2,900 research outputs found
Oscillations and secondary bifurcations in nonlinear magnetoconvection
Complicated bifurcation structures that appear in nonlinear systems governed by partial differential equations (PDEs) can be explained by studying appropriate low-order amplitude equations. We demonstrate the power of this approach by considering compressible magnetoconvection. Numerical experiments reveal a transition from a regime with a subcritical Hopf bifurcation from the static solution, to one where finite-amplitude oscillations persist although there is no Hopf bifurcation from the static solution. This transition is associated with a codimension-two bifurcation with a pair of zero eigenvalues. We show that the bifurcation pattern found for the PDEs is indeed predicted by the second-order normal form equation (with cubic nonlinearities) for a Takens-Bogdanov bifurcation with Z2 symmetry. We then extend this equation by adding quintic nonlinearities and analyse the resulting system. Its predictions provide a qualitatively accurate description of solutions of the full PDEs over a wider range of parameter values. Replacing the reflecting (Z2) lateral boundary conditions with periodic [O(2)] boundaries allows stable travelling wave and modulated wave solutions to appear; they could be described by a third-order system
Combustor flame flashback
Flashback, a problem that occurs in premixed-prevaporized combustors, is the upstream propagation of the flame from the combustor into the premixing tubes. Not only does flashback change the combustion process from premixed burning to diffusion burning, thus creating more pollutants, but it also inflicts considerable damage to the fuel injector, premixing tube and other equipment upstream. The conditions at which flashback occurs in steady burning and the mechanism that causes flashback in both steady and transient flow are studied. The equivalence ratio at which flashback occurs is being measured for inlet temperatures of 600-950 K, premixer wall temperatures of 450-1050 K and premixer velocities of 40-80 ft/s. These data are presented
Magnetic diffusivity tensor and dynamo effects in rotating and shearing turbulence
The turbulent magnetic diffusivity tensor is determined in the presence of
rotation or shear. The question is addressed whether dynamo action from the
shear-current effect can explain large-scale magnetic field generation found in
simulations with shear. For this purpose a set of evolution equations for the
response to imposed test fields is solved with turbulent and mean motions
calculated from the momentum and continuity equations. The corresponding
results for the electromotive force are used to calculate turbulent transport
coefficients. The diagonal components of the turbulent magnetic diffusivity
tensor are found to be very close together, but their values increase slightly
with increasing shear and decrease with increasing rotation rate. In the
presence of shear, the sign of the two off-diagonal components of the turbulent
magnetic diffusion tensor is the same and opposite to the sign of the shear.
This implies that dynamo action from the shear--current effect is impossible,
except perhaps for high magnetic Reynolds numbers. However, even though there
is no alpha effect on the average, the components of the alpha tensor display
Gaussian fluctuations around zero. These fluctuations are strong enough to
drive an incoherent alpha--shear dynamo. The incoherent shear--current effect,
on the other hand, is found to be subdominant.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, improved version, accepted by Ap
Analysis of the shearing instability in nonlinear convection and magnetoconvection
Numerical experiments on two-dimensional convection with or without a vertical magnetic field reveal a bewildering variety of periodic and aperiodic oscillations. Steady rolls can develop a shearing instability, in which rolls turning over in one direction grow at the expense of rolls turning over in the other, resulting in a net shear across the layer. As the temperature difference across the fluid is increased, two-dimensional pulsating waves occur, in which the direction of shear alternates. We analyse the nonlinear dynamics of this behaviour by first constructing appropriate low-order sets of ordinary differential equations, which show the same behaviour, and then analysing the global bifurcations that lead to these oscillations by constructing one-dimensional return maps. We compare the behaviour of the partial differential equations, the models and the maps in systematic two-parameter studies of both the magnetic and the non-magnetic cases, emphasising how the symmetries of periodic solutions change as a result of global bifurcations. Much of the interesting behaviour is associated with a discontinuous change in the leading direction of a fixed point at a global bifurcation; this change occurs when the magnetic field is introduced
Hybrid quantum computing with ancillas
In the quest to build a practical quantum computer, it is important to use
efficient schemes for enacting the elementary quantum operations from which
quantum computer programs are constructed. The opposing requirements of
well-protected quantum data and fast quantum operations must be balanced to
maintain the integrity of the quantum information throughout the computation.
One important approach to quantum operations is to use an extra quantum system
- an ancilla - to interact with the quantum data register. Ancillas can mediate
interactions between separated quantum registers, and by using fresh ancillas
for each quantum operation, data integrity can be preserved for longer. This
review provides an overview of the basic concepts of the gate model quantum
computer architecture, including the different possible forms of information
encodings - from base two up to continuous variables - and a more detailed
description of how the main types of ancilla-mediated quantum operations
provide efficient quantum gates.Comment: Review paper. An introduction to quantum computation with qudits and
continuous variables, and a review of ancilla-based gate method
Vicious walkers, friendly walkers and Young tableaux II: With a wall
We derive new results for the number of star and watermelon configurations of
vicious walkers in the presence of an impenetrable wall by showing that these
follow from standard results in the theory of Young tableaux, and combinatorial
descriptions of symmetric functions. For the problem of -friendly walkers,
we derive exact asymptotics for the number of stars and watermelons both in the
absence of a wall and in the presence of a wall.Comment: 35 pages, AmS-LaTeX; Definitions of n-friendly walkers clarified; the
statement of Theorem 4 and its proof were correcte
X-ray observations of three young, early-type galaxies
Massive haloes of hot plasma exist around some, but not all elliptical galaxies. There is evidence that this is related to the age of the galaxy. In this paper, new X-ray observations are presented for three early-type galaxies that show evidence of youth, in order to investigate their X-ray components and properties. NGC 5363 and NGC 2865 were found to have X-ray emission dominated by purely discrete stellar sources. Limits are set on the mass distribution in one of the galaxies observed with XMMâNewton, NGC 4382, which contains significant hot gas. We detect the X-ray emission in NGC 4382 out to 4re. The mass-to-light ratio is consistent with a stellar origin in the inner regions but rises steadily to values indicative of some dark matter by 4re. These results are set in context with other data drawn from the literature, for galaxies with ages estimated from dynamical or spectroscopic indicators. Ages obtained from optical spectroscopy represent central luminosity-weighted stellar ages. We examine the X-ray evolution with age, normalized by B- and K-band luminosities. Low values of Log(LX/LB) and Log(LX/LK) are found for all galaxies with ages between 1 and 4 Gyr. Luminous X-ray emission only appears in older galaxies. This suggests that the interstellar medium is removed and then it takes several gigayears for hot gas haloes to build up, following a merger. A possible mechanism for gas expulsion might be associated with feedback from an active nucleus triggered during a merger
Universal bifurcation property of two- or higher-dimensional dissipative systems in parameter space: Why does 1D symbolic dynamics work so well?
The universal bifurcation property of the H\'enon map in parameter space is
studied with symbolic dynamics. The universal- region is defined to
characterize the bifurcation universality. It is found that the universal-
region for relative small is not restricted to very small values. These
results show that it is also a universal phenomenon that universal sequences
with short period can be found in many nonlinear dissipative systems.Comment: 10 pages, figures can be obtained from the author, will appeared in
J. Phys.
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