78,546 research outputs found
Convective instabilities in two superposed horizontal liquid layers heated laterally
This work is devoted to the theoretical study of the stability of two
superposed horizontal liquid layers bounded by two solid planes and subjected
to a horizontal temperature gradient.
The liquids are supposed to be immiscible with a nondeformable interface.
The forces acting on the system are buoyancy and interfacial tension. Four
different flow patterns and temperature profiles are found for the basic state.
A linear perturbative analysis with respect to two and three dimensional
perturbations reveals the existence of three kind of patterns. Depending on the
relative height of both liquids several situations are predicted: either wave
propagation from cold to the hot regions, or waves propagating in the opposite
direction or still stationary longitudinal rolls. The behavior of three
different pairs of liquids which have been used in experiments on bilayers
under vertical gradient by other authors have been examined. The instability
mechanisms are discussed and a qualitative interpretation of the different
behaviors exhibited by the system is provided. In some configurations it is
possible to find a codimension-two point created by the interaction of two Hopf
modes with different frequencies and wavenumbers. These results suggest to
consider two liquid layers as an interesting prototype for the study of
propagation and interaction of waves in the context of the B\'enard-Marangoni
problem.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables;accepted to be published in PR
The State of the Circumstellar Medium Surrounding Gamma-Ray Burst Sources and its Effect on the Afterglow Appearance
We present a numerical investigation of the contribution of the presupernova
ejecta of Wolf-Rayet stars to the environment surrounding gamma-ray bursts
(GRBs), and describe how this external matter can affect the observable
afterglow characteristics. An implicit hydrodynamic calculation for massive
stellar evolution is used here to provide the inner boundary conditions for an
explicit hydrodynamical code to model the circumstellar gas dynamics. The
resulting properties of the circumstellar medium are then used to calculate the
deceleration of a relativistic, gas-dynamic jet and the corresponding afterglow
light curve produced as the shock wave propagates through the shocked-wind
medium. We find that variations in the stellar wind drive instabilities that
may produce radial filaments in the shocked-wind region. These comet-like tails
of clumps could give rise to strong temporal variations in the early afterglow
lightcurve. Afterglows may be expected to differ widely among themselves,
depending on the angular anisotropy of the jet and the properties of the
stellar progenitor; a wide diversity of behaviors may be the rule, rather than
the exception.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, ApJ in pres
Collapse of the ESR fine structure throughout the coherent temperature of the Gd-doped Kondo Semiconductor
Experiments on the Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) in the filled
skutterudite (), at temperatures
where the host resistivity manifests a smooth insulator-metal crossover,
provides evidence of the underlying Kondo physics associated with this system.
At low temperatures (below ), behaves
as a Kondo-insulator with a relatively large hybridization gap, and the
ESR spectra displays a fine structure with lorentzian line shape,
typical of insulating media. The electronic gap is attributed to the large
hybridization present in the coherent regime of a Kondo lattice, when Ce
4f-electrons cooperate with band properties at half-filling. Mean-field
calculations suggest that the electron-phonon interaction is fundamental at
explaining the strong 4f-electron hybridization in this filled skutterudite.
The resulting electronic structure is strongly temperature dependent, and at
about the system undergoes an insulator-to-metal
transition induced by the withdrawal of 4f-electrons from the Fermi volume, the
system becoming metallic and non-magnetic. The ESR fine structure
coalesces into a single dysonian resonance, as in metals. Still, our
simulations suggest that exchange-narrowing via the usual Korringa mechanism,
alone, is not capable of describing the thermal behavior of the ESR spectra in
the entire temperature region ( - K). We propose that temperature
activated fluctuating-valence of the Ce ions is the missing ingredient that,
added to the usual exchange-narrowing mechanism, fully describes this unique
temperature dependence of the ESR fine structure observed in
.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure
Structural changes at the semiconductor-insulator phase transition in the single layered La0.5Sr1.5MnO4 perovskite
The semiconductor-insulator phase transition of the single-layer manganite
La0.5Sr1.5MnO4 has been studied by means of high resolution synchrotron x-ray
powder diffraction and resonant x-ray scattering at the Mn K edge. We conclude
that a concomitant structural transition from tetragonal I4/mmm to orthorhombic
Cmcm phases drives this electronic transition. A detailed symmetry-mode
analysis reveals that condensation of three soft modes -Delta_2(B2u), X1+(B2u)
and X1+(A)- acting on the oxygen atoms accounts for the structural
transformation. The Delta_2 mode leads to a pseudo Jahn-Teller distortion (in
the orthorhombic bc-plane only) on one Mn site (Mn1) whereas the two X1+ modes
produce an overall contraction of the other Mn site (Mn2) and expansion of the
Mn1 one. The X1+ modes are responsible for the tetragonal superlattice
(1/2,1/2,0)-type reflections in agreement with a checkerboard ordering of two
different Mn sites. A strong enhancement of the scattered intensity has been
observed for these superlattice reflections close to the Mn K edge, which could
be ascribed to some degree of charge disproportion between the two Mn sites of
about 0.15 electrons. We also found that the local geometrical anisotropy of
the Mn1 atoms and its ordering originated by the condensed Delta_2 mode alone
perfectly explains the resonant scattering of forbidden (1/4,1/4,0)-type
reflections without invoking any orbital ordering.Comment: 3 tables and 10 figures; accepted in Phys. Rev.
A Morphological Diagnostic for Dynamical Evolution of Wolf-Rayet Bubbles
We have observed H-alpha and [OIII] emission from eight of the most well
defined Wolf-Rayet ring nebulae in the Galaxy. We find that in many cases the
outermost edge of the [OIII] emission leads the H-alpha emission. We suggest
that these offsets, when present, are due to the shock from the Wolf-Rayet
bubble expanding into the circumstellar envelope. Thus, the details of the WR
bubble morphology at H-alpha and [OIII] can then be used to better understand
the physical condition and evolutionary stage of the nebulae around Wolf-Rayet
stars, as well as place constraints on the nature of the stellar progenitor and
its mass loss history.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex, 8 figures, accepted for publication in AJ, November
200
- …