Exact formula for currents in strongly pumped diffusive systems

We analyze a generic model of mesoscopic machines driven by the nonadiabatic variation of external parameters. We derive a formula for the probability current; as a consequence we obtain a no-pumping theorem for cyclic processes satisfying detailed balance and demonstrate that the rectification of current requires broken spatial symmetry.Comment: 10 pages, accepted for publication in the Journal of Statistical Physic

Laboratory study on the effects of hydro kinetic turbines on hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics

© 2018 The Authors The need for hydrokinetic turbine wake characterisation and their environmental impact has led to a number of studies. However, a small number of them have taken into account mobile sediment bed effects. The aim of the present work is to study the impact of the presence of a horizontal-axis three-bladed turbine with the flow and a mobile sediment bed. We use a series of laboratory experiments with a scaled modelled turbine installed in a flume with a mobile sandy bed at the bottom. Acoustic instruments were used to monitor flow, suspended sediment and bed behaviour. Results show a velocity decrease of about 50% throughout the water column and no flow recovery after a distance of 15 rotor diameters. Clearly visible ripples in the absence of the model turbine were replaced by horseshoe-shaped scour pit in the near wake region, and a depositional heap in the far wake. Suspended sediment differences were recorded in the streamwise direction with a possible effect of the wake as far as 15 rotor diameters. These results imply potentially important effects on the efficiency of turbine arrays, if the flow were to be lower than expected, on turbine foundations and modify coastal sediment transport

Production of Massless Fermions during Inflation

We compute the one loop self energy, in a locally de Sitter background, for a massless fermion which is Yukawa-coupled to a massless, minimally coupled scalar. We then solve the modified Dirac equation resulting from inclusion of the self energy. We find faster-than-exponential growth in the fermion wave function, consistent with the production of fermions through a process in which a scalar and a fermion-anti-fermion pair are ripped out of the vacuum by inflation.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX 2e, 1 figure. The first 15 pages gives the text of version 1, which matches the published version. The erratum appended on page 15 corrects a crucial sign error which COMPLETELY CHANGES THE PHYSICAL CONCLUSION

First-principles Calculation of the Formation Energy in MgO-CaO Solid Solutions

The electronic structure and total energy were calculated for ordered and disordered MgO-CaO solid solutions within the multiple scattering theory in real space and the local density approximation. Based on the dependence of the total energy on the unit cell volume the equilibrium lattice parameter and formation energy were determined for different solution compositions. The formation energy of the solid solutions is found to be positive that is in agreement with the experimental phase diagram, which shows a miscibility gap.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Linear Response, Validity of Semi-Classical Gravity, and the Stability of Flat Space

A quantitative test for the validity of the semi-classical approximation in gravity is given. The criterion proposed is that solutions to the semi-classical Einstein equations should be stable to linearized perturbations, in the sense that no gauge invariant perturbation should become unbounded in time. A self-consistent linear response analysis of these perturbations, based upon an invariant effective action principle, necessarily involves metric fluctuations about the mean semi-classical geometry, and brings in the two-point correlation function of the quantum energy-momentum tensor in a natural way. This linear response equation contains no state dependent divergences and requires no new renormalization counterterms beyond those required in the leading order semi-classical approximation. The general linear response criterion is applied to the specific example of a scalar field with arbitrary mass and curvature coupling in the vacuum state of Minkowski spacetime. The spectral representation of the vacuum polarization function is computed in n dimensional Minkowski spacetime, and used to show that the flat space solution to the semi-classical Einstein equations for n=4 is stable to all perturbations on distance scales much larger than the Planck length.Comment: 22 pages: This is a significantly expanded version of gr-qc/0204083, with two additional sections and two new appendices giving a complete, explicit example of the semi-classical stability criterion proposed in the previous pape

Tensor-scalar gravity and binary-pulsar experiments

Some recently discovered nonperturbative strong-field effects in tensor-scalar theories of gravitation are interpreted as a scalar analog of ferromagnetism: "spontaneous scalarization". This phenomenon leads to very significant deviations from general relativity in conditions involving strong gravitational fields, notably binary-pulsar experiments. Contrary to solar-system experiments, these deviations do not necessarily vanish when the weak-field scalar coupling tends to zero. We compute the scalar "form factors" measuring these deviations, and notably a parameter entering the pulsar timing observable gamma through scalar-field-induced variations of the inertia moment of the pulsar. An exploratory investigation of the confrontation between tensor-scalar theories and binary-pulsar experiments shows that nonperturbative scalar field effects are already very tightly constrained by published data on three binary-pulsar systems. We contrast the probing power of pulsar experiments with that of solar-system ones by plotting the regions they exclude in a generic two-dimensional plane of tensor-scalar theories.Comment: 35 pages, REVTeX 3.0, uses epsf.tex to include 9 Postscript figure

On the Detection of a Scalar Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves

In the near future we will witness the coming to a full operational regime of laser interferometers and resonant mass detectors of spherical shape. In this work we study the sensitivity of pairs of such gravitational wave detectors to a scalar stochastic background of gravitational waves. Our computations are carried out both for minimal and non minimal coupling of the scalar fields.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure

Noise induced transitions in semiclassical cosmology

A semiclassical cosmological model is considered which consists of a closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker in the presence of a cosmological constant, which mimics the effect of an inflaton field, and a massless, non-conformally coupled quantum scalar field. We show that the back-reaction of the quantum field, which consists basically of a non local term due to gravitational particle creation and a noise term induced by the quantum fluctuations of the field, are able to drive the cosmological scale factor over the barrier of the classical potential so that if the universe starts near zero scale factor (initial singularity) it can make the transition to an exponentially expanding de Sitter phase. We compute the probability of this transition and it turns out to be comparable with the probability that the universe tunnels from "nothing" into an inflationary stage in quantum cosmology. This suggests that in the presence of matter fields the back-reaction on the spacetime should not be neglected in quantum cosmology.Comment: LaTex, 33.tex pages, no figure

Ordering and finite-size effects in the dynamics of one-dimensional transient patterns

We introduce and analyze a general one-dimensional model for the description of transient patterns which occur in the evolution between two spatially homogeneous states. This phenomenon occurs, for example, during the Freedericksz transition in nematic liquid crystals.The dynamics leads to the emergence of finite domains which are locally periodic and independent of each other. This picture is substantiated by a finite-size scaling law for the structure factor. The mechanism of evolution towards the final homogeneous state is by local roll destruction and associated reduction of local wavenumber. The scaling law breaks down for systems of size comparable to the size of the locally periodic domains. For systems of this size or smaller, an apparent nonlinear selection of a global wavelength holds, giving rise to long lived periodic configurations which do not occur for large systems. We also make explicit the unsuitability of a description of transient pattern dynamics in terms of a few Fourier mode amplitudes, even for small systems with a few linearly unstable modes.Comment: 18 pages (REVTEX) + 10 postscript figures appende

Back reaction in the formation of a straight cosmic string

A simple model for the formation of a straight cosmic string, wiggly or unperturbed is considered. The gravitational field of such string is computed in the linear approximation. The vacuum expectation value of the stress tensor of a massless scalar quantum field coupled to the string gravitational field is computed to the one loop order. Finally, the back-reaction effect on the gravitational field of the string is obtained by solving perturbatively the semiclassical Einstein's equations.Comment: 29 pages, LaTeX, no figures. A postcript version can be obtained from anonymous ftp at ftp://ftp.ifae.es/preprint.f