140 research outputs found
Spherical cap bubbles with a toroidal bubbly wake
International audienceThe prediction of the rise speed of large buoyant bubbles is a fundamental fluid mechanics problem relevant to a number of applications ranging from carbon sequestration technology to chemical engineering or astrophysics. Single large bubbles typically have a spherical cap shape with bubbles of larger volume rising faster than the ones of smaller volume. However, except in well-controlled experiments, the released gas splits into a leading cap bubble, followed by a crown of satellite bubbles that can contain up to 50% of the total volume of gas. We find that in this case the satellite bubbles rearrange in a characteristic toroidal crown and the leading bubble takes a lenticular shape. The rise speeds of these multipart bubble systems and the ratios of the torus radii to the leading cap curvature radii are quite constant and predictable in the mean and are furthermore independent of the gas partitioning between the leading lenticular bubble and the crown of satellite bubbles. We also find that this multipart bubble system rises slightly faster than a single cap bubble with the same total injected volume of gas. © 2008 American Institute of Physics
Stability of Ge-related point defects and complexes in Ge-doped SiO_2
We analyze Ge-related defects in Ge-doped SiO_2 using first-principles
density functional techniques. Ge is incorporated at the level of ~ 1 mol % and
above. The growth conditions of Ge:SiO_2 naturally set up oxygen deficiency,
with vacancy concentration increasing by a factor 10^5 over undoped SiO_2, and
O vacancies binding strongly to Ge impurities. All the centers considered
exhibit potentially EPR-active states, candidates for the identification of the
Ge(n) centers. Substitutional Ge produces an apparent gap shrinking via its
extrinsic levels.Comment: RevTeX 4 pages, 2 ps figure
Reconstruction of the Primordial Power Spectrum by Direct Inversion
We introduce a new method for reconstructing the primordial power spectrum,
, directly from observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We
employ Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) to invert the radiation perturbation
transfer function. The degeneracy of the multipole to wavenumber
linear mapping is thus reduced. This enables the inversion to be carried out at
each point along a Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) exploration of the combined
and cosmological parameter space. We present best--fit obtained
with this method along with other cosmological parameters.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure
Evidence of two-electron tunneling interference in Nb/InAs junctions
The impact of junction transparency in driving phase-coherent charge transfer
across diffusive semiconductor-superconductor junctions is demonstrated. We
present conductivity data for a set of Nb-InAs junctions differing only in
interface transparency. Our experimental findings are analyzed within the
quasi-classical Green-function approach and unambiguously show the physical
processes giving rise to the observed excess zero-bias conductivity.Comment: 10 pages (RevTex), 4 figures (PostScript), accepted for pubblication
in Physical Review
Reconciling inflation with openness
It is already understood that the increasing observational evidence for an
open Universe can be reconciled with inflation if our horizon is contained
inside one single huge bubble nucleated during the inflationary phase
transition. In this frame of ideas, we show here that the probability of living
in a bubble with the right (now the observations require ) can be comparable with unity, rather than infinitesimally small.
For this purpose we modify both quantitatively and qualitatively an intuitive
toy model based upon fourth order gravity. As this scheme can be implemented in
canonical General Relativity as well (although then the inflation driving
potential must be designed entirely ad hoc), inferring from the observations
that not only does not conflict with the inflationary paradigm,
but rather supports therein the occurrence of a primordial phase transition.Comment: 4 pages, one postscript figure, to be published on Physical Review D
PACS: 98.80. C
New D=4 gauged supergravities from N=4 orientifolds with fluxes
We consider classes of T_6 orientifolds, where the orientifold projection
contains an inversion I_{9-p} on 9-p coordinates, transverse to a Dp-brane. In
absence of fluxes, the massless sector of these models corresponds to diverse
forms of N=4 supergravity, with six bulk vector multiplets coupled to N=4
Yang--Mills theory on the branes. They all differ in the choice of the duality
symmetry corresponding to different embeddings of SU(1,1)\times SO(6,6+n) in
Sp(24+2n,R), the latter being the full group of duality rotations. Hence, these
Lagrangians are not related by local field redefinitions. When fluxes are
turned on one can construct new gaugings of N=4 supergravity, where the twelve
bulk vectors gauge some nilpotent algebra which, in turn, depends on the choice
of fluxes.Comment: 51 pages, 1 figure. Latex. Reference added. Typos corrected.
Discussion on gaugings expande
A novel method for the absolute fluorescence yield measurement by AIRFLY
One of the goals of the AIRFLY (AIR FLuorescence Yield) experiment is to
measure the absolute fluorescence yield induced by electrons in air to better
than 10% precision. We introduce a new technique for measurement of the
absolute fluorescence yield of the 337 nm line that has the advantage of
reducing the systematic uncertainty due to the detector calibration. The
principle is to compare the measured fluorescence yield to a well known process
- the Cerenkov emission. Preliminary measurements taken in the BFT (Beam Test
Facility) in Frascati, Italy with 350 MeV electrons are presented. Beam tests
in the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator at the Argonne National Laboratory, USA
with 14 MeV electrons have also shown that this technique can be applied at
lower energies.Comment: presented at the 5th Fluorescence Workshop, El Escorial - Madrid,
Spain, 16 - 20 September 200
Dressed Sliver solutions in Vacuum String Field Theory
We consider a new class of solutions (dressed slivers) in Vacuum String Field
Theory, which represent D25-branes. For each dressed sliver we introduce a
deformation parameter and define a family of states which are characterized by
new abelian star-subalgebras. We show that this deformation parameter can be
used as a regulator: it allows us to define for each such solution a finite
norm and energy density. Finally we show how to generalize these results to
parallel coincident and to lower dimensional branes.Comment: 39 pages, JHEP style. v2:minor corrections, references adde
The status of GEO 600
The GEO 600 laser interferometer with 600m armlength is part of a worldwide network of gravitational wave detectors. GEO 600 is unique in having advanced multiple pendulum suspensions with a monolithic last stage and in employing a signal recycled optical design. This paper describes the recent commissioning of the interferometer and its operation in signal recycled mode
Vortex dynamics in trapped Bose-Einstein condensate
We perform numerical simulations of vortex motion in a trapped Bose-Einstein
condensate by solving the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii Equation in the
presence of a simple phenomenological model of interaction between the
condensate and the finite temperature thermal cloud. At zero temperature, the
trajectories of a single, off - centred vortex precessing in the condensate,
and of a vortex - antivortex pair orbiting within the trap, excite acoustic
emission. At finite temperatures the vortices move to the edge of the
condensate and vanish. By fitting the finite -temperature trajectories, we
relate the phenomenological damping parameter to the friction coefficients
and , which are used to describe the interaction between
quantised vortices and the normal fluid in superfluid helium.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, published in JLT
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