Two-dimensional Site-Bond Percolation as an Example of Self-Averaging System

The Harris-Aharony criterion for a statistical model predicts, that if a specific heat exponent $\alpha \ge 0$, then this model does not exhibit self-averaging. In two-dimensional percolation model the index $\alpha=-{1/2}$. It means that, in accordance with the Harris-Aharony criterion, the model can exhibit self-averaging properties. We study numerically the relative variances $R_{M}$ and $R_{\chi}$ for the probability $M$ of a site belongin to the "infinite" (maximum) cluster and the mean finite cluster size $\chi$. It was shown, that two-dimensional site-bound percolation on the square lattice, where the bonds play the role of impurity and the sites play the role of the statistical ensemble, over which the averaging is performed, exhibits self-averaging properties.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Critical behavior for mixed site-bond directed percolation

We study mixed site-bond directed percolation on 2D and 3D lattices by using time-dependent simulations. Our results are compared with rigorous bounds recently obtained by Liggett and by Katori and Tsukahara. The critical fractions $p_{site}^c$ and $p_{bond}^c$ of sites and bonds are extremely well approximated by a relationship reported earlier for isotropic percolation, $(\log p_{site}^c/\log p_{site}^{c^*}+\log p_{bond}^c/\log p_{bond}^{c^*} = 1)$, where $p_{site}^{c^*}$ and $p_{bond}^{c^*}$ are the critical fractions in pure site and bond directed percolation.Comment: 10 pages, figures available on request from [email protected]

Atom Scattering from Disordered Surfaces in the Sudden Approximation: Double Collisions Effects and Quantum Liquids

The Sudden Approximation (SA) for scattering of atoms from surfaces is generalized to allow for double collision events and scattering from time-dependent quantum liquid surfaces. The resulting new schemes retain the simplicity of the original SA, while requiring little extra computational effort. The results suggest that inert atom (and in particular He) scattering can be used profitably to study hitherto unexplored forms of complex surface disorder.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure. Related papers available at http://neon.cchem.berkeley.edu/~dan

ICC: Quantifying Image Caption Concreteness for Multimodal Dataset Curation

Web-scale training on paired text-image data is becoming increasingly central to multimodal learning, but is challenged by the highly noisy nature of datasets in the wild. Standard data filtering approaches succeed in removing mismatched text-image pairs, but permit semantically related but highly abstract or subjective text. These approaches lack the fine-grained ability to isolate the most concrete samples that provide the strongest signal for learning in a noisy dataset. In this work, we propose a new metric, image caption concreteness, that evaluates caption text without an image reference to measure its concreteness and relevancy for use in multimodal learning. Our approach leverages strong foundation models for measuring visual-semantic information loss in multimodal representations. We demonstrate that this strongly correlates with human evaluation of concreteness in both single-word and sentence-level texts. Moreover, we show that curation using ICC complements existing approaches: It succeeds in selecting the highest quality samples from multimodal web-scale datasets to allow for efficient training in resource-constrained settings.Comment: Accepted to ACL 2024 (Finding). For Project webpage, see https://moranyanuka.github.io/icc

Generation of highly symmetric, cylindrically convergent shockwaves in water

We report on pulsed power driven, exploding copper wire array experiments conducted to generate cylindrical convergent shockwaves in water employing μs risetime currents >550 kA in amplitude and with stored energies of >15 kJ—a substantial increase over previous results. The experiments were carried out on the recently constructed Mega-Ampere-Compression-and-Hydrodynamics facility at Imperial College London in collaboration with colleagues of Technion, Israel. 10 mm diameter arrays consisting of 60 × 130 μm wires were utilized, and the current and voltage diagnostics of the load region suggested that ∼8 kJ of energy was deposited in the wires (and the load region close to the wires) during the experiments, resulting in the formation of dense, highly resistive plasmas that rapidly expanded driving the shockwaves in water. Laser-backlit framing images of the shockfront were obtained at radii 50:1. Framing images and streak photographs showed that the velocity of the shockwave reached ∼7.5 km s−1 at 0.1 mm from the axis. 2D hydrodynamic simulations that match the experimentally obtained implosion trajectory suggest that pressures >1 Mbar are produced within 10 μm of the axis along with water densities of 3gcm−3 and temperatures of many 1000 s of Kelvin. Under these conditions, Quotidian Equation of State suggests that a strongly coupled plasma with an ionization fraction of ∼0.7 would be formed. The results represent a “stepping stone” in the application of the technique to drive different material samples into high pressure, warm dense matter regimes with compact, university scale generators, and provide support in scaling the technique to multi-mega ampere currents

El exilio, la guerra y el Judaísmo en la poesía de Marjorie Agosín [Exile, War, and Judaism in the Poetry of Marjorie Agosín]

In Margorie Agosín’s 2006 book of poetry, Mother, Speak to Us of War / Madre, háblanos de la guerra, her three poems “La frontera / The border,” “Durante el bombardeo / During the bombing,” and “Perdonar / Forgive” address the topics of exile, war, and marginality with the hope of stirring up a desire in others to bring about change. Basing my analysis of the three poems on articles and books written about Agosín’s life and work, as well as on a radio interview with the poet herself, I show how her personal life influenced and inspired her in writing these poems. The three topics of exile, war, and marginality emerge from events with which Agosín had to contend since her childhood as a Latin American Jewish woman and later as an immigrant in the United States. Moreover, these topics are shown to be highly interconnected as marginal peoples, represented through the voices of women and the references to Jewish tradition and history, may endure exile due to the experience of war. In these poems, Agosín addresses the Latin American experience of exile due to civil war and violence as well as the North American experience of war in Iraq, which she sharply criticizes. While no concrete solutions are offered for the harsh experiences introduced in her poems, the artistic expression of these are Agosín’s solution since, for her, poetry is a tool for social reform and a weapon in the fight for human rights and liberty