Human bipedalism and body-mass index.

Body-mass index, abbreviated as BMI and given by M/H 2 with the mass M and the height H, has been widely used as a useful proxy to measure a general health status of a human individual. We generalise BMI in the form of M/H p and pursue to answer the question of the value of p for populations of animal species including human. We compare values of p for several different datasets for human populations with the ones obtained for other animal populations of fish, whales, and land mammals. All animal populations but humans analyzed in our work are shown to have p ≈ 3 unanimously. In contrast, human populations are different: As young infants grow to become toddlers and keep growing, the sudden change of p is observed at about one year after birth. Infants younger than one year old exhibit significantly larger value of p than two, while children between one and five years old show p ≈ 2, sharply different from other animal species. The observation implies the importance of the upright posture of human individuals. We also propose a simple mechanical model for a human body and suggest that standing and walking upright should put a clear division between bipedal human (p ≈ 2) and other animals (p ≈ 3).

Maximum entropy, word-frequency, Chinese characters, and multiple meanings.

The word-frequency distribution of a text written by an author is well accounted for by a maximum entropy distribution, the RGF (random group formation)-prediction. The RGF-distribution is completely determined by the a priori values of the total number of words in the text (M), the number of distinct words (N) and the number of repetitions of the most common word (k(max)). It is here shown that this maximum entropy prediction also describes a text written in Chinese characters. In particular it is shown that although the same Chinese text written in words and Chinese characters have quite differently shaped distributions, they are nevertheless both well predicted by their respective three a priori characteristic values. It is pointed out that this is analogous to the change in the shape of the distribution when translating a given text to another language. Another consequence of the RGF-prediction is that taking a part of a long text will change the input parameters (M, N, k(max)) and consequently also the shape of the frequency distribution. This is explicitly confirmed for texts written in Chinese characters. Since the RGF-prediction has no system-specific information beyond the three a priori values (M, N, k(max)), any specific language characteristic has to be sought in systematic deviations from the RGF-prediction and the measured frequencies. One such systematic deviation is identified and, through a statistical information theoretical argument and an extended RGF-model, it is proposed that this deviation is caused by multiple meanings of Chinese characters. The effect is stronger for Chinese characters than for Chinese words. The relation between Zipf's law, the Simon-model for texts and the present results are discussed.

Residual discrete symmetry of the five-state clock model.

It is well known that the q-state clock model can exhibit a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition if q is equal to or greater than a certain threshold, which has been believed to be five. However, recent numerical studies indicate that helicity modulus does not vanish in the high-temperature phase of the five-state clock model as predicted by the KT scenario. By performing Monte Carlo calculations under the fluctuating twist boundary condition, we show that it is because the five-state clock model does not have the fully continuous U(1) symmetry even in the high-temperature phase while the six-state clock model does. We suggest that the upper transition of the five-state clock model is actually a weaker cousin of the KT transition so that it is q≥6 that exhibits the genuine KT behavior.

Ising model on a hyperbolic plane with a boundary.

A hyperbolic plane can be modeled by a structure called the enhanced binary tree. We study the ferromagnetic Ising model on top of the enhanced binary tree using the renormalization-group analysis in combination with transfer-matrix calculations. We find a reasonable agreement with Monte Carlo calculations on the transition point, and the resulting critical exponents suggest the mean-field surface critical behavior.

Synchronization in interdependent networks.

We explore the synchronization behavior in interdependent systems, where the one-dimensional (1D) network (the intranetwork coupling strength J(I)) is ferromagnetically intercoupled (the strength J) to the Watts-Strogatz (WS) small-world network (the intranetwork coupling strength J(II)). In the absence of the internetwork coupling (J=0), the former network is well known not to exhibit the synchronized phase at any finite coupling strength, whereas the latter displays the mean-field transition. Through an analytic approach based on the mean-field approximation, it is found that for the weakly coupled 1D network (J(I)≪1) the increase of J suppresses synchrony, because the nonsynchronized 1D network becomes a heavier burden for the synchronization process of the WS network. As the coupling in the 1D network becomes stronger, it is revealed by the renormalization group (RG) argument that the synchronization is enhanced as J(I) is increased, implying that the more enhanced partial synchronization in the 1D network makes the burden lighter. Extensive numerical simulations confirm these expected behaviors, while exhibiting a reentrant behavior in the intermediate range of J(I). The nonmonotonic change of the critical value of J(II) is also compared with the result from the numerical RG calculation.

Critical temperatures of the three- and four-state Potts models on the kagome lattice.

The value of the internal energy per spin is independent of the strip width for a certain class of spin systems on two-dimensional infinite strips. It is verified that the Ising model on the kagome lattice belongs to this class through an exact transfer-matrix calculation of the internal energy for the two smallest widths. More generally, one can suggest an upper bound for the critical coupling strength K(c)(q) for the q-state Potts model from exact calculations of the internal energy for the two smallest strip widths. Combining this with the corresponding calculation for the dual lattice and using an exact duality relation enables us to conjecture the critical coupling strengths for the three- and four-state Potts models on the kagome lattice. The values are K(c)(q=3)=1.0565094269290 and K(c)(q=4)=1.1493605872292, and the values can, in principle, be obtained to an arbitrary precision. We discuss the fact that these values are in the middle of earlier approximate results and furthermore differ from earlier conjectures for the exact values.

Comment on "Six-state clock model on the square lattice: Fisher zero approach with Wang-Landau sampling".

Hwang in [Phys. Rev. E 80, 042103 (2009)] suggested that the two transitions of the six-state clock model on the square lattice are not of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type. Here we show from simulations that at the upper transition, the helicity modulus does make a discontinuous jump to zero. This gives strong evidence for a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.

Analytic results for the percolation transitions of the enhanced binary tree.

Percolation for a planar lattice has a single percolation threshold, whereas percolation for a negatively curved lattice displays two separate thresholds. The enhanced binary tree (EBT) can be viewed as a prototype model displaying two separate percolation thresholds. We present an analytic result for the EBT model which gives two critical percolation threshold probabilities, p(c1) = 1/2 square root(13) - 3/2 and p(c2) = 1/2, and yields a size-scaling exponent Φ = ln[(p(1+p))/(1-p(1-p))]/ln 2. It is inferred that the two threshold values give exact upper limits and that pc1 is furthermore exact. In addition, we argue that p(c2) is also exact. The physics of the model and the results are described within the midpoint-percolation concept: Monte Carlo simulations are presented for the number of boundary points which are reached from the midpoint, and the results are compared to the number of routes from the midpoint to the boundary given by the analytic solution. These comparisons provide a more precise physical picture of what happens at the transitions. Finally, the results are compared to related works, in particular, the Cayley tree and Monte Carlo results for hyperbolic lattices as well as earlier results for the EBT model. It disproves a conjecture that the EBT has an exact relation to the thresholds of its dual lattice.

Surface and bulk criticality in midpoint percolation.

The concept of midpoint percolation has recently been applied to characterize the double percolation transitions in negatively curved structures. Regular d-dimensional hypercubic lattices are investigated in the present work using the same concept. Specifically, the site-percolation transitions at the critical thresholds are investigated for dimensions up to d=10 by means of the Leath algorithm. It is shown that the explicit inclusion of the boundaries provides a straightforward way to obtain critical indices, both for the bulk and surface parts. At and above the critical dimension d=6, it is found that the percolation cluster contains only a finite number of surface points in the infinite-size limit. This is in accordance with the expectation from studies of lattices with negative curvature. It is also found that the number of surface points, reached by the percolation cluster in the infinite limit, approaches 2d for large dimensions d. We also note that the size dependence in proliferation of percolating clusters for d>or=7 can be obtained by solely counting surface points of the midpoint cluster.

Non-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions for the q-state clock models.

The q -state clock model with the cosine potential has a single phase transition for q≤4 and two transitions for q≥5 . It is shown by Monte Carlo simulations that the helicity modulus for the five-state clock model (q=5) does not vanish at the high-temperature transition. This is in contrast to the clock models with q≥6 for which the helicity modulus vanishes. This means that the transition for the five-state clock model differs from the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition. It is also shown that this change in the transition is caused by an interplay between the number of angular directions and the interaction potential: by slightly modifying the interaction potential, the KT transition for q=6 turns into the same non-KT transition. Likewise, the KT transition is recovered for q=5 when the Villain potential is used. Comparisons with other clock-model results are made and discussed.

Multiscaling in an YX model of networks.

We investigate a Hamiltonian model of networks. The model is a mirror formulation of the XY model (hence the name)--instead of letting the XY spins vary, keeping the coupling topology static, we keep the spins conserved and sample different underlying networks. Our numerical simulations show complex scaling behaviors with various exponents as the system grows and temperature approaches zero, but no finite-temperature universal critical behavior. The ground-state and low-order excitations for sparse, finite graphs are a fragmented set of isolated network clusters. Configurations of higher energy are typically more connected. The connected networks of lowest energy are stretched out giving the network large average distances. For the finite sizes we investigate, there are three regions--a low-energy regime of fragmented networks, an intermediate regime of stretched-out networks, and a high-energy regime of compact, disordered topologies. Scaling up the system size, the borders between these regimes approach zero temperature algebraically, but different network-structural quantities approach their T=0 values with different exponents. We argue this is a, perhaps rare, example of a statistical-physics model where finite sizes show a more interesting behavior than the thermodynamic limit.

Phase transition of q-state clock models on heptagonal lattices.

We study the q-state clock models on heptagonal lattices assigned on a negatively curved surface. We show that the system exhibits three classes of equilibrium phases; in between ordered and disordered phases, an intermediate phase characterized by a diverging susceptibility with no magnetic order is observed at every q>or=2. The persistence of the third phase for all q is in contrast with the disappearance of the counterpart phase in a planar system for small q, which indicates the significance of nonvanishing surface-volume ratio that is peculiar in the heptagonal lattice. Analytic arguments based on Ginzburg-Landau theory and generalized Cayley trees make clear that the two-stage transition in the present system is attributed to an energy gap of spin-wave excitations and strong boundary-spin contributions. We further demonstrate that boundary effects break the mean-field character in the bulk region, which establishes the consistency with results of clock models on boundary-free hyperbolic lattices.

Flow improvement caused by agents who ignore traffic rules.

A system of agents moving along a road in both directions is studied numerically within a cellular-automata formulation. An agent steps to the right with probability q or to the left with 1-q when encountering other agents. Our model is restricted to two agent types, traffic-rule abiders (q=1) and traffic-rule ignorers (q=1/2) , and the traffic flow, resulting from the interaction between these two types of agents, which is obtained as a function of density and relative fraction. The risk for jamming at a fixed density, when starting from a disordered situation, is smaller when every agent abides by a traffic rule than when all agents ignore the rule. Nevertheless, the absolute minimum occurs when a small fraction of ignorers are present within a majority of abiders. The characteristic features for the spatial structure of the flow pattern are obtained and discussed.

Percolation on hyperbolic lattices.

The percolation transitions on hyperbolic lattices are investigated numerically using finite-size scaling methods. The existence of two distinct percolation thresholds is verified. At the lower threshold, an unbounded cluster appears and reaches from the middle to the boundary. This transition is of the same type and has the same finite-size scaling properties as the corresponding transition for the Cayley tree. At the upper threshold, on the other hand, a single unbounded cluster forms which overwhelms all the others and occupies a finite fraction of the volume as well as of the boundary connections. The finite-size scaling properties for this upper threshold are different from those of the Cayley tree and two of the critical exponents are obtained. The results suggest that the percolation transition for the hyperbolic lattices forms a universality class of its own.

True and quasi-long-range order in the generalized q-state clock model.

From consideration of the order-parameter distribution, we propose an observable which makes a clear distinction between true and quasi-long-range orders in the two-dimensional generalized q-state clock model. Measuring this quantity by Monte Carlo simulations for q=8, we construct a phase diagram and identify critical properties across the phase-separation lines among the true long-range order, quasi-long-range order, and disorder. Our result supports the theoretical prediction that there appears a discontinuous order-disorder transition as soon as the two phase-separation lines merge.

The blind watchmaker network: scale-freeness and evolution.

It is suggested that the degree distribution for networks of the cell-metabolism for simple organisms reflects a ubiquitous randomness. This implies that natural selection has exerted no or very little pressure on the network degree distribution during evolution. The corresponding random network, here termed the blind watchmaker network has a power-law degree distribution with an exponent gamma>/=2. It is random with respect to a complete set of network states characterized by a description of which links are attached to a node as well as a time-ordering of these links. No a priory assumption of any growth mechanism or evolution process is made. It is found that the degree distribution of the blind watchmaker network agrees very precisely with that of the metabolic networks. This implies that the evolutionary pathway of the cell-metabolism, when projected onto a metabolic network representation, has remained statistically random with respect to a complete set of network states. This suggests that even a biological system, which due to natural selection has developed an enormous specificity like the cellular metabolism, nevertheless can, at the same time, display well defined characteristics emanating from the ubiquitous inherent random element of Darwinian evolution. The fact that also completely random networks may have scale-free node distributions gives a new perspective on the origin of scale-free networks in general.

Optimization and scale-freeness for complex networks.

Complex networks are mapped to a model of boxes and balls where the balls are distinguishable. It is shown that the scale-free size distribution of boxes maximizes the information associated with the boxes provided configurations including boxes containing a finite fraction of the total amount of balls are excluded. It is conjectured that for a connected network with only links between different nodes, the nodes with a finite fraction of links are effectively suppressed. It is hence suggested that for such networks the scale-free node-size distribution maximizes the information encoded on the nodes. The noise associated with the size distributions is also obtained from a maximum entropy principle. Finally, explicit predictions from our least bias approach are found to be borne out by metabolic networks.

Models and average properties of scale-free directed networks.

We extend the merging model for undirected networks by Kim [Eur. Phys. J. B 43, 369 (2004)] to directed networks and investigate the emerging scale-free networks. Two versions of the directed merging model, friendly and hostile merging, give rise to two distinct network types. We uncover that some nontrivial features of these two network types resemble two levels of a certain randomization/nonspecificity in the link reshuffling during network evolution. Furthermore, the same features show up, respectively, in metabolic networks and transcriptional networks. We introduce measures that single out the distinguishing features between the two prototype networks, as well as point out features that are beyond the prototypes.

Hierarchy measures in complex networks.

Using each node's degree as a proxy for its importance, the topological hierarchy of a complex network is introduced and quantified. We propose a simple dynamical process used to construct networks which are either maximally or minimally hierarchical. Comparison with these extremal cases as well as with random scale-free networks allows us to better understand hierarchical versus modular features in several real-life complex networks. For random scale-free topologies the extent of topological hierarchy is shown to smoothly decline with gamma, the exponent of a degree distribution, reaching its highest possible value for gamma3.