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Carlos Escudero

Publications and source records attributed to Carlos Escudero.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Stochastic growth of radial clusters: weak convergence to the asymptotic profile and implications for morphogenesis

The asymptotic shape of randomly growing radial clusters is studied. We pose the problem in terms of the dynamics of stochastic partial differential equations. We concentrate on the properties of the realizations of the stochastic growth process and in particular on the interface fluctuations. Our goal is unveiling under which conditions the developing radial cluster asymptotically weakly converges to the concentrically propagating spherically symmetric profile or either to a symmetry breaking shape. We demonstrate that the long range correlations of the surface fluctuations obey a self-affine scaling and that scale invariance is achieved by means of the introduction of three critical exponents. These are able to characterize the large scale dynamics and to describe those regimes dominated by system size evolution. The connection of these results with mathematical morphogenetic problems is also outlined.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Statistics of interfacial fluctuations of radially growing clusters

The dynamics of fluctuating radially growing interfaces is approached using the formalism of stochastic growth equations on growing domains. This framework reveals a number of dynamic features arising during surface growth. For fast growth, dilution, which spatially reorders the incoming matter, is responsible for the transmission of correlations. Its effects include the erasing of memory with respect to the initial condition, a partial attenuation of geometrically originated instabilities, and the restoring of universality in some special cases in which the critical exponents depend on the parameters of the equation of motion. In this sense, dilution rends the dynamics more similar to the usual one of planar systems. This fast growth regime is also characterized by the spatial decorrelation of the interface, which in the case of radially growing interfaces naturally originates rapid roughening and scale dependent fractality, and suggests the advent of a self-similar fractal dimension. The center of mass fluctuations of growing clusters are also studied, and our analysis suggests the possible non-applicability of usual scalings to the long range surface fluctuations of the radial Eden model. In fact, our study points to the fact that this model belongs to a dilution-free universality class.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Chemical Oscillations out of Chemical Noise

The dynamics of one species chemical kinetics is studied. Chemical reactions are modelled by means of continuous time Markov processes whose probability distribution obeys a suitable master equation. A large deviation theory is formally introduced, which allows developing a Hamiltonian dynamical system able to describe the system dynamics. Using this technique we are able to show that the intrinsic fluctuations, originated in the discrete character of the reagents, may sustain oscillations and chaotic trajectories which are impossible when these fluctuations are disregarded. An important point is that oscillations and chaos appear in systems whose mean-field dynamics has too low a dimensionality for showing such a behavior. In this sense these phenomena are purely induced by noise, which does not limit itself to shifting a bifurcation threshold. On the other hand, they are large deviations of a short transient nature which typically only appear after long waiting times. We also discuss the implications of our results in understanding extinction events in population dynamics models expressed by means of stoichiometric relations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Ergodic directional switching in mobile insect groups

We obtain a Fokker-Planck equation describing experimental data on the collective motion of locusts. The noise is of internal origin and due to the discrete character and finite number of constituents of the swarm. The stationary probability distribution shows a rich phenomenology including non-monotonic behavior of several order/disorder transition indicators in noise intensity. This complex behavior arises naturally as a result of the randomness in the system. Its counterintuitive character challenges standard interpretations of noise induced transitions and calls for an extension of this theory in order to capture the behavior of certain classes of biologically motivated models. Our results suggest that the collective switches of the group's direction of motion might be due to a random ergodic effect and, as such, they are inherent to group formation.

q-bio.PE↗

Two species coagulation approach to consensus by group level interactions

We explore the self-organization dynamics of a set of entities by considering the interactions that affect the different subgroups conforming the whole. To this end, we employ the widespread example of coagulation kinetics, and characterize which interaction types lead to consensus formation and which do not, as well as the corresponding different macroscopic patterns. The crucial technical point is extending the usual one species coagulation dynamics to the two species one. This is achieved by means of introducing explicitly solvable kernels which have a clear physical meaning. The corresponding solutions are calculated in the long time limit, in which consensus may or may not be reached. The lack of consensus is characterized by means of scaling limits of the solutions. The possible applications of our results to some topics in which consensus reaching is fundamental, like collective animal motion and opinion spreading dynamics, are also outlined.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Dynamics of Generalized Hydrodynamics: Hyperbolic and Pseudohyperbolic Burgers Equations

The equations of continuum hydrodynamics can be derived from the Boltzmann equation, which describes rarefied gas dynamics at the kinetic level, by means of the Chapman-Enskog expansion. This expansion assumes a small Knudsen number, and as a consequence, the hydrodynamics equations are able to successfully describe sound propagation when the frequency of a sound wave is much higher than the collision frequency of the particles. When both frequencies become comparable, these equations give a poor account of the experimental measurements. A series of generalized hydrodynamic equations has been introduced in the literature along the years in order to improve the continuous description of small scale properties of fluid flow, as ultrasound propagation. We will describe herein some of the simplified models that has been proposed so far.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Some open questions concerning biological growth

We briefly review the properties of radially growing interfaces and their connection to biological growth. We focus on simplified models which result from the abstraction of only considering domain growth and not the interface curvature. Linear equations can be exactly solved and the phenomenology of growth can be inferred from the explicit solutions. Nonlinear equations pose interesting open questions that are summarized herein.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Dynamics of curved interfaces

Stochastic growth phenomena on curved interfaces are studied by means of stochastic partial differential equations. These are derived as counterparts of linear planar equations on a curved geometry after a reparametrization invariance principle has been applied. We examine differences and similarities with the classical planar equations. Some characteristic features are the loss of correlation through time and a particular behaviour of the average fluctuations. Dependence on the metric is also explored. The diffusive model that propagates correlations ballistically in the planar situation is particularly interesting, as this propagation becomes nonuniversal in the new regime.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Stochastic growth equations on growing domains

The dynamics of linear stochastic growth equations on growing substrates is studied. The substrate is assumed to grow in time following the power law $t^γ$, where the growth index $γ$ is an arbitrary positive number. Two different regimes are clearly identified: for small $γ$ the interface becomes correlated, and the dynamics is dominated by diffusion; for large $γ$ the interface stays uncorrelated, and the dynamics is dominated by dilution. In this second regime, for short time intervals and spatial scales the critical exponents corresponding to the non-growing substrate situation are recovered. For long time differences or large spatial scales the situation is different. Large spatial scales show the uncorrelated character of the growing interface. Long time intervals are studied by means of the auto-correlation and persistence exponents. It becomes apparent that dilution is the mechanism by which correlations are propagated in this second case.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

On the Geometric Principles of Surface Growth

We introduce a new equation describing epitaxial growth processes. This equation is derived from a simple variational geometric principle and it has a straightforward interpretation in terms of continuum and microscopic physics. It is also able to reproduce the critical behavior already observed, mound formation and mass conservation, but however does not fit a divergence form as the most commonly spread models of conserved surface growth. This formulation allows us to connect the results of the dynamic renormalization group analysis with intuitive geometric principles, whose generic character may well allow them to describe surface growth and other phenomena in different areas of physics.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Switching rates of multi-step reactions

We consider a switching rate of a meta-stable reaction scheme, which includes reactions with arbitrary steps, e.g. $kA\to(k+r)A$. Employing WKB approximation, controlled by a large system size, we evaluate both the exponent and the pre-exponential factor for the rate. The results are illustrated on a number of examples.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Dynamic Scaling of Non-Euclidean Interfaces

The dynamic scaling of curved interfaces presents features that are strikingly different from those of the planar ones. Spherical surfaces above one dimension are flat because the noise is irrelevant in such cases. Kinetic roughening is thus a one-dimensional phenomenon characterized by a marginal logarithmic amplitude of the fluctuations. Models characterized by a planar dynamical exponent $z>1$, which include the most common stochastic growth equations, suffer a loss of correlation along the interface, and their dynamics reduce to that of the radial random deposition model in the long time limit. The consequences in several applications are discussed, and we conclude that it is necessary to reexamine some experimental results in which standard scaling analysis was applied.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Persistence of instanton connections in chemical reactions with time dependent rates

The evolution of a system of chemical reactions can be studied, in the eikonal approximation, by means of a Hamiltonian dynamical system. The fixed points of this dynamical system represent the different states in which the chemical system can be found, and the connections among them represent instantons or optimal paths linking these states. We study the relation between the phase portrait of the Hamiltonian system representing a set of chemical reactions with constant rates and the corresponding system when these rates vary in time. We show that the topology of the phase space is robust for small time-dependent perturbations in concrete examples and state general results when possible. This robustness allows us to apply some of the conclusions on the qualitative behavior of the autonomous system to the time-dependent situation.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Blow-up of the hyperbolic Burgers equation

The memory effects on microscopic kinetic systems have been sometimes modelled by means of the introduction of second order time derivatives in the macroscopic hydrodynamic equations. One prototypical example is the hyperbolic modification of the Burgers equation, that has been introduced to clarify the interplay of hyperbolicity and nonlinear hydrodynamic evolution. Previous studies suggested the finite time blow-up of this equation, and here we present a rigorous proof of this fact.

math-ph↗

The fractional Keller-Segel model

The Keller-Segel model is a system of partial differential equations modelling chemotactic aggregation in cellular systems. This model has blowing up solutions for large enough initial conditions in dimensions d >= 2, but all the solutions are regular in one dimension; a mathematical fact that crucially affects the patterns that can form in the biological system. One of the strongest assumptions of the Keller-Segel model is the diffusive character of the cellular motion, known to be false in many situations. We extend this model to such situations in which the cellular dispersal is better modelled by a fractional operator. We analyze this fractional Keller-Segel model and find that all solutions are again globally bounded in time in one dimension. This fact shows the robustness of the main biological conclusions obtained from the Keller-Segel model.

math.AP↗

Geometrical approach to tumor growth

Tumor growth has a number of features in common with a physical process known as molecular beam epitaxy. Both growth processes are characterized by the constraint of growth development to the body border, and surface diffusion of cells/particles at the growing edge. However, tumor growth implies an approximate spherical symmetry that makes necessary a geometrical treatment of the growth equations. The basic model was introduced in a former article [C. Escudero, Phys. Rev. E 73, 020902(R) (2006)], and in the present work we extend our analysis and try to shed light on the possible geometrical principles that drive tumor growth. We present two-dimensional models that reproduce the experimental observations, and analyse the unexplored three-dimensional case, for which new conclusions on tumor growth are derived.

q-bio.QM↗