56,101 research outputs found
A non-monotonic constitutive model is not necessary to obtain shear banding phenomena in entangled polymer solutions
In 1975 Doi and Edwards predicted that entangled polymer melts and solutions
can have a constitutive instability, signified by a decreasing stress for shear
rates greater than the inverse of the reptation time. Experiments did not
support this, and more sophisticated theories incorporated Marrucci's idea
(1996) of removing constraints by advection; this produced a monotonically
increasing stress and thus stable constitutive behavior. Recent experiments
have suggested that entangled polymer solutions may possess a constitutive
instability after all, and have led some workers to question the validity of
existing constitutive models. In this Letter we use a simple modern
constitutive model for entangled polymers, the non-stretching Rolie-Poly model
with an added solvent viscosity, and show that (1) instability and shear
banding is captured within this simple class of models; (2) shear banding
phenomena is observable for weakly stable fluids in flow geometries that impose
a sufficiently inhomogeneous total shear stress; (3) transient phenomena can
possess inhomogeneities that resemble shear banding, even for weakly stable
fluids. Many of these results are model-independent.Comment: 5 figure
Fermi-liquid effects in the gapless state of marginally thin superconducting films
We present low temperature tunneling density-of-states measurements in Al
films in high parallel magnetic fields. The thickness range of the films, t=6-9
nm, was chosen so that the orbital and Zeeman contributions to their parallel
critical fields were comparable. In this quasi-spin paramagnetically limited
configuration, the field produces a significant suppression of the gap, and at
high fields the gapless state is reached. By comparing measured and calculated
tunneling spectra we are able to extract the value of the antisymmetric
Fermi-liquid parameter G^0 and thereby deduce the quasiparticle density
dependence of the effective parameter G^0_{eff} across the gapless state.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Study of the volume and spin collapse in orthoferrite LuFeO_3 using LDA+U
Rare earth (R) orthoferrites RFeO_3 exhibit large volume transitions
associated with a spin collapse. We present here ab initio calculations on
LuFeO_3. We show that taking into account the strong correlation among the
Fe-3d electrons is necessary. Indeed, with the LDA+U method in the Projector
Augmented Wave (PAW), we are able to describe the isostructural phase
transition at 50 GPa, as well as a volume discontinuity of 6.0% at the
transition and the considerable reduction of the magnetic moment on the Fe
ions. We further investigate the effect of the variation of U and J and find a
linear dependence of the transition pressure on these parameters. We give an
interpretation for the non-intuitive effect of J. This emphasizes the need for
a correct determination of these parameters especially when the LDA+U is
applied to systems (e.g in geophysical investigations) where the transition
pressure is a priori unknown
Low Temperature Susceptibility of the Noncentrosymmetric Superconductor CePt_3Si
We report ac susceptibility measurements of polycrystalline CePt_3Si down to
60 mK and in applied fields up to 9 T. In zero field, a full Meissner state
emerges at temperatures T/Tc < 0.3, where Tc=0.65 K is the onset transition
temperature. Though transport measurements show a relatively high upper
critical field Bc2 ~ 4-5 T, the low temperature susceptibility, \chi', is quite
fragile to applied field, with \chi' diminishing rapidly in fields of a few kG.
Interestingly, the field dependence of \chi' is well described by the power
law, 4\pi\chi'=(B/B_c)^{1/2}, where Bc is the field at which the onset of
resistance is observed in transport measurements.Comment: 5 figure
Discriminating between a Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background and Instrument Noise
The detection of a stochastic background of gravitational waves could
significantly impact our understanding of the physical processes that shaped
the early Universe. The challenge lies in separating the cosmological signal
from other stochastic processes such as instrument noise and astrophysical
foregrounds. One approach is to build two or more detectors and cross correlate
their output, thereby enhancing the common gravitational wave signal relative
to the uncorrelated instrument noise. When only one detector is available, as
will likely be the case with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA),
alternative analysis techniques must be developed. Here we show that models of
the noise and signal transfer functions can be used to tease apart the
gravitational and instrument noise contributions. We discuss the role of
gravitational wave insensitive "null channels" formed from particular
combinations of the time delay interferometry, and derive a new combination
that maintains this insensitivity for unequal arm length detectors. We show
that, in the absence of astrophysical foregrounds, LISA could detect signals
with energy densities as low as with just
one month of data. We describe an end-to-end Bayesian analysis pipeline that is
able to search for, characterize and assign confidence levels for the detection
of a stochastic gravitational wave background, and demonstrate the
effectiveness of this approach using simulated data from the third round of
Mock LISA Data Challenges.Comment: 10 Pages, 10 Figure
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