248 research outputs found
Global axisymmetric Magnetorotational Instability with density gradients
We examine global incompressible axisymmetric perturbations of a
differentially rotating MHD plasma with radial density gradients. It is shown
that the standard magnetorotational instability, (MRI) criterion drawn from the
local dispersion relation is often misleading. If the equilibrium magnetic
field is either purely axial or purely toroidal, the problem reduces to finding
the global radial eigenvalues of an effective potential. The standard Keplerian
profile including the origin is mathematically ill-posed, and thus any solution
will depend strongly on the inner boundary. We find a class of unstable modes
localized by the form of the rotation and density profiles, with reduced
dependence on boundary conditions.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
Walls Inhibit Chaotic Mixing
We report on experiments of chaotic mixing in a closed vessel, in which a
highly viscous fluid is stirred by a moving rod. We analyze quantitatively how
the concentration field of a low-diffusivity dye relaxes towards homogeneity,
and we observe a slow algebraic decay of the inhomogeneity, at odds with the
exponential decay predicted by most previous studies. Visual observations
reveal the dominant role of the vessel wall, which strongly influences the
concentration field in the entire domain and causes the anomalous scaling. A
simplified 1D model supports our experimental results. Quantitative analysis of
the concentration pattern leads to scalings for the distributions and the
variance of the concentration field consistent with experimental and numerical
results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Slow decay of concentration variance due to no-slip walls in chaotic mixing
Chaotic mixing in a closed vessel is studied experimentally and numerically
in different 2-D flow configurations. For a purely hyperbolic phase space, it
is well-known that concentration fluctuations converge to an eigenmode of the
advection-diffusion operator and decay exponentially with time. We illustrate
how the unstable manifold of hyperbolic periodic points dominates the resulting
persistent pattern. We show for different physical viscous flows that, in the
case of a fully chaotic Poincare section, parabolic periodic points at the
walls lead to slower (algebraic) decay. A persistent pattern, the backbone of
which is the unstable manifold of parabolic points, can be observed. However,
slow stretching at the wall forbids the rapid propagation of stretched
filaments throughout the whole domain, and hence delays the formation of an
eigenmode until it is no longer experimentally observable. Inspired by the
baker's map, we introduce a 1-D model with a parabolic point that gives a good
account of the slow decay observed in experiments. We derive a universal decay
law for such systems parametrized by the rate at which a particle approaches
the no-slip wall.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure
On the relevance of subcritical hydrodynamic turbulence to accretion disk transport
Hydrodynamic unstratified keplerian flows are known to be linearly stable at
all Reynolds numbers, but may nevertheless become turbulent through nonlinear
mechanisms. However, in the last ten years, conflicting points of view have
appeared on this issue. We have revisited the problem through numerical
simulations in the shearing sheet limit. It turns out that the effect of the
Coriolis force in stabilizing the flow depends on whether the flow is cyclonic
(cooperating shear and rotation vorticities) or anticyclonic (competing shear
and rotation vorticities); keplerian flows are anticyclonic. We have obtained
the following results: i/ The Coriolis force does not quench turbulence in
subcritical flows; ii/ The resolution demand, when moving away from the
marginal stability boundary, is much more severe for anticyclonic flows than
for cyclonic ones. Presently available computer resources do not allow
numerical codes to reach the keplerian regime. iii/ The efficiency of turbulent
transport is directly correlated to the Reynolds number of transition to
turbulence , in such a way that the Shakura-Sunyaev parameter . iv/ Even the most optimistic extrapolations of our numerical data show
that subcritical turbulent transport would be too inefficient in keplerian
flows by several orders of magnitude for astrophysical purposes. v/ Our results
suggest that the data obtained for keplerian-like flows in a Taylor-Couette
settings are largely affected by secondary flows, such as Ekman circulation.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Scaling laws and vortex profiles in 2D decaying turbulence
We use high resolution numerical simulations over several hundred of turnover
times to study the influence of small scale dissipation onto vortex statistics
in 2D decaying turbulence. A self-similar scaling regime is detected when the
scaling laws are expressed in units of mean vorticity and integral scale, as
predicted by Carnevale et al., and it is observed that viscous effects spoil
this scaling regime. This scaling regime shows some trends toward that of the
Kirchhoff model, for which a recent theory predicts a decay exponent .
In terms of scaled variables, the vortices have a similar profile close to a
Fermi-Dirac distribution.Comment: 4 Latex pages and 4 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Dynamics and thermodynamics of axisymmetric flows: I. Theory
We develop new variational principles to study stability and equilibrium of
axisymmetric flows. We show that there is an infinite number of steady state
solutions. We show that these steady states maximize a (non-universal)
-function. We derive relaxation equations which can be used as numerical
algorithm to construct stable stationary solutions of axisymmetric flows. In a
second part, we develop a thermodynamical approach to the equilibrium states at
some fixed coarse-grained scale. We show that the resulting distribution can be
divided in a universal part coming from the conservation of robust invariants
and one non-universal determined by the initial conditions through the fragile
invariants (for freely evolving systems) or by a prior distribution encoding
non-ideal effects such as viscosity, small-scale forcing and dissipation (for
forced systems). Finally, we derive a parameterization of inviscid mixing to
describe the dynamics of the system at the coarse-grained scale
Resolving Molecular Line Emission from Protoplanetary Disks: Observational Prospects for Disks Irradiated by Infalling Envelopes
Molecular line observations that could resolve protoplanetary disks of ~100
AU both spatially and kinematically would be a useful tool to unambiguously
identify these disks and to determine their kinematical and physical
characteristics. In this work we model the expected line emission from a
protoplanetary disk irradiated by an infalling envelope, addressing the
question of its detectability with subarcsecond resolution. We adopt a
previously determined disk model structure that gives a continuum spectral
energy distribution and a mm intensity spatial distribution that are consistent
with observational constraints of HL Tau. An analysis of the capability of
presently working and projected interferometers at mm and submm wavelengths
shows that molecular transitions of moderate opacity at these wavelengths
(e.g., C17O lines) are good candidates for detecting disk lines at subarcsecond
resolution in the near future. We suggest that, in general, disks of typical
Class I sources will be detectable.Comment: 41 pages, 16 figures. To be published in The Astrophysical Journa
Anisotropy and non-universality in scaling laws of the large scale energy spectrum in rotating turbulence
Rapidly rotating turbulent flow is characterized by the emergence of columnar
structures that are representative of quasi-two dimensional behavior of the
flow. It is known that when energy is injected into the fluid at an
intermediate scale , it cascades towards smaller as well as larger scales.
In this paper we analyze the flow in the \textit{inverse cascade} range at a
small but fixed Rossby number, {}. Several
{numerical simulations with} helical and non-helical forcing functions are
considered in periodic boxes with unit aspect ratio. In order to resolve the
inverse cascade range with {reasonably} large Reynolds number, the analysis is
based on large eddy simulations which include the effect of helicity on eddy
viscosity and eddy noise. Thus, we model the small scales and resolve
explicitly the large scales. We show that the large-scale energy spectrum has
at least two solutions: one that is consistent with
Kolmogorov-Kraichnan-Batchelor-Leith phenomenology for the inverse cascade of
energy in two-dimensional (2D) turbulence with a {}
scaling, and the other that corresponds to a steeper {}
spectrum in which the three-dimensional (3D) modes release a substantial
fraction of their energy per unit time to 2D modes. {The spectrum that} emerges
{depends on} the anisotropy of the forcing function{,} the former solution
prevailing for forcings in which more energy is injected into 2D modes while
the latter prevails for isotropic forcing. {In the case of anisotropic forcing,
whence the energy} goes from the 2D to the 3D modes at low wavenumbers,
large-scale shear is created resulting in another time scale ,
associated with shear, {thereby producing} a spectrum for the
{total energy} with the 2D modes still following a {}
scaling
Stability of density-stratified viscous Taylor-Couette flows
The stability of density-stratified viscous Taylor-Couette flows is
considered using the Boussinesq approximation but without any use of the
short-wave approximation. The flows which are unstable after the Rayleigh
criterion (\hat \mu<\hat \eta^2, with \hat \mu=\Omega_{out}/\Omega_{in} and
\hat \eta= R_{in}/R_{out}) now develop overstable axisymmetric Taylor vortices.
For the considered wide-gap container we find the nonaxisymmetric modes as the
most unstable ones. The nonaxisymmetric modes are unstable also beyond the
Rayleigh line. For such modes the instability condition seems simply to be
\hat\mu<1 as stressed by Yavneh, McWilliams & Molemaker (2001). However, we
never found unstable modes for too flat rotation laws fulfilling the condition
\hat \mu >\hat \eta. The Reynolds numbers rapidly grow to very high values if
this limit is approached (see Figs. 3 and 4).
Also striking is that the marginal stability lines for the higher do less
and less enter the region beyond the Rayleigh line so that we might have to
consider the stratorotational instability as a 'low- instability'. The
applicability of these results to the stability problem of accretion disks with
their strong stratification and fast rotation is shortly discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, Astron. Astrophys. (subm.
Deciphering the infectious process of Colletotrichum lupini in lupin through transcriptomic and proteomic analysis
The fungal phytopathogen Colletotrichum lupini is responsible for lupin anthracnose, resulting in significant yield losses worldwide. The molecular mechanisms underlying this infectious process are yet to be elucidated. This study proposes to evaluate C. lupini gene expression and protein synthesis during lupin infection, using, respectively, an RNAseq-based transcriptomic approach and a mass spectrometry-based proteomic approach. Patterns of differentially-expressed genes in planta were evaluated from 24 to 84 hours post-inoculation, and compared to in vitro cultures. A total of 897 differentially-expressed genes were identified from C. lupini during interaction with white lupin, of which 520 genes were predicted to have a putative function, including carbohydrate active enzyme, effector, protease or transporter-encoding genes, commonly described as pathogenicity factors for other Colletotrichum species during plant infection, and 377 hypothetical proteins. Simultaneously, a total of 304 proteins produced during the interaction were identified and quantified by mass spectrometry. Taken together, the results highlight that the dynamics of symptoms, gene expression and protein synthesis shared similarities to those of hemibiotrophic pathogens. In addition, a few genes with unknown or poorly-described functions were found to be specifically associated with the early or late stages of infection, suggesting that they may be of importance for pathogenicity. This study, conducted for the first time on a species belonging to the Colletotrichum acutatum species complex, presents an opportunity to deepen functional analyses of the genes involved in the pathogenicity of Colletotrichum spp. during the onset of plant infection
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