452 research outputs found
Toda Lattice Hierarchy and Generalized String Equations
String equations of the -th generalized Kontsevich model and the
compactified string theory are re-examined in the language of the Toda
lattice hierarchy. As opposed to a hypothesis postulated in the literature, the
generalized Kontsevich model at does not coincide with the
string theory at self-dual radius. A broader family of solutions of the Toda
lattice hierarchy including these models are constructed, and shown to satisfy
generalized string equations. The status of a variety of string
models is discussed in this new framework.Comment: 35pages, LaTeX Errors are corrected in Eqs. (2.21), (2.36), (2.33),
(3.3), (5.10), (6.1), sentences after (3.19) and theorem 5. A few references
are update
Pair Interaction Potentials of Colloids by Extrapolation of Confocal Microscopy Measurements of Collective Structure
A method for measuring the pair interaction potential between colloidal
particles by extrapolation measurement of collective structure to infinite
dilution is presented and explored using simulation and experiment. The method
is particularly well suited to systems in which the colloid is fluorescent and
refractive index matched with the solvent. The method involves characterizing
the potential of mean force between colloidal particles in suspension by
measurement of the radial distribution function using 3D direct visualization.
The potentials of mean force are extrapolated to infinite dilution to yield an
estimate of the pair interaction potential, . We use Monte Carlo (MC)
simulation to test and establish our methodology as well as to explore the
effects of polydispersity on the accuracy. We use poly-12-hydroxystearic
acid-stabilized poly(methyl methacrylate) (PHSA-PMMA) particles dispersed in
the solvent dioctyl phthalate (DOP) to test the method and assess its accuracy
for three different repulsive systems for which the range has been manipulated
by addition of electrolyte.Comment: 35 pages, 14 figure
Benevolent characteristics promote cooperative behaviour among humans
Cooperation is fundamental to the evolution of human society. We regularly
observe cooperative behaviour in everyday life and in controlled experiments
with anonymous people, even though standard economic models predict that they
should deviate from the collective interest and act so as to maximise their own
individual payoff. However, there is typically heterogeneity across subjects:
some may cooperate, while others may not. Since individual factors promoting
cooperation could be used by institutions to indirectly prime cooperation, this
heterogeneity raises the important question of who these cooperators are. We
have conducted a series of experiments to study whether benevolence, defined as
a unilateral act of paying a cost to increase the welfare of someone else
beyond one's own, is related to cooperation in a subsequent one-shot anonymous
Prisoner's dilemma. Contrary to the predictions of the widely used inequity
aversion models, we find that benevolence does exist and a large majority of
people behave this way. We also find benevolence to be correlated with
cooperative behaviour. Finally, we show a causal link between benevolence and
cooperation: priming people to think positively about benevolent behaviour
makes them significantly more cooperative than priming them to think
malevolently. Thus benevolent people exist and cooperate more
The Evolution of Facultative Conformity Based on Similarity
Conformist social learning can have a pronounced impact on the cultural evolution of human societies, and it can shape both the genetic and cultural evolution of human social behavior more broadly. Conformist social learning is beneficial when the social learner and the demonstrators from whom she learns are similar in the sense that the same behavior is optimal for both. Otherwise, the social learner's optimum is likely to be rare among demonstrators, and conformity is costly. The trade-off between these two situations has figured prominently in the longstanding debate about the evolution of conformity, but the importance of the trade-off can depend critically on the flexibility of one's social learning strategy. We developed a gene-culture coevolutionary model that allows cognition to encode and process information about the similarity between naive learners and experienced demonstrators. Facultative social learning strategies that condition on perceived similarity evolve under certain circumstances. When this happens, facultative adjustments are often asymmetric. Asymmetric adjustments mean that the tendency to follow the majority when learners perceive demonstrators as similar is stronger than the tendency to follow the minority when learners perceive demonstrators as different. In an associated incentivized experiment, we found that social learners adjusted how they used social information based on perceived similarity, but adjustments were symmetric. The symmetry of adjustments completely eliminated the commonly assumed trade-off between cases in which learners and demonstrators share an optimum versus cases in which they do not. In a second experiment that maximized the potential for social learners to follow their preferred strategies, a few social learners exhibited an inclination to follow the majority. Most, however, did not respond systematically to social information. Additionally, in the complete absence of information about their similarity to demonstrators, social learners were unwilling to make assumptions about whether they shared an optimum with demonstrators. Instead, social learners simply ignored social information even though this was the only information available. Our results suggest that social cognition equips people to use conformity in a discriminating fashion that moderates the evolutionary trade-offs that would occur if conformist social learning was rigidly applied
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