12,011 research outputs found
Inertial and dimensional effects on the instability of a thin film
We consider here the effects of inertia on the instability of a flat liquid
film under the effects of capillary and intermolecular forces (van der Waals
interaction). Firstly, we perform the linear stability analysis within the long
wave approximation, which shows that the inclusion of inertia does not produce
new regions of instability other than the one previously known from the usual
lubrication case. The wavelength, , corresponding to he maximum
growth, , and the critical (marginal) wavelength do not change at
all. The most affected feature of the instability under an increase of the
Laplace number is the noticeable decrease of the growth rates of the unstable
modes. In order to put in evidence the effects of the bidimensional aspects of
the flow (neglected in the long wave approximation), we also calculate the
dispersion relation of the instability from the linearized version of the
complete Navier-Stokes (N-S) equation. Unlike the long wave approximation, the
bidimensional model shows that can vary significantly with inertia
when the aspect ratio of the film is not sufficiently small. We also perform
numerical simulations of the nonlinear N-S equations and analyze to which
extent the linear predictions can be applied depending on both the amount of
inertia involved and the aspect ratio of the film
From car to bike. Marketing and dialogue as a driver of change
The Paris Climate Agreement has sent a key message to the international community regarding the need to increase efforts to move towards a low-carbon economy and help slow climate change, while underpinning global long-term economic growth and sustainable development. COP 21 recognizes the social, economic and environmental value of voluntary mitigation actions and their co-benefits for adaptation, health and sustainable development. In this framework, the PTP Cycle project, running from 2013 to 2016 and funded by the European Commission through the Intelligent Energy Europe program, introduces a non-market approach through voluntary participation in the adoption of sustainable transport modes such as cycling, based on marketing to potential customers through Personalized Travel Plans. The medium-sized city of Burgos (Spain) and the cities of Ljubljana, Riga, Antwerp and London
(boroughs of Haringey and Greenwich) developed a new policy instrument (Personalized Travel Plans) in order to increase bike patronage. Beyond potential savings of CO2, the results show that PTP as a form of Active Mobility Consultancy is a suitable instrument to influence modal shift to public transport, walking and cycling, and to address the challenges of climate change, while fostering sustainable transportation by changing mobility behaviour. These results, matching with the state-of-the-art of studies and pilot applications in other countries, allows deriving differentiated results for medium-size and large urban areas
Hybridization of multi-objective deterministic particle swarm with derivative-free local searches
The paper presents a multi-objective derivative-free and deterministic global/local hybrid algorithm for the efficient and effective solution of simulation-based design optimization (SBDO) problems. The objective is to show how the hybridization of two multi-objective derivative-free global and local algorithms achieves better performance than the separate use of the two algorithms in solving specific SBDO problems for hull-form design. The proposed method belongs to the class of memetic algorithms, where the global exploration capability of multi-objective deterministic particle swarm optimization is enriched by exploiting the local search accuracy of a derivative-free multi-objective line-search method. To the authors best knowledge, studies are still limited on memetic, multi-objective, deterministic, derivative-free, and evolutionary algorithms for an effective and efficient solution of SBDO for hull-form design. The proposed formulation manages global and local searches based on the hypervolume metric. The hybridization scheme uses two parameters to control the local search activation and the number of function calls used by the local algorithm. The most promising values of these parameters were identified using forty analytical tests representative of the SBDO problem of interest. The resulting hybrid algorithm was finally applied to two SBDO problems for hull-form design. For both analytical tests and SBDO problems, the hybrid method achieves better performance than its global and local counterparts
Pilot study of vegetation in the Alchichica-Perote region by remote sensing
A study of the application of satellite images to the identification of vegetation in a small area corresponding to the arid zone of Veracruz and part of Puebla is presented. This study is accomplished by means of images from the LANDSAT satellite obtained on January 19 and May 23, 1973. The interpretation of the different maps is made on the basis of information from the data bank of the Flora de Veracruz program, and various surveys made by land and air
Extended states and dynamical localization in semiconductor superlattices
We study the quantum dynamics of electronic wave packets in quantum-well based semiconductor
superlattices subject to an applied electric field. Using a high-accuracy numerical method, we
analyze the dynamical behavior of electronic wave packets in periodic, random and random dimer
superlattices. The spatial extent of electronic states is characterized by means of the time-dependent
inverse participation ratio. We show that the delocalized states recently found in random dimer
superlattices become spatially localized under the action of the applied field ~dynamical
localization! but wavepackets are much less localized than in purely random superlattices at
moderate field. We conclude that the resonant tunneling effects causing delocalization in dimer
superlattices play an important role even in the presence of moderate electric field.This work has been supported by CICYT (Spain) under project MAT95-0325.Publicad
Electron dynamics in intentionally disordered semiconductor superlattices
We study the dynamical behavior of disordered quantum-well-based
semiconductor superlattices where the disorder is intentional and short-range
correlated. We show that, whereas the transmission time of a particle grows
exponentially with the number of wells in an usual disordered superlattice for
any value of the incident particle energy, for specific values of the incident
energy this time increases linearly when correlated disorder is included. As
expected, those values of the energy coincide with a narrow subband of extended
states predicted by the static calculations of Dom\'{\i}nguez-Adame {\em et
al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 51}, 14 ,359 (1994)]; such states are seen in our
dynamical results to exhibit a ballistic regime, very close to the WKB
approximation of a perfect superlattice. Fourier transform of the output signal
for an incident Gaussian wave packet reveals a dramatic filtering of the
original signal, which makes us confident that devices based on this property
may be designed and used for nanotechnological applications. This is more so in
view of the possibility of controllingthe outp ut band using a dc electric
field, which we also discuss. In the conclusion we summarize our results and
present an outlook for future developments arising from this work.Comment: 10 pagex, RevTex, 13 Postscript figures. Physical Review B (in press
Phase-locked magnetoconductance oscillations as a probe of Majorana edge states
We calculate the Andreev conductance of a superconducting ring interrupted by
a flux-biased Josephson junction, searching for electrical signatures of
circulating edge states. Two-dimensional pair potentials of spin-singlet d-wave
and spin-triplet p-wave symmetry support, respectively, (chiral) Dirac modes
and (chiral or helical) Majorana modes. These produce h/e-periodic
magnetoconductance oscillations of amplitude \simeq (e^{2}/h)N^{-1/2}, measured
via an N-mode point contact at the inner or outer perimeter of the grounded
ring. For Dirac modes the oscillations in the two contacts are independent,
while for an unpaired Majorana mode they are phase locked by a topological
phase transition at the Josephson junction.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. New appendix on the gauge invariant
discretization of the Bogoliubov-De Gennes equation. Accepted for publication
in PR
Topologically protected charge transfer along the edge of a chiral -wave superconductor
The Majorana fermions propagating along the edge of a topological
superconductor with pairing deliver a shot noise power of
per eV of voltage bias. We calculate the full
counting statistics of the transferred charge and find that it becomes
trinomial in the low-temperature limit, distinct from the binomial statistics
of charge- transfer in a single-mode nanowire or charge- transfer
through a normal-superconductor interface. All even-order correlators of
current fluctuations have a universal quantized value, insensitive to disorder
and decoherence. These electrical signatures are experimentally accessible,
because they persist for temperatures and voltages large compared to the
Thouless energy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. v3 [post-publication]: added an appendix on the
effect of a tunnel barrier at the normal-superconductor contac
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