816 research outputs found
The All Affected Principle, and the Weighting of Votes
In this article we defend the view that, on the All Affected Principle of voting rights, the weight of a person’s vote on a decision should be determined by and only by the degree to which that decision affects her interests, independently of her voting weights on other decisions. Further, we consider two recent alternative proposals for how the All Affected Principle should weight votes, and give reasons for rejecting both
Structural Relaxation and Frequency Dependent Specific Heat in a Supercooled Liquid
We have studied the relation between the structural relaxation and the
frequency dependent thermal response or the specific heat, , in a
supercooled liquid.
The Mode Coupling Theory (MCT) results are used to obtain
corresponding to different wavevectors. Due to the two-step
relaxation process present in the MCT, an extra peak, in addition to the low
frequency peak, is predicted in specific heat at high frequency.Comment: 14 pages, 13 Figure
Event-based relaxation of continuous disordered systems
A computational approach is presented to obtain energy-minimized structures
in glassy materials. This approach, the activation-relaxation technique (ART),
achieves its efficiency by focusing on significant changes in the microscopic
structure (events). The application of ART is illustrated with two examples:
the structure of amorphous silicon, and the structure of Ni80P20, a metallic
glass.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, epsf.sty, 3 figure
Structure and Stability of an Amorphous Metal
Using molecular dynamics simulations, with a realistic many-body
embedded-atom potential, and a novel method to characterize local order, we
study the structure of pure nickel during the rapid quench of the liquid and in
the resulting glass. In contrast with previous simulations with pair
potentials, we find more crystalline order and fewer icosahedra for slower
quenching rates, resulting in a glass less stable against crystallization. It
is shown that there is not a specific amorphous structure, only the arrest of
the transition from liquid to crystal, resulting in small crystalline clusters
immersed in an amorphous matrix with the same structure of the liquid.Comment: 4 pages, 4 ps figs., to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
The glassy response of solid He-4 to torsional oscillations
We calculated the glassy response of solid He-4 to torsional oscillations
assuming a phenomenological glass model. Making only a few assumptions about
the distribution of glassy relaxation times in a small subsystem of otherwise
rigid solid He-4, we can account for the magnitude of the observed period shift
and concomitant dissipation peak in several torsion oscillator experiments. The
implications of the glass model for solid He-4 are threefold: (1) The dynamics
of solid He-4 is governed by glassy relaxation processes. (2) The distribution
of relaxation times varies significantly between different torsion oscillator
experiments. (3) The mechanical response of a torsion oscillator does not
require a supersolid component to account for the observed anomaly at low
temperatures, though we cannot rule out its existence.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, presented at QFS200
Model for Glass Transition in a Binary fluid from a Mode Coupling approach
We consider the Mode Coupling Theory (MCT) of Glass transition for a Binary
fluid. The Equations of Nonlinear Fluctuating Hydrodynamics are obtained with a
proper choice of the slow variables corresponding to the conservation laws. The
resulting model equations are solved in the long time limit to locate the
dynamic transition. The transition point from our model is considerably higher
than predicted in existing MCT models for binary systems. This is in agreement
with what is seen in Computer Simulation of binary fluids. fluids.Comment: 9 Pages, 3 Figure
Thermodynamic Behavior of a Model Covalent Material Described by the Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the thermodynamic behavior of a
single-component covalent material described by the recently proposed
Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential (EDIP). The parameterization of
EDIP for silicon exhibits a range of unusual properties typically found in more
complex materials, such as the existence of two structurally distinct
disordered phases, a density decrease upon melting of the low-temperature
amorphous phase, and negative thermal expansion coefficients for both the
crystal (at high temperatures) and the amorphous phase (at all temperatures).
Structural differences between the two disordered phases also lead to a
first-order transition between them, which suggests the existence of a second
critical point, as is believed to exist for amorphous forms of frozen water.
For EDIP-Si, however, the unusual behavior is associated not only with the open
nature of tetrahedral bonding but also with a competition between four-fold
(covalent) and five-fold (metallic) coordination. The unusual behavior of the
model and its unique ability to simulation the liquid/amorphous transition on
molecular-dynamics time scales make it a suitable prototype for fundamental
studies of anomalous thermodynamics in disordeered systems.Comment: 48 pages (double-spaced), 13 figure
Development of experimental techniques for measurement of heat transfer rates in heat exchangers in oscillatory flows
Heat exchangers are important components of thermoacoustic devices. In oscillatory flow conditions, the flow and temperature fields around the heat exchangers can be quite complex, and may significantly affect heat transfer behaviour. As a result, one cannot directly apply the heat transfer correlations for steady flows to the design of heat exchangers for oscillatory flows. The fundamental knowledge of heat transfer in oscillatory flows, however, is still not well-established. The aim of the current work is to develop experimental apparatus and measurement techniques for the study of heat transfer in oscillatory flows. The heat transferred between two heat exchangers forming a couple was measured over a range of testing conditions. Three couples of finned-tube heat exchangers with different fin spacing were selected for the experiment. The main parameters considered were fin spacing, fin length, thermal penetration depth and gas displacement amplitude. Their effects on the heat exchanger performance were studied. The results were summarised and analysed in terms of heat transfer rate and dimensionless heat transfer coefficient: Colburn-j factor. In order to obtain the gas side heat transfer coefficient in oscillatory flows, the water side heat transfer coefficient is required. Thus, an experimental apparatus for unidirectional steady test was also developed and a calculation method to evaluate the heat transfer coefficient was demonstrated. The uncertainties associated with the measurement of heat transfer rate were also considered
Nonlinear Hydrodynamics of a Hard Sphere Fluid Near the Glass Transition
We conduct a numerical study of the dynamic behavior of a dense hard sphere
fluid by deriving and integrating a set of Langevin equations. The statics of
the system is described by a free energy functional of the
Ramakrishnan-Yussouff form. We find that the system exhibits glassy behavior as
evidenced through stretched exponential decay and two-stage relaxation of the
density correlation function. The characteristic times grow with increasing
density according to the Vogel-Fulcher law. The wavenumber dependence of the
kinetics is extensively explored. The connection of our results with
experiment, mode coupling theory, and molecular dynamics results is discussed.Comment: 34 Pages, Plain TeX, 12 PostScript Figures (not included, available
on request
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