No Arabic abstract
We demonstrate an unsuspected freedom in physics, by showing an essential unpredictability in the relation between the behavior of clocks on the workbench and explanations of that behavior written in symbols on the blackboard. In theory, time and space are defined by clocks synchronized as specified by relations among clock readings at the transmission and reception of light signals; however spacetime curvature implies obstacles to this synchronization. Recognizing the need to handle bits and other symbols in both theory and experiment, we offer a novel theory of symbol handling, centered on a kind of logical synchronization, distinct from the synchronization defined by Einstein in special relativity. We present three things: (1) We show a need in physics, stemming from general relativity, for physicists to make choices about what clocks to synchronize with what other clocks. (2) To exploit the capacity to make choices of synchronization, we provide a theory in which to express timing relations between transmitted symbols and the clock readings of the agent that receives them, without relying on any global concept of time. Dispensing with a global time variable is a marked departure from current practice. (3) The recognition of unpredictability calls for more attention to behavior on the workbench of experiment relative to what can be predicted on the blackboard. As a prime example, we report on the horse race situation of an agent measuring the order of arrival of two symbols, to show how order determinations depart from any possible assignment of values of a time variable.
The complex planetary synchronization structure of the solar system, which since Pythagoras of Samos (ca. 570-495 BC) is known as the music of the spheres, is briefly reviewed from the Renaissance up to contemporary research. Copernicus heliocentric model from 1543 suggested that the planets of our solar system form a kind of mutually ordered and quasi-synchronized system. From 1596 to 1619 Kepler formulated preliminary mathematical relations of approximate commensurabilities among the planets, which were later reformulated in the Titius-Bode rule (1766-1772) that successfully predicted the orbital position of Ceres and Uranus. Following the discovery of the ~11 yr sunspot cycle, in 1859 Wolf suggested that the observed solar variability could be approximately synchronized with the orbital movements of Venus, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. Modern research have further confirmed that: (1) the planetary orbital periods can be approximately deduced from a simple system of resonant frequencies; (2) the solar system oscillates with a specific set of gravitational frequencies, and many of them (e.g. within the range between 3 yr and 100 yr) can be approximately constructed as harmonics of a base period of ~178.38 yr; (3) solar and climate records are also characterized by planetary harmonics from the monthly to the millennia time scales. This short review concludes with an emphasis on the contribution of the authors research on the empirical evidences and physical modeling of both solar and climate variability based on astronomical harmonics. The general conclusion is that the solar system works as a resonator characterized by a specific harmonic planetary structure that synchronizes also the Suns activity and the Earths climate.
The stability (or instability) of synchronization is important in a number of real world systems, including the power grid, the human brain and biological cells. For identical synchronization, the synchronizability of a network, which can be measured by the range of coupling strength that admits stable synchronization, can be optimized for a given number of nodes and links. Depending on the geometric degeneracy of the Laplacian eigenvectors, optimal networks can be classified into different sensitivity levels, which we define as a networks sensitivity index. We introduce an efficient and explicit way to construct optimal networks of arbitrary size over a wide range of sensitivity and link densities. Using coupled chaotic oscillators, we study synchronization dynamics on optimal networks, showing that cospectral optimal networks can have drastically different speed of synchronization. Such difference in dynamical stability is found to be closely related to the different structural sensitivity of these networks: generally, networks with high sensitivity index are slower to synchronize, and, surprisingly, may not synchronize at all, despite being theoretically stable under linear stability analysis.
We consider a three-dimensional chaotic system consisting of the suspension of Arnolds cat map coupled with a clock via a weak dissipative interaction. We show that the coupled system displays a synchronization phenomenon, in the sense that the relative phase between the suspension flow and the clock locks to a special value, thus making the motion fall onto a lower dimensional attractor. More specifically, we construct the attractive invariant manifold, of dimension smaller than three, using a convergent perturbative expansion. Moreover, we compute via convergent series the Lyapunov exponents, including notably the central one. The result generalizes a previous construction of the attractive invariant manifold in a similar but simpler model. The main novelty of the current construction relies in the computation of the Lyapunov spectrum, which consists of non-trivial analytic exponents. Some conjectures about a possible smoothening transition of the attractor as the coupling is increased are also discussed.
Chaos synchronization may arise in networks of nonlinear units with delayed couplings. We study complete and sublattice synchronization generated by resonance of two large time delays with a specific ratio. As it is known for single delay networks, the number of synchronized sublattices is determined by the Greatest Common Divisor (GCD) of the network loops lengths. We demonstrate analytically the GCD condition in networks of iterated Bernouilli maps with multiple delay times and complement our analytic results by numerical phase diagrams, providing parameter regions showing complete and sublattice synchronization by resonance for Tent and Bernouilli maps. We compare networks with the same GCD with single and multiple delays, and we investigate the sensitivity of the correlation to a detuning between the delays in a network of coupled Stuart-Landau oscillators. Moreover, the GCD condition also allows to detect time delay resonances leading to high correlations in non-synchronizable networks. Specifically, GCD-induced resonances are observed both in a chaotic asymmetric network and in doubly connected rings of delay-coupled noisy linear oscillators.
Due to their essential role as places for socialization, third places - social places where people casually visit and communicate with friends and neighbors - have been studied by a wide range of fields including network science, sociology, geography, urban planning, and regional studies. However, the lack of a large-scale census on third places kept researchers from systematic investigations. Here we provide a systematic nationwide investigation of third places and their social networks, by using Facebook pages. Our analysis reveals a large degree of geographic heterogeneity in the distribution of the types of third places, which is highly correlated with baseline demographics and county characteristics. Certain types of pages like Places of Worship demonstrate a large degree of clustering suggesting community preference or potential complementarities to concentration. We also found that the social networks of different types of social place differ in important ways: The social networks of Restaurants and Indoor Recreation pages are more likely to be tight-knit communities of pre-existing friendships whereas Places of Worship and Community Amenities page categories are more likely to bridge new friendship ties. We believe that this study can serve as an important milestone for future studies on the systematic comparative study of social spaces and their social relationships.