21,922 research outputs found
Theoretical Framework for Microscopic Osmotic Phenomena
The basic ingredients of osmotic pressure are a solvent fluid with a soluble
molecular species which is restricted to a chamber by a boundary which is
permeable to the solvent fluid but impermeable to the solute molecules. For
macroscopic systems at equilibrium, the osmotic pressure is given by the
classical van't Hoff Law, which states that the pressure is proportional to the
product of the temperature and the difference of the solute concentrations
inside and outside the chamber. For microscopic systems the diameter of the
chamber may be comparable to the length-scale associated with the solute-wall
interactions or solute molecular interactions. In each of these cases, the
assumptions underlying the classical van't Hoff Law may no longer hold. In this
paper we develop a general theoretical framework which captures corrections to
the classical theory for the osmotic pressure under more general relationships
between the size of the chamber and the interaction length scales. We also show
that notions of osmotic pressure based on the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid
and the mechanical pressure on the bounding walls of the chamber must be
distinguished for microscopic systems. To demonstrate how the theoretical
framework can be applied, numerical results are presented for the osmotic
pressure associated with a polymer of N monomers confined in a spherical
chamber as the bond strength is varied
Orientational transition in nematic liquid crystals under oscillatory Poiseuille flow
We investigate the orientational behaviour of a homeotropically aligned
nematic liquid crystal subjected to an oscillatory plane Poiseuille flow
produced by an alternating pressure gradient. For small pressure amplitudes the
director oscillates within the flow plane around the initial homeotropic
position, whereas for higher amplitudes a spatially homogeneous transition to
out-of-plane director motion was observed for the first time. The orientational
transition was found to be supercritical and the measured frequency dependence
of the critical pressure amplitude in the range between 2 and 20 Hz was in
quantitative agreement with a recent theory.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Europhys. Let
Bias in judgement: Comparing individuals and groups
The relative susceptibility of individuals and groups to systematic judgmental biases is considered. An overview of the relevant empirical literature reveals no clear or general pattern. However, a theoretical analysis employing J. H. Davis's (1973) social decision scheme (SDS) model reveals that the relative magnitude of individual and group bias depends upon several factors, including group size, initial individual judgment, the magnitude of bias among individuals, the type of bias, and most of all, the group-judgment process. It is concluded that there can be no simple answer to the question, "Which are more biased, individuals or groups?," but the SDS model offers a framework for specifying some of the conditions under which individuals are both more and less biased than groups
Quasicrystals: Atomic coverings and windows are dual projects
In the window approach to quasicrystals, the atomic position space E_parallel
is embedded into a space E^n = E_parallel + E_perp. Windows are attached to
points of a lattice Lambda \in E^n. For standard 5fold and icosahedral tiling
models, the windows are perpendicular projections of dual Voronoi and Delone
cells from Lambda. Their cuts by the position space E_parallel mark tiles and
atomic positions. In the alternative covering approach, the position space is
covered by overlapping copies of a quasi-unit cell which carries a fixed atomic
configuration. The covering and window approach to quasicrystals are shown to
be dual projects: D- and V- clusters are defined as projections to position
space E_parallel of Delone or Voronoi cells. Decagonal V-clusters in the
Penrose tiling, related to the decagon covering, and two types of pentagonal
D-clusters in the triangle tiling of 5fold point symmetry with their windows
are analyzed. They are linked, cover position space and have definite windows.
For functions compatible with the tilings they form domains of definition. For
icosahedral tilings the V-clusters are Kepler triacontahedra, the D-clusters
are two icosahedra and one dodecahedron.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, see also
http://homepages.uni-tuebingen.de/peter.kramer/ corrections, appendix A,B ne
Antechamber facilitates loading and unloading of vacuum furnace
Antechamber facilitates the use of a furnace in which materials are heat treated in a high vacuum or a gas atmosphere. It has a high vacuum pumping system, a means for backfilling with a selected gas, an access door, glove ports, and a motor driven platform
Axial symmetry and conformal Killing vectors
Axisymmetric spacetimes with a conformal symmetry are studied and it is shown
that, if there is no further conformal symmetry, the axial Killing vector and
the conformal Killing vector must commute. As a direct consequence, in
conformally stationary and axisymmetric spacetimes, no restriction is made by
assuming that the axial symmetry and the conformal timelike symmetry commute.
Furthermore, we prove that in axisymmetric spacetimes with another symmetry
(such as stationary and axisymmetric or cylindrically symmetric spacetimes) and
a conformal symmetry, the commutator of the axial Killing vector with the two
others mush vanish or else the symmetry is larger than that originally
considered. The results are completely general and do not depend on Einstein's
equations or any particular matter content.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, no figure
Low-Frequency Spectral Turn-Overs in Millisecond Pulsars Studied from Imaging Observations
Measurements of pulsar flux densities are of great importance for
understanding the pulsar emission mechanism and for predictions of pulsar
survey yields and the pulsar population at large. Typically these flux
densities are determined from phase-averaged "pulse profiles", but this method
has limited applicability at low frequencies because the observed pulses can
easily be spread out by interstellar effects like scattering or dispersion,
leading to a non-pulsed continuum component that is necessarily ignored in this
type of analysis. In particular for the class of the millisecond pulsars (MSPs)
at frequencies below 200MHz, such interstellar effects can seriously compromise
de- tectability and measured flux densities. In this paper we investigate MSP
spectra based on a complementary approach, namely through investigation of
archival con- tinuum imaging data. Even though these images lose sensitivity to
pulsars since the on-pulse emission is averaged with off-pulse noise, they are
insensitive to effects from scattering and provide a reliable way to determine
the flux density and spectral indices of MSPs based on both pulsed and unpulsed
components. Using the 74MHz VLSSr as well as the 325MHz WENSS and 1.4GHz NVSS
catalogues, we investigate the imaging flux densities of MSPs and evaluate the
likelihood of spectral turn-overs in this population. We determine three new
MSP spectral indices and identify six new MSPs with likely spectral turn-overs.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA
Anomalous hydrodynamics and "normal" fluids in rapidly rotating BECs
In rapidly rotating bose systems we show that there is a region of anomalous
hydrodynamics whilst the system is still condensed, which coincides with the
mean field quantum Hall regime. An immediate consequence is the absence of a
normal fluid in any conventional sense. However, even the superfluid
hydrodynamics is not described by conventional Bernoulli and continuity
equations. We show there are kinematic constraints which connect spatial
variations of density and phase, that the positions of vortices are not the
simplest description of the dynamics of such a fluid (despite their utility in
describing the instantaneous state of the condensate) and that the most compact
description allows solution of some illuminating examples of motion. We
demonstrate, inter alia, a very simple relation between vortices and surface
waves. We show the surface waves can form a "normal fluid" which absorbs energy
and angular momentum from vortex motion in the trap. The time scale of this
process is sensitive to the initial configuration of the vortices, which can
lead to long-lived vortex patches - perhaps related to those observed at JILA.Comment: 4 pages; 1 sentence and references modifie
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