Small-angle x-ray-scattering study of phase separation and crystallization in the bulk amorphous Mg62Cu25Y10Li3 alloy

We report on a small-angle x-ray-scattering (SAXS) and differential scanning calorimetry study of phase separation and crystallization in rapidly quenched amorphous Mg62Cu25Y10Li3 alloy samples. Differential scanning calorimetry demonstrates the occurrence of crystallization and grain growth upon isothermal annealing of these samples at 135 °C. The SAXS studies show the presence of large inhomogeneities even in the rapidly quenched as-prepared Mg62Cu25Y10Li3 alloy that is attributed to phase separation in the undercooled liquid during the cooling process. After isothermal annealing at 135 °C for longer than 30 min the samples exhibit a strong SAXS intensity that monotonically increases with increasing annealing time. During heat treatment, crystallization and growth of a nanocrystalline bcc-Mg7Li3 phase occurs in the Y-poor and MgLi-rich domains. The initially rough boundaries of the nanocrystals become sharper with increasing annealing time. Anomalous small-angle x-ray-scattering investigations near the Cu K edge indicate that while Cu is distributed homogeneously in the as-prepared sample, a Cu composition gradient develops between the matrix and the bcc-Mg7Li3 nanocrystals in the annealed sample

Oxidation and crystallization of an amorphous Zr60Al15Ni25 alloy

The amorphous ternary metallic alloy Zr60Al15Ni25 was oxidized in dry oxygen in the temperature range 310 ±C to 410 ±C. Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies suggest that during this treatment an amorphous layer of zirconium-aluminum-oxide is formed at the surface. Nickel was depleted in the oxide and enriched in the amorphous alloy near the interface. The oxide layer thickness grows parabolically with annealing duration, with a transport constant of 2.8 x 10^-5 m^2/s x exp(-1.7 eV/kT). The oxidation rate may be controlled by the diffusion of Ni in the amorphous alloy. At later stages of the oxidation process, precipitates of nanocrystalline ZrO2 appear in the oxide near the interface. Finally, two intermetallic phases nucleate and grow simultaneously in the alloy, one at the interface and one within the alloy. An explanation involving preferential oxidation is proposed

The balance of salinity variance in a partially stratified estuary: implications for exchange flow, mixing, and stratification

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in he balance of salinity variance in a partially stratified estuary: Implications for exchange flow, mixing, and stratification. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 48(12), (2018) 2887-2899., doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-18-0032.1.Salinity variance dissipation is related to exchange flow through the salinity variance balance equation, and meanwhile its magnitude is also proportional to the turbulence production and stratification inside the estuary. As river flow increases, estuarine volume-integrated salinity variance dissipation increases owing to more variance input from the open boundaries driven by exchange flow and river flow. This corresponds to the increased efficient conversion of turbulence production to salinity variance dissipation due to the intensified stratification with higher river flow. Through the spring–neap cycle, the temporal variation of salinity variance dissipation is more dependent on stratification than turbulence production, so it reaches its maximum during the transition from neap to spring tides. During most of the transition time from spring to neap tides, the advective input of salinity variance from the open boundaries is larger than dissipation, resulting in the net increase of variance, which is mainly expressed as vertical variance, that is, stratification. The intensified stratification in turn increases salinity variance dissipation. During neap tides, a large amount of enhanced salinity variance dissipation is induced by the internal shear stress near the halocline. During most of the transition time from neap to spring tides, dissipation becomes larger than the advective input, so salinity variance decreases and the stratification is destroyed.TW was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant 2017YFA0604104), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41706002), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant BK20170864), and MEL Visiting Fellowship (MELRS1617). WRG was supported by NSF Grant OCE 1736539. Part of this work is finished during TW’s visit in MEL and WHOI. We would like to acknowledge John Warner for providing the codes of the Hudson estuary model, and Parker MacCready, the editor, and two reviewers for their insightful suggestions on improving the manuscript.2019-06-0

Quantum properties of general gauge theories with composite and external fields

The generating functionals of Green's functions with composite and external fields are considered in the framework of BV and BLT quantization methods for general gauge theories. The corresponding Ward identities are derived and the gauge dependence is investigatedComment: 24 pages, LATEX, slightly changed to clarify the essential new aspect concerning composite fields depending on external ones; added formulas showing lack of (generalized) nilpotence of operators appearing in the Ward identitie

Small atom diffusion and breakdown of the Stokes–Einstein relation in the supercooled liquid state of the Zr46.7Ti8.3Cu7.5Ni10Be27.5 alloy

Be diffusivity data in the bulk metallic glass forming alloy Zr46.7Ti8.3Cu7.5Ni10Be27.5 are reported for temperatures between 530 and 710 K, extending 85 K into the supercooled liquid state of the alloy. At the glass transition temperature Tg, a change in temperature dependence of the data is observed, and above Tg the diffusivity increases more quickly with temperature than below. The data in the supercooled liquid can be described by a modified Arrhenius expression based on a diffusion mechanism suggested earlier. The comparison with viscosity data in the supercooled liquid state of Zr46.7Ti8.3Cu7.5Ni10Be27.5 reveals a breakdown of the Stokes–Einstein relation, indicating a cooperative diffusion mechanism in the supercooled liquid state of Zr46.7Ti8.3Cu7.5Ni10Be27.5

Make life simple: unleash the full power of the parallel tempering algorithm

We introduce a new update scheme to systematically improve the efficiency of parallel tempering simulations. We show that by adapting the number of sweeps between replica exchanges to the canonical autocorrelation time, the average round-trip time of a replica in temperature space can be significantly decreased. The temperatures are not dynamically adjusted as in previous attempts but chosen to yield a 50% exchange rate of adjacent replicas. We illustrate the new algorithm with results for the Ising model in two and the Edwards-Anderson Ising spin glass in three dimensionsComment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Estuarine frontogenesis

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 45 (2015): 546–561, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-14-0082.1.Model studies and observations in the Hudson River estuary indicate that frontogenesis occurs as a result of topographic forcing. Bottom fronts form just downstream of lateral constrictions, where the width of the estuary increases in the down-estuary (i.e., seaward) direction. The front forms during the last several hours of the ebb, when the combination of adverse pressure gradient in the expansion and baroclinicity cause a stagnation of near-bottom velocity. Frontogenesis is observed in two dynamical regimes: one in which the front develops at a transition from subcritical to supercritical flow and the other in which the flow is everywhere supercritical. The supercritical front formation appears to be associated with lateral flow separation. Both types of fronts are three-dimensional, with strong lateral gradients along the flanks of the channel. During spring tide conditions, the fronts dissipate during the flood, whereas during neap tides the fronts are advected landward during the flood. The zone of enhanced density gradient initiates frontogenesis at multiple constrictions along the estuary as it propagates landward more than 60 km during several days of neap tides. Frontogenesis and frontal propagation may thus be essential elements of the spring-to-neap transition to stratified conditions in partially mixed estuaries.Support for this research was provided by NSF Grant OCE 0926427.2015-08-0

Sediment transport time scales and trapping efficiency in a tidal river

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 122 (2017): 2042–2063, doi:10.1002/2017JF004337.Observations and a numerical model are used to characterize sediment transport in the tidal Hudson River. A sediment budget over 11 years including major discharge events indicates the tidal fresh region traps about 40% of the sediment input from the watershed. Sediment input scales with the river discharge cubed, while seaward transport in the tidal river scales linearly, so the tidal river accumulates sediment during the highest discharge events. Sediment pulses associated with discharge events dissipate moving seaward and lag the advection speed of the river by a factor of 1.5 to 3. Idealized model simulations with a range of discharge and settling velocity were used to evaluate the trapping efficiency, transport rate, and mean age of sediment input from the watershed. The seaward transport of suspended sediment scales linearly with discharge but lags the river velocity by a factor that is linear with settling velocity. The lag factor is 30–40 times the settling velocity (mm s−1), so transport speeds vary by orders of magnitude from clay (0.01 mm s−1) to coarse silt (1 mm s−1). Deposition along the tidal river depends strongly on settling velocity, and a simple advection-reaction equation represents the loss due to settling on depositional shoals. The long-term discharge record is used to represent statistically the distribution of transport times, and time scales for settling velocities of 0.1 mm s−1 and 1 mm s−1 range from several months to several years for transport through the tidal river and several years to several decades through the estuary.Hudson River Foundation Grant Number: 004/13A; National Science Foundation Grant Number: 13251362018-05-0

Second Virial Coefficient for Noncommutative Space

The second virial coefficient $B_{2}^{nc}(T)$ for non-interacting particles moving in a two-dimensional noncommutative space and in the presence of a uniform magnetic field $\vec B$ is presented. The noncommutativity parameter \te can be chosen such that the $B_{2}^{nc}(T)$ can be interpreted as the second virial coefficient for anyons of statistics \al in the presence of $\vec B$ and living on the commuting plane. In particular in the high temperature limit \be\lga 0, we establish a relation between the parameter \te and the statistics \al. Moreover, $B_{2}^{nc}(T)$ can also be interpreted in terms of composite fermions.Comment: 11 pages, misprints corrected and references adde