18,683 research outputs found
Turbulent channel flow of dense suspensions of neutrally-buoyant spheres
Dense particle suspensions are widely encountered in many applications and in
environmental flows. While many previous studies investigate their rheological
properties in laminar flows, little is known on the behaviour of these
suspensions in the turbulent/inertial regime. The present study aims to fill
this gap by investigating the turbulent flow of a Newtonian fluid laden with
solid neutrally-buoyant spheres at relatively high volume fractions in a plane
channel. Direct Numerical Simulation are performed in the range of volume
fractions Phi=0-0.2 with an Immersed Boundary Method used to account for the
dispersed phase. The results show that the mean velocity profiles are
significantly altered by the presence of a solid phase with a decrease of the
von Karman constant in the log-law. The overall drag is found to increase with
the volume fraction, more than one would expect just considering the increase
of the system viscosity due to the presence of the particles. At the highest
volume fraction here investigated, Phi=0.2, the velocity fluctuation
intensities and the Reynolds shear stress are found to decrease. The analysis
of the mean momentum balance shows that the particle-induced stresses govern
the dynamics at high Phi and are the main responsible of the overall drag
increase. In the dense limit, we therefore find a decrease of the turbulence
activity and a growth of the particle induced stress, where the latter
dominates for the Reynolds numbers considered here.Comment: Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 201
The z>4 Quasar Population Observed by Chandra and XMM-Newton
The current status of our Chandra and XMM-Newton project on high-redshift
(z>4) quasars is briefly reviewed. We report the main results obtained in the
last few years for the detected quasars, along with a few (~10%) intriguing
cases where no detection has been obtained with Chandra snapshot observations.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the proceedings of 'Multiwavelength AGN
surveys' (Cozumel, December 8-12 2003), ed. R. Maiolino and R. Mujic
ROSAT PSPC and Hri Observations of the Composite Starburst/Seyfert 2 Galaxy NGC 1672
The nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672 is thought to have a weak Seyfert
nucleus in addition to its strong starburst activity. Observations with the
PSPC and HRI instruments on board the ROSAT X-ray satellite show that three
X-ray sources with luminosities (1--2)\times 10^{40} erg/s are clearly
identified with NGC 1672. The strongest X-ray source lies at the nucleus, and
the other two lie near the ends of the prominent bar, locations that are also
bright in H-alpha and near-infrared images. The nuclear source is resolved by
the HRI on about the scale of the recently identified nuclear ring, and one of
the sources at the ends of the bar is also probably resolved. The X-ray
spectrum of the nuclear source is quite soft, having a Raymond--Smith plasma
temperature of about 0.7 keV and little evidence for intrinsic absorption. The
ROSAT band X-ray flux of the nuclear source appears to be dominated not by
X-ray binary emission but rather by diffuse gas emission. While the properties
of the nuclear source are generally supportive of a superbubble interpretation,
its large density and emission measure stretch the limits that can be
comfortably accommodated by such models. We do not detect direct emission from
the putative Seyfert nucleus, although an alternative model for the nuclear
source is thermal emission from gas that is photoionized by a hidden Seyfert
nucleus. The spectra of the other two X-ray sources are harder than that of the
nuclear source, and superbubble models for them have the same strengths and
weaknesses.Comment: 11 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript, MNRAS in pres
The information content of a new observable: the case of the nuclear neutron skin
We address two questions pertaining to the uniqueness and usefulness of a new
observable: (i) Considering the current theoretical knowledge, what novel
information does new measurement bring in? (ii) How can new data reduce
uncertainties of current theoretical models? We illustrate these points by
studying the radius of the neutron distribution of a heavy nucleus, a quantity
related to the equation of state for neutron matter that determines properties
of nuclei and neutron stars. By systematically varying parameters of two
theoretical models and studying the resulting confidence ellipsoid, we quantify
the relationships between the neutron skin and various properties of finite
nuclei and infinite nuclear matter. Using the covariance analysis, we identify
observables and pseudo-observables that correlate, and do not correlate, with
the neutron skin. By adding the information on the neutron radius to the pool
of observables determining the energy functional, we show how precise
experimental determination of the neutron radius in Pb would reduce
theoretical uncertainties on the neutron matter equation of state.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Theory of Type-II Superconductors with Finite London Penetration Depth
Previous continuum theory of type-II superconductors of various shapes with
and without vortex pinning in an applied magnetic field and with transport
current, is generalized to account for a finite London penetration depth
lambda. This extension is particularly important at low inductions B, where the
transition to the Meissner state is now described correctly, and for films with
thickness comparable to or smaller than lambda. The finite width of the surface
layer with screening currents and the correct dc and ac responses in various
geometries follow naturally from an equation of motion for the current density
in which the integral kernel now accounts for finite lambda. New geometries
considered here are thick and thin strips with applied current, and `washers',
i.e. thin film squares with a slot and central hole as used for SQUIDs.Comment: 14 pages, including 15 high-resolution figure
X-ray Lighthouses of the High-Redshift Universe. II. Further Snapshot Observations of the Most Luminous z>4 Quasars with Chandra
We report on Chandra observations of a sample of 11 optically luminous
(Mb<-28.5) quasars at z=3.96-4.55 selected from the Palomar Digital Sky Survey
and the Automatic Plate Measuring Facility Survey. These are among the most
luminous z>4 quasars known and hence represent ideal witnesses of the end of
the "dark age ''. Nine quasars are detected by Chandra, with ~2-57 counts in
the observed 0.5-8 keV band. These detections increase the number of X-ray
detected AGN at z>4 to ~90; overall, Chandra has detected ~85% of the
high-redshift quasars observed with snapshot (few kilosecond) observations. PSS
1506+5220, one of the two X-ray undetected quasars, displays a number of
notable features in its rest-frame ultraviolet spectrum, the most prominent
being broad, deep SiIV and CIV absorption lines. The average optical-to-X-ray
spectral index for the present sample (=-1.88+/-0.05) is steeper than
that typically found for z>4 quasars but consistent with the expected value
from the known dependence of this spectral index on quasar luminosity.
We present joint X-ray spectral fitting for a sample of 48 radio-quiet
quasars in the redshift range 3.99-6.28 for which Chandra observations are
available. The X-ray spectrum (~870 counts) is well parameterized by a power
law with Gamma=1.93+0.10/-0.09 in the rest-frame ~2-40 keV band, and a tight
upper limit of N_H~5x10^21 cm^-2 is obtained on any average intrinsic X-ray
absorption. There is no indication of any significant evolution in the X-ray
properties of quasars between redshifts zero and six, suggesting that the
physical processes of accretion onto massive black holes have not changed over
the bulk of cosmic time.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A
Influence of Hybridization on the Properties of the Spinless Falicov-Kimball Model
Without a hybridization between the localized f- and the conduction (c-)
electron states the spinless Falicov-Kimball model (FKM) is exactly solvable in
the limit of high spatial dimension, as first shown by Brandt and Mielsch. Here
I show that at least for sufficiently small c-f-interaction this exact
inhomogeneous ground state is also obtained in Hartree-Fock approximation. With
hybridization the model is no longer exactly solvable, but the approximation
yields that the inhomogeneous charge-density wave (CDW) ground state remains
stable also for finite hybridization V smaller than a critical hybridization
V_c, above which no inhomogeneous CDW solution but only a homogeneous solution
is obtained. The spinless FKM does not allow for a ''ferroelectric'' ground
state with a spontaneous polarization, i.e. there is no nonvanishing
-expectation value in the limit of vanishing hybridization.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
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