Diffusion and reaction in random media and models of evolution processes

A diffusion equation including source terms, representing randomly distributed sources and sinks is considered. For quasilinear growth rates the eigenvalue problem is equivalent to that of the quantum mechanical motion of electrons in random fields. Correspondingly there exist localized and extended density distributions dependent on the statistics of the random field and on the dimension of the space. Besides applications in physics (nonequilibrium processes in pumped disordered solid materials) a new evolution model is discussed which considers evolution as hill climbing in a random landscape.We dedicate this work to the memory of Ilya M. Lifshitz.     

Poly(propylene isophthalate), poly(propylene succinate), and their random copolymers: Synthesis and thermal properties

Poly(propylene isophthalate) (PPI), poly(propylene succinate) (PPS), and poly(propylene isophthalate/succinate) (PPI‐PPS) random copolymers were synthesized and characterized in terms of chemical structure and molecular weight. The thermal behavior was examined by TGA and DSC. All the polymers showed a good thermal stability. At room temperature, they appeared as semicrystalline materials, except 20PPI‐PPS and 30PPI‐PPS: the main effect of copolymerization was a lowering in the amount of crystallinity and a decrease of T_m with respect to homopolymers. A crystalline phase of PPI and PPS was evidenced at high content of PI or PS units, respectively. Amorphous samples were obtained after melt quenching and an increment of T_g, with the increment of PI units, was observed. This behavior was explained as due to the presence of stiff phenylene groups. The Wood equation described well T_g‐composition data. Lastly, the presence of a rigid‐amorphous phase was evidenced in copolymers, differently from the two homopolymers. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 310–321, 2007.     

On the structure of stable random walks

We show that the Cauchy random walk on the line, and the Gaussian random walk on the plane are similar as infinite measure preserving transformations.     

Phase transitions in diluted magnets: Critical behavior,percolation, and random fields

Transition metal halides provide realizations of Ising,XY, and Heisenberg antiferromagnets in one, two, and three dimensions. The interactions, which are of short range, are generally well understood. By dilution with nonmagnetic species such as Zn⁺⁺ or Mg⁺⁺ one is able to prepare site-random alloys which correspond to random systems of particular interest in statistical mechanics. By mixing two magnetic ions such as Fe⁺⁺ and Co⁺⁺ one can produce magnetic crystals with competing interactions-either in the form of competing anisotropies or competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions. In this paper the results of a series of neutron scattering experiments on these systems carried out at Brookhaven over the past several years are briefly reviewed. First the critical behavior in Rb₂Mn_0.5Ni_0.5F₄ and Fe_cZn_1–cF₂ which correspond to two-dimensional and three-dimensional random Ising systems, respectively, are discussed. Percolation phenomena have been studied in Rb₂Mn_cMg_l–cF₄, Rb₂Co_cMg_l–cF₄, KMn_cZ_l-cF₃, and Mn_cZn_l–cF₂ which correspond to two-and three-dimensional Heisenberg and Ising models, respectively. In these casesc is chosen to be in the neighborhood of the nearest-neighbor percolation concentration. Application of a uniform field to the above systems generates a random staggered magnetic field; this has facilitated a systematic study of the random field problem. As we shall discuss in detail, a variety of novel, unexpected phenomena have been observed.     

On a completeness property of series expansions of bivariate densities

Random processes passed through zero memory nonlinearities are considered in terms of the preservation of mean square continuity. Then, series expansions of bivariate densities in orthonormal functions are treated, under the assumption that the bivariate density is associated with a first order stationary random process. It is shown that, if the random process is mean square continuous, then the orthonormal functions in the series expansion must be complete.     

Solvable models of temporally correlated random walk on a lattice

We seek the conditional probability functionP(m,t) for the position of a particle executing a random walk on a lattice, governed by the distributionW(n, t) specifying the probability ofn jumps or steps occurring in timet. Uncorrelated diffusion occurs whenW is a Poisson distribution. The solutions corresponding to two different families of distributionsW are found and discussed. The Poissonian is a limiting case in each of these families. This permits a quantitative investigation of the effects, on the diffusion process, of varying degrees of temporal correlation in the step sequences. In the first part, the step sequences are regarded as realizations of an ongoing renewal process with a probability densityψ(t) for the time interval between successive jumps.W is constructed in terms ofψ using the continuous-time random walk approach. The theory is then specialized to the case whenψ belongs to the class of special Erlangian density functions. In the second part,W is taken to belong to the family of negative binomial distributions, ranging from the geometric (most correlated) to the Poissonian (uncorrelated). Various aspects such as the continuum limit, the master equation forP, the asymptotic behaviour ofP, etc., are discussed.     

Collision problems of random walks in two-dimensional time

The collision problems of two-parameter random walks are studied. That is, some criteria have been established in terms of the characteristic functions of two or more mutually independent random walks in order to determine if they meet infinitly often in certain restricted time sets.     

Countably many simultaneous random changes of time scales

Simultaneous changes of time scales of the components of a vector Markov process are defined and developed. Measurability properties, Dynkin's lemma, and the strong Markov property are established for the transformed process.