508 research outputs found
Wavelength limits on isobaricity of perturbations in a thermally unstable radiatively cooling medium
Nonlinear evolution of one-dimensional planar perturbations in an optically
thin radiatively cooling medium in the long-wavelength limit is studied
numerically. The accepted cooling function generates in thermal equilibrium a
bistable equation of state . The unperturbed state is taken close to
the upper (low-density) unstable state with infinite compressibility
(). The evolution is shown to proceed in three different stages.
At first stage, pressure and density set in the equilibrium equation of state,
and velocity profile steepens gradually as in case of pressure-free flows. At
second stage, those regions of the flow where anomalous pressure (i.e. with
negative compressibility) holds, create velocity profile more sharp than in
pressure-free case, which in turn results in formation of a very narrow
(short-wavelength) region where gas separates the equilibrium equation of state
and pressure equilibrium sets in rapidly. On this stage, variation in pressure
between narrow dense region and extended environment does not exceed more than
0.01 of the unperturbed value. On third stage, gas in the short-wavelength
region reaches the second (high-density) stable state, and pressure balance
establishes through the flow with pressure equal to the one in the unperturbed
state. In external (long-wavelength) regions, gas forms slow isobaric inflow
toward the short-wavelength layer. The duration of these stages decreases when
the ratio of the acoustic time to the radiative cooling time increases. Limits
in which nonlinear evolution of thermally unstable long-wavelength
perturbations develops in isobaric regime are obtained.Comment: 21 pages with 7 figures, Revtex, accepted in Physics of Plasma
Logarithmically Slow Expansion of Hot Bubbles in Gases
We report logarithmically slow expansion of hot bubbles in gases in the
process of cooling. A model problem first solved, when the temperature has
compact support. Then temperature profile decaying exponentially at large
distances is considered. The periphery of the bubble is shown to remain
essentially static ("glassy") in the process of cooling until it is taken over
by a logarithmically slowly expanding "core". An analytical solution to the
problem is obtained by matched asymptotic expansion. This problem gives an
example of how logarithmic corrections enter dynamic scaling.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics of thermal collapse in a freely cooling granular gas
We employ Navier-Stokes granular hydrodynamics to investigate the long-time
behavior of clustering instability in a freely cooling dilute granular gas in
two dimensions. We find that, in circular containers, the homogeneous cooling
state (HCS) of the gas loses its stability via a sub-critical pitchfork
bifurcation. There are no time-independent solutions for the gas density in the
supercritical region, and we present analytical and numerical evidence that the
gas develops thermal collapse unarrested by heat diffusion. To get more
insight, we switch to a simpler geometry of a narrow-sector-shaped container.
Here the HCS loses its stability via a transcritical bifurcation. For some
initial conditions a time-independent inhomogeneous density profile sets in,
qualitatively similar to that previously found in a narrow-channel geometry.
For other initial conditions, however, the dilute gas develops thermal collapse
unarrested by heat diffusion. We determine the dynamic scalings of the flow
close to collapse analytically and verify them in hydrodynamic simulations. The
results of this work imply that, in dimension higher than one, Navier-Stokes
hydrodynamics of a dilute granular gas is prone to finite-time density blowups.
This provides a natural explanation to the formation of densely packed clusters
of particles in a variety of initially dilute granular flows.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figure
Velocity fluctuations of population fronts propagating into metastable states
The position of propagating population fronts fluctuates because of the
discreteness of the individuals and stochastic character of processes of birth,
death and migration. Here we consider a Markov model of a population front
propagating into a metastable state, and focus on the weak noise limit. For
typical, small fluctuations the front motion is diffusive, and we calculate the
front diffusion coefficient. We also determine the probability distribution of
rare, large fluctuations of the front position and, for a given average front
velocity, find the most likely population density profile of the front.
Implications of the theory for population extinction risk are briefly
considered.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Far-from-equilibrium Ostwald ripening in electrostatically driven granular powders
We report the first experimental study of cluster size distributions in
electrostatically driven granular submonolayers. The cluster size distribution
in this far-from-equilibrium process exhibits dynamic scaling behavior
characteristic of the (nearly equilibrium) Ostwald ripening, controlled by the
attachment and detachment of the "gas" particles. The scaled size distribution,
however, is different from the classical Wagner distribution obtained in the
limit of a vanishingly small area fraction of the clusters. A much better
agreement is found with the theory of Conti et al. [Phys. Rev. E 65, 046117
(2002)] which accounts for the cluster merger.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in PR
Extinction rates of established spatial populations
This paper deals with extinction of an isolated population caused by
intrinsic noise. We model the population dynamics in a "refuge" as a Markov
process which involves births and deaths on discrete lattice sites and random
migrations between neighboring sites. In extinction scenario I the zero
population size is a repelling fixed point of the on-site deterministic
dynamics. In extinction scenario II the zero population size is an attracting
fixed point, corresponding to what is known in ecology as Allee effect.
Assuming a large population size, we develop WKB (Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin)
approximation to the master equation. The resulting Hamilton's equations encode
the most probable path of the population toward extinction and the mean time to
extinction. In the fast-migration limit these equations coincide, up to a
canonical transformation, with those obtained, in a different way, by Elgart
and Kamenev (2004). We classify possible regimes of population extinction with
and without an Allee effect and for different types of refuge and solve several
examples analytically and numerically. For a very strong Allee effect the
extinction problem can be mapped into the over-damped limit of theory of
homogeneous nucleation due to Langer (1969). In this regime, and for very long
systems, we predict an optimal refuge size that maximizes the mean time to
extinction.Comment: 26 pages including 3 appendices, 16 figure
Symmetry-breaking instability in a prototypical driven granular gas
Symmetry-breaking instability of a laterally uniform granular cluster (strip
state) in a prototypical driven granular gas is investigated. The system
consists of smooth hard disks in a two-dimensional box, colliding inelastically
with each other and driven, at zero gravity, by a "thermal" wall. The limit of
nearly elastic particle collisions is considered, and granular hydrodynamics
with the Jenkins-Richman constitutive relations is employed. The hydrodynamic
problem is completely described by two scaled parameters and the aspect ratio
of the box. Marginal stability analysis predicts a spontaneous symmetry
breaking instability of the strip state, similar to that predicted recently for
a different set of constitutive relations. If the system is big enough, the
marginal stability curve becomes independent of the details of the boundary
condition at the driving wall. In this regime, the density perturbation is
exponentially localized at the elastic wall opposite to the thermal wall. The
short- and long-wavelength asymptotics of the marginal stability curves are
obtained analytically in the dilute limit. The physics of the symmetry-breaking
instability is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure
Thermal Instability-Induced Interstellar Turbulence
We study the dynamics of phase transitions in the interstellar medium by
means of three-dimensional hydrodynamic numerical simulations. We use a
realistic cooling function and generic nonequilibrium initial conditions to
follow the formation history of a multiphase medium in detail in the absence of
gravity. We outline a number of qualitatively distinct stages of this process,
including a linear isobaric evolution, transition to an isochoric regime,
formation of filaments and voids (also known as "thermal" pancakes), the
development and decay of supersonic turbulence, an approach to pressure
equilibrium, and final relaxation of the multiphase medium. We find that 1%-2%
of the initial thermal energy is converted into gas motions in one cooling
time. The velocity field then randomizes into turbulence that decays on a
dynamical timescale E_k ~ t^-n, 1 < n < 2. While not all initial conditions
yield a stable two-phase medium, we examine such a case in detail. We find that
the two phases are well mixed with the cold clouds possessing a fine-grained
structure near our numerical resolution limit. The amount of gas in the
intermediate unstable phase roughly tracks the rms turbulent Mach number,
peaking at 25% when M_rms ~ 8, decreasing to 11% when M_rms ~ 0.4.Comment: To appear in the ApJ Letters, April 2002; 5 pages, 3 color figures,
mpeg animations available at http://akpc.ucsd.edu/ThermalLetter/thermal.htm
- …