Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1611.08715

The Phillip Island penguin parade (a mathematical treatment)

Serena Dipierro·Luca Lombardini·Pietro Miraglio·Enrico Valdinoci
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Penguins are flightless, so they are forced to walk while on land. In particular, they show rather specific behaviors in their homecoming, which are interesting to observe and to describe analytically. In this paper, we present a simple mathematical formulation to describe the little penguins parade in Phillip Island. We observed that penguins have the tendency to waddle back and forth on the shore to create a sufficiently large group and then walk home compactly together. The mathematical framework that we introduce describes this phenomenon, by taking into account "natural parameters" such as the eye-sight of the penguins, their cruising speed and the possible "fear" of animals. On the one hand, this favors the formation of conglomerates of penguins that gather together, but, on the other hand, this may lead to the "panic" of isolated and exposed individuals. The model that we propose is based on a set of ordinary differential equations. Due to the discontinuous behavior of the speed of the penguins, the mathematical treatment (to get existence and uniqueness of the solution) is based on a "stop-and-go" procedure. We use this setting to provide rigorous examples in which at least some penguins manage to safely return home (there are also cases in which some penguins freeze due to panic). To facilitate the intuition of the model, we also present some simple numerical simulations that can be compared with the actual movement of the penguins parade.

Explore related subjects

math.CAmath.DSq-bio.PE

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Serena Dipierro, Luca Lombardini, Pietro Miraglio, Enrico Valdinoci. 2016-12-02. The Phillip Island penguin parade (a mathematical treatment). https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.08715

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

On the prime field spherical restriction conjecture in four dimensions: breaking the Stein-Tomas exponent and applications

Let $p$ be an odd prime. We prove the extension estimate $R_{S_j}^*(2\to r)\lesssim_r 1$ for every nonzero-radius sphere $S_j\subseteq\mathbb{F}_p^4$ and every $r\geq \, 34/11$, uniformly in $p$ and $j$. This improves the Stein--Tomas exponent $10/3$ established by Iosevich and Koh (2008). We also formulate a localized spherical restriction/extension conjecture that predicts the sharp dependence of the restriction norm on the size of the physical support. This conjecture implies the spherical extension estimates $R_{S_j}^*(2\to r)\lesssim_r 1$ for every $r>3$, and yields almost-every-pin distance estimates at the conjectured Erdős--Falconer exponent in four dimensions, up to an arbitrarily small power loss in the set-size hypothesis. Using the same method, we improve the bounds supplied by Fourier decay and Plancherel at intermediate support scales and derive new almost-every-pin distance estimates in $\mathbb{F}_p^4$.

math.CA↗
arXiv2026

Dimension-free estimates for discrete maximal functions over cubes in $\mathbb Z^d$

In this short note, we establish dimension-free $\ell^p(\mathbb Z^d)$ bounds, for all $p\in(1,\infty]$, for the discrete Hardy--Littlewood maximal functions associated with cubes in $\mathbb Z^d$, answering a question that had been open for a while. The key idea is to prove dimension-free bounds for the $\ell^p(\mathbb Z^d)$ norms of the differences of the corresponding averages. This follows from an ad hoc interpretation of the associated discrete multipliers as a special continuous family of multipliers to which basic fractional integration and complex interpolation can be applied. The same method also yields an elementary proof of Bourgain's dimension-free $L^p(\mathbb R^d)$ bounds for the Hardy--Littlewood maximal function associated with cubes in $\mathbb R^d$.

math.CA↗
arXiv2026

Establishing the Polynomial Wolff Axioms for $δ$-Separated $δ$-Tubes With #o-minimality

We establish the full version of a conjecture of Guth and Zahl, giving a lower bound for the volume of a semialgebraic set that has a large intersection with a collection of $δ$-separated $δ$-tubes. Our proof uses o-minimal methods to simplify the proof of Katz and Rogers, who proved the conjecture up to a small factor. We also establish that the constants depend polynomially on the complexity of the semialgebraic set, and more generally in the #o-minimal setting.

math.CA↗