A FFT-based approach for Mesoscale Field Dislocation Mechanics: application to grain size effect in polycrystals

International audienceA crystal elasto-viscoplastic FFT formulation coupled with the Mesoscale Field Dislocation Mechanics (MFDM) theory is presented. This MFDM-EVPFFT approach accounts for plastic flow and hardening from densities of geometrically necessary dislocations (GND) in addition to statistically stored dislocations (SSD). It is shown on 3D periodic Voronoi polycrystals that GND densities modify both intra-granular incompatible fields and stresses, which are at the origin of a grain size dependent flow stress of the Hall-Petch type

TG study of the Li[0.4]Fe[2.4]Zn[0.2]O[4] ferrite synthesis

In this paper, the kinetic analysis of Li-Zn ferrite synthesis was studied using thermogravimetry (TG) method through the simultaneous application of non-linear regression to several measurements run at different heating rates (multivariate non-linear regression). Using TG-curves obtained for the four heating rates and Netzsch Thermokinetics software package, the kinetic models with minimal adjustable parameters were selected to quantitatively describe the reaction of Li-Zn ferrite synthesis. It was shown that the experimental TG-curves clearly suggest a two-step process for the ferrite synthesis and therefore a model-fitting kinetic analysis based on multivariate non-linear regressions was conducted. The complex reaction was described by a two-step reaction scheme consisting of sequential reaction steps. It is established that the best results were obtained using the Yander three-dimensional diffusion model at the first stage and Ginstling-Bronstein model at the second step. The kinetic parameters for lithium-zinc ferrite synthesis reaction were found and discussed

Zaltoprofen/4,4′-Bipyridine: A Case Study to Demonstrate the Potential of Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) in the Pharmaceutical Field

The Zaltoprofen/4,4′-Bipyridine system gives rise to two co-crystals of different compositions both endowed - in water and in buffer solution at pH 4.5 - with considerably higher solubility and dissolution rate than the pure drug. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the DSC measurements, carried out on samples made up of mixtures prepared according to different methodologies, allows us to elaborate and propose an accurate thermodynamic model that fully takes into account the qualitative aspects of the complex experimental framework and which provides quantitative predictions (reaction enthalpies and compositions of the co-crystals) in excellent agreement with the experimental results. Co-crystal formation and cocrystal compositions were confirmed by X-ray diffraction measurements as well as by FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy measurements. The quantitative processing of DSC measurements rationalizes and deepens the scientific aspects underlying the so-called Tammann's triangle and constitutes a model of general validity. The work shows that DSC has enormous potential, which however can be fully exploited only by paying adequate attention to the experimental aspects and the quantitative processing of the measurements

Microscopic universality with dynamical fermions

It has recently been demonstrated in quenched lattice simulations that the distribution of the low-lying eigenvalues of the QCD Dirac operator is universal and described by random-matrix theory. We present first evidence that this universality continues to hold in the presence of dynamical quarks. Data from a lattice simulation with gauge group SU(2) and dynamical staggered fermions are compared to the predictions of the chiral symplectic ensemble of random-matrix theory with massive dynamical quarks. Good agreement is found in this exploratory study. We also discuss implications of our results.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, minor modifications, to appear in Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Commun.

The microscopic spectrum of the QCD Dirac operator with finite quark masses

We compute the microscopic spectrum of the QCD Dirac operator in the presence of dynamical fermions in the framework of random-matrix theory for the chiral Gaussian unitary ensemble. We obtain results for the microscopic spectral correlators, the microscopic spectral density, and the distribution of the smallest eigenvalue for an arbitrary number of flavors, arbitrary quark masses, and arbitrary topological charge.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures (included), minor typos corrected and discussion extended, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Microscopic universality in the spectrum of the lattice Dirac operator

Large ensembles of complete spectra of the Euclidean Dirac operator for staggered fermions are calculated for SU(2) lattice gauge theory. The accumulation of eigenvalues near zero is analyzed as a signal of chiral symmetry breaking and compared with parameter-free predictions from chiral random matrix theory. Excellent agreement for the distribution of the smallest eigenvalue and the microscopic spectral density is found. This provides direct evidence for the conjecture that these quantities are universal functions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (included), REVTeX 3.1; updated version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Universal Scaling of the Chiral Condensate in Finite-Volume Gauge Theories

We confront exact analytical predictions for the finite-volume scaling of the chiral condensate with data from quenched lattice gauge theory simulations. Using staggered fermions in both the fundamental and adjoint representations, and gauge groups SU(2) and SU(3), we are able to test simultaneously all of the three chiral universality classes. With overlap fermions we also test the predictions for gauge field sectors of non-zero topological charge. Excellent agreement is found in most cases, and the deviations are understood in the others.Comment: Expanded discussion of overlap fermion results. 17 pages revtex, 7 postscript figure

Spectra of massive and massless QCD Dirac operators: A novel link

We show that integrable structure of chiral random matrix models incorporating global symmetries of QCD Dirac operators (labeled by the Dyson index beta=1,2, and 4) leads to emergence of a connection relation between the spectral statistics of massive and massless Dirac operators. This novel link established for beta-fold degenerate massive fermions is used to explicitly derive (and prove the random matrix universality of) statistics of low--lying eigenvalues of QCD Dirac operators in the presence of SU(2) massive fermions in the fundamental representation (beta=1) and SU(N_c >= 2) massive adjoint fermions (beta=4). Comparison with available lattice data for SU(2) dynamical staggered fermions reveals a good agreement

Spectrum of the U(1) staggered Dirac operator in four dimensions

We compare the low-lying spectrum of the staggered Dirac operator in the confining phase of compact U(1) gauge theory on the lattice to predictions of chiral random matrix theory. The small eigenvalues contribute to the chiral condensate similar as for the SU(2) and SU(3) gauge groups. Agreement with the chiral unitary ensemble is observed below the Thouless energy, which is extracted from the data and found to scale with the lattice size according to theoretical predictions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Staggered Fermions and Gauge Field Topology

Based on a large number of smearing steps, we classify SU(3) gauge field configurations in different topological sectors. For each sector we compare the exact analytical predictions for the microscopic Dirac operator spectrum of quenched staggered fermions. In all sectors we find perfect agreement with the predictions for the sector of topological charge zero, showing explicitly that the smallest Dirac operator eigenvalues of staggered fermions at presently realistic lattice couplings are insensitive to gauge field topology. On the smeared configurations, $4\nu$ eigenvalues clearly separate out from the rest on configurations of topological charge $\nu$, and move towards zero in agreement with the index theorem.Comment: LaTeX, 10 page