14,964 research outputs found
Non-axisymmetric instability of shear-banded Taylor-Couette flow
Recent experiments show that shear-banded flows of semi-dilute worm-like
micelles in Taylor-Couette geometry exhibit a flow instability in the form of
Taylor-like vortices. Here we perform the non-axisymmetric linear stability
analysis of the diffusive Johnson-Segalman model of shear banding and show that
the nature of this instability depends on the applied shear rate. For the
experimentally relevant parameters, we find that at the beginning of the stress
plateau the instability is driven by the interface between the bands, while
most of the stress plateau is occupied by the bulk instability of the
high-shear-rate band. Our work significantly alters the recently proposed
stability diagram of shear-banded flows based on axisymmetric analysis.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, main text and supplementary material; accepted to
Phys. Rev. Let
Study of the de Almeida-Thouless line using power-law diluted one-dimensional Ising spin glasses
We test for the existence of a spin-glass phase transition, the de
Almeida-Thouless line, in an externally-applied (random) magnetic field by
performing Monte Carlo simulations on a power-law diluted one-dimensional Ising
spin glass for very large system sizes. We find that an Almeida-Thouless line
only occurs in the mean field regime, which corresponds, for a short-range spin
glass, to dimension d larger than 6.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl
Thermal and hydrodynamic effects in the ordering of lamellar fluids
Phase separation in a complex fluid with lamellar order has been studied in
the case of cold thermal fronts propagating diffusively from external walls.
The velocity hydrodynamic modes are taken into account by coupling the
convection-diffusion equation for the order parameter to a generalised
Navier-Stokes equation. The dynamical equations are simulated by implementing a
hybrid method based on a lattice Boltzmann algorithm coupled to finite
difference schemes. Simulations show that the ordering process occurs with
morphologies depending on the speed of the thermal fronts or, equivalently, on
the value of the thermal conductivity {\xi}. At large value of {\xi}, as in
instantaneous quenching, the system is frozen in entangled configurations at
high viscosity while consists of grains with well ordered lamellae at low
viscosity. By decreasing the value of {\xi}, a regime with very ordered
lamellae parallel to the thermal fronts is found. At very low values of {\xi}
the preferred orientation is perpendicular to the walls in d = 2, while
perpendicular order is lost moving far from the walls in d = 3.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Phil. Trans. of Royal
Soc, Ser
High temperature measuring device
Ultrasonic pulse technique for measuring average gas temperature in nuclear rocket engine - sound propagation and environmental studie
Dilute gas of ultracold two-level atoms inside a cavity; generalized Dicke model
We consider a gas of ultracold two-level atoms confined in a cavity, taking
into account for atomic center-of-mass motion and cavity mode variations. We
use the generalized Dicke model, and analyze separately the cases of a
Gaussian, and a standing wave mode shape. Owing to the interplay between
external motional energies of the atoms and internal atomic and field energies,
the phase-diagrams exhibit novel features not encountered in the standard Dicke
model, such as the existence of first and second order phase transitions
between normal and superradiant phases. Due to the quantum description of
atomic motion, internal and external atomic degrees of freedom are highly
correlated leading to modified normal and superradiant phases.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
LISA, binary stars, and the mass of the graviton
We extend and improve earlier estimates of the ability of the proposed LISA
(Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) gravitational wave detector to place upper
bounds on the graviton mass, m_g, by comparing the arrival times of
gravitational and electromagnetic signals from binary star systems. We show
that the best possible limit on m_g obtainable this way is ~ 50 times better
than the current limit set by Solar System measurements. Among currently known,
well-understood binaries, 4U1820-30 is the best for this purpose; LISA
observations of 4U1820-30 should yield a limit ~ 3-4 times better than the
present Solar System bound. AM CVn-type binaries offer the prospect of
improving the limit by a factor of 10, if such systems can be better understood
by the time of the LISA mission. We briefly discuss the likelihood that radio
and optical searches during the next decade will yield binaries that more
closely approach the best possible case.Comment: ReVTeX 4, 6 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Phys Rev
Curvature and Acoustic Instabilities in Rotating Fluid Disks
The stability of a rotating fluid disk to the formation of spiral arms is
studied in the tightwinding approximation in the linear regime. The dispersion
relation for spirals that was derived by Bertin et al. is shown to contain a
new, acoustic instability beyond the Lindblad resonances that depends only on
pressure and rotation. In this regime, pressure and gravity exchange roles as
drivers and inhibitors of spiral wave structures. Other instabilities that are
enhanced by pressure are also found in the general dispersion relation by
including higher order terms in the small parameter 1/kr for wavenumber k and
radius r. These instabilities are present even for large values of Toomre's
parameter Q. Unstable growth rates are determined in four cases: a
self-gravitating disk with a flat rotation curve, a self-gravitating disk with
solid body rotation, a non-self-gravitating disk with solid body rotation, and
a non-self-gravitating disk with Keplerian rotation. The most important
application appears to be as a source of spiral structure, possibly leading to
accretion in non-self-gravitating disks, such as some galactic nuclear disks,
disks around black holes, and proto-planetary disks. All of these examples have
short orbital times so the unstable growth time can be small.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, scheduled for ApJ 520, August 1, 199
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