Microstructure of a Spark Discharge in Air in a Point–Plane Gap

A microchannel structure of a spark discharge initiated in atmospheric-pressure air in a point–plane gap has been discovered by shadow photography. The structure has been observed since the onset of the discharge glow. The evolution of the microstructure over times from several nanoseconds to several tens of nanoseconds has been traced. Specifically, the development of microchannels from the point into the discharge gap, expansion of the microchannels, and their interaction have been observed. A correlation has been found between the microstructure of the spark channel in the discharge gap and its autograph on the surface of the plane electrode.     

Random Motion of a Charged Test Particle with a Classical Constant Velocity in Vacuum in a Cylindrical Spacetime

We examine the random motion of a charged test particle with a nonzero classical velocity driven by quantum electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations in a cylindrical spacetime and calculate both the velocity and position dispersions of the test particle. It is found that the dispersions display different behaviour in different directions. These differences can be understood as a result of the topology of the configuration and initial physical conditions.     

Explosive synchronization in a mobile network in the presence of a positive feedback mechanism

Synchronization is a process that describes the coherent dynamics of a large ensemble of interacting units.The study of explosive synchronization transition attracts considerable attention.Here,I report the explosive transition within the framework of a mobile network,while each oscillator is controlled by global-order parameters of the system.Using numerical simulation,I find that the explosive synchronization(ES)transition behavior can be controlled by simply adjusting the fraction of controlled oscillators.The influences of some parameters on explosive synchronization are studied.Moreover,due to the presence of the positive feedback mechanism,I prevent the occurrence of the synchronization of continuous-phase transition and make phase transition of the system a first-order phase transition accompanied by a hysteresis loop.     

Numerical investigation of separation-induced transition in a lowpressure turbine cascade in a low-disturbance environment

In this paper,the separation-induced transition in an LPT(low-pressure turbine)cascade is investigated at low Reynolds number with DNS(direct numerical simulation).The transition process is accurately predicted giving good agreements between the DNS and experimental results.To illustrate the secondary instability of separation-induced transition in a low-disturbance environment,the results are comprehensively analyzed in both Fourier space and physical space.It is illustrated that the effect of hyperbolic instability dominates around the saddle point of hyperbolic streamlines.This instability mechanism is responsible for the emergence of the streamwise vortices in the braid region.Elongated and intensified because of the“stretching”effect of the background flow,these vortices become the most noticeable characteristic of the flow field.Fundamental modes of small spanwise wavelength are excited in the braid region,so as some low-frequency modes.The elliptical instability plays a minor role than hyperbolic instability.It is also observed that the fundamental mode with a larger spanwise wavelength is unstable in the vortex core which is associated with the deformation of the vortex core via elliptical instability.There is no convincing evidence for the existence of subharmonic instability.     

Radiation Rate of a Two-Level Atom in a Spacetime with a Reflecting Boundary

We study a two-level atom in interaction with a real massless scalar quantum field in a spacetime with a reflecting boundary. We calculate the rate of change of the atomic energy for the atom. The presence of the boundary modifies the quantum fluctuations of the scalar field, which in turn modifies the rate of change of the atomic energy. It is found that the modifications induced by the presence of a boundary make the spontaneous radiation rate of an excited atom to oscillate near the boundary and this oscillatory behaviour may offer a possible opportunity for experimental tests for geometrical （boundary） effects in flat spacetime.     

Correlated Noises in a Prey-Predator Ecosystem

We investigate a Volterra ecosystem driven by correlated noises. The fluctuation in the death rate of the predator induces an increase of population density of the predators. The fluctuation in the growth rate of the prey, however, leads the predators to decay. It is reported that the predators undergo sensitivity to a random environment, whereas the preys exhibit a surprising endurance to the same stochastic factor. The predators are of better stability under strong correlation of noises.     

Nonlinear Dynamics of a Sliding Chain in a Periodic Potential

Nonlinear dynamics of the sliding process of a chain driven with a constant velocity at one end in a periodic substrate potential is investigated. The driven chain exhibits distinctly different dynamical characteristics at different velocities. In the low velocity region, the chain moves in a stick-slip manner. When the driving velocity is increased, the stick-slip behaviour is replaced by complicated and regular oscillatory motions. The dependence of the dynamics on the coupling strength is studied and the step-like behaviour is found, where different steps correspond to different dynamical phases.     

The Green’s function in a channel with a sound-absorbing cover in the case of a uniform flow

We study the modal structure of an acoustic field of a point source as function of channel wall admittance in the case of a two-dimensional channel. The characteristic equation for determining the eigen-values corresponding to the boundary problem is studied in the form of this equation??s dependence on the admittance, which varies in the entire complex plane. All modes, without exception, existing in the channel and forming the source field are classified based on the obtained topography of the characteristic equation. The expressions that describe the amplitudes and spatial distribution of the hydrodynamic modes, attenuation rate (for stable modes), or increment (for unstable modes) were obtained as functions of the wall admittance and flow velocity. It is shown that in addition to the hydrodynamic unstable modes existing downstream from the source, hydrodynamic unstable modes exist upstream from the source at any admittance. They appear only when the admittance has an elastic character. It is shown that hydrodynamic modes are induced only in the case when the source is located close to the wall or on the wall. The amplitude of these modes decreases exponentially with distance from the wall.     

Anisotropy in Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Susceptibility of a Squarylium Dye in a Nematic Liquid Crystal

A squarylium dye is dissolved in 4-cyano-4＇-pentylbiphenyl （SCB） and oriented by sandwiching mixtures between two pieces of rubbed glass plates. The optical absorption spectra of the oriented squarylium dye-5CB layers exhibit high anisotropy. The third-order nonlinear optical responses and susceptibilities X^（3）e of squarylium dye in 5CB are measured with light polarizations parallel and perpendicular to the orientational direction by the resonant femtosecond degenerate four-wave mixing （DFWM） technique. Temporal profiles of the DFWM signal of the oriented squarylium dye-5CB layers with light polarizations parallel and perpendicular to the orientational direction are measured with a time resolution of 0.3ps （FWHM）, and are found to consist of two components, i.e., the coherent instantaneous nonlinear response and slow response due to the formation of excited molecules. A high anisotropic ratio of x^（3）e, 10.8 ：k 1.2, is observed for the oriented layers.     

Equilibrium Correlations in a Clustering Universe

It is shown that the observed result of the two-point galaxy correlation function and the three-point correlation function in the Universe agrees with a quasi-equilibrium assumption of mass distribution. Utilizing the form of the three-point correlation, we find that the two-point correlation function can be obtained by solving an equation derived from maximizing entropy under some constraints in a self-gravitating particle model. A generalized non-extensive entropy is also introduced to improve our result.     

Network Printing in a Heteregenous Environment

Mail and printing are often said to be the most visible services for the user in the network.Though many people talked about the paperless bureau a few years ago it seems that the more digital data is accessable,the more it gets printed.Print management in a heterogenous network environments is typically crossing all operating systems.Each of those brings its own requirements and different printing system implementations with individual user interfaces.The scope is to give the user the advantage and features of the native interface of their operating system while making administration tasks as easy as possible by following the general ideas of a centralised network service on the server side.     

Screening in a δ-doped semiconductor

The screening of an impurity in the quasi-two-dimensional (2D) electron gas in a δ-doped semiconductor structure is investigated. The screened impurity matrix elements are calculated and compared using three different approaches: the 2D random phase approximation (RPA), the corresponding 2D Thomas–Fermi theory and a quasi-three-dimensional (3D) Yukawa-like screening model. It is found that the 2D Thomas–Fermi theory differs from the RPA result, even in the limit of low q vectors, if more than one subband is occupied. This result is explained analytically by closely examining theq → 0 limit of the dielectric tensor. The 2D Thomas–Fermi theory is shown to represent a poor approximation to the RPA whereas the quasi-3D screening model agrees well with the RPA results for not too smallqvectors. Furthermore, this model reduces computing times by orders of magnitude in comparison with the RPA. Thus, our 3D screening model considerably simplifies the calculation of impurity scattering rates in the investigation of the electron mobility in a δ-doping layer.     

Charm in PHENIX—a signal or a background?

Charm, as well as Strangeness, plays an important role in searches for the Quark Gluon Plasma.J/Φ Suppression and Strangeness Enhancement are two of the earliest proposed QGP signatures. Recent theoretical work on charm in Relativistic Heavy Ion collisions has focussed on di-lepton production. However, even before the discovery of theJ/Ψ, evidence of open charm was seen in hadron collisions via the observation of promptsingle leptons “resulting from the semi-leptonic decays of charm particles.” [1] The ‘copious’ yield of direct (i.e. not from Dalitz decays) single electrons and muons—at a levele/π～10^?4 forpT≥1.3 GeV/c—observed in the early 1970’s was explained by Hinchliffe and Llewellyn-Smith and Bourquin and Gaillard as evidence of open-charm production. It is likely thate/π at RHIC is large and is a good measure of charm production. Thus, a measurement of single electrons with moderatepT>1.5 GeV/c at RHIC should give a clean charm signal in heavy ion collisions,with no combinatoric background.     

Electron-Helium Scattering in Free-Free Transitions in a Bichromatic Laser Field

Theoretical calculation of the differential cross section （DCS） for elastic electron-helium scattering in the presence of a bichromatic CO2 laser field is carried out in the first Born approximation with a simple screening electric potential. The two components of the laser field have the frequencies w and 2w, which are out of phase by an arbitrary scale φ. The variations of the differential cross section as a function of the phase angle φ in the domain 0°≤ φ ≤360° are presented. We discuss the influence of the number of photons exchanged on the phase-dependee effect. Moreover, for different scattering angles and incident electron energies, the DCS has outstanding ditferences. These illustrate that the two parameters have important effects on the differential cross section and the screening electric potential is effective.     

Two-dimensional quantum ring in a graphene layer in the presence of a Aharonov–Bohm flux

In this paper we study the relativistic quantum dynamics of a massless fermion confined in a quantum ring. We use a model of confining potential and introduce the interaction via Dirac oscillator coupling, which provides ring confinement for massless Dirac fermions. The energy levels and corresponding eigenfunctions for this model in graphene layer in the presence of Aharonov–Bohm flux in the centre of the ring and the expression for persistent current in this model are derived. We also investigate the model for quantum ring in graphene layer in the presence of a disclination and a magnetic flux. The energy spectrum and wave function are obtained exactly for this case. We see that the persistent current depends on parameters characterizing the topological defect.     

Wavelength switching in a mixed structure of a long-period and a Bragg fiber gratings

We built a numerical model for evaluating the coupling processes of a mixed structure of a Bragg fiber grat-ing and a long-period grating. From the numerical results, we not only confirmed the wavelength switchingphenomena observed in previously reported experiments, but also discovered a new coupling mechanism,which generated the reflection of a signal with its wavelength longer than the Bragg wavelength. Thedependencies of the wavelength switching behaviors on various parameters of the mixed grating structure     

Probe spectrum of a four-level atom in a double-band photonic crystal

In this paper, the probe absorption spectrum of an atom in a double-band photonic crystal have been studied. In the modes, we assume that one of the two atomic transitions in a Λ-type atomic system is interacting with free vacuum modes, and another transition is interacting with free vacuum modes, isotropic photonic band gap (PBG) modes and anisotropic PBG modes, separately. The effects of the fine structure of the atomic lower levels on the probe absorption spectrum are investigated in detail in the three cases. The most interesting thing is that the two (four) transparencies at one (two) probe absorption peak(s), caused by the fine structure of the lower levels of an atom, are predicted in the case of isotropic PBG modes.     

Ground State of a Polaron in a Symmetric Triangular Quantum Well

We study the effects of electron-phonon interaction on the electron ground state in a symmetric triangular quantum well, and calculate the ground state energy of an electron in the GaAs/Al0.96Ga0.04As triangular quantum well including the effects of the interaction between electrons and confined LO phonons by using a modified Lee-Low-Pines variational method. The electron wavefunction in the triangular well is chosen as the Airy function. The numerical results are given and discussed.