13,195 research outputs found
Granular Rough Sphere in a Low-Density Thermal Bath
We study the stationary state of a rough granular sphere immersed in a
thermal bath composed of point particles. When the center of mass of the sphere
is fixed the stationary angular velocity distribution is shown to be Gaussian
with an effective temperature lower than that of the bath. For a freely moving
rough sphere coupled to the thermostat via inelastic collisions we find a
condition under which the joint distribution of the translational and
rotational velocities is a product of Gaussian distributions with the same
effective temperature. In this rather unexpected case we derive a formula for
the stationary energy flow from the thermostat to the sphere in accordance with
Fourier law
The Complexity of Helly- EPG Graph Recognition
Golumbic, Lipshteyn, and Stern defined in 2009 the class of EPG graphs, the
intersection graph class of edge paths on a grid. An EPG graph is a graph
that admits a representation where its vertices correspond to paths in a grid
, such that two vertices of are adjacent if and only if their
corresponding paths in have a common edge. If the paths in the
representation have at most bends, we say that it is a -EPG
representation. A collection of sets satisfies the Helly property when
every sub-collection of that is pairwise intersecting has at least one
common element. In this paper, we show that given a graph and an integer
, the problem of determining whether admits a -EPG representation
whose edge-intersections of paths satisfy the Helly property, so-called
Helly--EPG representation, is in NP, for every bounded by a polynomial
function of . Moreover, we show that the problem of recognizing
Helly--EPG graphs is NP-complete, and it remains NP-complete even when
restricted to 2-apex and 3-degenerate graphs
Impurity in a granular gas under nonlinear Couette flow
We study in this work the transport properties of an impurity immersed in a
granular gas under stationary nonlinear Couette flow. The starting point is a
kinetic model for low-density granular mixtures recently proposed by the
authors [Vega Reyes F et al. 2007 Phys. Rev. E 75 061306]. Two routes have been
considered. First, a hydrodynamic or normal solution is found by exploiting a
formal mapping between the kinetic equations for the gas particles and for the
impurity. We show that the transport properties of the impurity are
characterized by the ratio between the temperatures of the impurity and gas
particles and by five generalized transport coefficients: three related to the
momentum flux (a nonlinear shear viscosity and two normal stress differences)
and two related to the heat flux (a nonlinear thermal conductivity and a cross
coefficient measuring a component of the heat flux orthogonal to the thermal
gradient). Second, by means of a Monte Carlo simulation method we numerically
solve the kinetic equations and show that our hydrodynamic solution is valid in
the bulk of the fluid when realistic boundary conditions are used. Furthermore,
the hydrodynamic solution applies to arbitrarily (inside the continuum regime)
large values of the shear rate, of the inelasticity, and of the rest of
parameters of the system. Preliminary simulation results of the true Boltzmann
description show the reliability of the nonlinear hydrodynamic solution of the
kinetic model. This shows again the validity of a hydrodynamic description for
granular flows, even under extreme conditions, beyond the Navier-Stokes domain.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures; v2: Preliminary DSMC results from the Boltzmann
equation included, Fig. 11 is ne
Energy-Aware Topology Control Strategy for Human-Centric Wireless Sensor Networks
The adoption of mobile and ubiquitous solutions that involve participatory or opportunistic sensing increases every day. This situation has highlighted the relevance of optimizing the energy consumption of these solutions, because their operation depends on the devices’ battery lifetimes. This article presents a study that intends to understand how the prediction of topology control messages in human-centric wireless sensor networks can be used to help reduce the energy consumption of the participating devices. In order to do that, five research questions have been defined and a study based on simulations was conducted to answer these questions. The obtained results help identify suitable mobile computing scenarios where the prediction of topology control messages can be used to save energy of the network nodes. These results also allow estimating the percentage of energy saving that can be expected, according to the features of the work scenario and the participants behavior. Designers of mobile collaborative applications that involve participatory or opportunistic sensing, can take advantage of these findings to increase the autonomy of their solutions.Fil: Meseguer, Roc . Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya; EspañaFil: Molina, Carlos. Universitat Rovira I Virgili; EspañaFil: Ochoa, Sergio F.. Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Santos, Rodrigo Martin. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingenieria Electrica y de Computadoras. Laboratorio de Sistemas Digitales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientÃficas y Técnicas. Centro CientÃfico Tecnológico BahÃa Blanca. Instituto de Investigación en IngenierÃa Eléctrica; Argentin
Gb/s visible light communications with colloidal quantum dot color converters
This paper reports the utilization of colloidal semiconductor
quantum dots as color converters for Gb/s visible light
communications. We briefly review the design and properties of
colloidal quantum dots and discuss them in the context of fast
color conversion of InGaN light sources, in particular in view of
the effects of self-absorption. This is followed by a description of
a CQD/polymer composite format of color converters. We show
samples of such color-converting composite emitting at green, yellow/orange
and red wavelengths, and combine these with a blueemitting
microsize LED to form hybrid sources for wireless visible
light communication links. In this way data rates up to 1 Gb/s over
distances of a few tens of centimeters have been demonstrated. Finally,
we broaden the discussion by considering the possibility for
wavelength division multiplexing as well as the use of alternative
colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals
On the Age of Stars Harboring Transiting Planets
Results of photometric surveys have brought to light the existence of a
population of giant planets orbiting their host stars even closer than the hot
Jupiters (HJ), with orbital periods below 3 days. The reason why radial
velocity surveys were not able to detect these very-hot Jupiters (VHJ) is under
discussion. A possible explanation is that these close-in planets are
short-lived, being evaporated on short time-scales due to UV flux of their host
stars. In this case, stars hosting transiting VHJ planets would be
systematically younger than those in the radial velocity sample. We have used
the UVES spectrograph (VLT-UT2 telescope) to obtain high resolution spectra of
5 faint stars hosting transiting planets, namely, OGLE-TR-10, 56, 111, 113 and
TrES-1. Previously obtained CORALIE spectra of HD189733, and published data on
the other transiting planet-hosts were also used. The immediate objective is to
estimate ages via Li abundances, using the Ca II activity-age relation, and
from the analysis of the stellar rotational velocity. For the stars for which
we have spectra, Li abundances were computed as in Israelian et al. (2004)
using the stellar parameters derived in Santos et al. (2006). The chromospheric
activity index was built as the ratio of the flux within the core of
the Ca II H & K lines and the flux in two nearby continuum regions. The index
was calibrated to Mount Wilson index allowing the computation
of the Ca II H & K corrected for the photospheric contribution. These values
were then used to derive the ages by means of the Henry et al. (1996)
activity-age relation. Bearing in mind the limitations of the ages derived by
Li abundances, chromospheric activity, and stellar rotational velocities, none
of the stars studied in this paper seem to be younger than 0.5 Gyr.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Astrometric search for a planet around VB 10
We observed VB 10 in August and September 2009 using the FORS2 camera of the
VLT with the aim of measuring its astrometric motion and of probing the
presence of the announced planet VB 10b. We used the published STEPS
astrometric positions of VB 10 over a time-span of 9 years, which allowed us to
compare the expected motion of VB 10 due to parallax and proper motion with the
observed motion and to compute precise deviations. The achieved single-epoch
precisions of our observations are about 0.1 mas and the data showed no
significant residual trend, while the presence of the planet should have
induced an apparent proper motion larger than 10 mas/yr. Subtraction of the
predicted orbital motion from the observed data produces a large trend in
position residuals of VB 10. We estimated the probability that this trend is
caused by random noise. Taking all the uncertainties into account and using
Monte-Carlo resampling of the data, we are able to reject the existence of VB
10b with the announced mass of 6.4 M_J with the false alarm probability of only
0.0005. A 3.2 M_J planet is also rejected with a false alarm probability of
0.023.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&
Quasivariational solutions for first order quasilinear equations with gradient constraint
We prove the existence of solutions for an evolution quasi-variational
inequality with a first order quasilinear operator and a variable convex set,
which is characterized by a constraint on the absolute value of the gradient
that depends on the solution itself. The only required assumption on the
nonlinearity of this constraint is its continuity and positivity. The method
relies on an appropriate parabolic regularization and suitable {\em a priori}
estimates. We obtain also the existence of stationary solutions, by studying
the asymptotic behaviour in time. In the variational case, corresponding to a
constraint independent of the solution, we also give uniqueness results
Voltage dip generator for testing wind turbines connected to electrical networks
This paper describes a new voltage dip generator that allows the shape of the time profile of the voltage generated to be configured. The use of this device as a tool to test the fault ride-through capability of wind turbines connected to the electricity grid can provide some remarkable benefits: First, this system offers the possibility of adapting the main features of the time–voltage profile generated (dip depth, dip duration, the ramp slope during the recovery process after clearing fault, etc.) to the specific requirements set forth by the grid operation codes, in accordance with different network electrical systems standards. Second, another remarkable ability of this system is to provide sinusoidal voltage and current wave forms during the overall testing process without the presence of harmonic components. This is made possible by the absence of electronic converters. Finally, the paper includes results and a discussion on the experimental data obtained with the use of a reduced size laboratory prototype that was constructed to validate the operating features of this new device
Detailed study of the microwave emission of the supernova remnant 3C 396
We have observed the supernova remnant 3C~396 in the microwave region using
the Parkes 64-m telescope. Observations have been made at 8.4 GHz, 13.5 GHz,
and 18.6 GHz and in polarisation at 21.5 GHz. We have used data from several
other observatories, including previously unpublished observations performed by
the Green Bank Telescope at 31.2 GHz, to investigate the nature of the
microwave emission of 3C 396. Results show a spectral energy distribution
dominated by a single component power law emission with . Data do not favour the presence of anomalous microwave emission coming
from the source. Polarised emission at 21.5 GHz is consistent with
synchrotron-dominated emission. We present microwave maps and correlate them
with infrared (IR) maps in order to characterise the interplay between thermal
dust and microwave emission. IR vs. microwave TT plots reveal poor correlation
between mid-infrared and microwave emission from the core of the source. On the
other hand, a correlation is detected in the tail emission of the outer shell
of 3C 396, which could be ascribed to Galactic contamination.Comment: published in MNRA
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