587 research outputs found
An equation for the description of volume and temperature dependences of the dynamics of supercooled liquids and polymer melts
A recently proposed expression to describe the temperature and volume
dependences of the structural (or alpha) relaxation time is discussed. This
equation satisfies the scaling law for the relaxation times, tau = f(TV^g),
where T is temperature, V the specific volume, and g a material-dependent
constant. The expression for the function f is shown to accurately fit
experimental data for several glass-forming liquids and polymers over an
extended range encompassing the dynamic crossover, providing a description of
the dynamics with a minimal number of parameters. The results herein can be
reconciled with previously found correlations of the isochoric fragility with
both the isobaric fragility at atmospheric pressure and the scaling exponent g.Comment: to be published in the special edition of J. Non-Crystalline Solids
honoring K.L. Nga
FIRE aircraft observations of horizontal and vertical transport in marine stratocumulus
A major goal of research on marine stratocumulus is to try to understand the processes that generate and dissipate them. One approach to studying this problem is to investigate the boundary layer structure in the vicinity of a transition from a cloudy to a cloud-free region to document the differences in structure on each side of the transition. Since stratiform clouds have a major impact on the radiation divergence in the boundary layer, the transition from a cloudy to a clear boundary layer is a region of large horizontal inhomogeneity in air temperature and turbulence intensity. This leads to a considerable difference in horizontal and vertical transports between the cloudy and cloud-free regions. Measurements are used from the NCAR Electra aircraft during flights 5 (7 July 1987) and 10 (18 July 1987) of FIRE for this purpose. Flight 5 coincided with a LANDSAT overflight, and was designed to investigate the transition across a well-defined N-S cloud boundary, since the LANDSAT image can document the cloud cover in considerable detail. Turbulence legs were flown about 60 km on both sides of the cloud boundary. Flight 10 was flown at night in an area of scattered small cumuli and broken cloud patches
Vertical-velocity skewness in the marine stratus-topped boundary layer
Vertical-velocity skewness, S(sub w), in a turbulent flow is important in several regards. S(sub w) is indicative of the structure of the motion when it is positive, updrafts are narrower and stronger than surrounding downdrafts, and vice versa. Aircraft measurements often suggest cool, narrow downdrafts at some distance below the stratus cloud top, indicating a negative S(sub w) (Nicholls and Leighton, 1986). This seems natural as the turbulence within the stratus-topped boundary layer (CTBL) is driven mainly by the radiative cooling at the cloud top (although sometimes surface heating can also play a major role). One expects intuitively (e.g., Nicolls, 1984) that, in the situations where cloud-top cooling and surface heating coexist, the turbulence statistics in the upper part of the CTBL are influenced more by the cloud-top cooling, while those in the lower part, more by the surface heating. Thus one expects negative S(sub w) in the upper part, and positive in the lower part, in this case. In contradistinction, large-eddy simulations (LES) of the CTBL show just the opposite: the S(sub w) is positive in the upper part and negative in the lower part of the layer. To understand the nature of vertical-velocity skewness, the simplest type of buoyancy-driven turbulence (turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection) is studied through direct numerical simulation
Volume Effects on the Glass Transition Dynamics
The role of jamming (steric constraints) and its relationship to the
available volume is addressed by examining the effect that certain
modifications of a glass-former have on the ratio of its isochoric and isobaric
activation enthalpies. This ratio reflects the relative contribution of volume
(density) and temperature (thermal energy) to the temperature-dependence of the
relaxation times of liquids and polymers. We find that an increase in the
available volume confers a stronger volume-dependence to the relaxation
dynamics, a result at odds with free volume interpretations of the glass
transition.Comment: 9 pages 5 figure
Continuous feedback on a quantum gas coupled to an optical cavity
We present an active feedback scheme acting continuously on the state of a
quantum gas dispersively coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity. The quantum
gas is subject to a transverse pump laser field inducing a self-organization
phase transition, where the gas acquires a density modulation and photons are
scattered into the resonator. Photons leaking from the cavity allow for a
real-time and non-destructive readout of the system. We stabilize the mean
intra-cavity photon number through a micro-processor controlled feedback
architecture acting on the intensity of the transverse pump field. The feedback
scheme can keep the mean intra-cavity photon number constant, in
a range between and , and
for up to 4 s. Thus we can engage the stabilization in a regime where the
system is very close to criticality as well as deep in the self-organized
phase. The presented scheme allows us to approach the self-organization phase
transition in a highly controlled manner and is a first step on the path
towards the realization of many-body phases driven by tailored feedback
mechanisms
Effect of entropy on the dynamics of supercooled liquids: New results from high pressure data
We show that for arbitrary thermodynamic conditions, master curves of the
entropy are obtained by expressing S(T,V) as a function of TV^g_G, where T is
temperature, V specific volume, and g_G the thermodynamic Gruneisen parameter.
A similar scaling is known for structural relaxation times,tau = f(TV^g);
however, we find g_G < g. We show herein that this inequality reflects
contributions to S(T,V) from processes, such as vibrations and secondary
relaxations, that do not directly influence the supercooled dynamics. An
approximate method is proposed to remove these contributions, S_0, yielding the
relationship tau = f(S-S_0).Comment: 10 pages 7 figure
Intracellular microrheology of motile Amoeba proteus
The motility of motile Amoeba proteus was examined using the technique of
passive particle tracking microrheology, with the aid of newly-developed
particle tracking software, a fast digital camera and an optical microscope. We
tracked large numbers of endogeneous particles in the amoebae, which displayed
subdiffusive motion at short time scales, corresponding to thermal motion in a
viscoelastic medium, and superdiffusive motion at long time scales due to the
convection of the cytoplasm. Subdiffusive motion was characterised by a
rheological scaling exponent of 3/4 in the cortex, indicative of the
semiflexible dynamics of the actin fibres. We observed shear-thinning in the
flowing endoplasm, where exponents increased with increasing flow rate; i.e.
the endoplasm became more fluid-like. The rheology of the cortex is found to be
isotropic, reflecting an isotropic actin gel. A clear difference was seen
between cortical and endoplasmic layers in terms of both viscoelasticity and
flow velocity, where the profile of the latter is close to a Poiseuille flow
for a Newtonian fluid
Three-dimensional geometry controls division symmetry in stem cell colonies
Proper control of division orientation and symmetry, largely determined by spindle positioning, is essential to development and homeostasis. Spindle positioning has been extensively studied in cells dividing in two-dimensional (2D) environments and in epithelial tissues, where proteins such as NuMA (also known as NUMA1) orient division along the interphase long axis of the cell. However, little is known about how cells control spindle positioning in three-dimensional (3D) environments, such as early mammalian embryos and a variety of adult tissues. Here, we use mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), which grow in 3D colonies, as a model to investigate division in 3D. We observe that, at the periphery of 3D colonies, ESCs display high spindle mobility and divide asymmetrically. Our data suggest that enhanced spindle movements are due to unequal distribution of the cell–cell junction protein E-cadherin between future daughter cells. Interestingly, when cells progress towards differentiation, division becomes more symmetric, with more elongated shapes in metaphase and enhanced cortical NuMA recruitment in anaphase. Altogether, this study suggests that in 3D contexts, the geometry of the cell and its contacts with neighbors control division orientation and symmetry
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