6,480 research outputs found
Irreversible Processes in a Universe modelled as a mixture of a Chaplygin gas and radiation
The evolution of a Universe modelled as a mixture of a Chaplygin gas and
radiation is determined by taking into account irreversible processes. This
mixture could interpolate periods of a radiation dominated, a matter dominated
and a cosmological constant dominated Universe. The results of a Universe
modelled by this mixture are compared with the results of a mixture whose
constituents are radiation and quintessence. Among other results it is shown
that: (a) for both models there exists a period of a past deceleration with a
present acceleration; (b) the slope of the acceleration of the Universe
modelled as a mixture of a Chaplygin gas with radiation is more pronounced than
that modelled as a mixture of quintessence and radiation; (c) the energy
density of the Chaplygin gas tends to a constant value at earlier times than
the energy density of quintessence does; (d) the energy density of radiation
for both mixtures coincide and decay more rapidly than the energy densities of
the Chaplygin gas and of quintessence.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, to be published in GR
Ground state of two unlike charged colloids: An analogy with ionic bonding
In this letter, we study the ground state of two spherical macroions of
identical radius, but asymmetric bare charge ((Q_{A}>Q_{B})). Electroneutrality
of the system is insured by the presence of the surrounding divalent
counterions. Using Molecular Dynamics simulations within the framework of the
primitive model, we show that the ground state of such a system consists of an
overcharged and an undercharged colloid. For a given macroion separation the
stability of these ionized-like states is a function of the difference
((\sqrt{N_{A}}-\sqrt{N_{B}})) of neutralizing counterions (N_{A}) and (N_{B}).
Furthermore the degree of ionization, or equivalently, the degree of
overcharging, is also governed by the distance separation of the macroions. The
natural analogy with ionic bonding is briefly discussed.Comment: published versio
Polymers near Metal Surfaces: Selective Adsorption and Global Conformations
We study the properties of a polycarbonate melt near a nickel surface as a
model system for the interaction of polymers with metal surfaces by employing a
multiscale modeling approach. For bulk properties a suitably coarse grained
bead spring model is simulated by molecular dynamics (MD) methods with model
parameters directly derived from quantum chemical calculations. The surface
interactions are parameterized and incorporated by extensive quantum mechanical
density functional calculations using the Car-Parrinello method. We find strong
chemisorption of chain ends, resulting in significant modifications of the melt
composition when compared to an inert wall.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures (2 color), 1 tabl
Non-linear terms in 2D cosmology
In this work we investigate the behavior of two-dimensional (2D) cosmological
models, starting with the Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) theory of gravitation. A
geometrical term, non-linear in the scalar curvature , is added to the JT
dynamics to test if it could play the role of dark energy in a 2D expanding
universe. This formulation makes possible, first, the description of an early
(inflationary) 2D universe, when the van der Waals (vdW) equation of state is
used to construct the energy-momentum tensor of the gravitational sources.
Second, it is found that for later times the non-linear term in can
generate an old 2D universe in accelerated expansion, where an ordinary matter
dominated era evolves into a decelerated/accelerated transition, giving to the
dark energy effects a geometrical origin. The results emerge through numerical
analysis, following the evolution in time of the scale factor, its
acceleration, and the energy densities of constituents.Comment: tex file plus figures in two zipped files. To appear in Europhys.
Let
Confinement effects on glass forming liquids probed by DMA
Many molecular glass forming liquids show a shift of the glass transition T-g
to lower temperatures when the liquid is confined into mesoporous host
matrices. Two contrary explanations for this effect are given in literature:
First, confinement induced acceleration of the dynamics of the molecules leads
to an effective downshift of T-g increasing with decreasing pore size. Second,
due to thermal mismatch between the liquid and the surrounding host matrix,
negative pressure develops inside the pores with decreasing temperature, which
also shifts T-g to lower temperatures. Here we present dynamic mechanical
analysis measurements of the glass forming liquid salol in Vycor and Gelsil
with pore sizes of d=2.6, 5.0 and 7.5 nm. The dynamic complex elastic
susceptibility data can be consistently described with the assumption of two
relaxation processes inside the pores: A surface induced slowed down relaxation
due to interaction with rough pore interfaces and a second relaxation within
the core of the pores. This core relaxation time is reduced with decreasing
pore size d, leading to a downshift of T-g proportional to 1/d in perfect
agreement with recent differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements.
Thermal expansion measurements of empty and salol filled mesoporous samples
revealed that the contribution of negative pressure to the downshift of T-g is
small (<30%) and the main effect is due to the suppression of dynamically
correlated regions of size xi when the pore size xi approaches
Fokker-Planck type equations for a simple gas and for a semi-relativistic Brownian motion from a relativistic kinetic theory
A covariant Fokker-Planck type equation for a simple gas and an equation for
the Brownian motion are derived from a relativistic kinetic theory based on the
Boltzmann equation. For the simple gas the dynamic friction four-vector and the
diffusion tensor are identified and written in terms of integrals which take
into account the collision processes. In the case of Brownian motion, the
Brownian particles are considered as non-relativistic whereas the background
gas behaves as a relativistic gas. A general expression for the
semi-relativistic viscous friction coefficient is obtained and the particular
case of constant differential cross-section is analyzed for which the
non-relativistic and ultra relativistic limiting cases are calculated.Comment: To appear in PR
Coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity in the hybrid ruthenate-cuprate compound RuSr_2GdCu_2O_8 studied by muon spin rotation (\mu SR) and DC-magnetization
We have investigated the magnetic and the superconducting properties of the
hybrid ruthenate-cuprate compound RuSr_{2}GdCu_{2}O_{8} by means of zero-field
muon spin rotation- (ZF-SR) and DC magnetization measurements. The
DC-magnetisation data establish that this material exhibits ferromagnetic order
of the Ru-moments () below T_{Curie} = 133 K and
becomes superconducting at a much lower temperature T_c = 16 K. The ZF-SR
experiments indicate that the ferromagnetic phase is homogeneous on a
microscopic scale and accounts for most of the sample volume. They also suggest
that the magnetic order is not significantly modified at the onset of
superconductivity.Comment: improved version submitted to Phys. Rev.
The Role of Macrophages During Zebrafish Injury and Tissue Regeneration Under Infectious and Non-Infectious Conditions.
The future of regenerative medicine relies on our understanding of the mechanistic processes that underlie tissue regeneration, highlighting the need for suitable animal models. For many years, zebrafish has been exploited as an adequate model in the field due to their very high regenerative capabilities. In this organism, regeneration of several tissues, including the caudal fin, is dependent on a robust epimorphic regenerative process, typified by the formation of a blastema, consisting of highly proliferative cells that can regenerate and completely grow the lost limb within a few days. Recent studies have also emphasized the crucial role of distinct macrophage subpopulations in tissue regeneration, contributing to the early phases of inflammation and promoting tissue repair and regeneration in late stages once inflammation is resolved. However, while most studies were conducted under non-infectious conditions, this situation does not necessarily reflect all the complexities of the interactions associated with injury often involving entry of pathogenic microorganisms. There is emerging evidence that the presence of infectious pathogens can largely influence and modulate the host immune response and the regenerative processes, which is sometimes more representative of the true complexities underlying regenerative mechanics. Herein, we present the current knowledge regarding the paths involved in the repair of non-infected and infected wounds using the zebrafish model
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