Abstract: We link two phenomena concerning the asymptotical behavior of stochastic processes: (i) abrupt convergence or cut-off phenomenon, and (ii) the escape behavior usually associated to exit from metastability. The former is characterized by convergence at asymptotically deterministic times, while the convergence times for the latter are exponentially distributed. We compare and study both phenomena for discrete-time birth-and-death chains on a"currency sign with drift towards zero. In particular, this includes energy-driven evolutions with energy functions in the form of a single well. Under suitable drift hypotheses, we show that there is both an abrupt convergence towards zero and escape behavior in the other direction. Furthermore, as the evolutions are reversible, the law of the final escape trajectory coincides with the time reverse of the law of cut-off paths. Thus, for evolutions defined by one-dimensional energy wells with sufficiently steep walls, cut-off and escape behavior are related by time inversion.

Abstract: The formation of a large-scale coherent structure (a condensate) as a result of the long time evolution of the initial value problem of a classical partial differential nonlinear wave equation is considered. We consider the nonintegrable and unforced defocusing NonLinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation as a representative model. In spite of the formal reversibility of the NLS equation, the nonlinear wave exhibits an irreversible evolution towards a thermodynamic equilibrium state. The equilibrium state is characterized by a homogeneous solution (condensate), with small-scale fluctuations superposed (uncondensed particles), which store the information necessary for “time reversal”. We analyze the evolution Of the cumulants of the random wave as originally formulated by DJ. Benney and P.G. Saffman [D.J. Bentley, P.G. Saffman, Proc. Roy. Soc. London A 289 (1966) 301] and A.C. Newell [A.C. Newell, Rev. Geophys. 6 (1968) 1]. This allows us to provide a self-consistent weak-turbulence theory of the condensation process, in which the nonequilibrium formation of the condensate is a natural consequence of the spontaneous regeneration of a non-vanishing first-order cumulant in the hierarchy of the cumulants' equations. More precisely, we show that in the presence of a small condensate amplitude, all relevant statistical information is contained in the off-diagonal second order cumulant, as described by the usual weak-turbulence theory. Conversely, in the presence of a high-amplitude condensate, the diagonal second-order cumulants no longer vanish in the long time limit, which signals a breakdown of the weak-turbulence theory. However, we show that all asymptotic closure of the hierarchy of the cumulants' equations is still possible provided one considers the Bogoliubov's basis rather than the standard Fourier's (free particle) basis. The nonequilibrium dynamics turns out to be governed by the Bogoliubov's off-diagonal second order cumulant, while the corresponding diagonal cumulants, as well as the higher order cumulants, are shown to vanish asymptotically. The numerical discretization of the NLS equation implicitly introduces an ultraviolet frequency cut-off. The simulations are in quantitative agreement with the weak turbulence theory without adjustable parameters, despite the fact that the theory is expected to breakdown nearby the transition to condensation. The fraction of condensed particles vs energy is characterized by two distinct regimes: For small energies (H << H-c) the Bogoliubov's regime is established, whereas for H less than or similar to H-c the small-amplitude condensate regime is described by the weak-turbulence theory. In both regimes we derive coupled kinetic equations that describe the coupled evolution of the condensate amplitude and the incoherent field component. The influence of finite size effects and of the dimensionality of the system are also considered. It is shown that, beyond the thermodynamic limit, wave condensation is reestablished in two spatial dimensions, in complete analogy with uniform and ideal 2D Bose gases. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: Given a digraph (directed graph) with a labeling on its arcs, We Study the problem of finding the Eulerian circuit of lexicographically minimum label. We prove that this problem is NP-complete in general, but if the labelling is locally injective (arcs going out from each vertex have different labels), we prove that it is solvable in linear time by giving an algorithm that Constructs this circuit. When this algorithm is applied to a de Bruijn graph, it obtains the de Bruijn sequences with lexicographically minimum label. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: This paper presents a new approach to the unsupervised training of Bayesian network classifiers. Three models have been analysed: the Chow and Liu (CL) multinets; the tree-augmented naive Bayes; and a new model called the simple Bayesian network classifier, which is more robust in its structure learning. To perform the unsupervised training of these models, the classification maximum likelihood criterion is used. The maximization of this criterion is derived for each model under the classification expectation-maximization ( EM) algorithm framework. To test the proposed unsupervised training approach, 10 well-known benchmark datasets have been used to measure their clustering performance. Also, for comparison, the results for the k-means and the EM algorithm, as well as those obtained when the three Bayesian network classifiers are trained in a supervised way, are analysed. A real-world image processing application is also presented, dealing with clustering of wood board images described by 165 attributes. Results show that the proposed learning method, in general, outperforms traditional clustering algorithms and, in the wood board image application, the CL multinets obtained a 12 per cent increase, on average, in clustering accuracy when compared with the k-means method and a 7 per cent increase, on average, when compared with the EM algorithm.

Abstract: We model the behavior of N classical impurity fields immersed in a larger Bose-Einstein condensate by N + 1 coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations in one, two, and three space dimensions. We discuss the stability of the uniform miscible system and show the importance of surface tension for self-localization of the impurity fields. We derive analytically the attractive tail of the impurity-impurity interaction due to mediation by the underlying condensate. Assuming all impurity fields interact with the same strength, we explore numerically the resulting phase diagram, which contains four phases: (I) all fields are miscible; (II) the impurity fields are miscible with each other but phase separate from the condensate as a single bubble; (III) the localized impurity fields stay miscible with the condensate, but not with each other; and (IV) the impurity fields phase separate from the condensate and each other, forming a crystalline structure within a bubble. Thus, we show that a crystal can be constructed solely from superfluid components. Finally, we argue that the crystalline phases maintain their superfluid behavior, i.e., they possess a nonclassical rotational inertia, which – combined with lattice order-is a characteristic of supersolidity.

Abstract: We investigate experimentally the intermittent discharge of a granular medium out of an exit at the bottom of a vertically shaken box. Changing the orientation of the bottom shows that there exists an angle (around 20 degrees-25 degrees with respect to the horizontal) at which the mean discharge rate increases up to a factor 1.9, as compared to the rate with horizontal bottom. Furthermore, adjusting the diameter and the distance of a cylindrical obstacle above the exit on the (horizontal) bottom, allows to optimize the mean rate of discharge up to 3.5 times the rate without obstacle.