Noise-assisted Mound Coarsening in Epitaxial Growth

We propose deposition noise to be an important factor in unstable epitaxial growth of thin films. Our analysis yields a geometrical relation H=(RWL)^2 between the typical mound height W, mound size L, and the film thickness H. Simulations of realistic systems show that the parameter R is a characteristic of the growth conditions, and generally lies in the range 0.2-0.7. The constancy of R in late-stage coarsening yields a scaling relation between the coarsening exponent 1/z and the mound height exponent \beta which, in the case of saturated mound slope, gives \beta = 1/z = 1/4.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex Macros, 3 eps figure

Flight-measured X-24A lifting body control surface hinge moments and correlation with wind tunnel predictions

Control-surface hinge-moment measurements obtained in the X-24A lifting body flight-test program are compared with results from wind-tunnel tests. The effects of variations in angle of attack, angle of sideslip, rudder bias, rudder deflection, upper-flap deflection, lower-flap deflection, Mach number, and rocket-engine operation on the control-surface hinge moments are presented. In-flight motion pictures of tufts attached to the inboard side of the right fin and the rudder and upper-flap surfaces are discussed

Superconducting correlations in ultra-small metallic grains

To describe the crossover from the bulk BCS superconductivity to a fluctuation-dominated regime in ultrasmall metallic grains, new order parameters and correlation functions, such as ``parity gap'' and ``pair-mixing correlation function'', have been recently introduced. In this paper, we discuss the small-grain behaviour of the Penrose-Onsager-Yang off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO) parameter in a pseudo-spin representation. Relations between the ODLRO parameter and those mentioned above are established through analytical and numerical calculations.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Self-organized criticality and directed percolation

A sandpile model with stochastic toppling rule is studied. The control parameters and the phase diagram are determined through a MF approach, the subcritical and critical regions are analyzed. The model is found to have some similarities with directed percolation, but the existence of different boundary conditions and conservation law leads to a different universality class, where the critical state is extended to a line segment due to self-organization. These results are supported with numerical simulations in one dimension. The present model constitute a simple model which capture the essential difference between ordinary nonequilibrium critical phenomena, like DP, and self-organized criticality.Comment: 9 pages, 10 eps figs, revtex, submitted to J. Phys.