In this paper, we address the issue of synchronization of coupled systems, introducing concepts of local and global synchronization for a class of systems that extend the model of coupled map lattices. A criterion for local synchronization is given; numerical experiments are exhibited to illustrate the criteria and also to raise some questions in the end of the text.

The box-ball system (BBS) was introduced by Takahashi and Satsuma as a discrete counterpart of the Korteweg-de Vries equation. Both systems exhibit solitons whose shape and speed are conserved after collision with other solitons. We introduce a slot decomposition of ball configurations, each component being an infinite vector describing the number of size k solitons in each k-slot. The dynamics of the components is linear: the kth component moves rigidly at speed k. Let $\zeta $ be a translation-invariant family of independent random vectors under a summability condition and $\eta $ be the ball configuration with components $\zeta $ . We show that the law of $\eta $ is translation invariant and invariant for the BBS. This recipe allows us to construct a large family of invariant measures, including product measures and stationary Markov chains with ball density less than $\frac {1}{2}$ . We also show that starting BBS with an ergodic measure, the position of a tagged k-soliton at time t, divided by t converges as $t\to \infty $ to an effective speed $v_k$ . The vector of speeds satisfies a system of linear equations related with the generalised Gibbs ensemble of conservative laws.

We show that a single particle distribution for the “energy-conserving” D2Q13 lattice Boltzmann scheme can simulate coupled effects involving advection and diffusion of velocity and temperature. We consider various test cases: non-linear waves with periodic boundary conditions, a test case with buoyancy, propagation of transverse waves, Couette and Poiseuille flows. We test various boundary conditions and propose to mix bounce-back and anti-bounce-back numerical boundary conditions to take into account velocity and temperature Dirichlet conditions. We present also first results for the de Vahl Davis heated cavity. Our results are compared with the coupled D2Q9-D2Q5 lattice Boltzmann approach for the Boussinesq system and with an elementary finite differences solver for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Our main experimental result is the loss of symmetry in the de Vahl Davis cavity computed with the single D2Q13 lattice Boltzmann model without the Boussinesq hypothesis. This result is confirmed by a direct Navier Stokes simulation with finite differences.

We propose to extend the d’Humieres version of the lattice Boltzmann scheme to triangular meshes. We use Bravais lattices or more general lattices with the property that the degree of each internal vertex is supposed to be constant. On such meshes, it is possible to define the lattice Boltzmann scheme as a discrete particle method, without need of finite volume formulation or Delaunay-Voronoi hypothesis for the lattice. We test this idea for the heat equation and perform an asymptotic analysis with the Taylor expansion method for two schemes named D2T4 and D2T7. The results show a convergence up to second order accuracy and set new questions concerning a possible super-convergence.

We introduce a lattice-free hard sphere exclusion stochastic process. The resulting stochastic rates are distance based instead of cell based. The corresponding Markov chain build for this many particle system is updated using an adaptation of the kinetic Monte Carlo method. It becomes quickly apparent that due to the lattice-free environment, and because of that alone, the dynamics behave differently than those in the lattice-based environment. This difference becomes increasingly larger with respect to particle densities/temperatures. The well-known packing problem and its solution (Palasti conjecture) seem to validate the resulting lattice-free dynamics.

A problem of regrinding and recycling worn train wheels leads to a Markov population process with distinctive properties, including a product-form equilibrium distribution. A convenient framework for analyzing this process is via the notion of dynamic reversal, a natural extension of ordinary (time) reversal. The dynamically reversed process is of the same type as the original process, which allows a simple derivation of some important properties. The process seems not to belong to any class of Markov processes for which stationary distributions are known.