On the spectrum of the Laplace operator of metric graphs attached at a vertex -- Spectral determinant approach

We consider a metric graph $\mathcal{G}$ made of two graphs $\mathcal{G}_1$ and $\mathcal{G}_2$ attached at one point. We derive a formula relating the spectral determinant of the Laplace operator $S_\mathcal{G}(\gamma)=\det(\gamma-\Delta)$ in terms of the spectral determinants of the two subgraphs. The result is generalized to describe the attachment of $n$ graphs. The formulae are also valid for the spectral determinant of the Schr\"odinger operator $\det(\gamma-\Delta+V(x))$.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, 7 eps figures, v2: new appendix, v3: discussions and ref adde

Spectral determinants and zeta functions of Schr\"odinger operators on metric graphs

A derivation of the spectral determinant of the Schr\"odinger operator on a metric graph is presented where the local matching conditions at the vertices are of the general form classified according to the scheme of Kostrykin and Schrader. To formulate the spectral determinant we first derive the spectral zeta function of the Schr\"odinger operator using an appropriate secular equation. The result obtained for the spectral determinant is along the lines of the recent conjecture.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Ordered spectral statistics in 1D disordered supersymmetric quantum mechanics and Sinai diffusion with dilute absorbers

Some results on the ordered statistics of eigenvalues for one-dimensional random Schr\"odinger Hamiltonians are reviewed. In the case of supersymmetric quantum mechanics with disorder, the existence of low energy delocalized states induces eigenvalue correlations and makes the ordered statistics problem nontrivial. The resulting distributions are used to analyze the problem of classical diffusion in a random force field (Sinai problem) in the presence of weakly concentrated absorbers. It is shown that the slowly decaying averaged return probability of the Sinai problem, \mean{P(x,t|x,0)}\sim \ln^{-2}t, is converted into a power law decay, \mean{P(x,t|x,0)}\sim t^{-\sqrt{2\rho/g}}, where $g$ is the strength of the random force field and $\rho$ the density of absorbers.Comment: 10 pages ; LaTeX ; 4 pdf figures ; Proceedings of the meeting "Fundations and Applications of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics", Nordita, Stockholm, october 2011 ; v2: appendix added ; v3: figure 2.left adde

Scattering theory on graphs (2): the Friedel sum rule

We consider the Friedel sum rule in the context of the scattering theory for the Schr\"odinger operator -\Dc_x^2+V(x) on graphs made of one-dimensional wires connected to external leads. We generalize the Smith formula for graphs. We give several examples of graphs where the state counting method given by the Friedel sum rule is not working. The reason for the failure of the Friedel sum rule to count the states is the existence of states localized in the graph and not coupled to the leads, which occurs if the spectrum is degenerate and the number of leads too small.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, 6 eps figure

Lyapunov exponents, one-dimensional Anderson localisation and products of random matrices

The concept of Lyapunov exponent has long occupied a central place in the theory of Anderson localisation; its interest in this particular context is that it provides a reasonable measure of the localisation length. The Lyapunov exponent also features prominently in the theory of products of random matrices pioneered by Furstenberg. After a brief historical survey, we describe some recent work that exploits the close connections between these topics. We review the known solvable cases of disordered quantum mechanics involving random point scatterers and discuss a new solvable case. Finally, we point out some limitations of the Lyapunov exponent as a means of studying localisation properties.Comment: LaTeX, 23 pages, 3 pdf figures ; review for a special issue on "Lyapunov analysis" ; v2 : typo corrected in eq.(3) & minor change

Synthèse du colloque international sur la microfinance.

La microfinance a fait l’objet d’un colloque organisé par la Banque de France en juillet 2011. Les participants ont souligné son utilité comme outil d’inclusion financière, de développement économique et de lutte contre la pauvreté en s’appuyant sur les expériences des pays du Sud et ont proposé des pistes de réflexion pour le financement de son développement, ainsi que sur la pertinence et les modalités de sa régulation.microfinance, microcrédit, entrepreneuriat, lutte contre la pauvreté, régulation, réglementation, inclusion financière, développement économique.

Functionals of the Brownian motion, localization and metric graphs

We review several results related to the problem of a quantum particle in a random environment. In an introductory part, we recall how several functionals of the Brownian motion arise in the study of electronic transport in weakly disordered metals (weak localization). Two aspects of the physics of the one-dimensional strong localization are reviewed : some properties of the scattering by a random potential (time delay distribution) and a study of the spectrum of a random potential on a bounded domain (the extreme value statistics of the eigenvalues). Then we mention several results concerning the diffusion on graphs, and more generally the spectral properties of the Schr\"odinger operator on graphs. The interest of spectral determinants as generating functions characterizing the diffusion on graphs is illustrated. Finally, we consider a two-dimensional model of a charged particle coupled to the random magnetic field due to magnetic vortices. We recall the connection between spectral properties of this model and winding functionals of the planar Brownian motion.Comment: Review article. 50 pages, 21 eps figures. Version 2: section 5.5 and conclusion added. Several references adde

Conditional stability of unstable viscous shock waves in compressible gas dynamics and MHD

Extending our previous work in the strictly parabolic case, we show that a linearly unstable Lax-type viscous shock solution of a general quasilinear hyperbolic--parabolic system of conservation laws possesses a translation-invariant center stable manifold within which it is nonlinearly orbitally stable with respect to small $L^1\cap H^3$ perturbations, converging time-asymptotically to a translate of the unperturbed wave. That is, for a shock with $p$ unstable eigenvalues, we establish conditional stability on a codimension-$p$ manifold of initial data, with sharp rates of decay in all $L^p$. For $p=0$, we recover the result of unconditional stability obtained by Mascia and Zumbrun. The main new difficulty in the hyperbolic--parabolic case is to construct an invariant manifold in the absence of parabolic smoothing.Comment: 32p

Sinai model in presence of dilute absorbers

We study the Sinai model for the diffusion of a particle in a one dimension random potential in presence of a small concentration $\rho$ of perfect absorbers using the asymptotically exact real space renormalization method. We compute the survival probability, the averaged diffusion front and return probability, the two particle meeting probability, the distribution of total distance traveled before absorption and the averaged Green's function of the associated Schrodinger operator. Our work confirms some recent results of Texier and Hagendorf obtained by Dyson-Schmidt methods, and extends them to other observables and in presence of a drift. In particular the power law density of states is found to hold in all cases. Irrespective of the drift, the asymptotic rescaled diffusion front of surviving particles is found to be a symmetric step distribution, uniform for $|x| < {1/2} \xi(t)$, where $\xi(t)$ is a new, survival length scale ($\xi(t)=T \ln t/\sqrt{\rho}$ in the absence of drift). Survival outside this sharp region is found to decay with a larger exponent, continuously varying with the rescaled distance $x/\xi(t)$. A simple physical picture based on a saddle point is given, and universality is discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

Individual energy level distributions for one-dimensional diagonal and off-diagonal disorder

We study the distribution of the $n$-th energy level for two different one-dimensional random potentials. This distribution is shown to be related to the distribution of the distance between two consecutive nodes of the wave function. We first consider the case of a white noise potential and study the distributions of energy level both in the positive and the negative part of the spectrum. It is demonstrated that, in the limit of a large system ($L\to\infty$), the distribution of the $n$-th energy level is given by a scaling law which is shown to be related to the extreme value statistics of a set of independent variables. In the second part we consider the case of a supersymmetric random Hamiltonian (potential $V(x)=\phi(x)^2+\phi'(x)$). We study first the case of $\phi(x)$ being a white noise with zero mean. It is in particular shown that the ground state energy, which behaves on average like $\exp{-L^{1/3}}$ in agreement with previous work, is not a self averaging quantity in the limit $L\to\infty$ as is seen in the case of diagonal disorder. Then we consider the case when $\phi(x)$ has a non zero mean value.Comment: LaTeX, 33 pages, 9 figure