Speckle statistics as a tool to distinguish collective behaviors of Zebrafish shoals.

Zebrafish have become an important model animal for studying the emergence of collective behavior in nature. Here, we show how to properly analyze the polarization statistics to distinguish shoal regimes. In analogy with the statistical properties of optical speckles, we show that exponential and Rayleigh distributions emerge in shoals with many fish with uncorrelated velocity directions. In the opposite limit of just two fish, the polarization distribution peaks at high polarity, with the average value being a decreasing function of the shoal's size, even in the absence of correlations. We also perform a set of experiments unveiling two shoaling regimes. Large shoals behave as small domains with strong intra-domain and weak inter-domain correlations. A strongly correlated regime develops for small shoals. The reported polarization statistical features shall guide future automated neuroscience, pharmacological, toxicological, and embryogenesis-motivated experiments aiming to explore the collective behavior of fish shoals.

Emerging extreme value and Fermi-Dirac distributions in the Lévy branching and annihilating process.

We study the dynamics of the branching and annihilating process with long-range interactions. Static particles generate an offspring and annihilate upon contact. The branching distance is supposed to follow a Lévy-like power-law distribution with P(r)∝1/r^{α}. We analyze the long term behavior of the mean particles number and its fluctuations as a function of the parameter α that controls the range of the branching process. We show that the dynamic exponent associated with the particle number fluctuations varies continuously for α<4 while the particle number exponent only changes for α<3. A crossover from extreme value Frechet (at α=3) and Gumbell (for 2<α<3) distributions is developed, similar to the one reported in recent experiments with cw-pumped random fiber lasers presenting underlying gain and Lévy processes. We report the dependence of the relevant dynamical power-law exponents on α showing that explosive growth takes place for α≤2. Further, the average occupation number distribution is shown to evolve from the standard Fermi-Dirac form to the generalized one within the context of nonextensive statistics.

Hamiltonian short-time critical dynamics of the three-dimensional XY model.

The short-time relaxation critical behavior of the XY model on a simple-cubic lattice is investigated within the scope of deterministic Hamiltonian dynamics. The Hamiltonian includes a first-neighbor interaction between planar vectors and a rotational kinetic term from which the motion equations are derived. The dynamical evolution from a fully ordered initial state is followed by employing a symplectic algorithm based on a high-order Trotter-Suzuki decomposition of the time-evolution operator. A finite-time scaling analysis is performed to provide accurate estimates of the critical energy density, the order-parameter relaxation exponent, and the dynamical critical exponent. The estimated critical exponents are consistent with prior theoretical and experimental values reported for the superfluid ^{4}He, extreme type-II superconducting, and Bose-Einstein condensation transitions.

Complex transition to cooperative behavior in a structured population model.

Cooperation plays an important role in the evolution of species and human societies. The understanding of the emergence and persistence of cooperation in those systems is a fascinating and fundamental question. Many mechanisms were extensively studied and proposed as supporting cooperation. The current work addresses the role of migration for the maintenance of cooperation in structured populations. This problem is investigated in an evolutionary perspective through the prisoner's dilemma game paradigm. It is found that migration and structure play an essential role in the evolution of the cooperative behavior. The possible outcomes of the model are extinction of the entire population, dominance of the cooperative strategy and coexistence between cooperators and defectors. The coexistence phase is obtained in the range of large migration rates. It is also verified the existence of a critical level of structuring beyond that cooperation is always likely. In resume, we conclude that the increase in the number of demes as well as in the migration rate favor the fixation of the cooperative behavior.

Continuous majority-vote model.

We introduce a kinetic irreversible XY model and investigate its dynamic critical behavior through short-time Monte Carlo simulations on square lattices with periodic boundary conditions, starting from an ordered state. We find evidence that this system exhibits a Kosterlitz-Thouless-like phase for low values of the noise parameter. We present results for the correlation function exponent eta for several noise values. We also find that the dynamic critical exponent z is in agreement with the value expected for local update Monte Carlo rules.