Hypersonic reentry vehicle Patent

Aerodynamic configuration of reentry vehicle heat shield to provide longitudinal and directional stability at hypersonic velocitie

Three New Long Period X-ray Pulsars Discovered in the Small Magellanic Cloud

The Small Magellanic Cloud is increasingly an invaluable laboratory for studying accreting and isolated X-ray pulsars. We add to the class of compact SMC objects by reporting the discovery of three new long period X-ray pulsars detected with the {\it Chandra X-ray Observatory}. The pulsars, with periods of 152, 304 and 565 seconds, all show hard X-ray spectra over the range from 0.6 - 7.5 keV. The source positions of the three pulsars are consistent with known H-alpha emission sources, indicating they are likely to be Be type X-ray binary star systems.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Penetration of a vortex dipole across an interface of Bose-Einstein condensates

The dynamics of a vortex dipole in a quasi-two dimensional two-component Bose-Einstein condensate are investigated. A vortex dipole is shown to penetrate the interface between the two components when the incident velocity is sufficiently large. A vortex dipole can also disappear or disintegrate at the interface depending on its velocity and the interaction parameters.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Anomalous Microfluidic Phonons Induced by the Interplay of Hydrodynamic Screening and Incompressibility

We investigate the acoustic normal modes ("phonons") of a 1D microfluidic droplet crystal at the crossover between 2D flow and confined 1D plug flow. The unusual phonon spectra of the crystal, which arise from long-range hydrodynamic interactions, change anomalously under confinement. The boundaries induce weakening and screening of the interactions, but when approaching the 1D limit we measure a marked increase in the crystal sound velocity, a sign of interaction strengthening. This non-monotonous behavior of the phonon spectra is explained theoretically by the interplay of screening and plug flow.Comment: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.124502 http://www.weizmann.ac.il/complex/tlusty/papers/PhysRevLett2007.pd

Numerical modelling of liquid droplet dynamics in microgravity

Microgravity provides ideal experimental conditions for studying highly reactive and under-cooled materials where there is no contact between the sample and the other experimental apparatus. The non-contact conditions allow material properties to be measured from the oscillating liquid droplet response to perturbations. This work investigates the impact of a strong magnetic field on these measurement processes for weakly viscous, electrically conducting droplets. We present numerical results using an axisymmetric model that employs the pseudo-spectral collocation method and a recently developed 3D model. Both numerical models have been developed to solve the equations describing the coupled electromagnetic and fluid flow processes. The models represent the changing surface shape that results from the interaction between forces inside the droplet and the surface tension imposed boundary conditions. The models are used to examine the liquid droplet dynamics in a strong DC magnetic field. In each case the surface shape is decomposed into a superposition of spherical harmonic modes. The oscillation of the individual mode coefficients is then analysed to determine the oscillation frequencies and damping rates that are then compared to the low amplitude solutions predicted by the published analytical asymptotic theory

Lowest Landau-level description of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a rapidly rotating anisotropic trap

A rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensate in a symmetric two-dimensional trap can be described with the lowest Landau-level set of states. In this case, the condensate wave function psi(x,y) is a Gaussian function of r^2 = x^2 + y^2, multiplied by an analytic function P(z) of the single complex variable z= x+ i y; the zeros of P(z) denote the positions of the vortices. Here, a similar description is used for a rapidly rotating anisotropic two-dimensional trap with arbitrary anisotropy (omega_x/omega_y le 1). The corresponding condensate wave function psi(x,y) has the form of a complex anisotropic Gaussian with a phase proportional to xy, multiplied by an analytic function P(zeta), where zeta is proportional to x + i beta_- y and 0 le beta_- le 1 is a real parameter that depends on the trap anisotropy and the rotation frequency. The zeros of P(zeta) again fix the locations of the vortices. Within the set of lowest Landau-level states at zero temperature, an anisotropic parabolic density profile provides an absolute minimum for the energy, with the vortex density decreasing slowly and anisotropically away from the trap center.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur