Christoph Richard

Scaling function and universal amplitude combinations for self-avoiding polygons

We analyse new data for self-avoiding polygons (SAPs), on the square and triangular lattices, enumerated by both perimeter and area, providing evidence that the scaling function is the logarithm of an Airy function. The results imply universal amplitude combinations for all area moments and suggest that rooted SAPs may satisfy a q-algebraic functional equation.

Poland–Scheraga Models and the DNA Denaturation Transition

Poland–Scheraga models were introduced to describe the DNA denaturation transition. We give a rigorous and refined discussion of a family of these models. We derive possible scaling functions in the neighborhood of the phase transition point and review common examples. We introduce a self-avoiding Poland–Scheraga model displaying a first order phase transition in two and three dimensions. We also discuss exactly solvable directed examples. This complements recent suggestions as to how the Poland–Scheraga class might be extended in order to display a first order transition, which is observed experimentally.

Scaling Behaviour of Two-Dimensional Polygon Models

Exactly solvable two-dimensional polygon models, counted by perimeter and area, are described by q-algebraic functional equations. We provide techniques to extract the scaling behaviour of these models up to arbitrary order and apply them to some examples. These are then used to analyze the unsolved model of self-avoiding polygons, where we numerically confirm predictions about its scaling function and its first two corrections to scaling.

Random tilings: concepts and examples

We introduce a concept for random tilings which, comprising the conventional one, is also applicable to tiling ensembles without height representation. In particular, we focus on the random tiling entropy as a function of the tile densities. In this context, and under rather mild assumptions, we prove a generalization of the first random tiling hypothesis which connects the maximum of the entropy with the symmetry of the ensemble. Explicit examples are obtained through the re-interpretation of several exactly solvable models. This also leads to a counterexample to the analogue of the second random tiling hypothesis about the form of the entropy function near its maximum.

PURE POINT DIFFRACTION IMPLIES ZERO ENTROPY FOR DELONE SETS WITH UNIFORM CLUSTER FREQUENCIES

Delone sets of finite local complexity in Euclidean space are investigated. We show that such a set has patch counting and topological entropy zero if it has uniform cluster frequencies and is pure point diffractive. We also note that the patch counting entropy vanishes whenever the repetitivity function satisfies a certain growth restriction.

Pure point diffraction and cut and project schemes for measures: the smooth case

We present a cut and project formalism based on measures and continuous weight functions of sufficiently fast decay. The emerging measures are strongly almost periodic. The corresponding dynamical systems are compact groups and homomorphic images of the underlying torus. In particular, they are strictly ergodic with pure point spectrum and continuous eigenfunctions. Their diffraction can be calculated explicitly. Our results cover and extend corresponding earlier results on dense Dirac combs and continuous weight functions with compact support. They also mark a clear difference in terms of factor maps between the case of continuous and non-continuous weight functions.

Ergodic Properties of Randomly Coloured Point Sets

We provide a framework for studying randomly coloured point sets in a locally compact, second-countable space on which a metrisable unimodular group acts continuously and properly. We first construct and describe an appropriate dynamical system for uniformly discrete uncoloured point sets. For point sets of finite local complexity, we characterise ergodicity geometrically in terms of pattern frequencies. The general framework allows to incorporate a random colouring of the point sets. We derive an ergodic theorem for randomly coloured point sets with finite-range dependencies. Special attention is paid to the exclusion of exceptional instances for uniquely ergodic systems. The setup allows for a straightforward application to randomly coloured graphs.

On q-functional equations and excursion moments

We analyse q-functional equations arising from tree-like combinatorial structures, which are counted by size, internal path length, and certain generalisations thereof. The corresponding counting parameters are labelled by a positive integer k. We show the existence of a joint limit distribution for these parameters in the limit of infinite size, if the size generating function has a square root as dominant singularity. The limit distribution coincides with that of integrals of kth powers of the standard Brownian excursion. Our approach yields a recursion for the moments of the limit distribution. It can be used to analyse asymptotic expansions of the moments, and it admits an extension to other types of singularity.

Dynamics on the graph of the torus parametrization

Model sets are projections of certain lattice subsets. It was realised by Moody that dynamical properties of such sets are induced from the torus associated with the lattice. We follow and extend this approach by studying dynamics on the graph of the map which associates lattice subsets to points of the torus and then transferring the results to their projections. This not only leads to transparent proofs of known results on model sets, but we also obtain new results on so called weak model sets. In particular we prove pure point dynamical spectrum for the hull of a weak model set together with the push forward of the torus Haar measure under the torus parametrisation map, and we derive a formula for the pattern frequencies of configurations with maximal density.

On Pattern Entropy of Weak Model Sets

We study point sets arising from cut-and-project constructions. An important class is that of weak model sets, which include squarefree numbers and visible lattice points. For such model sets, we give a non-trivial upper bound on their pattern entropy in terms of the volume of the window boundary in internal space. This proves a conjecture by R.V. Moody.