1,630 research outputs found
Influence of surfactants on the structure of titanium oxide gels : experiments and simulations
We report here on experimental and numerical studies of the influence of
surfactants on mineral gel synthesis. The modification of the gel structure
when the ratios water-precursor and water-surfactant vary is brought to the
fore by fractal dimension measures. A property of {\em polydispersity of the
initial hydrolysis} is proposed to explain these results, and is successfuly
tested through numerical experiments of three dimensional chemically limited
aggregation.Comment: 12 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses RevTe
Work-rate of substitutes in elite soccer: A preliminary study
The aim of this study was to investigate the work-rate of substitutes in professional soccer. A computerised player tracking system was used to assess the work-rates of second-half substitutes (11 midfielders and 14 forwards) in a French Ligue 1 club. Total distance, distance covered in five categories of movement intensity and recovery time between high-intensity efforts were evaluated. First- and second-half work-rates of the replaced players were compared. The performance of substitutes was compared to that of the players they replaced, to team-mates in the same position who remained on the pitch after the substitution and in relation to their habitual performances when starting games. No differences in work-rate between first- and second-halves were observed in all players who were substituted. In the second-half, a non-significant trend was observed in midfield substitutes who covered greater distances than the player they replaced whereas no differences were observed in forwards. Midfield substitutes covered a greater overall distance and distance at high-intensities (p<0.01) and had a lower recovery time between high-intensity efforts (p<0.01) compared to other midfield team-mates who remained on the pitch. Forwards covered less distance (p<0.01) in their first 10-minutes as a substitute compared to their habitual work-rate profile in the opening 10-minutes when starting matches while this finding was not observed in midfielders. These findings suggest that compared to midfield substitutes, forward substitutes did not utilise their full physical potential. Further investigation is warranted into the reasons behind this finding in order to optimise the work-rate contributions of forward substitutes
Fractionalization of minimal excitations in integer quantum Hall edge channels
A theoretical study of the single electron coherence properties of Lorentzian
and rectangular pulses is presented. By combining bosonization and the Floquet
scattering approach, the effect of interactions on a periodic source of voltage
pulses is computed exactly. When such excitations are injected into one of the
channels of a system of two copropagating quantum Hall edge channels, they
fractionalize into pulses whose charge and shape reflects the properties of
interactions. We show that the dependence of fractionalization induced
electron/hole pair production in the pulses amplitude contains clear signatures
of the fractionalization of the individual excitations. We propose an
experimental setup combining a source of Lorentzian pulses and an Hanbury Brown
and Twiss interferometer to measure interaction induced electron/hole pair
production and more generally to reconstruct single electron coherence of these
excitations before and after their fractionalization.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 1 tabl
New universality class for the three-dimensional XY model with correlated impurities: Application to He in aerogels
Encouraged by experiments on He in aerogels, we confine planar spins in
the pores of simulated aerogels (diffusion limited cluster-cluster aggregation)
in order to study the effect of quenched disorder on the critical behavior of
the three-dimensional XY model. Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling
are used to determine critical couplings and exponents. In agreement with
experiments, clear evidence of change in the thermal critical exponents
and is found at nonzero volume fractions of impurities. These changes
are explained in terms of {\it hidden} long-range correlations within disorder
distributions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Crystallization in a model glass: influence of the boundary conditions
Using molecular dynamics calculations and the Voronoi tessellation, we study
the evolution of the local structure of a soft-sphere glass versus temperature
starting from the liquid phase at different quenching rates. This study is done
for different sizes and for two different boundary conditions namely the usual
cubic periodic boundary conditions and the isotropic hyperspherical boundary
conditions for which the particles evolve on the surface of a hypersphere in
four dimensions. Our results show that for small system sizes, crystallization
can indeed be induced by the cubic boundary conditions. On the other hand we
show that finite size effects are more pronounced on the hypersphere and that
crystallization is artificially inhibited even for large system sizes.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Stochastic Model for the Motion of a Particle on an Inclined Rough Plane and the Onset of Viscous Friction
Experiments on the motion of a particle on an inclined rough plane have
yielded some surprising results. For example, it was found that the frictional
force acting on the ball is viscous, {\it i.e.} proportional to the velocity
rather than the expected square of the velocity. It was also found that, for a
given inclination of the plane, the velocity of the ball scales as a power of
its radius. We present here a one dimensional stochastic model based on the
microscopic equations of motion of the ball, which exhibits the same behaviour
as the experiments. This model yields a mechanism for the origins of the
viscous friction force and the scaling of the velocity with the radius. It also
reproduces other aspects of the phase diagram of the motion which we will
discuss.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 11 postscript figures in separate uuencoded fil
Fluctuating Bond Aggregation: a Model for Chemical Gel Formation
The Diffusion-Limited Cluster-Cluster Aggregation (DLCA) model is modified by
including cluster deformations using the {\it bond fluctuation} algorithm. From
3 computer simulations, it is shown that, below a given threshold value
of the volumic fraction , the realization of all intra-aggregate
bonding possibilities prevents the formation of a gelling network. For ,
the sol-gel transition occurs at a time which, in contrast to DLCA,
doesnot diverge with the box size. Several results are reported including small
angle scattering curves and possible applications are discussed.Comment: RevTex, 9 pages + 3 postscript figures appended using "uufiles". To
appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Effect of spin orbit scattering on the magnetic and superconducting properties of nearly ferromagnetic metals: application to granular Pt
We calculate the effect of scattering on the static, exchange enhanced, spin
susceptibility and show that in particular spin orbit scattering leads to a
reduction of the giant moments and spin glass freezing temperature due to
dilute magnetic impurities. The harmful spin fluctuation contribution to the
intra-grain pairing interaction is strongly reduced opening the way for BCS
superconductivity. We are thus able to explain the superconducting and magnetic
properties recently observed in granular Pt as due to scattering effects in
single small grains.Comment: 9 pages 3 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Letter
Size segregation and convection
The size segregation of granular materials in a vibrating container is
investigated using Molecular Dynamics. We find that the rising of larger
particles is accompanied by the existence of convection cells even in the case
of the lowest possible frequencies. The convection can, however, also be
triggered by the larger particle itself. The possibility of rising through this
mechanism strongly depends on the depth of the larger particle.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
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