Search results for "statistical [methods]"
showing 10 items of 1664 documents
A pedagogical approach to the Boltzmann factor through experiments and simulations
2009
The Boltzmann factor is the basis of a huge amount of thermodynamic and statistical physics, both classical and quantum. It governs the behaviour of all systems in nature that are exchanging energy with their environment. To understand why the expression has this specific form involves a deep mathematical analysis, whose flow of logic is hard to see and is not at the level of high school or college students' preparation. We here present some experiments and simulations aimed at directly deriving its mathematical expression and illustrating the fundamental concepts on which it is grounded. Experiments use easily available apparatuses, and simulations are developed in the Net-Logo environment…
Neutron scattering and molecular correlations in a supercooled liquid
1999
We show that the intermediate scattering function $S_n(q,t)$ for neutron scattering (ns) can be expanded naturely with respect to a set of molecular correlation functions that give a complete description of the translational and orientational two-point correlations in the liquid. The general properties of this expansion are discussed with special focus on the $q$-dependence and hints for a (partial) determination of the molecular correlation functions from neutron scattering results are given. The resulting representation of the static structure factor $S_n(q)$ is studied in detail for a model system using data from a molecular dynamics simulation of a supercooled liquid of rigid diatomic m…
Transient Reversible Growth and Percolation During Phase Separation
1988
Binary mixtures when quenched into the two-phase region exhibit transient percolation phenomena. These transient percolation phenomena and the underlying mechanism of transient reversible growth are investigated. In particular, one of the possible dynamical percolation lines between the dynamical spinodal and the line of macroscopic percolation is traced out. Analyzing the finite size effects with the usual scaling theory one finds exponents which seem to be inconsistent with the universality class of percolation. However, at zero temperature, where the growth is non-reversible and the transition of a sol-gel type, the exponents are consistent with those of random percolation.
Spinodal decomposition in a binary polymer mixture: Dynamic self-consistent-field theory and Monte Carlo simulations
2001
We investigate how the dynamics of a single chain influences the kinetics of early stage phase separation in a symmetric binary polymer mixture. We consider quenches from the disordered phase into the region of spinodal instability. On a mean field level we approach this problem with two methods: a dynamical extension of the self consistent field theory for Gaussian chains, with the density variables evolving in time, and the method of the external potential dynamics where the effective external fields are propagated in time. Different wave vector dependencies of the kinetic coefficient are taken into account. These early stages of spinodal decomposition are also studied through Monte Carlo…
LÉVY FLIGHT SUPERDIFFUSION: AN INTRODUCTION
2008
After a short excursion from discovery of Brownian motion to the Richardson "law of four thirds" in turbulent diffusion, the article introduces the L\'{e}vy flight superdiffusion as a self-similar L\'{e}vy process. The condition of self-similarity converts the infinitely divisible characteristic function of the L\'{e}vy process into a stable characteristic function of the L\'{e}vy motion. The L\'{e}vy motion generalizes the Brownian motion on the base of the $\alpha$-stable distributions theory and fractional order derivatives. The further development of the idea lies on the generalization of the Langevin equation with a non-Gaussian white noise source and the use of functional approach. Th…
Amorphous silica modeled with truncated and screened Coulomb interactions: A molecular dynamics simulation study
2007
We show that finite-range alternatives to the standard long-range BKS pair potential for silica might be used in molecular dynamics simulations. We study two such models that can be efficiently simulated since no Ewald summation is required. We first consider the Wolf method, where the Coulomb interactions are truncated at a cutoff distance r_c such that the requirement of charge neutrality holds. Various static and dynamic quantities are computed and compared to results from simulations using Ewald summations. We find very good agreement for r_c ~ 10 Angstroms. For lower values of r_c, the long--range structure is affected which is accompanied by a slight acceleration of dynamic properties…
Relaxation in a phase-separating two-dimensional active matter system with alignment interaction
2020
Via computer simulations we study kinetics of pattern formation in a two-dimensional active matter system. Self-propulsion in our model is incorporated via the Vicsek-like activity, i.e., particles have the tendency of aligning their velocities with the average directions of motion of their neighbors. In addition to this dynamic or active interaction, there exists passive inter-particle interaction in the model for which we have chosen the standard Lennard-Jones form. Following quenches of homogeneous configurations to a point deep inside the region of coexistence between high and low density phases, as the systems exhibit formation and evolution of particle-rich clusters, we investigate pr…
Note on the super-extended Moyal formalism and its BBGKY hierarchy
2017
We consider the path integral associated to the Moyal formalism for quantum mechanics extended to contain higher differential forms by means of Grassmann odd fields. After revisiting some properties of the functional integral associated to the (super-extended) Moyal formalism, we give a convenient functional derivation of the BBGKY hierarchy in this framework. In this case the distribution functions depend also on the Grassmann odd fields.
Unraveling the nature of universal dynamics in $O(N)$ theories
2020
Many-body quantum systems far from equilibrium can exhibit universal scaling dynamics which defy standard classification schemes. Here, we disentangle the dominant excitations in the universal dynamics of highly-occupied $N$-component scalar systems using unequal-time correlators. While previous equal-time studies have conjectured the infrared properties to be universal for all $N$, we clearly identify for the first time two fundamentally different phenomena relevant at different $N$. We find all $N\geq3$ to be indeed dominated by the same Lorentzian ``large-$N$'' peak, whereas $N=1$ is characterized instead by a non-Lorentzian peak with different properties, and for $N=2$ we see a mixture …
Surface tension and interfacial fluctuations in d-dimensional Ising model
2005
The surface tension of rough interfaces between coexisting phases in 2D and 3D Ising models are discussed in view of the known results and some original calculations presented in this paper. The results are summarised in a formula, which allows to interpolate the corrections to finite-size scaling between two and three dimensions. The physical meaning of an analytic continuation to noninteger values of the spatial dimensionality d is discussed. Lattices and interfaces with properly defined fractal dimensions should fulfil certain requirements to possibly have properties of an analytic continuation from d-dimensional hypercubes. Here 2 appears as the marginal value of d below which the (d-1)…