368 research outputs found
Simple Model for the Deformation-Induced Relaxation of Glassy Polymers
Glassy polymers show “strain hardening”: at constant extensional load, their flow first accelerates, then arrests. Recent experiments have found this to be accompanied by a striking and unexplained dip in the segmental relaxation time. Here we explain such behavior by combining a minimal model of flow-induced liquefaction of a glass with a description of the stress carried by strained polymers, creating a nonfactorable interplay between aging and strain-induced rejuvenation. Under constant load, liquefaction of segmental motion permits strong flow that creates polymer-borne stress. This slows the deformation enough for the segmental modes to revitrify, causing strain hardening
Viscoelastic Phase Separation in Shear Flow
We numerically investigate viscoelastic phase separation in polymer solutions
under shear using a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model. The gross variables
in our model are the polymer volume fraction and a conformation tensor. The
latter represents chain deformations and relaxes slowly on the rheological time
giving rise to a large viscoelastic stress. The polymer and the solvent obey
two-fluid dynamics in which the viscoelastic stress acts asymmetrically on the
polymer and, as a result, the stress and the diffusion are dynamically coupled.
Below the coexistence curve, interfaces appear with increasing the quench depth
and the solvent regions act as a lubricant. In these cases the composition
heterogeneity causes more enhanced viscoelastic heterogeneity and the
macroscopic stress is decreased at fixed applied shear rate. We find steady
two-phase states composed of the polymer-rich and solvent-rich regions, where
the characteristic domain size is inversely proportional to the average shear
stress for various shear rates. The deviatoric stress components exhibit large
temporal fluctuations. The normal stress difference can take negative values
transiently at weak shear.Comment: 16pages, 16figures, to be published in Phys.Rev.
Probing the time dependence of dark energy
A new method to investigate a possible time-dependence of the dark energy
equation of state is proposed. We apply this methodology to two of the most
recent data sets of type Ia supernova (Union2 and SDSS) and the baryon acoustic
oscillation peak at . For some combinations of these data, we show
that there is a clear departure from the standard CDM model at
intermediary redshifts, although a non-evolving dark energy component () cannot be ruled out by these data. The approach developed here may be
useful to probe a possible evolving dark energy component when applied to
upcoming observational data.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, LaTe
Mapping Class Group Actions on Quantum Doubles
We study representations of the mapping class group of the punctured torus on
the double of a finite dimensional possibly non-semisimple Hopf algebra that
arise in the construction of universal, extended topological field theories. We
discuss how for doubles the degeneracy problem of TQFT's is circumvented. We
find compact formulae for the -matrices using the canonical,
non degenerate forms of Hopf algebras and the bicrossed structure of doubles
rather than monodromy matrices. A rigorous proof of the modular relations and
the computation of the projective phases is supplied using Radford's relations
between the canonical forms and the moduli of integrals. We analyze the
projective -action on the center of for an
-st root of unity. It appears that the -dimensional
representation decomposes into an -dimensional finite representation and a
-dimensional, irreducible representation. The latter is the tensor product
of the two dimensional, standard representation of and the finite,
-dimensional representation, obtained from the truncated TQFT of the
semisimplified representation category of .Comment: 45 page
The colour magnitude relation for galaxies in the Coma cluster
We present a new photometric catalogue of the Coma galaxy cluster in the
Johnson U- and V- bands. We cover an area of 3360arcmin2 of sky, to a depth of
V=20 mag in a 13 arcsec diameter aperture, and produce magnitudes for ~1400
extended objects in metric apertures from 8.8 to 26arcsec diameters. The mean
internal RMS scatter in the photometry is 0.014 mag in V, and 0.026 mag in U,
for V13 < 17 mag.
We place new limits on the levels of scatter in the colour--magnitude
relation (CMR) in the Coma cluster, and investigate how the slope and scatter
of the CMR depends on galaxy morphology, luminosity and position within the
cluster. As expected, the lowest levels of scatter are found in the elliptical
galaxies, while the late type galaxies have the highest numbers of galaxies
bluewards of the CMR. We investigate whether the slope of the CMR is an
artifact of colour gradients within galaxies and, show that it persists when
the colours are measured within a diameter that scales with galaxy size.
Looking at the environmental dependence of the CMR, we find a trend of
systematically bluer galaxy colours with increasing projected cluster-centric
radius which we associate with a gradient in the mean galactic ages.Comment: 18 pages, 13 Figures. For associated data file, see
ftp://ftp.sr.bham.ac.uk/pub/ale/ComaPhot
Sympathetic Cooling of Trapped Cd+ Isotopes
We sympathetically cool a trapped 112Cd+ ion by directly Doppler-cooling a
114Cd+ ion in the same trap. This is the first demonstration of optically
addressing a single trapped ion being sympathetically cooled by a different
species ion. Notably, the experiment uses a single laser source, and does not
require strong focusing. This paves the way toward reducing decoherence in an
ion trap quantum computer based on Cd+ isotopes.Comment: 4 figure
Fluctuation-dissipation relation in a sheared fluid
In a fluid out of equilibrium, the fluctuation dissipation theorem (FDT) is
usually violated. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study in detail the
relationship between correlation and response functions in a fluid driven into
a stationary non-equilibrium state. Both the high temperature fluid state and
the low temperature glassy state are investigated. In the glassy state, the
violation of the FDT is quantitatively identical to the one observed previously
in an aging system in the absence of external drive. In the fluid state,
violations of the FDT appear only when the fluid is driven beyond the linear
response regime, and are then similar to those observed in the glassy state.
These results are consistent with the picture obtained earlier from theoretical
studies of driven mean-field disordered models, confirming the similarity
between these models and real glasses.Comment: 4 pages, latex, 3 ps figure
Steady State of microemulsions in shear flow
Steady-state properties of microemulsions in shear flow are studied in the
context of a Ginzburg-Landau free-energy approach. Explicit expressions are
given for the structure factor and the time correlation function at the one
loop level of approximation. Our results predict a four-peak pattern for the
structure factor, implying the simultaneous presence of interfaces aligned with
two different orientations.
Due to the peculiar interface structure a non-monotonous relaxation of the
time correlator is also found.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Global Solutions for Incompressible Viscoelastic Fluids
We prove the existence of both local and global smooth solutions to the
Cauchy problem in the whole space and the periodic problem in the n-dimensional
torus for the incompressible viscoelastic system of Oldroyd-B type in the case
of near equilibrium initial data. The results hold in both two and three
dimensional spaces. The results and methods presented in this paper are also
valid for a wide range of elastic complex fluids, such as magnetohydrodynamics,
liquid crystals and mixture problems.Comment: We prove the existence of global smooth solutions to the Cauchy
problem for the incompressible viscoelastic system of Oldroyd-B type in the
case of near equilibrium initial dat
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