Effect of hydrodynamic flow on kinetics of nematic-isotropic transition in liquid crystals

We investigate kinetics of nematic-isotropic transition by solving the hydrodynamic equations for the nematic tensor order parameter and the fluid velocity in two space dimension (x-y plane). Numerical results indicate that nematic directors tend to align parallel to the x-y plane when hydrodynamic flow is incorporated. Late stage growth exponents, for the correlation length and for the number of topological defects, are not significantly altered by hydrodynamic flow. However, in contrast to the case without flow, the relation holds well, which may indicate the validity of dynamical scaling for the case with hydrodynamic flow. Received: 8 September 1997 / Received in final form: 23 October 1997 /Accepted: 3 November 1997     

3d Monte Carlo simulation of site-bond continuum percolation of spheres

We present off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations of site-bond percolation of semi-penetrable spheres or, equivalently, of hard spheres with a finite bond range. We will show that the crucial parameter is the effective volume fraction ( φ_e), i.e. the volume that is occupied or within the bond range of at least one particle. For the equivalent system of semi-penetrable spheres 1 - φ_e is the porosity. The bond percolation threshold (p _b) can be described in terms of φ_e by a simple analytical expression: log(φ_e)/log(φ_ec) + log(p _b)/log(p _bc) = 1, with p _bc = 0.12 independent of the bond range and φ_ec a constant that decreases with increasing bond range. Received: 10 March 2003 / Accepted: 23 April 2003 / Published online: 21 May 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: jean-christophe.gimel@univ-lemans.fr     

Persistent currents in mesoscopic rings and conformal invariance

The effect of point defects on persistent currents in mesoscopic rings is studied in a simple tight-binding model. Using an analogy with the treatment of the critical quantum Ising chain with defects, conformal invariance techniques are employed to relate the persistent current amplitude to the Hamiltonian spectrum just above the Fermi energy. From this, the dependence of the current on the magnetic flux is found exactly for a ring with one or two point defects. The effect of an aperiodic modulation of the ring, generated through a binary substitution sequence, on the persistent current is also studied. The flux-dependence of the current is found to vary remarkably between the Fibonacci and the Thue-Morse sequences. Received: 4 March 1998 / Revised: 20 April 1998 / Accepted: 30 April 1998     

A model for anomalous directed percolation

We introduce a model for the spreading of epidemics by long-range infections and investigate the critical behaviour at the spreading transition. The model generalizes directed bond percolation and is characterized by a probability distribution for long-range infections which decays in d spatial dimensions as . Extensive numerical simulations are performed in order to determine the density exponent and the correlation length exponents and for various values of . We observe that these exponents vary continuously with , in agreement with recent field-theoretic predictions. We also study a model for pairwise annihilation of particles with algebraically distributed long-range interactions. Received: 4 September 1998 / Accepted: 22 September 1998     

Critical fluctuations of a binary fluid mixture confined in a porous medium

We have performed small angle neutron scattering experiments on the binary fluid mixture n-C₆H₁₄+n-C₈F₁₈ imbibed inside porous Vycor glass in the thermodynamic region corresponding to the bulk critical one. The resulting structure can be represented as the sum of a temperature dependent Lorentzian term and a term describing the interference between the porous matrix, a shell part richer in one component coating the glass surface, and a core part richer in the other component. We observe critical fluctuations extending over distances markedly larger than the mean pore size. Received 20 May 1999     

Variation of cluster properties in lattice percolation problem: A prototype of phase transition

Properties of clusters appearing in the site percolation problem on square and cubic lattices are expressed in a way that emphasizes the thermodynamic analogy. It is shown that the analog of the specific heat exhibits expected critical behaviour as a function of the analog of the temperature. The results support the notion that the partition of the specific heat of Ising systems (Borstnik and Lukman, Phys. Rev. E 60, 2595 (1999)) into the structural and populational component is a meaningful one. Another cluster property which is taken under the scrutiny is the fractal dimensionality of clusters which also indicates the presence of phase transition. Received 31 August 1999 and Received in final form 14 February 2000     

Hierarchy of critical exponents of currents on -simplex fractals

Using the symmetry of ( d +1)-simplex fractals with decimation number b =2, the current distribution has been determined. Then using the renormalization group technique, based on the independent Schur's invariant polynomials of current distributions, the multifractal spectrum of even moments of current distributions has been evaluated analytically up to order six for an arbitrary value of d. Also the scaling exponents of order 8 and order 10 have been calculated numerically up to d =30. Received: 19 November 1997 / Revised: 21 January 1998 / Accepted: 9 February 1998     

An analytical method to compute an approximate value of the site percolation threshold P<Subscript>c</Subscript>

An analytical method to compute the site percolation threshold is introduced. This method yields an approximate value of larger or equal to the real value. As examples, the computation of is presented for 4 lattices in 2 dimensions: square, triangular, honeycomb and kagome. The results obtained are 0.592 871 6, 0.5, 0.765 069, 0.654 653 7, to be compared with the real values 0.592 746 0, 0.5, 0.697 043, 0.652 703 6. The method is not limited to 2 dimensions. Received 27 July 1999 and Received in final form 29 November 1999     

Twist free energy in a spin glass

The field theory of a short range spin glass with Gaussian random interactions, is considered near the upper critical dimension six. In the glassy phase, replica symmetry breaking is accompanied with massless Goldstone modes, generated by the breaking of reparametrization invariance of a Parisi type solution. Twisted boundary conditions are thus imposed at two opposite ends of the system in order to study the size dependence of the twist free energy. A loop-expansion is performed to first order around a twisted background. It is found, as expected but it is non trivial, that the theory does renormalize around such backgrounds, as well as for the bulk. However two main differences appear, in comparison with simple ferromagnetic transitions: (i) the loop expansion yields a (negative) anomaly in the size dependence of the free energy, thereby lifting the lower critical dimension to a value greater than two (ii) the free energy is lowered by twisting the boundary conditions. This situation is common in spin glasses, reflecting the non-positivity of mode multiplicity in replica symmetry breaking, but its physical meaning is still unclear. Received 12 April 2002 / Received in final form 30 July 2002 Published online 19 November 2002     

Economic mapping to the renormalization group scaling of stock markets

We make an attempt to map a simple economically motivated model for price evolution [J. Phys. A 33, 3637 (2000)] to the phenomenological renormalization group scaling of stock markets. This mapping gives insight into the critical exponents and the renormalization group predictions for the log-periodic oscillations preceding some stock market crashes from the perspective of non-linear changes in `the level of stock'. Received 7 August 2000     

Dimer percolation and jamming on simple cubic lattice

We consider site percolation of dimers (“needles”) on simple cubic lattice. The percolation threshold is estimated as p_c ^perc ≈ 0.2555 ± 0.0001. The jamming threshold is estimated as p_c ^jamm = 0.799 ± 0.002.     

On the genre-fication of music: a percolation approach

We analyze web-downloaded data on people sharing their music library. By attributing to each music group usual music genres (Rock, Pop ...), and analysing correlations between music groups of different genres with percolation-idea based methods, we probe the reality of these subdivisions and construct a music genre cartography, with a tree representation. We also discuss an alternative objective way to classify music, that is based on the complex structure of the groups audience. Finally, a link is drawn with the theory of hidden variables in complex networks.     

Series expansion study of quantum percolation on the square lattice

We study the site and bond quantum percolation model on the two-dimensional square lattice using series expansion in the low concentration limit. We calculate series for the averages of , where T _ij (E) is the transmission coefficient between sites i and j, for k=0, 1, , 5 and for several values of the energy E near the center of the band. In the bond case the series are of order p¹⁴ in the concentration p(some of those have been formerly available to order p¹⁰) and in the site case of order p¹⁶. The analysis, using the Dlog-Padé approximation and the techniques known as M1 and M2, shows clear evidence for a delocalization transition (from exponentially localized to extended or power-law-decaying states) at an energy-dependent threshold p _q(E) in the range , confirming previous results (e.g. and for bond and site percolation) but in contrast with the Anderson model. The divergence of the series for different kis characterized by a constant gap exponent, which is identified as the localization length exponent from a general scaling assumption. We obtain estimates of . These values violate the bound of Chayes et al. Received 28 February 2000     

Spin glass behavior upon diluting frustrated magnets and spin liquids: a Bethe-Peierls treatment

A Bethe-Peierls treatment to dilution in frustrated magnets and spin liquids is given. A spin glass phase is present at low temperatures and close to the percolation point as soon as frustration takes a finite value in the dilute magnet model; the spin glass phase is reentrant inside the ferromagnetic phase. An extension of the model is given, in which the spin glass/ferromagnet phase boundary is shown not to reenter inside the ferromagnetic phase asymptotically close to the tricritical point whereas it has a turning point at lower temperatures. We conjecture similar phase diagrams to exist in finite dimensional models not constraint by a Nishimori's line. We increase frustration to study the effect of dilution in a spin liquid state. This provides a “minimal” ordering by disorder from an Ising paramagnet to an Ising spin glass. Received 9 April 1999 and Received in final form 27 September 1999     

Nucleation-and-growth problem in model lipid membranes undergoing subgel phase transitions is a problem of time scale

In this Rapid Note, we show that the problem of growth of molecular superlattice in a fully hydrated dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) membrane during the gel-to-subgel phase transformation process is a problem of time scale. There are, in fact, two time scales. The first is an “integrated” or, in some sense, stagnant time scale, that reflects the well-known isotropic growth effect in the d-dimensional space, but assigns the problem to be still in a category of Debye relaxation kinetics. The fraction of old (parent) phase does not suit the Paley-Wiener criterion for relaxation functions, and the time behavior is exclusively due to the geometrical characteristics of the kinetic process. The second (multi-instantaneous) time scale, in turn, is recognised to be a “broken” (fractional time derivative) or memory-feeling (dynamic) scale, which carries some very essential physics of the phenomenon under study, and classifies the problem to be of non-Debye (viz., stretched exponential) nature. It may, in principle, contain all the important effects, like small scale coexistence, presence of collisions between domains, with possible annihilation and creation of domain boundaries, and/or a headgroup packing, hydration against lipid mobility behavior, and finally, a multitude of quasi-crystalline states. It turns out, that within the range of validity of the dynamic scale approximation proposed, the criterion for relaxation functions is very well fulfilled. Received 30 November 1998     

On social percolation and small world network

The social percolation model is generalized to include the propagation of two mutually exclusive competing effects on a one-dimensional ring and a two-dimensional square lattice. It is shown that the result depends significantly on which effect propagates first i.e. it is a non-commutative phenomenon. Then the propagation of one effect is studied on a small network. It generalizes the work of Moore and Newman of a disease spread to the case where the susceptibility of the population is random. Three variants of the Domany-Kinzel model are given. One of them (delayed) does not have a chaotic region for some value of the delay weight. Received 24 February 2000     

Adatom diffusion on a square lattice. Theoretical and numerical studies

A two-dimensional lattice-gas model with square symmetry is investigated by using the real-space renormalization group (RSRG) approach with blocks of different size and symmetries. It has been shown that the precision of the method depends strongly not only on the number of sites in the block but also on its symmetry. In general, the accuracy of the method increases with the number of sites in the block. The minimal relative error in determining the critical values of the interaction parameters is equal to . Using the RSRG method, we have explored phase diagrams of both a two-dimensional Ising spin model and of a square lattice gas with lateral interactions between adparticles. We also have investigated the influence of the attractive and repulsive interactions on both the thermodynamic properties of the lattice gas and the diffusion of adsorbed particles over surface. We have calculated adsorption isotherms and coverage dependences of the pair correlation function, isothermal susceptibility and the chemical diffusion coefficient. In addition, we have included in our analysis the interaction of the activated particle in the saddle point with its nearest neighbors. We have also used Monte Carlo (MC) technique to calculate these dependences. Despite the fact that both methods constitute very different approaches, the correspondence of the numerical data is surprisingly good. Therefore, we conclude that the RSRG approach can be applied to characterize the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of systems of particles with strong lateral interactions. Received 1st September 1998 and Received in final form 8 March 2000     

An alternative proof of some percolation threshold (p c ) using the idea of self-organized criticality

Summary By means of a well-developed method in self-organized criticality, we can obtain the lower bound for the percolation threshold (p _c) of the corresponding site percolation problem. In some special cases, we have proved that such lower bounds are indeed the percolation thresholds. We can reproduce some well-known percolation thresholds of various lattices including the Cayley trees and Kock curves in this framework.     

Comparative study of the critical behavior in one-dimensional random and aperiodic environments

We consider cooperative processes (quantum spin chains and random walks) in one-dimensional fluctuating random and aperiodic environments characterized by fluctuating exponents . At the critical point the random and aperiodic systems scale essentially anisotropically in a similar fashion: length (L) and time (t) scales are related as . Also some critical exponents, characterizing the singularities of average quantities, are found to be universal functions of , whereas some others do depend on details of the distribution of the disorder. In the off-critical region there is an important difference between the two types of environments: in aperiodic systems there are no extra (Griffiths)-singularities. Received: 5 February 1998 / Accepted: 17 April 1998     

On the number of intersections of self-repelling polymer chains

We give a detailed analysis of the intersection properties of polymers. Using the renormalization group we provide a full crossover function for the dependence of the number of intersections in a single polymer on chain length and excluded volume strength. We compare our results with Monte-Carlo data and with exact calculations for a random walk, finding good agreement in all respects. Restricting to the vicinity of the eight ternary fixed points we also calculate the number of intersections between two chains placed at a fixed distance, including the two halves of a block-copolymer. The analysis of these systems confirms the interpretation of the different contributions to the number of intersections in a single chain. Due to the highly nontrivial character of the correlations in a polymer chain the correction exponents in both cases however are different. None of the results can be extracted from any Flory-type estimate. Received: 1 April 1997 / Revised: 24 October 1997 / Accepted: 29 January 1998