Zero gravity tissue-culture laboratory

Hardware was developed for performing experiments to detect the effects that zero gravity may have on living human cells. The hardware is composed of a timelapse camera that photographs the activity of cell specimens and an experiment module in which a variety of living-cell experiments can be performed using interchangeable modules. The experiment is scheduled for the first manned Skylab mission

Apparent suppression of turbulent magnetic dynamo action by a dc magnetic field

Numerical studies of the effect of a dc magnetic field on dynamo action (development of magnetic fields with large spatial scales), due to helically-driven magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, are reported. The apparent effect of the dc magnetic field is to suppress the dynamo action, above a relatively low threshold. However, the possibility that the suppression results from an improper combination of rectangular triply spatially-periodic boundary conditions and a uniform dc magnetic field is addressed: heretofore a common and convenient computational convention in turbulence investigations. Physical reasons for the observed suppression are suggested. Other geometries and boundary conditions are offered for which the dynamo action is expected not to be suppressed by the presence of a dc magnetic field component.Comment: To appear in Physics of Plasma

Power dissipation in nanoscale conductors: classical, semi-classical and quantum dynamics

Modelling Joule heating is a difficult problem because of the need to introduce correct correlations between the motions of the ions and the electrons. In this paper we analyse three different models of current induced heating (a purely classical model, a fully quantum model and a hybrid model in which the electrons are treated quantum mechanically and the atoms are treated classically). We find that all three models allow for both heating and cooling processes in the presence of a current, and furthermore the purely classical and purely quantum models show remarkable agreement in the limit of high biases. However, the hybrid model in the Ehrenfest approximation tends to suppress heating. Analysis of the equations of motion reveals that this is a consequence of two things: the electrons are being treated as a continuous fluid and the atoms cannot undergo quantum fluctuations. A means for correcting this is suggested

Adaptive identification and control of structural dynamics systems using recursive lattice filters

A new approach for adaptive identification and control of structural dynamic systems by using least squares lattice filters thar are widely used in the signal processing area is presented. Testing procedures for interfacing the lattice filter identification methods and modal control method for stable closed loop adaptive control are presented. The methods are illustrated for a free-free beam and for a complex flexible grid, with the basic control objective being vibration suppression. The approach is validated by using both simulations and experimental facilities available at the Langley Research Center

High sensitivity operation of discrete solid state detectors at 4 K

Techniques are described to allow operation of discrete, solid state detectors at 4 K with optimized JFET amplifiers. Three detector types cover the 0.6 to 4 mm spectral range with NEP approximately equal to 10 to the 16th power Hz (-1/2) for two of the types and potential improvement to this performance for the third. Lower NEP's are anticipated at longer infrared wavelengths

Numerical study of dynamo action at low magnetic Prandtl numbers

We present a three--pronged numerical approach to the dynamo problem at low magnetic Prandtl numbers $P_M$. The difficulty of resolving a large range of scales is circumvented by combining Direct Numerical Simulations, a Lagrangian-averaged model, and Large-Eddy Simulations (LES). The flow is generated by the Taylor-Green forcing; it combines a well defined structure at large scales and turbulent fluctuations at small scales. Our main findings are: (i) dynamos are observed from $P_M=1$ down to $P_M=10^{-2}$; (ii) the critical magnetic Reynolds number increases sharply with $P_M^{-1}$ as turbulence sets in and then saturates; (iii) in the linear growth phase, the most unstable magnetic modes move to small scales as $P_M$ is decreased and a Kazantsev $k^{3/2}$ spectrum develops; then the dynamo grows at large scales and modifies the turbulent velocity fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Small scale structures in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

We investigate using direct numerical simulations with grids up to 1536^3 points, the rate at which small scales develop in a decaying three-dimensional MHD flow both for deterministic and random initial conditions. Parallel current and vorticity sheets form at the same spatial locations, and further destabilize and fold or roll-up after an initial exponential phase. At high Reynolds numbers, a self-similar evolution of the current and vorticity maxima is found, in which they grow as a cubic power of time; the flow then reaches a finite dissipation rate independent of Reynolds number.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Time complexity and gate complexity

We formulate and investigate the simplest version of time-optimal quantum computation theory (t-QCT), where the computation time is defined by the physical one and the Hamiltonian contains only one- and two-qubit interactions. This version of t-QCT is also considered as optimality by sub-Riemannian geodesic length. The work has two aims: one is to develop a t-QCT itself based on physically natural concept of time, and the other is to pursue the possibility of using t-QCT as a tool to estimate the complexity in conventional gate-optimal quantum computation theory (g-QCT). In particular, we investigate to what extent is true the statement: time complexity is polynomial in the number of qubits if and only if so is gate complexity. In the analysis, we relate t-QCT and optimal control theory (OCT) through fidelity-optimal computation theory (f-QCT); f-QCT is equivalent to t-QCT in the limit of unit optimal fidelity, while it is formally similar to OCT. We then develop an efficient numerical scheme for f-QCT by modifying Krotov's method in OCT, which has monotonic convergence property. We implemented the scheme and obtained solutions of f-QCT and of t-QCT for the quantum Fourier transform and a unitary operator that does not have an apparent symmetry. The former has a polynomial gate complexity and the latter is expected to have exponential one because a series of generic unitary operators has a exponential gate complexity. The time complexity for the former is found to be linear in the number of qubits, which is understood naturally by the existence of an upper bound. The time complexity for the latter is exponential. Thus the both targets are examples satisfyng the statement above. The typical characteristics of the optimal Hamiltonians are symmetry under time-reversal and constancy of one-qubit operation, which are mathematically shown to hold in fairly general situations.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Meridional heat transport across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current by the Antarctic Bottom Water overturning cell

The heat transported by the lower limb of the Southern Ocean meridional overturning circulation is commonly held to be negligible in comparison with that transported by eddies higher in the water column. We use output from one of the first global high resolution models to have a reasonably realistic export of Antarctic Bottom Water, the OCCAM one twelfth degree model. The heat fluxed southward by the deep overturning cell using the annual mean field for 1994 at 56S is 0.033 PW, but the 5-day mean fields give a larger heat flux (0.048 and 0.061 PW depending on calculation method). This is more than 30% of previous estimates of the total heat flux. Eddies and other transients add considerably to the heat flux. These results imply that this component of meridional heat flux may not be negligible as has been supposed