On the Rapid Increase of Intermittency in the Near-Dissipation Range of Fully Developed Turbulence

Intermittency, measured as log(F(r)/3), where F(r) is the flatness of velocity increments at scale r, is found to rapidly increase as viscous effects intensify, and eventually saturate at very small scales. This feature defines a finite intermediate range of scales between the inertial and dissipation ranges, that we shall call near-dissipation range. It is argued that intermittency is multiplied by a universal factor, independent of the Reynolds number Re, throughout the near-dissipation range. The (logarithmic) extension of the near-dissipation range varies as \sqrt(log Re). As a consequence, scaling properties of velocity increments in the near-dissipation range strongly depend on the Reynolds number.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, to appear in EPJ

Fermi liquid theory of ultra-cold trapped Fermi gases: Implications for Pseudogap Physics and Other Strongly Correlated Phases

We show how Fermi liquid theory can be applied to ultra-cold Fermi gases, thereby expanding their "simulation" capabilities to a class of problems of interest to multiple physics sub-disciplines. We introduce procedures for measuring and calculating position dependent Landau parameters. This lays the ground work for addressing important controversial issues: (i) the suggestion that thermodynamically, the normal state of a unitary gas is indistinguishable from a Fermi liquid (ii) that a fermionic system with strong repulsive contact interactions is associated with either ferromagnetism or localization; this relates as well to $^3$He and its p-wave superfluidity.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revised versio

Heat Transfer in Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection below the Ultimate Regime

A Rayleigh-B\'enard cell has been designed to explore the Prandtl (Pr) dependence of turbulent convection in the cross-over range $0.7<Pr<21$ and for the full range of soft and hard turbulences, up to Rayleigh number $Ra\simeq 10^{11}$. The set-up benefits from the favourable characteristics of cryogenic helium-4 in fluid mechanics, in-situ fluid property measurements, and special care on thermometry and calorimetric instrumentation. The cell is cylindrical with $diameter/height=0.5$. The effective heat transfer $Nu(Ra,Pr)$ has been measured with unprecedented accuracy for cryogenic turbulent convection experiments in this range of Rayleigh numbers. Spin-off of this study include improved fits of helium thermodynamics and viscosity properties. Three main results were found. First the $Nu(Ra)$ dependence exhibits a bimodality of the flow with $4-7$ difference in $Nu$ for given $Ra$ and $Pr$. Second, a systematic study of the side-wall influence reveals a measurable effect on the heat transfer. Third, the $Nu(Pr)$ dependence is very small or null : the absolute value of the average logarithmic slope $(dlnNu/dlnPr)_{Ra}$ is smaller than 0.03 in our range of $Pr$, which allows to disciminate between contradictory experiments [Ashkenazi \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev.Lett. 83:3641 (1999)][Ahlers \textit{et al.}, Phys.Rev.Lett. 86:3320 (2001)].Comment: submitted for publication to JLTP (august 2003

Thinking the Difference: On Feminism and Postcolony [review essay]

The recent publication in France of two volumes on South Asian feminism and its reception in the West—Danielle Haase-Dubosc et al.’s Enjeux contemporains du féminisme indien (2002) and Martine Van Woerkens’ Nous ne sommes pas des fleurs: deux siècles de combats féministes en Inde (2010)—has raised several key issues regarding the complex and somewhat ambiguous collusion between feminist thought and postcolonial theory. Much has been written (Kiswar 1985, Chatterjee 1993, Sarkar 1999 & 2001) ..

Unified Multifractal Description of Velocity Increments Statistics in Turbulence: Intermittency and Skewness

The phenomenology of velocity statistics in turbulent flows, up to now, relates to different models dealing with either signed or unsigned longitudinal velocity increments, with either inertial or dissipative fluctuations. In this paper, we are concerned with the complete probability density function (PDF) of signed longitudinal increments at all scales. First, we focus on the symmetric part of the PDFs, taking into account the observed departure from scale invariance induced by dissipation effects. The analysis is then extended to the asymmetric part of the PDFs, with the specific goal to predict the skewness of the velocity derivatives. It opens the route to the complete description of all measurable quantities, for any Reynolds number, and various experimental conditions. This description is based on a single universal parameter function D(h) and a universal constant R*.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, Extended version, Publishe

Empirical distributions of Chinese stock returns at different microscopic timescales

We study the distributions of event-time returns and clock-time returns at different microscopic timescales using ultra-high-frequency data extracted from the limit-order books of 23 stocks traded in the Chinese stock market in 2003. We find that the returns at the one-trade timescale obey the inverse cubic law. For larger timescales (2-32 trades and 1-5 minutes), the returns follow the Student distribution with power-law tails. With the decrease of timescale, the tail becomes fatter, which is consistent with the vibrational theory.Comment: 14 Elsart page including 2 tables and 3 figure

A Simple Analytical Model of Evaporation in the Presence of Roots

Root systems can influence the dynamics of evapotranspiration of water out of a porous medium. The coupling of evapotranspiration remains a key aspect affecting overall root behavior. Predicting the evapotranspiration curve in the presence of roots helps keep track of the amount of water that remains in the porous medium. Using a controlled visual set-up of a 2D model soil system consisting of monodisperse glass beads, we first perform experiments on actual roots grown in partially saturated systems under different relative humidity conditions. We record parameters such as the total mass loss in the medium and the resulting position of the receding fronts and use these experimental results to develop a simple analytical model that predicts the position of the evaporating front as a function of time as well as the total amount of water that is lost from the medium due to the combined effects of evaporation and transpiration. The model is based on fundamental principles of evaporation flux and includes empirical assumptions on the quantity of stoma in the leaves and the transition time between regime 1 and regime 2. The model also underscores the importance of a much prolonged root life as long as the root is exposed to a partially saturated zone composed of a mixture of air and water. Comparison between the model and experimental results shows good prediction of the position of the evaporating front as well as the total mass loss from evapotranspiration in the presence of real root systems. These results provide additional understanding of both complex evaporation phenomenon and its influence on root mechanisms.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Spatially heterogeneous dynamics in a thermosensitive soft suspension before and after the glass transition

The microscopic dynamics and aging of a soft thermosensitive suspension was investigated by looking at the thermal fluctuations of tracers in the suspension. Below and above the glass transition, the dense microgel particles suspension was found to develop an heterogeneous dynamics, featured by a non Gaussian Probability Distribution Function (PDF) of the probes' displacements, with an exponential tail. We show that non Gaussian shapes are a characteristic of the ensemble-averaged PDF, while local PDF remain Gaussian. This shows that the scenario behind the non Gaussian van Hove functions is a spatially heterogeneous dynamics, characterized by a spatial distribution of locally homogeneous dynamical environments through the sample, on the considered time scales. We characterize these statistical distributions of dynamical environments, in the liquid, supercooled, and glass states, and show that it can explain the observed exponential tail of the van Hove functions observed in the concentrated states. The intensity of spatial heterogeneities was found to amplify with increasing volume fraction. In the aging regime, it tends to increase as the glass gets more arrested.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, Soft Matter accepte