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Michael Blank

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Blank.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2017

Ergodic averaging with and without invariant measures

The classical Birkhoff ergodic theorem in its most popular version says that the time average along a single typical trajectory of a dynamical system is equal to the space average with respect to the ergodic invariant distribution. This result is one of the cornerstones of the entire ergodic theory and its numerous applications. Two questions related to this subject will be addressed: how large is the set of typical trajectories, in particular in the case when there are no invariant distributions, and how the answer is connected to properties of the so called natural measures (limits of images of "good" measures under the action of the system).

math.DS↗
arXiv2016

First Study of Combined Blazar Light Curves with FACT and HAWC

For studying variable sources like blazars, it is crucial to achieve unbiased monitoring, either with dedicated telescopes in pointing mode or survey instruments. At TeV energies, the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory monitors approximately two thirds of the sky every day. It uses the water Cherenkov technique, which provides an excellent duty cycle independent of weather and season. The First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope (FACT) monitors a small sample of sources with better sensitivity, using the imaging air Cherenkov technique. Thanks to its camera with silicon-based photosensors, FACT features an excellent detector performance and stability and extends its observations to times with strong moonlight, increasing the duty cycle compared to other imaging air Cherenkov telescopes. As FACT and HAWC have overlapping energy ranges, a joint study can exploit the longer daily coverage given that the observatories' locations are offset by 5.3 hours. Furthermore, the better sensitivity of FACT adds a finer resolution of features on hour-long time scales, while the continuous duty cycle of HAWC ensures evenly sampled long-term coverage. Thus, the two instruments complement each other to provide a more complete picture of blazar variability. In this presentation, the first joint study of light curves from the two instruments will be shown, correlating long-term measurements with daily sampling between air and water Cherenkov telescopes. The presented results focus on the study of the variability of the bright blazars Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 during the last two years featuring various flaring activities.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2014

Ergodicity of a collective random walk on a circle

We discuss conditions for unique ergodicity of a collective random walk on a continuous circle. Individual particles in this collective motion perform independent (and different in general) random walks conditioned by the assumption that the particles cannot overrun each other. Additionally to sufficient conditions for the unique ergodicity we discover a new and unexpected way for its violation due to excessively large local jumps. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the unique ergodicity of the deterministic version of this system are obtained as well. Technically our approach is based on the interlacing property of the spin function which describes states of pairs of particles in coupled processes under study.

math.DS↗
arXiv2012

Stochastic stability of traffic maps

We study ergodic properties of a family of traffic maps acting in the space of bi-infinite sequences of real numbers. The corresponding dynamics mimics the motion of vehicles in a simple traffic flow, which explains the name. Using connections to topological Markov chains we obtain nontrivial invariant measures, prove their stochastic stability, and calculate the topological entropy. Technically these results in the deterministic setting are related to the construction of measures of maximal entropy via measures uniformly distributed on periodic points of a given period, while in the random setting we directly construct (spatially) Markov invariant measures. In distinction to conventional results the limiting measures in non-lattice case are non-ergodic. Average velocity of individual ``vehicles'' as a function of their density and its stochastic stability is studied as well.

math.DS↗
arXiv2011

Exclusion type spatially heterogeneous processes in continuum

We study deterministic discrete time exclusion type spatially heterogeneous particle processes in continuum. A typical example of this sort is a traffic flow model with obstacles: traffic lights, speed bumps, spatially varying local velocities etc. Ergodic averages of particle velocities are obtained and their connections to other statistical quantities, in particular to particle and obstacles densities (the so called Fundamental Diagram) is analyzed rigorously. The main technical tool is a "dynamical" coupling construction applied in a nonstandard fashion: instead of proving the existence of the successful coupling (which even might not hold) we use its presence/absence as an important diagnostic tool.

math.DS↗
arXiv2010

Condensation versus independence in weakly interacting CMLs

We propose a simple model unifying two major approaches to the analysis of large multicomponent systems: interacting particle systems (IPS) and couple map lattices (CML) and show that in the weak interaction limit depending on fine properties of the interaction potential this model may demonstrate both condensation/synchronization and independent motions. Note that one of the main paradigms of the CML theory is that the latter behavior is supposed to be generic. The model under consideration is related to dynamical networks and sheds a new light to the problem of synchronization under weak interactions.

math.DS↗
arXiv2009

Metric properties of discrete time exclusion type processes in continuum

A new class of exclusion type processes acting in continuum with synchronous updating is introduced and studied. Ergodic averages of particle velocities are obtained and their connections to other statistical quantities, in particular to the particle density (the so called Fundamental Diagram) is analyzed rigorously. The main technical tool is a "dynamical" coupling applied in a nonstandard fashion: we do not prove the existence of the successful coupling (which even might not hold) but instead use its presence/absence as an important diagnostic tool. Despite that this approach cannot be applied to lattice systems directly, it allows to obtain new results for the lattice systems embedding them to the systems in continuum. Applications to the traffic flows modelling are discussed as well.

math.DS↗
arXiv2008

Travelling with/against the flow. Deterministic diffusive driven systems

We introduce and study a deterministic lattice model describing the motion of an infinite system of oppositely charged particles under the action of a constant electric field. As an application this model represents a traffic flow of cars moving in opposite directions along a narrow road. Our main results concern the Fundamental diagram of the system describing the dependence of average particle velocities on their densities and the Phase diagram describing the partition of the space of particle configurations into regions having different qualitative properties, which we identify with free, jammed and hysteresis phases.

math.DS↗
arXiv2006

On quasi successful couplings of Markov processes

The notion of a successful coupling of Markov processes, based on the idea that both components of the coupled system ``intersect'' in finite time with probability one, is extended to cover situations when the coupling is unnecessarily Markovian and its components are only converging (in a certain sense) to each other with time. Under these assumptions the unique ergodicity of the original Markov process is proven. A price for this generalization is the weak convergence to the unique invariant measure instead of the strong one. Applying these ideas to infinite interacting particle systems we consider even more involved situations when the unique ergodicity can be proven only for a restriction of the original system to a certain class of initial distributions (e.g. translational invariant ones). Questions about the existence of invariant measures with a given particle density are discussed as well.

math.PR↗
arXiv2006

On exclusion type inhomogeneous interacting particle systems

For a large class of inhomogeneous interacting particle systems (IPS) on a lattice we develop a rigorous method for mapping them onto homogeneous IPS. Our novel approach provides a direct way of obtaining the statistical properties of such inhomogeneous systems by studying the far simpler homogeneous systems. In the cases when the latter can be solved exactly our method yields an exact solution for the statistical properties of an inhomogeneous IPS. This approach is illustrated by studies of three of IPS, namely those with particles of different sizes, or with varying (between particles) maximal velocities, or accelerations.

nlin.CG↗
arXiv2006

On Raw Coding of Chaotic Dynamics

We study raw coding of trajectories of a chaotic dynamical system by sequences of elements from a finite alphabet and show that there is a fundamental constraint on differences between codes corresponding to different trajectories of the dynamical system.

math.DS↗
arXiv2005

Long range action in networks of chaotic elements

We show that under certain simple assumptions on the topology (structure) of networks of strongly interacting chaotic elements a phenomenon of long range action takes place, namely that the asymptotic (as time goes to infinity) dynamics of an arbitrary large network is completely determined by its boundary conditions. This phenomenon takes place under very mild and robust assumptions on local dynamics with short range interactions. However, we show that it is unstable with respect to arbitrarily weak local random perturbations.

math.DS↗
arXiv2005

Hysteresis phenomenon in deterministic traffic flows

We study phase transitions of a system of particles on the one-dimensional integer lattice moving with constant acceleration, with a collision law respecting slower particles. This simple deterministic ``particle-hopping'' traffic flow model being a straightforward generalization to the well known Nagel-Schreckenberg model covers also a more recent slow-to-start model as a special case. The model has two distinct ergodic (unmixed) phases with two critical values. When traffic density is below the lowest critical value, the steady state of the model corresponds to the ``free-flowing'' (or ``gaseous'') phase. When the density exceeds the second critical value the model produces large, persistent, well-defined traffic jams, which correspond to the ``jammed'' (or ``liquid'') phase. Between the two critical values each of these phases may take place, which can be interpreted as an ``overcooled gas'' phase when a small perturbation can change drastically gas into liquid. Mathematical analysis is accomplished in part by the exact derivation of the life-time of individual traffic jams for a given configuration of particles.

math.DS↗
arXiv2004

Switched flow systems: pseudo billiard dynamics

We study a class of dynamical systems which generalizes and unifies some models arising in the analysis of switched flow systems in manufacturing. General properties of these dynamical systems, called pseudo billiards, as well as some their perturbations are discussed.

math.DS↗
arXiv2002

Ergodic properties of a simple deterministic traffic flow model re(al)visited

We study statistical properties of a family of maps acting in the space of integer valued sequences, which model dynamics of simple deterministic traffic flows. We obtain asymptotic (as time goes to infinity) properties of trajectories of those maps corresponding to arbitrary initial configurations in terms of statistics of densities of various patterns and describe weak attractors of these systems and the rate of convergence to them. Previously only the so called regular initial configurations (having a density with only finite fluctuations of partial sums around it) in the case of a slow particles model (with the maximal velocity 1) have been studied rigorously. Applying ideas borrowed from substitution dynamics we are able to reduce the analysis of the traffic flow models corresponding to the multi-lane traffic and to the flow with fast particles (with velocities greater than 1) to the simplest case of the flow with the one-lane traffic and slow particles, where the crucial technical step is the derivation of the exact life-time for a given cluster of particles. Applications to the optimal redirection of the multi-lane traffic flow are discussed as well.

math.DS↗
arXiv2001

Perron-Frobenius spectrum for random maps and its approximation

To study the convergence to equilibrium in random maps we developed the spectral theory of the corresponding transfer (Perron-Frobenius) operators acting in a certain Banach space of generalized functions. The random maps under study in a sense fill the gap between expanding and hyperbolic systems since among their (deterministic) components there are both expanding and contracting ones. We prove stochastic stability of the Perron-Frobenius spectrum and developed its finite rank operator approximations by means of a ``stochastically smoothed'' Ulam approximation scheme. A counterexample to the original Ulam conjecture about the approximation of the SBR measure and the discussion of the instability of spectral approximations by means of the original Ulam scheme are presented as well.

nlin.CD↗