Hydrodynamic slip boundary condition at chemically patterned surfaces: A continuum deduction from molecular dynamics

We investigate the slip boundary condition for single-phase flow past a chemically patterned surface. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations show that modulation of fluid-solid interaction along a chemically patterned surface induces a lateral structure in the fluid molecular organization near the surface. Consequently, various forces and stresses in the fluid vary along the patterned surface. Given the presence of these lateral variations, a general scheme is developed to extract hydrodynamic information from MD data. With the help of this scheme, the validity of the Navier slip boundary condition is verified for the chemically patterned surface, where a local slip length can be defined. Based on the MD results, a continuum hydrodynamic model is formulated using the Navier-Stokes equation and the Navier boundary condition, with a slip length varying along the patterned surface. Steady-state velocity fields from continuum calculations are in quantitative agreement with those from MD simulations. It is shown that, when the pattern period is sufficiently small, the solid surface appears to be homogeneous, with an effective slip length that can be controlled by surface patterning. Such a tunable slip length may have important applications in nanofluidics.Comment: 41 pages, 17 figure

Status of magnetic suspension technology

The reasons for the continuing interest in the Magnetic Suspension and Balance System (MSBS) are highlighted. Typical problems that can arise because of model-support interference in a transonic wind tunnel are shown to illustrate the need for MSBS. The two magnetic suspension systems in operation at Langley are the only ones active in the U.S. One of these systems is the 13 inch MSBS which was borrowed from the Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center. The other system is the 6 inch MSBS which was developed by MIT Aerophysics Laboratory with NASA and DOD funding. Each of these systems is combined with a subsonic wind tunnel. Ongoing research in both of these systems is covered. Last year, Madison Magnetics, Inc., completed a contractual design and cost study utilizing some advance concepts for a large MSBS which would be compatible with an 8 foot transonic wind tunnel and the highlights of the study are presented. Sverdrup Technology, Inc., recently performed a study under contract for Langley on the potential usefulness to the aerospace industry of a proposed large MSBS combined with a suitable transonic wind tunnel. The results of that study are discussed. Langley has partially funded the MSBS work at the University of Southampton for about 6 years under a grant arrangement and the major results are summarized

A Dual Dutch Auction in Taipei: The Choice of Numeraire and Auction Form in Multi-Object Auctions with Bundling. .

In Taipei we observed a dual Dutch fish auction, like a conventional Dutch auction with bundling, but with reversed roles of price and quantity. We study dual and conventional auctions with symmetric, independent private values, when agents’ utilities are linear in money but strictly concave in fish. With known buyers’ values, conventional and dual auctions, English or Dutch, are equivalent. With values known to buyers but not the seller, the seller prefers conventional auctions. With private values, the seller can prefer a dual Dutch or a conventional English or Dutch auction, but prefers all three to a dual English auction.

Dynamics of opinion formation in a small-world network

The dynamical process of opinion formation within a model using a local majority opinion updating rule is studied numerically in networks with the small-world geometrical property. The network is one in which shortcuts are added to randomly chosen pairs of nodes in an underlying regular lattice. The presence of a small number of shortcuts is found to shorten the time to reach a consensus significantly. The effects of having shortcuts in a lattice of fixed spatial dimension are shown to be analogous to that of increasing the spatial dimension in regular lattices. The shortening of the consensus time is shown to be related to the shortening of the mean shortest path as shortcuts are added. Results can also be translated into that of the dynamics of a spin system in a small-world network.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

A Unified Gravity-Electroweak Model Based on a Generalized Yang-Mills Framework

Gravitational and electroweak interactions can be unified in analogy with the unification in the Weinberg-Salam theory. The Yang-Mills framework is generalized to include space-time translational group T(4), whose generators T_{\mu}(=\p/\p x^{\mu}) do not have constant matrix representations. By gauging $T(4) \times SU(2) \times U(1)$ in flat space-time, we have a new tensor field $\phi_{\mu\nu}$ which universally couples to all particles and anti-particles with the same constant $g$, which has the dimension of length. In this unified model, the T(4) gauge symmetry dictates that all wave equations of fermions, massive bosons and the photon in flat space-time reduce to a Hamilton-Jacobi equation with the same `effective Riemann metric tensor' in the geometric-optics limit. Consequently, the results are consistent with experiments. We demonstrated that the T(4) gravitational gauge field can be quantized in inertial frames.Comment: 12 pages. To be published in "Modern Physics Letters A

Multi-wavelength Stellar Polarimetry of the Filamentary Cloud IC5146: I. Dust Properties

We present optical and near-infrared stellar polarization observations toward the dark filamentary clouds associated with IC5146. The data allow us to investigate the dust properties (this paper) and the magnetic field structure (Paper II). A total of 2022 background stars were detected in $R_{c}$-, $i'$-, $H$-, and/or $K$-bands to $A_V \lesssim 25$ mag. The ratio of the polarization percentage at different wavelengths provides an estimate of $\lambda_{max}$, the wavelength of peak polarization, which is an indicator of the small-size cutoff of the grain size distribution. The grain size distribution seems to significantly change at $A_V \sim$ 3 mag, where both the average and dispersion of $P_{R_c}/P_{H}$ decrease. In addition, we found $\lambda_{max}$ $\sim$ 0.6-0.9 $\mu$m for $A_V>2.5$ mag, which is larger than the $\sim$ 0.55 $\mu$m in the general ISM, suggesting that grain growth has already started in low $A_V$ regions. Our data also reveal that polarization efficiency (PE $\equiv P_{\lambda}/A_V$) decreases with $A_V$ as a power-law in $R_c$-, $i'$-, and $K$-bands with indices of -0.71$\pm$0.10, -1.23$\pm$0.10 and -0.53$\pm$0.09. However, $H$-band data show a power index change; the PE varies with $A_V$ steeply (index of -0.95$\pm$0.30) when $A_V < 2.88\pm0.67$ mag but softly (index of -0.25$\pm$0.06) for greater $A_V$ values. The soft decay of PE in high $A_V$ regions is consistent with the Radiative Aligned Torque model, suggesting that our data trace the magnetic field to $A_V \sim 20$ mag. Furthermore, the breakpoint found in $H$-band is similar to the $A_V$ where we found the $P_{R_c}/P_{H}$ dispersion significantly decreased. Therefore, the flat PE-$A_V$ in high $A_V$ regions implies that the power index changes result from additional grain growth.Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures, and 3 tables; accepted for publication in Ap

Flux-lattice melting in LaO1−x_{1-x}Fx_{x}FeAs: first-principles prediction

We report the theoretical study of the flux-lattice melting in the novel iron-based superconductor $LaO_{0.9}F_{0.1}FeAs$ and $LaO_{0.925}F_{0.075}FeAs$. Using the Hypernetted-Chain closure and an efficient algorithm, we calculate the two-dimensional one-component plasma pair distribution functions, static structure factors and direct correlation functions at various temperatures. The Hansen-Verlet freezing criterion is shown to be valid for vortex-liquid freezing in type-II superconductors. Flux-lattice meting lines for $LaO_{0.9}F_{0.1}FeAs$ and $LaO_{0.925}F_{0.075}FeAs$ are predicted through the combination of the density functional theory and the mean-field substrate approach.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.