Plasma-based Control of Supersonic Nozzle Flow

The flow structure obtained when Localized Arc Filament Plasma Actuators (LAFPA) are employed to control the flow issuing from a perfectly expanded Mach 1.3 nozzle is elucidated by visualizing coherent structures obtained from Implicit Large-Eddy Simulations. The computations reproduce recent experimental observations at the Ohio State University to influence the acoustic and mixing properties of the jet. Eight actuators were placed on a collar around the periphery of the nozzle exit and selectively excited to generate various modes, including first and second mixed (m = +/- 1 and m = +/- 2) and axisymmetric (m = 0). In this fluid dynamics video http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/13723/2/Alljoinedtotalwithmodetextlong2-Datta%20MPEG-1.m1v, http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/13723/3/Alljoinedtotalwithmodetextlong2-Datta%20MPEG-2.m2v}, unsteady and phase-averaged quantities are displayed to aid understanding of the vortex dynamics associated with the m = +/- 1 and m = 0 modes excited at the preferred column-mode frequency (Strouhal number 0.3). The unsteady flow in both contains a broad spectrum of coherent features. For m = +/- 1, the phase-averaged flow reveals the generation of successive distorted elliptic vortex rings with axes in the flapping plane, but alternating on either side of the jet axis. This generates a chain of structures where each interacts with its predecessor on one side and its successor on the other. Through self and mutual interaction, the leading segment of each loop is pinched and passes through the previous ring before rapidly breaking up, and the mean jet flow takes on an elliptic shape. The m = 0 mode exhibits relatively stable roll-up events, with vortex ribs in the braid regions connecting successive large coherent structures.Comment: 3 pages. Video submission to Gallery of Fluid Motion, American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics, 62nd Annual Meeting, November 22-24, 2009, Minneapolis, MN. Replacement deletes TeX commands to correct web link

The Deconfinement Transition in SO(3) Gauge Theory

The SO(3) lattice gauge theory with a Villain form of action was investigated by Monte Carlo techniques on asymmetric lattices with Nt = 2 and 4, where Nt is the number of sites in the temporal extent. Unlike the results for higher Nt, only one transition of second order was found for Nt = 2 . An extended action with an irrelevant term to suppress Z_2 monopoles enabled us to get a better view of the deconfinement transition as the effects of bulk transition could be suppressed as well. Although the action has no global Z_2 symmetry for the SO(3) theory, unlike the SU(2) theory at finite temperature, our study revealed a second order deconfinement transition, with properties similar to the deconfinement transition of SU(2).Comment: 19 pages latex, incl. figure

Possible signatures for strange stars in stellar X-ray binaries

Kilohertz quasi-periodic brightness oscillations (kHz QPOs) observed in certain X-ray burst sources may represent Keplerian frequencies in the inner regions of the accretion disk in such systems. If this assumption is strictly adhered to, we show here that if the central accretor in stellar X-ray burst sources is a strange star (made up of u, d and s quarks in beta equilibrium, referred to as strange matter) then the calculated QPO frequencies are reconcilable with the observed QPO frequencies (corresponding to the highest frequency of 1.22 kHz, observed so far from the source 4U 1636-53) only for particular values of the QCD-related parameters which describe the equation of state of strange matter. We demonstrate that QPO frequencies in the very high range (1.9-3.1) kHz can be understood in terms of a (non- magnetized) strange star X-ray binary (SSXB) rather than a neutron star X-ray binary (NSXB). Future discovery of such high frequency QPOs from X-ray burst sources will constitute a new astrophysical di- agnostic for identifying solar mass range stable strange stars in our galaxy.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figs., uses psbox.tex, submitted to A&

A smoother approach to scaling by suppressing monopoles and vortices

Suppressing monopoles and vortices by introducing large chemical potentials for them in the Wilson action for the SU(2) lattice gauge theory, we study the nature of the deconfinement phase transition on N_sigma^3 X N_tau lattices for N_tau =4, 5, 6 and 8 and N_sigma = 8-16. Using finite size scaling theory, we obtain \omega = 1.93 +/- 0.03 for N_tau = 4, in excellent agreement with universality. The critical couplings for N_tau= 4, 5, 6 and 8 lattices exhibit large shifts towards the strong coupling region when compared with the usual Wilson action, and suggest a lot smoother approach to scaling.Comment: Lattice 2000 (Topology and Vaccum II); LaTeX 4 pages, 2 figure

Efficient implementation of the nonequilibrium Green function method for electronic transport calculations

An efficient implementation of the nonequilibrium Green function (NEGF) method combined with the density functional theory (DFT) using localized pseudo-atomic orbitals (PAOs) is presented for electronic transport calculations of a system connected with two leads under a finite bias voltage. In the implementation, accurate and efficient methods are developed especially for evaluation of the density matrix and treatment of boundaries between the scattering region and the leads. Equilibrium and nonequilibrium contributions in the density matrix are evaluated with very high precision by a contour integration with a continued fraction representation of the Fermi-Dirac function and by a simple quadratureon the real axis with a small imaginary part, respectively. The Hartree potential is computed efficiently by a combination of the two dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT) and a finite difference method, and the charge density near the boundaries is constructed with a careful treatment to avoid the spurious scattering at the boundaries. The efficiency of the implementation is demonstrated by rapid convergence properties of the density matrix. In addition, as an illustration, our method is applied for zigzag graphene nanoribbons, a Fe/MgO/Fe tunneling junction, and a LaMnO$_3/$SrMnO$_3$ superlattice, demonstrating its applicability to a wide variety of systems.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figure