Significance of thermal fluctuations and hydrodynamic interactions in receptor-ligand mediated adhesive dynamics of a spherical particle in wall bound shear flow

The dynamics of adhesion of a spherical micro-particle to a ligand-coated wall, in shear flow, is studied using a Langevin equation that accounts for thermal fluctuations, hydrodynamic interactions and adhesive interactions. Contrary to the conventional assumption that thermal fluctuations play a negligible role at high P$\acute{e}$clet numbers, we find that for particles with low surface densities of receptors, rotational diffusion caused by fluctuations about the flow and gradient directions aids in bond formation, leading to significantly greater adhesion on average, compared to simulations where thermal fluctuations are completely ignored. The role of wall hydrodynamic interactions on the steady state motion of a particle, when the particle is close to the wall, has also been explored. At high P$\acute{e}$clet numbers, the shear induced force that arises due to the stresslet part of the Stokes dipole, plays a dominant role, reducing the particle velocity significantly, and affecting the states of motion of the particle. The coupling between the translational and rotational degrees of freedom of the particle, brought about by the presence of hydrodynamic interactions, is found to have no influence on the binding dynamics. On the other hand, the drag coefficient, which depends on the distance of the particle from the wall, plays a crucial role at low rates of bond formation. A significant difference in the effect of both the shear force and the position dependent drag force, on the states of motion of the particle, is observed when the P$\acute{e}$let number is small.Comment: The manuscript has been accepted as an article in Physical Review E Journa

Observation of Mixed Alkali Like Behaviour by Fluorine Ion in Mixed Alkali Oxyfluro Vanadate Glasses: Analysis from Conductivity Measurements

In this communication we report the fluorine ion dynamics in mixed alkali oxyfluro vanadate glasses. We have measured the electrical conductivity using impedance spectroscopy technique Room temperature conductivity falls to 5 orders of magnitude from its single alkali values at 33 mol% of rubidium concentration. We have also estimated the distance between similar mobile ions using the density values. Assuming this distance as the hopping distance between the similar ions we have estimated the anionic (Fluorine ion in our case) conductivity. It is observed that the fluorine ion dynamics mimics the mixed alkali effect and scales as the onset frequency f0.Comment: submitted to DAE-SSDP 2018 Indi

Bose-Hubbard Models in Confining Potentials: An Inhomogeneous Mean-Field Theory

We present an extensive study of Mott insulator (MI) and superfluid (SF) shells in Bose-Hubbard (BH) models for bosons in optical lattices with harmonic traps. For this we develop an inhomogeneous mean-field theory. Our results for the BH model with one type of spinless bosons agrees quantitatively with quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations. Our approach is numerically less intensive than such simulations, so we are able to perform calculation on experimentally realistic, large 3D systems, explore a wide range of parameter values, and make direct contact with a variety of experimental measurements. We also generalize our inhomogeneous mean-field theory to study BH models with harmonic traps and (a) two species of bosons or (b) spin-1 bosons. With two species of bosons we obtain rich phase diagrams with a variety of SF and MI phases and associated shells, when we include a quadratic confining potential. For the spin-1 BH model we show, in a representative case, that the system can display alternating shells of polar SF and MI phases; and we make interesting predictions for experiments in such systems.Comment: 17 pages, 18 figure

Coupling of mixed layer processes and thermocline variations in the Arabian Sea

This study presents an analysis of observed data sets from multiple sources, including observations from a network of Argo floats during (2002–2003), with the aim of investigating the role of the southwest monsoon circulation in affecting the interactions between the oceanic mixed layer and the underlying thermocline in the northern Indian Ocean. Examination of the seasonal cycle of the upper-ocean thermal structure shows that the surface cooling of the Arabian Sea, during the southwest monsoon season, is accompanied by significant warming of the thermocline. It is seen that the thermocline is warmer by about 1.2°C in the south-central Arabian Sea during the southwest monsoon season relative to other months. Offline computations of the profiles of vertical diffusivity of heat reveal stronger and deeper penetration of heat into the Arabian Sea during the southwest monsoon season. The results presented in the paper demonstrate that the combined effects of strong wind-driven mixing by the monsoonal winds, weak density stratification in the upper-ocean, and downwelling in south-central Arabian Sea, along with strong vertical diffusivity, favor downward transfer of warm waters from the surface into the thermocline. Besides the climatological seasonal cycle, the present study also examines the impact of monsoon interannual variability on the upper-ocean response, by analysis of long-term observed records during (1955–2001) as well as the Argo observations for (2002–2003). It is found that the interannual variations in the ocean response reveal signatures of the influence of strong and weak southwest monsoons on the mixed layer and thermocline variabilities

Structural, Magnetic and Magneto-caloric studies of Ni50Mn30Sn20Shape Memory Alloy

We have synthesized a nominal composition of Ni50Mn30Sn20 alloy using arc melting technique. Rietveld refinement confirms the austenite L21 structure in Fm-3m space group. Electrical resistivity has been found to clearly exhibiting two different phenomena viz. a magnetic transition from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic and a structural transition from austenite to martensitic phase. Thermo-magnetization measurements M(T) confirms ferromagnetic transition temperature TC at 222 K and martensitic transition starting at 127 K(MS). Magnetization measurement M(H) at 10 K confirms the ferromagnetic state. Frequency dependence of ac susceptibility \c{hi}' at low temperature suggests spin glass behavior in the system. The isothermal magnetic entropy change values have been found to be 1.14 J/Kg.K, 2.69 J/Kg.K and 3.9 J/Kg.K, with refrigeration capacities of 19.6 J/kg, 37.8 J/kg and 54.6 J/kg for the field change of 1, 2 and 3 Tesla respectively at 227 K.Comment: 16 pages text + Figs. Ni50Mn30Sn20 alloy: reasonable refrigeration capacity tunable to Room