10,321 research outputs found
Applicability of Boussinesq approximation in a turbulent fluid with constant properties
The equations of motion describing buoyant fluids are often simplified using
a set of approximations proposed by J. Boussinesq one century ago. To resume,
they consist in assuming constant fluid properties, incompressibility and
conservation of calories during heat transport. Assuming fulfilment of the
first requirement (constant fluid properties), we derive a set of 4 criteria
for assessing the validity of the two other requirements in turbulent
Rayleigh-B\'enard convection. The first criterion simply
results from the incompressibility condition in the thermal boundary layer
( and are the thermal expansion coefficient and the
temperature difference driving the flow). The 3 other criteria are proportional
or quadratic with the density stratification or, equivalently with the
temperature difference resulting from the adiabatic gradient across the cell
. Numerical evaluations with air, water and cryogenic helium show
that most laboratory experiments are free from such Boussinesq violation as
long as the first criterion is fulfilled. In ultra high Rayleigh numbers
() experiments in He, one of the stratification criteria, scaling
with , could be violated. This criterion garanties that
pressure fluctuations have a negligible influence both on the density variation
and on the heat transfer equation through compression/expansion cycles.
Extrapolation to higher suggests that strong violation of Boussinesq
approximation could occur in atmospheric convection.Comment: Submitted to Phys.Fluids (oct 2007
Shot-noise statistics in diffusive conductors
We study the full probability distribution of the charge transmitted through
a mesoscopic diffusive conductor during a measurement time T. We have
considered a semi-classical model, with an exclusion principle in a discretized
single-particle phase-space. In the large T limit, numerical simulations show a
universal probability distribution which agrees very well with the quantum
mechanical prediction of Lee, Levitov and Yakovets [PRB {51} 4079 (1995)] for
the charge counting statistics. Special attention is given to its third
cumulant, including an analysis of finite size effects and of some experimental
constraints for its accurate measurement.Comment: Submitted to Eur. Phys. J. B (Jan. 2002
The Galactic Disk Distribution of Planetary Nebulae with Warm Dust Emission Features: II
Can the distribution of warm-dust compositions in IR-bright galactic disk PNe
be linked to the underlying stellar population? The PNe with warm dust emission
represent a homogeneous population, which is presumably young and minimally
affected by a possible dependence of PN lifetime on progenitor mass. The sample
in paper I thus allows testing the predictions of single star evolution,
through a comparison with synthetic distributions and under the assumption that
tip-of-the-AGB and PN statistics are similar. We construct a schematic model
for AGB evolution (adapted from Groenewegen & de Jong 1993), whose
free-parameters are calibrated with the luminosity function (LF) of C stars in
the LMC, the initial-final mass relation, and the range of PN compositions. The
observed metallicity gradient and distribution of star forming regions with
galactocentric radius (Bronfman et al. 2000) allow us to synthesise the
galactic disk PN progenitor population. We find the fraction of O-rich PNe,
f(O), is a tight constraint on AGB parameters. For our best model, a minimum PN
progenitor mass Mmin=1Msun predicts that about 50% of all young PNe should be
O-rich, compared to an observed fraction of 22%; thus Mmin=1.2Msun, at a 2sigma
confidence level. By contrast, current AGB models for single stars can account
neither for the continuous range of N enrichment (Leisy & Dennefeld 1996), nor
for the observation that the majority of very C-rich PNe have Peimbert type I
(paper I). f(O) is thus an observable much easier to model. The decrease in
f(O) with galactocentric radius, as reported in paper I, is a strong property
of the synthetic distribution, independent of Mmin. This trend reflects the
sensitivity of the surface temperature of AGB stars and of the core mass at the
first thermal pulse to the galactic metallicity gradient.Comment: accepted by MNRA
Near-infrared and Millimeter Constraints on the Nuclear Energy Source of the Infrared Luminous Galaxy NGC 4418
We present near-infrared and millimeter investigations of the nucleus of the
infrared luminous galaxy NGC 4418, which previous observations suggest
possesses a powerful buried AGN. We found the following main results: (1) The
infrared K-band spectrum shows CO absorption features at 2.3-2.4 micron owing
to stars and very strong H2 emission lines. The luminosity ratios of H2
emission lines are suggestive of a thermal origin, and the equivalent width of
the H2 1-0 S(1) line is the second largest observed to date in an external
galaxy, after the well-studied strong H2-emitting galaxy NGC 6240. (2) The
infrared L-band spectrum shows a clear polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)
emission feature at 3.3 micron, which is usually found in star-forming
galaxies. The estimated star-formation luminosity from the observed PAH
emission can account for only a small fraction of the infrared luminosity. (3)
Millimeter interferometric observations of the nucleus reveal a high HCN (1-0)
to HCO+ (1-0) luminosity ratio of 1.8, as has been previously found in pure
AGNs. (4) The measurements of HCN (1-0) luminosity using a single-dish
millimeter telescope show that the HCN (1-0) to infrared luminosity ratio is
slightly larger than the average, but within the scattered range, for other
infrared luminous galaxies. All of these results can be explained by the
scenario in which, in addition to energetically-insignificant, weakly-obscured
star-formation at the surface of the nucleus, a powerful X-ray emitting AGN
deeply buried in dust and high density molecular gas is present.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal
(2004 November issue
The relationship between noise and annoyance around Orly
The extent to which annoyance estimated by an isopsophic index is a good forecaster for annoyance perceived near airport approaches was investigated. An index of sensed annoyance is constructed, and the relationship between the annoyance index and the isopsophic index is studied
Vortex spectrum in superfluid turbulence: interpretation of a recent experiment
We discuss a recent experiment in which the spectrum of the vortex line
density fluctuations has been measured in superfluid turbulence. The observed
frequency dependence of the spectrum, , disagrees with classical
vorticity spectra if, following the literature, the vortex line density is
interpreted as a measure of the vorticity or enstrophy. We argue that the
disagrement is solved if the vortex line density field is decomposed into a
polarised field (which carries most of the energy) and an isotropic field
(which is responsible for the spectrum).Comment: Submitted for publication
http://crtbt.grenoble.cnrs.fr/helio/GROUP/infa.html
http://www.mas.ncl.ac.uk/~ncfb
Preoperative predictors of knee range of motion during stair walking after total knee replacement
This paper discusses the preoperative predictors of knee range of motion during stair walking after total knee replacement. It was presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Movement Analysis for Adults and Children (ESMAC) in 2008
Solving the kilo-second QPO problem of the intermediate polar GK Persei
We detect the likely optical counterpart to previously reported X-ray QPOs in
spectrophotometry of the intermediate polar GK Persei during the 1996 dwarf
nova outburst. The characteristic timescales range between 4000--6000 s.
Although the QPOs are an order of magnitude longer than those detected in the
other dwarf novae we show that a new QPO model is not required to explain the
long timescale observed. We demonstrate that the observations are consistent
with oscillations being the result of normal-timescale QPOs beating with the
spin period of the white dwarf. We determine the spectral class of the
companion to be consistent with its quiescent classification and find no
significant evidence for irradiation over its inner face. We detect the white
dwarf spin period in line fluxes, V/R ratios and Doppler-broadened emission
profiles.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
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