Geometrical statistics and vortex structures in helical and nonhelical turbulences

In this paper we conduct an analysis of the geometrical and vortical statistics in the small scales of helical and nonhelical turbulences generated with direct numerical simulations. Using a filtering approach, the helicity flux from large scales to small scales is represented by the subgrid-scale (SGS) helicity dissipation. The SGS helicity dissipation is proportional to the product between the SGS stress tensor and the symmetric part of the filtered vorticity gradient, a tensor we refer to as the vorticity strain rate. We document the statistics of the vorticity strain rate, the vorticity gradient, and the dual vector corresponding to the antisymmetric part of the vorticity gradient. These results provide new insights into the local structures of the vorticity field. We also study the relations between these quantities and vorticity, SGS helicity dissipation, SGS stress tensor, and other quantities. We observe the following in both helical and nonhelical turbulences: (1) there is a high probability to find the dual vector aligned with the intermediate eigenvector of the vorticity strain rate tensor; (2) vorticity tends to make an angle of 45 with both the most contractive and the most extensive eigendirections of the vorticity strain rate tensor; (3) the vorticity strain rate shows a preferred alignment configuration with the SGS stress tensor; (4) in regions with strong straining of the vortex lines, there is a negative correlation between the third order invariant of the vorticity gradient tensor and SGS helicity dissipation fluctuations. The correlation is qualitatively explained in terms of the self-induced motions of local vortex structures, which tend to wind up the vortex lines and generate SGS helicity dissipation. In helical turbulence, we observe that the joint probability density function of the second and third tensor invariants of the vorticity gradient displays skewed distributions, with the direction of skewness depending on the sign of helicity input. We also observe that the intermediate eigenvalue of the vorticity strain rate tensor is more probable to take negative values. These interesting observations, reported for the first time, call for further studies into their dynamical origins and implications. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3336012

The forward-backward asymmetry of top quark production at the Tevatron in warped extra dimensional models

The CDF and D0 experiments have reported on the measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry of top quark pair production at the Tevatron and the result is that it is more than 2 standard deviations above the predicted value in the Standard Model. This has to be added to the longstanding anomaly in the forward-backward asymmetry for bottom quark production at LEP which is 3 standard deviations different from the Standard Model value. The discrepancy in the bottom asymmetry can be accounted for by the contributions of Kaluza-Klein excitations of electroweak gauge bosons at LEP in warped extra dimensional models in which the fermions are localized differently along the extra dimension so that the gauge interactions of heavy third generation fermions are naturally different from that of light fermions. In this paper, we show that it is more difficult to elaborate a model generating a significant top asymmetry in a similar way -- through exchanges of Kaluza-Klein gluons at the Tevatron -- due to the indirect constraints originating from precision electroweak data.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, published versio

On knotted streamtubes in incompressible hydrodynamical flow and a restricted conserved quantity

For certain families of fluid flow, a new conserved quantity -- stream-helicity -- has been established.Using examples of linked and knotted streamtubes, it has been shown that stream-helicity does, in certain cases, entertain itself with a very precise topological meaning viz, measure of the degree of knottedness or linkage of streamtubes.As a consequence, stream-helicity emerges as a robust topological invariant.Comment: This extended version is the basically a more clarified version of the previous submission physics/0611166v

Enhanced transmission of slit arrays in an extremely thin metallic film

Horizontal resonances of slit arrays are studied. They can lead to an enhanced transmission that cannot be explained using the single-mode approximation. A new type of cavity resonance is found when the slits are narrow for a wavelength very close to the period. It can be excited for very low thicknesses. Optimization shows these structures could constitute interesting monochromatic filters

Probing RS scenarios of flavour at LHC via leptonic channels

We study a purely leptonic signature of the Randall-Sundrum scenario with Standard Model fields in the bulk at LHC: the contribution from the exchange of Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitations of gauge bosons to the clear Drell-Yan reaction. We show that this contribution is detectable (even with the low luminosities of the LHC initial regime) for KK masses around the TeV scale and for sufficiently large lepton couplings to KK gauge bosons. Such large couplings can be compatible with ElectroWeak precision data on the Zff coupling in the framework of the custodial O(3) symmetry recently proposed, for specific configurations of lepton localizations (along the extra dimension). These configurations can simultaneously reproduce the correct lepton masses, while generating acceptably small Flavour Changing Neutral Current (FCNC) effects. This LHC phenomenological analysis is realistic in the sense that it is based on fermion localizations which reproduce all the quark/lepton masses plus mixing angles and respect FCNC constraints in both the hadron and lepton sectors.Comment: 15 pages, 6 Figures, Latex fil

Flavour physics of the RS model with KK masses reachable at LHC

The version of the higher-dimensional Randall-Sundrum (RS) model with matter in the bulk, which addresses the gauge hierarchy problem, has additional attractive features. In particular, it provides an intrinsic geometrical mechanism that can explain the origin of the large mass hierarchies among the Standard Model fermions. Within this context, a good solution for the gauge hierarchy problem corresponds to low masses for the Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitations of the gauge bosons. Some scenarios have been proposed in order to render these low masses (down to a few TeV) consistent with precision electroweak measurements. Here, we give specific and complete realizations of this RS version with small KK masses, down to 1 TeV, which are consistent with the entire structure of the fermions in flavour space: (1) all the last experimental data on quark/lepton masses and mixing angles (including massive neutrinos of Dirac type) are reproduced, (2) flavour changing neutral current constraints are satisfied and (3) the effective suppression scales of non-renormalizable interactions (in the physical basis) are within the bounds set by low energy flavour phenomenology. Our result, on the possibility of having KK gauge boson modes as light as a few TeV, constitutes one of the first theoretical motivations for experimental searches of direct signatures at the LHC collider, of this interesting version of the RS model which accommodates fermion masses.Comment: 27 pages, Latex file. References and comments adde