Asymptotic Consensus Without Self-Confidence

This paper studies asymptotic consensus in systems in which agents do not necessarily have self-confidence, i.e., may disregard their own value during execution of the update rule. We show that the prevalent hypothesis of self-confidence in many convergence results can be replaced by the existence of aperiodic cores. These are stable aperiodic subgraphs, which allow to virtually store information about an agent's value distributedly in the network. Our results are applicable to systems with message delays and memory loss.Comment: 13 page

Byzantine Approximate Agreement on Graphs

Consider a distributed system with n processors out of which f can be Byzantine faulty. In the approximate agreement task, each processor i receives an input value x_i and has to decide on an output value y_i such that 1) the output values are in the convex hull of the non-faulty processors\u27 input values, 2) the output values are within distance d of each other. Classically, the values are assumed to be from an m-dimensional Euclidean space, where m >= 1. In this work, we study the task in a discrete setting, where input values with some structure expressible as a graph. Namely, the input values are vertices of a finite graph G and the goal is to output vertices that are within distance d of each other in G, but still remain in the graph-induced convex hull of the input values. For d=0, the task reduces to consensus and cannot be solved with a deterministic algorithm in an asynchronous system even with a single crash fault. For any d >= 1, we show that the task is solvable in asynchronous systems when G is chordal and n > (omega+1)f, where omega is the clique number of G. In addition, we give the first Byzantine-tolerant algorithm for a variant of lattice agreement. For synchronous systems, we show tight resilience bounds for the exact variants of these and related tasks over a large class of combinatorial structures

An Overview of Transience Bounds in Max-Plus Algebra

We survey and discuss upper bounds on the length of the transient phase of max-plus linear systems and sequences of max-plus matrix powers. In particular, we explain how to extend a result by Nachtigall to yield a new approach for proving such bounds and we state an asymptotic tightness result by using an example given by Hartmann and Arguelles.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Universal scaling at non-thermal fixed points of a two-component Bose gas

Quasi-stationary far-from-equilibrium critical states of a two-component Bose gas are studied in two spatial dimensions. After the system has undergone an initial dynamical instability it approaches a non-thermal fixed point. At this critical point the structure of the gas is characterised by ensembles of (quasi-)topological defects such as vortices, skyrmions and solitons which give rise to universal power-law behaviour of momentum correlation functions. The resulting power-law spectra can be interpreted in terms of strong-wave-turbulence cascades driven by particle transport into long-wave-length excitations. Scaling exponents are determined on both sides of the miscible-immiscible transition controlled by the ratio of the intra-species to inter-species couplings. Making use of quantum turbulence methods, we explain the specific values of the exponents from the presence of transient (quasi-)topological defects.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

On the Tightness of Bounds for Transients of Weak CSR Expansions and Periodicity Transients of Critical Rows and Columns of Tropical Matrix Powers

We study the transients of matrices in max-plus algebra. Our approach is based on the weak CSR expansion. Using this expansion, the transient can be expressed by $\max\{T_1,T_2\}$, where $T_1$ is the weak CSR threshold and $T_2$ is the time after which the purely pseudoperiodic CSR terms start to dominate in the expansion. Various bounds have been derived for $T_1$ and $T_2$, naturally leading to the question which matrices, if any, attain these bounds. In the present paper we characterize the matrices attaining two particular bounds on $T_1$, which are generalizations of the bounds of Wielandt and Dulmage-Mendelsohn on the indices of non-weighted digraphs. This also leads to a characterization of tightness for the same bounds on the transients of critical rows and columns. The characterizations themselves are generalizations of those for the non-weighted case.Comment: 42 pages, 9 figure

Unfaithful Glitch Propagation in Existing Binary Circuit Models

We show that no existing continuous-time, binary value-domain model for digital circuits is able to correctly capture glitch propagation. Prominent examples of such models are based on pure delay channels (P), inertial delay channels (I), or the elaborate PID channels proposed by Bellido-D\'iaz et al. We accomplish our goal by considering the solvability/non-solvability border of a simple problem called Short-Pulse Filtration (SPF), which is closely related to arbitration and synchronization. On one hand, we prove that SPF is solvable in bounded time in any such model that provides channels with non-constant delay, like I and PID. This is in opposition to the impossibility of solving bounded SPF in real (physical) circuit models. On the other hand, for binary circuit models with constant-delay channels, we prove that SPF cannot be solved even in unbounded time; again in opposition to physical circuit models. Consequently, indeed none of the binary value-domain models proposed so far (and that we are aware of) faithfully captures glitch propagation of real circuits. We finally show that these modeling mismatches do not hold for the weaker eventual SPF problem.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure

Superfluid Turbulence: Nonthermal Fixed Point in an Ultracold Bose Gas

Nonthermal fixed points of far-from-equilibrium dynamics of a dilute degenerate Bose gas are analysed in two and three spatial dimensions. For such systems, universal power-law distributions, previously found within a nonperturbative quantum-field theoretic approach, are shown to be related to vortical dynamics and superfluid turbulence. The results imply an interpretation of the momentum scaling at the nonthermal fixed points in terms of independent vortex excitations of the superfluid. Long-wavelength acoustic excitations on the top of these are found to follow a non-thermal power law. The results shed light on fundamental aspects of superfluid turbulence and have strong potential implications for related phenomena studied, e.g., in early-universe inflation or quark-gluon plasma dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Weak CSR expansions and transience bounds in max-plus algebra

This paper aims to unify and extend existing techniques for deriving upper bounds on the transient of max-plus matrix powers. To this aim, we introduce the concept of weak CSR expansions: A^t=CS^tR + B^t. We observe that most of the known bounds (implicitly) take the maximum of (i) a bound for the weak CSR expansion to hold, which does not depend on the values of the entries of the matrix but only on its pattern, and (ii) a bound for the CS^tR term to dominate. To improve and analyze (i), we consider various cycle replacement techniques and show that some of the known bounds for indices and exponents of digraphs apply here. We also show how to make use of various parameters of digraphs. To improve and analyze (ii), we introduce three different kinds of weak CSR expansions (named after Nachtigall, Hartman-Arguelles, and Cycle Threshold). As a result, we obtain a collection of bounds, in general incomparable to one another, but better than the bounds found in the literature.Comment: 32 page