Some insights in superdiffusive transport

In a wide range of systems, the relaxation in response to an initial pulse has been experimentally found to follow a nonlinear relationship for the mean squared displacement, of the kind 〈x²(t)〉∝t^α$〈x^2(t)〉\propto t^{\alpha }$, where α$\alpha$ may be greater or smaller than 1. Such phenomena have been described under the generic term of anomalous diffusion. “Lévy flights” stochastic processes lead to superdiffusive behaviour (1<α<2)$(1<\alpha <2)$ and have been recently proposed to model—among the others—the subsurface contaminant spread in highly heterogeneous media under the effects of water flow. In this paper, within the continuous-time random walk (CTRW) approach to anomalous diffusion, we compare the analytical solution of the approximated fractional diffusion equation (FDE) with the Monte Carlo one, obtained by simulating the superdiffusive behaviour of an ensemble of particle in a medium. We show that the two are neatly different as the process approaches the standard diffusive behaviour. We argue that this is due to a truncation in the Fourier space expansion introduced by the FDE approach. We propose a second-order correction to this expansion and numerically solve the CTRW model under this hypothesis: the accuracy of the results thus obtained is validated through Monte Carlo simulation over all the superdiffusive range. The same kind of discrepancy is shown to occur also in the derivation of the fractional moments of the distribution: analogous corrections are proposed and validated through the Monte Carlo approach.     

Extended Fan's Algebraic Method and Its Application to KdV and Variant Boussinesq Equations

An extended Fan's algebraic method is used for constructing exact traveling wave solution of nonlinear partial differential equations. The key idea of this method is to introduce an auxiliary ordinary differential equation which is regarded as an extended elliptic equation and whose degree r is expanded to the case of r>4. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by the KdV equation and the variant Boussinesq equations. The results indicate that the method not only offers all solutions obtained by using Fu's and Fan's methods, but also some new solutions.     

Analytical and numerical study of coupled atomistic-continuum methods for fluids

The stability and convergence rate of coupled atomistic-continuum methods are studied analytically and numerically. These methods couple a continuum model with molecular dynamics through the exchange of boundary conditions in the continuum-particle overlapping region. Different coupling schemes, including velocity–velocity, flux–velocity, velocity–flux and flux–flux, are studied. It is found that the velocity–velocity and flux–velocity schemes are stable. The flux–flux scheme is weakly unstable. The stability of the velocity–flux scheme depends on the parameter T_c which is the length of the time interval between successive exchange of boundary conditions. It is stable when T_c is small and unstable when T_c is large. For steady-state problems, the flux–velocity scheme converges faster than the other coupling schemes.     

Correlation functions from a unified variational principle: Trial Lie groups

Time-dependent expectation values and correlation functions for many-body quantum systems are evaluated by means of a unified variational principle. It optimizes a generating functional depending on sources associated with the observables of interest. It is built by imposing through Lagrange multipliers constraints that account for the initial state (at equilibrium or off equilibrium) and for the backward Heisenberg evolution of the observables. The trial objects are respectively akin to a density operator and to an operator involving the observables of interest and the sources. We work out here the case where trial spaces constitute Lie groups. This choice reduces the original degrees of freedom to those of the underlying Lie algebra, consisting of simple observables; the resulting objects are labeled by the indices of a basis of this algebra. Explicit results are obtained by expanding in powers of the sources. Zeroth and first orders provide thermodynamic quantities and expectation values in the form of mean-field approximations, with dynamical equations having a classical Lie–Poisson structure. At second order, the variational expression for two-time correlation functions separates–as does its exact counterpart–the approximate dynamics of the observables from the approximate correlations in the initial state. Two building blocks are involved: (i) a commutation matrix which stems from the structure constants of the Lie algebra; and (ii) the second-derivative matrix of a free-energy function. The diagonalization of both matrices, required for practical calculations, is worked out, in a way analogous to the standard RPA. The ensuing structure of the variational formulae is the same as for a system of non-interacting bosons (or of harmonic oscillators) plus, at non-zero temperature, classical Gaussian variables. This property is explained by mapping the original Lie algebra onto a simpler Lie algebra. The results, valid for any trial Lie group, fulfill consistency properties and encompass several special cases: linear responses, static and time-dependent fluctuations, zero- and high-temperature limits, static and dynamic stability of small deviations.     

Computing the Loewner Driving Process of Random Curves in the Half Plane

We simulate several models of random curves in the half plane and numerically compute the stochastic driving processes that produce the curves through the Loewner equation. Our models include models whose scaling limit is the Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) and models for which it is not. We study several tests of whether the driving process is Brownian motion, as it is for SLE. We find that testing only the normality of the process at a fixed time is not effective at determining if the random curves are an SLE. Tests that involve the independence of the increments of Brownian motion are much more effective. We also study the zipper algorithm for numerically computing the driving function of a simple curve. We give an implementation of this algorithm which runs in a time O(N ^1.35) rather than the usual O(N ²), where N is the number of points on the curve.     

Alternating direction implicit schemes for the two-dimensional fractional sub-diffusion equation

New numerical techniques are presented for the solution of a two-dimensional anomalous sub-diffusion equation with time fractional derivative. In these methods, standard central difference approximation is used for the spatial discretization, and, for the time stepping, two new alternating direction implicit (ADI) schemes based on the L₁ approximation and backward Euler method are considered. The two ADI schemes are constructed by adding two different small terms, which are different from standard ADI methods. The solvability, unconditional stability and H¹ norm convergence are proved. Numerical results are presented to support our theoretical analysis and indicate the efficiency of both methods.     

Neumann Boundary Conditions Inhibiting SSB in Coleman-Weinberg Mechanism

In this work we show that homogeneous Neumann boundary conditionsinhibit the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breakingin the scalar electrodynamics if the length of the finite region is small enough (a = e²M^-1_φ, where M_φ is the mass of the scalar field generated by the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism).     

John Bell and the Identical Twins

I present a biographical profile of John S. Bell based upon extensive interviews I had with him. I present Bell‘s views on the quantum theory along with a simple explanation of his identity. Jeremy Bernstein is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Stevens Institute of Technology and a former staff writer for The New Yorker.     

Random Motions at Finite Speed in Higher Dimensions

We present a general method of studying the transport process , t≥0, in the Euclidean space ℝ ^m , m≥2, based on the analysis of the integral transforms of its distributions. We show that the joint characteristic functions of are connected with each other by a convolution-type recurrent relation. This enables us to prove that the characteristic function (Fourier transform) of in any dimension m≥2 satisfies a convolution-type Volterra integral equation of second kind. We give its solution and obtain the characteristic function of in terms of the multiple convolutions of the kernel of the equation with itself. An explicit form of the Laplace transform of the characteristic function in any dimension is given. The complete solution of the problem of finding the initial conditions for the governing partial differential equations, is given. We also show that, under the standard Kac condition on the speed of the motion and on the intensity of the switching Poisson process, the transition density of the isotropic transport process converges to the transition density of the m-dimensional homogeneous Brownian motion with zero drift and diffusion coefficient depending on the dimension m. We give the conditional characteristic functions of the isotropic transport process in terms of the inverse Laplace transform of the powers of the Gauss hypergeometric function. Some important models of the isotropic transport processes in lower dimensions are considered and some known results are derived as the particular cases of our general model by means of the method developed.     

Enhanced spontaneous emission factor for microcavity lasers

The microcavity and the influence of nonradiative recombination can control spontaneous emission. An analytic resolution of rate equation is studied for microcavity lasers. The relationship between output prop- erties and structural parameters of multi-quantum wells (MQWs) is obtained. One of the most important consequences of the incrcased spontaneous emission factor is the reduction of laser threshold. It is found that the characteristic curve of a "thresholdless" laser is strongly nonradiative depopulation-dependent. The light output is increased by the enhanced well number and the reduced width. In particular, there is an optimal well number corresponding to the lowest threshold current density for MQW structure in the microcavity lasers.