arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Charles Radin.
We are interested in modelling superfluid helium-4, the common isotope of helium, of atomic number 4. We present a mathematically solvable toy model of the phase transition between the normal liquid and superfluid phases and use it to show how an order parameter can be obtained for the superfluid.
We consider entropy-optimal graphons associated with extreme and near-extreme constraints on the densities of edges and triangles. We prove that the optimizers for near-extreme constraints are unique and multipodal and are perturbations of the previously known unique optimzers for extreme constraints. This proves the existence of infinitely many phases. We determine the podal structures in these phases and prove the existence of phase transitions between them.
A layer of monodisperse circular steel disks in a nearly square horizontal cell forms, for shear amplitudes SA $\le$ 0.08, hexagonal close-packed crystallites that grow and merge until a single crystal fills the container. Increasing the shear amplitude leads to another reproducible regime, 0.21 $\le$ SA $\le$ 0.27, where a few large polycrystallites grow, shrink, and rotate with shear cycling, but do not evolve into a single crystal that fills the container. These results are robust within certain ranges of applied pressure and shear frequency.
In the edge-2star model with hard constraints we prove the existence of an open set of constraint parameters, bisected by a line segment on which there are nonunique entropy-optimal graphons related by a symmetry. At each point in the open set but off the line segment there is a unique entropy-optimizer, bipodal and varying analytically with the constraints. We also show that throughout another open set, containing a different portion of the same line of symmetry, there is instead a unique optimal graphon, varying analytically with the parameters. We explore the extent of these open sets, determining the point at which a symmetric graphon ceases to be a local maximizer of the entropy. Finally, we prove some foundational theorems in a general setting, relating optimal graphons to the Boltzmann entropy and the generic structure of large constrained random graphs.
In the edge-triangle model with edge density close to 1/2 and triangle density below 1/8 we prove that the unique entropy-maximizing graphon is symmetric bipodal. We also prove that,for any edge density $e$ less than $e_0 = (3-\sqrt{3})/6 \approx 0.2113$ and triangle density slightly less than $e^3$, the entropy-maximizing graphon is not symmetric bipodal.
The analysis of large simple graphs with extreme values of the densities of edges and triangles has been extended to the statistical structure of typical graphs of fixed intermediate densities, by the use of large deviations of Erdoes-Renyi graphs. We prove that the typical graph exhibits sharp singularities as the constraining densities vary between different curves of extreme values, and we determine the precise nature of the singularities. The extension to graphs with fixed densities of edges and k-cycles for odd k>3 is straightforward and we note the simple changes in the proof.
The notion of random close packings of a bulk static collection of ball bearings or sand grains was introduced in the 1960's by G.D. Scott and J.D. Bernal. There have been numerous attempts to understand the packings. We give a short argument, based on recent experiments and simulations, which explains the packings in purely geometric terms.
We prove moderate deviations bounds for the lower tail of the number of odd cycles in a $\calG(n, m)$ random graph. We show that the probability of decreasing triangle density by $t^3$, is $\exp(-\Theta(n^2 t^2))$ whenever $n^{-3/4} \ll t^3 \ll 1$, while for $k \ge 5$ we give the same estimate for the probability of decreasing the $k$-cycle density by $t^k$, but for the larger range $n^{-1} \ll t^k \ll 1$. When $m \ge \frac 12 \binom n2$, we also find the leading coefficient in the exponent. This complements results of Goldschmidt et al., who showed that for $n^{-3/2} \ll t^k \ll n^{-1}$, the probability is $\exp(-\Theta(n^3 t^{2k}))$. That is, deviations of order smaller than $n^{-1}$ behave like small deviations, and deviations of order larger than $n^{-3/4}$ (for triangles) or $n^{-1}$ (for $k$-cycles with $k \ge 5$) behave like large deviations. For triangles, we conjecture that a sharp change between the two regimes occurs for deviations of size $n^{-3/4}$, which we associate with a single large negative eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix becoming responsible for almost all of the cycle deficit. Our results can be interpreted as finite size effects in phase transitions in constrained random graphs.
This is a brief introduction to the geometric aspects of aperiodic tiling and the collaboration of John Conway and the author in the decade 1990-2000.
Many experiments over the past half century have shown that, for a range of protocols, granular materials compact under pressure and repeated small disturbances. A recent experiment on cyclically sheared spherical grains showed significant compaction via homogeneous crystallization (Rietz et al., 2018). Here we present numerical simulations of frictionless, purely repulsive spheres undergoing cyclic simple shear with dissipative Newtonian dynamics at fixed vertical load. We show that for sufficiently small strain amplitudes, cyclic shear gives rise to homogeneous crystallization at a volume fraction $\phi = 0.646 \pm 0.001$. This result indicates that neither friction nor gravity is essential for homogeneous crystallization in driven granular media.
We analyze the 3-parameter family of random networks which are uniform on networks with fixed number of edges, triangles, and nodes (between 33 and 66). We find precursors of phase transitions which are known to be present in the asymptotic node regime as the edge and triangle numbers are varied, and focus on one of the discontinuous ones. By use of a natural edge flip dynamics we determine nucleation barriers as a random network crosses the transition, in analogy to the process a material undergoes when frozen or melted, and characterize some of the stochastic properties of the network nucleation.
An understanding of homogeneous nucleation of crystalline structure from a disordered medium such as a liquid remains an important unsolved problem in condensed matter physics. Guided by the results from a number of experiments on granular and colloidal systems in the past two decades, including in particular observations of homogeneous nucleation in colloidal and granular systems, we suggest an alternative to the statistical mechanics approach to static granular matter initiated by Edwards and Oakeshott in 1989.
We consider hierarchical structures such as Fibonacci sequences and Penrose tilings, and examine the consequences of different choices for the definition of isomorphism. In particular we discuss the role such a choice plays with regard to matching rules for such structures.
We analyze the general problem of determining optimally dense packings, in a Euclidean or hyperbolic space, of congruent copies of some fixed finite set of bodies. We are strongly guided by examples of aperiodic tilings in Euclidean space and a detailed analysis of a new family of examples in the hyperbolic plane. Our goal is to understand qualitative features of such optimum density problems, in particular the appropriate meaning of the uniqueness of solutions, and the role of symmetry in classfying optimally dense packings.
We classify all subgroups of $SO(3)$ that are generated by two elements, each a rotation of finite order, about axes separated by an angle that is a rational multiple of $π$. In all cases we give a presentation of the subgroup. In most cases the subgroup is the free product, or the amalgamated free product, of cyclic groups or dihedral groups. The relations between the generators are all simple consequences of standard facts about rotations by $π$ and $π/2$. Embedded in the subgroups are explicit free groups on 2 generators, as used in the Banach-Tarski paradox.
We consider tiling dynamical systems and topological conjugacies between them. We prove that the criterion of being finite type is invariant under topological conjugacy. For substitution tiling systems under rather general conditions, including the Penrose and pinwheel systems, we show that substitutions are invertible and that conjugacies are generalized sliding block codes.
We present an experiment on crystallization of packings of macroscopic granular spheres. This system is often considered to be a model for thermally driven atomic or colloidal systems. Cyclically shearing a packing of frictional spheres, we observe a first order phase transition from a disordered to an ordered state. The ordered state consists of crystallites of mixed FCC and HCP symmetry that coexist with the amorphous bulk. The transition, initiated by homogeneous nucleation, overcomes a barrier at 64.5% volume fraction. Nucleation consists predominantly of the dissolving of small nuclei and the growth of nuclei that have reached a critical size of about ten spheres.
We show that the random number $T_n$ of triangles in a random graph on $n$ vertices, with a strict constraint on the total number of edges, admits an expansion $T_n = an^3 + bn^2 + F_n$, where $a$ and $b$ are numbers, with the mean $\langle F_n \rangle = O(n)$ and the standard deviation $σ(T_n) =σ(F_n)= O(n^{3/2})$. The presence of a `surface term' $bn^2$ has a significance analogous to the macroscopic surface effects of materials, and is missing in the model where the edge constraint is removed. We also find the surface effect in other graph models using similar edge constraints.