On the propagation of a perturbation in an anharmonic system

We give a not trivial upper bound on the velocity of disturbances in an infinitely extended anharmonic system at thermal equilibrium. The proof is achieved by combining a control on the non equilibrium dynamics with an explicit use of the state invariance with respect to the time evolution.Comment: 14 page

Some aspects of the inertial spin model for flocks and related kinetic equations

In this paper, we study the macroscopic behavior of the inertial spin (IS) model. This model has been recently proposed to describe the collective dynamics of flocks of birds, and its main feature is the presence of an auxiliary dynamical variable, a sort of internal spin, which conveys the interaction among the birds with the effect of better describing the turning of flocks. After discussing the geometrical and mechanical properties of the IS model, we show that, in the case of constant interaction among the birds, its mean-field limit is described by a nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation, whose equilibria are fully characterized. Finally, in the case of non-constant interactions, we derive the kinetic equation for the mean-field limit of the model in the absence of thermal noise, and explore its macroscopic behavior by analyzing the mono-kinetic solutions

MEAN-FIELD LIMIT FOR PARTICLE SYSTEMS WITH TOPOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS

The mean-field limit for systems of self-propelled agents with “topological interaction” cannot be obtained by means of the usual Dobrushin approach. We get results by adapting to the multidimensional case the techniques developed by Trocheris in 1986 to treat the Vlasov-Poisson equation in one dimension

Maximum fractional energy transmissible over a linear dispersive medium

We investigate the problem of transmitting the maximum fractional energy over a given length of a linear dispersive medium (e.g., a single-mode optical fiber) once the input pulse duration and the output detection time are assigned

Response properties in a model for granular matter

We investigate the response properties of granular media in the framework of the so-called {\em Random Tetris Model}. We monitor, for different driving procedures, several quantities: the evolution of the density and of the density profiles, the ageing properties through the two-times correlation functions and the two-times mean-square distance between the potential energies, the response function defined in terms of the difference in the potential energies of two replica driven in two slightly different ways. We focus in particular on the role played by the spatial inhomogeneities (structures) spontaneously emerging during the compaction process, the history of the sample and the driving procedure. It turns out that none of these ingredients can be neglected for the correct interpretation of the experimental or numerical data. We discuss the problem of the optimization of the compaction process and we comment on the validity of our results for the description of granular materials in a thermodynamic framework.Comment: 22 pages, 35 eps files (21 figures

Recent Results on the Periodic Lorentz Gas

The Drude-Lorentz model for the motion of electrons in a solid is a classical model in statistical mechanics, where electrons are represented as point particles bouncing on a fixed system of obstacles (the atoms in the solid). Under some appropriate scaling assumption -- known as the Boltzmann-Grad scaling by analogy with the kinetic theory of rarefied gases -- this system can be described in some limit by a linear Boltzmann equation, assuming that the configuration of obstacles is random [G. Gallavotti, [Phys. Rev. (2) vol. 185 (1969), 308]). The case of a periodic configuration of obstacles (like atoms in a crystal) leads to a completely different limiting dynamics. These lecture notes review several results on this problem obtained in the past decade as joint work with J. Bourgain, E. Caglioti and B. Wennberg.Comment: 62 pages. Course at the conference "Topics in PDEs and applications 2008" held in Granada, April 7-11 2008; figure 13 and a misprint in Theorem 4.6 corrected in the new versio

A hydrodynamic model arising in the context of granular media

AbstractIn this note, we propose a formal argument identifying the hydrodynamic limit of a Fokker-Planck model for granular media appearing in [1]. More precisely, in the limit of large background temperature and vanishing friction, this hydrodynamic limit is described by the classical system of isentropic gas dynamics with a nonstandard pressure law (specifically, the pressure is proportional to the cube root of the density). Finally, some qualitative properties of the hydrodynamic model are studied

Self-Structuring of Granular Media under Internal Avalanches

We study the phenomenon of internal avalanching within the context of recently proposed ``Tetris'' lattice models for granular media. We define a recycling dynamics under which the system reaches a steady state which is self-structured, i.e. it shows a complex interplay between textured internal structures and critical avalanche behavior. Furthermore we develop a general mean-field theory for this class of systems and discuss possible scenarios for the breakdown of universality.Comment: 4 pages RevTex, 3 eps figures, revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Coarsening and Slow-Dynamics in Granular Compaction

We address the problem of the microscopic reorganization of a granular medium under a compaction process in the framework of Tetris-like models. We point out the existence of regions of spatial organization which we call domains, and study their time evolution. It turns out that after an initial transient, most of the activity of the system is concentrated on the boundaries between domains. One can then describe the compaction phenomenon as a coarsening process for the domains, and a progressive reduction of domain boundaries. We discuss the link between the coarsening process and the slow dynamics in the framework of a model of active walkers on active substrates.Comment: Revtex 4 pages, 4 figures, in press in PRL. More info http://axtnt3.phys.uniroma1.it/Tetri