Numerical simulation of the shape of charged drops over a solid surface.

In this work we study the static shape of charged drops of a conducting fluid placed over a solid substrate, surrounded by a gas, and in absence of gravitational forces. The problem can be posed, since Gauss, in a variational setting consisting of obtaining the configurations of a given mass of fluid that minimize (or in general make extremal) a certain energy involving the areas of the solid-liquid interface and of the liquid-gas interface, as well as the electric capacity of the drop. In [6] we have found, as a function of two parameters, Young's angle θY and the potential at the drop's surface V0, the axisymmetric minimizers of the energy. In the same article we have also described their shape and showed the existence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations such that, for given values of θY and V0, configurations for which the axial symmetry is lost are energetically more favorable than axially symmetric configurations. We have proved the existence of such bifurcations in the limits of very flat and almost spherical equilibrium shapes. In this work we study all other cases numerically. When dealing with radially perturbed equilibrium shapes we lose the axially symmetric properties and need to do a full three-dimensional approximation in order to compute area and capacity and hence the energy. We use a boundary element method that we have already implemented in [3] to compute the surface charge density. From the surface charge density we can obtain the capacity of the body. One conclusion of this study is that axisymmetric drops cannot spread indefinitely by introducing sufficient amount of electric charges, but can reach only a limiting (saturation) size, after which the axial symmetry would be lost and finger-like shapes energetically preferre

Collisions of Deformed Nuclei: A Path to the Far Side of the Superheavy Island

A detailed understanding of complete fusion cross sections in heavy-ion collisions requires a consideration of the effects of the deformation of the projectile and target. Our aim here is to show that deformation and orientation of the colliding nuclei have a very significant effect on the fusion-barrier height and on the compactness of the touching configuration. To facilitate discussions of fusion configurations of deformed nuclei, we develop a classification scheme and introduce a notation convention for these configurations. We discuss particular deformations and orientations that lead to compact touching configurations and to fusion-barrier heights that correspond to fairly low excitation energies of the compound systems. Such configurations should be the most favorable for producing superheavy elements. We analyse a few projectile-target combinations whose deformations allow favorable entrance-channel configurations and whose proton and neutron numbers lead to compound systems in a part of the superheavy region where alpha half-lives are calculated to be observable, that is, longer than 1 microsecond.Comment: 15 pages. LaTeX with iopconf.sty style file. Submitted to Nuclear Physics A. 25 figures not included here. PostScript version with figures available at http://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/publications.html or at ftp://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/cd

Collisions of Deformed Nuclei and Superheavy-Element Production

A detailed understanding of complete fusion cross sections in heavy-ion collisions requires a consideration of the effects of the deformation of the projectile and target. Our aim here is to show that deformation and orientation of the colliding nuclei have a very significant effect on the fusion-barrier height and on the compactness of the touching configuration. To facilitate discussions of fusion configurations of deformed nuclei, we develop a classification scheme and introduce a notation convention for these configurations. We discuss particular deformations and orientations that lead to compact touching configurations and to fusion-barrier heights that correspond to fairly low excitation energies of the compound systems. Such configurations should be the most favorable for producing superheavy elements. We analyse a few projectile-target combinations whose deformations allow favorable entrance-channel configurations and whose proton and neutron numbers lead to compound systems in a part of the superheavy region where alpha half-lives are calculated to be observable, that is, longer than 1 microsecond.Comment: 15 pages. LaTeX with iopconf.sty style file. Presented at 2nd RIKEN/INFN Joint Symposium, Wako-shi, Saitama, Japan, May 22-26, 1995. To be published in symposium proceedings by World Scientific, Singapore. Seven figures not included here. PostScript version with figures available at http://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/publications.html or at ftp://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/riken9

Stellar intensity interferometry: Optimizing air Cherenkov telescope array layouts

Kilometric-scale optical imagers seem feasible to realize by intensity interferometry, using telescopes primarily erected for measuring Cherenkov light induced by gamma rays. Planned arrays envision 50--100 telescopes, distributed over some 1--4 km$^2$. Although array layouts and telescope sizes will primarily be chosen for gamma-ray observations, also their interferometric performance may be optimized. Observations of stellar objects were numerically simulated for different array geometries, yielding signal-to-noise ratios for different Fourier components of the source images in the interferometric $(u,v)$-plane. Simulations were made for layouts actually proposed for future Cherenkov telescope arrays, and for subsets with only a fraction of the telescopes. All large arrays provide dense sampling of the $(u,v)$-plane due to the sheer number of telescopes, irrespective of their geographic orientation or stellar coordinates. However, for improved coverage of the $(u,v)$-plane and a wider variety of baselines (enabling better image reconstruction), an exact east-west grid should be avoided for the numerous smaller telescopes, and repetitive geometric patterns avoided for the few large ones. Sparse arrays become severely limited by a lack of short baselines, and to cover astrophysically relevant dimensions between 0.1--3 milliarcseconds in visible wavelengths, baselines between pairs of telescopes should cover the whole interval 30--2000 m.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures; presented at the SPIE conference "Optical and Infrared Interferometry II", San Diego, CA, USA (June 2010

The shape of charged drops over a solid surface and symmetry-breaking instabilities

We study the static shape of charged drops of a conducting fluid placed over a solid substrate, surrounded by a gas, and in absence of gravitational forces. The question can be formulated as a variational problem where a certain energy involving the areas of the solid-liquid interface and of the liquid-gas interface, as well as the electric capacity of the drop, has to be minimized. As a function of two parameters, Young’s angle µY and the potential at the drop’s surface V0, we find the axisymmetric minimizers of the energy and describe their shape. We also discuss the existence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations such that, for given values of µY and V0, configurations for which the axial symmetry is lost are energetically more favorable than axially symmetric configurations. We prove the existence of such bifurcations in the limits of very flat and almost spherical equilibrium shapes. All other cases are studied numerically with a boundary integral method. One conclusion of this study is that axisymmetric drops cannot spread indefinitely by introducing sufficient amount of electric charges, but can reach only a limiting (saturation) size, after which the axial symmetry would be lost and finger-like shapes energetically preferred