560 research outputs found
Three-dimensional flows in slowly-varying planar geometries
We consider laminar flow in channels constrained geometrically to remain
between two parallel planes; this geometry is typical of microchannels obtained
with a single step by current microfabrication techniques. For pressure-driven
Stokes flow in this geometry and assuming that the channel dimensions change
slowly in the streamwise direction, we show that the velocity component
perpendicular to the constraint plane cannot be zero unless the channel has
both constant curvature and constant cross-sectional width. This result implies
that it is, in principle, possible to design "planar mixers", i.e. passive
mixers for channels that are constrained to lie in a flat layer using only
streamwise variations of their in-plane dimensions. Numerical results are
presented for the case of a channel with sinusoidally varying width
A stochastic derivation of the geodesic rule
We argue that the geodesic rule, for global defects, is a consequence of the
randomness of the values of the Goldstone field in each causally
connected volume. As these volumes collide and coalescence, evolves by
performing a random walk on the vacuum manifold . We derive a
Fokker-Planck equation that describes the continuum limit of this process. Its
fundamental solution is the heat kernel on , whose leading
asymptotic behavior establishes the geodesic rule.Comment: 12 pages, No figures. To be published in Int. Jour. Mod. Phys.
Large Deviations in Stochastic Heat-Conduction Processes Provide a Gradient-Flow Structure for Heat Conduction
We consider three one-dimensional continuous-time Markov processes on a
lattice, each of which models the conduction of heat: the family of Brownian
Energy Processes with parameter , a Generalized Brownian Energy Process, and
the Kipnis-Marchioro-Presutti process. The hydrodynamic limit of each of these
three processes is a parabolic equation, the linear heat equation in the case
of the BEP and the KMP, and a nonlinear heat equation for the GBEP().
We prove the hydrodynamic limit rigorously for the BEP, and give a formal
derivation for the GBEP().
We then formally derive the pathwise large-deviation rate functional for the
empirical measure of the three processes. These rate functionals imply
gradient-flow structures for the limiting linear and nonlinear heat equations.
We contrast these gradient-flow structures with those for processes describing
the diffusion of mass, most importantly the class of Wasserstein gradient-flow
systems. The linear and nonlinear heat-equation gradient-flow structures are
each driven by entropy terms of the form ; they involve dissipation
or mobility terms of order for the linear heat equation, and a
nonlinear function of for the nonlinear heat equation.Comment: 29 page
Space-frequency correlation of classical waves in disordered media: high-frequency and small scale asymptotics
Two-frequency radiative transfer (2f-RT) theory is developed for geometrical
optics in random media. The space-frequency correlation is described by the
two-frequency Wigner distribution (2f-WD) which satisfies a closed form
equation, the two-frequency Wigner-Moyal equation. In the RT regime it is
proved rigorously that 2f-WD satisfies a Fokker-Planck-like equation with
complex-valued coefficients. By dimensional analysis 2f-RT equation yields the
scaling behavior of three physical parameters: the spatial spread, the
coherence length and the coherence bandwidth. The sub-transport-mean-free-path
behavior is obtained in a closed form by analytically solving a paraxial 2f-RT
equation
Quantum Diffusion and Delocalization for Band Matrices with General Distribution
We consider Hermitian and symmetric random band matrices in
dimensions. The matrix elements , indexed by , are independent and their variances satisfy \sigma_{xy}^2:=\E
\abs{H_{xy}}^2 = W^{-d} f((x - y)/W) for some probability density . We
assume that the law of each matrix element is symmetric and exhibits
subexponential decay. We prove that the time evolution of a quantum particle
subject to the Hamiltonian is diffusive on time scales . We
also show that the localization length of the eigenvectors of is larger
than a factor times the band width . All results are uniform in
the size \abs{\Lambda} of the matrix. This extends our recent result
\cite{erdosknowles} to general band matrices. As another consequence of our
proof we show that, for a larger class of random matrices satisfying
for all , the largest eigenvalue of is bounded
with high probability by for any ,
where M \deq 1 / (\max_{x,y} \sigma_{xy}^2).Comment: Corrected typos and some inaccuracies in appendix
Alternative sampling for variational quantum Monte Carlo
Expectation values of physical quantities may accurately be obtained by the
evaluation of integrals within Many-Body Quantum mechanics, and these
multi-dimensional integrals may be estimated using Monte Carlo methods. In a
previous publication it has been shown that for the simplest, most commonly
applied strategy in continuum Quantum Monte Carlo, the random error in the
resulting estimates is not well controlled. At best the Central Limit theorem
is valid in its weakest form, and at worst it is invalid and replaced by an
alternative Generalised Central Limit theorem and non-Normal random error. In
both cases the random error is not controlled. Here we consider a new `residual
sampling strategy' that reintroduces the Central Limit Theorem in its strongest
form, and provides full control of the random error in estimates. Estimates of
the total energy and the variance of the local energy within Variational Monte
Carlo are considered in detail, and the approach presented may be generalised
to expectation values of other operators, and to other variants of the Quantum
Monte Carlo method.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Mixing by polymers: experimental test of decay regime of mixing
By using high molecular weight fluorescent passive tracers with different
diffusion coefficients and by changing the fluid velocity we study dependence
of a characteristic mixing length on the Peclet number, , which controls
the mixing efficiency. The mixing length is found to be related to by a
power law, , and increases faster than
expected for an unbounded chaotic flow. Role of the boundaries in the mixing
length abnormal growth is clarified. The experimental findings are in a good
quantitative agreement with the recent theoretical predictions.Comment: 4 pages,5 figures. accepted for publication in PR
Experimental and theoretical scaling laws for transverse diffusive broadening in two-phase laminar flows in microchannels
This letter quantifies both experimentally and theoretically the diffusion of low-molecular-weight species across the interface between two aqueous solutions in pressure-driven laminar flow in microchannels at high Peclet numbers. Confocal fluorescent microscopy was used to visualize a fluorescent product formed by reaction between chemical species carried separately by the two solutions. At steady state, the width of the reaction-diffusion zone at the interface adjacent to the wall of the channel and transverse to the direction of flow scales as the one-third power of both the axial distance down the channel (from the point where the two streams join) and the average velocity of the flow, instead of the more familiar one- half power scaling which was measured in the middle of the channel. A quantitative description of reaction-diffusion processes near the walls of the channel, such as described in this letter, is required for the rational use of laminar flows for performing spatially resolved surface chemistry and biology inside microchannels and for understanding three-dimensional features of mass transport in shearing flows near surfaces
Cutoff for the Ising model on the lattice
Introduced in 1963, Glauber dynamics is one of the most practiced and
extensively studied methods for sampling the Ising model on lattices. It is
well known that at high temperatures, the time it takes this chain to mix in
on a system of size is . Whether in this regime there is
cutoff, i.e. a sharp transition in the -convergence to equilibrium, is a
fundamental open problem: If so, as conjectured by Peres, it would imply that
mixing occurs abruptly at for some fixed , thus providing
a rigorous stopping rule for this MCMC sampler. However, obtaining the precise
asymptotics of the mixing and proving cutoff can be extremely challenging even
for fairly simple Markov chains. Already for the one-dimensional Ising model,
showing cutoff is a longstanding open problem.
We settle the above by establishing cutoff and its location at the high
temperature regime of the Ising model on the lattice with periodic boundary
conditions. Our results hold for any dimension and at any temperature where
there is strong spatial mixing: For this carries all the way to the
critical temperature. Specifically, for fixed , the continuous-time
Glauber dynamics for the Ising model on with periodic boundary
conditions has cutoff at , where is
the spectral gap of the dynamics on the infinite-volume lattice. To our
knowledge, this is the first time where cutoff is shown for a Markov chain
where even understanding its stationary distribution is limited.
The proof hinges on a new technique for translating to mixing
which enables the application of log-Sobolev inequalities. The technique is
general and carries to other monotone and anti-monotone spin-systems.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figure
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