53 research outputs found
Electrostatic Cancellation of Gravity Effects in Liquid Mixtures
We point out that a spatially-varying electric field can be used to cancel
the effect of gravity in liquid mixtures by coupling to the different
components' permittivities. Cancellation occurs if the system under
consideration is small enough. For a simple ``wedge'' electrode geometry we
show that the required system size and voltage are practical, easily realizable
in the Lab. Thus this setup might be a simple alternative to more expensive or
hazardous options such as the space-shuttle, drop-tower, or magnetic levitation
experiments.Comment: 1.5 pages, one figure. Accepted to PRE brief report
The Nature of Asymmetry in Fluid Criticality
By combining accurate liquid-vapor coexistence and heat-capacity data, we
have unambiguously separated two non-analytical contributions of liquid-gas
asymmetry in fluid criticality and proved the validity of "complete scaling"
[Fisher et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 696 (2000); Phys. Rev. E, 67, 061506,
(2003)]. We have also developed a method to obtain two scaling-field
coefficients, responsible for the two sources of the asymmetry, from mean-field
equations of state. Since the asymmetry effects are completely determined by
Ising critical exponents, there is no need for a special renormalization-group
theoretical treatment of asymmetric fluid criticality.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Asymmetric Fluid Criticality I: Scaling with Pressure Mixing
The thermodynamic behavior of a fluid near a vapor-liquid and, hence,
asymmetric critical point is discussed within a general ``complete'' scaling
theory incorporating pressure mixing in the nonlinear scaling fields as well as
corrections to scaling. This theory allows for a Yang-Yang anomaly in which
\mu_{\sigma}^{\prime\prime}(T), the second temperature derivative of the
chemical potential along the phase boundary, diverges like the specific heat
when T\to T_{\scriptsize c}; it also generates a leading singular term,
|t|^{2\beta}, in the coexistence curve diameter, where t\equiv
(T-T_{\scriptsize c}) /T_{\scriptsize c}. The behavior of various special loci,
such as the critical isochore, the critical isotherm, the k-inflection loci, on
which \chi^{(k)}\equiv \chi(\rho,T)/\rho^{k} (with \chi = \rho^{2}
k_{\scriptsize B}TK_{T}) and C_{V}^{(k)}\equiv C_{V}(\rho,T)/\rho^{k} are
maximal at fixed T, is carefully elucidated. These results are useful for
analyzing simulations and experiments, since particular, nonuniversal values of
k specify loci that approach the critical density most rapidly and reflect the
pressure-mixing coefficient. Concrete illustrations are presented for the
hard-core square-well fluid and for the restricted primitive model electrolyte.
For comparison, a discussion of the classical (or Landau) theory is presented
briefly and various interesting loci are determined explicitly and illustrated
quantitatively for a van der Waals fluid.Comment: 21 pages in two-column format including 8 figure
Generic mechanism for generating a liquid-liquid phase transition
Recent experimental results indicate that phosphorus, a single-component
system, can have two liquid phases: a high-density liquid (HDL) and a
low-density liquid (LDL) phase. A first-order transition between two liquids of
different densities is consistent with experimental data for a variety of
materials, including single-component systems such as water, silica and carbon.
Molecular dynamics simulations of very specific models for supercooled water,
liquid carbon and supercooled silica, predict a LDL-HDL critical point, but a
coherent and general interpretation of the LDL-HDL transition is lacking. Here
we show that the presence of a LDL and a HDL can be directly related to an
interaction potential with an attractive part and two characteristic
short-range repulsive distances. This kind of interaction is common to other
single-component materials in the liquid state (in particular liquid metals),
and such potentials are often used to decribe systems that exhibit a density
anomaly. However, our results show that the LDL and HDL phases can occur in
systems with no density anomaly. Our results therefore present an experimental
challenge to uncover a liquid-liquid transition in systems like liquid metals,
regardless of the presence of the density anomaly.Comment: 5 pages, 3 ps Fig
Metastable liquid-liquid phase transition in a single-component system with only one crystal phase and no density anomaly
We investigate the phase behavior of a single-component system in 3
dimensions with spherically-symmetric, pairwise-additive, soft-core
interactions with an attractive well at a long distance, a repulsive soft-core
shoulder at an intermediate distance, and a hard-core repulsion at a short
distance, similar to potentials used to describe liquid systems such as
colloids, protein solutions, or liquid metals. We showed [Nature {\bf 409}, 692
(2001)] that, even with no evidences of the density anomaly, the phase diagram
has two first-order fluid-fluid phase transitions, one ending in a
gas--low-density liquid (LDL) critical point, and the other in a
gas--high-density liquid (HDL) critical point, with a LDL-HDL phase transition
at low temperatures. Here we use integral equation calculations to explore the
3-parameter space of the soft-core potential and we perform molecular dynamics
simulations in the interesting region of parameters. For the equilibrium phase
diagram we analyze the structure of the crystal phase and find that, within the
considered range of densities, the structure is independent of the density.
Then, we analyze in detail the fluid metastable phases and, by explicit
thermodynamic calculation in the supercooled phase, we show the absence of the
density anomaly. We suggest that this absence is related to the presence of
only one stable crystal structure.Comment: 15 pages, 21 figure
A Natural Supersymmetric Model with MeV Dark Matter
It has previously been proposed that annihilating dark matter particles with
MeV-scale masses could be responsible for the flux of 511 keV photons observed
from the region of the Galactic Bulge. The conventional wisdom, however, is
that it is very challenging to construct a viable particle physics model
containing MeV dark matter. In this letter, we challenge this conclusion by
describing a simple and natural supersymmetric model in which the lightest
supersymmetric particle naturally has a MeV-scale mass and the other
phenomenological properties required to generate the 511 keV emission. In
particular, the small ( ) effective couplings between dark
matter and the Standard Model fermions required in this scenario naturally lead
to radiative corrections that generate MeV-scale masses for both the dark
matter candidate and the mediator particle.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. v2: Small modification to discussion of spectru
Local Structural Distortions in Quenched Au-Cu Alloys
Disordered alloys AuxCu1-x prepared by melt spinning method were analyzed by XAFS taken at 80 K. Local atomic structure around Au and Cu atoms was measured and strong deviations from perfect fcc structure were obtained resulting from the size disparity between Au and Cu atoms. A sharp asymmetry was found between the shorter (Cu-Cu) and the longer (Au-Au) nearest neighbor bond lengths. Average first nearest neighbor distance was found greater than obtained using linear interpolation of the pure components. Results on Debye-Waller factors showed strong concentration dependence for the Cu-Cu bond, suggesting the loosening of contact between these atoms when the concentration of Au increases
- …