DNA viewed as an out-of-equilibrium structure

The complexity of the primary structure of human DNA is explored using methods from nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, dynamical systems theory and information theory. The use of chi-square tests shows that DNA cannot be described as a low order Markov chain of order up to $r=6$. Although detailed balance seems to hold at the level of purine-pyrimidine notation it fails when all four basepairs are considered, suggesting spatial asymmetry and irreversibility. Furthermore, the block entropy does not increase linearly with the block size, reflecting the long range nature of the correlations in the human genomic sequences. To probe locally the spatial structure of the chain we study the exit distances from a specific symbol, the distribution of recurrence distances and the Hurst exponent, all of which show power law tails and long range characteristics. These results suggest that human DNA can be viewed as a non-equilibrium structure maintained in its state through interactions with a constantly changing environment. Based solely on the exit distance distribution accounting for the nonequilibrium statistics and using the Monte Carlo rejection sampling method we construct a model DNA sequence. This method allows to keep all long range and short range statistical characteristics of the original sequence. The model sequence presents the same characteristic exponents as the natural DNA but fails to capture point-to-point details

Model error and sequential data assimilation. A deterministic formulation

Data assimilation schemes are confronted with the presence of model errors arising from the imperfect description of atmospheric dynamics. These errors are usually modeled on the basis of simple assumptions such as bias, white noise, first order Markov process. In the present work, a formulation of the sequential extended Kalman filter is proposed, based on recent findings on the universal deterministic behavior of model errors in deep contrast with previous approaches (Nicolis, 2004). This new scheme is applied in the context of a spatially distributed system proposed by Lorenz (1996). It is found that (i) for short times, the estimation error is accurately approximated by an evolution law in which the variance of the model error (assumed to be a deterministic process) evolves according to a quadratic law, in agreement with the theory. Moreover, the correlation with the initial condition error appears to play a secondary role in the short time dynamics of the estimation error covariance. (ii) The deterministic description of the model error evolution, incorporated into the classical extended Kalman filter equations, reveals that substantial improvements of the filter accuracy can be gained as compared with the classical white noise assumption. The universal, short time, quadratic law for the evolution of the model error covariance matrix seems very promising for modeling estimation error dynamics in sequential data assimilation

Derrick's theorem beyond a potential

Scalar field theories with derivative interactions are known to possess solitonic excitations, but such solitons are generally unsatisfactory because the effective theory fails precisely where nonlinearities responsible for the solitons are important. A new class of theories possessing (internal) galilean invariance can in principle bypass this difficulty. Here, we show that these galileon theories do not possess stable solitonic solutions. As a by-product, we show that no stable solitons exist for a different class of derivatively coupled theories, describing for instance the infrared dynamics of superfluids, fluids, solids and some k-essence models.Comment: 4 page

Thermostating by Deterministic Scattering: Heat and Shear Flow

We apply a recently proposed novel thermostating mechanism to an interacting many-particle system where the bulk particles are moving according to Hamiltonian dynamics. At the boundaries the system is thermalized by deterministic and time-reversible scattering. We show how this scattering mechanism can be related to stochastic boundary conditions. We subsequently simulate nonequilibrium steady states associated to thermal conduction and shear flow for a hard disk fluid. The bulk behavior of the model is studied by comparing the transport coefficients obtained from computer simulations to theoretical results. Furthermore, thermodynamic entropy production and exponential phase-space contraction rates in the stationary nonequilibrium states are calculated showing that in general these quantities do not agree.Comment: 16 pages (revtex) with 9 figures (postscript

Quasi Markovian behavior in mixing maps

We consider the time dependent probability distribution of a coarse grained observable Y whose evolution is governed by a discrete time map. If the map is mixing, the time dependent one-step transition probabilities converge in the long time limit to yield an ergodic stochastic matrix. The stationary distribution of this matrix is identical to the asymptotic distribution of Y under the exact dynamics. The nth time iterate of the baker map is explicitly computed and used to compare the time evolution of the occupation probabilities with those of the approximating Markov chain. The convergence is found to be at least exponentially fast for all rectangular partitions with Lebesgue measure. In particular, uniform rectangles form a Markov partition for which we find exact agreement.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, uses elsart.sty, to be published in Physica D Special Issue on Predictability: Quantifying Uncertainty in Models of Complex Phenomen

An equivalence principle for scalar forces

The equivalence of inertial and gravitational masses is a defining feature of general relativity. Here, we clarify the status of the equivalence principle for interactions mediated by a universally coupled scalar, motivated partly by recent attempts to modify gravity at cosmological distances. Although a universal scalar-matter coupling is not mandatory, once postulated, it is stable against classical and quantum renormalizations in the matter sector. The coupling strength itself is subject to renormalization of course. The scalar equivalence principle is violated only for objects for which either the graviton self-interaction or the scalar self-interaction is important---the first applies to black holes, while the second type of violation is avoided if the scalar is Galilean-symmetric.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Predicting the coherence resonance curve using a semi-analytical treatment

Emergence of noise induced regularity or Coherence Resonance in nonlinear excitable systems is well known. We explain theoretically why the normalized variance ($V_{N}$) of inter spike time intervals, which is a measure of regularity in such systems, has a unimodal profile. Our semi-analytic treatment of the associated spiking process produces a general yet simple formula for $V_{N}$, which we show is in very good agreement with numerics in two test cases, namely the FitzHugh-Nagumo model and the Chemical Oscillator model.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Oscillators and relaxation phenomena in Pleistocene climate theory

Ice sheets appeared in the northern hemisphere around 3 million years ago and glacial-interglacial cycles have paced Earth's climate since then. Superimposed on these long glacial cycles comes an intricate pattern of millennial and sub-millennial variability, including Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events. There are numerous theories about theses oscillations. Here, we review a number of them in order to draw a parallel between climatic concepts and dynamical system concepts, including, in particular, the relaxation oscillator, excitability, slow-fast dynamics and homoclinic orbits. Namely, almost all theories of ice ages reviewed here feature a phenomenon of synchronisation between internal climate dynamics and the astronomical forcing. However, these theories differ in their bifurcation structure and this has an effect on the way the ice age phenomenon could grow 3 million years ago. All theories on rapid events reviewed here rely on the concept of a limit cycle in the ocean circulation, which may be excited by changes in the surface freshwater surface balance. The article also reviews basic effects of stochastic fluctuations on these models, including the phenomenon of phase dispersion, shortening of the limit cycle and stochastic resonance. It concludes with a more personal statement about the potential for inference with simple stochastic dynamical systems in palaeoclimate science. Keywords: palaeoclimates, dynamical systems, limit cycle, ice ages, Dansgaard-Oeschger eventsComment: Published in the Transactions of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Series A, Physical Mathematical and Engineering Sciences), as a contribution to the Proceedings of the workshop on Stochastic Methods in Climate Modelling, Newton Institute (23-27 August). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Series A, Physical Mathematical and Engineering Sciences), vol. 370, pp. xx-xx (2012); Source codes available on request to author and on http://www.uclouvain.be/ito

Diversity-induced resonance

We present conclusive evidence showing that different sources of diversity, such as those represented by quenched disorder or noise, can induce a resonant collective behavior in an ensemble of coupled bistable or excitable systems. Our analytical and numerical results show that when such systems are subjected to an external subthreshold signal, their response is optimized for an intermediate value of the diversity. These findings show that intrinsic diversity might have a constructive role and suggest that natural systems might profit from their diversity in order to optimize the response to an external stimulus.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Phase Structure of the 5D Abelian Higgs Model with Anisotropic Couplings

We establish the phase diagram of the five-dimensional anisotropic Abelian Higgs model by mean field techniques and Monte Carlo simulations. The anisotropy is encoded in the gauge couplings as well as in the Higgs couplings. In addition to the usual bulk phases (confining, Coulomb and Higgs) we find four-dimensional ``layered'' phases (3-branes) at weak gauge coupling, where the layers may be in either the Coulomb or the Higgs phase, while the transverse directions are confining.Comment: LaTeX (amssymb.sty and psfig) 21 pages, 17 figure