Critical dynamics and fluctuations for a mean-field model of cooperative behavior

The main objective of this paper is to examine in some detail the dynamics and fluctuations in the critical situation for a simple model exhibiting bistable macroscopic behavior. The model under consideration is a dynamic model of a collection of anharmonic oscillators in a two-well potential together with an attractive mean-field interaction. The system is studied in the limit as the number of oscillators goes to infinity. The limit is described by a nonlinear partial differential equation and the existence of a phase transition for this limiting system is established. The main result deals with the fluctuations at the critical point in the limit as the number of oscillators goes to infinity. It is established that these fluctuations are non-Gaussian and occur at a time scale slower than the noncritical fluctuations. The method used is based on the perturbation theory for Markov processes developed by Papanicolaou, Stroock, and Varadhan adapted to the context of probability-measure-valued processes.     

Spectral fluctuations and 1/f noise in the order-chaos transition regime

Level fluctuations in a quantum system have been used to characterize quantum chaos using random matrix models. Recently time series methods were used to relate the level fluctuations to the classical dynamics in the regular and chaotic limit. In this, we show that the spectrum of the system undergoing order to chaos transition displays a characteristic f(-gamma) noise and gamma is correlated with the classical chaos in the system. We demonstrate this using a smooth potential and a time-dependent system modeled by Gaussian and circular ensembles, respectively, of random matrix theory. We show the effect of short periodic orbits on these fluctuation measures.     

Collapse and revival of glycolytic oscillation

Glycolysis is the major source of metabolic energy in almost all living cells. A key feature of the glycolytic oscillations is their critical control by substrate injection rate. We show that in the limit of weak noise of the fluctuating substrate injection rate a new instability arises in the dynamics leading to collapse and revival of glycolytic oscillation reminiscent of "bursting" of action potential in nerve cells. The dynamical system in this limit also exhibits an interesting mirror image symmetry between growth and decay of fluctuations of the reaction product.     

Dynamics of freely cooling granular gases

We study dynamics of freely cooling granular gases in two dimensions using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. We find that for dilute systems the typical kinetic energy decays algebraically with time, E(t) approximately t(-1), and velocity statistics are characterized by a universal Gaussian distribution in the long time limit. We show that in the late clustering regime particles move coherently as typical local velocity fluctuations, Deltav, are small compared with the typical velocity, Deltav/v approximately t(-1/4). Furthermore, locally averaged shear modes dominate over acoustic modes. The small thermal velocity fluctuations suggest that the system can be heuristically described by Burgers-like equations.     

Delay control of coherence resonance in type-I excitable dynamics

We consider a simple paradigmatic system of type-I excitability subject to noise and time-delayed feedback. This system is governed by a global bifurcation, namely a saddle-node bifurcation on a limit cycle. In the absence of noise, delay can induce complex dynamics including multiple stable and unstable periodic orbits. Random fluctuations result in coherence resonance in dependence on the noise strength. We show that this effect can be enhanced by delayed feedback control with suitably chosen feedback strength and time delay.     

Intermittent dynamics of critical fluctuations

We argue that the fluctuations of the order parameter in a complex system at the critical point can be described in terms of intermittent dynamics of type I. Based on this observation we develop an algorithm to calculate the isothermal critical exponent delta for a "thermal" critical system. We apply successfully our approach to the 3D Ising model. The intermittent character of these "critical" dynamics guides to the introduction of a new exponent which extends the notion of the exponent delta to nonthermal systems.     

Glauber dynamics of fluctuations

We derive the time evolution of the normal fluctuations of a classical lattice spin system induced by a generalized Glauber dynamics. The canonical form of this dynamics is derived. We prove that it is asymptotically (i.e., after the central limit) free. The results are applied to give a rigorous proof of the macroscopic reciprocity relations and the linear theory for small deviations from equilibrium.     

Level Dynamics and Universality of Spectral Fluctuations

The spectral fluctuations of quantum (or wave) systems with a chaotic classical (or ray) limit are mostly universal and faithful to random-matrix theory. Taking up ideas of Pechukas and Yukawa we show that equilibrium statistical mechanics for the fictitious gas of particles associated with the parametric motion of levels yields spectral fluctuations of the random-matrix type. Previously known clues to that goal are an appropriate equilibrium ensemble and a certain ergodicity of level dynamics. We here complete the reasoning by establishing a power law for the dependence of the mean parametric separation of avoided level crossings. Due to that law universal spectral fluctuations emerge as average behavior of a family of quantum dynamics drawn from a control parameter interval which becomes vanishingly small in the classical limit; the family thus corresponds to a single classical system. We also argue that classically integrable dynamics cannot produce universal spectral fluctuations since their level dynamics resembles a nearly ideal Pechukas–Yukawa gas.     

A Central Limit Theorem in Many-Body Quantum Dynamics

We study the many body quantum evolution of bosonic systems in the mean field limit. The dynamics is known to be well approximated by the Hartree equation. So far, the available results have the form of a law of large numbers. In this paper we go one step further and we show that the fluctuations around the Hartree evolution satisfy a central limit theorem. Interestingly, the variance of the limiting Gaussian distribution is determined by a time-dependent Bogoliubov transformation describing the dynamics of initial coherent states in a Fock space representation of the system.     

The Influence of Quantum Field Fluctuations on Chaotic Dynamics of Yang–Mills System

Abstract

On example of the model field system we demonstrate that quantum fluctuations of non-abelian gauge fields leading to radiative corrections to Higgs potential and spontaneous symmetry breaking can generate order region in phase space of inherently chaotic classical field system. We demonstrate on the example of another model field system that quantum fluctuations do not influence on the chaotic dynamics of non-abelian Yang–Mills fields if the ratio of bare coupling constants of Yang–Mills and Higgs fields is larger then some critical value. This critical value is estimated.     

Scaling,propagation, and kinetic roughening of flame fronts in random media

We introduce a model of two coupled reaction-diffusion equations to describe the dynamics and propagation of flame fronts in random media. The model incorporates heat diffusion, its dissipation, and its production through coupling to the background reactant density. We first show analytically and numerically that there is a finite critical value of the background density below which the front associated with the temperature field stops propagating. The critical exponents associated with this transition are shown to be consistent with meanfield theory of percolation. Second, we study the kinetic roughening associated with a moving planar flame front above the critical density. By numerically calculating the time-dependent width and equal-time height correlation function of the front, we demonstrate that the roughening process belongs to the universality class of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang interface equation. Finally, we show how this interface equation can be analytically derived from our model in the limit of almost uniform background density.     

Quantum speed limits for Bell-diagonal states

The lower bounds of the evolution time between two distinguishable states of a system, defined as quantum speed limit time, can characterize the maximal speed of quantum computers and communication channels. We study the quantum speed limit time between the composite quantum states and their target states in the presence of nondissipative decoherence.For the initial states with maximally mixed marginals, we obtain the exact expressions of the quantum speed limit time which mainly depend on the parameters of the initial states and the decoherence channels. Furthermore, by calculating the quantum speed limit time for the time-dependent states started from a class of initial states, we discover that the quantum speed limit time gradually decreases in time, and the decay rate of the quantum speed limit time would show a sudden change at a certain critical time. Interestingly, at the same critical time, the composite system dynamics would exhibit a sudden transition from classical decoherence to quantum decoherence.     

The Theory of Individual Based Discrete-Time Processes

A general theory is developed to study individual based models which are discrete in time. We begin by constructing a Markov chain model that converges to a one-dimensional map in the infinite population limit. Stochastic fluctuations are hence intrinsic to the system and can induce qualitative changes to the dynamics predicted from the deterministic map. From the Chapman–Kolmogorov equation for the discrete-time Markov process, we derive the analogues of the Fokker–Planck equation and the Langevin equation, which are routinely employed for continuous time processes. In particular, a stochastic difference equation is derived which accurately reproduces the results found from the Markov chain model. Stochastic corrections to the deterministic map can be quantified by linearizing the fluctuations around the attractor of the map. The proposed scheme is tested on stochastic models which have the logistic and Ricker maps as their deterministic limits.     

Fluctuations and simple chaotic dynamics

We describe the effects of fluctuations on the period-doubling bifurcation to chaos. We study the dynamics of maps of the interval in the absence of noise and numerically verify the scaling behavior of the Lyapunov characteristic exponent near the transition to chaos. As previously shown, fluctuations produce a gap in the period-doubling bifurcation sequence. We show that this implies a scaling behavior for the chaotic threshold and determine the associated critical exponent. By considering fluctuations as a disordering field on the deterministic dynamics, we obtain scaling relations between various critical exponents relating the effect of noise on the Lyapunov characteristic exponent. A rule is developed to explain the effects of additive noise at fixed parameter value from the deterministic dynamics at nearby parameter values.     

Power fluctuations in a closed turbulent shear flow

We study experimentally the power consumption P of a confined turbulent flow at constant Reynolds number Re. We analyze in details its temporal dynamics and statistical properties, in a setup that covers two decades in Reynolds numbers. We show that nontrivial power fluctuations occur over a wide range of amplitudes and that they involve coherent fluid motions over the entire system size. As a result, the power fluctuations do not result from averaging of independent subsystems and its probability density function Pi(P) is strongly non-Gaussian. The shape of Pi(P) is Reynolds number independant and we show that the relative intensity of fluctuations decreases very slowly as Re increases. These results are discussed in terms of an analogy with critical phenomena.     

Localization of toric code defects

We explore the possibility of passive error correction in the toric code model. We first show that even coherent dynamics, stemming from spin interactions or the coupling to an external magnetic field, lead to logical errors. We then argue that Anderson localization of the defects, arising from unavoidable fluctuations of the coupling constants, provides a remedy. This protection is demonstrated by using general analytical arguments that are complemented with numerical results which show that self-correcting memory can in principle be achieved in the limit of a nonzero density of identical defects.     

Phase space representation of quantum dynamics

We discuss a phase space representation of quantum dynamics of systems with many degrees of freedom. This representation is based on a perturbative expansion in quantum fluctuations around one of the classical limits. We explicitly analyze expansions around three such limits: (i) corpuscular or Newtonian limit in the coordinate-momentum representation, (ii) wave or Gross-Pitaevskii limit for interacting bosons in the coherent state representation, and (iii) Bloch limit for the spin systems. We discuss both the semiclassical (truncated Wigner) approximation and further quantum corrections appearing in the form of either stochastic quantum jumps along the classical trajectories or the nonlinear response to such jumps. We also discuss how quantum jumps naturally emerge in the analysis of non-equal time correlation functions. This representation of quantum dynamics is closely related to the phase space methods based on the Wigner-Weyl quantization and to the Keldysh technique. We show how such concepts as the Wigner function, Weyl symbol, Moyal product, Bopp operators, and others automatically emerge from the Feynmann's path integral representation of the evolution in the Heisenberg representation. We illustrate the applicability of this expansion with various examples mostly in the context of cold atom systems including sine-Gordon model, one- and two-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model, Dicke model and others.     

Stochastic simulation of variations in the autoignition delay time of premixed methane and air

A mesoscopic stochastic particle model for homogeneous combustion is introduced. The model can be used to investigate the physical fluctuations in a system of coupled chemical reactions with energy (heat) release/consumption. In the mesoscopic model, the size of the homogeneous gas volume is an additional variable, which is eliminated in macroscopic continuum models by the thermodynamic limit N→∞. Thus, continuous homogeneous models are macroscopic models wherein fluctuations are excluded by definition. Fluctuations are known to be of particular importance for systems close to the autoignition limits. The new model is used to investigate the stochastic properties of the autoignition delay time in a homogeneous system with stoichiometric premixed methane and air. Temperature and species concentrations during autoignition of sub-macroscopic volumes, including physically meaningful fluctuations, are presented. It is found that different realizations mainly differ in the time when ignition occurs; besides this the development is similar. The mesoscopic range and the macroscopic limit are identified. Which range a specific system is assigned to is not only a question of the length scale or particle number, but also depends on the complete thermodynamic state. The stochastic algorithm yields the correct results for the macroscopic limit compared to the continuous balance equations. The sensitivity of the results to two different detailed reaction mechanisms (for the same system) is studied and found to be low. We show that when approaching the autoignition limit by decreasing the temperature, the fluctuations in the autoignition delay time increase and an increasing number of realizations will have exceedingly long ignition delay times, meaning they are in practice not autoignitable. With this result the mesoscopic simulations offer an explanation of the transition between autoignitable and non-autoignitable conditions. The calculated distributions were compared with ten repetitions of the same experiment. A mesoscopic distribution that matches the experimental results was found.