Cavitation inception of a van der Waals fluid at a sack-wall obstacle

Cavitation in a liquid moving past a constraint is numerically investigated by means of a free-energy lattice Boltzmann simulation based on the van der Waals equation of state. The fluid is streamed past an obstacle and, depending on the pressure drop between inlet and outlet, vapor formation underneath the corner of the sack-wall is observed. The circumstances of cavitation formation are investigated and it is found that the local bulk pressure and mean stress are insufficient to explain the phenomenon. Results obtained in this study strongly suggest that the viscous stress, interfacial contributions to the local pressure, and the Laplace pressure are relevant to the opening of a vapor cavity. This can be described by a generalization of Joseph's criterion that includes these contributions. A macroscopic investigation measuring mass flow rate behavior and discharge coefficient was also performed. As theoretically predicted, mass flow rate increases linearly with the square root of the pressure drop. However, when cavitation occurs, the mass flow growth rate is reduced and eventually it collapses into a choked flow state. In the cavitating regime, as theoretically predicted and experimentally verified, the discharge coefficient grows with the Nurick cavitation number

Generalized Gauge Theories and Weinberg-Salam Model with Dirac-K\"ahler Fermions

We extend previously proposed generalized gauge theory formulation of Chern-Simons type and topological Yang-Mills type actions into Yang-Mills type actions. We formulate gauge fields and Dirac-K\"ahler matter fermions by all degrees of differential forms. The simplest version of the model which includes only zero and one form gauge fields accommodated with the graded Lie algebra of $SU(2|1)$ supergroup leads Weinberg-Salam model. Thus the Weinberg-Salam model formulated by noncommutative geometry is a particular example of the present formulation.Comment: 33 pages, LaTe

A wavelet based numerical method for nonlinear partial differential equations

The purpose of this paper is to present a wavelet–Galerkin scheme for solving nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations. We select as trial spaces a nested sequence of spaces from an appropriate biorthogonal multiscale analysis. This gives rise to a nonlinear discretized system. To overcome the problems of nonlinearity, we apply the machinery of interpolating wavelets to obtain knot oriented quadrature rules. Finally, Newton’s method is applied to approximate the solution in the given ansatz space. The results of some numerical experiments with different biorthogonal systems, confirming the applicability of our scheme, are presented.Instituto de Cooperação Científica e Tecnológica Internacional - Acções Integradas Luso-Alemãs (DAAD/ICCTI) - Projecto DAAD/ICCTI nº 01141

Twisted Superspace for N=D=2 Super BF and Yang-Mills with Dirac-K\"ahler Fermion Mechanism

We propose a twisted D=N=2 superspace formalism. The relation between the twisted super charges including the BRST charge, vector and pseudo scalar super charges and the N=2 spinor super charges is established. We claim that this relation is essentially related with the Dirac-K\"ahler fermion mechanism. We show that a fermionic bilinear form of twisted N=2 chiral and anti-chiral superfields is equivalent to the quantized version of BF theory with the Landau type gauge fixing while a bosonic bilinear form leads to the N=2 Wess-Zumino action. We then construct a Yang-Mills action described by the twisted N=2 chiral and vector superfields, and show that the action is equivalent to the twisted version of the D=N=2 super Yang-Mills action, previously obtained from the quantized generalized topological Yang-Mills action with instanton gauge fixing.Comment: 36 page

Cholera hotspots and surveillance constraints contributing to recurrent epidemics in Tanzania

Objective: We described the dynamics of cholera in Tanzania between 2007 and 2017 and assessed the weaknesses of the current surveillance system in providing necessary data in achieving the global roadmap to 2030 for cholera control. Results: The Poisson-based spatial scan identifed cholera hotspots in mainland Tanzania. A zero-infated Poisson regression investigated the relationship between the incidence of cholera and available demographic, socio-economic and climatic exposure variables. Four cholera hotspots were detected covering 17 regions, home to 28 million people, including the central regions and those surrounding the Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyaza. The risk of experiencing cholera in these regions was up to 2.9 times higher than elsewhere in the country. Regression analyses revealed that every 100 km of water perimeter in a region increased the cholera incidence by 1.5%. Due to the compilation of surveillance data at regional level rather than at district, we were unable to reliably identify any other signifcant risk factors and specifc hotspots. Cholera high-risk populations in Tanzania include those living near lakes and central regions. Successful surveillance require disaggregated data available weekly and at district levels in order to serve as data for action to support the roadmap for cholera control.Published versio

Characterizing the turbulent drag properties of rough surfaces with a Taylor--Couette setup

Wall-roughness induces extra drag in wall-bounded turbulent flows. Mapping any given roughness geometry to its fluid dynamic behaviour has been hampered by the lack of accurate and direct measurements of skin-friction drag. Here the Taylor-Couette (TC) system provides an opportunity as it is a closed system and allows to directly and reliably measure the skin-friction. However, the wall-curvature potentially complicates the connection between the wall friction and the wall roughness characteristics. Here we investigate the effects of a hydrodynamically fully rough surface on highly turbulent, inner cylinder rotating, TC flow. We find that the effects of a hydrodynamically fully rough surface on TC turbulence, where the roughness height k is three orders of magnitude smaller than the Obukhov curvature length Lc (which characterizes the effects of curvature on the turbulent flow, see Berghout et al. arXiv: 2003.03294, 2020), are similar to those effects of a fully rough surface on a flat plate turbulent boundary layer (BL). Hence, the value of the equivalent sand grain height ks, that characterizes the drag properties of a rough surface, is similar to those found for comparable sandpaper surfaces in a flat plate BL. Next, we obtain the dependence of the torque (skin-friction drag) on the Reynolds number for given wall roughness, characterized by ks, and find agreement with the experimental results within 5 percent. Our findings demonstrate that global torque measurements in the TC facility are well suited to reliably deduce wall drag properties for any rough surface.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure

Positivity and conservation of superenergy tensors

Two essential properties of energy-momentum tensors T_{\mu\nu} are their positivity and conservation. This is mathematically formalized by, respectively, an energy condition, as the dominant energy condition, and the vanishing of their divergence \nabla^\mu T_{\mu\nu}=0. The classical Bel and Bel-Robinson superenergy tensors, generated from the Riemann and Weyl tensors, respectively, are rank-4 tensors. But they share these two properties with energy momentum tensors: the Dominant Property (DP) and the divergence-free property in the absence of sources (vacuum). Senovilla defined a universal algebraic construction which generates a basic superenergy tensor T{A} from any arbitrary tensor A. In this construction the seed tensor A is structured as an r-fold multivector, which can always be done. The most important feature of the basic superenergy tensors is that they satisfy automatically the DP, independently of the generating tensor A. In a previous paper we presented a more compact definition of T{A} using the r-fold Clifford algebra. This form for the superenergy tensors allowed to obtain an easy proof of the DP valid for any dimension. In this paper we include this proof. We explain which new elements appear when we consider the tensor T{A} generated by a non-degree-defined r-fold multivector A and how orthogonal Lorentz transformations and bilinear observables of spinor fields are included as particular cases of superenergy tensors. We find some sufficient conditions for the seed tensor A, which guarantee that the generated tensor T{A} is divergence-free. These sufficient conditions are satisfied by some physical fields, which are presented as examples.Comment: 19 pages, no figures. Language and minor changes. Published versio

New Results in Sasaki-Einstein Geometry

This article is a summary of some of the author's work on Sasaki-Einstein geometry. A rather general conjecture in string theory known as the AdS/CFT correspondence relates Sasaki-Einstein geometry, in low dimensions, to superconformal field theory; properties of the latter are therefore reflected in the former, and vice versa. Despite this physical motivation, many recent results are of independent geometrical interest, and are described here in purely mathematical terms: explicit constructions of infinite families of both quasi-regular and irregular Sasaki-Einstein metrics; toric Sasakian geometry; an extremal problem that determines the Reeb vector field for, and hence also the volume of, a Sasaki-Einstein manifold; and finally, obstructions to the existence of Sasaki-Einstein metrics. Some of these results also provide new insights into Kahler geometry, and in particular new obstructions to the existence of Kahler-Einstein metrics on Fano orbifolds.Comment: 31 pages, no figures. Invited contribution to the proceedings of the conference "Riemannian Topology: Geometric Structures on Manifolds"; minor typos corrected, reference added; published version; Riemannian Topology and Geometric Structures on Manifolds (Progress in Mathematics), Birkhauser (Nov 2008