4,022 research outputs found
Modeling for Active Control of Combustion and Thermally Driven Oscillations
Organized oscillations excited and sustained by high densities of energy release in combustion chambers have long caused serious problems in development of propulsion systems. The amplitudes often become sufficiently large to cause unacceptable structural vibrations. Because the oscillations are self-excited, they reach limiting amplitudes (limit cycles) only because of the action of nonlinear processes. Traditionally, satisfactory behavior
has been achieved through a combination of trial-and-error
design and testing, with control always involving passive means: geometrical modifications, changes of propellant composition, or devices to enhance dissipation of acoustic energy. Active control has been applied only to small-scale laboratory devices, but the limited success suggests the possibility of serious applications to full-scale propulsion systems. Realization of that potential rests on further experimental work, combined with deeper understanding of the mechanisms causing the oscillations and of the physical behavior of the systems. Effective design of active control systems will require faithful modeling of the relevant processes over broad frequency ranges covering the spectra of natural modes. This paper will cover the general character of the linear and nonlinear behavior of combustion systems, with special attention to acoustics and the mechanisms of excitation.
The discussion is intended to supplement the paper by Doyle et al. concerned primarily with controls issues and the observed behavior of simple laboratory devices
Polarons in semiconductor quantum-dots and their role in the quantum kinetics of carrier relaxation
While time-dependent perturbation theory shows inefficient carrier-phonon
scattering in semiconductor quantum dots, we demonstrate that a quantum kinetic
description of carrier-phonon interaction predicts fast carrier capture and
relaxation. The considered processes do not fulfill energy conservation in
terms of free-carrier energies because polar coupling of localized quantum-dot
states strongly modifies this picture.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.
Relaxation properties of the quantum kinetics of carrier-LO-phonon interaction in quantum wells and quantum dots
The time evolution of optically excited carriers in semiconductor quantum
wells and quantum dots is analyzed for their interaction with LO-phonons. Both
the full two-time Green's function formalism and the one-time approximation
provided by the generalized Kadanoff-Baym ansatz are considered, in order to
compare their description of relaxation processes. It is shown that the
two-time quantum kinetics leads to thermalization in all the examined cases,
which is not the case for the one-time approach in the intermediate-coupling
regime, even though it provides convergence to a steady state. The
thermalization criterion used is the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger condition.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Multiorbital tunneling ionization of the CO molecule
We coincidently measure the molecular frame photoelectron angular
distribution and the ion sum-momentum distribution of single and double
ionization of CO molecules by using circularly and elliptically polarized
femtosecond laser pulses, respectively. The orientation dependent ionization
rates for various kinetic energy releases allow us to individually identify the
ionizations of multiple orbitals, ranging from the highest occupied to the next
two lower-lying molecular orbitals for various channels observed in our
experiments. Not only the emission of a single electron, but also the
sequential tunneling dynamics of two electrons from multiple orbitals are
traced step by step. Our results confirm that the shape of the ionizing
orbitals determine the strong laser field tunneling ionization in the CO
molecule, whereas the linear Stark effect plays a minor role.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication by Physical Review
Letter
Influence of carrier-carrier and carrier-phonon correlations on optical absorption and gain in quantum-dot systems
A microscopic theory is used to study the optical properties of semiconductor
quantum dots. The dephasing of a coherent excitation and line-shifts of the
interband transitions due to carrier-carrier Coulomb interaction and
carrier-phonon interaction are determined from a quantum kinetic treatment of
correlation processes. We investigate the density dependence of both mechanisms
and clarify the importance of various dephasing channels involving the
localized and delocalized states of the system.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
Intraocular pressure fluctuations in professional brass and woodwind musicians during common playing conditions.
BACKGROUND: We investigated the effects on intraocular pressure (IOP) and blood pressure (BP) of playing brass and woodwind instruments by monitoring IOP and BP in a representative group of professional musicians under a variety of common playing conditions. METHODS: IOP and BP measurements were recorded from 37 brass and 15 woodwind instrument players, before and after playing tones of low, middle and high frequency. We also measured IOP and BP before and during playing common exercises of 10 minutes duration, as well as after playing a sustained high-pitched tone, to test for changes in IOP under conditions of maximum effort. RESULTS: Playing tones on brass and woodwind instruments causes a temporary elevation in IOP and BP, depending on the tone frequency: brass instrument players showed a significant elevation after playing high and middle frequency tones (p < 0.0001) whereas woodwind instrument players showed a significant increase only for high frequencies (e.g., oboe, 17 ± 2.9 mm Hg to 21 ± 4.4 mm Hg; p = 0.017). Playing a typical exercise of 10 minutes temporarily increased IOP in both groups of musicians. Finally, playing a sustained tone of high pitch caused a significant elevation in IOP in brass instrument players only (16.6 ± 3.5 mm Hg to 23.3 ± 8.9 mm Hg; p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The temporary and sometimes dramatic elevations and fluctuations in IOP observed in this study, coupled with daily exposure to instrument play, puts professional wind instrument players at increased risk of developing glaucoma. Consequently, these musicians should be monitored for signs of glaucoma, especially those with co-existing risk factors
Ion impact induced Interatomic Coulombic Decay in neon and argon dimers
We investigate the contribution of Interatomic Coulombic Decay induced by ion
impact in neon and argon dimers (Ne and Ar) to the production of low
energy electrons. Our experiments cover a broad range of perturbation strengths
and reaction channels. We use 11.37 MeV/u S, 0.125 MeV/u He,
0.1625 MeV/u He and 0.150 MeV/u He as projectiles and study
ionization, single and double electron transfer to the projectile as well as
projectile electron loss processes. The application of a COLTRIMS reaction
microscope enables us to retrieve the three-dimensional momentum vectors of the
ion pairs of the fragmenting dimer into Ne/Ne and
Ar/Ar (q = 1, 2, 3) in coincidence with at least one emitted
electron
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