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Biomedical subjects

M Nicodemi

Publications and source records attributed to M Nicodemi.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Finite driving rate and anisotropy effects in landslide modeling.

In order to characterize landslide frequency-size distributions and individuate hazard scenarios and their possible precursors, we investigate a cellular automaton where the effects of a finite driving rate and the anisotropy are taken into account. The model is able to reproduce observed features of landslide events, such as power-law distributions, as experimentally reported. We analyze the key role of the driving rate and show that, as it is increased, a crossover from power-law to non-power-law behaviors occurs. Finally, a systematic investigation of the model on varying its anisotropy factors is performed and the full diagram of its dynamical behaviors is presented.

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PubMed2006

Universality in solar flare and earthquake occurrence.

Earthquakes and solar flares are phenomena involving huge and rapid releases of energy characterized by complex temporal occurrence. By analyzing available experimental catalogs, we show that the stochastic processes underlying these apparently different phenomena have universal properties. Namely, both problems exhibit the same distributions of sizes, interoccurrence times, and the same temporal clustering: We find after flare sequences with power law temporal correlations as the Omori law for seismic sequences. The observed universality suggests a common approach to the interpretation of both phenomena in terms of the same driving physical mechanism.

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PubMed2005

Size segregation in granular media induced by phase transition.

In order to study analytically the nature of the size segregation in granular mixtures, we introduce a mean field theory in the framework of a statistical mechanics approach, based on Edwards' original ideas. For simplicity we apply the theory to a lattice model for a hard sphere binary mixture under gravity, and we find a new purely thermodynamic mechanism that gives rise to the size segregation phenomenon. By varying the number of small grains and the mass ratio, we find a crossover from the Brazil nut to the reverse Brazil nut effect, which becomes a true phase transition when the number of small grains is larger then a critical value. We suggest that this transition is induced by the effective attraction between large grains due to the presence of small ones (depletion force). Finally the theoretical results are confirmed by numerical simulations of the 3d system under taps.

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PubMed2005

Jamming transition in granular media: a mean-field approximation and numerical simulations.

In order to study analytically the nature of the jamming transition in granular material, we have considered a cavity method mean-field theory, in the framework of a statistical mechanics approach, based on Edwards' original idea. For simplicity, we have applied the theory to a lattice model, and a transition with exactly the same nature of the glass transition in mean-field models for usual glass formers is found. The model is also simulated in three dimensions under tap dynamics, and a jamming transition with glassy features is observed. In particular, two-step decays appear in the relaxation functions and dynamic heterogeneities resembling ones usually observed in glassy systems. These results confirm early speculations about the connection between the jamming transition in granular media and the glass transition in usual glass formers, giving moreover a precise interpretation of its nature.

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PubMed2002

Dynamics and thermodynamics of the spherical frustrated Blume-Emery-Griffiths model.

We introduce a spherical version of the frustrated Blume-Emery-Griffiths model and solve exactly the statics and the Langevin dynamics for zero particle-particle interaction (K=0). In this case the model exhibits an equilibrium transition from a disordered to a spin glass phase, which is always continuous for nonzero temperature. The same phase diagram results from the study of the dynamics. Furthermore, we note the existence of a nonequilibrium time regime in a region of the disordered phase, characterized by aging, as occurs in the glassy phase. Due to a finite equilibration time, the system displays in this region the pattern of interrupted aging.

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PubMed2002

Probability distribution of inherent states in models of granular media and glasses.

The present paper develops a Statistical Mechanics approach to the inherent states of glassy systems and granular materials by following the original ideas proposed by Edwards for granular media. We consider three lattice models (a diluted spin glass, a system of hard spheres under gravity and a hard-spheres binary mixture under gravity) introduced to describe glassy and granular systems. They are evolved using a "tap dynamics" analogous to that of experiments on granular media. We show that the asymptotic states reached in such a dynamics are not dependent on the particular sample history and are characterized by a few thermodynamical parameters. We assume that under stationarity these systems are distributed in their inherent states satisfying the principle of maximum entropy. This leads to a generalized Gibbs distribution characterized by new "thermodynamical" parameters, called "configurational temperatures" (related to Edwards compactivity for granular materials). Finally, we show by Monte Carlo calculations that the average of macroscopic quantities over the tap dynamics and over such distribution indeed coincide. In particular, in the diluted spin glass and in the system of hard spheres under gravity, the asymptotic states reached by the system are found to be described by a single "configurational temperature". Whereas in the hard-spheres binary mixture under gravity the asymptotic states reached by the system are found to be described by two thermodynamic parameters, coinciding with the two configurational temperatures which characterize the distribution among the inherent states when the principle of maximum entropy is satisfied under the constraint that the energies of the two species are independently fixed.

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PubMed2001

Creep of superconducting vortices in the limit of vanishing temperature: a fingerprint of off-equilibrium dynamics.

We theoretically study the creep of vortex matter in superconductors. The low temperature experimental phenomenology, previously interpreted in terms of "quantum tunneling" of vortices, is reproduced by Monte Carlo simulations of a purely "classical" vortex model. We demonstrate that a nonzero creep rate in the limit of vanishing temperature is to be expected in systems with slow relaxations as a consequence of their off-equilibrium evolution in a complex free energy landscape.

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PubMed2001

Slow dynamics and aging in a constrained diffusion model.

We carry out a complete analysis of the schematic diffusive model recently introduced for the description of supercooled liquids and glassy systems above the glass temperature. The model is described by a trivial equilibrium measure and the presence of kinetics constraints is mimicked through a rapidly decreasing mobility at high particle density. The governing equation describing a sudden quench process is investigated analytically in a mean field approach and by means of numerical simulations. For deep quenches a long lasting off-equilibrium dynamics is observed in dense systems before equilibration is achieved, where time translational invariance lacks and the system ages. The kinetics is slow in this time domain since the average particle diffusivity D decreases in time, as opposed to the standard diffusion case of a constant D, that is recovered only in equilibrium. The autocorrelation function decays slower than an exponential, falling in mean field as an enhanced power law. The linear response function is computed and the modalities of the break-down of the fluctuation dissipation theorem are analytically investigated, showing that an effective temperature can be defined which slowly approaches the bath temperature from above.

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PubMed2000

Universal fluctuations in correlated systems

The probability density function (PDF) of a global measure in a large class of highly correlated systems has been suggested to be of the same functional form. Here, we identify the analytical form of the PDF of one such measure, the order parameter in the low temperature phase of the 2D XY model. We demonstrate that this function describes the fluctuations of global quantities in other correlated equilibrium and nonequilibrium systems. These include a coupled rotor model, Ising and percolation models, models of forest fires, sandpiles, avalanches, and granular media in a self-organized critical state. We discuss the relationship with both Gaussian and extremal statistics.

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PubMed1999

Density fluctuations in a model for vibrated granular media.

This paper presents the study of density fluctuations in a model for vibrated granular media. Their microscopic origin is shown to be linked to the microscopic disorder in grains packing. Varying vibrations amplitude and duration, several regimes are found for density relaxation. Its power spectrum is well described by power laws.

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