2,781,813 research outputs found
Effects of Defects on Friction for a Xe Film Sliding on Ag(111)
The effects of a step defect and a random array of point defects (such as
vacancies or substitutional impurities) on the force of friction acting on a
xenon monolayer film as it slides on a silver (111) substrate are studied by
molecular dynamic simulations and compared with the results of lowest order
perturbation theory in the substrate corrugation potential. For the case of a
step, the magnitude and velocity dependence of the friction force are strongly
dependent on the direction of sliding respect to the step and the corrugation
strength. When the applied force F is perpendicular to the step, the film is
pinned forF less than a critical force Fc. Motion of the film along the step,
however, is not pinned. Fluctuations in the sliding velocity in time provide
evidence of both stick-slip motion and thermally activated creep. Simulations
done with a substrate containing a 5 percent concentration of random point
defects for various directions of the applied force show that the film is
pinned for the force below a critical value. The critical force, however, is
still much lower than the effective inertial force exerted on the film by the
oscillations of the substrate in experiments done with a quartz crystal
microbalance (QCM). Lowest order perturbation theory in the substrate potential
is shown to give results consistent with the simulations, and it is used to
give a physical picture of what could be expected for real surfaces which
contain many defects.Comment: 13 pages, 17 figures, latex plus postscript files for figure
Relativistic Positioning Systems: The Emission Coordinates
This paper introduces some general properties of the gravitational metric and
the natural basis of vectors and covectors in 4-dimensional emission
coordinates. Emission coordinates are a class of space-time coordinates defined
and generated by 4 emitters (satellites) broadcasting their proper time by
means of electromagnetic signals. They are a constitutive ingredient of the
simplest conceivable relativistic positioning systems. Their study is aimed to
develop a theory of these positioning systems, based on the framework and
concepts of general relativity, as opposed to introducing `relativistic
effects' in a classical framework. In particular, we characterize the causal
character of the coordinate vectors, covectors and 2-planes, which are of an
unusual type. We obtain the inequality conditions for the contravariant metric
to be Lorentzian, and the non-trivial and unexpected identities satisfied by
the angles formed by each pair of natural vectors. We also prove that the
metric can be naturally split in such a way that there appear 2 parameters
(scalar functions) dependent exclusively on the trajectory of the emitters,
hence independent of the time broadcast, and 4 parameters, one for each
emitter, scaling linearly with the time broadcast by the corresponding
satellite, hence independent of the others.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Only format changed for a new submission.
Submitted to Class. Quantum Gra
Null limits of generalised Bonnor-Swaminarayan solutions
The Bonnor-Swaminarayan solutions are boost-rotation symmetric space-times
which describe the motion of pairs of accelerating particles which are possibly
connected to strings (struts). In an explicit and unified form we present a
generalised class of such solutions with a few new observations. We then
investigate the possible limits in which the accelerations become unbounded.
The resulting space-times represent spherical impulsive gravitational waves
with snapping or expanding cosmic strings. We also obtain an exact solution for
a snapping string of finite length.Comment: 13 pages LaTeX 2e. To appear in Gen. Rel. Gra
Underlying symmetries of realistic interactions and the nuclear many-body problem
The present study brings forward important information, within the framework
of spectral distribution theory, about the types of forces that dominate three
realistic interactions, CD-Bonn, CDBonn+ 3terms and GXPF1, in nuclei and their
ability to account for many-particle effects such as the formation of
correlated nucleon pairs and enhanced quadrupole collective modes.
Like-particle and proton-neutron isovector pairing correlations are described
microscopically by a model interaction with Sp(4) dynamical symmetry, which is
extended to include an additional quadrupole-quadrupole interaction. The
analysis of the results for the 1f7/2 level shows that both CD-Bonn+3terms and
GXPF1 exhibit a well-developed pairing character compared to CD-Bonn, while the
latter appears to build up more (less) rotational isovector T = 1 (isoscalar T
= 0) collective features. Furthermore, the three realistic interactions are in
general found to correlate strongly with the pairing+quadrupole model
interaction, especially for the highest possible isospin group of states where
the model interaction can be used to provide a reasonable description of the
corresponding energy spectra.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
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