84 research outputs found
Study of Neutron-Induced Ionization in Helium and Argon Chamber Gases
Ion chambers used to monitor the secondary hadron and tertiary muon beam in
the NuMI neutrino beamline will be exposed to background particles, including
low energy neutrons produced in the beam dump. To understand these backgrounds,
we have studied Helium- and Argon-filled ionization chambers exposed to intense
neutron fluxes from PuBe neutron sources ( MeV). The sources emit
about 10 neutrons per second. The number of ion pairs in the chamber gas
volume per incident neutron is derived. While limited in precision because of a
large gamma ray background from the PuBe sources, our results are consistent
with the expectation that the neutrons interact purely elastically in the
chamber gas.Comment: accepted for publication in NIM
Direct Numerical Simulation of Interfacial Flows: Implicit Sharp-Interface Method (I-SIM)
In recent work (Nourgaliev, Liou, Theofanous, JCP in press) we demonstrated that numerical simulations of interfacial flows in the presence of strong shear must be cast in dynamically sharp terms (sharp interface treatment or SIM), and that moreover they must meet stringent resolution requirements (i.e., resolving the critical layer). The present work is an outgrowth of that work aiming to overcome consequent limitations on the temporal treatment, which become still more severe in the presence of phase change. The key is to avoid operator splitting between interface motion, fluid convection, viscous/heat diffusion and reactions; instead treating all these non-linear operators fully-coupled within a Newton iteration scheme. To this end, the SIM’s cut-cell meshing is combined with the high-orderaccurate implicit Runge-Kutta and the “recovery” Discontinuous Galerkin methods along with a Jacobian-free, Krylov subspace iteration algorithm and its physics-based preconditioning. In particular, the interfacial geometry (i.e., marker’s positions and volumes of cut cells) is a part of the Newton-Krylov solution vector, so that the interface dynamics and fluid motions are fully-(non-linearly)-coupled. We show that our method is: (a) robust (L-stable) and efficient, allowing to step over stability time steps at will while maintaining high-(up to the 5th)-order temporal accuracy; (b) fully conservative, even near multimaterial contacts, without any adverse consequences (pressure/velocity oscillations); and (c) highorder-accurate in spatial discretization (demonstrated here up to the 12th-order for smoothin-the-bulk-fluid flows), capturing interfacial jumps sharply, within one cell. Performance is illustrated with a variety of test problems, including low-Mach-number “manufactured” solutions, shock dynamics/tracking with slow dynamic time scales, and multi-fluid, highspeed shock-tube problems. We briefly discuss preconditioning, and we introduce two physics-based preconditioners – “Block-Diagonal” and “Internal energy-Pressure-Velocity Partially Decoupled”, demonstrating the ability to efficiently solve all-speed flows with strong effects from viscous dissipation and heat conduction
Quantum dynamics and thermalization for out-of-equilibrium phi^4-theory
The quantum time evolution of \phi^4-field theory for a spatially homogeneous
system in 2+1 space-time dimensions is investigated numerically for
out-of-equilibrium initial conditions on the basis of the Kadanoff-Baym
equations including the tadpole and sunset self-energies. Whereas the tadpole
self-energy yields a dynamical mass, the sunset self-energy is responsible for
dissipation and an equilibration of the system. In particular we address the
dynamics of the spectral (`off-shell') distributions of the excited quantum
modes and the different phases in the approach to equilibrium described by
Kubo-Martin-Schwinger relations for thermal equilibrium states. The
investigation explicitly demonstrates that the only translation invariant
solutions representing the stationary fixed points of the coupled equation of
motions are those of full thermal equilibrium. They agree with those extracted
from the time integration of the Kadanoff-Baym equations in the long time
limit. Furthermore, a detailed comparison of the full quantum dynamics to more
approximate and simple schemes like that of a standard kinetic (on-shell)
Boltzmann equation is performed. Our analysis shows that the consistent
inclusion of the dynamical spectral function has a significant impact on
relaxation phenomena. The different time scales, that are involved in the
dynamical quantum evolution towards a complete thermalized state, are discussed
in detail. We find that far off-shell 1 3 processes are responsible for
chemical equilibration, which is missed in the Boltzmann limit. Finally, we
address briefly the case of (bare) massless fields. For sufficiently large
couplings we observe the onset of Bose condensation, where our scheme
within symmetric \phi^4-theory breaks down.Comment: 77 pages, 26 figure
Social Order and Adaptability in Animal and Human Cultures as Analogues for Agent Communities: Toward a Policy-Based Approach
Abstract. In this paper we discuss some of the ways social order is maintained in animal and human realms, with the goal of enriching our thinking about mechanisms that might be employed in developing similar means of ordering communities of agents. We present examples from our current work in human-agent teamwork, and we speculate about some new directions this kind of research might take. Since communities also need to change over time to cope with changing circumstances, we also speculate on means that regulatory bodies can use to adapt. 1
Paleobiology of titanosaurs: reproduction, development, histology, pneumaticity, locomotion and neuroanatomy from the South American fossil record
Fil: García, Rodolfo A.. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología. Museo Provincial Carlos Ameghino. Cipolletti; ArgentinaFil: Salgado, Leonardo. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología. General Roca. Río Negro; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, Mariela. Inibioma-Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. Bariloche. Río Negro; ArgentinaFil: Cerda, Ignacio A.. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología. Museo Provincial Carlos Ameghino. Cipolletti; ArgentinaFil: Carabajal, Ariana Paulina. Museo Carmen Funes. Plaza Huincul. Neuquén; ArgentinaFil: Otero, Alejandro. Museo de La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Coria, Rodolfo A.. Instituto de Paleobiología y Geología. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Neuquén; ArgentinaFil: Fiorelli, Lucas E.. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica. Anillaco. La Rioja; Argentin
Do Femtonewton Forces Affect Genetic Function? A Review
Protein-Mediated DNA looping is intricately related to gene expression. Therefore any mechanical constraint that disrupts loop formation can play a significant role in gene regulation. Polymer physics models predict that less than a piconewton of force may be sufficient to prevent the formation of DNA loops. Thus, it appears that tension can act as a molecular switch that controls the much larger forces associated with the processive motion of RNA polymerase. Since RNAP can exert forces over 20 pN before it stalls, a ‘substrate tension switch’ could offer a force advantage of two orders of magnitude. Evidence for such a mechanism is seen in recent in vitro micromanipulation experiments. In this article we provide new perspective on existing theory and experimental data on DNA looping in vitro and in vivo . We elaborate on the connection between tension and a variety of other intracellular mechanical constraints including sequence specific curvature and supercoiling. In the process, we emphasize that the richness and versatility of DNA mechanics opens up a whole new paradigm of gene regulation to explore.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41816/1/10867_2005_Article_9002.pd
- …