Pre-compact families of finite sets of integers and weakly null sequences in Banach spaces

Two applications of Nash-Williams' theory of barriers to sequences on Banach spaces are presented: The first one is the $c_0$-saturation of $C(K)$, $K$ countable compacta. The second one is the construction of weakly-null sequences generalizing the example of Maurey-Rosenthal

Diffusion in an expanding medium: Fokker-Planck equation, Green's function and first-passage properties

We present a classical, mesoscopic derivation of the Fokker-Planck equation for diffusion in an expanding medium. To this end, we take a conveniently generalized Chapman-Kolmogorov equation as the starting point. We obtain an analytical expression for the Green's function (propagator) and investigate both analytically and numerically how this function and the associated moments behave. We also study first-passage properties in expanding hyperspherical geometries. We show that in all cases the behavior is determined to a great extent by the so-called Brownian conformal time $\tau(t)$, which we define via the relation $\dot \tau=1/a^2$, where $a(t)$ is the expansion scale factor. If the medium expansion is driven by a power law [$a(t) \propto t^\gamma$ with $\gamma>0$], we find interesting crossover effects in the mixing effectiveness of the diffusion process when the characteristic exponent $\gamma$ is varied. Crossover effects are also found at the level of the survival probability and of the moments of the first passage-time distribution with two different regimes separated by the critical value $\gamma=1/2$. The case of an exponential scale factor is analyzed separately both for expanding and contracting media. In the latter situation, a stationary probability distribution arises in the long time limit.Comment: 33 pages, 8 fig

Encounter-controlled coalescence and annihilation on a one-dimensional growing domain

The kinetics of encounter-controlled processes in growing domains is markedly different from that in a static domain. Here, we consider the specific example of diffusion limited coalescence and annihilation reactions in one-dimensional space. In the static case, such reactions are among the few systems amenable to exact solution, which can be obtained by means of a well-known method of intervals. In the case of a uniformly growing domain, we show that a double transformation in time and space allows one to extend this method to compute the main quantities characterizing the spatial and temporal behavior. We show that a sufficiently fast domain growth brings about drastic changes in the behavior. In this case, the reactions stop prematurely, as a result of which the survival probability of the reacting particles tends to a finite value at long times and their spatial distribution freezes before reaching the fully self-ordered state. We obtain exact results for the survival probability and for key properties characterizing the degree of self-ordering induced by the chemical reactions, i.e., the interparticle distribution function and the pair correlation function. These results are confirmed by numerical simulations.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figure

Excitations and S-matrix for su(3) spin chain combining 3{3} and ${3^{*}}

The associated Hamiltonian for a su(3) spin chain combining ${3}$ and ${3^{*}}$ representations is calculated. The ansatz equations for this chain are obtained and solved in the thermodynamic limit, and the ground state and excitations are described. Thus, relations between the number of roots and the number of holes in each level have been found . The excited states are characterized by means of these quantum numbers. Finally, the exact S matrix for a state with two holes is found.Comment: 17 pages, plaintex, harvmac (to be published in J. of Phys. A

The standard and the fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process on a growing domain

We study normal diffusive and subdiffusive processes in a harmonic potential (Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process) on a uniformly growing/contracting domain. Our starting point is a recently derived fractional Fokker-Planck equation, which covers both the case of Brownian diffusion and the case of a subdiffusive Continuous-Time Random Walk (CTRW). We find a high sensitivity of the random walk properties to the details of the domain growth rate, which gives rise to a variety of regimes with extremely different behaviors. At the origin of this rich phenomenology is the fact that the walkers still move while they wait to jump, since they are dragged by the deterministic drift arising from the domain growth. Thus, the increasingly long waiting times associated with the ageing of the subdiffusive CTRW imply that, in the time interval between two consecutive jumps, the walkers might travel over much longer distances than in the normal diffusive case. This gives rise to seemingly counterintuitive effects. For example, on a static domain, both Brownian diffusion and subdiffusive CTRWs yield a stationary particle distribution with finite width when a harmonic potential is at play, thus indicating a confinement of the diffusing particle. However, for a sufficiently fast growing/contracting domain, this qualitative behavior breaks down, and differences between the Brownian case and the subdiffusive case are found. In the case of Brownian particles, a sufficiently fast exponential domain growth is needed to break the confinement induced by the harmonic force; in contrast, for subdiffusive particles such a breakdown may already take place for a sufficiently fast power-law domain growth. Our analytic and numerical results for both types of diffusion are fully confirmed by random walk simulations.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figure

Survival probability of an immobile target in a sea of evanescent diffusive or subdiffusive traps: a fractional equation approach

We calculate the survival probability of an immobile target surrounded by a sea of uncorrelated diffusive or subdiffusive evanescent traps, i.e., traps that disappear in the course of their motion. Our calculation is based on a fractional reaction-subdiffusion equation derived from a continuous time random walk model of the system. Contrary to an earlier method valid only in one dimension (d=1), the equation is applicable in any Euclidean dimension d and elucidates the interplay between anomalous subdiffusive transport, the irreversible evanescence reaction and the dimension in which both the traps and the target are embedded. Explicit results for the survival probability of the target are obtained for a density \rho(t) of traps which decays (i) exponentially and (ii) as a power law. In the former case, the target has a finite asymptotic survival probability in all integer dimensions, whereas in the latter case there are several regimes where the values of the decay exponent for \rho(t) and the anomalous diffusion exponent of the traps determine whether or not the target has a chance of eternal survival in one, two and three dimensions