No Arabic abstract
The structure of the large scale distribution of the galaxies have been widely studied since the publication of the first catalogs. Since large redshift samples are available, their analyses seem to show fractal correlations up to the observational limits. The value of the fractal dimension(s) calculated by different authors have become the object of a large debate, as have been the value of the expected transition from fractality to a possible large scale homogeneity. Moreover, some authors have proposed that different scaling regimes might be discerned at different lenght scales. To go further on into this issue, we have applied the correlation integral method to the wider sample currently available. We therefore obtain a fractal dimension of the galaxy distribution which seems to vary by steps whose width might be related to the organization hierarchy observed for the galaxies. This result could explain some of the previous results obtained by other authors from the analyses of less complete catalogs and maybe reconcile their apparent discrepancy. However, the method applied here needs to be further checked, since it produces odd fluctuations at each transition scale, which need to be thoroughly explained.
We investigated numerically the distribution of participation numbers in the 3d Anderson tight-binding model at the localization-delocalization threshold. These numbers in {em one} disordered system experience strong level-to-level fluctuations in a wide energy range. The fluctuations grow substantially with increasing size of the system. We argue that the fluctuations of the correlation dimension, $D_2$ of the wave functions are the main reason for this. The distribution of these correlation dimensions at the transition is calculated. In the thermodynamic limit ($Lto infty$) it does not depend on the system size $L$. An interesting feature of this limiting distribution is that it vanishes exactly at $D_{rm 2max}=1.83$, the highest possible value of the correlation dimension at the Anderson threshold in this model.
Homogeneity and isotropy of the universe at sufficiently large scales is a fundamental premise on which modern cosmology is based. Fractal dimensions of matter distribution is a parameter that can be used to test the hypothesis of homogeneity. In this method, galaxies are used as tracers of the distribution of matter and samples derived from various galaxy redshift surveys have been used to determine the scale of homogeneity in the Universe. Ideally, for homogeneity, the distribution should be a mono-fractal with the fractal dimension equal to the ambient dimension. While this ideal definition is true for infinitely large point sets, this may not be realised as in practice, we have only a finite point set. The correct benchmark for realistic data sets is a homogeneous distribution of a finite number of points and this should be used in place of the mathematically defined fractal dimension for infinite number of points (D) as a requirement for approach towards homogeneity. We derive the expected fractal dimension for a homogeneous distribution of a finite number of points. We show that for sufficiently large data sets the expected fractal dimension approaches D in absence of clustering. It is also important to take the weak, but non-zero amplitude of clustering at very large scales into account. In this paper we also compute the expected fractal dimension for a finite point set that is weakly clustered. Clustering introduces departures in the Fractal dimensions from D and in most situations the departures are small if the amplitude of clustering is small. Features in the two point correlation function, like those introduced by Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) can lead to non-trivial variations in the Fractal dimensions where the amplitude of clustering and deviations from D are no longer related in a monotonic manner.
We present a review of the history and the present state of the fractal approach to the large-scale distribution of galaxies. Angular correlation function was used as a general instrument for the structure analysis. It was realized later that a normalization condition for the reduced correlation function estimator results in distorted values for both R_{hom} and fractal dimension D. Moreover, according to a theorem on projections of fractals, galaxy angular catalogues can not be used for detecting a structure with the fractal dimension D>2. For this 3-d maps are required, and indeed modern extensive redshift-based 3-d maps have revealed the ``hidden fractal dimension of about 2, and have confirmed superclustering at scales even up to 500 Mpc (e.g. the Sloan Great Wall). On scales, where the fractal analysis is possible in completely embedded spheres, a power--law density field has been found. The fractal dimension D =2.2 +- 0.2 was directly obtained from 3-d maps and R_{hom} has expanded from 10 Mpc to scales approaching 100 Mpc. In concordance with the 3-d map results, modern all sky galaxy counts in the interval 10^m - 15^m give a 0.44m-law which corresponds to D=2.2 within a radius of 100h^{-1}_{100} Mpc. We emphasize that the fractal mass--radius law of galaxy clustering has become a key phenomenon in observational cosmology.
Annotations in Visual Analytics (VA) have become a common means to support the analysis by integrating additional information into the VA system. That additional information often depends on the current process step in the visual analysis. For example, the data preprocessing step has data structuring operations while the data exploration step focuses on user interaction and input. Describing suitable annotations to meet the goals of the different steps is challenging. To tackle this issue, we identify individual annotations for each step and outline their gathering and design properties for the visual analysis of heterogeneous clinical data. We integrate our annotation design into a visual analysis tool to show its applicability to data from the ophthalmic domain. In interviews and application sessions with experts we asses its usefulness for the analysis of patients with different medications.
The theory of zeta functions of fractal strings has been initiated by the first author in the early 1990s, and developed jointly with his collaborators during almost two decades of intensive research in numerous articles and several monographs. In 2009, the same author introduced a new class of zeta functions, called `distance zeta functions, which since then, has enabled us to extend the existing theory of zeta functions of fractal strings and sprays to arbitrary bounded (fractal) sets in Euclidean spaces of any dimension. A natural and closely related tool for the study of distance zeta functions is the class of tube zeta functions, defined using the tube function of a fractal set. These three classes of zeta functions, under the name of fractal zeta functions, exhibit deep connections with Minkowski contents and upper box dimensions, as well as, more generally, with the complex dimensions of fractal sets. Further extensions include zeta functions of relative fractal drums, the box dimension of which can assume negative values, including minus infinity. We also survey some results concerning the existence of the meromorphic extensions of the spectral zeta functions of fractal drums, based in an essential way on earlier results of the first author on the spectral (or eigenvalue) asymptotics of fractal drums. It follows from these results that the associated spectral zeta function has a (nontrivial) meromorphic extension, and we use some of our results about fractal zeta functions to show the new fact according to which the upper bound obtained for the corresponding abscissa of meromorphic convergence is optimal. Finally, we conclude this survey article by proposing several open problems and directions for future research in this area.