantitative notion of shear for limit cycles of flows. We prove
that strange attractors and SRB measures emerge when systems exhibiting limit
cycles with sufficient shear are subjected to periodic pulsatile drives. The
strange attractors possess a number of precisely-defined dynamical properties
that together imply chaos that is both sustained in time and physically
observable.Comment: 27 page
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