796 research outputs found
Couette Flow of Two-Dimensional Foams
We experimentally investigate flow of quasi two-dimensional disordered foams
in Couette geometries, both for foams squeezed below a top plate and for freely
floating foams. With the top-plate, the flows are strongly localized and rate
dependent. For the freely floating foams the flow profiles become essentially
rate-independent, the local and global rheology do not match, and in particular
the foam flows in regions where the stress is below the global yield stress. We
attribute this to nonlocal effects and show that the "fluidity" model recently
introduced by Goyon {\em et al.} ({\em Nature}, {\bf 454} (2008)) captures the
essential features of flow both with and without a top plate.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, revised versio
Optimization by thermal cycling
Thermal cycling is an heuristic optimization algorithm which consists of
cyclically heating and quenching by Metropolis and local search procedures,
respectively, where the amplitude slowly decreases. In recent years, it has
been successfully applied to two combinatorial optimization tasks, the
traveling salesman problem and the search for low-energy states of the Coulomb
glass. In these cases, the algorithm is far more efficient than usual simulated
annealing. In its original form the algorithm was designed only for the case of
discrete variables. Its basic ideas are applicable also to a problem with
continuous variables, the search for low-energy states of Lennard-Jones
clusters.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of the Workshop "Complexity, Metastability
and Nonextensivity", held in Erice 20-26 July 2004. Latex, 7 pages, 3 figure
Assessment of detectability of neutral interstellar deuterium by IBEX observations
The abundance of deuterium in the interstellar gas in front of the Sun gives
insight into the processes of filtration of neutral interstellar species
through the heliospheric interface and potentially into the chemical evolution
of the Galactic gas. We investigate the possibility of detection of neutral
interstellar deuterium at 1 AU from the Sun by direct sampling by the
Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). We simulate the flux of neutral
interstellar D at IBEX for the actual measurement conditions. We assess the
number of interstellar D atom counts expected during the first three years of
IBEX operation. We also simulate observations expected during an epoch of high
solar activity. In addition, we calculate the expected counts of D atoms from
the thin terrestrial water layer, sputtered from the IBEX-Lo conversion surface
by neutral interstellar He atoms. Most D counts registered by IBEX-Lo are
expected to originate from the water layer, exceeding the interstellar signal
by 2 orders of magnitude. However, the sputtering should stop once the Earth
leaves the portion of orbit traversed by interstellar He atoms. We identify
seasons during the year when mostly the genuine interstellar D atoms are
expected in the signal. During the first 3 years of IBEX operations about 2
detectable interstellar D atoms are expected. This number is comparable with
the expected number of sputtered D atoms registered during the same time
intervals. The most favorable conditions for the detection occur during low
solar activity, in an interval including March and April each year. The
detection chances could be improved by extending the instrument duty cycle,
e.g., by making observations in the special deuterium mode of IBEX-Lo.Comment: Accepted for Astronomy & Astrophysic
The impact of mixing across the polar vortex edge on Match ozone loss estimates
The Match method for quantification of polar chemical ozone loss is investigated mainly with respect to the impact of mixing across the vortex edge onto this estimate. We show for the winter 2002/03 that significant mixing across the vortex edge occurred and was accurately modeled by the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere. Observations of inert tracers and ozone in-situ from HAGAR on the Geophysica aircraft and sondes and also remote from MIPAS on ENVISAT were reproduced well. The model even reproduced a small vortex remnant that was isolated until June 2003 and was observed in-situ by a balloon-borne whole air sampler. We use this CLaMS simulation to quantify the impact of cross vortex edge mixing on the results of the Match method. It is shown that a time integration of the determined vortex average ozone loss rates as performed in Match results in larger ozone loss than the polar vortex average ozone loss in CLaMS. Also, the determination of the Match ozone loss rates can be influenced by mixing. This is especially important below 430 K, where ozone outside the vortex is lower than inside and the vortex boundary is not a strong transport barrier. This effect and further sampling effects cause an offset between vortex average ozone loss rates derived from Match and deduced from CLaMS with an even sampling for the entire vortex. Both, the time-integration of ozone loss and the determination of ozone loss rates for Match are evaluated using the winter 2002/03 CLaMS simulation. These impacts can explain the differences between CLaMS and Match column ozone loss. While the investigated effects somewhat reduce the apparent discrepancy in January ozone loss rates, a discrepancy between simulations and Match remains. However, its contribution to the accumulated ozone loss over the winter is not large
The Effect of Air on Granular Size Separation in a Vibrated Granular Bed
Using high-speed video and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) we study the
motion of a large sphere in a vertically vibrated bed of smaller grains. As
previously reported we find a non-monotonic density dependence of the rise and
sink time of the large sphere. We find that this density dependence is solely
due to air drag. We investigate in detail how the motion of the intruder sphere
is influenced by size of the background particles, initial vertical position in
the bed, ambient pressure and convection. We explain our results in the
framework of a simple model and find quantitative agreement in key aspects with
numerical simulations to the model equations.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, submitted to PRE, corrected typos, slight
change
Observation of mesospheric air inside the arctic stratospheric polar vortex in early 2003
During several balloon flights inside the Arctic polar vortex in early 2003, unusual trace gas distributions were observed, which indicate a strong influence of mesospheric air in the stratosphere. The tuneable diode laser (TDL) instrument SPIRALE (Spectroscopie InFrarouge par Absorption de Lasers Embarqués) measured unusually high CO values (up to 600 ppb) on 27 January at about 30 km altitude. The cryosampler BONBON sampled air masses with very high molecular Hydrogen, extremely low SF6 and enhanced CO values on 6 March at about 25 km altitude. Finally, the MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectrometer showed NOy values which are significantly higher than NOy* (the NOy derived from a correlation between N2O and NOy under undisturbed conditions), on 21 and 22 March in a layer centred at 22 km altitude. Thus, the mesospheric air seems to have been present in a layer descending from about 30 km in late January to 25 km altitude in early March and about 22 km altitude on 20 March. We present corroborating evidence from a model study using the KASIMA (KArlsruhe Simulation model of the Middle Atmosphere) model that also shows a layer of mesospheric air, which descended into the stratosphere in November and early December 2002, before the minor warming which occurred in late December 2002 lead to a descent of upper stratospheric air, cutting of a layer in which mesospheric air is present. This layer then descended inside the vortex over the course of the winter. The same feature is found in trajectory calculations, based on a large number of trajectories started in the vicinity of the observations on 6 March. Based on the difference between the mean age derived from SF6 (which has an irreversible mesospheric loss) and from CO2 (whose mesospheric loss is much smaller and reversible) we estimate that the fraction of mesospheric air in the layer observed on 6 March, must have been somewhere between 35% and 100%
The downwind hemisphere of the heliosphere: Eight years of IBEX-Lo observations
We present a comprehensive study of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) of 10 eV
to 2.5 keV from the downwind hemisphere of the heliosphere. These ENAs are
believed to originate mostly from pickup protons and solar wind protons in the
inner heliosheath. This study includes all low-energy observations made with
the Interstellar Boundary Explorer over the first 8 years. Since the protons
around 0.1 keV dominate the plasma pressure in the inner heliosheath in
downwind direction, these ENA observations offer the unique opportunity to
constrain the plasma properties and dimensions of the heliosheath where no
in-situ observations are available.
We first derive energy spectra of ENA intensities averaged over time for 49
macropixels covering the entire downwind hemisphere. The results confirm
previous studies regarding integral intensities and the roll-over around 0.1
keV energy. With the expanded dataset we now find that ENA intensities at 0.2
and 0.1 keV seem to anti-correlate with solar activity. We then derive the
product of total plasma pressure and emission thickness of protons in the
heliosheath to estimate lower limits on the thickness of the inner heliosheath.
The temporally averaged ENA intensities support a rather spherical shape of the
termination shock and a heliosheath thickness between 150 and 210 au for most
regions of the downwind hemisphere. Around the nominal downwind direction of
76{\deg} ecliptic longitude, the heliosheath is at least 280 au thick. There,
the neutral hydrogen density seems to be depleted compared to upwind directions
by roughly a factor of 2.Comment: Preprint of article in The Astrophysical Journa
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