Microscopic Theory of Damon-Eshbach Modes in Ferromagnetic Films

The surface spin wave branches in ferromagnetic films are studied using a microscopic theory which considers both magnetic dipole-dipole and Heisenberg exchange interactions. The dipole terms are expressed in a Hamiltonian formalism, and the dipole sums are calculated in a rapidly convergent form. The Damon-Eshbach surface modes are analyzed for different directions of the spin-wave propagation and also for different ratios of the strength of the dipole interactions relative to the exchange interactions. Numerical results are presented using parameters for Fe and GdCl$_3$.Comment: 9 pages including figures, Revtex, to appear in the proceedings of the ICM 200

Brazilian elections: voting for a scaling democracy

The proportional elections held in Brazil in 1998 and 2002 display identical statistical signatures. In particular, the distribution of votes among candidates includes a power-law regimen. We suggest that the rationale behind this robust scaling invariance is a multiplicative process in which the voter's choice for a candidate is governed by a product of probabilities.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Spatial correlations in vote statistics: a diffusive field model for decision-making

We study the statistics of turnout rates and results of the French elections since 1992. We find that the distribution of turnout rates across towns is surprisingly stable over time. The spatial correlation of the turnout rates, or of the fraction of winning votes, is found to decay logarithmically with the distance between towns. Based on these empirical observations and on the analogy with a two-dimensional random diffusion equation, we propose that individual decisions can be rationalised in terms of an underlying "cultural" field, that locally biases the decision of the population of a given region, on top of an idiosyncratic, town-dependent field, with short range correlations. Using symmetry considerations and a set of plausible assumptions, we suggest that this cultural field obeys a random diffusion equation.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; added sociophysics references

Antisymmetric Tensor Fields in Randall Sundrum Thick Branes

In this article we study the issue of localization of the three-form field in a Randall-Sundrum-like scenario. We simulate our membrane by kinks embedded in D=5, describing the usual case (not deformed) and new models coming from a specific deformation procedure. The gravitational background regarded includes the dilaton contribution. We show that we can only localize the zero-mode of this field for a specific range of the dilaton coupling, even in the deformed case. A study about resonances is presented. We use a numerical approach for calculations of the transmission coefficients associated to the quantum mechanical problem. This gives a clear description of the physics involved in the model. We find in this way that the appearance of resonances is strongly dependent on the coupling constant. We study the cases $p=1,3$ and 5 for $\alpha=-1.75$ and $\alpha=-20$. The first value of $\alpha$ give us one resonance peak for $p=1$ and no resonances for $p=3,5$. The second value of $\alpha$ give us a very rich structure of resonances, with number deppending on the value of $p$.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Pattern Selection in a Phase Field Model for Directional Solidification

A symmetric phase field model is used to study wavelength selection in two dimensions. We study the problem in a finite system using a two-pronged approach. First we construct an action and, minimizing this, we obtain the most probable configuration of the system, which we identify with the selected stationary state. The minimization is constrained by the stationary solutions of stochastic evolution equations and is done numerically. Secondly, additional support for this selected state is obtained from straightforward simulations of the dynamics from a variety of initial states.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Physica

Variational Principle underlying Scale Invariant Social Systems

MaxEnt's variational principle, in conjunction with Shannon's logarithmic information measure, yields only exponential functional forms in straightforward fashion. In this communication we show how to overcome this limitation via the incorporation, into the variational process, of suitable dynamical information. As a consequence, we are able to formulate a somewhat generalized Shannonian Maximum Entropy approach which provides a unifying "thermodynamic-like" explanation for the scale-invariant phenomena observed in social contexts, as city-population distributions. We confirm the MaxEnt predictions by means of numerical experiments with random walkers, and compare them with some empirical data

Unravelling the size distribution of social groups with information theory on complex networks

The minimization of Fisher's information (MFI) approach of Frieden et al. [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 60} 48 (1999)] is applied to the study of size distributions in social groups on the basis of a recently established analogy between scale invariant systems and classical gases [arXiv:0908.0504]. Going beyond the ideal gas scenario is seen to be tantamount to simulating the interactions taking place in a network's competitive cluster growth process. We find a scaling rule that allows to classify the final cluster-size distributions using only one parameter that we call the competitiveness. Empirical city-size distributions and electoral results can be thus reproduced and classified according to this competitiveness, which also allows to correctly predict well-established assessments such as the "six-degrees of separation", which is shown here to be a direct consequence of the maximum number of stable social relationships that one person can maintain, known as Dunbar's number. Finally, we show that scaled city-size distributions of large countries follow the same universal distribution

Potts model with q=3 and 4 states on directed Small-World network

Monte Carlo simulations are performed to study the two-dimensional Potts models with q=3 and 4 states on directed Small-World network. The disordered system is simulated applying the Heat bath Monte Carlo update algorithm. A first-order and second-order phase transition is found for q=3 depending on the rewiring probability $p$, but for q=4 the system presents only a first-order phase transition for any value $p$ . This critical behavior is different from the Potts model on a square lattice, where the second-order phase transition is present for $q\le4$ and a first-order phase transition is present for q>4.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1001.184