The Loewner Equation: Maps and Shapes

An approach called Schramm–Loewner evolution (SLE) provides a new method for dealing with a wide variety of scale-invariant problems in two dimensions. This approach is based upon an older method called Loewner Evolution (LE), which connects analytic and geometrical constructions in the complex plane. In this paper, the bases of LE and SLE are described and some simple applications are discussed in relatively non-technical form. A bibliography of the subject is presented.     

Variational approximations for renormalization group transformations

Approximate recursion relations which give upper and lower bounds on the free energy are described. Optimal calculations of the free energy can then be obtained by treating parameters within the renormalization equations variationally. As an example, a particularly simple lower bound approximation which preserves the symmetry of the Hamiltonian (the one-hypercube approximation) is described. The approximation is applied to both the Ising model and the Wilson-Fisher model. At the fixed point a parameter is set variationally and critical indices are calculated. For the Ising model the agreement with the exact results atd = 2 is surprisingly good, 0.1%, and is good atd=3 and evend=4. For the Wilson-Fisher model the recursion relation is reduced to a one-dimensional integral equation which can be solved numerically givingv=0.652 atd=3, or by expansion in agreement with the results of Wilson and Fisher to leading order in . The method is also used to calculate thermodynamic functions for thed = 2 Ising model; excellent agreement with the Onsager solution is found.Supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grants Nos. MPS73-04886A01 and GH-41512 and by the Brown University Materials Research Laboratory supported by the National Science Foundation. M.C.Y. was supported by a grant from the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey.     

Intermittency and universality in fully developed inviscid and weakly compressible turbulent flows

We perform high-resolution numerical simulations of homogenous and isotropic compressible turbulence, with an average 3D Mach number close to 0.3. We study the statistical properties of intermittency for velocity, density, and entropy. For the velocity field, which is the only quantity that can be compared to the isotropic incompressible case, we find no statistical differences in its behavior in the inertial range due either to the slight compressibility or to the different dissipative mechanism. For the density field, we find evidence of "frontlike" structures, although no shocks are produced by the simulation.     

Analysis of a Population Genetics Model with Mutation, Selection, and Pleiotropy

We investigate a population genetics model introduced by Waxman and Peck⁽¹⁾ incorporating mutation, selection, and pleiotropy (one gene affecting several unrelated traits). The population is infinite, and continuous variation of genotype is allowed. Nonetheless, Waxman and Peck showed that if each gene affects three or more traits, then the steady-state solution of the model can have a nonzero fraction of the population with identical alleles. We use a recursion technique to calculate the distribution of alleles at finite times as well as in the infinite-time limit. We map Waxman and Peck's model into the mean-field theory for Bose condensation, and a variant of the model onto a bound-state problem in quantum theory. These mappings aid in delineating the region of parameter space in which the unique genotype occurs. We also discuss our attempts to correlate the statistics of DNA-sequence variation with the degree of pleiotropy of various genes.     

Reflections on Gibbs: From Statistical Physics to the Amistad V3.0

This note is based upon a talk given at an APS meeting in celebration of the achievements of J. Willard Gibbs. J. Willard Gibbs, the younger, was the first American physical sciences theorist. He was one of the inventors of statistical physics. He introduced and developed the concepts of phase space, phase transitions, and thermodynamic surfaces in a remarkably correct and elegant manner. These three concepts form the basis of different areas of physics. The connection among these areas has been a subject of deep reflection from Gibbs’ time to our own. This talk therefore celebrated Gibbs by describing modern ideas about how different parts of physics fit together. I finished with a more personal note. Our own J. Willard Gibbs had all his many achievements concentrated in science. His father, also J. Willard Gibbs, also a Professor at Yale, had one great non-academic achievement that remains unmatched in our day. I describe it.     

Beyond all orders: Singular perturbations in a mapping

Summary We consider a family ofq-dimensional (q>1), volume-preserving maps depending on a small parameterε. Asε → 0⁺ these maps asymptote to flows which attain a heteroclinic connection. We show that for smallε the heteroclinic connection breaks up and that the splitting between its components scales withε likeε ^γexp[-β/ε]. We estimateβ using the singularities of theε → 0⁺ heteroclinic orbit in the complex plane. We then estimateγ using linearization about orbits in the complex plane. These estimates, as well as the assertions regarding the behavior of the functions in the complex plane, are supported by our numerical calculations. Deceased.     

Renormalization group analysis of the global properties of a strange attractor

This paper considers the circle map at the special point: the one at which there is a trajectory with a golden mean winding number and at which the map just fails to be invertable at one point on the circle. The invariant density of this trajectory has fractal properties. Previous work has suggested that the global behavior of this fractal can be effectively analyzed using a kind of partition function formalism to generate anf versus curve. In this paper the partition function is obtained by using a renormalization group approach.