18,874 research outputs found
Frequency-based brain networks: From a multiplex framework to a full multilayer description
We explore how to study dynamical interactions between brain regions using
functional multilayer networks whose layers represent the different frequency
bands at which a brain operates. Specifically, we investigate the consequences
of considering the brain as a multilayer network in which all brain regions can
interact with each other at different frequency bands, instead of as a
multiplex network, in which interactions between different frequency bands are
only allowed within each brain region and not between them. We study the second
smallest eigenvalue of the combinatorial supra-Laplacian matrix of the
multilayer network in detail, and we thereby show that the heterogeneity of
interlayer edges and, especially, the fraction of missing edges crucially
modify the spectral properties of the multilayer network. We illustrate our
results with both synthetic network models and real data sets obtained from
resting state magnetoencephalography. Our work demonstrates an important issue
in the construction of frequency-based multilayer brain networks.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Developmentally regulated multisensory integration for prey localization in the medicinal leech
Medicinal leeches, like many aquatic animals, use water disturbances to localize their prey, so they need to be able to determine if a wave disturbance is created by prey or by another source. Many aquatic predators perform this separation by responding only to those wave frequencies representing their prey. As leeches' prey preference changes over the course of their development, we examined their responses at three different life stages. We found that juveniles more readily localize wave sources of lower frequencies (2 Hz) than their adult counterparts (8–12 Hz), and that adolescents exhibited elements of both juvenile and adult behavior, readily localizing sources of both frequencies. Leeches are known to be able to localize the source of waves through the use of either mechanical or visual information. We separately characterized their ability to localize various frequencies of stimuli using unimodal cues. Within a single modality, the frequency–response curves of adults and juveniles were virtually indistinguishable. However, the differences between the responses for each modality (visual and mechanosensory) were striking. The optimal visual stimulus had a much lower frequency (2 Hz) than the optimal mechanical stimulus (12 Hz). These frequencies matched, respectively, the juvenile and the adult preferred frequency for multimodally sensed waves. This suggests that, in the multimodal condition, adult behavior is driven more by mechanosensory information and juvenile behavior more by visual. Indeed, when stimuli of the two modalities were placed in conflict with one another, adult leeches, unlike juveniles, were attracted to the mechanical stimulus much more strongly than to the visual stimulus
PT-symmetry broken by point-group symmetry
We discuss a PT-symmetric Hamiltonian with complex eigenvalues. It is based
on the dimensionless Schr\"{o}dinger equation for a particle in a square box
with the PT-symmetric potential . Perturbation theory clearly
shows that some of the eigenvalues are complex for sufficiently small values of
. Point-group symmetry proves useful to guess if some of the eigenvalues
may already be complex for all values of the coupling constant. We confirm
those conclusions by means of an accurate numerical calculation based on the
diagonalization method. On the other hand, the Schr\"odinger equation with the
potential exhibits real eigenvalues for sufficiently small
values of . Point group symmetry suggests that PT-symmetry may be broken
in the former case and unbroken in the latter one
A uniqueness criterion for the Fock quantization of scalar fields with time dependent mass
A major problem in the quantization of fields in curved spacetimes is the
ambiguity in the choice of a Fock representation for the canonical commutation
relations. There exists an infinite number of choices leading to different
physical predictions. In stationary scenarios, a common strategy is to select a
vacuum (or a family of unitarily equivalent vacua) by requiring invariance
under the spacetime symmetries. When stationarity is lost, a natural
generalization consists in replacing time invariance by unitarity in the
evolution. We prove that, when the spatial sections are compact, the criterion
of a unitary dynamics, together with the invariance under the spatial
isometries, suffices to select a unique family of Fock quantizations for a
scalar field with time dependent mass.Comment: 11 pages, version accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum
Gravit
Criteria for the determination of time dependent scalings in the Fock quantization of scalar fields with a time dependent mass in ultrastatic spacetimes
For Klein-Gordon fields, it is well known that there exist an infinite number
of nonequivalent Fock representations of the canonical commutation relations
and, therefore, of inequivalent quantum theories. A context in which this kind
of ambiguities arises and prevents the derivation of robust results is, e.g.,
in the quantum analysis of cosmological perturbations. In these situations,
typically, a suitable scaling of the field by a time dependent function leads
to a description in an auxiliary static background, though the nonstationarity
still shows up in a time dependent mass. For such a field description, and
assuming the compactness of the spatial sections, we recently proved in three
or less spatial dimensions that the criteria of a natural implementation of the
spatial symmetries and of a unitary time evolution are able to select a unique
class of unitarily equivalent vacua, and hence of Fock representations. In this
work, we succeed to extend our uniqueness result to the consideration of all
possible field descriptions that can be reached by a time dependent canonical
transformation which, in particular, involves a scaling of the field by a
function of time. This kind of canonical transformations modify the dynamics of
the system and introduce a further ambiguity in its quantum description,
exceeding the choice of a Fock representation. Remarkably, for any compact
spatial manifold in less than four dimensions, we show that our criteria
eliminate any possible nontrivial scaling of the field other than that leading
to the description in an auxiliary static background. Besides, we show that
either no time dependent redefinition of the field momentum is allowed or, if
this may happen, the redefinition does not introduce any Fock representation
that cannot be obtained by a unitary transformation.Comment: 37 pages. Modified title. Improved discussion concerning the spatial
symmetry group. New section (section VI
Memory effects in vibrated granular systems
Granular materials present memory effects when submitted to tapping
processes. These effects have been observed experimentally and are discussed
here in the context of a general kind of model systems for compaction
formulated at a mesoscopic level. The theoretical predictions qualitatively
agree with the experimental results. As an example, a particular simple model
is used for detailed calculations.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures; to appear in Journal of Physics: Condensed
Matter (Special Issue: Proceedings of ESF SPHINX Workshop on ``Glassy
behaviour of kinetically constrained models.''
Mesoscopic Theory of Critical Fluctuations in Isolated Granular Gases
Fluctuating hydrodynamics is used to describe the total energy fluctuations
of a freely evolving gas of inelastic hard spheres near the threshold of the
clustering instability. They are shown to be governed by vorticity fluctuations
only, that also lead to a renormalization of the average total energy. The
theory predicts a power-law divergent behavior of the scaled second moment of
the fluctuations, and a scaling property of their probability distribution,
both in agreement with simulations results. A more quantitative comparison
between theory and simulation for the critical amplitudes and the form of the
scaling function is also carried out
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