2,789 research outputs found
Baptism vs. Sprinkling and Pouring
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/crs_books/1276/thumbnail.jp
Thermodynamically Stable One-Component Metallic Quasicrystals
Classical density-functional theory is employed to study finite-temperature
trends in the relative stabilities of one-component quasicrystals interacting
via effective metallic pair potentials derived from pseudopotential theory.
Comparing the free energies of several periodic crystals and rational
approximant models of quasicrystals over a range of pseudopotential parameters,
thermodynamically stable quasicrystals are predicted for parameters approaching
the limits of mechanical stability of the crystalline structures. The results
support and significantly extend conclusions of previous ground-state
lattice-sum studies.Comment: REVTeX, 13 pages + 2 figures, to appear, Europhys. Let
Autonomous flight and remote site landing guidance research for helicopters
Automated low-altitude flight and landing in remote areas within a civilian environment are investigated, where initial cost, ongoing maintenance costs, and system productivity are important considerations. An approach has been taken which has: (1) utilized those technologies developed for military applications which are directly transferable to a civilian mission; (2) exploited and developed technology areas where new methods or concepts are required; and (3) undertaken research with the potential to lead to innovative methods or concepts required to achieve a manual and fully automatic remote area low-altitude and landing capability. The project has resulted in a definition of system operational concept that includes a sensor subsystem, a sensor fusion/feature extraction capability, and a guidance and control law concept. These subsystem concepts have been developed to sufficient depth to enable further exploration within the NASA simulation environment, and to support programs leading to the flight test
Electroneutrality and Phase Behavior of Colloidal Suspensions
Several statistical mechanical theories predict that colloidal suspensions of
highly charged macroions and monovalent microions can exhibit unusual
thermodynamic phase behavior when strongly deionized. Density-functional,
extended Debye-H\"uckel, and response theories, within mean-field and
linearization approximations, predict a spinodal phase instability of charged
colloids below a critical salt concentration. Poisson-Boltzmann cell model
studies of suspensions in Donnan equilibrium with a salt reservoir demonstrate
that effective interactions and osmotic pressures predicted by such theories
can be sensitive to the choice of reference system, e.g., whether the microion
density profiles are expanded about the average potential of the suspension or
about the reservoir potential. By unifying Poisson-Boltzmann and response
theories within a common perturbative framework, it is shown here that the
choice of reference system is dictated by the constraint of global
electroneutrality. On this basis, bulk suspensions are best modeled by
density-dependent effective interactions derived from a closed reference system
in which the counterions are confined to the same volume as the macroions.
Linearized theories then predict bulk phase separation of deionized suspensions
only when expanded about a physically consistent (closed) reference system.
Lower-dimensional systems (e.g., monolayers, small clusters), depending on the
strength of macroion-counterion correlations, may be governed instead by
density-independent effective interactions tied to an open reference system
with counterions dispersed throughout the reservoir, possibly explaining
observed structural crossover in colloidal monolayers and anomalous
metastability of colloidal crystallites.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Discussion clarified, references adde
Coulomb Blockade Oscillations of Conductance at Finite Energy Level Spacing in a Quantum Dot
We find an analytical expression for the conductance of a single electron
transistor in the regime when temperature, level spacing, and charging energy
of a grain are all of the same order. We consider the model of equidistant
energy levels in a grain in the sequential tunneling approximation. In the case
of spinless electrons our theory describes transport through a dot in the
quantum Hall regime. In the case of spin-1/2 electrons we analyze the line
shape of a peak, shift in the position of the peak's maximum as a function of
temperature, and the values of the conductance in the odd and even valleys.Comment: RevTex, 13 pages, 13 figure
Poisson-Boltzmann Theory of Charged Colloids: Limits of the Cell Model for Salty Suspensions
Thermodynamic properties of charge-stabilised colloidal suspensions are
commonly modeled by implementing the mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) theory
within a cell model. This approach models a bulk system by a single macroion,
together with counterions and salt ions, confined to a symmetrically shaped,
electroneutral cell. While easing solution of the nonlinear PB equation, the
cell model neglects microion-induced correlations between macroions, precluding
modeling of macroion ordering phenomena. An alternative approach, avoiding
artificial constraints of cell geometry, maps a macroion-microion mixture onto
a one-component model of pseudo-macroions governed by effective interactions.
In practice, effective-interaction models are usually based on linear screening
approximations, which can accurately describe nonlinear screening only by
incorporating an effective (renormalized) macroion charge. Combining charge
renormalization and linearized PB theories, in both the cell model and an
effective-interaction (cell-free) model, we compute osmotic pressures of highly
charged colloids and monovalent microions over a range of concentrations. By
comparing predictions with primitive model simulation data for salt-free
suspensions, and with predictions of nonlinear PB theory for salty suspensions,
we chart the limits of both the cell model and linear-screening approximations
in modeling bulk thermodynamic properties. Up to moderately strong
electrostatic couplings, the cell model proves accurate in predicting osmotic
pressures of deionized suspensions. With increasing salt concentration,
however, the relative contribution of macroion interactions grows, leading
predictions of the cell and effective-interaction models to deviate. No
evidence is found for a liquid-vapour phase instability driven by monovalent
microions. These results may guide applications of PB theory to soft materials.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, special issue of Journal of Physics: Condensed
Matter on "Classical density functional theory methods in soft and hard
matter
Charge Renormalization, Effective Interactions, and Thermodynamics of Deionized Colloidal Suspensions
Thermodynamic properties of charge-stabilised colloidal suspensions depend
sensitively on the effective charge of the macroions, which can be
substantially lower than the bare charge in the case of strong
counterion-macroion association. A theory of charge renormalization is
proposed, combining an effective one-component model of charged colloids with a
thermal criterion for distinguishing between free and associated counterions.
The theory predicts, with minimal computational effort, osmotic pressures of
deionized suspensions of highly charged colloids in close agreement with
large-scale simulations of the primitive model.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
Phase Separation in Charge-Stabilized Colloidal Suspensions: Influence of Nonlinear Screening
The phase behavior of charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions is modeled by a
combination of response theory for electrostatic interparticle interactions and
variational theory for free energies. Integrating out degrees of freedom of the
microions (counterions, salt ions), the macroion-microion mixture is mapped
onto a one-component system governed by effective macroion interactions. Linear
response of microions to the electrostatic potential of the macroions results
in a screened-Coulomb (Yukawa) effective pair potential and a one-body volume
energy, while nonlinear response modifies the effective interactions [A. R.
Denton, \PR E {\bf 70}, 031404 (2004)]. The volume energy and effective pair
potential are taken as input to a variational free energy, based on
thermodynamic perturbation theory. For both linear and first-order nonlinear
effective interactions, a coexistence analysis applied to aqueous suspensions
of highly charged macroions and monovalent microions yields bulk separation of
macroion-rich and macroion-poor phases below a critical salt concentration, in
qualitative agreement with predictions of related linearized theories [R. van
Roij, M. Dijkstra, and J.-P. Hansen, \PR E {\bf 59}, 2010 (1999); P. B. Warren,
\JCP {\bf 112}, 4683 (2000)]. It is concluded that nonlinear screening can
modify phase behavior but does not necessarily suppress bulk phase separation
of deionized suspensions.Comment: 14 pages of text + 9 figure
Stability of Colloidal Quasicrystals
Freezing of charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions and relative stabilities
of crystals and quasicrystals are studied using thermodynamic perturbation
theory. Macroion interactions are modelled by effective pair potentials
combining electrostatic repulsion with polymer-depletion or van der Waals
attraction. Comparing free energies -- counterion terms included -- for
elementary crystals and rational approximants to icosahedral quasicrystals,
parameters are identified for which one-component quasicrystals are stabilized
by a compromise between packing entropy and cohesive energy.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Weighted-density approximation for general nonuniform fluid mixtures
In order to construct a general density-functional theory for nonuniform
fluid mixtures, we propose an extension to multicomponent systems of the
weighted-density approximation (WDA) of Curtin and Ashcroft [Phys. Rev. A 32,
2909 (1985)]. This extension corrects a deficiency in a similar extension
proposed earlier by Denton and Ashcroft [Phys. Rev. A 42, 7312 (1990)], in that
that functional cannot be applied to the multi-component nonuniform fluid
systems with spatially varying composition, such as solid-fluid interfaces. As
a test of the accuracy of our new functional, we apply it to the calculation of
the freezing phase diagram of a binary hard-sphere fluid, and compare the
results to simulation and the Denton-Ashcroft extension.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. E as Brief Repor
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