39,443 research outputs found
Superrotation planetary atmospheres: Mechanical analogy, angular momentum budget and simulation of the spin up process
Superrotation rates observed in planetary atmospheres are analyzed based on the concept of a thermally driven zonally symmetric circulation. Specifically, how this superrotation is produced and maintained against the tendency for friction to oppose differential motions between the atmosphere and the underlying planet is addressed. The time evolution of a fluid leading from corotation under uniform heating to superrotation under globally nonuniform heating is simulated using a three dimensional zonally symmetric spectral model and Laplace transformation. The increased tendency toward geostrophy combined with the increase of surface pressure toward the poles (due to meridional mass transport), induces the atmosphere to subrotate temporarily at lower altitudes. The resulting viscous shear near the surface thus permits angular momentum to flow from the planet into the atmosphere where it propagates upwards and, combined with the change in moment of inertia, produces large superrotation rates at higher viscosities
Branching process approach for Boolean bipartite networks of metabolic reactions
The branching process (BP) approach has been successful in explaining the
avalanche dynamics in complex networks. However, its applications are mainly
focused on unipartite networks, in which all nodes are of the same type. Here,
motivated by a need to understand avalanche dynamics in metabolic networks, we
extend the BP approach to a particular bipartite network composed of Boolean
AND and OR logic gates. We reduce the bipartite network into a unipartite
network by integrating out OR gates, and obtain the effective branching ratio
for the remaining AND gates. Then the standard BP approach is applied to the
reduced network, and the avalanche size distribution is obtained. We test the
BP results with simulations on the model networks and two microbial metabolic
networks, demonstrating the usefulness of the BP approach
Control of supersonic wind-tunnel noise by laminarization of nozzle-wall boundary layer
One of the principal design requirements for a quiet supersonic or hypersonic wind tunnel is to maintain laminar boundary layers on the nozzle walls and thereby reduce disturbance levels in the test flow. The conditions and apparent reasons for laminar boundary layers which have been observed during previous investigations on the walls of several nozzles for exit Mach numbers from 2 to 20 are reviewed. Based on these results, an analysis and an assessment of nozzle design requirements for laminar boundary layers including low Reynolds numbers, high acceleration, suction slots, wall temperature control, wall roughness, and area suction are presented
Enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity via multi-photon coherence
We propose a new method of resonant enhancement of optical Kerr nonlinearity
using multi-level atomic coherence. The enhancement is accompanied by
suppression of the other linear and nonlinear susceptibility terms of the
medium. We show that the effect results in a modification of the nonlinear
Faraday rotation of light propagating in an Rb87 vapor cell by changing the
ellipticity of the light.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures Submitted to Optics Letter
Fluctuations of the heat flux of a one-dimensional hard particle gas
Momentum-conserving one-dimensional models are known to exhibit anomalous
Fourier's law, with a thermal conductivity varying as a power law of the system
size. Here we measure, by numerical simulations, several cumulants of the heat
flux of a one-dimensional hard particle gas. We find that the cumulants, like
the conductivity, vary as power laws of the system size. Our results also
indicate that cumulants higher than the second follow different power laws when
one compares the ring geometry at equilibrium and the linear case in contact
with two heat baths (at equal or unequal temperatures). keywords: current
fluctuations, anomalous Fourier law, hard particle gasComment: 5 figure
Breakdown of Hydrodynamics in a Simple One-Dimensional Fluid
We investigate the behavior of a one-dimensional diatomic fluid under a shock
wave excitation. We find that the properties of the resulting shock wave are in
striking contrast with those predicted by hydrodynamic and kinetic approaches,
e.g., the hydrodynamic profiles relax algebraically toward their equilibrium
values. Deviations from local thermodynamic equilibrium are persistent,
decaying as a power law of the distance to the shock layer. Non-equipartition
is observed infinitely far from the shock wave, and the velocity-distribution
moments exhibit multiscaling. These results question the validity of simple
hydrodynamic theories to understand collective behavior in 1d fluids.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
On the Formation of Galaxy Halos: Comparing NGC 5128 and the Local Group Members
The metallicity distribution function (MDF) for the old red-giant stars in
the halo of NGC 5128, the nearest giant elliptical galaxy, is virtually
identical with the MDF for the old-disk stars in the LMC and also strongly
resembles the halo MDF in M31. These galaxies all have high mean halo
metallicities ( ~ -0.4$) with very small proportions of low-metallicity
stars. These observations reinforce the view that metal-rich halos are quite
normal for large galaxies of all types. Such systems are unlikely to have built
up by accretion of pre-existing, gas-free small satellite galaxies, unless
these satellites had an extremely shallow mass distribution (d log N / d log M
> -1). We suggest that the halo of NGC 5128 is more likely to have assembled
from hierarchical merging of gas-rich lumps in which the bulk of star formation
took place during or after the merger stage.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, plus 3 figures in separate postscript files;
Astronomical Journal, in press for December 200
Large-N theory of strongly commensurate dirty-bosons: absence of transition in two dimensions
The spherical limit of strongly commensurate dirty-bosons is studied
perturbatively at weak disorder and numerically at strong disorder in two
dimensions (2D). We argue that disorder is not perfectly screened by
interactions, and consequently that the ground state in the effective Anderson
localisation problem always remains localised. As a result there is only a
gapped Mott insulator phase in the theory. Comparisons with other studies and
the parallel with disordered fermions in 2D are discussed. We conjecture that
while for the physical cases N=2 (XY) and N=1 (Ising) the theory should have
the ordered phase, it may not for N=3 (Heisenberg).Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Minor typographical errors correcte
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