The European Physical Journal B

The motion of a vortex filament in superfluid 4He is considered by using the Hall-Vinen-Bekarevich-Khalatnikov (HVBK) [H.E. Hall, W.F. Vinen, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A 238, 204 (1956); H.E. Hall, W.F. Vinen, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A 238, 215 (1956); I.L. Bekarevich, I.M. Khalatnikov, Sov. Phys. J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 13, 643 (1961)] phenomenological model for the scattering process between the vortex and thermal excitations in liquid 4He. The HVBK equations are analytically formulated first in the intrinsic geometric parameter space to obtain insights into the physical implications of the friction terms, associated with the friction coefficients α and α′ (in the Hall-Vinen notation) as well as the previous neglect of the friction term associated with the friction coefficient α′. The normal fluid velocity components both along and transverse to the vortex filament are included. This analytical development also serves to highlight the difficulties arising in making further progress on this route. A reformulation of the HVBK equation in the extrinsic vortex filament coordinate space is then given which is known [B.K. Shivamoggi, Phys. Rev. B 84, 012506 (2011)] to provide a useful alternative analytical approach in this regard. A nonlinear Schrödinger equation for the propagation of nonlinear Kelvin waves on a vortex filament in a superfluid is given taking into account the generalized normal fluid flow. The friction term associated with α′, even in the presence of the normal fluid velocity components transverse to the vortex filament, is shown to produce merely an algebraic growth of the Kelvin waves hence providing further justification for the neglect of this term. On the other hand, the instability produced by the friction term associated with α via the normal fluid velocity component along the vortex filament is shown to manifest itself as a parametric amplification on considering the problem of a rotating planar vortex filament in a superfluid.

We consider the dynamics of the overdamped Josephson junction under the influence of an external quasiperiodic driving field. In dependence on parameter values either a quasiperiodic motion or a strange nochaotic attractor (SNA) can be observed. The latter corresponds to a resistive state in the current-voltage characteristics while for quasiperiodic motion a finite superconducting current exists for zero voltage. It is shown that in the case of SNA a nonzero mean voltage across the junction can appear due to symmetry breakings. Based on this observation a detailed symmetry consideration of the generalized equation of motion is performed and symmetry conditions ensuring zero mean voltage across the junction are found.

The interplay between surface and interface effects on binary AB mixtures that are confined in unconventional geometries is investigated by Monte Carlo simulations and phenomenological considerations. Both double-wedge and bi-pyramid confinements are considered and competing surface fields are applied at the two opposing halves of the system. Below the bulk critical temperature, domains of opposite order parameter are stabilized at the corresponding corners and an interface runs across the middle of the bi-partite geometry. Upon decreasing the temperature further one encounters a phase transition at which the AB symmetry is broken. The interface is localized in one of the two wedges or pyramids, respectively, and the order parameter is finite. In both cases, the transition becomes discontinuous in the thermodynamic limit but it is not a first-order phase transition. In an antisymmetric double wedge geometry the transition is closely related to the wedge-filling transition. Choosing the ratio of the cross-section L × L of the wedge and its length L y according to L y /L 3 = const., simulations and phenomenological consideration show that the new type of phase transition is characterized by critical exponents α = 3/4, β = 0, and γ = 5/4 for the specific heat, order parameter, and susceptibility, respectively. In an antisymmetric bi-pyramid the transition occurs at the cone-filling transition of a single pyramid. The important critical fluctuations are associated with the uniform translation of the interface and they can be described by a Landau-type free energy. Monte Carlo results provide evidence that the coefficients of this Landau-type free energy exhibit a system-size dependence, which gives rise to critical amplitudes that diverge with system size and result in a transition that becomes discontinuous in the thermodynamic limit.

We present a model for studying communities of epistemically interacting agents who update their belief states by averaging (in a specified way) the belief states of other agents in the community. The agents in our model have a rich belief state, involving multiple independent issues which are interrelated in such a way that they form a theory of the world. Our main goal is to calculate the probability for an agent to end up in an inconsistent belief state due to updating (in the given way). To that end, an analytical expression is given and evaluated numerically, both exactly and using statistical sampling. It is shown that, under the assumptions of our model, an agent always has a probability of less than 2% of ending up in an inconsistent belief state. Moreover, this probability can be made arbitrarily small by increasing the number of independent issues the agents have to judge or by increasing the group size. A real-world situation to which this model applies is a group of experts participating in a Delphi-study.

In this paper we present our study on the critical behavior of a stochastic anisotropic Bak–Sneppen (saBS) model, in which a parameter α is introduced to describe the interaction strength among nearest species. We estimate the threshold fitness f c and the critical exponent τ r by numerically integrating a master equation for the distribution of avalanche spatial sizes. Other critical exponents are then evaluated from previously known scaling relations. The numerical results are in good agreement with the counterparts yielded by the Monte Carlo simulations. Our results indicate that all saBS models with nonzero interaction strength exhibit self-organized criticality, and fall into the same universality class, by sharing the universal critical exponents.

In order to characterize flux flow through disordered type-II superconductors, we investigate the effects of columnar and point defects on the vortex velocity/voltage power spectrum in the driven non-equilibrium steady state. We employ three-dimensional Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations to measure relevant physical observables including the force-velocity/current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, vortex spatial arrangement and structure factor, and mean flux line radius of gyration.Our simulation results compare well to earlier findings and physical intuition.We focus specifically on the voltage noise power spectra in conjunction with the vortex structure factor in the presence of weak columnar and point pinning centers. We investigate the vortex washboard noise peak and associated higher harmonics,and show that the intensity ratios of the washboard harmonics are determined bythe strength of the material defects rather than the type of pins present.Through varying columnar defect lengths and pinning strengths as well as magnetic flux density we further explore the effect of the material defects on vortex transport.It is demonstrated that the radius of gyration displays quantitatively uniquefeatures that depend characteristically on the type of material defects presentin the sample.

We empirically analyze the price and liquidity responses to trade signs, traded volumes and signed traded volumes. Utilizing the singular value decomposition, we explore the internal connections of price responses and of liquidity responses across the whole market. The statistical characteristics of their singular vectors are well described by the t location-scale distribution. Furthermore, we discuss the relation between prices and liquidity with respect to their overlapping factors. The factors of price and liquidity changes are non-random when these factors are related to the traded volumes. This means that the traded volumes play a critical role in the price change induced by the liquidity change. In contrast, the two kinds of factors are weakly overlapping when they are related to the trade signs and signed traded volumes. Hence, an imbalance of liquidity is related to the price change.

A second neighbor t-J+V model for the chain subsystem of the Sr14Cu24O41 was extracted from ab-initio calculations. This model does not use periodic approximation but describes the entire chain through the use of the four-dimensional crystallographic description. Second neighbors interactions are found to be of same order than the first neighbors ones. The computed values of the second neighbors magnetic interactions are coherent with experimental estimations of the intra-dimer magnetic interactions, even if slightly smaller. The reasons of this underestimation are detailed. The computed model allowed us to understand the origin of the chain dimerisation and predicts correctly the relative occurrence of dimers and free spins. The orbitals respectively supporting the magnetic electrons and the holes have been found to be essentially supported by the copper 3d orbitals (spins) and the surrounding oxygen 2p orbitals (holes), thus giving a strong footing to the existence of Zhang-Rice singlets.