7,098 research outputs found
Three-dimensionality in quasi-two dimensional flows: recirculations and barrel effects
A scenario is put forward for the appearance of three-dimensionality both in
quasi-2D rotating flows and quasi-2D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows. We show
that 3D recirculating flows and currents originate in wall boundary layers and
that, unlike in ordinary hydrodynamic flows, they cannot be ignited by
confinement alone. They also induce a second form of three-dimensionality with
quadratic variations of velocities and current across the channel. This
scenario explains both the common tendency of these flows to two-dimensionality
and the mechanisms of the recirculations through a single formal analogy
covering a wide class of flow including rotating and MHD flows. These
trans-disciplinary effects are thus active in atmospheres, oceans or the
cooling blankets of nuclear fusion reactors.Comment: 6 pages, 1 Figur
Dynamic Provenance for SPARQL Update
While the Semantic Web currently can exhibit provenance information by using
the W3C PROV standards, there is a "missing link" in connecting PROV to storing
and querying for dynamic changes to RDF graphs using SPARQL. Solving this
problem would be required for such clear use-cases as the creation of version
control systems for RDF. While some provenance models and annotation techniques
for storing and querying provenance data originally developed with databases or
workflows in mind transfer readily to RDF and SPARQL, these techniques do not
readily adapt to describing changes in dynamic RDF datasets over time. In this
paper we explore how to adapt the dynamic copy-paste provenance model of
Buneman et al. [2] to RDF datasets that change over time in response to SPARQL
updates, how to represent the resulting provenance records themselves as RDF in
a manner compatible with W3C PROV, and how the provenance information can be
defined by reinterpreting SPARQL updates. The primary contribution of this
paper is a semantic framework that enables the semantics of SPARQL Update to be
used as the basis for a 'cut-and-paste' provenance model in a principled
manner.Comment: Pre-publication version of ISWC 2014 pape
Force indeterminacy in the jammed state of hard disks
Granular packings of hard discs are investigated by means of contact dynamics
which is an appropriate technique to explore the allowed force-realizations in
the space of contact forces. Configurations are generated for given values of
the friction coefficient, and then an ensemble of equilibrium forces is found
for fixed contacts. We study the force fluctuations within this ensemble. In
the limit of zero friction the fluctuations vanish in accordance with the
isostaticity of the packing. The magnitude of the fluctuations has a
non-monotonous friction dependence. The increase for small friction can be
attributed to the opening of the angle of the Coulomb cone, while the decrease
as friction increases is due to the reduction of connectivity of the
contact-network, leading to local, independent clusters of indeterminacy. We
discuss the relevance of indeterminacy to packings of deformable particles and
to the mechanical response properties.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes, journal reference adde
Efficiency of a thermodynamic motor at maximum power
Several recent theories address the efficiency of a macroscopic thermodynamic
motor at maximum power and question the so-called "Curzon-Ahlborn (CA)
efficiency." Considering the entropy exchanges and productions in an n-sources
motor, we study the maximization of its power and show that the controversies
are partly due to some imprecision in the maximization variables. When power is
maximized with respect to the system temperatures, these temperatures are
proportional to the square root of the corresponding source temperatures, which
leads to the CA formula for a bi-thermal motor. On the other hand, when power
is maximized with respect to the transitions durations, the Carnot efficiency
of a bi-thermal motor admits the CA efficiency as a lower bound, which is
attained if the duration of the adiabatic transitions can be neglected.
Additionally, we compute the energetic efficiency, or "sustainable efficiency,"
which can be defined for n sources, and we show that it has no other universal
upper bound than 1, but that in certain situations, favorable for power
production, it does not exceed 1/2
Spontaneous Chelation-Driven Reduction of the Neptunyl Cation in Aqueous Solution.
Octadentate hydroxypyridinone (HOPO) and catecholamide (CAM) siderophore analogues are known to be efficacious chelators of the actinide cations, and these ligands are also capable of facilitating both activation and reduction of actinyl species. Utilizing X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopies, as well as cyclic voltammetry measurements, herein, we elucidate chelation-based mechanisms for driving reactivity and initiating redox processes in a family of neptunyl-HOPO and CAM complexes. Based on the selected chelator, the ability to control the oxidation state of neptunium and the speed of reduction and concurrent oxo group activation was demonstrated. Most notably, reduction kinetics for the NpV O2 +/ /NpIV redox couple upon chelation by the ligands 3,4,3-LI(1,2-HOPO) and 3,4,3-LI(CAM)2 (1,2-HOPO)2 was observed to be faster than ever reported, and in fact quicker than we could measure using either X-ray absorption spectroscopy or electrochemical techniques
An Augmented OxRAM Synapse for Spiking Neural Network (SNN) Circuits
International audienceIn this paper, the conductance modulation of OxRAM memristive devices is evaluated based on experimental data to reveal the memristor inherent analog synaptic behavior. Simulation results are presented to validate the use of OxRAMs as synapses at a circuit level in a spiking neural network context. In the proposed approach, the OxRAM synapse is augmented with a shift register associated with current compliance control transistors to provide an efficient monitoring of the OxRAM conductance
Novel Cascaded Ultra Bright Pulsed Source of Polarization Entangled Photons
A new ultra bright pulsed source of polarization entangled photons has been
realized using type-II phase matching in spontaneous parametric down conversion
process in two cascaded crystals. The optical axes of the crystals are aligned
in such a way that the extraordinarily (ordinarily) polarized cone from one
crystal overlaps with the ordinarily (extraordinarily) polarized cone from the
second crystal. This spatial overlapping removes the association between the
polarization and the output angle of the photons that exist in a single type-II
down conversion process. Hence, entanglement of photons originating from any
point on the output cones is possible if a suitable optical delay line is used.
This delay line is particularly simple and easy to implement.Comment: 8 pages 8 figure
Averaged residence times of stochastic motions in bounded domains
Two years ago, Blanco and Fournier (Blanco S. and Fournier R., Europhys.
Lett. 2003) calculated the mean first exit time of a domain of a particle
undergoing a randomly reoriented ballistic motion which starts from the
boundary. They showed that it is simply related to the ratio of the volume's
domain over its surface. This work was extended by Mazzolo (Mazzolo A.,
Europhys. Lett. 2004) who studied the case of trajectories which start inside
the volume. In this letter, we propose an alternative formulation of the
problem which allows us to calculate not only the mean exit time, but also the
mean residence time inside a sub-domain. The cases of any combinations of
reflecting and absorbing boundary conditions are considered. Lastly, we
generalize our results for a wide class of stochastic motions.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Quark-lepton mass unification at TeV scales
A scenario combining a model of early (TeV) unification of quarks and leptons
with the physics of large extra dimensions provides a natural mechanism linking
quark and lepton masses at TeV scale. This has been dubbed as early
quark-lepton mass unification by one of us (PQH) in one of the two models of
early quark-lepton unification, which are consistent with data, namely SU(4)_PS
\otimes SU(2)_L \otimes SU(2)_R \otimes SU(2)_H. In particular, it focused on
the issue of naturally light Dirac neutrino. The present paper will focus on
similar issues in the other model, namely SU(4)_PS \otimes SU(3)_L \otimes
SU(3)_H.Comment: Accepted for publication in PRD: The new version is in agreement with
the accepted manuscrip
Cascade time-scales for energy and helicity in homogeneous isotropic turbulence
We extend the Kolmogorov phenomenology for the scaling of energy spectra in
high-Reynolds number turbulence, to explicitly include the effect of helicity.
There exists a time-scale for helicity transfer in homogeneous,
isotropic turbulence with helicity. We arrive at this timescale using the
phenomenological arguments used by Kraichnan to derive the timescale
for energy transfer (J. Fluid Mech. {\bf 47}, 525--535 (1971)). We show that in
general may not be neglected compared to , even for rather low
relative helicity. We then deduce an inertial range joint cascade of energy and
helicity in which the dynamics are dominated by in the low wavenumbers
with both energy and helicity spectra scaling as ; and by at
larger wavenumbers with spectra scaling as . We demonstrate how,
within this phenomenology, the commonly observed ``bottleneck'' in the energy
spectrum might be explained. We derive a wavenumber which is less than
the Kolmogorov dissipation wavenumber, at which both energy and helicity
cascades terminate due to dissipation effects. Data from direct numerical
simulations are used to check our predictions.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Physical Review
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