In the present contribution we investigate some features of dynamical lattice systems near periodic traveling waves. First, following the formal averaging method of Whitham, we derive modulation systems expected to drive at main order the time evolut
ion of slowly modulated wavetrains. Then, for waves whose period is commensurable to the lattice, we prove that the formally-derived first-order averaged system must be at least weakly hyperbolic if the background waves are to be spectrally stable, and, when weak hyperbolicity is met, the characteristic velocities of the modulation system provide group velocities of the original system. Historically, for dynamical evolutions obeying partial differential equations, this has been proved, according to increasing level of algebraic complexity, first for systems of reaction-diffusion type, then for generic systems of balance laws, at last for Hamiltonian systems. Here, for their semi-discrete counterparts, we give at once simultaneous proofs for all these cases. Our main analytical tool is the discrete Bloch transform, a discrete analogous to the continuous Bloch transform. Nevertheless , we needed to overcome the absence of genuine space-translation invariance, a key ingredient of continuous analyses.
Continuous-time random walks are generalisations of random walks frequently used to account for the consistent observations that many molecules in living cells undergo anomalous diffusion, i.e. subdiffusion. Here, we describe the subdiffusive continu
ous-time random walk using age-structured partial differential equations with age renewal upon each walker jump, where the age of a walker is the time elapsed since its last jump. In the spatially-homogeneous (zero-dimensional) case, we follow the evolution in time of the age distribution. An approach inspired by relative entropy techniques allows us to obtain quantitative explicit rates for the convergence of the age distribution to a self-similar profile, which corresponds to convergence to a stationnary profile for the rescaled variables. An important difficulty arises from the fact that the equation in self-similar variables is not autonomous and we do not have a specific analyitcal solution. Therefore, in order to quantify the latter convergence, we estimate attraction to a time-dependent pseudo-equilibrium, which in turn converges to the stationnary profile.
Using a large database (~ 215 000 records) of relevant articles, we empirically study the complex systems field and its claims to find universal principles applying to systems in general. The study of references shared by the papers allows us to obta
in a global point of view on the structure of this highly interdisciplinary field. We show that its overall coherence does not arise from a universal theory but instead from computational techniques and fruitful adaptations of the idea of self-organization to specific systems. We also find that communication between different disciplines goes through specific trading zones, ie sub-communities that create an interface around specific tools (a DNA microchip) or concepts (a network).
