6,612 research outputs found
Dynamic van der Waals Theory of two-phase fluids in heat flow
We present a dynamic van der Waals theory. It is useful to study phase
separation when the temperature varies in space. We show that if heat flow is
applied to liquid suspending a gas droplet at zero gravity, a convective flow
occurs such that the temperature gradient within the droplet nearly vanishes.
As the heat flux is increased, the droplet becomes attached to the heated wall
that is wetted by liquid in equilibrium. In one case corresponding to partial
wetting by gas, an apparent contact angle can be defined. In the ther case with
larger heat flux, the droplet completely wets the heated wall expelling liquid.Comment: 6pages, 8figure
Trajectories in a space with a spherically symmetric dislocation
We consider a new type of defect in the scope of linear elasticity theory,
using geometrical methods. This defect is produced by a spherically symmetric
dislocation, or ball dislocation. We derive the induced metric as well as the
affine connections and curvature tensors. Since the induced metric is
discontinuous, one can expect ambiguity coming from these quantities, due to
products between delta functions or its derivatives, plaguing a description of
ball dislocations based on the Geometric Theory of Defects. However, exactly as
in the previous case of cylindric defect, one can obtain some well-defined
physical predictions of the induced geometry. In particular, we explore some
properties of test particle trajectories around the defect and show that these
trajectories are curved but can not be circular orbits.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Life at high Deborah number
In many biological systems, microorganisms swim through complex polymeric
fluids, and usually deform the medium at a rate faster than the inverse fluid
relaxation time. We address the basic properties of such life at high Deborah
number analytically by considering the small-amplitude swimming of a body in an
arbitrary complex fluid. Using asymptotic analysis and differential geometry,
we show that for a given swimming gait, the time-averaged leading-order
swimming kinematics of the body can be expressed as an integral equation on the
solution to a series of simpler Newtonian problems. We then use our results to
demonstrate that Purcell's scallop theorem, which states that time-reversible
body motion cannot be used for locomotion in a Newtonian fluid, breaks down in
polymeric fluid environments
Analysis of electroencephalograms in Alzheimer's disease patients with multiscale entropy
The aim of this study was to analyse the electroencephalogram (EEG) background activity of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients using the Multiscale Entropy (MSE). The MSE is a recently developed method that quantifies the regularity of a signal on different time scales. These time scales are inspected by means of several coarse-grained sequences formed from the analysed signals. We recorded the EEGs from 19 scalp electrodes in 11 AD patients and 11 age-matched controls and estimated the MSE profile for each epoch of the EEG recordings. The shape of the MSE profiles reveals the EEG complexity, and it suggests that the EEG contains information in deeper scales than the smallest one. Moreover, the results showed that the EEG background activity is less complex in AD patients than control subjects. We found significant difference
Proposed astrophysical test of Lorentz invariance
Working in the context of a Lorentz-violating extension of the standard model
we show that estimates of Lorentz symmetry violation extracted from ultra-high
energy cosmic rays beyond the Greisen-Kuzmin-Zatsepin (GZK) cutoff allow for
setting bounds on parameters of that extension. Furthermore, we argue that a
correlated measurement of the difference in the arrival time of gamma-ray
photons and neutrinos emitted from active galactic nuclei or gamma-ray bursts
may provide a signature of possible violation of Lorentz symmetry. We have
found that this time delay is energy independent, however it has a dependence
on the chirality of the particles involved. We also briefly discuss the known
settings where the mechanism for spontaneous violation of Lorentz symmetry in
the context of string/M-theory may take place.Comment: Typos corrected. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Diffusive counter dispersion of mass in bubbly media
We consider a liquid bearing gas bubbles in a porous medium. When gas bubbles
are immovably trapped in a porous matrix by surface-tension forces, the
dominant mechanism of transfer of gas mass becomes the diffusion of gas
molecules through the liquid. Essentially, the gas solution is in local
thermodynamic equilibrium with vapor phase all over the system, i.e., the
solute concentration equals the solubility. When temperature and/or pressure
gradients are applied, diffusion fluxes appear and these fluxes are faithfully
determined by the temperature and pressure fields, not by the local solute
concentration, which is enslaved by the former. We derive the equations
governing such systems, accounting for thermodiffusion and gravitational
segregation effects which are shown not to be neglected for geological
systems---marine sediments, terrestrial aquifers, etc. The results are applied
for the treatment of non-high-pressure systems and real geological systems
bearing methane or carbon dioxide, where we find a potential possibility of the
formation of gaseous horizons deep below a porous medium surface. The reported
effects are of particular importance for natural methane hydrate deposits and
the problem of burial of industrial production of carbon dioxide in deep
aquifers.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, Physical Review
Quantum Theory of Noncommutative Fields
Generalizing the noncommutative harmonic oscillator construction, we propose
a new extension of quantum field theory based on the concept of "noncommutative
fields". Our description permits to break the usual particle-antiparticle
degeneracy at the dispersion relation level and introduces naturally an
ultraviolet and an infrared cutoff. Phenomenological bounds for these new
energy scales are given.Comment: LaTeX file, JHEP3.cls, subequations.sty; 12 pages, no figures. Final
version published in JHEP with some references adde
Inverse lift: a signature of the elasticity of complex fluids?
To understand the mechanics of a complex fluid such as a foam we propose a
model experiment (a bidimensional flow around an obstacle) for which an
external sollicitation is applied, and a local response is measured,
simultaneously. We observe that an asymmetric obstacle (cambered airfoil
profile) experiences a downards lift, opposite to the lift usually known (in a
different context) in aerodynamics. Correlations of velocity, deformations and
pressure fields yield a clear explanation of this inverse lift, involving the
elasticity of the foam. We argue that such an inverse lift is likely common to
complex fluids with elasticity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, revised version, submitted to PR
Radioelectric Field Features of Extensive Air Showers Observed with CODALEMA
Based on a new approach to the detection of radio transients associated with
extensive air showers induced by ultra high energy cosmic rays, the
experimental apparatus CODALEMA is in operation, measuring about 1 event per
day corresponding to an energy threshold ~ 5. 10^16 eV. Its performance makes
possible for the first time the study of radio-signal features on an
event-by-event basis. The sampling of the magnitude of the electric field along
a 600 meters axis is analyzed. It shows that the electric field lateral spread
is around 250 m (FWHM). The possibility to determine with radio both arrival
directions and shower core positions is discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic
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