Volume 9, Issue 5

This study investigates interaction between acoustic and non-acoustic modes, such as vorticity mode, in some class of a non-newtonian fluid called Bingham plastic. The instantaneous equations describing interaction between different modes are derived. The attention is paid to the nonlinear effects in the field of intense sound. The resulting equations which describe dynamics of both sound and the vorticity mode apply to both periodic and aperiodic sound of any waveform. They use only instantaneous quantities and do not imply averaging over the sound period. The theory is illustrated by an example of acoustic force of vorticity induced in the field of a Gaussian sound beam. Some unusual peculiarities in both sound and the vorticity induced in its field as compared to a newtonian fluid, are discovered.

While wormhole spacetimes are predictions of the general theory of relativity, specific solutions may not be compatible with quantum field theory. This paper modifies the charged wormhole model of Kim and Lee with the aim of satisfying an extended version of a quantum inequality due to Ford and Roman. The modified metric may be viewed as a solution of the Einstein fields equations representing a charged wormhole that is compatible with quantum field theory.

In the present work we propose a generalization of Newton’s gravitational theory from the original works of Heaviside and Sciama, that takes into account both approaches, and accomplishes the same result in a simpler way than the standard cosmological approach. The established formulation describes the local gravitational field related to the observables and effectively implements the Mach’s principle in a quantitative form that retakes Dirac’s large number hypothesis. As a consequence of the equivalence principle and the application of this formulation to the observable universe, we obtain, as an immediate result, a value of Ω = 2. We construct a dynamic model for a galaxy without dark matter, which fits well with recent observational data, in terms of a variable effective inertial mass that reflects the present dynamic state of the universe and that replicates from first principles, the phenomenology proposed in MOND. The remarkable aspect of these results is the connection of the effect dubbed dark matter with the dark energy field, which makes it possible for us to interpret it as longitudinal gravitational waves.

We consider an interacting system of massless scalar and electromagnetic fields, with the Lagrangian explicitly depending on the electromagnetic potentials, i.e., interaction with broken gauge invariance. The Lagrangian for interaction is chosen in such a way that the electromagnetic field equation acquires an additional term, which in some cases is proportional to the vector potential of the electromagnetic field. This equation can be interpreted as the equation of motion of photon with induced nonzero rest-mass. This system of interacting fields is considered within the scope of Bianchi type-I (BI) cosmological model. It is shown that, as a result of interaction the isotropization process of the expansion takes place.

The energy and momentum distributions of a regular black hole in a four-dimensional, asymptotically de Sitter spacetime geometry are computed, whereby the Einstein, Landau-Lifshitz, Weinberg and Møller energy-momentum complexes are utilized. It is found, for all prescriptions applied, that the momentum distribution vanishes, while the energy distribution depends on the mass parameter M, the electric charge Q, and the cosmological constant Λ. In addition, various limiting cases are discussed.

In this paper, we study the nonlinear coupled boundary value problem arising from the nonlinear dispersion of a pollutant ejected by an external source into a channel flow. We obtain exact solutions for the steady flow for some special cases and an implicit exact solution for the unsteady flow. Additionally, we obtain analytical solutions for the transient flow. From the obtained solutions, we are able to deduce the qualitative influence of the model parameters on the solutions. Furthermore, we are able to give both exact and analytical expressions for the skin friction and wall mass transfer rate as functions of the model parameters. The model considered can be useful for understanding the polluting situations of an improper discharge incident and evaluating the effects of decontaminating measures for the water bodies.

In this paper, the stagnation-point flow and heat transfer towards a shrinking sheet in a nanofluid is considered. The nonlinear system of coupled partial differential equations was transformed and reduced to a nonlinear system of coupled ordinary differential equations, which was solved numerically using the shooting method. Numerical results were obtained for the skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number as well as the velocity and temperature profiles for some values of the governing parameters, namely the nanoparticle volume fraction φ, the shrinking parameter λand the Prandtl number Pr. Three different types of nanoparticles are considered, namely Cu, Al2O3 and TiO2. It was found that nanoparticles of low thermal conductivity, TiO2, have better enhancement on heat transfer compared to nanoparticles Al2O3 and Cu. For a particular nanoparticle, increasing the volume fraction φ results in an increase of the skin friction coefficient and the heat transfer rate at the surface. It is also found that solutions do not exist for larger shrinking rates and dual solutions exist when λ < −1.0.

We extend our previous work of splitting a single-species Bose-Einstein condensate in two translating traps to a two-species condensate. Different from the single species case where interaction is considered as a damping mechanism to the motion of the condensate, we find that, in the two species case, the damping effect is much less obvious and the splitting dynamics exhibit different behaviors. The distribution of each component are not damped towards 50:50 for large interaction strength in the two wells. Our conclusions are supported by investigating the dependence of the splitting on both the translation speed and the interspecies scattering length.

A comprehensive study is undertaken of angular distributions of electron knock-out from atomic targets by fast electrons with a small transfer of momentum. The general expressions for the parameters of the triple differential cross-section of impact ionization in the optical limit are derived. The calculated parameters are compared with those of the angular distribution of electrons ejected from an atom in the process of photoionization. In these processes, when the multipole transitions are involved, the one-to-one correspondence between the photoionization and impact ionization parameters disappears. The nondipole transitions lead to the backward/forward asymmetry of the angular distribution of ejected electrons that is absent in the dipole approximation for ionization by both fast electrons and photons. Using the He atom as an example, the character of the asymmetry for these two processes is qualitatively different and the backward/forward asymmetry results in macroscopic directed motion of secondary electrons accompanying the passing of a fast electron beam through gas or plasma. The general formulas for this drag current are derived and applied to gaseous He.

Quasiclassical trajectory method for the title reaction He +H2+ → HeH+ + H was carried out on the potential energy surface which was revised by Aquilanti et al. [Chem. Phys. Lett. 469, 26 (2009)]. The initial vibrational quantum number of reactant was set as v=1, v=2 and v=3. Stereodynamics information of the reaction was obtained, such as the distributions of product angular momentum P(θ r), P(ϕ r),p(ϕ r, θ r) and the two commonly used polarization-dependent differential cross sections (PDDCSs) (2π/σ)(dσ 00/dω t) and (2π/σ)(dσ 20/dω t), to get the alignment and orientation of product molecules. The results show that the influence of both the collision energy and vibrational quantum number (v) to the reaction are highly sensitive.

Relativistic configuration interaction calculations with the inclusion of the Breit interaction, quantum electrodynamics and finite nuclear mass corrections have been carried out in the extended optimal level scheme using multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock wavefunctions on the forbidden transition probabilities for the 2p 4 ground state configuration of the oxygen isoelectronic sequence for 8 ⩽ Z ⩽ 42. Electric quadrupole and magnetic dipole transition probabilities are reported for transitions between several of these levels. Our results are compared with those from other theories and experiments. Our energy levels are in better agreement with experiment than other theories.

A Lorentz and gauge symmetry preserving regularization method is proposed in 4 dimensions based on a momentum cutoff. We use the conditions of gauge invariance or equivalently the freedom to shift the loop momentum to define the evaluation of the terms carrying even number of Lorentz indices, e.g. proportional to k µ k ν. The remaining scalar integrals are calculated with a four dimensional momentum cutoff. The finite terms (independent of the cutoff) are free of ambiguities coming from subtractions in non-trivial cases. Finite parts of the result are equal to that of dimensional regularization.

The dynamics of repulsive bosons condensed in an optical lattice is effectively described by the Bose-Hubbard model. The classical limit of this model, reproduces the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates, in a periodic potential, and in the superfluid regime. Such dynamics is governed by a discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Several papers, addressing the study of the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger dynamics, have predicted the spontaneous generation of (classical) breathers in coupled condensates. In the present contribute, we shall focus on localized solutions (quantum breathers) of the full Bose-Hubbard model. We will show that solutions exponentially localized in space and periodic in time exist also in absence of randomness. Thus, this kind of states, reproduce a novel quantum localization phenomenon due to the interplay between bounded energy spectrum and non-linearity.

We propose a protocol to realize quantum phase gates and generate entangled states between two atoms trapped in one cavity. In Lamb-Dick limits, it is not necessary to require coincidence detections, which will relax the conditions for the experimental realization. The protocol can be generalized to generate N-atom entangled states.

A new kind of deformed boson operators is proposed to be consistent with the large noncommutativity parameters on noncommutative plane when noncommutativity of momentum spaces is considered. Using this kind of deformed boson operators, the coherent states and squeezed states are constructed, and their properties are discussed in detail.

We present a study of fractional configurations in gravity theories and Lagrange mechanics. The approach is based on a Caputo fractional derivative which gives zero for actions on constants. We elaborate fractional geometric models of physical interactions and we formulate a method of nonholonomic deformations to other types of fractional derivatives. The main result of this paper consists of a proof that, for corresponding classes of nonholonomic distributions, a large class of physical theories are modelled as nonholonomic manifolds with constant matrix curvature. This allows us to encode the fractional dynamics of interactions and constraints into the geometry of curve flows and solitonic hierarchies.

Experimental studies on patterning hexagonal Ge nanostructures have been conducted on Si substrates through deposition of Ge with colloidal particles as a mask. The deposited Ge thin film possesses, according to the X-ray diffraction measurements, in plane texture, being epitaxial and aligned with the (111) Si substrate. The size distribution of the patterned Ge nanostructures is narrow, as indicated by the atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy measurements. We have obtained Ge nanostructures with lateral dimension of 490 nm (height 12 nm), 200 nm (height 6 nm) and 82 nm (height 6 nm) by using different sizes of polystyrene spheres. We have performed in depth studies of the Ge nanostructures’ behavior due to thermal and rapid thermal post-annealing processes. FT micro-Raman spectroscopy shows that there is no Si intermixing during the annealing process. In order to quantify the changes in the height and lateral dimension, we have performed atomic force microscopy and white light interferometry analysis. The changes in shape and the decrease in the area of a cross-section of Ge nanostructure will be discussed in respect to similar results shown in the literature for Ge thin films during the annealing process.

We explore a semi-classical scheme for cooling and excitation of mechanical oscillations of a suspended carbon nanotube which is incorporated as a deflection-sensitive resistor in an LRC-circuit. The active feedback consists of a magnetically induced Lorentz force. We show that, for feasible experimental parameters, we can obtain self-sustained oscillations or cooling by several orders of magnitude.

Coatings of the composition of 310S heat-resisting steel dopped Al and Ir additions, deposited on a substrate of the same steel by the magnetron sputtering method, were examined. The measurements were made in the classical Bragg-Brentano geometry and by the GXRD method. With the fixed and different position of the coated sample by rotating the sample by angles ψ. The coating as deposited and after being soaked at 400°C for 15 minutes was subjected to examinations. The examination carried out have shown that coatings may have a unique, subtle structure which is metastable and undergoes irreversible changes in the temperatures up to 400°C. It has been found that in the outermost coating zones and zones closer to the substrate, areas occur in the coating structure, which have the different lattice parameter compared to the basic phase. Additionaly, the local period of the structure equal 5.9 nm was found.

The effect of deposition temperature on the structural and optical properties of amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) from silane diluted with hydrogen was under study. The series of thin films deposited at the deposition temperatures of 50–200°C were inspected by XRD, Raman spectroscopy and UV Vis spectrophotometry. All samples were found to be amorphous with no presence of the crystalline phase. Ordered silicon hydride regions were proved by XRD. Raman measurement analysis substantiated the results received from XRD showing that with increasing deposition temperature silicon-silicon bond-angle fluctuation decreases. The optical characterization based on transmittance spectra in the visible region presented that the refractive index exhibits upward trend with increasing deposition temperature, which can be caused by the densification of the amorphous network. We found out that the scale factor of the Tauc plot increases with the deposition temperature. This behaviour can be attributed to the increasing ordering of silicon hydride regions. The Tauc band gap energy, the iso-absorption value their difference were not particularly influenced by the deposition temperature. Improvements of the microstructure of the Si amorphous network have been deduced from the analysis.

The 4d-transition-metals carbides (ZrC, NbC) and nitrides (ZrN, NbN) in the rocksalt structure, as well as their ternary alloys, have been recently studied by means of a first-principles full potential linearized augmented plane waves method within the local density approximation. These materials are important because of their interesting mechanical and physical properties, which make them suitable for many technological applications. Here, by using a simple theoretical model, we estimate the bulk moduli of their ternary alloys ZrxNb1−xC and ZrxNb1−xN in terms of the bulk moduli of the end members alone. The results are comparable to those deduced from the first-principles calculations.

The structural, electronic, optical and dynamical properties of CsAu compound in the CsCl(B2) phase were investigated using the density functional theory (DFT) within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The calculated lattice constant, static bulk modulus and first-order pressure derivative of the bulk modulus are reported and compared with previous experimental and theoretical calculations. The calculated electronic band structure for this compound is in good agreement with available theoretical and experimental studies. The present band calculation indicates that CsAu compound has an indirect gap at R→X points. Furthermore, the linear photon-energy-dependent dielectric functions have been calculated. For the first time, the electronic structure results are used, within the implementation of a linear-response technique, for calculations of phonon properties.

Material property dependence on the OH−/Zn2+ molar ratio of the precursor was investigated by varying the amount of NaOH during synthesis of ZnO. It was necessary to control the water content and temperature of the mixture to ensure the reproducibility. It was observed that the structural properties, particle size, photoluminescence intensity and wavelength of maximum intensity were influenced by the molar ratio of the precursor. The XRD spectra for ZnO nanoparticles show the entire peaks corresponding to the various planes of wurtzite ZnO, indicating a single phase. UV measurements show the absorption that comes from the ZnO nanoparticles in visible region. The absorption edge of these ZnO nanoparticles are shifted to higher energies and the determined band gap energies are blue shifted as the OH−/Zn2 molar ration increases, due to the quantum confinement effects. The photoluminescence characterization of the ZnO nanostructures exhibited a broad emission band centred at green (600 nm) region for all molar ratios except for OH−/Zn2+ = 1.7 where a second blue emission around 468 nm was also observed. The photoluminescence properties of ZnO nanoparticles were largely determined by the size and surface properties of the nanoparticles.

As-S-Se chalcogenide thin films are successfully employed in classical and dot-matrix holography as inorganic photoresists for obtaining a relief-phase hologram. However using these films for image-matrix hologram recording has not been studied due to some features of image-matrix technology. For the applied research of the optical properties of As-S-Se films an experimental device of digital image-matrix holographic recording based on 100 mW 405 nm semi-conductor laser and Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) has been created. The device has the following main parameters: 140 × 105 µm frame size; laser intensity during exposure 10 W/cm2. With the help of this device diffraction grating and security holograms were recorded on As-S-Se thin films. The work reported herein presents results of an experimental study of how diffraction efficiency (DE) of the received relief-phase holographic gratings depends on an exposure and period. Diffraction grating profiles and speed of etching corresponding to different exposure doses are shown. Hologram samples with DE = 65% have been received which allows for using chalcogenide film as alternative to organic photoresists in applied dot-matrix and image-matrix holography.

Measurement of the appearance of an object consists of a group of measurements to characterize the color and surface finish of the object. This group of measurements involves the spectral energy distribution of propagated light measured in terms of reflectance and transmittance, and the spatial energy distribution of that light measured in terms of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF). In this article we present the virtual gonio-spectrophotometer, a device that measures flux (power) as a function of illumination and observation. Virtual gonio-spectrophotometer measurements allow the determination of the scattering profile of specimens that can be used to verify the physical characteristics of the computer model used to simulate the scattering profile. Among the characteristics that we verify is the energy conservation of the computer model. A virtual gonio-spectrophotometer is utilized to find the correspondence between industrial measurements obtained from gloss meters and the parameters of a computer reflectance model.

The effect of a nanosecond laser irradiation of thin (60 and 145 nm) amorphous, diamond-like carbon films deposited on Si substrate by an ion beam deposition (IBD) from pure acetylene and acetylene/hydrogen (1:2) gas mixture was analyzed in this work. The films were irradiated with the infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) radiation of the nanosecond Nd:YAG lasers working at the first (1.16 eV) and the third (3.48 eV) harmonics, using a multi-shot regime. The IR laser irradiation stimulated a minor increase in the fraction of sp2 bonds, causing a slight decrease in the hardness of the films and initiated SiC formation. Irradiation with the UV laser caused the formation of carbides and increased hydrogenization of the Si substrate and the fraction of sp2 sites. Spalliation and ablation were observed at a higher energy density and with a large number of laser pulses per spot.

Titanium dioxide thin films are extensively studied for applications in solid state gas sensor devices. Their gas sensing properties are strongly dependent on deposition technique, annealing temperature, film thickness and consequent properties like crystalline structure, grain size or amount of defects and impurities. In this work we report the gas sensing properties of TiO2 thin films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering technique and subsequently annealed at temperatures 600°C and 900°C. The films were exposed to different concentrations of H2 gas up to 10 000 ppm. Their sensitivity to gas at various operating temperatures, ranging from 250°C to 450°C, was obtained by measuring their resistance.

The constitution of blood demands a yield stress fluid model, and among the available yield stress fluid models for blood flow, the Herschel-Bulkley model is preferred (because Bingham, Power-law and Newtonian models are its special cases). The Herschel-Bulkley fluid model has two parameters, namely the yield stress and the power law index. The expressions for velocity, plug flow velocity, wall shear stress, and the flux flow rate are derived. The flux is determined as a function of inlet, outlet and external pressures, yield stress, and the elastic property of the tube. Further when the power-law index n = 1 and the yield stress τ 0 → 0, our results agree well with those of Rubinow and Keller [J. Theor. Biol. 35, 299 (1972)]. Furthermore, it is observed that, the yield stress and the elastic parameters (t 1 and t 2) have strong effects on the flux of the non-Newtonian fluid flow in the elastic tube. The results obtained for the flow characteristics reveal many interesting behaviors that warrant further study on the non-Newtonian fluid flow phenomena, especially the shear-thinning phenomena. Shear thinning reduces the wall shear stress.

Recent experiments indicate that several viruses may encode microRNAs (miRNAs) in cells. Such RNAs may interfere with the host mRNAs and proteins. We present a kinetic analysis of this interplay. In our treatment, the viral miRNA is considered to be able to associate with the host mRNA with subsequent degradation. This process may result in a decline of the mRNA population and also in a decline of the population of the protein encoded by this mRNA. With these ingredients, we first show the types of the corresponding steady-state kinetics in the cases of positive and negative regulation of the miRNA synthesis by the protein. In addition, we scrutinize the situation when the protein regulates the virion replication or, in other words, provides a feedback for the replication. For the negative feedback, the replication rate is found to increase with increasing the intracellular virion population. For the positive feedback, the replication rate first increases and then drops. These features may determine the stability of steady states.

A model of retrograde axonal transport of neurotropic viruses is developed. The model accounts for active viral transport by dynein motors as well as for passive transport by diffusion; the destruction of the virus as it propagates toward the neuron soma is modeled utilizing a first-order decay rate process. The effect of a limited time during which the axonal synapse is exposed to the virus is incorporated. An analytical solution is obtained. The obtained solution makes it possible to identify four different regimes of viral transport in the axon that correspond to the following situations: (1) Small viral diffusivity and small rate of viral destruction; (2) Large viral diffusivity and small rate of viral destruction; (3) Small viral diffusivity and large rate of viral destruction; (4) Large viral diffusivity and large rate of viral destruction. Characteristic features of these regimes are discussed.

The original version of the article was published in Central European Journal of Physics 9, 1122–1130 (2011), DOI: 10.2478/s11534-011-0005-8. Unfortunately, the original version of this article contains a mistake in Tab. 2. Here we display the corrected version of this table.