8,942 research outputs found
Theoretical characterization of a model of aragonite crystal orientation in red abalone nacre
Nacre, commonly known as mother-of-pearl, is a remarkable biomineral that in
red abalone consists of layers of 400-nm thick aragonite crystalline tablets
confined by organic matrix sheets, with the crystal axes of the
aragonite tablets oriented to within 12 degrees from the normal to the
layer planes. Recent experiments demonstrate that this orientational order
develops over a distance of tens of layers from the prismatic boundary at which
nacre formation begins.
Our previous simulations of a model in which the order develops because of
differential tablet growth rates (oriented tablets growing faster than
misoriented ones) yield patterns of tablets that agree qualitatively and
quantitatively with the experimental measurements. This paper presents an
analytical treatment of this model, focusing on how the dynamical development
and eventual degree of order depend on model parameters. Dynamical equations
for the probability distributions governing tablet orientations are introduced
whose form can be determined from symmetry considerations and for which
substantial analytic progress can be made. Numerical simulations are performed
to relate the parameters used in the analytic theory to those in the
microscopic growth model. The analytic theory demonstrates that the dynamical
mechanism is able to achieve a much higher degree of order than naive estimates
would indicate.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure
Avalanche of Bifurcations and Hysteresis in a Model of Cellular Differentiation
Cellular differentiation in a developping organism is studied via a discrete
bistable reaction-diffusion model. A system of undifferentiated cells is
allowed to receive an inductive signal emenating from its environment.
Depending on the form of the nonlinear reaction kinetics, this signal can
trigger a series of bifurcations in the system. Differentiation starts at the
surface where the signal is received, and cells change type up to a given
distance, or under other conditions, the differentiation process propagates
through the whole domain. When the signal diminishes hysteresis is observed
Origin of Ultralow Friction andWear in Ultrananocrystalline Diamond
The impressively low friction and wear of diamond in humid environments is debated to originate from either the stability of the passivated diamond surface or sliding-induced graphitization/rehybridization of carbon. We find ultralow friction and wear for ultrananocrystalline diamond surfaces even in dry environments, and observe negligible rehybridization except for a modest, submonolayer amount under the most severe conditions (high load, low humidity). This supports the passivation hypothesis, and establishes a new regime of exceptionally low friction and wear for diamond
Influence of Surface Passivation on the Friction and Wear Behavior of Ultrananocrystalline Diamond and Tetrahedral Amorphous Carbon Thin Films
Highly sp3-bonded, nearly hydrogen-free carbon-based materials can exhibit extremely low friction and wear in the absence of any liquid lubricant, but this physical behavior is limited by the vapor environment. The effect of water vapor on friction and wear is examined as a function of applied normal force for two such materials in thin film form: one that is fully amorphous in structure (tetrahedral amorphous carbon, or ta-C) and one that is polycrystalline with sp3 to disordered sp2 bonding is observed, no crystalline graphite formation is observed for either film. Rather, the primary solid-lubrication mechanism is the passivation of dangling bonds by OH and H from the dissociation of vapor-phase H2O. This vapor-phase lubrication mechanism is highly effective, producing friction coefficients as low as 0.078 for ta-C and 0.008 for UNCD, and wear rates requiring thousands of sliding passes to produce a few nanometers of wear
Automorphisms of Partially Commutative Groups II: Combinatorial Subgroups
We define several "standard" subgroups of the automorphism group Aut(G) of a
partially commutative (right-angled Artin) group and use these standard
subgroups to describe decompositions of Aut(G). If C is the commutation graph
of G, we show how Aut(G) decomposes in terms of the connected components of C:
obtaining a particularly clear decomposition theorem in the special case where
C has no isolated vertices.
If C has no vertices of a type we call dominated then we give a semi-direct
decompostion of Aut(G) into a subgroup of locally conjugating automorphisms by
the subgroup stabilising a certain lattice of "admissible subsets" of the
vertices of C. We then characterise those graphs for which Aut(G) is a product
(not necessarily semi-direct) of two such subgroups.Comment: 7 figures, 63 pages. Notation and definitions clarified and typos
corrected. 2 new figures added. Appendix containing details of presentation
and proof of a theorem adde
Atom cooling and trapping by disorder
We demonstrate the possibility of three-dimensional cooling of neutral atoms
by illuminating them with two counterpropagating laser beams of mutually
orthogonal linear polarization, where one of the lasers is a speckle field,
i.e. a highly disordered but stationary coherent light field. This
configuration gives rise to atom cooling in the transverse plane via a Sisyphus
cooling mechanism similar to the one known in standard two-dimensional optical
lattices formed by several plane laser waves. However, striking differences
occur in the spatial diffusion coefficients as well as in local properties of
the trapped atoms.Comment: 11 figures (postscript
Level densities and -ray strength functions in Yb
Level densities and radiative strength functions in Yb and Yb
nuclei have been measured using the
Yb(He,He)Yb and
Yb(He,)Yb reactions. New data on Yb
are compared to a previous measurement for Yb from the
Yb(He,)Yb reaction. Systematics of level
densities and radiative strength functions in Yb are
established. The entropy excess in Yb relative to the even-even nuclei
Yb due to the unpaired neutron quasiparticle is found to be
approximately 2. Results for the radiative strength function from the two
reactions lead to consistent parameters characterizing the ``pygmy''
resonances. Pygmy resonances in the Yb populated by the
(He,) reaction appear to be split into two components for both of
which a complete set of resonance parameters are obtained.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Nuclear level densities and gamma-ray strength functions in 44,45Sc
The scandium isotopes 44,45Sc have been studied with the 45Sc(3He,alpha
gamma)44Sc and 45Sc(3He,3He' gamma)45Sc reactions, respectively. The nuclear
level densities and gamma-ray strength functions have been extracted using the
Oslo method. The experimental level densities are compared to calculated level
densities obtained from a microscopic model based on BCS quasiparticles within
the Nilsson level scheme. This model also gives information about the parity
distribution and the number of broken Cooper pairs as a function of excitation
energy. The experimental gamma-ray strength functions are compared to
theoretical models of the E1, M1, and E2 strength, and to data from (gamma,n)
and (gamma,p) experiments. The strength functions show an enhancement at low
gamma energies that cannot be explained by the present, standard models.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures. Published versio
- …