2,723 research outputs found
Systematic characterization of thermodynamic and dynamical phase behavior in systems with short-ranged attraction
In this paper we demonstrate the feasibility and utility of an augmented
version of the Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo method for computing the phase
behavior of systems with strong, extremely short-ranged attractions. For
generic potential shapes, this approach allows for the investigation of
narrower attractive widths than those previously reported. Direct comparison to
previous self-consistent Ornstein-Zernike approximation calculations are made.
A preliminary investigation of out-of-equilibrium behavior is also performed.
Our results suggest that the recent observations of stable cluster phases in
systems without long-ranged repulsions are intimately related to gas-crystal
and metastable gas-liquid phase separation.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Reverse-selective diffusion in nanocomposite membranes
The permeability of certain polymer membranes with impenetrable
nanoinclusions increases with the particle volume fraction (Merkel et al.,
Science, 296, 2002). This intriguing observation contradicts even qualitative
expectations based on Maxwell's classical theory of conduction/diffusion in
composites with homogeneous phases. This letter presents a simple theoretical
interpretation based on classical models of diffusion and polymer physics. An
essential feature of the theory is a polymer-segment depletion layer at the
inclusion-polymer interface. The accompanying increase in free volume leads to
a significant increase in the local penetrant diffusivity, which, in turn,
increases the bulk permeability while exhibiting reverse selectivity. This
model captures the observed dependence of the bulk permeability on the
inclusion size and volume fraction, providing a straightforward connection
between membrane microstructure and performance
A Simulation Method to Resolve Hydrodynamic Interactions in Colloidal Dispersions
A new computational method is presented to resolve hydrodynamic interactions
acting on solid particles immersed in incompressible host fluids. In this
method, boundaries between solid particles and host fluids are replaced with a
continuous interface by assuming a smoothed profile. This enabled us to
calculate hydrodynamic interactions both efficiently and accurately, without
neglecting many-body interactions. The validity of the method was tested by
calculating the drag force acting on a single cylindrical rod moving in an
incompressible Newtonian fluid. This method was then applied in order to
simulate sedimentation process of colloidal dispersions.Comment: 7pages, 7 figure
Surface-mediated attraction between colloids
We investigate the equilibrium properties of a colloidal solution in contact
with a soft interface. As a result of symmetry breaking, surface effects are
generally prevailing in confined colloidal systems. In this Letter, particular
emphasis is given to surface fluctuations and their consequences on the local
(re)organization of the suspension. It is shown that particles experience a
significant effective interaction in the vicinity of the interface. This
potential of mean force is always attractive, with range controlled by the
surface correlation length. We suggest that, under some circumstances,
surface-induced attraction may have a strong influence on the local particle
distribution
An order parameter equation for the dynamic yield stress in dense colloidal suspensions
We study the dynamic yield stress in dense colloidal suspensions by analyzing
the time evolution of the pair distribution function for colloidal particles
interacting through a Lennard-Jones potential. We find that the equilibrium
pair distribution function is unstable with respect to a certain anisotropic
perturbation in the regime of low temperature and high density. By applying a
bifurcation analysis to a system near the critical state at which the stability
changes, we derive an amplitude equation for the critical mode. This equation
is analogous to order parameter equations used to describe phase transitions.
It is found that this amplitude equation describes the appearance of the
dynamic yield stress, and it gives a value of 2/3 for the shear thinning
exponent. This value is related to the mean field value of the critical
exponent in the Ising model.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
Hydrodynamic interaction in quasi-two-dimensional suspensions
Confinement between two parallel surfaces is found, theoretically and
experimentally, to drastically affect the hydrodynamic interaction between
colloid particles, changing the sign of the coupling, its decay with distance
and its concentration dependence. In particular, we show that three-body
effects do not modify the coupling at large distances as would be expected from
hydrodynamic screening.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
Multiepoch Radial Velocity Observations of L Dwarfs
We report on the development of a technique for precise radial-velocity
measurements of cool stars and brown dwarfs in the near infrared. Our technique
is analogous to the Iodine (I2) absorption cell method that has proven so
successful in the optical regime. We rely on telluric CH4 absorption features
to serve as a wavelength reference, relative to which we measure Doppler shifts
of the CO and H2O features in the spectra of our targets. We apply this
technique to high-resolution (R~50,000) spectra near 2.3 micron of nine L
dwarfs taken with the Phoenix instrument on Gemini-South and demonstrate a
typical precision of 300 m/s. We conduct simulations to estimate our expected
precision and show our performance is currently limited by the signal-to-noise
of our data. We present estimates of the rotational velocities and systemic
velocities of our targets. With our current data, we are sensitive to
companions with M sin i > 2MJ in orbits with periods less than three days. We
identify no companions in our current data set. Future observations with
improved signal-to-noise should result in radial-velocity precision of 100 m/s
for L dwarfs.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 24 pages, 7 figure
Universal reduction of pressure between charged surfaces by long-wavelength surface charge modulation
We predict theoretically that long-wavelength surface charge modulations
universally reduce the pressure between the charged surfaces with counterions
compared with the case of uniformly charged surfaces with the same average
surface charge density. The physical origin of this effect is the fact that
surface charge modulations always lead to enhanced counterion localization near
the surfaces, and hence, fewer charges at the midplane. We confirm the last
prediction with Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 8 pages 1 figure, Europhys. Lett., in pres
Correlated particle dynamics in concentrated quasi-two-dimensional suspensions
We investigate theoretically and experimentally how the hydrodynamically
correlated lateral motion of particles in a suspension confined between two
surfaces is affected by the suspension concentration. Despite the long range of
the correlations (decaying as 1/r^2 with the inter-particle distance r), the
concentration effect is present only at short inter-particle distances for
which the static pair correlation is nonuniform. This is in sharp contrast with
the effect of hydrodynamic screening present in unconfined suspensions, where
increasing the concentration changes the prefactor of the large-distance
correlation.Comment: 13 page
Influence of polydispersity on the critical parameters of an effective potential model for asymmetric hard sphere mixtures
We report a Monte Carlo simulation study of the properties of highly
asymmetric binary hard sphere mixtures. This system is treated within an
effective fluid approximation in which the large particles interact through a
depletion potential (R. Roth {\em et al}, Phys. Rev. E{\bf 62} 5360 (2000))
designed to capture the effects of a virtual sea of small particles. We
generalize this depletion potential to include the effects of explicit size
dispersity in the large particles and consider the case in which the particle
diameters are distributed according to a Schulz form having degree of
polydispersity 14%. The resulting alteration (with respect to the monodisperse
limit) of the metastable fluid-fluid critical point parameters is determined
for two values of the ratio of the diameters of the small and large particles:
and . We find that inclusion of
polydispersity moves the critical point to lower reservoir volume fractions of
the small particles and high volume fractions of the large ones. The estimated
critical point parameters are found to be in good agreement with those
predicted by a generalized corresponding states argument which provides a link
to the known critical adhesion parameter of the adhesive hard sphere model.
Finite-size scaling estimates of the cluster percolation line in the one phase
fluid region indicate that inclusion of polydispersity moves the critical point
deeper into the percolating regime. This suggests that phase separation is more
likely to be preempted by dynamical arrest in polydisperse systems.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
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