An Electrical Grid with Discrete Energy Levels

Minimizing both power fluctuations and energy waste in an electrical grid is a central challenge to energy policy. Any discrepancy between power production and loads may lead to inefficiencies and instability in the system. Right now, the electrical grid is an analog system that reacts to power demands. While sensors and predictive models - based on historical data - have been implemented to make the grid more immune to instabilities, they have difficulty addressing fluctuations in real time. The question that we ask is: what happens if the fluctuating grid delivers discrete energy units to the nodes instead of continuous power levels? This immediately implies that the grid needs to be supported by local, short-term energy storage units (STESU) that maintain such energy system. We assume that the energy delivered and the node's energy consumption are random with some limits. A model is constructed and analyzed within the framework of a randomly perturbed Markovian chain. Under reasonable assumptions, we show that this grid maintains stability over long periods of time while subjected to randomly fluctuating energy conditions.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Raman spectroscopy of active-carbon electrodes when Au colloids are placed at the electrolyte/electrode interface

In the past, when Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) were placed just above (but not included in) active carbon (A-C) electrodes, a 10-fold amplification of gravitational specific capacitance were demonstrated, despite the small mass-ratio between the AuNPs and A-C; a ratio of 1:5000. We use surface enhance Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in further studying this system. Supercapacitors are volumetric elements while SERS is a surface interrogating method, whose signal could be impacted by many factors, including local colloid's preferential points (hot spots). Here, we use the ratio between the D- and G-lines of the A-C electrode, ID/IG, as a marker to eliminate the surface inconsistencies. At some concentration levels of AuNPs, the A-C Raman signature shows a clear preference towards the 1600 cm-1 vibration mode (G-line). Following that point, the cell exhibits a large specific capacitance.Comment: 13 pages; 10 figure

Numerical calculations of the phase diagram of cubic blue phases in cholesteric liquid crystals

We study the static properties of cubic blue phases by numerically minimising the three-dimensional, Landau-de Gennes free energy for a cholesteric liquid crystal close to the isotropic-cholesteric phase transition. Thus we are able to refine the powerful but approximate, semi-analytic frameworks that have been used previously. We obtain the equilibrium phase diagram and discuss it in relation to previous results. We find that the value of the chirality above which blue phases appear is shifted by 20% (towards experimentally more accessible regions) with respect to previous estimates. We also find that the region of stability of the O5 structure -- which has not been observed experimentally -- shrinks, while that of BP I (O8-) increases thus giving the correct order of appearance of blue phases at small chirality. We also study the approach to equilibrium starting from the infinite chirality solutions and we find that in some cases the disclination network has to assemble during the equilibration. In these situations disclinations are formed via the merging of isolated aligned defects.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Ancient stars beyond the Local Group: RR Lyrae variables and Blue Horizontal Branch stars in Sculptor Group Dwarf Galaxies

We have used Hubble Space Telescope ACS images to generate color-magnitude diagrams that reach below the magnitude of the horizontal branch in the Sculptor Group dwarf galaxies ESO294-010 and ESO410-005. In both diagrams blue horizontal branch stars are unambiguously present, a signature of the existence of an ancient stellar population whose age is comparable to that of the Galactic halo globular clusters. The result is reinforced by the discovery of numerous RR Lyrae variables in both galaxies. The occurrence of these stars in the first direct confirmation of the existence of ancient stellar populations beyond the Local Group and indicates that star formation can occur at the earliest epochs even in low density environments.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter