We discuss some apparently “universal” aspects observed in the empirical analysis of stock price dynamics in financial markets. Specifically we consider (i) the empirical behavior of the return probability density function and (ii) the content of economic information in financial time series.

We perform Monte Carlo simulations to determine the average excluded area 〈Aex〉 of randomly oriented squares, randomly oriented widthless sticks and aligned squares in two dimensions. We find significant differences between our results for randomly oriented squares and previous analytical...

We present exact results on the low-temperature behavior of the square lattice ±J Ising model, with a concentration c of ferromagnetic bonds and a concentration 1−c of antiferromagnetic bonds. We find that for T below a characteristic temperature T0, the system is “frozen” in the sense...

This talk will summarize the present status of an ongoing research program designed to answer the question posed in the title. Since a snapshot of liquid water with a subpicosecond shutter speed reveals that this system (a hydrogen-bonded liquid) is above its percolation threshold, it is...

We present a random walk, fractal analysis of the stride-to-stride fluctuations in the human gait rhythm. The gait of healthy young adults is scale-free with long-range correlations extending over hundreds of strides. This fractal scaling changes characteristically with maturation in children...

We study the optimal distance ℓopt in random networks in the presence of disorder implemented by assigning random weights to the links. The optimal distance between two nodes is the length of the path for which the sum of weights along the path (“cost”) is a minimum. We study the case of...

This manuscript is a brief summary of a talk designed to address the question of whether two of the pillars of the field of phase transitions and critical phenomena—scale invariance and universality—can be useful in guiding research on interpreting empirical data on economic fluctuations....

We consider the cluster mass distribution between two lines of arbitrary orientations and lengths in porous media in three dimensions, and model the porous media by bond percolation at the percolation threshold pc. We observe that for many geometrical configurations the mass probability...

We determine the backbone mass distributions for bond percolation between two lines of arbitrary orientations in three dimensions. All simulations were performed at the percolation threshold pc. The slope of the power law regime of the backbone mass distribution is dependent upon the angle...

In recent years, physicists have started applying concepts and methods of statistical physics to study economic problems. The word “Econophysics” is sometimes used to refer to this work. Much recent work is focused on understanding the statistical properties of financial time series. One...