We report experiments concerning the melting of ice disks (85 mm in diameter and 14 mm in height) at the surface of a thermalized water bath. During the melting, the ice disks undergo translational and rotational motions. In particular, the disks rotate. The rotation speed has been found to increase with the bath temperature. We investigated the flow under the bottom face of the ice disks by a particle image velocimetry technique. We find that the flow goes downwards and also rotates horizontally, so that a vertical vortex is generated under the ice disk. The proposed mechanism is the following. In the vicinity of the bottom face of the disk, the water eventually reaches the temperature of $4{}^{\circ }\mathrm{C}$ for which the water density is maximum. The $4{}^{\circ }\mathrm{C}$ water sinks and generates a downwards plume. The observed vertical vorticity results from the flow in the plume. Finally, by viscous entrainment, the horizontal rotation of the flow induces the solid rotation of the ice block. This mechanism seems generic: any vertical flow that generates a vortex will induce the rotation of a floating object.

Spike timing-dependent plasticity is a fundamental adaptation mechanism of the nervous system. It induces structural changes of synaptic connectivity by regulation of coupling strengths between individual cells depending on their spiking behavior. As a biophysical process its functioning is constantly subjected to natural fluctuations. We study theoretically the influence of noise on a microscopic level by considering only two coupled neurons. Adopting a phase description for the neurons we derive a two-dimensional system which describes the averaged dynamics of the coupling strengths. We show that a multistability of several coupling configurations is possible, where some configurations are not found in systems without noise. Intriguingly, it is possible that a strong bidirectional coupling, which is not present in the noise-free situation, can be stabilized by the noise. This means that increased noise, which is normally expected to desynchronize the neurons, can be the reason for an antagonistic response of the system, which organizes itself into a state of stronger coupling and counteracts the impact of noise. This mechanism, as well as a high potential for multistability, is also demonstrated numerically for a coupled pair of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons.

Scale independence is a ubiquitous feature of complex systems that implies a highly skewed distribution of resources with no characteristic scale. Research has long focused on why systems as varied as protein networks, evolution, and stock actions all feature scale independence. Assuming that they simply do, we focus here on describing how this behavior emerges, in contrast to more idealized models usually considered. We arrive at the conjecture that a minimal model to explain the growth toward scale independence involves only two coupled dynamical features: the first is the well-known preferential attachment principle, and the second is a general form of delayed temporal scaling. While the first is sufficient, the second is present in all studied data and appears to maximize the speed of convergence to true scale independence. The delay in this temporal scaling acts as a coupling between population growth and individual activity. Together, these two dynamical properties appear to pave a precise evolution path, such that even an instantaneous snapshot of a distribution is enough to reconstruct the past of the system and predict its future. We validate our approach and confirm its usefulness in diverse spheres of human activities, ranging from scientific and artistic productivity to sexual relations and online traffic.

Recordings of animal vocalization can lack information about sender and context. This is often the case in studies on marine mammals or in the increasing number of automated bioacoustics monitorings. Here, we develop a framework to estimate group specificity without specific sender information. We introduce and apply a bag-of-calls-and-coefficients approach (BOCCA) to study ensembles of cepstral coefficients calculated from vocalization signals recorded from a given animal group. Comparing distributions of such ensembles of coefficients by computing relative entropies reveals group specific differences. Applying the BOCCA to ensembles of calls recorded from group of long-finned pilot whales in northern Norway, we find that differences of vocalizations within social groups of pilot whales (Globicephala melas) are significantly lower than intergroup differences.

Recent discoveries on topological characterization of gapless systems have attracted interest in both theoretical studies and experimental realizations. Examples of such gapless topological phases are Weyl semimetals, which exhibit three-dimensional (3D) Dirac cones (Weyl points), and nodal line semimetals, which are characterized by line nodes (two bands touching along a line). Inspired by our previous discoveries that the kicked Harper model exhibits many fascinating features of Floquet topological phases, in this paper we consider a generalization of the model, where two additional periodic system parameters are introduced into the Hamiltonian to serve as artificial dimensions, so as to simulate a $3\mathrm{D}$ periodically driven system. We observe that by increasing the hopping strength and the kicking strength of the system, many new Floquet band touching points at Floquet quasienergies 0 and $\pi$ will start to appear. Some of them are Weyl points, while the others form line nodes in the parameter space. By taking open boundary conditions along the physical dimension, edge states analogous to Fermi arcs in static Weyl semimetal systems are observed. Finally, by designing an adiabatic pumping scheme, the chirality of the Floquet-band Weyl points and the $\pi$ Berry phase around Floquet-band line nodes can be manifested.

Bamboo has a distinctive structure wherein a long cavity inside a cylindrical woody section is divided into many chambers by stiff diaphragms. The diaphragms are inserted at nodes and thought to serve as ring stiffeners for bamboo culms against the external load; if this is the case, the separation between adjacent nodes should be configured optimally in order to enhance the mechanical stability of the culms. Here, we reveal the hitherto unknown blueprint of the optimal node spacings used in the growth of wild bamboo. Measurement data analysis together with theoretical formulations suggest that wild bamboos effectively control their node spacings as well as other geometric parameters in accord with the lightweight and high-strength design concept.

The Yukawa one-component plasma (OCP) model is a paradigm for describing plasmas that contain one component of interest and one or more other components that can be treated as a neutralizing, screening background. In appropriately scaled units, interactions are characterized entirely by a screening parameter, $\kappa$. As a result, systems of similar $\kappa$ show the same dynamics, regardless of the underlying parameters (e.g., density and temperature). We demonstrate this behavior using ultracold neutral plasmas (UNPs) created by photoionizing a cold ($T\le 10$ mK) gas. The ions in UNP systems are well described by the Yukawa model, with the electrons providing the screening. Creation of the plasma through photoionization can be thought of as a rapid quench of the interaction potential from $\kappa =\infty$ to a final $\kappa$ value set by the electron density and temperature. We demonstrate experimentally that the postquench dynamics are universal in $\kappa$ over a factor of 30 in density and an order of magnitude in temperature. Results are compared with molecular-dynamics simulations. We also demonstrate that features of the postquench kinetic energy evolution, such as disorder-induced heating and kinetic-energy oscillations, can be used to determine the plasma density and the electron temperature.

Data from storms suggest that the critical wind speed at which trees break is constant ($\simeq 42\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}$), regardless of tree characteristics. We question the physical origin of this observation both experimentally and theoretically. By combining Hooke's law, Griffith's criterion, and tree allometry, we show that the critical wind speed indeed hardly depends on the height, diameter, and elastic properties of trees.

Long-range thermal fluctuations appear in fluids in nonequilibrium states leading to fluctuation-induced Casimir-like forces. Two distinct mechanisms have been identified for the origin of the long-range nonequilibrium fluctuations in fluids subjected to a temperature or concentration gradient. One is a coupling between the heat or mass-diffusion mode with a viscous mode in fluids subjected to a temperature or concentration gradient. Another one is the spatial inhomogeneity of thermal noise in the presence of a gradient. We show that in fluids fluctuation-induced forces arising from mode coupling are several orders of magnitude larger than those from inhomogeneous noise.

Wikipedia is a free Internet encyclopedia with an enormous amount of content. This encyclopedia is written by volunteers with various backgrounds in a collective fashion; anyone can access and edit most of the articles. This open-editing nature may give us prejudice that Wikipedia is an unstable and unreliable source; yet many studies suggest that Wikipedia is even more accurate and self-consistent than traditional encyclopedias. Scholars have attempted to understand such extraordinary credibility, but usually used the number of edits as the unit of time, without consideration of real time. In this work, we probe the formation of such collective intelligence through a systematic analysis using the entire history of $34534110$ English Wikipedia articles, between 2001 and 2014. From this massive data set, we observe the universality of both timewise and lengthwise editing scales, which suggests that it is essential to consider the real-time dynamics. By considering real time, we find the existence of distinct growth patterns that are unobserved by utilizing the number of edits as the unit of time. To account for these results, we present a mechanistic model that adopts the article editing dynamics based on both editor-editor and editor-article interactions. The model successfully generates the key properties of real Wikipedia articles such as distinct types of articles for the editing patterns characterized by the interrelationship between the numbers of edits and editors, and the article size. In addition, the model indicates that infrequently referred articles tend to grow faster than frequently referred ones, and articles attracting a high motivation to edit counterintuitively reduce the number of participants. We suggest that this decay of participants eventually brings inequality among the editors, which will become more severe with time.

We study phases and structures of mixtures of two representative chromonic liquid crystal materials, sunset yellow FCF (SSY) and disodium cromoglycate (DSCG), in water. A variety of combinations of isotropic, nematic ($N$), and columnar (also called $M$) phases are observed depending on their concentrations, and a phase diagram is made. We find a tendency for DSCG-rich regions to show higher-order phases while SSY-rich regions show lower-order ones. We observe uniform mesophases only when one of the materials is sparse in the $N$ phases. Their miscibility in $M$ phases is so low that essentially complete phase separation occurs. X-ray scattering and spectroscopy studies confirm that SSY and DSCG molecules do not mix when they form chromonic aggregates and neither do their aggregates when they form $M$ phases.

The spectral asymmetry of the wave-energy distribution of dust particles during mode-coupling-induced melting, observed for the first time in plasma crystals by Couëdel et al. [Phys. Rev. E 89, 053108 (2014)], is studied theoretically and by molecular-dynamics simulations. It is shown that an anisotropy of the well confining the microparticles selects the directions of preferred particle motion. The observed differences in intensity of waves of opposed directions are explained by a nonvanishing phonon flux. Anisotropic phonon scattering by defects and Umklapp scattering are proposed as possible reasons for the mean phonon flux.

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the influence of surface curvature on the slip boundary condition for a simple fluid. The slip length is measured for flows in planar and cylindrical geometries with a range of wall-fluid interactions. As wall curvature increases, the slip length decreases dramatically for closely packed surfaces and increases for sparse ones. The magnitude of the changes depends on the crystallographic orientation and differs for flow along and perpendicular to the direction of curvature. These different patterns of behavior are related to the curvature-induced variation in the ratio of the spacing between fluid atoms to the spacing between minima in the potential from the solid surface. The results are consistent with a microscopic theory for the viscous friction between fluid and wall that expresses the slip length in terms of the lateral response of the fluid to the wall potential and the characteristic decay time of this response.

The Richmyer-Meshkov instability of a three-dimensional (3D) ${\mathrm{SF}}_6$-air single-mode interface with a minimum-surface feature is investigated experimentally. The interface produced by the soap film technique is subjected to a planar shock and the evolution of the shocked interface is captured by time-resolved schlieren photography. Different from the light-heavy single-mode case, a phase inversion occurs in the shock-interface interaction and a bubblelike structure is observed behind the shocked interface, which may be ascribed to the difference in pressure perturbation at different planes. The superimposition of spikelike forward-moving jets forms a complex structure, indicating a distinctly 3D effect. Quantitatively, it is also found that the instability at the symmetry plane grows much slower than the prediction of two-dimensional linear model, but matches the extended 3D linear and nonlinear models accounting for the curvature effects. Therefore, the opposite curvatures of the 3D interface are beneficial for suppressing the growth of the instability.

Stochastic switching between alternative phenotypic states is a common cellular survival strategy during unforeseen environmental fluctuations. Cells can switch between different subpopulations that proliferate at different rates in different environments. Optimal population growth is typically assumed to occur when phenotypic switching rates match environmental switching rates. However, it is not well understood how this optimum behaves as a function of the growth rates of phenotypically different cells. In this study, we use mathematical and computational models to test how the actual parameters associated with optimal population growth differ from those assumed to be optimal. We find that the predicted optimum is practically always valid if the environmental durations are long. However, the regime of validity narrows as environmental durations shorten, especially if subpopulation growth rate differences differ from each other (are asymmetric) in two environments. Furthermore, we study the fate of mutants with switching rates previously predicted to be optimal. We find that mutants which match their phenotypic switching rates with the environmental ones can only sweep the population if the assumed optimum is valid, but not otherwise.

In this paper, we show how to use canonical perturbation theory for dissipative dynamical systems capable of showing limit-cycle oscillations. Thus, our work surmounts the hitherto perceived barrier for canonical perturbation theory that it can be applied only to a class of conservative systems, viz., Hamiltonian systems. In the process, we also find Hamiltonian structure for an important subset of Liénard system—a paradigmatic system for modeling isolated and asymptotic oscillatory state. We discuss the possibility of extending our method to encompass an even wider range of nonconservative systems.

We perform a multifractal analysis of the evolution of London's street network from 1786 to 2010. First, we show that a single fractal dimension, commonly associated with the morphological description of cities, does not suffice to capture the dynamics of the system. Instead, for a proper characterization of such a dynamics, the multifractal spectrum needs to be considered. Our analysis reveals that London evolves from an inhomogeneous fractal structure, which can be described in terms of a multifractal, to a homogeneous one, which converges to monofractality. We argue that London's multifractal to monofractal evolution might be a special outcome of the constraint imposed on its growth by a green belt. Through a series of simulations, we show that multifractal objects, constructed through diffusion limited aggregation, evolve toward monofractality if their growth is constrained by a nonpermeable boundary.

We present a model for the growth of the transportation network inside nests of the social insect subfamily Termitinae (Isoptera, termitidae). These nests consist of large chambers (nodes) connected by tunnels (edges). The model based on the empirical analysis of the real nest networks combined with pruning (edge removal, either random or weighted by betweenness centrality) and a memory effect (preferential growth from the latest added chambers) successfully predicts emergent nest properties (degree distribution, size of the largest connected component, average path lengths, backbone link ratios, and local graph redundancy). The two pruning alternatives can be associated with different genuses in the subfamily. A sensitivity analysis on the pruning and memory parameters indicates that Termitinae networks favor fast internal transportation over efficient defense strategies against ant predators. Our results provide an example of how complex network organization and efficient network properties can be generated from simple building rules based on local interactions and contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms that come into play for the formation of termite networks and of biological transportation networks in general.

The simplest microfluidic network (a loop) comprises two parallel channels with a common inlet and a common outlet. Recent studies that assumed a constant cross section of the channels along their length have shown that the sequence of droplets entering the left (L) or right (R) arm of the loop can present either a uniform distribution of choices (e.g., $\text{RLRLRL}\cdots$) or long sequences of repeated choices $(\text{RRR}\cdots \text{LLL})$, with all the intermediate permutations being dynamically equivalent and virtually equally probable to be observed. We use experiments and computer simulations to show that even small variation of the cross section along channels completely shifts the dynamics either into the strong preference for highly grouped patterns $(\text{RRR}\cdots \text{LLL})$ that generate system-size oscillations in flow or just the opposite—to patterns that distribute the droplets homogeneously between the arms of the loop. We also show the importance of noise in the process of self-organization of the spatiotemporal patterns of droplets. Our results provide guidelines for rational design of systems that reproducibly produce either grouped or homogeneous sequences of droplets flowing in microfluidic networks.

The viscoelastic behavior of a homeotropic nematic slab is studied when it is subjected to a (dilation-compression) sinusoidal deformation of small amplitude (linear regime). I show that the nematic phase behaves as an isotropic liquid of viscosity ${\eta }_c \left({\nu }_3\right)$ at low (high) frequency, where ${\eta }_c$ is the third Miesowicz viscosity and ${\nu }_3$ a smaller viscosity first introduced by Martin, Parodi, and Pershan. The crossover frequency $f^{☆}$ between these two asymptotic regimes scales as $h^2/D$, where $h$ is the sample thickness and $D=K_3/{\gamma }_1$ is the orientational diffusivity (with $K_3$ the bend constant and ${\gamma }_1$ the rotational viscosity). Between these two limits the sample behaves as a viscoelastic fluid whose elastic and loss moduli $G^{\prime }$ and $G^{\prime \prime }$ are calculated. These predictions are tested experimentally with a piezoelectric rheometer.