34 research outputs found
Applicability of the Fisher Equation to Bacterial Population Dynamics
The applicability of the Fisher equation, which combines diffusion with
logistic nonlinearity, to population dynamics of bacterial colonies is studied
with the help of explicit analytic solutions for the spatial distribution of a
stationary bacterial population under a static mask. The mask protects the
bacteria from ultraviolet light. The solution, which is in terms of Jacobian
elliptic functions, is used to provide a practical prescription to extract
Fisher equation parameters from observations and to decide on the validity of
the Fisher equation.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figs. include
Terrace Standard, July, 09, 1997
Slowly strained solids deform via intermittent slips that exhibit a material-independent critical size distribution. Here, by comparing two disparate systems - granular materials and bulk metallic glasses - we show evidence that not only the statistics of slips but also their dynamics are remarkably similar, i.e. independent of the microscopic details of the material. By resolving and comparing the full time evolution of avalanches in bulk metallic glasses and granular materials, we uncover a regime of universal deformation dynamics. We experimentally verify the predicted universal scaling functions for the dynamics of individual avalanches in both systems, and show that both the slip statistics and dynamics are independent of the scale and details of the material structure and interactions, thus settling a long-standing debate as to whether or not the claim of universality includes only the slip statistics or also the slip dynamics. The results imply that the frictional weakening in granular materials and the interplay of damping, weakening and inertial effects in bulk metallic glasses have strikingly similar effects on the slip dynamics. These results are important for transferring experimental results across scales and material structures in a single theory of deformation dynamics
Disorder induced critical phenomena in magnetically glassy Cu-Al-Mn alloys
Measurements of magnetic hysteresis loops in Cu-Al-Mn alloys of different Mn
content at low temperatures are presented. The loops are smooth and continuous
above a certain temperature, but exhibit a magnetization discontinuity below
that temperature. Scaling analysis suggest that this system displays a disorder
induced phase transition line. Measurements allow to determine the critical
exponents and in agreement
with those reported recently [Berger et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 85}, 4176
(2000)]Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Depinning with dynamic stress overshoots: A hybrid of critical and pseudohysteretic behavior
A model of an elastic manifold driven through a random medium by an applied
force F is studied focussing on the effects of inertia and elastic waves, in
particular {\it stress overshoots} in which motion of one segment of the
manifold causes a temporary stress on its neighboring segments in addition to
the static stress. Such stress overshoots decrease the critical force for
depinning and make the depinning transition hysteretic. We find that the steady
state velocity of the moving phase is nevertheless history independent and the
critical behavior as the force is decreased is in the same universality class
as in the absence of stress overshoots: the dissipative limit which has been
studied analytically. To reach this conclusion, finite-size scaling analyses of
a variety of quantities have been supplemented by heuristic arguments.
If the force is increased slowly from zero, the spectrum of avalanche sizes
that occurs appears to be quite different from the dissipative limit. After
stopping from the moving phase, the restarting involves both fractal and
bubble-like nucleation. Hysteresis loops can be understood in terms of a
depletion layer caused by the stress overshoots, but surprisingly, in the limit
of very large samples the hysteresis loops vanish. We argue that, although
there can be striking differences over a wide range of length scales, the
universality class governing this pseudohysteresis is again that of the
dissipative limit. Consequences of this picture for the statistics and dynamics
of earthquakes on geological faults are briefly discussed.Comment: 43 pages, 57 figures (yes, that's a five followed by a seven), revte
Adaptation of Autocatalytic Fluctuations to Diffusive Noise
Evolution of a system of diffusing and proliferating mortal reactants is
analyzed in the presence of randomly moving catalysts. While the continuum
description of the problem predicts reactant extinction as the average growth
rate becomes negative, growth rate fluctuations induced by the discrete nature
of the agents are shown to allow for an active phase, where reactants
proliferate as their spatial configuration adapts to the fluctuations of the
catalysts density. The model is explored by employing field theoretical
techniques, numerical simulations and strong coupling analysis. For d<=2, the
system is shown to exhibits an active phase at any growth rate, while for d>2 a
kinetic phase transition is predicted. The applicability of this model as a
prototype for a host of phenomena which exhibit self organization is discussed.Comment: 6 pages 6 figur
Population dynamics in compressible flows
Organisms often grow, migrate and compete in liquid environments, as well as
on solid surfaces. However, relatively little is known about what happens when
competing species are mixed and compressed by fluid turbulence. In these
lectures we review our recent work on population dynamics and population
genetics in compressible velocity fields of one and two dimensions. We discuss
why compressible turbulence is relevant for population dynamics in the ocean
and we consider cases both where the velocity field is turbulent and when it is
static. Furthermore, we investigate populations in terms of a continuos density
field and when the populations are treated via discrete particles. In the last
case we focus on the competition and fixation of one species compared to
anotherComment: 16 pages, talk delivered at the Geilo Winter School 201
Can a Species Keep Pace with a Shifting Climate?
Consider a patch of favorable habitat surrounded by unfavorable habitat and assume that due to a shifting climate, the patch moves with a fixed speed in a one-dimensional universe. Let the patch be inhabited by a population of individuals that reproduce, disperse, and die. Will the population persist? How does the answer depend on the length of the patch, the speed of movement of the patch, the net population growth rate under constant conditions, and the mobility of the individuals? We will answer these questions in the context of a simple dynamic profile model that incorporates climate shift, population dynamics, and migration. The model takes the form of a growth-diffusion equation. We first consider a special case and derive an explicit condition by glueing phase portraits. Then we establish a strict qualitative dichotomy for a large class of models by way of rigorous PDE methods, in particular the maximum principle. The results show that mobility can both reduce and enhance the ability to track climate change that a narrow range can severely reduce this ability and that population range and total population size can both increase and decrease under a moving climate. It is also shown that range shift may be easier to detect at the expanding front, simply because it is considerably steeper than the retreating back
Non-local rheology in dense granular flows -- Revisiting the concept of fluidity
Granular materials belong to the class of amorphous athermal systems, like foams, emulsion or suspension they can resist shear like a solid, but flow like a liquid under a sufficiently large applied shear stress. They exhibit a dynamical phase transition between static and flowing states, as for phase transitions of thermodynamic systems, this rigidity transition exhibits a diverging length scales quantifying the degree of cooperatively. Several experiments have shown that the rheology of granular materials and emulsion is non-local, namely that the stress at a given location does not depend only on the shear rate at this location but also on the degree of mobility in the surrounding region. Several constitutive relations have recently been proposed and tested successfully against numerical and experimental results. Here we use discrete elements simulation of 2D shear flows to shed light on the dynamical mechanism underlying non-locality in dense granular flows