389 research outputs found
Coefficient of normal restitution of viscous particles and cooling rate of granular gases
We investigate the cooling rate of a gas of inelastically interacting
particles. When we assume velocity dependent coefficients of restitution the
material cools down slower than with constant restitution. This behavior might
have large influence to clustering and structure formation processes.Comment: 3 figures, Phys. Rev. E (in press
Spontaneous Interlayer Coherence in Double-Layer Quantum Hall Systems: Symmetry Breaking Interactions, In-Plane Fields and Phase Solitons
At strong magnetic fields double-layer two-dimensional-electron-gas systems
can form an unusual broken symmetry state with spontaneous inter-layer phase
coherence. The system can be mapped to an equivalent system of pseudospin
particles with pseudospin-dependent interactions and easy-plane magnetic order.
In this paper we discuss how the presence of a weak interlayer tunneling term
alters the properties of double-layer systems when the broken symmetry is
present. We use the energy functional and equations of motion derived earlier
to evaluate the zero-temperature response functions of the double-layer system
and use our results to discuss analogies between this system and
Josephson-coupled superconducting films. We also present a qualitative picture
of the low-energy charged excitations of this system. We show that parallel
fields induce a highly collective phase transition to an incommensurate state
with broken translational symmetry.Comment: 26 pages, RevTex, 8 postscript figures (submitted to Phys. Rev. B
Prenatal maternal plasma DNA screening for cystic fibrosis: A computer modelling study of screening performance.
Background: Prenatal cystic fibrosis (CF) screening is currently based on determining the carrier status of both parents. We propose a new method based only on the analysis of DNA in maternal plasma. Methods: The method relies on the quantitative amplification of the CF gene to determine the percentage of DNA fragments in maternal plasma at targeted CF mutation sites that carry a CF mutation. Computer modelling was carried out to estimate the distributions of these percentages in pregnancies with and without a fetus affected with CF. This was done according to the number of DNA fragments counted and fetal fraction, using the 23 CF mutations recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics for parental carrier testing. Results: The estimated detection rate (sensitivity) is 70% (100% of those detected using the 23 mutations), the false-positive rate 0.002%, and the odds of being affected given a positive screening result 14:1, compared with 70%, 0.12%, and 1:3, respectively, with current prenatal screening based on parental carrier testing. Conclusions: Compared with current screening practice based on parental carrier testing, the proposed method would substantially reduce the number of invasive diagnostic procedures (amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling) without reducing the CF detection rate. The expected advantages of the proposed method justify carrying out the necessary test development for use in a clinical validation study.The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work
A nonlinear hydrodynamical approach to granular materials
We propose a nonlinear hydrodynamical model of granular materials. We show
how this model describes the formation of a sand pile from a homogeneous
distribution of material under gravity, and then discuss a simulation of a
rotating sandpile which shows, in qualitative agreement with experiment, a
static and dynamic angle of repose.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, RevTeX4; minor changes to wording and some
additional discussion. Accepted by Phys. Rev.
Exact calculation of the skyrmion lifetime in a ferromagnetic Bose condensate
The tunneling rate of a skyrmion in ferromagnetic spin-1/2 Bose condensates
through an off-centered potential barrier is calculated exactly with the
periodic instanton method. The prefactor is shown to depend on the chemical
potential of the core atoms, at which level the atom tunnels. Our results can
be readily extended to estimate the lifetime of other topological excitations
in the condensate, such as vortices and monopoles.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, to appear Phys. Rev.
Structure and Instability of High-Density Equations for Traffic Flow
Similar to the treatment of dense gases, fluid-dynamic equations for the
dynamics of congested vehicular traffic are derived from Enskog-like kinetic
equations. These contain additional terms due to the anisotropic vehicle
interactions. The calculations are carried out up to Navier-Stokes order. A
linear instability analysis indicates an additional kind of instability
compared to previous macroscopic traffic models. The relevance for describing
granular flows is outlined.Comment: For related work see
http://www.theo2.physik.uni-stuttgart.de/helbing.htm
Ladder operators and differential equations for multiple orthogonal polynomials
In this paper, we obtain the ladder operators and associated compatibility
conditions for the type I and the type II multiple orthogonal polynomials.
These ladder equations extend known results for orthogonal polynomials and can
be used to derive the differential equations satisfied by multiple orthogonal
polynomials. Our approach is based on Riemann-Hilbert problems and the
Christoffel-Darboux formula for multiple orthogonal polynomials, and the
nearest-neighbor recurrence relations. As an illustration, we give several
explicit examples involving multiple Hermite and Laguerre polynomials, and
multiple orthogonal polynomials with exponential weights and cubic potentials.Comment: 28 page
Stability and collective excitations of a two-component Bose-condensed gas: a moment approach
The dynamics of a two-component dilute Bose gas of atoms at zero temperature
is described in the mean field approximation by a two-component
Gross-Pitaevskii Equation. We solve this equation assuming a Gaussian shape for
the wavefunction, where the free parameters of the trial wavefunction are
determined using a moment method. We derive equilibrium states and the phase
diagrams for the stability for positive and negative s-wave scattering lengths,
and obtain the low energy excitation frequencies corresponding to the
collective motion of the two Bose condensates.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
A model for collisions in granular gases
We propose a model for collisions between particles of a granular material
and calculate the restitution coefficients for the normal and tangential motion
as functions of the impact velocity from considerations of dissipative
viscoelastic collisions. Existing models of impact with dissipation as well as
the classical Hertz impact theory are included in the present model as special
cases. We find that the type of collision (smooth, reflecting or sticky) is
determined by the impact velocity and by the surface properties of the
colliding grains. We observe a rather nontrivial dependence of the tangential
restitution coefficient on the impact velocity.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Introduction to a culturally sensitive measure of well-being: Combining life satisfaction and interdependent happiness across 49 different cultures
How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when well-being is being measured according to the way people in country A think about well-being? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of well-being varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different models of selfhood. Furthermore, we show that rankings of societal well-being based on life satisfaction tend to underestimate the contribution from interdependent happiness. We introduce a new culturally sensitive method for calculating societal well-being, and examine its construct validity by testing for associations with the experience of emotions and with individualism-collectivism. This new culturally sensitive approach represents a slight, yet important improvement in measuring well-being.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
- …