Minority Game With Peer Pressure

To study the interplay between global market choice and local peer pressure, we construct a minority-game-like econophysical model. In this so-called networked minority game model, every selfish player uses both the historical minority choice of the population and the historical choice of one's neighbors in an unbiased manner to make decision. Results of numerical simulation show that the level of cooperation in the networked minority game differs remarkably from the original minority game as well as the prediction of the crowd-anticrowd theory. We argue that the deviation from the crowd-anticrowd theory is due to the negligence of the effect of a four point correlation function in the effective Hamiltonian of the system.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures in revtex 4.

Multi-dimensional numerical simulations of type Ia supernova explosions

The major role type Ia supernovae play in many fields of astrophysics and in particular in cosmological distance determinations calls for self-consistent models of these events. Since their mechanism is believed to crucially depend on phenomena that are inherently three-dimensional, self-consistent numerical models of type Ia supernovae must be multi-dimensional. This field has recently seen a rapid development, which is reviewed in this article. The different modeling approaches are discussed and as an illustration a particular explosion model -- the deflagration model -- in a specific numerical implementation is presented in greater detail. On this exemplary case, the procedure of validating the model on the basis of comparison with observations is discussed as well as its application to study questions arising from type Ia supernova cosmology.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures (Fig. 6 with reduced resolution

Flame-driven deflagration-to-detonation transitions in Type Ia supernovae?

Although delayed detonation models of thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs seem promising for reproducing Type Ia supernovae, the transition of the flame propagation mode from subsonic deflagration to supersonic detonation remains hypothetical. A potential instant for this transition to occur is the onset of the distributed burning regime, i.e. the moment when turbulence first affects the internal flame structure. Some studies of the burning microphysics indicate that a deflagration-to-detonation transition may be possible here, provided the turbulent intensities are strong enough. Consequently, the magnitude of turbulent velocity fluctuations generated by the deflagration flame is analyzed at the onset of the distributed burning regime in several three-dimensional simulations of deflagrations in thermonuclear supernovae. It is shown that the corresponding probability density functions fall off towards high turbulent velocity fluctuations much more slowly than a Gaussian distribution. Thus, values claimed to be necessary for triggering a detonation are likely to be found in sufficiently large patches of the flame. Although the microphysical evolution of the burning is not followed and a successful deflagration-to-detonation transition cannot be guaranteed from simulations presented here, the results still indicate that such events may be possible in Type Ia supernova explosions.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in ApJ 668, 1103 (2007