Fluidization of granular media wetted by liquid 4^4He

We explore experimentally the fluidization of vertically agitated PMMA spheres wetted by liquid $^4$He. By controlling the temperature around the $\lambda$ point we change the properties of the wetting liquid from a normal fluid (helium I) to a superfluid (helium II). For wetting by helium I, the critical acceleration for fluidization ($\Gamma_c$) shows a steep increase close to the saturation of the vapor pressure in the sample cell. For helium II wetting, $\Gamma_c$ starts to increase at about 75% saturation, indicating that capillary bridges are enhanced by the superflow of unsaturated helium film. Above saturation, $\Gamma_c$ enters a plateau regime where the capillary force between particles is independent of the bridge volume. The plateau value is found to vary with temperature and shows a peak at 2.1 K, which we attribute to the influence of the specific heat of liquid helium.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Accepted by Phys. Rev. E as a rapid communicatio

Proof of the Dubrovin conjecture and analysis of the tritronqu\'ee solutions of PIP_I

We show that the tritronqu\'ee solution of the Painlev\'e equation $\P1$, $y"=6y^2+z$ which is analytic for large $z$ with $\arg z \in (-\frac{3\pi}{5}, \pi)$ is pole-free in a region containing the full sector ${z \ne 0, \arg z \in [-\frac{3\pi}{5}, \pi]}$ and the disk ${z: |z| < 37/20}$. This proves in particular the Dubrovin conjecture, an open problem in the theory of Painlev\'e transcendents. The method, building on a technique developed in Costin, Huang, Schlag (2012), is general and constructive. As a byproduct, we obtain the value of the tritronqu\'ee and its derivative at zero within less than 1/100 rigorous error bounds

The effects of protected beams and their connections on the fire resistance of composite buildings

According to full-scale fire tests, it is noticed that tensile membrane action within the concrete floor slabs plays an important role in affecting the fire resistance of composite buildings. It is well known that the development of tensile membrane actions relies on the vertical support along the edges of the slab panel. However, there is at present a lack of research into the influence of vertical supports on the tensile membrane actions of the floor slabs. In this paper, the performances of a generic three dimensional 45m x 45m composite floor subjected to ISO834 Fire and Natural Fire are investigated. Different vertical support conditions and three steel meshes are applied in order to assess the impact of vertical supports on tensile membrane action of floor slabs. Unlike other existing large scale modelling which assumes the connections behave as pinned or rigid for simplicity, two robust 2-node connection element models developed by the authors are used to model the behaviour of end-plate and partial end-plate connections of composite structures under fire conditions. The impact of connections on the 3D behaviour of composite floor is taken into consideration. The load-transfer mechanisms of composite floor when connections fail due to axial tension, vertical shear and bending are investigated. Based on the results obtained, some design recommendations are proposed to enhance the fire resistance of composite buildings

Super-rigidity for CR embeddings of real hypersurfaces into hyperquadrics

Let Q^N_l\subset \bC\bP^{N+1} denote the standard real, nondegenerate hyperquadric of signature $l$ and M\subset \bC^{n+1} a real, Levi nondegenerate hypersurface of the same signature $l$. We shall assume that there is a holomorphic mapping H_0\colon U\to \bC\bP^{N_0+1}, where $U$ is some neighborhood of $M$ in \bC^{n+1}, such that $H_0(M)\subset Q^{N_0}_l$ but $H(U)\not\subset Q^{N_0}_l$. We show that if $N_0-n<l$ then, for any $N\geq N_0$, any holomorphic mapping H\colon U\to \bC\bP^{N+1} with $H(M)\subset Q^{N}_l$ and $H(U)\not\subset Q^{N_0}_l$ must be the standard linear embedding of $Q^{N_0}_l$ into $Q^N_l$ up to conjugation by automorphisms of $Q^{N_0}_l$ and $Q^N_l$

Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes as Shadow Masks for Nanogap Fabrication

We describe a technique for fabricating nanometer-scale gaps in Pt wires on insulating substrates, using individual single-walled carbon nanotubes as shadow masks during metal deposition. More than 80% of the devices display current-voltage dependencies characteristic of direct electron tunneling. Fits to the current-voltage data yield gap widths in the 0.8-2.3 nm range for these devices, dimensions that are well suited for single-molecule transport measurements

Weak gravity conjecture constraints on inflation

We consider the gravitational correction to the coupling of the scalar fields. Weak gravity conjecture says that the gravitational correction to the running of scalar coupling should be less than the contribution from scalar fields. For instance, a new scale $\Lambda=\lambda_4^{1/2}M_p$ sets a UV cutoff on the validity of the effective $\lambda_4 \phi^4$ theory. Furthermore, this conjecture implies a possible constraint on the inflation model, e.g. the chaotic inflation model might be in the swampland.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figs; monor corrections; some clarifying remarks added and the final version for publication in JHE