A Model of Heat Conduction

We define a deterministic ``scattering'' model for heat conduction which is continuous in space, and which has a Boltzmann type flavor, obtained by a closure based on memory loss between collisions. We prove that this model has, for stochastic driving forces at the boundary, close to Maxwellians, a unique non-equilibrium steady state

Curvature of Co-Links Uncovers Hidden Thematic Layers in the World Wide Web

Beyond the information stored in pages of the World Wide Web, novel types of ``meta-information'' are created when they connect to each other. This information is a collective effect of independent users writing and linking pages, hidden from the casual user. Accessing it and understanding the inter-relation of connectivity and content in the WWW is a challenging problem. We demonstrate here how thematic relationships can be located precisely by looking only at the graph of hyperlinks, gleaning content and context from the Web without having to read what is in the pages. We begin by noting that reciprocal links (co-links) between pages signal a mutual recognition of authors, and then focus on triangles containing such links, since triangles indicate a transitive relation. The importance of triangles is quantified by the clustering coefficient (Watts) which we interpret as a curvature (Gromov,Bridson-Haefliger). This defines a Web-landscape whose connected regions of high curvature characterize a common topic. We show experimentally that reciprocity and curvature, when combined, accurately capture this meta-information for a wide variety of topics. As an example of future directions we analyze the neural network of C. elegans (White, Wood), using the same methods.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, expanded version of earlier submission with more example

Non-equilibrium steady states for chains of four rotors

We study a chain of four interacting rotors (rotators) connected at both ends to stochastic heat baths at different temperatures. We show that for non-degenerate interaction potentials the system relaxes, at a stretched exponential rate, to a non-equilibrium steady state (NESS). Rotors with high energy tend to decouple from their neighbors due to fast oscillation of the forces. Because of this, the energy of the central two rotors, which interact with the heat baths only through the external rotors, can take a very long time to dissipate. By appropriately averaging the oscillatory forces, we estimate the dissipation rate and construct a Lyapunov function. Compared to the chain of length three (considered previously by C. Poquet and the current authors), the new difficulty with four rotors is the appearance of resonances when both central rotors are fast. We deal with these resonances using the rapid thermalization of the two external rotors.Comment: Minor changes to reflect the published versio

Liapunov Multipliers and Decay of Correlations in Dynamical Systems

The essential decorrelation rate of a hyperbolic dynamical system is the decay rate of time-correlations one expects to see stably for typical observables once resonances are projected out. We define and illustrate these notions and study the conjecture that for observables in $C^1$, the essential decorrelation rate is never faster than what is dictated by the {\em smallest} unstable Liapunov multiplier

Non-Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics of Strongly Anharmonic Chains of Oscillators

We study the model of a strongly non-linear chain of particles coupled to two heat baths at different temperatures. Our main result is the existence and uniqueness of a stationary state at all temperatures. This result extends those of Eckmann, Pillet, Rey-Bellet to potentials with essentially arbitrary growth at infinity. This extension is possible by introducing a stronger version of H\"ormander's theorem for Kolmogorov equations to vector fields with polynomially bounded coefficients on unbounded domains.Comment: ~60 pages, 3 figure

Strange Heat Flux in (An)Harmonic Networks

We study the heat transport in systems of coupled oscillators driven out of equilibrium by Gaussian heat baths. We illustrate with a few examples that such systems can exhibit ``strange'' transport phenomena. In particular, {\em circulation} of heat flux may appear in the steady state of a system of three oscillators only. This indicates that the direction of the heat fluxes can in general not be "guessed" from the temperatures of the heat baths. Although we primarily consider harmonic couplings between the oscillators, we explain why this strange behavior persists under weak anharmonic perturbations