4,679 research outputs found
On the mean field dynamo with Hall effect
We study in the present paper how Hall effect modifies the quenching process
of the electromotive force (e.m.f.) in Mean Field Dynamo (MFD) theories. We
write down the evolution equations for the e.m.f. and for the large and small
scale magnetic helicity, treat Hall effect as a perturbation and integrate the
resulting equations assuming boundary conditions such that the total
divergencies vanish. For force-free large scale magnetic fields, Hall effect
acts by coupling the small scale velocity and magnetic fields. For the range of
parameters considered, the overall effect is a stronger quenching of the e.m.f.
than in standard MHD and a damping of the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity.
In astrophysical environments characterized by the parameters considered here,
Hall effect would produce an earlier quenching of the e.m.f. and consequently a
weaker large scale magnetic field.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted by A&
Thermodynamic Entropy And The Accessible States of Some Simple Systems
Comparison of the thermodynamic entropy with Boltzmann's principle shows that
under conditions of constant volume the total number of arrangements in simple
thermodynamic systems with temperature-independent heat capacities is TC/k. A
physical interpretation of this function is given for three such systems; an
ideal monatomic gas, an ideal gas of diatomic molecules with rotational motion,
and a solid in the Dulong-Petit limit of high temperature. T1/2 emerges as a
natural measure of the number of accessible states for a single particle in one
dimension. Extension to N particles in three dimensions leads to TC/k as the
total number of possible arrangements or microstates. The different microstates
of the system are thus shown a posteriori to be equally probable, with
probability T-C/k, which implies that for the purposes of counting states the
particles of the gas are distinguishable. The most probable energy state of the
system is determined by the degeneracy of the microstates.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
Accretion Disks and Dynamos: Toward a Unified Mean Field Theory
Conversion of gravitational energy into radiation in accretion discs and the
origin of large scale magnetic fields in astrophysical rotators have often been
distinct topics of research. In semi-analytic work on both problems it has been
useful to presume large scale symmetries, necessarily resulting in mean field
theories. MHD turbulence makes the underlying systems locally asymmetric and
nonlinear. Synergy between theory and simulations should aim for the
development of practical mean field models that capture essential physics and
can be used for observational modeling. Mean field dynamo (MFD) theory and
alpha-viscosity accretion theory exemplify such ongoing pursuits. 21st century
MFD theory has more nonlinear predictive power compared to 20th century MFD
theory, whereas accretion theory is still in a 20th century state. In fact,
insights from MFD theory are applicable to accretion theory and the two are
artificially separated pieces of what should be a single theory. I discuss
pieces of progress that provide clues toward a unified theory. A key concept is
that large scale magnetic fields can be sustained via local or global magnetic
helicity fluxes or via relaxation of small scale magnetic fluctuations, without
the kinetic helicity driver of 20th century textbooks. These concepts may help
explain the formation of large scale fields that supply non-local angular
momentum transport via coronae and jets in a unified theory of accretion and
dynamos. In diagnosing the role of helicities and helicity fluxes in disk
simulations, each disk hemisphere should be studied separately to avoid being
misled by cancelation that occurs as a result of reflection asymmetry. The
fraction of helical field energy in disks is expected to be small compared to
the total field in each hemisphere as a result of shear, but can still be
essential for large scale dynamo action.Comment: For the Proceedings of the Third International Conference and
Advanced School "Turbulent Mixing and Beyond," TMB-2011 held on 21 - 28
August 2011 at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics,
Trieste, http://users.ictp.it/~tmb/index2011.html Italy, To Appear in Physica
Scripta (corrected small items to match version in print
Asymptotics of capture zone distributions in a fragmentation-based model of submonolayer deposition
We consider the asymptotics of the distribution of the capture zones associated with the islands nucleated during submonolayer deposition onto a one-dimensional substrate. We use a convolution of the distribution of inter-island gaps, the asymptotics of which is known for a class of nucleation models, to derive the asymptotics for the capture zones. The results are in broad agreement with published Monte Carlo simulation data (O'Neill et al., 2012) [13]
Molecular gyroscopes and biological effects of weak ELF magnetic fields
Extremely-low-frequency magnetic fields are known to affect biological
systems. In many cases, biological effects display `windows' in biologically
effective parameters of the magnetic fields: most dramatic is the fact that
relatively intense magnetic fields sometimes do not cause appreciable effect,
while smaller fields of the order of 10--100 T do. Linear resonant
physical processes do not explain frequency windows in this case. Amplitude
window phenomena suggest a nonlinear physical mechanism. Such a nonlinear
mechanism has been proposed recently to explain those `windows'. It considers
quantum-interference effects on protein-bound substrate ions. Magnetic fields
cause an interference of ion quantum states and change the probability of
ion-protein dissociation. This ion-interference mechanism predicts specific
magnetic-field frequency and amplitude windows within which biological effects
occur. It agrees with a lot of experiments. However, according to the
mechanism, the lifetime of ion quantum states within a protein
cavity should be of unrealistic value, more than 0.01 s for frequency band
10--100 Hz. In this paper, a biophysical mechanism has been proposed that (i)
retains the attractive features of the ion interference mechanism and (ii) uses
the principles of gyroscopic motion and removes the necessity to postulate
large lifetimes. The mechanism considers dynamics of the density matrix of the
molecular groups, which are attached to the walls of protein cavities by two
covalent bonds, i.e., molecular gyroscopes. Numerical computations have shown
almost free rotations of the molecular gyros. The relaxation time due to van
der Waals forces was about 0.01 s for the cavity size of 28 angstr\"{o}ms.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Ab-initio study of structure and dynamics properties of crystalline ice
We investigated the structural and dynamical properties of a tetrahedrally
coordinated crystalline ice from first principles based on density functional
theory within the generalized gradient approximation with the projected
augmented wave method. First, we report the structural behaviour of ice at
finite temperatures based on the analysis of radial distribution functions
obtained by molecular dynamics simulations. The results show how the ordering
of the hydrogen bonding breaks down in the tetrahedral network of ice with
entropy increase in agreement with the neutron diffraction data. We also
calculated the phonon spectra of ice in a 3x1x1 supercell by using the direct
method. So far, due to the direct method used in this calculation, the phonon
spectra is obtained without taking into account the effect of polarization
arising from dipole-dipole interactions of water molecules which is expected to
yield the splitting of longitudinal and transverse optic modes at the
Gamma-point. The calculated longitudinal acoustic velocities from the initial
slopes of the acoustic mode is in a reasonable agreement with the neutron
scatering data. The analysis of the vibrational density of states shows the
existence of a boson peak at low energy of translational region a
characteristic common to amorphous systems.Comment: International symposium on structure and dynamics of heterogeneous
system SDHS'0
Low-Frequency Oscillations in Global Simulations of Black Hole Accretion
We have identified the presence of large-scale, low-frequency dynamo cycles
in a long-duration, global, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of black hole
accretion. Such cycles had been seen previously in local shearing box
simulations, but we discuss their evolution over 1,500 inner disk orbits of a
global pi/4 disk wedge spanning two orders of magnitude in radius and seven
scale heights in elevation above/below the disk midplane. The observed cycles
manifest themselves as oscillations in azimuthal magnetic field occupying a
region that extends into a low-density corona several scale heights above the
disk. The cycle frequencies are ten to twenty times lower than the local
orbital frequency, making them potentially interesting sources of low-frequency
variability when scaled to real astrophysical systems. Furthermore, power
spectra derived from the full time series reveal that the cycles manifest
themselves at discrete, narrow-band frequencies that often share power across
broad radial ranges. We explore possible connections between these simulated
cycles and observed low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) in
galactic black hole binary systems, finding that dynamo cycles have the
appropriate frequencies and are located in a spatial region associated with
X-ray emission in real systems. Derived observational proxies, however, fail to
feature peaks with RMS amplitudes comparable to LFQPO observations, suggesting
that further theoretical work and more sophisticated simulations will be
required to form a complete theory of dynamo-driven LFQPOs. Nonetheless, this
work clearly illustrates that global MHD dynamos exhibit quasi-periodic
behavior on timescales much longer than those derived from test particle
considerations.Comment: Version accepted to The Astrophysical Journal, 8 pages, 7 figure
Comparing Poynting flux dominated magnetic tower jets with kinetic-energy dominated jets
Magnetic Towers represent one of two fundamental forms of MHD outflows.
Driven by magnetic pressure gradients, these flows have been less well studied
than magneto-centrifugally launched jets even though magnetic towers may well
be as common. Here we present new results exploring the behavior and evolution
of magnetic tower outflows and demonstrate their connection with pulsed power
experimental studies and purely hydrodynamic jets which might represent the
asymptotic propagation regimes of magneto-centrifugally launched jets.
High-resolution AMR MHD simulations (using the AstroBEAR code) provide insights
into the underlying physics of magnetic towers and help us constrain models of
their propagation. Our simulations have been designed to explore the effects of
thermal energy losses and rotation on both tower flows and their hydro
counterparts. We find these parameters have significant effects on the
stability of magnetic towers, but mild effects on the stability of hydro jets.
Current-driven perturbations in the Poynting Flux Dominated (PDF) towers are
shown to be amplified in both the cooling and rotating cases. Our studies of
the long term evolution of the towers show that the formation of weakly
magnetized central jets within the tower are broken up by these instabilities
becoming a series of collimated clumps which magnetization properties vary over
time. In addition to discussing these results in light of laboratory
experiments, we address their relevance to astrophysical observations of young
star jets and outflow from highly evolved solar type stars.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in the High Energy
Density Physics Journal corresponding to the proceedings of the 9th
International Conference on High Energy Density Laboratory Astrophysics, May
4, 2012, Tallahassee Florid
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