2,711 research outputs found
Motility of small nematodes in disordered wet granular media
The motility of the worm nematode \textit{Caenorhabditis elegans} is
investigated in shallow, wet granular media as a function of particle size
dispersity and area density (). Surprisingly, we find that the nematode's
propulsion speed is enhanced by the presence of particles in a fluid and is
nearly independent of area density. The undulation speed, often used to
differentiate locomotion gaits, is significantly affected by the bulk material
properties of wet mono- and polydisperse granular media for .
This difference is characterized by a change in the nematode's waveform from
swimming to crawling in dense polydisperse media \textit{only}. This change
highlights the organism's adaptability to subtle differences in local structure
and response between monodisperse and polydisperse media
Fluid Elasticity Can Enable Propulsion at Low Reynolds Number
Conventionally, a microscopic particle that performs a reciprocal stroke
cannot move through its environment. This is because at small scales, the
response of simple Newtonian fluids is purely viscous and flows are
time-reversible. We show that by contrast, fluid elasticity enables propulsion
by reciprocal forcing that is otherwise impossible. We present experiments on
rigid objects actuated reciprocally in viscous fluids, demonstrating for the
first time a purely elastic propulsion set by the object's shape and boundary
conditions. We describe two different artificial "swimmers" that experimentally
realize this principle.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Polymeric filament thinning and breakup in microchannels
The effects of elasticity on filament thinning and breakup are investigated
in microchannel cross flow. When a viscous solution is stretched by an external
immiscible fluid, a low 100 ppm polymer concentration strongly affects the
breakup process, compared to the Newtonian case. Qualitatively, polymeric
filaments show much slower evolution, and their morphology features multiple
connected drops. Measurements of filament thickness show two main temporal
regimes: flow- and capillary-driven. At early times both polymeric and
Newtonian fluids are flow-driven, and filament thinning is exponential. At
later times, Newtonian filament thinning crosses over to a capillary-driven
regime, in which the decay is algebraic. By contrast, the polymeric fluid first
crosses over to a second type of flow-driven behavior, in which viscoelastic
stresses inside the filament become important and the decay is again
exponential. Finally, the polymeric filament becomes capillary-driven at late
times with algebraic decay. We show that the exponential flow thinning behavior
allows a novel measurement of the extensional viscosities of both Newtonian and
polymeric fluids.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
Central limit theorem for multiplicative class functions on the symmetric group
Hambly, Keevash, O'Connell and Stark have proven a central limit theorem for
the characteristic polynomial of a permutation matrix with respect to the
uniform measure on the symmetric group. We generalize this result in several
ways. We prove here a central limit theorem for multiplicative class functions
on symmetric group with respect to the Ewens measure and compute the covariance
of the real and the imaginary part in the limit. We also estimate the rate of
convergence with the Wasserstein distance.Comment: 23 pages; the mathematics is the same as in the previous version, but
there are several improvments in the presentation, including a more intuitve
name for the considered function
Complex seismic sources in volcanic environments: Radiation modelling and moment tensor inversions
Long period (LP) signals are special seismic events observed at volcanoes, which comprise both a high frequency onset due to brittle failure and a more energetic low frequency part due to resonance in a fluid-filled conduit. They are critical for volcano monitoring since they can be used as a volcanic forecasting tool. Classic seismology assumes planar faults for seismic sources; however, there is increasing evidence that suggests different fault shapes such as dyke faults and ring faults. We consider in this study narrow dykes and conduits rather than large calderas, hence, we model these complex sources by superposing vertical single double couple (DC) sources arranged along narrow fault structures with inner upward movement. We calculate seismic radiation patterns and synthetic seismograms for a rupture along a dyke, three different partial ring ruptures and a full-ring rupture. Results show that planar faults are the most effective at radiating energy. The more the source geometry deviates from a planar fault the smaller become the amplitudes and therefore the Moment Magnitudes. For example, the amplitudes decrease to 2.4% of the planar radiation for a full-ring rupture and to 0.7% for a dyke rupture. The waveforms produced by partial ring ruptures are in accordance to what is expected in the far field, representing the derivative of the source displacement and emulating radiation of a DC with different azimuths; however, the dyke and full-ring sources produce waveforms that appear to represent the second derivative of the source displacement and negative first onset polarisations. Moment Tensor Inversions support similarities between DC ruptures and partial ring ruptures; however, they show ambiguous solutions for the other sources. This point source assumption can lead to misinterpretations of slip history on the fault and a consistent underestimation of magnitudes which has direct implications for magma ascent estimations derived from seismic amplitudes
Representations of Quantum Bicrossproduct Algebras
We present a method to construct induced representations of quantum algebras
having the structure of bicrossproduct. We apply this procedure to some quantum
kinematical algebras in (1+1)--dimensions with this kind of structure:
null-plane quantum Poincare algebra, non-standard quantum Galilei algebra and
quantum kappa Galilei algebra.Comment: LaTeX 2e, 35 page
Long-term impact risk for (101955) 1999 RQ36
The potentially hazardous asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36 has the possibility of
collision with the Earth in the latter half of the 22nd century, well beyond
the traditional 100-year time horizon for routine impact monitoring. The
probabilities accumulate to a total impact probability of approximately 10E-3,
with a pair of closely related routes to impact in 2182 comprising more than
half of the total. The analysis of impact possibilities so far in the future is
strongly dependent on the action of the Yarkovsky effect, which raises new
challenges in the careful assessment of longer term impact hazards.
Even for asteroids with very precisely determined orbits, a future close
approach to Earth can scatter the possible trajectories to the point that the
problem becomes like that of a newly discovered asteroid with a weakly
determined orbit. If the scattering takes place late enough so that the target
plane uncertainty is dominated by Yarkovsky accelerations then the thermal
properties of the asteroid,which are typically unknown, play a major role in
the impact assessment. In contrast, if the strong planetary interaction takes
place sooner, while the Yarkovsky dispersion is still relatively small compared
to that derived from the measurements, then precise modeling of the
nongravitational acceleration may be unnecessary.Comment: Reviewed figures and some text change
Exploiting the feller coupling for the ewens sampling formula
This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Institute of Mathematical Statistics via http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/15-STS53
Multiple solutions for asteroid orbits: Computational procedure and applications
We describe the Multiple Solutions Method, a one-dimensional sampling of the six-dimensional orbital confidence region that is widely applicable in the field of asteroid orbit determination. In many situations there is one predominant direction of uncertainty in an orbit determination or orbital prediction, i.e., a ``weak'' direction. The idea is to record Multiple Solutions by following this, typically curved, weak direction, or Line Of Variations (LOV). In this paper we describe the method and give new insights into the mathematics behind this tool. We pay particular attention to the problem of how to ensure that the coordinate systems are properly scaled so that the weak direction really reflects the intrinsic direction of greatest uncertainty. We also describe how the multiple solutions can be used even in the absence of a nominal orbit solution, which substantially broadens the realm of applications. There are numerous applications for multiple solutions; we discuss a few problems in asteroid orbit determination and prediction where we have had good success with the method. In particular, we show that multiple solutions can be used effectively for potential impact monitoring, preliminary orbit determination, asteroid identification, and for the recovery of lost asteroids
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