855 research outputs found
Kinetic hierarchy and propagation of chaos in biological swarm models
We consider two models of biological swarm behavior. In these models, pairs
of particles interact to adjust their velocities one to each other. In the
first process, called 'BDG', they join their average velocity up to some noise.
In the second process, called 'CL', one of the two particles tries to join the
other one's velocity. This paper establishes the master equations and BBGKY
hierarchies of these two processes. It investigates the infinite particle limit
of the hierarchies at large time-scale. It shows that the resulting kinetic
hierarchy for the CL process does not satisfy propagation of chaos. Numerical
simulations indicate that the BDG process has similar behavior to the CL
process
Celebrating Cercignani's conjecture for the Boltzmann equation
Cercignani's conjecture assumes a linear inequality between the entropy and
entropy production functionals for Boltzmann's nonlinear integral operator in
rarefied gas dynamics. Related to the field of logarithmic Sobolev inequalities
and spectral gap inequalities, this issue has been at the core of the renewal
of the mathematical theory of convergence to thermodynamical equilibrium for
rarefied gases over the past decade. In this review paper, we survey the
various positive and negative results which were obtained since the conjecture
was proposed in the 1980s.Comment: This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Carlo Cercignani,
powerful mind and great scientist, one of the founders of the modern theory
of the Boltzmann equation. 24 pages. V2: correction of some typos and one
ref. adde
Complete characterization of convergence to equilibrium for an inelastic Kac model
Pulvirenti and Toscani introduced an equation which extends the Kac
caricature of a Maxwellian gas to inelastic particles. We show that the
probability distribution, solution of the relative Cauchy problem, converges
weakly to a probability distribution if and only if the symmetrized initial
distribution belongs to the standard domain of attraction of a symmetric stable
law, whose index is determined by the so-called degree of
inelasticity, , of the particles: . This result is
then used: (1) To state that the class of all stationary solutions coincides
with that of all symmetric stable laws with index . (2) To determine
the solution of a well-known stochastic functional equation in the absence of
extra-conditions usually adopted
Phase transitions towards frequency entrainment in large oscillator lattices
We investigate phase transitions towards frequency entrainment in large,
locally coupled networks of limit cycle oscillators. Specifically, we simulate
two-dimensional lattices of pulse-coupled oscillators with random natural
frequencies, resembling pacemaker cells in the heart. As coupling increases,
the system seems to undergo two phasetransitions in the thermodynamic limit. At
the first, the largest cluster of frequency entrained oscillators becomes
macroscopic. At the second, global entrainment settles. Between the two
transitions, the system has features indicating self-organized criticality.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR
Raised Intracellular Calcium Contributes to Ischemia-Induced Depression of Evoked Synaptic Transmission
Oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) leads to depression of evoked synaptic transmission, for which the mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesized that increased presynaptic [Ca2+]i during transient OGD contributes to the depression of evoked field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs). Additionally, we hypothesized that increased buffering of intracellular calcium would shorten electrophysiological recovery after transient ischemia. Mouse hippocampal slices were exposed to 2 to 8 min of OGD. fEPSPs evoked by Schaffer collateral stimulation were recorded in the stratum radiatum, and whole cell current or voltage clamp recordings were performed in CA1 neurons. Transient ischemia led to increased presynaptic [Ca2+]i, (shown by calcium imaging), increased spontaneous miniature EPSP/Cs, and depressed evoked fEPSPs, partially mediated by adenosine. Buffering of intracellular Ca2+ during OGD by membrane-permeant chelators (BAPTA-AM or EGTA-AM) partially prevented fEPSP depression and promoted faster electrophysiological recovery when the OGD challenge was stopped. The blocker of BK channels, charybdotoxin (ChTX), also prevented fEPSP depression, but did not accelerate post-ischemic recovery. These results suggest that OGD leads to elevated presynaptic [Ca2+]i, which reduces evoked transmitter release; this effect can be reversed by increased intracellular Ca2+ buffering which also speeds recovery
Optimal Hypercontractivity for Fermi Fields and Related Non-Commutative Integration
Optimal hypercontractivity bounds for the fermion oscillator semigroup are
obtained. These are the fermion analogs of the optimal hypercontractivity
bounds for the boson oscillator semigroup obtained by Nelson. In the process,
several results of independent interest in the theory of non-commutative
integration are established. {}.Comment: 18 p., princeton/ecel/7-12-9
Comment on "Why quantum mechanics cannot be formulated as a Markov process"
In the paper with the above title, D. T. Gillespie [Phys. Rev. A 49, 1607,
(1994)] claims that the theory of Markov stochastic processes cannot provide an
adequate mathematical framework for quantum mechanics. In conjunction with the
specific quantum dynamics considered there, we give a general analysis of the
associated dichotomic jump processes. If we assume that Gillespie's
"measurement probabilities" \it are \rm the transition probabilities of a
stochastic process, then the process must have an invariant (time independent)
probability measure. Alternatively, if we demand the probability measure of the
process to follow the quantally implemented (via the Born statistical
postulate) evolution, then we arrive at the jump process which \it can \rm be
interpreted as a Markov process if restricted to a suitable duration time.
However, there is no corresponding Markov process consistent with the
event space assumption, if we require its existence for all times .Comment: Latex file, resubm. to Phys. Rev.
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