Evidence of Scaling in Chinese Income Distribution

With income data from Chinese household income projects in 1998-2002, we study the functional form of Chinese income distribution. The fitting results suggest a log-normal distribution plus a power-law tail. This distributional form has changed a lot from its appearance in the early stage of China＇s reform and turns out to be consistent with that of some complete market economies. The uncertainty and diversity of income growth rate aroused by marketing reform are the main causes of current Chinese income distribution.     

Econophysics and the Entropic Foundations of Economics

This paper examines relations between econophysics and the law of entropy as foundations of economic phenomena. Ontological entropy, where actual thermodynamic processes are involved in the flow of energy from the Sun through the biosphere and economy, is distinguished from metaphorical entropy, where similar mathematics used for modeling entropy is employed to model economic phenomena. Areas considered include general equilibrium theory, growth theory, business cycles, ecological economics, urban–regional economics, income and wealth distribution, and financial market dynamics. The power-law distributions studied by econophysicists can reflect anti-entropic forces is emphasized to show how entropic and anti-entropic forces can interact to drive economic dynamics, such as in the interaction between business cycles, financial markets, and income distributions.     

Fractal Analysis of Power-Law Fluid in a Single Capillary

The fractai expressions for flow rate and hydraulic conductivity for power-law fluids in a single capillary are derived based on the fractai nature of tortuous capillaries. Every parameter in the proposed expressions has clear physical meaning. The flow rate and hydraulic conductivity for power-law fluids are found to be related to the tortuosity fractal dimension and the power-law index. The flow rate for power-law fluids increases with the increasing power-law index but decreases with the increasing tortuosity fractal dimension. Good agreement between the model predictions for flow in a fractai capillary and in a converging-diverging duct is obtained. The results suggest that the fractal capillary model can be used to model the power-law fluids with different rheologicai properties.     

Wealth distribution in modern and medieval societies

The power-law form of the upper part of the distribution of individual wealth/income (Pareto's law) is very well established for many countries and years. The Pareto index is however non-universal, varying typically from 1.5 to around 3. A recently introduced model for wealth exchange on an evolving family-network [Physica A 353, 515 (2005)] is reviewed and compared with empirical data. While the model mimics very well recent individual wealth data in a modern society (U.K.), it fails to explain results for a feudal society, based on the number of serf families owned by nobles (Hungary, mid XVI century). The unusually low (around 1) Pareto index found in this case is not compatible with the previous model. It is suggested that this fact may be interpreted as a result of the absence of active trading among agents.     

Explicit solutions to phenomenological models of magnetization reversal of thin ferromagnetic films in the presence of a sawtooth magnetic field

Explicit solutions are derived for several phenomenological models of magnetization reversal in thin ferromagnetic films driven by a sawtooth magnetic field. For a domain wall velocity that is linear in the magnetic field, it is found that the dynamic coercive field follows a square-root power-law in the slope of the magnetic field, shifted by the depinning field. For a more general domain wall velocity different power-law exponents are found, yet the overall form for the scaling of the area of the hysteresis loop remains a power-law shifted by the depinning field. This shifted power-law could be interpreted to be a crossover between adiabatic and dynamic regimes.     

基于幂律尾指数研究中国降水的时空演变特征

基于中国气象局国家气候中心740站点1960—2000a的日降水观测资料，对中国各地区日降水量分等级进行统计分析，揭示了各地区日降水存在的一个共同特征——幂律尾分布，且不同等级的降水量对应不同的幂律尾指数，在一定程度上反映了不同雨型具有不同的气候背景和物理机理.中国华北、华南等七个气候特征区，其幂律尾指数总体自东南向西北呈递增趋势，这与中国降水东多西少，南多北少的空间分布特征相符合.研究各气候特征区日降水的幂律尾指数随时间的演变特征发现：东北、华北和西北地区的幂律尾指数发生突变的年份对应着20世纪70年代末开始的中国北方干旱化进程，导致的可能原因是微量降水，尤其是0—7mm日降水的减少. 关键词： 幂律尾指数 突变 北方干旱化     

Quantum dissipation from power-law memory

A new quantum dissipation model based on memory mechanism is suggested. Dynamics of open and closed quantum systems with power-law memory is considered. The processes with power-law memory are described by using integration and differentiation of non-integer orders, by methods of fractional calculus. An example of quantum oscillator with linear friction and power-law memory is considered.     

Transition state theory: A generalization to nonequilibrium systems with power-law distributions

Transition state theory (TST) is generalized to nonequilibrium systems with power-law distributions. The stochastic dynamics that gives rise to the power-law distributions for the reaction coordinate and momentum is modeled by Langevin equations and corresponding Fokker-Planck equations. It is considered that a system far away from equilibrium does not have to relax to a thermal equilibrium state with Boltzmann-Gibbs distribution, but asymptotically approaches a nonequilibrium stationary state with a power-law distribution. Thus, we obtain a possible generalization of TST rates to nonequilibrium systems with power-law distributions. Furthermore, we derive the generalized TST rate constants for one-dimensional and n-dimensional Hamiltonian systems away from equilibrium, and obtain a generalized Arrhenius rate for systems with power-law distributions.     

微扩张管道内幂律流体非定常电渗流动

研究了电渗驱动下幂律流体在有限长微扩张管道内非稳态流动特性.基于Ostwald-de Wael幂律模型,采用高精度紧致差分离散二维Poisson-Nernst-Planck方程及修正的Cauchy动量方程,数值模拟了初始及稳态时刻微扩张管道内幂律流体电渗流流场分布情况,研究了管道截面改变对幂律流体无量纲剪切应变率及无量纲表观黏度的影响,以及无量纲表观黏度对拟塑性流体与胀流型流体流速分布的影响.数值模拟结果显示,当扩张角和无量纲电动宽度一定时,电场驱动下的幂律流体在近壁区域速度响应都很快;初始时刻,近壁处表观黏度的变化受到剪切应变率变化的影响,从而影响了三种幂律流体速度峰值的分布,出现拟塑性流体流速在扩张段上游及扩张段近壁处速度峰值均为幂律流体中最大、而在扩张段下游三种幂律流体速度峰值相近的现象;稳态时刻,幂律流体速度剖面呈现塞型分布,且满足连续性条件下,幂律流体流速随扩张管半径增大而减小,牛顿流体流动规律与宏观尺度下流动规律相同;初始时刻,在相同电动宽度、不同壁面电势作用下,幂律流体在扩张管近壁处剪切应变率分布的差异导致表观黏度分布的差异,并最终导致拟塑性流体与胀流型流体流速分布的差异.     

Convergence speed of consensus problems over undirected scale-free networks

Scale-free networks and consensus behaviour among multiple agents have both attracted much attention.To investigate the consensus speed over scale-free networks is the major topic of the present work.A novel method is developed to construct scale-free networks due to their remarkable power-law degree distributions,while preserving the diversity of network topologies.The time cost or iterations for networks to reach a certain level of consensus is discussed,considering the influence from power-law parameters.They are both demonstrated to be reversed power-law functions of the algebraic connectivity,which is viewed as a measurement on convergence speed of the consensus behaviour.The attempts of tuning power-law parameters may speed up the consensus procedure,but it could also make the network less robust over time delay at the same time.Large scale of simulations are supportive to the conclusions.     

基于幂律尾指数研究不同尺度系统对降水的影响

利用中国气象局国家气候中心740站点1960—2000年日降水观测资料，统计分析表明，各气候特征区30 mm以上日降水存在幂律尾分布特征，从中国的整体情况来看，幂律尾指数的均值超过了3.0，其对应的降水过程不存在平稳性成分，因此长期暴雨预报成为一个艰巨的任务.借助滤波方法进一步研究发现：日降水幂律尾分布特征是大气中各尺度系统相互作用的结果，其中一周尺度系统对30 mm以上日降水幂律尾指数影响最大. 关键词： 幂律尾指数 传递熵 暴雨     

Problems with fitting to the power-law distribution

This short communication uses a simple experiment to show that fitting to a power law distribution by using graphical methods based on linear fit on the log-log scale is biased and inaccurate. It shows that using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is far more robust. Finally, it presents a new table for performing the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for goodness-of-fit tailored to power-law distributions in which the power-law exponent is estimated using MLE. The techniques presented here will advance the application of complex network theory by allowing reliable estimation of power-law models from data and further allowing quantitative assessment of goodness-of-fit of proposed power-law models to empirical data.Received: 18 June 2004, Published online: 12 October 2004PACS: 02.50.Ng Distribution theory and Monte Carlo studies - 05.10.Ln Monte Carlo methods - 89.75.-k Complex systems     

Size dependence of the yield strength of fcc and bcc metallic micropillars with diameters of a few micrometers

Recent micropillar compression tests of fcc and bcc single crystals have shown that ‘Smaller is Stronger’ even in the absence of significant strain gradients, an effect that is empirically characterised by a power-law relation. When a micropillar contains a dislocation network, this power-law relation has been explained in terms of the size-dependent operation stress of the weakest single arm dislocation sources. This single arm dislocation source model has successfully captured the power-law relation for the strength of a few fcc micropillars, but a physical interpretation has not been made by comparing different materials. We applied the model, not only to fcc but also to bcc micropillars, to understand quantitatively why different materials have different power-law exponents. Here, the different power-law exponents are interpreted by comparing material parameters that are size-independent properties. Also, by rearranging these parameters such that the formulation becomes independent of material parameters, we found an alternate form of the scaling law that is a unique function of micropillar diameter. Furthermore, recent experimental studies of the effects of increasing the dislocation density, which show hardening for large micropillars and softening for small micropillars, are interpreted in terms of the statistics of dislocation source distribution. The strengths and limitations of this statistical approach are discussed. The effects of temperature on the power-law exponents are also studied.     

Predicting the long tail of book sales: Unearthing the power-law exponent

The concept of the long tail has recently been used to explain the phenomenon in e-commerce where the total volume of sales of the items in the tail is comparable to that of the most popular items. In the case of online book sales, the proportion of tail sales has been estimated using regression techniques on the assumption that the data obeys a power-law distribution. Here we propose a different technique for estimation based on a generative model of book sales that results in an asymptotic power-law distribution of sales, but which does not suffer from the problems related to power-law regression techniques. We show that the proportion of tail sales predicted is very sensitive to the estimated power-law exponent. In particular, if we assume that the power-law exponent of the cumulative distribution is closer to 1.1 rather than to 1.2 (estimates published in 2003, calculated using regression by two groups of researchers), then our computations suggest that the tail sales of Amazon.com, rather than being 40% as estimated by Brynjolfsson, Hu and Smith in 2003, are actually closer to 20%, the proportion estimated by its CEO.     

Thermodynamic variables of microquasars inferred from tachyonic spectral maps

Tachyonic spectral densities of ultra-relativistic electron populations are fitted to the γ-ray spectra of two microquasars, LS 5039 and LSI +61°303. The superluminal spectral maps are obtained from BATSE, COMPTEL, EGRET, HESS, and MAGIC data sets. The spectral averaging is done with exponentially cut power-law densities. Estimates of the electron distributions generating the tachyon flux are obtained from the spectral fits, such as power-law indices, electron temperature and source counts. The internal energy and heat capacities of the source populations are calculated. An extensive entropy functional is defined for Boltzmann power-law densities and its stability is checked. The high-temperature limit of the thermodynamic variables is determined by the power-law index of the electron plasma, which enters in the scaling exponents as well as the amplitudes.     

Solutions of the exact time-dependent microbending equations

Bandwidth improvement factor and losses of two-dimensional fibers with power-law index profiles, submitted to microbends with power-law curvature spectra, are given here in a graphical form. The domain of validity of the analytical solutions is discussed.     

Finite-bandwidth effects on the causal prediction of ultrasonic attenuation of the power-law form

Kramers-Kronig (K-K) relations exist as a consequence of causality, placing nonlocal constraints on the relationship between dispersion and absorption. The finite-bandwidth method of applying these relations is examined where the K-K integrals are restricted to the spectrum of the experimental data. These finite-bandwidth K-K relations are known to work with resonant-type data and here are applied to dispersion data consistent with a power-law attenuation coefficient (exponent from 1 to 2). Bandwidth-restricted forms of the zero and once-subtracted K-K relations are used to determine the attenuation coefficient from phase velocity. Analytically, it is shown that these transforms produce the proper power-law form of the attenuation coefficient as a stand-alone term summed with artifacts that are dependent on the integration limits. Calculations are performed to demonstrate how these finite-bandwidth artifacts affect the K-K predictions under a variety of conditions. The predictions are studied in a local context as a function of subtraction frequency, bandwidth, and power-law exponent. The K-K predictions of the power-law exponent within various decades of the spectrum are also examined. In general, the agreement between finite-bandwidth K-K predictions and exact values grows as the power-law exponent approaches 1 and with increasing bandwidth.     

Dipole clusters with nontrivial scale-invariant properties

In this paper the scale-invariant properties of the plane (2D) with the growth centre located on the charged particle have been considered. The dependence “number of particles with respect to radius of cluster” is presented by two power-law exponents that differs them from one power-law dependence characterizing the DLA (diffusion limited aggregation) clusters. In our case the interpretation the power-law exponents found in terms of the fractal dimension becomes unacceptable. The model considered it is supposed to be applied for consideration of similar clusters in polar liquids.     

Fractional power-law spatial dispersion in electrodynamics

Electric fields in non-local media with power-law spatial dispersion are discussed. Equations involving a fractional Laplacian in the Riesz form that describe the electric fields in such non-local media are studied. The generalizations of Coulomb’s law and Debye’s screening for power-law non-local media are characterized. We consider simple models with anomalous behavior of plasma-like media with power-law spatial dispersions. The suggested fractional differential models for these plasma-like media are discussed to describe non-local properties of power-law type.     

Effect of Correlations on the Exponents for the Power-Law Distributions in Self-Organized Criticality

The origin of power-law distributions in self-organized criticality is investigated by treating the variation of the number of active sites in the system as a stochastic process. An avalanche is mapped to a first-return random-walk process in a one-dimensional lattice. In order to understand the reason of variant exponents for the power-law distributions in different self-organized critical systems, we introduce the correlations among evolution steps. Power-law distributions of the lifetime and spatial size are found when the random walk is unbiased with equal probability to move in opposite directions. It is found that the longer the correlation length, the smaller values of the exponents for the power-law distributions.