Acceleration of heavy and light particles in turbulence: comparison between experiments and direct numerical simulations

We compare experimental data and numerical simulations for the dynamics of inertial particles with finite density in turbulence. In the experiment, bubbles and solid particles are optically tracked in a turbulent flow of water using an Extended Laser Doppler Velocimetry technique. The probability density functions (PDF) of particle accelerations and their auto-correlation in time are computed. Numerical results are obtained from a direct numerical simulation in which a suspension of passive pointwise particles is tracked, with the same finite density and the same response time as in the experiment. We observe a good agreement for both the variance of acceleration and the autocorrelation timescale of the dynamics; small discrepancies on the shape of the acceleration PDF are observed. We discuss the effects induced by the finite size of the particles, not taken into account in the present numerical simulations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Conformal invariance and apparent universality of semiclassical gravity

In a recent work, it has been pointed out that certain observables of the massless scalar field theory in a static spherically symmetric background exhibit a universal behavior at large distances. More precisely, it was shown that, unlike what happens in the case the coupling to the curvature \xi is generic, for the special cases \xi=0 and \xi = 1/6 the large distance behavior of the expectation value turns out to be independent of the internal structure of the gravitational source. Here, we address a higher dimensional generalization of this result: We first compute the difference between a black hole and a static spherically symmetric star for the observables and in the far field limit. Thus, we show that the conformally invariant massless scalar field theory in a static spherically symmetric background exhibits such universality phenomenon in D\geq 4 dimensions. Also, using the one-loop effective action, we compute for a weakly gravitating object. These results lead to the explicit expression of the expectation value for a Schwarzschild-Tangherlini black hole in the far field limit. As an application, we obtain quantum corrections to the gravitational potential in D dimensions, which for D=4 are shown to agree with the one-loop correction to the graviton propagator previously found in the literature.Comment: 11 page

Ionization balance for optically thin plasmas: rate coefficients for all atoms and ions of the elements H to Ni

We present in this paper new and updated calculations of the ionization equilibrium for all the elements from H to Ni. We collected for these elements all the data available in the literature for the ionization and radiative plus dielectronic recombination rates. In particular, the dielectronic rates have been fitted with a single formula and the related coefficients are tabulated. Our results are compared with previous works

Quantum vacuum fluctuations and the principle of virtual work in inhomogeneous backgrounds

We discuss several aspects of the stress-energy tensor for a quantum scalar field in an inhomogeneous background, the latter being modeled by a variable mass. Using a perturbative approach, dimensional regularization, and adiabatic subtraction, we present all-order formal expressions for the stress-energy tensor. Importantly, we provide an explicit proof of the principle of virtual work for Casimir forces, taking advantage of the conservation law for the renormalized stress-energy tensor. We discuss also discontinuity-induced divergences. For the particular case of planar inhomogeneities, we corroborate the perturbative results with a WKB-inspired expansion.Fil: Franchino Viñas, Sebastián Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mantiñan, M. N.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro | Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro; ArgentinaFil: Mazzitelli, Francisco Diego. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro | Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentin

Vacuum polarization around stars: nonlocal approximation

We compute the vacuum polarization associated with quantum massless fields around stars with spherical symmetry. The nonlocal contribution to the vacuum polarization is dominant in the weak field limit, and induces quantum corrections to the exterior metric that depend on the inner structure of the star. It also violates the null energy conditions. We argue that similar results also hold in the low energy limit of quantum gravity. Previous calculations of the vacuum polarization in spherically symmetric spacetimes, based on local approximations, are not adequate for newtonian stars.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

The evolution of energy in flow driven by rising bubbles

We investigate by direct numerical simulations the flow that rising bubbles cause in an originally quiescent fluid. We employ the Eulerian-Lagrangian method with two-way coupling and periodic boundary conditions. In order to be able to treat up to 288000 bubbles, the following approximations and simplifications had to be introduced: (i) The bubbles were treated as point-particles, thus (ii) disregarding the near-field interactions among them, and (iii) effective force models for the lift and the drag forces were used. In particular, the lift coefficient was assumed to be 1/2, independent of the bubble Reynolds number and the local flow field. The results suggest that large scale motions are generated, owing to an inverse energy cascade from the small to the large scales. However, as the Taylor-Reynolds number is only in the range of 1, the corresponding scaling of the energy spectrum with an exponent of -5/3 cannot develop over a pronounced range. In the long term, the property of local energy transfer, characteristic of real turbulence, is lost and the input of energy equals the viscous dissipation at all scales. Due to the lack of strong vortices the bubbles spread rather uniformly in the flow. The mechanism for uniform spreading is as follows: Rising bubbles induce a velocity field behind them that acts on the following bubbles. Owing to the shear, those bubbles experience a lift force which make them spread to the left or right, thus preventing the formation of vertical bubble clusters and therefore of efficient forcing. Indeed, when the lift is artifically put to zero in the simulations, the flow is forced much more efficiently and a more pronounced energy accumulates at large scales is achieved.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Local Neumann semitransparent layers: Resummation, pair production, and duality

We consider local semitransparent Neumann boundary conditions for a quantum scalar field as imposed by a quadratic coupling to a source localized on a flat codimension-one surface. Upon a proper regularization to give meaning to the interaction, we interpret the effective action as a theory in a first-quantized phase space. We compute the relevant heat kernel to all order in a homogeneous background and quadratic order in perturbations, giving a closed expression for the corresponding effective action in D=4. In the dynamical case, we analyze the pair production caused by a harmonic perturbation and a Sauter pulse. Notably, we prove the existence of a strong/weak duality that links this Neumann field theory to the analog Dirichlet one.Fil: Ahmadiniaz, N.. Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf; AlemaniaFil: Franchino Viñas, Sebastián Alberto. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Manzo, Lucas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Mazzitelli, Francisco Diego. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentin

Model for resonant photon creation in a cavity with time dependent conductivity

In an electromagnetic cavity, photons can be created from the vacuum state by changing the cavity's properties with time. Using a simple model based on a massless scalar field, we analyze resonant photon creation induced by the time-dependent conductivity of a thin semiconductor film contained in the cavity. This time dependence may be achieved by irradiating periodically the film with short laser pulses. This setup offers several experimental advantages over the case of moving mirrors.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Minor changes. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Adiabatic renormalization in theories with modified dispersion relations

We generalize the adiabatic renormalization to theories with dispersion relations modified at energies higher than a new scale $M_C$. We obtain explicit expressions for the mean value of the stress tensor in the adiabatic vacuum, up to the second adiabatic order. We show that for any dispersion relation the divergences can be absorbed into the bare gravitational constants of the theory. We also point out that, depending on the renormalization prescription, the renormalized stress tensor may contain finite trans-Planckian corrections even in the limit $M_C\to\infty$.Comment: Typos corrected; to appear in the Proceedings of IRGAC 06, Journal of Physics