In many areas of science and applied mathematics, important events often get initiated when a stochastic variable crosses a threshold value. Financial assets may be sold at a particular price, or a chemical reaction initiated when two particles come close enough.
Climate events linked to extremes of temperature (heatwaves/cold spells) have severe impacts on human health and natural ecosystems. Over the past few decades, the frequency and intensity of heatwaves have increased in Europe.
Here are links to a few recent articles by LML External Fellow Mark Buchanan.
Earth scientists have long known that fluid injected into the Earth’s crust can induce earthquakes. In principle, seismic activity may also be triggered through gas extraction through the mechanism of poroelastic stress perturbation, although such events have been observed less frequently.
Jet streams are narrow, fast-flowing westerly air currents located near the tropopause, the tropospheric boundary with the higher stratosphere. These jets play a major role in driving the large-scale atmospheric circulation and modulate the frequency, severity and persistence of weather events at middle latitudes.
The linear stability of large complex systems around their stationary points can be studied with random matrix theory. In one common model, the i.i.d. random matrix model, one assumes a simple statistical form for the interactions between distinct elements of a network.
Economists thinking about anything from housing policy to climate change need to model how people make decisions, especially when facing uncertainty and risk.
Economics had its critics even before the financial crisis of a decade ago. Since then doubt has grown over how much economists really know. Much of economics rests on analyses of how individuals – as consumers, or in managing a business, for example – make supposedly optimal decisions in uncertain situations.
Variations in the strength of gravity over the Earth’s surface reflect underlying geophysical changes such as groundwater change, surface vertical deformation, tectonic events, earthquakes and other processes. To study such processes, so-called gravity survey campaigns collect observations made repeatedly at fixed stations.
High-profile data horror stories are becoming increasingly common, from Facebook’s relationship with Cambridge Analytica to the leak of UK diplomatic cables and massive security breaches at some of the world’s biggest companies.
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