Casimir force for cosmological domain walls

We calculate the vacuum fluctuations that may affect the evolution of cosmological domain walls. Considering domain walls, which are classically stable and have interaction with a scalar field, we show that explicit symmetry violation in the interaction may cause quantum bias that can solve the cosmological domain wall problem.Comment: 15 pages, 2figure

Exact relations for thermodynamics of heavy quarks

We derive finite-temperature sum rules for excesses in internal energy and in (volume-integrated) pressure arising due to presence of heavy quarks in SU(N) gluon plasma. In the limit of zero temperature our formulae reduce to the Michael-Rothe sum rules. The excesses in energy and pressure of the gluon plasma are related to expectation values of certain gluon condensates, and, simultaneously, to the heavy quark potential. The sum rules lead to a known relation between the internal energy and the potential, and to a new expression for the excess in the pressure. The pressure appears in the free energy as a generalized force associated with variations of the spatial size of the heavy-quark system. We find that the excess in gluonic pressure around a heavy quarkonium is always negative. Finally, we derive an exact equation of state that provides a relationship between the gluonic energy and pressure of heavy quarks.Comment: 7 page

Infogame: Final report

Management Information Systems;Management Games;management information systems

Well-balanced and asymptotic preserving schemes for kinetic models

In this paper, we propose a general framework for designing numerical schemes that have both well-balanced (WB) and asymptotic preserving (AP) properties, for various kinds of kinetic models. We are interested in two different parameter regimes, 1) When the ratio between the mean free path and the characteristic macroscopic length $\epsilon$ tends to zero, the density can be described by (advection) diffusion type (linear or nonlinear) macroscopic models; 2) When $\epsilon$ = O(1), the models behave like hyperbolic equations with source terms and we are interested in their steady states. We apply the framework to three different kinetic models: neutron transport equation and its diffusion limit, the transport equation for chemotaxis and its Keller-Segel limit, and grey radiative transfer equation and its nonlinear diffusion limit. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the properties of the schemes

Physical bounds and radiation modes for MIMO antennas

Modern antenna design for communication systems revolves around two extremes: devices, where only a small region is dedicated to antenna design, and base stations, where design space is not shared with other components. Both imply different restrictions on what performance is realizable. In this paper properties of both ends of the spectrum in terms of MIMO performance is investigated. For electrically small antennas the size restriction dominates the performance parameters. The regions dedicated to antenna design induce currents on the rest of the device. Here a method for studying fundamental bound on spectral efficiency of such configurations is presented. This bound is also studied for $N$-degree MIMO systems. For electrically large structures the number of degrees of freedom available per unit area is investigated for different shapes. Both of these are achieved by formulating a convex optimization problem for maximum spectral efficiency in the current density on the antenna. A computationally efficient solution for this problem is formulated and investigated in relation to constraining parameters, such as size and efficiency

An analytical study of the hydrogen-air reaction mechanism with application to scramjet combustion

A chemical kinetic mechanism for the combustion of hydrogen has been assembled and optimized by comparing the observed behavior as determined in shock tube and flame studies with that predicted by the mechanism. The reactions contained in the mechanism reflect the current state of knowledge of the chemistry of the hydrogen/air system, and the assigned rate coefficients are consistent with accepted values. It was determined that the mechanism is capable of satisfactorily reproducing the experimental results for a range of conditions relevant to scramjet combustion. Calculations made with the reaction mechanism for representative scramjet combustor conditions at Mach 8, 16, and 25 showed that chemical kinetic effects can be important and that combustor models which use nonequilibrium chemistry should be used in preference to models that assume equilibrium chemistry. For the conditions examined the results also showed the importance of including the HO2 chemistry in the mechanism. For Mach numbers less than 16, the studies suggest that an ignition source will most likely be required to overcome slow ignition chemistry. At Mach 25, the initial temperature and pressure was high enough that ignition was rapid and the presence of an ignition source did not significantly affect reaction rates

An analysis of combustion studies in shock expansion tunnels and reflected shock tunnels

The effect of initial nonequilibrium dissociated air constituents on the combustion of hydrogen in high-speed flows for a simulated Mach 17 flight condition was investigated by analyzing the results of comparative combustion experiments performed in a reflected shock tunnel test gas and in a shock expansion tunnel test gas. The results were analyzed and interpreted with a one-dimensional quasi-three-stream combustor code that includes finite rate combustion chemistry. The results of this study indicate that the combustion process is kinetically controlled in the experiments in both tunnels and the presence of the nonequilibrium partially dissociated oxygen in the reflected shock tunnel enhances the combustion. Methods of compensating for the effect of dissociated oxygen are discussed