Adsorption of polyampholytes on charged surfaces

We have studied the adsorption of neutral polyampholytes on model charged surfaces that have been characterized by contact angle and streaming current measurements. The loop size distributions of adsorbed polymer chains have been obtained using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and compared to recent theoretical predictions. We find a qualitative agreement with theory; the higher the surface charge, the smaller the number of monomers in the adsorbed layer, in agreement with theory. We propose an original scenario for the adsorption of polyampholytes on surfaces covered with both neutral long-chain and charged short-chain thiols.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in EPJ

Weak helix submanifolds of euclidean spaces

It is shown that there exist nonstrong weak 2-helix surfaces of R

Brittle fracture down to femto-Joules - and below

We analyze large sets of energy-release data created by stress-induced brittle fracture in a pure sapphire crystal at close to zero temperature where stochastic fluctuations are minimal. The waiting-time distribution follows that observed for fracture in rock and for earthquakes. Despite strong time correlations of the events and the presence of large-event precursors, simple prediction algorithms only succeed in a very weak probabilistic sense. We also discuss prospects for further cryogenic experiments reaching close to single-bond sensitivity and able to investigate the existence of a transition-stress regime.Comment: REVTeX, new figure added, minor modifications to tex

Modelling Collective Opinion Formation by Means of Active Brownian Particles

The concept of active Brownian particles is used to model a collective opinion formation process. It is assumed that individuals in community create a two-component communication field that influences the change of opinions of other persons and/or can induce their migration. The communication field is described by a reaction-diffusion equation, the opinion change of the individuals is given by a master equation, while the migration is described by a set of Langevin equations, coupled by the communication field. In the mean-field limit holding for fast communication we derive a critical population size, above which the community separates into a majority and a minority with opposite opinions. The existence of external support (e.g. from mass media) changes the ratio between minority and majority, until above a critical external support the supported subpopulation exists always as a majority. Spatial effects lead to two critical ``social'' temperatures, between which the community exists in a metastable state, thus fluctuations below a certain critical wave number may result in a spatial opinion separation. The range of metastability is particularly determined by a parameter characterizing the individual response to the communication field. In our discussion, we draw analogies to phase transitions in physical systems.Comment: Revised text version. Accepted for publication in European Physics Journal B. For related work see http://summa.physik.hu-berlin.de/~frank/active.html and http://www.if.pw.edu.pl/~jholys

DSMC-LBM mapping scheme for rarefied and non-rarefied gas flows

We present the formulation of a kinetic mapping scheme between the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) and the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) which is at the basis of the hybrid model used to couple the two methods in view of efficiently and accurately simulate isothermal flows characterized by variable rarefaction effects. Owing to the kinetic nature of the LBM, the procedure we propose ensures to accurately couple DSMC and LBM at a larger Kn number than usually done in traditional hybrid DSMC-Navier-Stokes equation models. We show the main steps of the mapping algorithm and illustrate details of the implementation. Good agreement is found between the moments of the single particle distribution function as obtained from the mapping scheme and from independent LBM or DSMC simulations at the grid nodes where the coupling is imposed. We also show results on the application of the hybrid scheme based on a simpler mapping scheme for plane Poiseuille flow at finite Kn number. Potential gains in the computational efficiency assured by the application of the coupling scheme are estimated for the same flow.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Computational Scienc

Fourier's Law: insight from a simple derivation

The onset of Fourier's law in a one-dimensional quantum system is addressed via a simple model of weakly coupled quantum systems in contact with thermal baths at their edges. Using analytical arguments we show that the crossover from the ballistic (invalid Fourier's law) to diffusive (valid Fourier's law) regimes is characterized by a thermal length-scale, which is directly related to the profile of the local temperature. In the same vein, dephasing is shown to give rise to a classical Fourier's law, similarly to the onset of Ohm's law in mesoscopic conductors.Comment: 4+ pages, references and discussions adde

Lifetime statistics of quantum chaos studied by a multiscale analysis

In a series of pump and probe experiments, we study the lifetime statistics of a quantum chaotic resonator when the number of open channels is greater than one. Our design embeds a stadium billiard into a two dimensional photonic crystal realized on a Silicon-on-insulator substrate. We calculate resonances through a multiscale procedure that combines graph theory, energy landscape analysis and wavelet transforms. Experimental data is found to follow the universal predictions arising from random matrix theory with an excellent level of agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure