arXiv subjects

Norihiro Oyama

Publications and source records attributed to Norihiro Oyama.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Generative climate downscaling enables high-resolution compound risk assessment by preserving multivariate dependencies

Physics-based climate projections using general circulation models are essential for assessing future risks, but their coarse resolution limits regional decision-making. Statistical downscaling can efficiently add detail, yet many methods treat variables independently, degrading inter-variable relationships that govern compound hazards such as heat stress, drought, and wildfire. Here we show that a diffusion-based multivariate generative framework, combined with bias correction, recovers degraded inter-variable correlations even under a 50$\times$ increase in linear resolution. When applied to five meteorological variables over Japan, the framework reduces inter-variable correlation errors by more than fourfold relative to existing baselines while improving both univariate and spatial accuracy, leading to more accurate detection of severe drought. These results demonstrate that multivariate generative downscaling improves the reliability of compound risk assessment under large resolution gaps.

physics.ao-ph↗

arXiv2026

Zero-temperature Avalanche Criticality Governing Dynamical Heterogeneity in Supercooled Liquids

In supercooled liquids, mesoscale mobile and immobile domains are ubiquitously observed, a phenomenon known as dynamical heterogeneity. Extensive studies have established that the characteristic size of these domains grows upon cooling and exhibits system-size dependence. However, the physical origin of this domain growth remains a matter of active debate. In this work, using molecular simulations, we demonstrate that the temperature and system-size dependence of dynamical heterogeneity can be explained within a zero-temperature avalanche criticality picture.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2026

Potential energy landscape picture of zero-temperature avalanche criticality governing dynamics in supercooled liquids

Supercooled liquids are metastable states realized by suppressing crystallization below the melting temperature. While it is well established that their dynamics slow down dramatically and become spatially heterogeneous upon cooling, the microscopic origin of these nontrivial glassy phenomena remains a matter of active debate. In the present study, by means of molecular dynamics simulations, we first demonstrate that nontrivial slow dynamics, such as structural relaxation and dynamical heterogeneity, can be consistently described within a zero-temperature avalanche criticality picture. Since this finding suggests that the potential energy landscape plays a crucial role in determining the dynamics, we further quantify the potential energy landscape from three distinct perspectives. Based on these analyses, we propose a potential-energy-landscape picture of avalanche criticality that is consistent with various previous studies. Our proposed picture explains in a unified manner previously unexplained observations near the mode-coupling transition, such as the saturation of the dynamical susceptibility and the localization of unstable modes in saddle configurations.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2025

Enhanced collective vibrations in granular materials

Granular materials are defined as collections of macroscopic dissipative particles. Although these systems are ubiquitous in our lives, the nature and the causes of their non-trivial collective dynamics still remain elusive and have attracted significant interest in non-equilibrium physics. Here, we focus on the vibrational dynamics of granular materials. While the vibrational dynamics of random packings have been examined concerning the jamming transition, previous research has overlooked the role of contact dissipations. We conducted numerical and analytical investigations into the vibrational dynamics of random packings influenced by the normal dissipative force, which is the simplest model for contact dissipations. Our findings reveal that the kinetic energy per mode diverges in the low-frequency range, following the scaling law $\mathcal{K}_l \propto ω^{-2}_l$ with the frequency $ω_l$, indicating that low-frequency modes experience strong excitation and that the equipartition of energy is violated. Additionally, the spatial structure factor of the velocity field displays the scaling law $S_v(q) \propto q^{-2}$ with the wavenumber $q$, which signifies that the velocity field has an infinitely long range. We demonstrate that these phenomena arise from the effects of weaker damping on softer modes, where the particle displacements parallel to the contacts are minimal in the low-frequency modes, rendering normal dissipation ineffective at dampening these modes.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2023

Scale Separation of Shear-induced Criticality in Glasses

In a sheared steady state, glasses reach a nonequilibrium criticality called yielding. In this letter, we report that the qualitative nature of this nonequilibrium critical phenomenon depends on the details of the system and that responses and fluctuations are governed by different critical correlation lengths in specific situations. This scale separation of critical lengths arises when the screening of elastic propagation of mechanical signals is not negligible. We also explain that the impact of the screening effects is crucially determined by the microscopic dissipation mechanism.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2023

Deep generative model super-resolves spatially correlated multiregional climate data

Super-resolving the coarse outputs of global climate simulations, termed downscaling, is crucial in making political and social decisions on systems requiring long-term climate change projections. Existing fast super-resolution techniques, however, have yet to preserve the spatially correlated nature of climatological data, which is particularly important when we address systems with spatial expanse, such as the development of transportation infrastructure. Herein, we show an adversarial network-based machine learning enables us to correctly reconstruct the inter-regional spatial correlations in downscaling with high magnification of up to fifty while maintaining pixel-wise statistical consistency. Direct comparison with the measured meteorological data of temperature and precipitation distributions reveals that integrating climatologically important physical information improves the downscaling performance, which prompts us to call this approach $π$SRGAN (Physics Informed Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Network). The proposed method has a potential application to the inter-regionally consistent assessment of the climate change impact. Additionally, we present the outcomes of another variant of the deep generative model-based downscaling approach in which the low-resolution precipitation field is substituted with the pressure field, referred to as $ψ$SRGAN (Precipitation Source Inaccessible SRGAN). Remarkably, this method demonstrates unexpectedly good downscaling performance for the precipitation field.

physics.ao-ph↗

arXiv2023

Avalanche Interpretation of the Power-Law Energy Spectrum in Three-Dimensional Dense Granular Flow

Turbulence is ubiquitous in nonequilibrium systems, and it has been noted that even dense granular flows exhibit characteristics that are typical of turbulent flow, such as the power-law energy spectrum. However, studies on the turbulent-like behavior of granular flows are limited to two-dimensional (2D) flow. We demonstrate that the statistics in three-dimensional (3D) flow are qualitatively different from those in 2D flow. We also elucidate that avalanche dynamics can explain this dimensionality dependence. Moreover, we define clusters of collectively moving particles that are equivalent to vortex filaments. The clusters unveil complicated structures in 3D flows that are absent in 2D flows.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

What Do Deep Neural Networks Find in Disordered Structures of Glasses?

Glass transitions are widely observed in various types of soft matter systems. However, the physical mechanism of these transitions remains {elusive}, despite years of ambitious research. In particular, an important unanswered question is whether the glass transition is accompanied by a divergence of the correlation lengths of the characteristic static structures. In this study, we develop a deep-neural-network-based method that is used to extract the characteristic local meso-structures solely from instantaneous {particle} configurations without any {information} about the dynamics. We first train a neural network to classify configurations of liquids and glasses correctly. Then, we obtain the characteristic structures by quantifying the grounds for the decisions made by the network using Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM). We considered two qualitatively different glass-forming binary systems, and through comparisons with several established structural indicators, we demonstrate that our system can be used to identify characteristic structures that depend on the details of the systems. Moreover, the extracted structures are remarkably correlated with the nonequilibrium aging dynamics in thermal fluctuations.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2022

Gas-liquid phase separation at zero temperature: mechanical interpretation and implications for gelation

The relationship between glasses and gels has been intensely debated for decades; however, the transition between these two phases remains elusive. To investigate a gel formation process in the zero-temperature limit and its relation to the glass phase, we conducted numerical experiments on athermal quasistatic decompression. During decompression, the system experiences a cavitation event similar to phase separation and this is a gelation process at zero temperature. A normal mode analysis revealed that the phase separation is signaled by the vanishing of the lowest eigenenergy, similar to plastic events of glasses under shear. One primary difference from the shear-induced plasticity is that the vanishing mode experiences a qualitative change in its spatial energy distribution at the phase separation point. These findings enable us to define the glass-gel phase boundary based on mechanics.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Shear-induced Criticality in Glasses Shares Qualitative Similarities with the Gardner Phase

Although glass phases are found in various soft matter systems ubiquitously, we are still far from a complete understanding of them. The concept of marginal stability predicted by infinite-dimensional mean-field theories is drawing attention as a candidate for universal and distinguishing unique features of glasses. While among theoretical predictions, the non-Debye scaling has indeed been observed universally over various classes of glasses, and the Gardner phase is found only in hard sphere systems if we restrict ourselves to the physical dimensions. In this work, we numerically demonstrate that plastic events observed in two-dimensional Lennard-Jones glasses under quasistatic shear exhibit statistical properties that are qualitatively very similar to the Gardner phase.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2021

Localized and extended dynamical correlation lengths in jammed packings of soft athermal disks under slow shear

Dynamics of jammed packings of soft athermal disks under finite-rate shear are studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Particularly, we investigate the spatial structures of stress drop events, which are expected to provide information about plasticity. Investigating the displacement fields during stress drop events, we show that there are qualitatively different two types of events in the low rate limit: localized ones and extended ones. We further investigate the time evolution of events and clarify that both types of events are due to oscillatory motion of the stress, which is unique for systems under finite-rate shear. The difference between two types of events is the regime that events reside in: while localized events take place during plastic events, extended ones occur in the elastic branch.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Dynamic susceptibilities in dense soft athermal spheres under a finite-rate shear

The mechanical responses of dense packings of soft athermal spheres under a finite-rate shear are studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We investigate the volume fraction and shear rate dependence of the fluctuations in the shear stress and the interparticle contact number. In particular, we quantify them by defining the susceptibility as the ratio of the global to local fluctuations. The obtained susceptibilities form ridges on the volume fraction-shear rate plane, which are reminiscent of the Widom lines around the critical point in an equilibrium phase transition.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Instantaneous Normal Modes Reveal Structural Signatures for the Herschel-Bulkley Rheology in Sheared Glasses

The Herschel-Bulkley law, a universal constitutive relation, has been empirically known to be applicable to a vast range of soft materials, including sheared glasses. Although the Herschel- Bulkley law has attracted public attention, its structural origin has remained an open question. In this letter, by means of atomistic simulation of binary Lennard-Jones glasses, we report that the instantaneous normal modes with negative eigenvalues, or so-called imaginary modes, serve as the structural signatures for the Herschel-Bulkley rheology in sheared glasses.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Unified View of Avalanche Criticality in Sheared Glasses

Plastic events in sheared glasses are considered an example of so-called avalanches, whose sizes obey a power-law probability distribution with the avalanche critical exponent $τ$. Although mean-field theory predicts a universal value of this exponent, $τ_{\rm MF}=1.5$, numerical simulations have reported different values depending on the literature. Moreover, in the elastic regime, it has been noted that the critical exponent can be different from that in the steady state, and even criticality itself is a matter of debate. Because these confusingly varying results were reported under different setups, our knowledge of avalanche criticality in sheared glasses is greatly limited. To gain a unified understanding, in this work, we conduct a comprehensive numerical investigation of avalanches in Lennard-Jones glasses under athermal quasistatic shear. In particular, by excluding the ambiguity and arbitrariness that has crept into the conventional measurement schemes, we achieve high-precision measurement and demonstrate that the exponent $τ$ in the steady state follows the mean-field prediction of $τ_{\rm MF}=1.5$. Our results also suggest that there are two qualitatively different avalanche events. This binariness leads to the non-universal behavior of the avalanche size distribution and is likely to be the cause of the varying values of $τ$ reported thus far. To investigate the dependence of criticality and universality on applied shear, we further study the statistics of avalanches in the elastic regime and the ensemble of the first avalanche event in different samples, which provide information about the unperturbed system. We show that while the unperturbed system is indeed off-critical, criticality gradually develops as shear is applied. Moreover, the critical exponent obeys the mean-field prediction $τ_{\rm MF}$ universally, once the system becomes critical.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2019

Glassy dynamics of a model of bacterial cytoplasm with metabolic activities

Recent experiments have revealed that cytoplasms become glassy when their metabolism is suppressed, while they maintain fluidity in a living state. The mechanism of this active fluidization is not clear, especially for bacterial cytoplasms, since they lack traditional motor proteins, which can cause directed motions. We introduce a model of bacterial cytoplasm focusing on the impact of conformational change in proteins due to metabolism. In the model, proteins are treated as particles under thermal agitation, and conformation changes are treated as changes in particle volume. Simulations revealed that a small change in volume fluidizes the glassy state, accompanied by a change in fragility, as observed experimentally.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2018

Transition rates for slip-avalanches in soft athermal disks under quasi-static simple shear deformations

We study slip-avalanches in two-dimensional soft athermal disks by quasi-static simulations of simple shear deformations. Sharp drops in shear stress, or slip-avalanches, are observed intermittently during steady state. Such the stress drop is caused by restructuring of the contact networks, accompanied by drastic changes of the interaction forces. The changes of the forces happen heterogeneously in space, indicating that collective non-affine motions of the disks are most pronounced when slip-avalanches occur. We analyze and predict statistics for the force changes, by transition rates of the force and contact angle, where slip-avalanches are characterized by their wide power-law tails. We find that the transition rates are described as a q-Gaussian distribution regardless of the area fraction of the disks. Because the transition rates quantify structural changes of the force-chains, our findings are an important step towards a microscopic theory of slip-avalanches in the experimentally accessible quasi-static regime.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2017

Hydrodynamic synchronization of externally driven colloids

The collective dynamics of externally driven $N_{\rm p}$-colloidal systems ($1\le N_{\rm p}\le 4$) in a confined viscous fluid have been investigated using three-dimensional direct numerical simulations with fully resolved hydrodynamics. The dynamical modes of collective particle motion are studied by changing the particle Reynolds number {as determined by the strength of the external driving force} and the confining wall distance. For a system with $N_{\rm p}= 3$, we found that at a critical Reynolds number, a dynamical mode transition occurs from the doublet-singlet mode to the triplet mode, which has not been reported experimentally. The dynamical mode transition was analyzed in detail from the following two viewpoints: (1) spectrum analysis of the time evolution of a tagged particle velocity and (2) the relative acceleration of the doublet cluster with respect to the singlet particle. For a system with $N_{\rm p}=4$, we found similar dynamical mode transitions from the doublet-singlet-singlet mode to the triplet-singlet mode and further to the quartet mode.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2017

Hydrodynamic alignment of microswimmers in pipes

We investigate the dynamics of model microswimmers under confinement, in cylindrical geometries, by means of three dimensional direct numerical calculations with fully resolved hydrodynamics. Such swimmers are known to show collective alignment in bulk, and we confirmed that similar alignment can be observed even in pipes, although the volume fraction dependency shows qualitative differences. By comparing the structural information, we investigated the cause of such differences. We found an order/disorder phase transition for a specific type of swimmers, as the size of the pipe becomes comparable to the size of the swimmers. Such dynamics are found not to depend on the geometry of confinement.

cond-mat.soft↗