Andrea Rapisarda

Andrea Rapisarda
University of Catania | UNICT · Department of Physics and Astronomy (DFA)

Master Degree in Physics

About

236
Publications
88,439
Reads
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6,405
Citations
Additional affiliations
September 1988 - June 1989
University of Copenhagen
Position
  • PostDoc Position
July 2016 - present
University of Catania
Position
  • Coordinator of the PhD program on Complex Systems
April 2013 - December 2016
University of Catania
Position
  • Rector's Delegate for Internationalization
Education
October 1978 - July 1983
University of Catania
Field of study
  • Physics

Publications

Publications (236)
Article
Full-text available
In this paper, making use of recent statistical physics techniques and models, we address the specific role of randomness in financial markets, both at the micro and the macro level. In particular, we review some recent results obtained about the effectiveness of random strategies of investment, compared with some of the most used trading strategie...
Article
Full-text available
We study the link between relaxation to the equilibrium and anomalous superdiffusive motion in a classical N-body hamiltonian system with long-range interaction showing a second-order phase-transition in the canonical ensemble. Anomalous diffusion is observed only in a transient out-of-equilibrium regime and for a small range of energy, below the c...
Article
Full-text available
The thermodynamics and the dynamics of particle systems with infinite-range coupling display several unusual and new features with respect to systems with short-range interactions. The Hamiltonian Mean Field (HMF) model represents a paradigmatic example of this class of systems. The present study addresses both attractive and repulsive interactions...
Article
Full-text available
The island of Sicily has been displaying unusual rainfall behavior and unexpected extreme precipitation events in recent decades. In this study, we investigate the Granger causal (GC) dependencies in the network of precipitation measurement sites of Sicily at different timescales (every 10 min, 1 h, 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h). We study, across seasons an...
Article
Full-text available
In this work, we study the sport of tennis, with the aim of understanding competitions and the associated quantities that determine their outcome. We construct an agent-based model that is able to produce data analogous to real data taken from Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournaments. This model depends on three parameters: the talent...
Article
Full-text available
Precipitation patterns are critical for understanding the hydrological and climatological dynamics of any region. Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean sea, with its diverse topography and climatic conditions, serves as an ideal case study for analyzing precipitation data, to gain insights into regional water resources, agricultural produ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Direct competitions involve competitors that mutually contend for the same resource or objective. A controlled, well-documented, and data-rich field involving direct competition is represented by sports. Usually the winner of sports competitions is believed to be the one with the greatest talent, however, there are other factors that contribute to...
Preprint
Full-text available
Precipitation patterns are critical for understanding the hydrological and climatological dynamics of any region. Sicily, the largest island of the Mediterranean sea, with its diverse topography and climatic conditions, serves as an ideal case study for analyzing precipitation data to gain insights into regional water resources, agricultural produc...
Article
Full-text available
Success in sports is a complex phenomenon that has only garnered limited research attention. In particular, we lack a deep scientific understanding of success in sports like tennis and the factors that contribute to it. Here, we study the unfolding of tennis players’ careers to understand the role of early career stages and the impact of specific t...
Chapter
In this paper we review some recent results about the efficiency of random strategies for complex systems. Inspired by physical systems, we discuss several successful examples of the beneficial role of randomness in the realm of socio-economic systems. We dedicate this paper to Alfredo Ferro to celebrate his distinguished career.
Preprint
Full-text available
Rainfall constitutes an important climatic variable as its lack can lead to severe droughts while its excess can trigger catastrophic events. The Mediterranean basin is one of the European regions most affected by climate change's effects and Sicily island, for its location in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, represents a very interesting place...
Article
Full-text available
Seismic vulnerability assessment in urban areas would, in principle, require the detailed modeling of every single building and the implementation of complex numerical calculations. This procedure is clearly difficult to apply at an urban scale where many buildings must be considered; therefore, it is essential to have simplified, but at the same t...
Preprint
Full-text available
Seismic vulnerability assessment in urban areas would in principle require the detailed modeling of each single building and the implementation of complex numerical calculations. This procedure is clearly difficult to apply at urban scale where many buildings have to be considered and therefore it is essential to have simplified, but at the same ti...
Preprint
Full-text available
Seismic vulnerability assessment in urban areas would in principle require the detailed modeling of each single building and the implementation of complex numerical calculations. This procedure is clearly difficult to apply at urban scale where many buildings have to be considered and therefore it is essential to have simplified, but at the same ti...
Article
Individual sports competitions provide a natural setting for examining the relative importance of talent and luck/chance in achieving success. The belief that success is primarily due to individual abilities and hard work rather than external factors is particularly strong in this context. Thus, individual talent is regarded as the most important –...
Article
Full-text available
The determination of seismic risk in urban settlements has received increasing attention in the scientific community during the last decades since it allows to identify the most vulnerable portions of urban areas and therefore to plan appropriate strategies for seismic risk reduction. In order to accurately evaluate the seismic risk of urban settle...
Article
Full-text available
We propose a new statistical analysis of the Acoustic Emissions (AE) produced in a series of triaxial deformation experiments leading to fractures and failure of two different rocks, namely, Darley Dale Sandstone (DDS) and AG Granite (AG). By means of q-statistical formalism, we are able to characterize the pre-failure processes in both types of ro...
Preprint
Full-text available
We propose a new statistical analysis of the Acoustic Emissions (AE) produced in a series of triaxial deformation experiments leading to fractures and failure of two different rocks, namely, Darley Dale Sandstone (DDS) and AG Granite (AG). By means of q-statistical formalism, we are able to characterize the pre-failure processes in both types of ro...
Preprint
Full-text available
Individual sports competitions provide a natural setting for examining the relative importance of talent and luck in achieving success. The belief that success is primarily due to individual abilities and hard work rather than external factors is especially strong in this context. Thus, individual talent is regarded as the most important – if not t...
Article
Full-text available
Despite its centennial successes in describing physical systems at thermal equilibrium, Boltzmann–Gibbs (BG) statistical mechanics have exhibited, in the last several decades, several flaws in addressing out-of-equilibrium dynamics of many nonlinear complex systems. In such circumstances, it has been shown that an appropriate generalization of the...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper we analyse the effects of information flows in cryptocurrency markets. We first define a cryptocurrency trading network, i.e. the network made using cryptocurrencies as nodes and the Granger causality among their weekly log returns as links, later we analyse its evolution over time. In particular, with reference to years 2020 and 2021...
Article
Full-text available
The assessment of seismic risk in urban areas with high seismicity is certainly one of the most important problems that territorial managers have to face. A reliable evaluation of this risk is the basis for the design of both specific seismic improvement interventions and emergency management plans. Inappropriate seismic risk assessments may provid...
Preprint
Full-text available
The assessment of seismic risk in urban areas with high seismicity is certainly one of the most important problems that territorial managers have to face. A reliable evaluation of this risk is the basis for the design of both specific seismic improvement interventions and emergency management plans. Unappropriate seismic risk assessments may provid...
Preprint
Full-text available
In this paper we analyse the effects of information flows in cryptocurrency markets. We first define a cryptocurrency trading network, i.e. the network made using cryptocurrencies as nodes and the Granger causality among their weekly log returns as links, later we analyse its evolution over time. In particular, with reference to years 2020 and 2021...
Preprint
Full-text available
The assessment of seismic risk in urban areas with high seismicity is certainly one of the most important problems that territorial managers have to face. A reliable evaluation of this risk is the basis for the design of both specific seismic improvement interventions and emergency management plans. Unappropriate seismic risk assessments may provid...
Article
Full-text available
The rise of disinformation in the last years has shed light on the presence of bad actors that produce and spread misleading content every day. Therefore, looking at the characteristics of these actors has become crucial for gaining better knowledge of the phenomenon of disinformation to fight it. This study seeks to understand how these actors, me...
Article
Full-text available
It is a widespread belief that success is mainly due to innate qualities rather than external forces. This is particularly true in sports competitions, where individual talent is usually considered the main, if not the only, ingredient to reach success. In this study, we explore the limits of this belief by quantifying the relative weight of talent...
Preprint
Full-text available
The determination of seismic risk in urban settlements has received increasing attention in the scientific community during the last decades since it allows to identify the most vulnerable portions of urban areas and therefore to plan opportune strategies for seismic risk reduction. In order to accurately evaluate the seismic risk of urban settleme...
Article
Full-text available
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Preprint
Full-text available
It is a widespread belief that success is mainly due to innate qualities, rather than to external forces. This is particularly true in sport competitions, where individual talent is considered the only ingredient in order to reach success. In this study, we propose to explore the relative weight of talent and luck in individual sports through agent...
Preprint
Full-text available
It is a widespread belief that success is mainly due to innate qualities, rather than to external forces. This is particularly true in sport competitions, where individual talent is usually considered the main, if not the only, ingredient in order to reach success. In this study, with the help of both real data and agent-based simulations, we explo...
Article
Full-text available
In early January 2020, after China reported the first cases of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in the city of Wuhan, unreliable and not fully accurate information has started spreading faster than the virus itself. Alongside this pandemic, people have experienced a parallel infodemic, i.e., an overabundance of information, some of which is mislead...
Preprint
Full-text available
In early January 2020, after China reported the first cases of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in the city of Wuhan, unreliable and not fully accurate information has started spreading faster than the virus itself. Alongside this pandemic, people have experienced a parallel infodemic, i.e., an overabundance of information, some of which misleading...
Article
Full-text available
We propose a novel data-driven framework for assessing the a-priori epidemic risk of a geographical area and for identifying high-risk areas within a country. Our risk index is evaluated as a function of three different components: the hazard of the disease, the exposure of the area and the vulnerability of its inhabitants. As an application, we di...
Article
In this paper we present a new analytical model of a Parliament and investigate the beneficial effects of the selection of legislators by lot in order to reduce some of the drawbacks of modern representative democracies. Resorting to sortition for the selection of public officers used to be in the past a popular way of taming factionalism in public...
Article
Public transport in urban and suburban areas is not always able to meet population’s need of accessibility to jobs, education, health and other opportunities in terms of routes and frequencies; therefore, those who do not own a private vehicle, or who cannot afford public individual transport (e.g. taxis), often find themselves in a condition of so...
Article
We present a new way of estimation of the role of chance in achieving success, by comparing the empirical data from 100-m dash competitions (one of the sports disciplines with the most stringent controls of external randomness), with the results of an agent-based computer model, which assumes that success depends jointly on the intrinsic talent of...
Article
Full-text available
While wealth distribution in the world is highly skewed and heavy-tailed, human talent — as the majority of individual features — is normally distributed. In a recent computational study by Pluchino et al. [Talent vs luck: The role of randomness in success and failure, Adv. Complex Syst.21(03–04) (2018) 1850014], it has been shown that the combined...
Article
Full-text available
We consider a generalised d-dimensional model for asymptotically- scale-free geographical networks. Central to many networks of this kind, when considering their growth in time, is the attachment rule, i.e. the probability that a new node is attached to one (or more) preexistent nodes. In order to be more realistic, a fitness parameter ηi ∈ [0, 1]...
Preprint
Full-text available
We present a novel methodology in order to perform the epidemic risk assessment in terms of different factors which are useful to understand the different impact of an epidemic in different areas of a country. In particular we discuss the case of COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. We characterize each region of Italy by considering the available data on a...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper we present experimental results concerning Acoustic Emission (AE) recorded during cyclic compression tests on two different kinds of brittle building materials, namely concrete and basalt. The AE inter-event times were investigated through a non-extensive statistical mechanics analysis which shows that their complementary cumulative p...
Article
Full-text available
A brief illustration is presented about the scientific motivation and contributions of this Special Issue.
Preprint
Full-text available
We consider a generalised d-dimensional model for asymptotically-scale-free geographical networks. Central to many networks of this kind, when considering their growth in time, is the attachment rule, i.e. the probability that a new node is attached to one (or more) preexistent nodes. In order to be more realistic, a fitness parameter $\eta_i \in [...
Article
Full-text available
Quantum statistics have been shown to emerge to describe the statistical properties of growing networks when nodes are associated to a fitness value. Recently it has been shown that quantum statistics emerge also in a growing simplicial complex model called Network Geometry with Flavor (NGF) which allows for the description of many-body interaction...
Preprint
Full-text available
We present a new way of estimation of the role of chance in achieving success, by comparing the empirical data from 100-meter dash competitions (one of the sports disciplines with the most stringent controls of external randomness), with the results of an agent-based computer model, which assumes that success depends jointly on the intrinsic talent...
Preprint
Full-text available
We introduce a simplified version (STvL) of the Talent versus Luck (TvL) model where only lucky events are present and verify that its dynamical rules lead to the same very large wealth inequality as the original model. We also derive some analytical approximations aimed to capture the mechanism responsible for the creation of such wealth inequalit...
Article
Full-text available
Although interdisciplinarity is often touted as a necessity for modern research, the evidence on the relative impact of sectorial versus to interdisciplinary science is qualitative at best. In this paper we leverage the bibliographic data set of the American Physical Society to quantify the role of interdisciplinarity in physics, and that of talent...
Article
Full-text available
In order to estimate the seismic vulnerability of a densely populated urban area; it would in principle be necessary to evaluate the dynamic behaviour of individual and aggregate buildings. These detailed seismic analyses, however, are extremely cost-intensive and require great processing time and expertise judgment. The aim of the present study is...
Article
Full-text available
An entropic functional S is said additive if it satisfies, for any two probabilistically independent systems A and B, that S ( A + B ) = S ( A ) + S ( B ) [...]
Preprint
Full-text available
Growing network models have been shown to display emergent quantum statistics when nodes are associated to a fitness value describing the intrinsic ability of a node to acquire new links. Recently it has been shown that quantum statistics emerge also in a growing simplicial complex model called Network Geometry with Flavor which allow for the descr...
Article
Limiting private cars’ use while promoting sustainable modes of transport is one of the main challenges of urban transport planning. In this context, characterized by scarce resources and increasing demand for mobility, Demand Responsive Shared Transport (DRST) services can bridge the gap between shared low-quality public transport and unsustainabl...
Preprint
Full-text available
In this paper we present experimental results concerning Acoustic Emission (AE) recorded during cyclic compression tests on two different kinds of brittle building materials, namely concrete and basalt. The AE inter-event times were investigated through a non-extensive statistical mechanics analysis which shows that their decumulative probability d...
Preprint
Although interdisciplinarity is often touted as a necessity for modern research, the evidence on the relative impact of sectorial versus to interdisciplinary science is qualitative at best. In this paper we leverage the bibliographic data set of the American Physical Society to quantify the role of interdisciplinarity in physics, and that of talent...
Preprint
Full-text available
Although interdisciplinarity is often touted as a necessity for modern research, the evidence on the relative impact of sectorial versus to interdisciplinary science is qualitative at best. In this paper we leverage the bibliographic data set of the American Physical Society to quantify the role of interdisci-plinarity in physics, and that of talen...
Preprint
Full-text available
The analysis of the seismic vulnerability of urban centres has received a great attention in the last century, due to the progressive concentration of buildings in metropolitan areas. In order to estimate the seismic vulnerability of a densely populated urban area, it would in principle be necessary to develop in-depth analyses for predicting the d...
Article
Full-text available
We review recent numerical results on the role of talent and luck in getting success by means of a schematic agent-based model. In general, the role of luck is found to be very relevant in order to get success, while talent is necessary but not sufficient. Funding strategies to improve the success of the most talented people are also discussed.
Chapter
In this paper, an agent-based model is presented to test the feasibility of different configurations of Demand Responsive Shared Transport (DRST) services in a real context. DRST services provide “just-in-time” mobility solutions by dynamically assigning a fleet of vehicles to passenger booking requests taking advantages of Information and Communic...
Preprint
Full-text available
We review recent numerical results on the role of talent and luck in getting success by means of a schematic agent-based model. In general the role of luck is found to be very relevant in order to get success, while talent is necessary but not sufficient. Funding strategies to improve the success of the most talented people are also discussed.
Article
Demand Responsive Shared Transport DRST services take advantage of Information and Communication Technologies ICT, to provide on demand transport services booking in real time a ride on a shared vehicle. In this paper, an agent-based model ABM is presented to test different the feasibility of different service configurations in a real context. Firs...