15,203 research outputs found
Shear-stress controlled dynamics of nematic complex fluids
Based on a mesoscopic theory we investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of a
sheared nematic liquid, with the control parameter being the shear stress
(rather than the usual shear rate, ). To
this end we supplement the equations of motion for the orientational order
parameters by an equation for , which then becomes time-dependent.
Shearing the system from an isotropic state, the stress- controlled flow
properties turn out to be essentially identical to those at fixed .
Pronounced differences when the equilibrium state is nematic. Here, shearing at
controlled yields several non-equilibrium transitions between
different dynamic states, including chaotic regimes. The corresponding
stress-controlled system has only one transition from a regular periodic into a
stationary (shear-aligned) state. The position of this transition in the
- plane turns out to be tunable by the delay
time entering our control scheme for . Moreover, a sudden
change of the control method can {\it stabilize} the chaotic states appearing
at fixed .Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure
Magnon Heat Conductivity and Mean Free Paths in Two-Leg Spin Ladders: A Model-Independent Determination
The magnon thermal conductivity of the spin ladders
in has been investigated at low doping levels
, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75. The Zn-impurities generate nonmagnetic
defects which define an upper limit for and therefore allow
a clear-cut relation between and to
be established independently of any model. Over a large temperature range we
observe a progressive suppression of with increasing
Zn-content and find in particular that with respect to pure is strongly suppressed even in
the case of tiny impurity densities where ~{\AA}.
This shows unambiguously that large ~{\AA} which
have been reported for and on basis of a kinetic model are in the correct order
of magnitude
Stratospheric impact on tropospheric ozone variability and trends: 1990–2009
The influence of stratospheric ozone on the interannual variability and trends in tropospheric ozone is evaluated between 30 and 90° N from 1990–2009 using ozone measurements and a global chemical transport model, the Community Atmospheric Model with chemistry (CAM-chem). Long-term measurements from ozonesondes, at 150 and 500 hPa, and the Measurements of OZone and water vapour by in-service Airbus aircraft programme (MOZAIC), at 500 hPa, are analyzed over Japan, Canada, the Eastern US and Northern and Central Europe. The measurements generally emphasize northern latitudes, although the simulation suggests that measurements over the Canadian, Northern and Central European regions are representative of the large-scale interannual ozone variability from 30 to 90° N at 500 hPa. CAM-chem is run with input meteorology from the National Center for Environmental Prediction; a tagging methodology is used to identify the stratospheric contribution to tropospheric ozone concentrations. A variant of the synthetic ozone tracer (synoz) is used to represent stratospheric ozone. Both the model and measurements indicate that on large spatial scales stratospheric interannual ozone variability drives significant tropospheric variability at 500 hPa and the surface. In particular, the simulation and the measurements suggest large stratospheric influence at the surface sites of Mace Head (Ireland) and Jungfraujoch (Switzerland) as well as many 500 hPa measurement locations. Both the measurements and simulation suggest the stratosphere has contributed to tropospheric ozone trends. In many locations between 30–90° N 500 hPa ozone significantly increased from 1990–2000, but has leveled off since (from 2000–2009). The simulated global ozone budget suggests global stratosphere-troposphere exchange increased in 1998–1999 in association with a global ozone anomaly. Discrepancies between the simulated and measured ozone budget include a large underestimation of measured ozone variability and discrepancies in long-term stratospheric ozone trends. This suggests the need for more sophisticated simulations including better representations of stratospheric chemistry and circulation
Fluctuations of topological disclination lines in nematics: renormalization of the string model
The fluctuation eigenmode problem of the nematic topological disclination
line with strength is solved for the complete nematic tensor order
parameter. The line tension concept of a defect line is assessed, the line
tension is properly defined. Exact relaxation rates and thermal amplitudes of
the fluctuations are determined. It is shown that within the simple string
model of the defect line the amplitude of its thermal fluctuations is
significantly underestimated due to the neglect of higher radial modes. The
extent of universality of the results concerning other systems possessing line
defects is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
A possible new phase of antagonistic nematogens in a disorienting field
A simple model is proposed for nematogenic molecules that favor perpendicular
orientations as well as parallel ones. (Charged rods, for example, show this
antagonistic tendency.) When a small disorienting field is applied along , a
low density phase of nematic order parameter coexists with a
dense biaxial nematic . (At zero field, becomes isotropic and
uniaxial.) But at stronger fields, a new phase , invariant under
rotations around the field axis, appears in between and .
Prospects for finding the phase experimentally are briefly discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in PR
Ballistic heat transport of quantum spin excitations as seen in SrCuO2
Fundamental conservation laws predict ballistic, i.e., dissipationless
transport behaviour in one-dimensional quantum magnets. Experimental evidence,
however, for such anomalous transport has been lacking ever since. Here we
provide experimental evidence for ballistic heat transport in a S=1/2
Heisenberg chain. In particular, we investigate high purity samples of the
chain cuprate SrCuO2 and observe a huge magnetic heat conductivity
. An extremely large spinon mean free path of more than a
micrometer demonstrates that is only limited by extrinsic
scattering processes which is a clear signature of ballistic transport in the
underlying spin model
Ray-tracing in pseudo-complex General Relativity
Motivated by possible observations of the black hole candidate in the center
of our galaxy and the galaxy M87, ray-tracing methods are applied to both
standard General Relativity (GR) and a recently proposed extension, the
pseudo-complex General Relativity (pc-GR). The correction terms due to the
investigated pc-GR model lead to slower orbital motions close to massive
objects. Also the concept of an innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) is
modified for the pc-GR model, allowing particles to get closer to the central
object for most values of the spin parameter than in GR. Thus, the
accretion disk, surrounding a massive object, is brighter in pc-GR than in GR.
Iron K emission line profiles are also calculated as those are good
observables for regions of strong gravity. Differences between the two theories
are pointed out.Comment: revised versio
A Coupled Map Lattice Model for Rheological Chaos in Sheared Nematic Liquid Crystals
A variety of complex fluids under shear exhibit complex spatio-temporal
behaviour, including what is now termed rheological chaos, at moderate values
of the shear rate. Such chaos associated with rheological response occurs in
regimes where the Reynolds number is very small. It must thus arise as a
consequence of the coupling of the flow to internal structural variables
describing the local state of the fluid. We propose a coupled map lattice (CML)
model for such complex spatio-temporal behaviour in a passively sheared nematic
liquid crystal, using local maps constructed so as to accurately describe the
spatially homogeneous case. Such local maps are coupled diffusively to nearest
and next nearest neighbours to mimic the effects of spatial gradients in the
underlying equations of motion. We investigate the dynamical steady states
obtained as parameters in the map and the strength of the spatial coupling are
varied, studying local temporal properties at a single site as well as
spatio-temporal features of the extended system. Our methods reproduce the full
range of spatio-temporal behaviour seen in earlier one-dimensional studies
based on partial differential equations. We report results for both the one and
two-dimensional cases, showing that spatial coupling favours uniform or
periodically time-varying states, as intuitively expected. We demonstrate and
characterize regimes of spatio-temporal intermittency out of which chaos
develops. Our work suggests that such simplified lattice representations of the
spatio-temporal dynamics of complex fluids under shear may provide useful
insights as well as fast and numerically tractable alternatives to continuum
representations.Comment: 32 pages, single column, 20 figure
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