Dark matter results from 100 live days of XENON100 data

We present results from the direct search for dark matter with the XENON100 detector, installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy. XENON100 is a two-phase time-projection chamber with a 62 kg liquid xenon target. Interaction vertex reconstruction in three dimensions with millimeter precision allows the selection of only the innermost 48 kg as the ultralow background fiducial target. In 100.9 live days of data, acquired between January and June 2010, no evidence for dark matter is found. Three candidate events were observed in the signal region with an expected background of (1.8 ± 0.6) events. This leads to the most stringent limit on dark matter interactions today, excluding spin-independent elastic weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) nucleon scattering cross sections above 7.0 × 10(-45) cm(2) for a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c(2) at 90% confidence level.     

Modelling Turbulent Premixed Combustion Using the Level Set Approach for Reynolds Averaged Models

A model for premixed turbulent combustion is investigated using a RANS-approach. The evolution of the flame front is described in terms of the G-equation. The numerical instabilities of the G-field are resolved using a reinitialisation procedure. For the G-points near the flame surface an algorithm proposed by Russo and Smereka [1] and modificated by Düsing [2] is presented. For all other points the standard Sussman algorithm is employed. Fluid properties are conditioned on the flame front position using a burnt-unburnt probability function across the flame front. Computations are performed using the code FASTEST-3D [3] which is a flow solver for a non-orthogonal, block-structured grid. The computational examples include two test cases, the first containing the propagation of two circular merging flames and the second one containing the simulation of the ORACLES-burner [4].     

Infinite dimensional Lie algebra associated with conformal transformations of the two-point velocity correlation tensor from isotropic turbulence

We deal with homogeneous isotropic turbulence and use the two-point velocity correlation tensor field (parametrized by the time variable t) of the velocity fluctuations to equip an affine space K ³ of the correlation vectors by a family of metrics. It was shown in Grebenev and Oberlack (J Nonlinear Math Phys 18:109–120, 2011) that a special form of this tensor field generates the so-called semi-reducible pseudo-Riemannian metrics ds ²(t) in K ³. This construction presents the template for embedding the couple (K ³, ds ²(t)) into the Euclidean space ${\mathbb{R}^3}$ with the standard metric. This allows to introduce into the consideration the function of length between the fluid particles, and the accompanying important problem to address is to find out which transformations leave the statistic of length to be invariant that presents a basic interest of the paper. Also we classify the geometry of the particles configuration at least locally for a positive Gaussian curvature of this configuration and comment the case of a negative Gaussian curvature.     

Investigations of shear free turbulent diffusion in a rotating frame

We reconsider the problem of shear free turbulent diffusion in a rotating frame, rotating about x₁. Shear free turbulence is generated at a vibrating grid in the x₂–x₃ plane and diffuses away from the grid in x₁ direction. An important property of this flow case is that there is no mean flow‐velocity. With the help of Lie‐group methods Reynolds‐stress transport models can be analyzed for this kind of flow in a rotating frame. From the analysis it can be found, that the turbulent diffusion only influences a finite domain. Implicating this solution in the model equations shows that even fully nonlinear Reynolds‐stress transport models (non‐linear in the Reynolds‐stresses for the pressure‐strain model) are insensitive to rotation for this type of flow. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Asymptotic study of turbulent Poiseuille flow with wall transpiration

An incompressible, pressure–driven, fully developed turbulent flow between two parallel walls, with an extra constant transverse velocity component, is considered. A closure condition is formulated, which relates the shear stress to the first and second derivatives of the longitudinal mean velocity. The closure condition is derived without invoking any special hypotheses on the nature of turbulent motion, only taking advantage of the fact that the flow depends on a finite number of governing parameters. By virtue of the closure condition, the momentum equation is reduced to the boundary–value problem for a second–order differential equation, which is solved by the method of matched asymptotic expansions at high values of the logarithm of the Reynolds number based on the friction velocity. A limiting transpiration velocity is obtained, such that the shear stress at the injection wall vanishes, while the maximum point on the velocity profile approaches the suction wall. In this case, a sublayer near the suction wall appears where the mean velocity is proportional to the square root of the distance from the wall. A friction law for Poiseuille flow with transpiration is found, which makes it possible to describe the relation between the wall shear stress, the Reynolds number, and the transpiration velocity by a function of one variable. A velocity defect law, which generalizes the classical law for the core region in a channel with impermeable walls to the case of transpiration, is also established. In similarity variables, the mean velocity profiles across the whole channel width outside viscous sublayers can be described by a one–parameter family of curves. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

DNS of stochastically forced laminar plane Couette flow

Background of three dimensional hydrodynamic/vortical fluctuations in a stochastically forced, laminar, incompressible, plane Couette flow is simulated by direct numerical simulations (DNS). It was found that the fluctuating field has well pronounced peculiarities: (i) The hydrodynamic fluctuations exhibits non–exponential, transient growth; (ii) Streamwise non–constant fluctuations with the characteristic length scale of the order of the channel width are predominant in the fluctuating spectrum; (iii) Existence of coherent structures in the fluctuating background; (iv) Stochastic forcing breaks the spanwise reflection symmetry (inherent to the linear and full Navier–stokes equations in a case of the Couette flow) and inputs an asymmetry on dynamical processes. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Homogeneous Isotropic Turbulence: Geometric and Isometry Properties of the 2-point Velocity Correlation Tensor

The emphasis of this review is both the geometric realization of the 2-point velocity correlation tensor field B_ij (x,x′,t) and isometries of the correlation space K³ equipped with a (pseudo-) Riemannian metrics ds²(t) generated by the tensor field. The special form of this tensor field for homogeneous isotropic turbulence specifies ds²(t) as the semi-reducible pseudo-Riemannian metric. This construction presents the template for the application of methods of Riemannian geometry in turbulence to observe, in particular, the deformation of length scales of turbulent motion localized within a singled out fluid volume of the flow in time. This also allows to use common concepts and technics of Lagrangian mechanics for a Lagrangian system (M^t, ds²(t)), M^t ? K³. Here the metric ds²(t), whose components are the correlation functions, evolves due to the von Kármán-Howarth equation. We review the explicit geometric realization of ds²(t) in K³ and present symmetries (or isometric motions in K³) of the metric ds²(t) which coincide with the sliding deformation of a surface arising under the geometric realization of ds²(t). We expose the fine structure of a Lie algebra associated with this symmetry transformation and construct the basis of differential invariants. Minimal generating set of differential invariants is derived. We demonstrate that the well-known Taylor microscale λ_g is a second-order differential invariant and show how λ_g can be obtained by the minimal generating set of differential invariants and the operators of invariant differentiation. Finally, we establish that there exists a nontrivial central extension of the infinite-dimensional Lie algebra constructed wherein the central charge is defined by the same bilinear skew-symmetric form c as for the Witt algebra which measures the number of internal degrees of freedom of the system. For turbulence, we give the asymptotic expansion of the transversal correlation function for the geometry generated by a quadratic form.     

Implication for Lie group symmetries for RANS modeling

Since the symmetries of fluid motion are admitted by all statistical quantities of turbulent flows as can be taken from the multipoint equations, we can derive conditions for turbulence models so that they capture the proper flow physics. Concerning these constraints we will exemplary investigate the k – ϵ – model for its capability to reproduce new scaling laws derived from symmetry methods. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Closure proposals for the tracking of turbulence-agitated gas–liquid interfaces in stratified flows

The present work focuses on the formulation of new modelling approaches to ensemble-averaged equation for the interface tracking in stratified two-phase flow regime with separated gas and liquid layers. The model aims to represent the influence of the unresolved part of the surface. The modelling constants have been estimated based on the k–? model and the empirical observations of Brocchini and Peregrine (2001a) for the air–water flows. The new modelling proposal was implemented numerically for the 1D case. Results of the simulations are presented in the paper.