Some impressions of a visit to parts of the South Island, June 1962

In June, 1962, at the invitation of the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute of New Zealand, I inspected parts of the South Island (Appendix 1), to make comparisons between high mountain areas of Australia and tussock grassland and mountain areas of New Zealand (Appendix 2) and thereby gain a clearer understanding of New Zealand problems. The inspections were arranged and conducted by the Director of the Institute, Mr L. W. McCaskill, usually in conjunction with other workers, runholders and administrators concerned with high country problems. Despite the necessarily selective nature of the visit, both as regards places and people, a reasonable cross-section of country, problems and opinions was encountered which, with recollections of an earlier visit in 1951, permitted some impressions to be formed. What is the solution to the deteriorated condition of New Zealand tussock grasslands and mountain lands, as manifest in many ways such as soil erosion, stream aggradation, flooding, weed and pest invasion, and declining stock-carrying capacity? Since there is a common denominator to most of these areas-tussock grassland-universal solution is sometimes expected. But the environment is so diverse, especially as regards topography, altitude and associated climate that no one solution can be possible and the illusion is best forgotten. There are many problems and each may require a separate solution. There is little point is discussing the many day-to-day problems with which New Zealand workers are already fully familiar, such as the need for cheaper effective fencing, and feral animal and weed control. The basic question is the determination of correct land use and this is the issue which is considered here

When is a bottleneck a bottleneck?

Bottlenecks, i.e. local reductions of capacity, are one of the most relevant scenarios of traffic systems. The asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) with a defect is a minimal model for such a bottleneck scenario. One crucial question is "What is the critical strength of the defect that is required to create global effects, i.e. traffic jams localized at the defect position". Intuitively one would expect that already an arbitrarily small bottleneck strength leads to global effects in the system, e.g. a reduction of the maximal current. Therefore it came as a surprise when, based on computer simulations, it was claimed that the reaction of the system depends in non-continuous way on the defect strength and weak defects do not have a global influence on the system. Here we reconcile intuition and simulations by showing that indeed the critical defect strength is zero. We discuss the implications for the analysis of empirical and numerical data.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in the proceedings of Traffic and Granular Flow '1

Decay versus survival of a localized state subjected to harmonic forcing: exact results

We investigate the survival probability of a localized 1-d quantum particle subjected to a time dependent potential of the form $rU(x)\sin{\omega t}$ with $U(x)=2\delta (x-a)$ or $U(x)= 2\delta(x-a)-2\delta (x+a)$. The particle is initially in a bound state produced by the binding potential $-2\delta (x)$. We prove that this probability goes to zero as $t\to\infty$ for almost all values of $r$, $\omega$, and $a$. The decay is initially exponential followed by a $t^{-3}$ law if $\omega$ is not close to resonances and $r$ is small; otherwise the exponential disappears and Fermi's golden rule fails. For exceptional sets of parameters $r,\omega$ and $a$ the survival probability never decays to zero, corresponding to the Floquet operator having a bound state. We show similar behavior even in the absence of a binding potential: permitting a free particle to be trapped by harmonically oscillating delta function potential

Zeros of the i.i.d. Gaussian power series: a conformally invariant determinantal process

Consider the zero set of the random power series f(z)=sum a_n z^n with i.i.d. complex Gaussian coefficients a_n. We show that these zeros form a determinantal process: more precisely, their joint intensity can be written as a minor of the Bergman kernel. We show that the number of zeros of f in a disk of radius r about the origin has the same distribution as the sum of independent {0,1}-valued random variables X_k, where P(X_k=1)=r^{2k}. Moreover, the set of absolute values of the zeros of f has the same distribution as the set {U_k^{1/2k}} where the U_k are i.i.d. random variables uniform in [0,1]. The repulsion between zeros can be studied via a dynamic version where the coefficients perform Brownian motion; we show that this dynamics is conformally invariant.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures, updated proof

On Eigenvalues of the sum of two random projections

We study the behavior of eigenvalues of matrix P_N + Q_N where P_N and Q_N are two N -by-N random orthogonal projections. We relate the joint eigenvalue distribution of this matrix to the Jacobi matrix ensemble and establish the universal behavior of eigenvalues for large N. The limiting local behavior of eigenvalues is governed by the sine kernel in the bulk and by either the Bessel or the Airy kernel at the edge depending on parameters. We also study an exceptional case when the local behavior of eigenvalues of P_N + Q_N is not universal in the usual sense.Comment: 14 page

Finite N Fluctuation Formulas for Random Matrices

For the Gaussian and Laguerre random matrix ensembles, the probability density function (p.d.f.) for the linear statistic $\sum_{j=1}^N (x_j - )$ is computed exactly and shown to satisfy a central limit theorem as $N \to \infty$. For the circular random matrix ensemble the p.d.f.'s for the linear statistics ${1 \over 2} \sum_{j=1}^N (\theta_j - \pi)$ and $- \sum_{j=1}^N \log 2|\sin \theta_j/2|$ are calculated exactly by using a constant term identity from the theory of the Selberg integral, and are also shown to satisfy a central limit theorem as $N \to \infty$.Comment: LaTeX 2.09, 11 pages + 3 eps figs (needs epsf.sty

Transition probabilities in the X(5) candidate 122^{122}Ba

To investigate the possible X(5) character of 122Ba, suggested by the ground state band energy pattern, the lifetimes of the lowest yrast states of 122Ba have been measured, via the Recoil Distance Doppler-Shift method. The relevant levels have been populated by using the 108Cd(16O,2n)122Ba and the 112Sn(13C,3n)122Ba reactions. The B(E2) values deduced in the present work are compared to the predictions of the X(5) model and to calculations performed in the framework of the IBA-1 and IBA-2 models

Functional limit theorems for random regular graphs

Consider d uniformly random permutation matrices on n labels. Consider the sum of these matrices along with their transposes. The total can be interpreted as the adjacency matrix of a random regular graph of degree 2d on n vertices. We consider limit theorems for various combinatorial and analytical properties of this graph (or the matrix) as n grows to infinity, either when d is kept fixed or grows slowly with n. In a suitable weak convergence framework, we prove that the (finite but growing in length) sequences of the number of short cycles and of cyclically non-backtracking walks converge to distributional limits. We estimate the total variation distance from the limit using Stein's method. As an application of these results we derive limits of linear functionals of the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix. A key step in this latter derivation is an extension of the Kahn-Szemer\'edi argument for estimating the second largest eigenvalue for all values of d and n.Comment: Added Remark 27. 39 pages. To appear in Probability Theory and Related Field

Modal Series Expansions for Plane Gravitational Waves

[EN] Propagation of gravitational disturbances at the speed of light is one of the key predictions of the General Theory of Relativity. This result is now backed indirectly by the observations of the behavior of the ephemeris of binary pulsar systems. These new results have increased the interest in the mathematical theory of gravitational waves in the last decades, and severalmathematical approaches have been developed for a better understanding of the solutions. In this paper we develop a modal series expansion technique in which solutions can be built for plane waves from a seed integrable function. The convergence of these series is proven by the Raabe-Duhamel criteria, and we show that these solutions are characterized by a well-defined and finite curvature tensor and also a finite energy content.Acedo Rodríguez, L. (2016). Modal Series Expansions for Plane Gravitational Waves. Gravitation and Cosmology. 22(3):251-257. doi:10.1134/S0202289316030026S251257223A. Einstein and N. Rosen, Journal of the Franklin Institute 223, 43–54 (1937).N. Rosen, Gen. Rel. Grav. 10, 351–364 (1979).C. Sivaram, Bull. Astr. Soc. India 23, 77–83 (1995).J. M. Weisberg, D. J. Nice, and J. H. Taylor, Astroph. J. 722, 1030–1034(2010); arXiv: 1011.0718.B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016).J. B. Griffiths, Colliding waves in general relativity (Clarendon, Oxford, 1991).S. Chandrasekhar, The mathematical theory of black holes (Clarendon, Oxford, 1983).D. Bini, V. Ferrari and J. Ibañez, Nuovo Cim. B 103, 29–44 (1989).L. Acedo, G. González-Parra, and A. J. Arenas, Nonlinear Analysis: Real World Applications 11, 1819–1825 (2010).L. Acedo, G. González-Parra, and A. J. Arenas, Physica A 389, 1151–1157 (2010).G. González-Parra, L. Acedo, and A. J. Arenas, Numerical Algorithms, published online 2013. doi 10.1007/s11075-013-9776-xW. Rindler, Relativity: Special, General and Cosmological, 2nd ed. (Oxford Univ., New York, 2006).G. Arfken, Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 3rd. ed. (Academic, Orlando, Florida, 1985).L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, The Classical Theory of Fields, 3rd ed. (Pergamon, New York, 1971).O. Costin, “Topological construction of transseries and introduction to generalized Borel summability,” in Analyzable Functions and Applications, Ed. by O. Costin, M. D. Kruskal, and A. Macintyre, Contemp. Math. 373 (Providence, RI, USA: Am. Math. Soc., 2005); arXiv: math/0608309.S. R. Coleman, Phys. Lett. B 70, 59–60 (1977).W. B. Campbell and T. A. Morgan, Phys. Lett. B 84, 87–88 (1979).A. S. Rabinowitch, Int. J. Adv. Math. Sciences 1 (3), 109–121 (2013).A. Feinstein and J. Ibañez, Phys. Rev. D 39 (2), 470–473 (1989)