The coupling method has been an enormously useful tool for studying the mixing time of Markov chains and as the basis of perfect sampling algorithms such as Coupling From the Past. Several methods such as Wilson’s layered multishift coupling and Breyer and Roberts’ catalytic coupling have been introduced to use the coupling approach on continuous state spaces. This work builds upon these approa...

The ability of the ensemble Kalman filter method to estimate an increased number of state variables associated with a double-moment (DM) microphysics scheme is examined for the first time through observing system simulation experiments, assuming either a perfect or imperfect prediction model and/or observation operators. With the DM scheme, mixing ratios and total number concentrations of hydro...

Since the chemical evolution of galaxies seems to differ between morphological types and deviates in many details from the standard scenario the question has to be addressed when, how and to what amount metal-enriched ejecta from Supernovae and Planetary Nebulae polute their environment. Since recent observations of dwarf galaxies show no significant metal abundance gradients throughout the gal...

Water distribution networks are subject to potential intentional contaminations to cause harm to the consumer. Reliable transport models are needed to detect, trace and follow any contaminant transported inside the network. For now, the transport of contaminants in pipes has been mostly modeled assuming perfect mixing conditions at T-junction. However, some studies have shown that it is not alw...

A perfect lens with unlimited resolution has always posed a challenge to both theoretical and experimental physicists. Recent developments in optical metamaterials promise an attractive approach towards perfect lenses using negative refraction to overcome the diffraction limit, improving resolution. However, those artificially engineered metamaterials are usually accompanied by high losses from...

We investigate almost uniform sampling from the set of linear extensions of a given partial order. The most efficient schemes stem from Markov chains whose mixing time bounds are polynomial, yet impractically large. We show that, on instances one encounters in practice, the actual mixing times can be much smaller than the worst-case bounds, and particularly so for a novel Markov chain we put fo...