Similarity networks of ordinal-pattern transitions classify falling paper trajectories

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Flores, Angelo A., Voltarelli, Leonardo G. J. M., Sunahara, Andre S., Ribeiro, Haroldo V., Pessa, Arthur A. B.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Flores, Angelo A.
Voltarelli, Leonardo G. J. M.
Sunahara, Andre S.
Ribeiro, Haroldo V.
Pessa, Arthur A. B.
author_facet Flores, Angelo A.
Voltarelli, Leonardo G. J. M.
Sunahara, Andre S.
Ribeiro, Haroldo V.
Pessa, Arthur A. B.
contents Paper fragments in free fall constitute a simple yet paradigmatic mechanical system exhibiting remarkably complex motions. Despite a long history of investigation, this system has defied comprehensive first-principles modeling, motivating the development of phenomenological and experimental approaches to classify the free-fall dynamics of small paper fragments. Here we apply the Bandt-Pompe symbolization method to extract high-dimensional features corresponding to ordinal-pattern transitions (so-called ordinal networks) from observed area time series of video-recorded falling papers shaped as circles, squares, hexagons, and crosses. We then represent each trajectory as a node in a weighted similarity network, with edges encoding pairwise dynamical similarity, and identify motion classes via community detection. Our method automatically clusters trajectories into tumbling and chaotic falls in excellent agreement with expert visual classification. Notably, it outperforms previous approaches based on classical physical features derived from complete three-dimensional trajectories -- especially for cross-shaped papers -- and requires no prior specification of the number of motion classes. We further find that trajectories diverging from expert classifications occupy more central positions in the similarity network, suggesting more complex and ambiguous dynamic behavior.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_09381
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Similarity networks of ordinal-pattern transitions classify falling paper trajectories
Flores, Angelo A.
Voltarelli, Leonardo G. J. M.
Sunahara, Andre S.
Ribeiro, Haroldo V.
Pessa, Arthur A. B.
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Statistical Mechanics
Paper fragments in free fall constitute a simple yet paradigmatic mechanical system exhibiting remarkably complex motions. Despite a long history of investigation, this system has defied comprehensive first-principles modeling, motivating the development of phenomenological and experimental approaches to classify the free-fall dynamics of small paper fragments. Here we apply the Bandt-Pompe symbolization method to extract high-dimensional features corresponding to ordinal-pattern transitions (so-called ordinal networks) from observed area time series of video-recorded falling papers shaped as circles, squares, hexagons, and crosses. We then represent each trajectory as a node in a weighted similarity network, with edges encoding pairwise dynamical similarity, and identify motion classes via community detection. Our method automatically clusters trajectories into tumbling and chaotic falls in excellent agreement with expert visual classification. Notably, it outperforms previous approaches based on classical physical features derived from complete three-dimensional trajectories -- especially for cross-shaped papers -- and requires no prior specification of the number of motion classes. We further find that trajectories diverging from expert classifications occupy more central positions in the similarity network, suggesting more complex and ambiguous dynamic behavior.
title Similarity networks of ordinal-pattern transitions classify falling paper trajectories
topic Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.09381