Extensional rheology and elastic instabilities of a wormlike micellar solution in a microfluidic cross-slot device

Wormlike micellar surfactant solutions are encountered in a wide variety of important applications, including enhanced oil recovery and ink-jet printing, in which the fluids are subjected to high extensional strain rates. In this contribution we present an experimental investigation of the flow of a model wormlike micellar solution (cetyl pyridinium chloride and sodium salicylate in deionised water) in a well-defined stagnation point extensional flow field generated within a microfluidic cross-slot device. We use micro-particle image velocimetry (m-PIV) and full-field birefringence microscopy coupled with macroscopic measurements of the bulk pressure drop to make a quantitative characterization of the fluid’s rheological response over a wide range of deformation rates. The flow field in the micromachined cross-slot is first characterized for viscous flow of a Newtonian fluid, and m-PIV measurements show the flow field remains symmetric and stable up to moderately high Reynolds number, Re z 20, and nominal strain rate, _3nom z 635 s1. By contrast, in the viscoelastic micellar solution the flow field remains symmetric only for low values of the strain rate such that _3nom # lM1, where lM ¼ 2.5 s is the Maxwell relaxation time of the fluid. In this stable flow regime the fluid displays a localized and elongated birefringent strand extending along the outflow streamline from the stagnation point, and estimates of the apparent extensional viscosity can be obtained using the stressoptical rule and from the total pressure drop measured across the cross-slot channel. For moderate deformation rates (_3nom $ lM1) the flow remains steady, but becomes increasingly asymmetric with increasing flow rate, eventually achieving a steady state of complete anti-symmetry characterized by a dividing streamline and birefringent strand connecting diagonally opposite corners of the cross-slot. Eventually, as the nominal imposed deformation rate is increased further, the asymmetric divided flow becomes time dependent. These purely elastic instabilities are reminiscent of those observed in crossslot flows of polymer solutions, but seem to be strongly influenced by the effects of shear localization of the micellar fluid within the microchannels and around the re-entrant corners of the cross-slot

Thermal Field Theory and Generalized Light Front Coordinates

The dependence of thermal field theory on the surface of quantization and on the velocity of the heat bath is investigated by working in general coordinates that are arbitrary linear combinations of the Minkowski coordinates. In the general coordinates the metric tensor $g_{\bar{\mu\nu}}$ is non-diagonal. The Kubo, Martin, Schwinger condition requires periodicity in thermal correlation functions when the temporal variable changes by an amount $-i\big/(T\sqrt{g_{\bar{00}}})$. Light front quantization fails since $g_{\bar{00}}=0$, however various related quantizations are possible.Comment: 10 page

ON THE INTRINSIC CHARM COMPONENT OF THE NUCLEON

Using a $\overline D$ meson cloud model we calculate the squared charm radius of the nucleon . The ratio between this squared radius and the ordinary baryon squared radius is identified with the probability of ``seeing'' the intrinsic charm component of the nucleon. Our estimate is compatible with those used to successfully describe the charm production phenomenology.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures not included, avaiable from the author

Intrinsic Charm Contribution to Double Quarkonium Hadroproduction

Double $J/\psi$ production has been observed by the NA3 collaboration in $\pi N$ and $p N$ collisions with a cross section of the order of 20-30 pb. The $\psi \psi$ pairs measured in $\pi^-$ nucleus interactions at 150 and 280 GeV$/c$ are observed to carry an anomalously large fraction of the projectile momentum in the laboratory frame, $x_{\psi \psi} \geq 0.6$ at 150 GeV$/c$ and $\geq 0.4$ at 280 GeV$/c$. We postulate that these forward $\psi \psi$ pairs are created by the materialization of Fock states in the projectile containing two pairs of intrinsic $c \overline c$ quarks. We calculate the overlap of the charmonium states with the $|\overline u d c \overline c c \overline c \rangle$ Fock state as described by the intrinsic charm model and find that the $\pi^- N \rightarrow \psi \psi$ longitudinal momentum and invariant mass distributions are both well reproduced. We also discuss double $J/\psi$ production in $pN$ interactions and the implications for other heavy quarkonium production channels in QCD.Comment: Revtex, APS style, 7 pages, 3 figures in uuencoded fil

Contact-induced spin polarization in carbon nanotubes

Motivated by the possibility of combining spintronics with molecular structures, we investigate the conditions for the appearance of spin-polarization in low-dimensional tubular systems by contacting them to a magnetic substrate. We derive a set of general expressions describing the charge transfer between the tube and the substrate and the relative energy costs. The mean-field solution of the general expressions provides an insightful formula for the induced spin-polarization. Using a tight-binding model for the electronic structure we are able to estimate the magnitude and the stability of the induced moment. This indicates that a significant magnetic moment in carbon nanotubes can be observed.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. B (2003

Equivalence of light-front and conventional thermal field theory

ONE PHYSICS ELLIPSE, COLLEGE PK, USA, MD, 20740-384

Density Perturbations in the Brans-Dicke Theory

We analyse the fate of density perturbation in the Brans-Dicke Theory, giving a general classification of the solutions of the perturbed equations when the scale factor of the background evolves as a power law. We study with details the cases of vacuum, inflation, radiation and incoherent matter. We find, for the a negative Brans-Dicke parameter, a significant amplification of perturbations.Comment: 26 pages, latex fil

QCD and Intrinsic Heavy Quark Predictions for Leading Charm and Beauty Hadroproduction

Recent experiments at Fermilab and CERN have observed a strong asymmetry between the hadroproduction cross sections of leading $D$ mesons, containing projectile valence quarks, and nonleading charmed mesons, without projectile valence quarks. The observed correlations of the $\pi^{\pm} N \to D^\pm X$ cross section with the projectile charge violates the usual assumption that heavy quark jet fragmentation factorizes. We examine the asymmetry between leading and nonleading charm production as a function of $x_f$ and $p_T^2$ assuming a two-component model combining leading-twist fusion subprocesses and charm production from intrinsic heavy quark Fock states. We predict a sizable asymmetry at low $p_T^2$ and high $x_f$ from coalescence of the charm quarks with the comoving spectator quarks of the projectile. An intrinsic $c \overline c$ production cross section of 0.5 $\mu$b is sufficient to explain both the magnitude and kinematic dependence of the asymmetry. In contrast, the charm jet hadronization mechanisms contained in PYTHIA predict a sizeable leading charm asymmetry even at low $x_F.$ The two-component model is extended to predict the asymmetry in $B$ meson production in proton-proton and pion-proton interactions.Comment: 16 pages LaTeX with 6 postscript figures available upon request, LBL-35380, SLAC-PUB-646

Quark initiated coherent diffractive production of muon pair and W boson at hadron colliders

The large transverse momentum muon pair and W boson productions in the quark initiated coherent diffractive processes at hadron colliders are discussed under the framework of the two-gluon exchange parametrization of the Pomeron model. In this approach, the production cross sections are related to the small-x off-diagonal gluon distribution and the large-x quark distribution in the proton (antiproton). By approximating the off-diagonal gluon distribution by the usual gluon distribution function, we estimate the production rates of these processes at the Fermilab Tevatron.Comment: 11pages, 6 PS figures, to appear in PR

The leading particle effect from light quark fragmentation in charm hadroproduction

The asymmetry of $D^-$ and $D^+$ meson production in $\pi^-N$ scattering observed by the E791 experiment is a typical phenomenon known as the leading particle effect in charm hadroproducton. We show that the phenomenon can be explained by the effect of light quark fragmentation into charmed hadrons (LQF). Meanwhile, the size of the LQF effect is estimated from data of the E791 experiment. A comparison is made with the estimate of the LQF effect from prompt like-sign dimuon rate in neutrino experiments. The influence of the LQF effect on the measurement of nucleon strange distribution asymmetry from charged current charm production processes is briefly discussed.Comment: 6 latex pages, 1 figure, to appear in EPJ