Three-dimensional bipedal model with zero-energy-cost walking.

We study a three-dimensional articulated rigid-body biped model that possesses zero cost of transport walking gaits. Energy losses are avoided due to the complete elimination of the foot-ground collisions by the concerted oscillatory motion of the model's parts. The model consists of two parts connected via a universal joint. It does not rely on any geometry-altering mechanisms, massless parts, or springs. Despite the model's simplicity, its collisionless gaits feature walking with finite speed, foot clearance, and ground friction. The collisionless spectrum can be studied analytically in the small movement limit, revealing infinitely many periodic modes. The modes differ in the number of sagittal and coronal plane oscillations at different stages of the walking cycle. We focus on the mode with the minimal number of such oscillations, presenting its complete analytical solution. We then numerically evolve it toward a general nonsmall movement solution. A general collisionless mode can be tuned by adjusting a single model parameter. Some of the presented results display a surprising degree of generality and universality.

Low-temperature solution of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model.

I propose a simple scaling ansatz for the full replica symmetry breaking solution of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model in the low energy sector. This solution is shown to become exact in the limit x --> 0, Bx --> infinity of the Parisi replica symmetry breaking scheme parameter . The distribution function of the frozen fields has been known to develop a linear gap at zero temperature. The scaling equations are integrated to find an exact numerical value for the slope of the gap thetaP(x,y)/delta|(y --> 0) = 0.301 046.... I also use the scaling solution to devise an inexpensive numerical procedure for computing finite time scale (x =1) quantities. The entropy, the zero field cooled susceptibility, and the local field distribution function are computed in the low-temperature limit with high precision, barely achievable by currently available methods.

Nonlinear screening theory of the Coulomb glass.

A nonlinear screening theory is formulated to study the problem of gap formation and its relation to glassy freezing in classical Coulomb glasses. We find that a pseudogap ("plasma dip") in a single-particle density of states begins to open already at temperatures comparable to the Coulomb energy. This phenomenon is shown to reflect the emergence of short-range correlations in a liquid (plasma) phase, a process which occurs even in the absence of disorder. Glassy ordering emerges when disorder is present, but this occurs only at temperatures roughly an order of magnitude lower. Our result demonstrate that the formation of the plasma dip at high temperatures is a process distinct from the formation of the Efros-Shklovskii pseudogap, which in our model emerges only within the glassy phase.