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We investigate a diffusion process in heterogeneous media where particles stochastically reset to their initial positions at a constant rate. The heterogeneous media is modeled using a spatial-dependent diffusion coefficient with a power-law dependence on particles' positions. We use the Green function approach to obtain exact solutions for the probability distribution of particles' positions and the mean square displacement. These results are further compared and agree with numerical simulations of a Langevin equation. We also study the first-passage time problem associated with this diffusion process and obtain an exact expression for the mean first-passage time. Our findings show that this system exhibits non-Gaussian distributions, transient anomalous diffusion (sub- or superdiffusion) and stationary states that simultaneously depend on the media heterogeneity and the resetting rate. We further demonstrate that the media heterogeneity non-trivially affect the mean first-passage time, yielding an optimal resetting rate for which this quantity displays a minimum., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication Physica A

Recent experimental findings on anomalous diffusion have demanded novel models that combine annealed (temporal) and quenched (spatial or static) disorder mechanisms. The comb-model is a simplified description of diffusion on percolation clusters, where the comb-like structure mimics quenched disorder mechanisms and yields a subdiffusive regime. Here we extend the comb-model to simultaneously account for quenched and annealed disorder mechanisms. To do so, we replace usual derivatives in the comb diffusion equation by different fractional time-derivative operators and the conventional comb-like structure by a generalized fractal structure. Our hybrid comb-models thus represent a diffusion where different comb-like structures describe different quenched disorder mechanisms, and the fractional operators account for various annealed disorders mechanisms. We find exact solutions for the diffusion propagator and mean square displacement in terms of different memory kernels used for defining the fractional operators. Among other findings, we show that these models describe crossovers from subdiffusion to Brownian or confined diffusions, situations emerging in empirical results. These results reveal the critical role of interactions between geometrical restrictions and memory effects on modeling anomalous diffusion., Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review E

Imaging techniques are essential tools for inquiring a number of properties from different materials. Liquid crystals are often investigated via optical and image processing methods. In spite of that, considerably less attention has been paid to the problem of extracting physical properties of liquid crystals directly from textures images of these materials. Here we present an approach that combines two physics-inspired image quantifiers (permutation entropy and statistical complexity) with machine learning techniques for extracting physical properties of nematic and cholesteric liquid crystals directly from their textures images. We demonstrate the usefulness and accuracy of our approach in a series of applications involving simulated and experimental textures, in which physical properties of these materials (namely: average order parameter, sample temperature, and cholesteric pitch length) are predicted with significant precision. Finally, we believe our approach can be useful in more complex liquid crystal experiments as well as for probing physical properties of other materials that are investigated via imaging techniques., Comment: 11 two-column pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review E

In this work we studied the diffusive behavior of active brownian particles under lateral parabolic confinement. The results showed that we go from subdiffusion to ballistic motion as we vary the angular noise strength and confinement intensity. We argued that the subdiffusion regimes appear as consequence of the restricted space available for diffusion (achieved either through large confinement and/or large noise); we saw that when there are large confinement and noise intensity, a similar configuration to single file diffusion appears; on the other hand, normal and superdiffusive regimes may occur due to low noise (longer persistent motion), either through exploring a wider region around the potential minimum in the transverse direction (low confinement), or by forming independent clusters (high confinement)., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Physica A

Exfoliated black phosphorus has recently emerged as a new two-dimensional crystal that, due to its peculiar and anisotropic crystalline and electronic band structures, may have potentially important applications in electronics, optoelectronics and photonics. Despite the fact that the edges of layered crystals host a range of singular properties whose characterization and exploitation are of utmost importance for device development, the edges of black phosphorus remain poorly characterized. In this work, the atomic structure and the behavior of phonons near different black phosphorus edges are experimentally and theoretically studied using Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. Polarized Raman results show the appearance of new modes at the edges of the sample, and their spectra depend on the atomic structure of the edges (zigzag or armchair). Theoretical simulations confirm that the new modes are due to edge phonon states that are forbidden in the bulk, and originated from the lattice termination rearrangements., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

We report on a diffusive analysis of the motion of flagellate protozoa species. These parasites are the etiological agents of neglected tropical diseases: leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania amazonensis and Leishmania braziliensis, African sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei, and Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. By tracking the positions of these parasites and evaluating the variance related to the radial positions, we find that their motions are characterized by a short-time transient superdiffusive behavior. Also, the probability distributions of the radial positions are self-similar and can be approximated by a stretched Gaussian distribution. We further investigate the probability distributions of the radial velocities of individual trajectories. Among several candidates, we find that the generalized gamma distribution shows a good agreement with these distributions. The velocity time series have long-range correlations, displaying a strong persistent behavior (Hurst exponents close to one). The prevalence of "universal" patterns across all analyzed species indicates that similar mechanisms may be ruling the motion of these parasites, despite their differences in morphological traits. In addition, further analysis of these patterns could become a useful tool for investigating the activity of new candidate drugs against these and others neglected tropical diseases., Comment: Accepted for publication in PLoS ONE

We report on a large-scale characterization of river discharges by employing the network framework of the horizontal visibility graph. By mapping daily time series from 141 different stations of 53 Brazilian rivers into complex networks, we present an useful approach for investigating the dynamics of river flows. We verified that the degree distributions of these networks were well described by exponential functions, where the characteristic exponents are almost always larger than the value obtained for random time series. The faster-than-random decay of the degree distributions is an another evidence that the fluctuation dynamics underlying the river discharges has a long-range correlated nature. We further investigated the evolution of the river discharges by tracking the values of the characteristic exponents (of the degree distribution) and the global clustering coefficients of the networks over the years. We show that the river discharges in several stations have evolved to become more or less correlated (and displaying more or less complex internal network structures) over the years, a behavior that could be related to changes in the climate system and other man-made phenomena., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physica A

The spatial dynamics of criminal activities has been recently studied through statistical physics methods; however, models and results have been focused on local scales (city level) and much less is known about these patterns at larger scales such as at a country level. Here we report on a characterization of the spatial dynamics of the homicide crimes along the Brazilian territory using data from all cities (~5000) in a period of more than thirty years. Our results show that the spatial correlation function in the per capita homicides decays exponentially with the distance between cities and that the characteristic correlation length displays an acute increasing trend in the latest years. We also investigate the formation of spatial clusters of cities via a percolation-like analysis, where clustering of cities and a phase transition-like behavior describing the size of the largest cluster as a function of a homicide threshold are observed. This transition-like behavior presents evolutive features characterized by an increasing in the homicide threshold (where the transitions occur) and by a decreasing in the transition magnitudes (length of the jumps in the cluster size). We believe that our work sheds new lights on the spatial patterns of criminal activities at large scales, which may contribute for better political decisions and resources allocation as well as opens new possibilities for modeling criminal activities by setting up fundamental empirical patterns at large scales., Comment: Accepted for publication in EPL

We report on an extensive characterization of the cracking noise produced by charcoal samples when dampened with ethanol. We argue that the evaporation of ethanol causes transient and irregularly distributed internal stresses that promote the fragmentation of the samples and mimic some situations found in mining processes. The results show that, in general, the most fundamental seismic laws ruling earthquakes (Gutenberg-Richter law, unified scaling law for the recurrence times, Omori's law, productivity law and Bath's law) hold under the conditions of the experiment. Some discrepancies were also identified (a smaller exponent in Gutenberg-Richter law, a stationary behavior in the aftershock rates for long times and a double power-law relationship in productivity law) and related to the different loading condition. Our results thus corroborate to elucidate the parallel between seismic laws and fracture experiments caused by a more complex loading condition that also occurs in natural and induced seismicity (such as long-term fluid injection and gas-rock outbursts in mining processes)., Comment: Accepted for publication in PRL

The comb model is a simplified description for anomalous diffusion under geometric constraints. It represents particles spreading out in a two-dimensional space where the motions in the x-direction are allowed only when the y coordinate of the particle is zero. Here, we propose an extension for the comb model via Langevin-like equations driven by fractional Gaussian noises (long-range correlated). By carrying out computer simulations, we show that the correlations in the y-direction affect the diffusive behavior in the x-direction in a non-trivial fashion, resulting in a quite rich diffusive scenario characterized by usual, superdiffusive or subdiffusive scaling of second moment in the x-direction. We further show that the long-range correlations affect the probability distribution of the particle positions in the x-direction, making their tails longer when noise in the y-direction is persistent and shorter for anti-persistent noise. Our model thus combines and allows the study/analysis of the interplay between different mechanisms of anomalous diffusion (geometric constraints and long-range correlations) and may find direct applications for describing diffusion in complex systems such as living cells., Comment: Accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics

We report on a statistical analysis of the lightning activity rates in all Brazilian cities. We find out that the average of lightning activity rates exhibit a dependence on the latitude of the cities, displaying one peak around the Tropic of Capricorn and another one just before the Equator. We verify that the standard deviation of these rates is almost a constant function of the latitude and that the distribution of the fluctuations surrounding the average tendency is quite well described by a Gumbel distribution, which thus connects these rates to extreme processes. We also investigate the behavior of the lightning activity rates versus the longitude of the cities. For this case, the average rates exhibit an approximate plateau for a wide range of longitude values, the standard deviation is an approximate constant function of longitude, and the fluctuations are described by a Laplace distribution. We further characterize the spatial correlation of the lightning activity rates between pairs of cities, where our results show that the spatial correlation function decays very slowly with the distance between the cities and that for intermediate distances the correlation exhibits an approximate logarithmic decay. Finally, we propose to model this last behavior within the framework of the Edwards-Wilkinson equation., Comment: Accepted for publication in EPL

We report on a statistical analysis of the engagement in the electoral processes of all Brazilian cities by considering the number of party memberships and the number of candidates for mayor and councillor. By investigating the relationships between the number of party members and the population of voters, we have found that the functional form of these relationships are well described by sub-linear power laws (allometric scaling) surrounded by a multiplicative log-normal noise. We have observed that this pattern is quite similar to those previously-reported for the relationships between the number candidates (mayor and councillor) and population of voters [EPL 96, 48001 (2011)], suggesting that similar universal laws may be ruling the engagement in the electoral processes. We also note that the power law exponents display a clear hierarchy, where the more influential is the political position the smaller is the value of the exponent. We have also investigated the probability distributions of the number of candidates (mayor and councilor), party memberships and voters. The results indicate that the most influential positions are characterized by distributions with very short-tails, while less influential positions display an intermediate power law decay before showing an exponential-like cutoff. We discuss that, in addition to the political power of the position, limitations in the number of available seats can also be connected with this changing of behavior. We further believe that our empirical findings point out to an underrepresentation effect, where the larger city is, the larger are the obstacles for more individuals to become directly engaged in the electoral process., Comment: Accepted for publication in PRE

We report on the dynamical behavior of defects of strength s = +/- 1/2 in a lyotropic liquid crystal during the annihilation process. By following their positions using time resolved polarizing microscopy technique, we present statistically significant evidence that the relative velocity between defect pairs is Gaussian distributed, anti-persistent and long-range correlated. We further show that simulations of the Lebwohl-Lasher model reproduce quite well our experimental findings., Comment: Accepted for publication in PRE as Brief Report

The complexity of chess matches has attracted broad interest since its invention. This complexity and the availability of large number of recorded matches make chess an ideal model systems for the study of population-level learning of a complex system. We systematically investigate the move-by-move dynamics of the white player's advantage from over seventy thousand high level chess matches spanning over 150 years. We find that the average advantage of the white player is positive and that it has been increasing over time. Currently, the average advantage of the white player is ~0.17 pawns but it is exponentially approaching a value of 0.23 pawns with a characteristic time scale of 67 years. We also study the diffusion of the move dependence of the white player's advantage and find that it is non-Gaussian, has long-ranged anti-correlations and that after an initial period with no diffusion it becomes super-diffusive. We find that the duration of the non-diffusive period, corresponding to the opening stage of a match, is increasing in length and exponentially approaching a value of 15.6 moves with a characteristic time scale of 130 years. We interpret these two trends as a resulting from learning of the features of the game. Additionally, we find that the exponent {\alpha} characterizing the super-diffusive regime is increasing toward a value of 1.9, close to the ballistic regime. We suggest that this trend is due to the increased broadening of the range of abilities of chess players participating in major tournaments., Comment: Accepted for publication in PLoS ONE

We investigate the time evolution of the scores of the second most popular sport in world: the game of cricket. By analyzing the scores event-by-event of more than two thousand matches, we point out that the score dynamics is an anomalous diffusive process. Our analysis reveals that the variance of the process is described by a power-law dependence with a super-diffusive exponent, that the scores are statistically self-similar following a universal Gaussian distribution, and that there are long-range correlations in the score evolution. We employ a generalized Langevin equation with a power-law correlated noise that describe all the empirical findings very well. These observations suggest that competition among agents may be a mechanism leading to anomalous diffusion and long-range correlation., Comment: Accepted for Publication in Physical Review E

Complexity measures are essential to understand complex systems and there are numerous definitions to analyze one-dimensional data. However, extensions of these approaches to two or higher-dimensional data, such as images, are much less common. Here, we reduce this gap by applying the ideas of the permutation entropy combined with a relative entropic index. We build up a numerical procedure that can be easily implemented to evaluate the complexity of two or higher-dimensional patterns. We work out this method in different scenarios where numerical experiments and empirical data were taken into account. Specifically, we have applied the method to i) fractal landscapes generated numerically where we compare our measures with the Hurst exponent; ii) liquid crystal textures where nematic-isotropic-nematic phase transitions were properly identified; iii) 12 characteristic textures of liquid crystals where the different values show that the method can distinguish different phases; iv) and Ising surfaces where our method identified the critical temperature and also proved to be stable., Comment: Accepted for publication in PLoS One

Nowadays we are often faced with huge databases resulting from the rapid growth of data storage technologies. This is particularly true when dealing with music databases. In this context, it is essential to have techniques and tools able to discriminate properties from these massive sets. In this work, we report on a statistical analysis of more than ten thousand songs aiming to obtain a complexity hierarchy. Our approach is based on the estimation of the permutation entropy combined with an intensive complexity measure, building up the complexity-entropy causality plane. The results obtained indicate that this representation space is very promising to discriminate songs as well as to allow a relative quantitative comparison among songs. Additionally, we believe that the here-reported method may be applied in practical situations since it is simple, robust and has a fast numerical implementation., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physica A

Nowadays there is an increasing interest of physicists in finding regularities related to social phenomena. This interest is clearly motivated by applications that a statistical mechanical description of the human behavior may have in our society. By using this framework, we address this work to cover an open question related to elections: the choice of elections candidates (candidature process). Our analysis reveals that, apart from the social motivations, this system displays features of traditional out-of-equilibrium physical phenomena such as scale-free statistics and universality. Basically, we found a non-linear (power law) mean correspondence between the number of candidates and the size of the electorate (number of voters), and also that this choice has a multiplicative underlying process (lognormal behavior). The universality of our findings is supported by data from 16 elections from 5 countries. In addition, we show that aspects of network scale-free can be connected to this universal behavior., Comment: Accepted for publication in EPL

We address this work to investigate some statistical properties of symbolic sequences generated by a numerical procedure in which the symbols are repeated following a power law probability density. In this analysis, we consider that the sum of n symbols represents the position of a particle in erratic movement. This approach revealed a rich diffusive scenario characterized by non-Gaussian distributions and, depending on the power law exponent and also on the procedure used to build the walker, we may have superdiffusion, subdiffusion or usual diffusion. Additionally, we use the continuous-time random walk framework to compare with the numerical data, finding a good agreement. Because of its simplicity and flexibility, this model can be a candidate to describe real systems governed by power laws probabilities densities., Comment: Accepted for publication in Physica Scripta

We investigate the dynamics of many interacting bubbles in boiling water by using a laser scattering experiment. Specifically, we analyze the temporal variations of a laser intensity signal which passed through a sample of boiling water. Our empirical results indicate that the return interval distribution of the laser signal does not follow an exponential distribution; contrariwise, a heavy-tailed distribution has been found. Additionally, we compare the experimental results with those obtained from a minimalist phenomenological model, finding a good agreement., Comment: Accepted for publication in Chaos, Solitons & Fractals

We report a statistical analysis about people agglomeration soundscape. Specifically, we investigate the normalized sound amplitudes and intensities that emerge from people collective meetings. Our findings support the existence of nontrivial dynamics characterized by heavy tail distributions in the sound amplitudes, long-range correlations in the sound intensity and non-exponential distributions in the return interval distributions. Additionally, motivated by the time-dependent behavior present in the volatility/variance series, we compare the observational data with those obtained from a minimalist autoregressive stochastic model, a GARCH process, finding a good agreement., Comment: To appear in New Journal of Physics

We report a statistical analysis over more than eight thousand songs. Specifically, we investigate the probability distribution of the normalized sound amplitudes. Our findings seems to suggest a universal form of distribution which presents a good agreement with a one-parameter stretched Gaussian. We also argue that this parameter can give information on music complexity, and consequently it goes towards classifying songs as well as music genres. Additionally, we present statistical evidences that correlation aspects of the songs are directly related with the non-Gaussian nature of their sound amplitude distributions., Comment: Accepted for publication as a Brief Report in Physical Review E

We report remarkable similarities in the output signal of two distinct out-of- equilibrium physical systems - earthquakes and the intermittent acoustic noise emitted by crum- pled plastic sheets - Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) films. We show that both signals share several statistical properties including the distribution of energy, distribution of energy in- crements for distinct time scales, distribution of return intervals and correlations in the magnitude and sign of energy increments. This analogy is consistent with the concept of universality in com- plex systems and could provide some insight on the mechanisms behind the complex behavior of earthquakes.

A random walk-like model is considered to discuss statistical aspects of tournaments. The model is applied to soccer leagues with emphasis on the scores. This competitive system was computationally simulated and the results are compared with empirical data from the English, the German and the Spanish leagues and showed a good agreement with them. The present approach enabled us to characterize a diffusion where the scores are not normally distributed, having a short and asymmetric tail extending towards more positive values. We argue that this non-Gaussian behavior is related with the difference between the teams and with the asymmetry of the scores system. In addition, we compared two tournament systems: the all-play-all and the elimination tournaments., Comment: To appear in EPJB

We address this work to investigate symbolic sequences with long-range correlations by using computational simulation. We analyze sequences with two, three and four symbols that could be repeated $l$ times, with the probability distribution $p(l)\propto 1/ l^{\mu}$. For these sequences, we verified that the usual entropy increases more slowly when the symbols are correlated and the Tsallis entropy exhibits, for a suitable choice of $q$, a linear behavior. We also study the chain as a random walk-like process and observe a nonusual diffusive behavior depending on the values of the parameter $\mu$., Comment: Published in the Brazilian Journal of Physics

Photoluminescence (PL) measurements of porphyrin-doped single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) were studied in sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (NaDDBS) aqueous dispersions. The PL spectra were used to draw PL maps were the maxima corresponds to absorption-emission excitonic processes related to (E11, E22) first Van Hove singularities of the SWNT electronic structure. The influence of the net charge of the porphyrin was a determinant factor in the energy map maximum shifts (EMMS) compared to the energy map of a pristine NaDDBS/SWNT dispersion. A non-interacting porphyrin is used as a reference to discard the influence of the dielectric constant of the medium in the EMMS.