The song of dunes as a wave-particle mode locking

Singing dunes, which emit a loud sound as they avalanche, constitute a striking and poorly understood natural phenomenon. We show that, on the one hand, avalanches excite elastic waves at the surface of the dune, whose vibration produces the coherent acoustic emission in the air. The amplitude of the sound (approximately 105 dB) saturates exactly when the vibration makes the grains take off the flowing layer. On the other hand, we show that the sound frequency (approximately 100 Hz) is controlled by the shear rate inside the sand avalanche, which for granular matter is equivalent to the mean rate at which grains make collisions. This proves the existence of a feedback of elastic waves on particle motion, leading to a partial synchronization of the avalanching sand grains. It suggests that the song of dunes results from a wave-particle mode locking.     

Dynamics of bootstrap percolation

Bootstrap percolation transition may be first order or second order, or it may have a mixed character where a first-order drop in the order parameter is preceded by critical fluctuations. Recent studies have indicated that the mixed transition is characterized by power-law avalanches, while the continuous transition is characterized by truncated avalanches in a related sequential bootstrap process. We explain this behaviour on the basis of an analytical and numerical study of the avalanche distributions on a Bethe lattice.      

Laboratory singing sand avalanches

Some desert sand dunes have the peculiar ability to emit a loud sound up to 110 dB, with a well-defined frequency: this phenomenon, known since early travelers (Darwin, Marco Polo, etc.), has been called the song of dunes. But only in late 19th century scientific observations were made, showing three important characteristics of singing dunes: first, not all dunes sing, but all the singing dunes are composed of dry and well-sorted sand; second, this sound occurs spontaneously during avalanches on a slip face; third this is not the only way to produce sound with this sand.More recent field observations have shown that during avalanches, the sound frequency does not depend on the dune size or shape, but on the grain diameter only, and scales as the square root of g/d - with g the gravity and d the diameter of the grains - explaining why all the singing dunes in the same vicinity sing at the same frequency.We have been able to reproduce these singing avalanches in laboratory on a hard plate, which made possible to study them more accurately than on the field. Signals of accelerometers at the flowing surface of the avalanche are compared to signals of microphones placed above, and it evidences a very strong vibration of the flowing layer at the same frequency as on the field, responsible for the emission of sound.Moreover, other characteristics of the booming dunes are reproduced and analyzed, such as a threshold under which no sound is produced, or beats in the sound that appears when the flow is too large. Finally, the size of the coherence zones emitting sound has been measured and discussed.     

对风沙输运中起跳沙粒运动状态分布的讨论

本文用Lagrange方法结合起跳沙粒初始运动状态分布模拟了稳态风沙输运过程。根据已有的对地表沙粒撞击起跳现象的研究成果,列出四种典型的沙粒起跳初始运动状态分布形式。将在各分布形式下模拟得到的宏观量与风洞实验测量得到的宏观量的变化规律相比较,通过考察依据各分布形式所作数值模拟得到的风沙宏观运动的特征量与实验测量结果的一致程度,得到了其中较合理的分布形式。分析表明稳定风沙输运中起跳沙粒的初始速度和角度的分布曲线均应为一单调下降曲线,根据实验数据本文构造出由指数分布和正态分布组成的分段函数形式来描述这一曲线。并通过进一步的实验验证了这一分布形式的合理性。     

Stochastic Dynamics of Reduced Wave Functions and Continuous Measurement in Quantum Optics

The stochastic dynamics of open quantum systems interacting with a zero temperature environment is investigated by employing a formulation of quantum statistical ensembles in terms of probability distributions on projective Hilbert space. It is demonstrated that the open system dynamics can consistently be described by a stochastic process on the reduced state space. The physical meaning of reduced probability distributions on projective Hilbert space is derived from a complete, orthogonal measurement of the environment. The elimination of the variables of the environment is shown to lead to a piecewise deterministic process in Hilbert space defined by a differential Chapman-Kolmogorov equation. A Hilbert space path integral representation of the stochastic process is constructed. The general theory is illustrated by means of three examples from quantum optics. For these examples the microscopic derivation of the stochastic process is given and the general solution of the differential Chapman-Kolmogorov equation is constructed by means of the path integral representation.     

Some exact results on discrete noisy maps

Using the Chapman-Kolmogorov type equation introduced by H. Haken and G. Mayer-Kress for discrete time processes we derive forward and backward equations for the corresponding transition probability and obtain an integral equation for the conditional first passage time. In the case of linear dynamics with Gaussian noise we present the exact solution of the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation.     

Singular Boundaries in the Forward Chapman-Kolmogorov Differential Equation

The forward Chapman-Kolmogorov differential equation is used to model the time evolution of the Probability Density Function of fluctuations. This equation may be restricted to either Master, Fokker-Planck or Liouville equations. A derivation of the Liouville equation with possible singular boundary conditions has already been presented in a previous publication (Valiño and Hierro in Phys. Rev. E 67:046310, 2003). In this paper, that derivation is extended to the full Chapman-Kolmogorov differential equation.     

Corrections to scaling and probability distribution of avalanches for the stochastic Zhang sandpile model

We study the distributions of dissipative and nondissipative avalanches separately in the stochastic Zhang (SP-Z) sandpile in two dimension. We find that dissipative and nondissipative avalanches obey simple power laws and do not have the logarithmic correction, while the avalanche distributions in the Abelian Manna model should include a logarithmic correction. We use the moment analysis to determine the numerical critical exponents of dissipative and nondissipative avalanches, respectively, and find that they are different from the corresponding values in the Abelian Manna model. All these indicate that the stochastic Zhang model and the Abelian Manna model belong to distinct universality classes, which imply that the Abelian symmetry breaking changes the scaling behavior of the avalanches in the case of the stochastic sandpile model.     

Two scenarios for avalanche dynamics in inclined granular layers

We report experimental measurements of avalanche behavior of thin granular layers on an inclined plane for low volume flow rate. The dynamical properties of avalanches were quantitatively and qualitatively different for smooth glass beads compared to irregular granular materials such as sand. Two scenarios for granular avalanches on an incline are identified, and a theoretical explanation for these different scenarios is developed based on a depth-averaged approach that takes into account the differing rheologies of the granular materials.     

Scaling of waves in the bak-tang-wiesenfeld sandpile model

We study probability distributions of waves of topplings in the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model on hypercubic lattices for dimensions D>/=2. Waves represent relaxation processes which do not contain multiple toppling events. We investigate bulk and boundary waves by means of their correspondence to spanning trees, and by extensive numerical simulations. While the scaling behavior of avalanches is complex and usually not governed by simple scaling laws, we show that the probability distributions for waves display clear power-law asymptotic behavior in perfect agreement with the analytical predictions. Critical exponents are obtained for the distributions of radius, area, and duration of bulk and boundary waves. Relations between them and fractal dimensions of waves are derived. We confirm that the upper critical dimension D(u) of the model is 4, and calculate logarithmic corrections to the scaling behavior of waves in D=4. In addition, we present analytical estimates for bulk avalanches in dimensions D>/=4 and simulation data for avalanches in D相似文献   

Effect of the ion slip on the MHD flow of a dusty fluid with heat transfer under exponential decaying pressure gradient

In the present study, the unsteady Hartmann flow with heat transfer of a dusty viscous incompressible electrically conducting fluid under the influence of an exponentially decreasing pressure gradient is studied without neglecting the ion slip. The parallel plates are assumed to be porous and subjected to a uniform suction from above and injection from below while the fluid is acted upon by an external uniform magnetic field applied perpendicular to the plates. The equations of motion are solved analytically to yield the velocity distributions for both the fluid and dust particles. The energy equations for both the fluid and dust particles including the viscous and Joule dissipation terms, are solved numerically using finite differences to get the temperature distributions.     

Self-Organization in a Granular Medium by Internal Avalanches

Internal avalanches of grain displacements can be created inside a granular material kept in a bin in two ways: (i) by removing a randomly selected grain at the bottom of the bin; and (ii) by breaking a stable arch of grains clogging a hole at the bottom of the bin. Repeated generation of such avalanches leads the system to a steady state. It is relevant to ask whether this state is a critical state, as in self-organized criticality (SOC). We review here some recent studies of this problem using cellular automata and hard-disc models.     

Effects of pair correlation on mean-field theory of BTW sand pile model

We extend the mean-field calculation of BTW sand pile model to one that includes the correlation between pairs of nearest neighbors. Specifically, we derive dynamical equations of both one-site and two-site densities, and solve the equations order by order starting with the mean-field solution. The investigation provides analytical results for both stationary and dynamic states of the sand pile near the critical point, which are valid in the regime where h?ε²?1 (h= incoming rate of sand grains, ε=bulk dissipation rate of sand grains). In the stationary case, we evaluate the pair correlation and the correction to the mean-field single-site densities due to the correlation. The correction is found to be of the same order as the mean-field solution. In the dynamic case, the initial state deviates from the stationary state by a small fluctuation, which subsequently decays exponentially, with the time constant being reduced from the corresponding mean-field value. Again, the correction to the time constant in this case is found comparable to the mean-field value itself.     

Dynamical and spatial aspects of sandpile cellular automata

The Bak, Tang, and Wiesenfeld cellular automaton is simulated in 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 dimensions. We define a (new) set of scaling exponents by introducing the concept of conditional expectation values. Scaling relations are derived and checked numerically and the critical dimension is discussed. We address the problem of the mass dimension of the avalanches and find that the avalanches are noncompact for dimensions larger than 2. The scaling of the power spectrum derives from the assumption that the instantaneous dissipation rate of the individual avalanches obeys a simple scaling relation. Primarily, the results of our work show that the flow of sand down the slope does not have a 1/f power spectrum in any dimension, although the model does show clear critical behavior with scaling exponents depending on the dimension. The power spectrum behaves as 1/f ² in all the dimensions considered.     

Large-scale simulation of avalanche cluster distribution in sand pile model

The avalanche cluster distribution of the sand pile model of self-organized criticality is studied on the square lattice. A vectorized multispin coding algorithm is developed for this study with three bits per site. The exponents characterizing the size and the lifetime of the avalanches are slightly different from the previous estimates.     

Approximate solutions of the Liouville equation. III. Variational principles and projection operators

Aspects of stationary variational principles for the Laplace-transformed Liouville equation are discussed. Projection techniques are used to derive new stationary principles applicable to the space orthogonal to the space spanned by functions occurring in the conservation laws. As a result, any trial function automatically leads to results satisfying the conservation laws. The procedure is also applied to the parity-even and parity-odd distributions which obey equations governed by the square of the Liouville operator. The technique is extended to eliminate the one-body additive contribution to the solution exactly. Finally, the ideas of the moment method, which leads to the continued-fraction representation of autocorrelation functions, are applied to variational principles. We find continued-fraction variational principles such that a zero trial function yields the usual representation. However, a trial function representing noninteracting particles contains the results of the moment method and in addition yields the exact analytic behavior for free particles.Work supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.     

A model of Barchan dunes including lateral shear stress

Barchan dunes are found where sand availability is low and wind direction quite constant. The two dimensional shear stress of the wind field and the sand movement by saltation and avalanches over a barchan dune are simulated. The model with one dimensional shear stress is extended including surface diffusion and lateral shear stress. The resulting final shape is compared to the results of the model with a one dimensional shear stress and confirmed by comparison to measurements. We found agreement and improvements with respect to the model with one dimensional shear stress. Additionally, a characteristic edge at the center of the windward side is discovered which is also observed for big barchans. Diffusion effects reduce this effect for small dunes.     

Are dragon-king neuronal avalanches dungeons for self-organized brain activity?

Recent experiments have detected a novel form of spontaneous neuronal activity both in vitro and in vivo: neuronal avalanches. The statistical properties of this activity are typical of critical phenomena, with power laws characterizing the distributions of avalanche size and duration. A critical behaviour for the spontaneous brain activity has important consequences on stimulated activity and learning. Very interestingly, these statistical properties can be altered in significant ways in epilepsy and by pharmacological manipulations. In particular, there can be an increase in the number of large events anticipated by the power law, referred to herein as dragon-king avalanches. This behaviour, as verified by numerical models, can originate from a number of different mechanisms. For instance, it is observed experimentally that the emergence of a critical behaviour depends on the subtle balance between excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms acting in the system. Perturbing this balance, by increasing either synaptic excitation or the incidence of depolarized neuronal up-states causes frequent dragon-king avalanches. Conversely, an unbalanced GABAergic inhibition or long periods of low activity in the network give rise to sub-critical behaviour. Moreover, the existence of power laws, common to other stochastic processes, like earthquakes or solar flares, suggests that correlations are relevant in these phenomena. The dragon-king avalanches may then also be the expression of pathological correlations leading to frequent avalanches encompassing all neurons. We will review the statistics of neuronal avalanches in experimental systems. We then present numerical simulations of a neuronal network model introducing within the self-organized criticality framework ingredients from the physiology of real neurons, as the refractory period, synaptic plasticity and inhibitory synapses. The avalanche critical behaviour and the role of dragon-king avalanches will be discussed in relation to different drives, neuronal states and microscopic mechanisms of charge storage and release in neuronal networks.     

The Computational Complexity of Sandpiles

Journal of Statistical Physics - Given an initial distribution of sand in an Abelian sandpile, what final state does it relax to after all possible avalanches have taken place? In d≥3, we...     

Non-Markov stochastic processes satisfying equations usually associated with a Markov process

There are non-Markov Ito processes that satisfy the Fokker-Planck, backward time Kolmogorov, and Chapman-Kolmogorov equations. These processes are non-Markov in that they may remember an initial condition formed at the start of the ensemble. Some may even admit 1-point densities that satisfy a nonlinear 1-point diffusion equation. However, these processes are linear, the Fokker-Planck equation for the conditional density (the 2-point density) is linear. The memory may be in the drift coefficient (representing a flow), in the diffusion coefficient, or in both. We illustrate the phenomena via exactly solvable examples. In the last section we show how such memory may appear in cooperative phenomena.