Wave turbulence and intermittency in directional wave fields

The evolution of surface gravity waves is driven by nonlinear interactions that trigger an energy cascade similarly to the one observed in hydrodynamic turbulence. This process, known as wave turbulence, has been found to display anomalous scaling with deviation from classical turbulent predictions due to the emergence of coherent and intermittent structures on the water surface. In the ocean, waves are spread over a wide range of directions, with a consequent attenuation of the nonlinear properties. A laboratory experiment in a large wave facility is presented to discuss the sensitivity of wave turbulence on the directional properties of model wave spectra. Results show that the occurrence of coherent and intermittent structures become less likely with the broadening of the wave directional spreading. There is no evidence, however, that intermittency completely vanishes.     

Mass distribution and skewness for passive scalar transport in pipes with polygonal and smooth cross sections

We extend our previous results characterizing the loading properties of a diffusing passive scalar advected by a laminar shear flow in ducts and channels to more general cross‐sectional shapes, including regular polygons and smoothed corner ducts originating from deformations of ellipses. For the case of the triangle and localized, cross‐wise uniform initial distributions, short‐time skewness is calculated exactly to be positive, while long‐time asymptotics shows it to be negative. Monte Carlo simulations confirm these predictions, and document the timescale for sign change. The equilateral triangle appears to be the only regular polygon with this property—all others possess positive skewness at all times. Alternatively, closed‐form flow solutions can be constructed for smooth deformations of ellipses, and illustrate how both nonzero short‐time skewness and the possibility of multiple sign switching in time is unrelated to domain corners. Exact conditions relating the median and the skewness to the mean are developed which guarantee when the sign for the skewness implies front (more mass to the right of the mean) or back (more mass to the left of the mean) “loading” properties of the evolving tracer distribution along the pipe. Short‐ and long‐time asymptotics confirm this condition, and Monte Carlo simulations verify this at all times. The simulations are also used to examine the role of corners and boundaries on the distribution for short‐time evolution of point source , as opposed to cross‐wise uniform, initial data.     

Optical Trapping with Focused Surface Waves

Near-field optical trapping can be realized with focused evanescent waves that are excited at the water–glass interface due to the total internal reflection, or with focused plasmonic waves excited on the water–gold interface. Herein, the performance of these two kinds of near-field optical trapping techniques is compared using the same optical microscope configuration. Experimental results show that only a single-micron polystyrene bead can be trapped by the focused evanescent waves, whereas many beads are simultaneously attracted to the center of the excited region by focused plasmonic waves. This difference in trapping behavior is analyzed from the electric field intensity distributions of these two kinds of focused surface waves and the difference in trapping behavior is attributed to photothermal effects due to the light absorption by the gold film.     

Gravitational wave imprint of new symmetry breaking

It is believed that there are more fundamental gauge symmetries beyond those described by the Standard Model of particle physics. The scales of these new gauge symmetries are usually too high to be reachable by particle colliders. Considering that the phase transition (PT) relating to the spontaneous breaking of new gauge symmetries to the electroweak symmetry might be strongly first order, we propose considering the stochastic gravitational waves (GW) arising from this phase transition as an indirect way of detecting these new fundamental gauge symmetries. As an illustration, we explore the possibility of detecting the stochastic GW generated from the PT of \begin{document}$ {\bf{B}}-{\bf{L}}$\end{document} in the space-based interferometer detectors. Our study demonstrates that the GW energy spectrum is reachable by the LISA, Tianqin, Taiji, BBO, and DECIGO experiments only for the case where the spontaneous breaking of \begin{document}$ {\bf{B}}-{\bf{L}}$\end{document} is triggered by at least two electroweak singlet scalars.     

Toward efficient interactions of bubbles and coal particles induced by stable cavitation bubbles under 600 kHz ultrasonic standing waves

The interactions of bubbles and coal particles in 600 kHz ultrasonic standing waves (USW) field has been investigated. A high-speed camera was employed to record the phenomena occurred under the USW treatment. The formation and behaviors of cavitation bubbles were analyzed. Under the driving of these cavitation bubbles, whose size is from several microns to dozens of microns, coal particles were aggregated and then attracted by large bubbles due to the acoustic radiation forces. The results of USW-assisted flotation show a significant improvement in recoveries at 600 kHz, which indicates that the interactions of bubbles and particles in the USW field are more efficient than that in the conventional gravitational field. Furthermore, the sound pressure distribution of the USW was measured and predicted by a hydrophone. The analysis of gravity and buoyancy, primary and secondary Bjerknes forces shows that bubble-laden particles can be attracted by the rising bubbles under large acoustic forces. This study highlights the potential for USW technology to achieve efficient bubble-particle interactions in flotation.     

Second-order random wave solutions for interfacial internal waves in N-layer density-stratified fluid

This paper studies the random internal wave equations describing the density interface displacements and the velocity potentials of N-layer stratified fluid contained between two rigid walls at the top and bottom. The density interface displacements and the velocity potentials were solved to the second-order by an expansion approach used by Longuet-Higgins （1963） and Dean （1979） in the study of random surface waves and by Song （2004） in the study of second- order random wave solutions for internal waves in a two-layer fluid. The obtained results indicate that the first-order solutions are a linear superposition of many wave components with different amplitudes, wave numbers and frequencies, and that the amplitudes of first-order wave components with the same wave numbers and frequencies between the adjacent density interfaces are modulated by each other. They also show that the second-order solutions consist of two parts： the first one is the first-order solutions, and the second one is the solutions of the second-order asymptotic equations, which describe the second-order nonlinear modification and the second-order wave-wave interactions not only among the wave components on same density interfaces but also among the wave components between the adjacent density interfaces. Both the first-order and second-order solutions depend on the density and depth of each layer. It is also deduced that the results of the present work include those derived by Song （2004） for second-order random wave solutions for internal waves in a two-layer fluid as a particular case.     

Influence of Azimuthal Structure of Surface Waves on Efficiency of their Excitation by Tubular Electron Beams

The excitation of eigen surface waves by tubular electron beams in cylindrical discharge devices is studied. The influence of the wave‐field azimuthal structure on the excitation efficiency and nonlinear stage of the plasmabeam instability is investigated both numerically and analytically. Analytical expressions for the saturation amplitude and excitation efficiency of the wave under study are derived. They are found to agree well with results obtained by numerical modelling of the plasma‐beam interaction presented in this paper. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The Millimeter Wave Tomography Application for the Subsurface Imaging

In the present paper new results of modeling and experimental investigation on millimeter wave subsurface tomography are submitted. Tomographic algorithm is employed for imaging of subsurface objects in the case when conductivity of probed medium is not equal to zero. The possibilities and restrictions of this algorithm for image processing are shown both as a result of modeling and as a result of experiments. A new tomography setup allowing obtaining images of different inhomogeneities in dielectric media is considered.