63,512 research outputs found
Entropy production in systems with unidirectional transitions
The entropy production is one of the most essential features for systems
operating out of equilibrium. The formulation for discrete-state systems goes
back to the celebrated Schnakenberg's work and hitherto can be carried out when
for each transition between two states also the reverse one is allowed.
Nevertheless, several physical systems may exhibit a mixture of both
unidirectional and bidirectional transitions, and how to properly define the
entropy production in this case is still an open question. Here, we present a
solution to such a challenging problem. The average entropy production can be
consistently defined, employing a mapping that preserves the average fluxes,
and its physical interpretation is provided. We describe a class of stochastic
systems composed of unidirectional links forming cycles and detailed-balanced
bidirectional links, showing that they behave in a pseudo-deterministic
fashion. This approach is applied to a system with time-dependent stochastic
resetting. Our framework is consistent with thermodynamics and leads to some
intriguing observations on the relation between the arrow of time and the
average entropy production for resetting events.Comment: (Accepted for publication in Physical Review Research
Formation of iron nitride thin films with Al and Ti additives
In this work we investigate the process of iron nitride (Fe-N) phase
formation using 2 at.% Al or 2 at.% Ti as additives. The samples were prepared
with a magnetron sputtering technique using different amount of nitrogen during
the deposition process. The nitrogen partial pressure (\pn) was varied between
0-50% (rest Argon) and the targets of pure Fe, [Fe+Ti] and [Fe+Al] were
sputtered. The addition of small amount of Ti or Al results in improved
soft-magnetic properties when sputtered using \pn 10\p. When \pn is
increased to 50\p non-magnetic Fe-N phases are formed. We found that iron
mononitride (FeN) phases (N at% 50) are formed with Al or Ti addition at
\pn =50% whereas in absence of such addition \eFeN phases (N\pat30) are
formed. It was found that the overall nitrogen content can be increased
significantly with Al or Ti additions. On the basis of obtained result we
propose a mechanism describing formation of Fe-N phases Al and Ti additives.Comment: 9 Pages, 7 Figure
Weighted Density Approximation Description of Insulating YH and LaH
Density functional calculations within the weighted density approximation
(WDA) are presented for YH and LaH. We investigate some commonly used
pair-distribution functions G. These calculations show that within a consistent
density functional framework a substantial insulating gap can be obtained while
at the same time retaining structural properties in accord with experimental
data. Our WDA band structures agree with those of approximation very well,
but the calculated band gaps are still 1.0-2.0 eV smaller than experimental
findings.Comment: 6 Pages, 3 figure
Cohesion of BaReH and BaMnH: Density Functional Calculations and Prediction of (MnH Salts
Density functional calculations are used to calculate the structural and
electronic properties of BaReH and to analyze the bonding in this compound.
The high coordination in BaReH is due to bonding between Re 5 states and
states of -like symmetry formed from combinations of H orbitals in the
H cage. This explains the structure of the material, its short bond lengths
and other physical properties, such as the high band gap. We compare with
results for hypothetical BaMnH, which we find to have similar bonding and
cohesion to the Re compound. This suggests that it may be possible to
synthesize (MnH salts. Depending on the particular cation, such salts
may have exceptionally high hydrogen contents, in excess of 10 weight
Lattice Boltzmann Simulations of Droplet formation in confined Channels with Thermocapillary flows
Based on mesoscale lattice Boltzmann simulations with the "Shan-Chen" model,
we explore the influence of thermocapillarity on the break-up properties of
fluid threads in a microfluidic T-junction, where a dispersed phase is injected
perpendicularly into a main channel containing a continuous phase, and the
latter induces periodic break-up of droplets due to the cross-flowing.
Temperature effects are investigated by switching on/off both positive/negative
temperature gradients along the main channel direction, thus promoting a
different thread dynamics with anticipated/delayed break-up. Numerical
simulations are performed at changing the flow-rates of both the continuous and
dispersed phases, as well as the relative importance of viscous forces, surface
tension forces and thermocapillary stresses. The range of parameters is broad
enough to characterize the effects of thermocapillarity on different mechanisms
of break-up in the confined T-junction, including the so-called "squeezing" and
"dripping" regimes, previously identified in the literature. Some simple
scaling arguments are proposed to rationalize the observed behaviour, and to
provide quantitative guidelines on how to predict the droplet size after
break-up.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure
Chi_1 and Polarisation Asymmetries for Quarkonia at High Orders in Non-relativistic QCD
We study doubly polarised asymmetries of c-cbar and b-bbar mesons in hadro-
and photo-production at low transverse momentum in non-relativistic QCD to high
orders in the relative velocity of the pair, v. We give the complete set of
expressions required for the asymmetries up to order v^9. The asymmetries in
the production of eta_{c,b} states are a stable measure of the polarised gluon
densities. The asymmetries for chi_{c,b}, J/psi, psi', and the various Upsilon
states are stringent tests of the NRQCD scaling relations.Comment: 21 pages LaTeX including 2 figure
Activation of additional energy dissipation processes in the magnetization dynamics of epitaxial chromium dioxide films
The precessional magnetization dynamics of a chromium dioxide film is
examined in an all-optical pump-probe setup. The frequency dependence on the
external field is used to extract the uniaxial in-plane anisotropy constant.
The damping shows a strong dependence on the frequency, but also on the laser
pump fluency, which is revealed as an important experiment parameter in this
work: above a certain threshold further channels of energy dissipation open and
the damping increases discontinuously. This behavior might stem from spin-wave
instabilities
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