402 research outputs found
Statistical mechanics of a colloidal suspension in contact with a fluctuating membrane
Surface effects are generally prevailing in confined colloidal systems. Here
we report on dispersed nanoparticles close to a fluid membrane. Exact results
regarding the static organization are derived for a dilute solution of
non-adhesive colloids. It is shown that thermal fluctuations of the membrane
broaden the density profile, but on average colloids are neither accumulated
nor depleted near the surface. The radial correlation function is also
evaluated, from which we obtain the effective pair-potential between colloids.
This entropically-driven interaction shares many similarities with the familiar
depletion interaction. It is shown to be always attractive with range
controlled by the membrane correlation length. The depth of the potential well
is comparable to the thermal energy, but depends only indirectly upon membrane
rigidity. Consequenses for stability of the suspension are also discussed
Theory of asymmetric non-additive binary hard-sphere mixtures
We show that the formal procedure of integrating out the degrees of freedom
of the small spheres in a binary hard-sphere mixture works equally well for
non-additive as it does for additive mixtures. For highly asymmetric mixtures
(small size ratios) the resulting effective Hamiltonian of the one-component
fluid of big spheres, which consists of an infinite number of many-body
interactions, should be accurately approximated by truncating after the term
describing the effective pair interaction. Using a density functional treatment
developed originally for additive hard-sphere mixtures we determine the zero,
one, and two-body contribution to the effective Hamiltonian. We demonstrate
that even small degrees of positive or negative non-additivity have significant
effect on the shape of the depletion potential. The second virial coefficient
, corresponding to the effective pair interaction between two big spheres,
is found to be a sensitive measure of the effects of non-additivity. The
variation of with the density of the small spheres shows significantly
different behavior for additive, slightly positive and slightly negative
non-additive mixtures. We discuss the possible repercussions of these results
for the phase behavior of binary hard-sphere mixtures and suggest that
measurements of might provide a means of determining the degree of
non-additivity in real colloidal mixtures
Elastic Tensor of SrRuO
The six independent elastic constants of SrRuO were determined using
resonant ultrasound spectroscopy on a high-quality single-crystal specimen. The
constants are in excellent agreement with those obtained from pulse-echo
experiments performed on a sample cut from the same ingot. A calculation of the
Debye temperature using the measured constants agrees well with values obtained
from both specific heat and M\"{o}ssbauer measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, submitted to PR
Triggering synchronized oscillations through arbitrarily weak diversity in close-to-threshold excitable media
It is shown that arbitrarily weak (frozen) heterogeneity can induce global
synchronized oscillations in excitable media close to threshold. The work is
carried out on networks of coupled van der Pol-FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators. The
result is shown to be robust against the presence of internal dynamical noise.Comment: 4 pages (RevTeX 3 style), 5 EPS figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. E
(16 aug 2001
Adhesion mechanics of graphene membranes
The interaction of graphene with neighboring materials and structures plays
an important role in its behavior, both scientifically and technologically. The
interactions are complicated due to the interplay between surface forces and
possibly nonlinear elastic behavior. Here we review recent experimental and
theoretical advances in the understanding of graphene adhesion. We organize our
discussion into experimental and theoretical efforts directed toward: graphene
conformation to a substrate, determination of adhesion energy, and applications
where graphene adhesion plays an important role. We conclude with a brief
prospectus outlining open issues.Comment: Review article to appear in special issue on graphene in Solid State
Communication
Observations of the relationship between frequency sweep rates of chorus wave packets and plasma density
International audience[1] Chorus emissions are generated by a nonlinear mechanism involving waveâparticle interactions with energetic electrons. Discrete chorus wave packets are narrowband tones usually rising (sometimes falling) in frequency. We investigate frequency sweep rates of chorus wave packets measured by the Wideband data (WBD) instrument onboard the Cluster spacecraft. In particular, we study the relationship between the sweep rates and the plasma density measured by the WHISPER active sounder. We have observed increasing values of the sweep rate for decreasing plasma densities. We have compared our results with results of simulations of triggered emissions as well as with estimates based on the backward wave oscillator model for chorus emissions. We demonstrate a reasonable agreement of our experimental results with theoretical ones. Citation: MacĂșĆĄovĂĄ, E., et al. (2010), Observations of the relationship between frequency sweep rates of chorus wave packets and plasma density
Structure factor of polymers interacting via a short range repulsive potential: application to hairy wormlike micelles
We use the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) to compute the structure factor,
S(q), of a solution of chains interacting through a soft and short range
repulsive potential V. Above a threshold polymer concentration, whose magnitude
is essentially controlled by the range of the potential, S(q) exhibits a peak
whose position depends on the concentration. We take advantage of the close
analogy between polymers and wormlike micelles and apply our model, using a
Gaussian function for V, to quantitatively analyze experimental small angle
neutron scattering profiles of semi-dilute solutions of hairy wormlike
micelles. These samples, which consist in surfactant self-assembled flexible
cylinders decorated by amphiphilic copolymer, provide indeed an appropriate
experimental model system to study the structure of sterically interacting
polymer solutions
Conserved Quasilocal Quantities and General Covariant Theories in Two Dimensions
General matterless--theories in 1+1 dimensions include dilaton gravity,
Yang--Mills theory as well as non--Einsteinian gravity with dynamical torsion
and higher power gravity, and even models of spherically symmetric d = 4
General Relativity. Their recent identification as special cases of
'Poisson--sigma--models' with simple general solution in an arbitrary gauge,
allows a comprehensive discussion of the relation between the known absolutely
conserved quantities in all those cases and Noether charges, resp. notions of
quasilocal 'energy--momentum'. In contrast to Noether like quantities,
quasilocal energy definitions require some sort of 'asymptotics' to allow an
interpretation as a (gauge--independent) observable. Dilaton gravitation,
although a little different in detail, shares this property with the other
cases. We also present a simple generalization of the absolute conservation law
for the case of interactions with matter of any type.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX-fil
Surface Kinetics and Generation of Different Terms in a Conservative Growth Equation
A method based on the kinetics of adatoms on a growing surface under
epitaxial growth at low temperature in (1+1) dimensions is proposed to obtain a
closed form of local growth equation. It can be generalized to any growth
problem as long as diffusion of adatoms govern the surface morphology. The
method can be easily extended to higher dimensions. The kinetic processes
contributing to various terms in the growth equation (GE) are identified from
the analysis of in-plane and downward hops. In particular, processes
corresponding to the (h -> -h) symmetry breaking term and curvature dependent
term are discussed. Consequence of these terms on the stable and unstable
transition in (1+1) dimensions is analyzed. In (2+1) dimensions it is shown
that an additional (h -> -h) symmetry breaking term is generated due to the
in-plane curvature associated with the mound like structures. This term is
independent of any diffusion barrier differences between in-plane and out
of-plane migration. It is argued that terms generated in the presence of
downward hops are the relevant terms in a GE. Growth equation in the closed
form is obtained for various growth models introduced to capture most of the
processes in experimental Molecular Beam Epitaxial growth. Effect of
dissociation is also considered and is seen to have stabilizing effect on the
growth. It is shown that for uphill current the GE approach fails to describe
the growth since a given GE is not valid over the entire substrate.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
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