Effects of particle size distribution,shape and volume fraction of aggregates on the wall effect of concrete via random sequential packing of polydispersed ellipsoidal particles

Concrete can be viewed as granular materials at the mesoscopic level. A specific distribution of aggregate particles in boundary layers, known as the wall effect, plays an important role in the mechanical properties and durability of concrete. However, the detailed and systematic experimental and simulated data about the wall effect of concrete is hardly adequate yet. Specially, the modeling study of spherical and two-dimensional (2D) elliptical aggregates distribution for the wall effect has been focused on in previous work, little is known about three-dimensional (3D) ellipsoidal aggregates. In the present work, based on a mesostructure model of concrete, the wall effect of concrete is quantified by configuration parameters such as the volume fraction, the specific surface area and the meaning free spacing of the solid phase. In addition, the influences of ellipsoidal particle size distribution (EPSD), shape and volume fraction (_Vf$V_f$) of ellipsoidal aggregates on the configuration parameters are evaluated by stereological methods and serial section analysis technique. Furthermore, the effect mechanisms of EPSD, shape and _Vf$V_f$ are analyzed and discussed in this paper. The reliability of the statistical results is verified by experimental data and theoretical analytical results.     

Photophoresis of spherical particles with interfacial thermal resistance in micro–nano fluids

Based on Mie scattering theory and steady thermal conduction function, we establish the theoretical analysis of particles? photophoresis in micro–nano fluids by taking into account the interfacial resistance between particles and the fluid. It is found that the heat source function can determine not only the magnitude but also the direction of the photophoretic velocity, while the interfacial resistance can only play a role in the magnitude of the velocity. Numerical results show that there is positive (negative) photophoresis for particles with large (small) size parameter α  , high (low)-absorption _κp${\kappa }_p$, and low (high)-refraction _np$n_p$. In addition, lower thermal conductivity and smaller interfacial resistance of the particle may result in faster photophoretic motion.     

A Cartesian treecode for screened coulomb interactions

A treecode algorithm is presented for evaluating electrostatic potentials in a charged particle system undergoing screened Coulomb interactions in 3D. The method uses a far-field Taylor expansion in Cartesian coordinates to compute particle–cluster interactions. The Taylor coefficients are evaluated using new recurrence relations which permit efficient computation of high order approximations. Two types of clusters are considered, uniform cubes and adapted rectangular boxes. The treecode error, CPU time and memory usage are reported and compared with direct summation for randomly distributed particles inside a cube, on the surface of a sphere and on an 8-sphere configuration. For a given order of Taylor approximation, the treecode CPU time scales as O(NlogN)$O(N\log N)$ and the memory usage scales as O(N)$O(N)$, where N is the number of particles. Results show that the treecode is well suited for non-homogeneous particle distributions as in the sphere and 8-sphere test cases.     

Vortex motion on surfaces of small curvature

We consider a single Abelian Higgs vortex on a surface Σ$\Sigma$ whose Gaussian curvature K$K$ is small relative to the size of the vortex, and analyse vortex motion by using geodesics on the moduli space of static solutions. The moduli space is Σ$\Sigma$ with a modified metric, and we propose that this metric has a universal expansion, in terms of K$K$ and its derivatives, around the initial metric on Σ$\Sigma$. Using an integral expression for the Kähler potential on the moduli space, we calculate the leading coefficients of this expansion numerically, and find some evidence for their universality. The expansion agrees to first order with the metric resulting from the Ricci flow starting from the initial metric on Σ$\Sigma$, but differs at higher order. We compare the vortex motion with the motion of a point particle along geodesics of Σ$\Sigma$. Relative to a particle geodesic, the vortex experiences an additional force, which to leading order is proportional to the gradient of K$K$. This force is analogous to the self-force on bodies of finite size that occurs in gravitational motion.     

Electrodynamics of a generalized charged particle in doubly special relativity framework

In the present paper, dynamics of generalized charged particles are studied in the presence of external electromagnetic interactions. This particular extension of the free relativistic particle model lives in Non-Commutative κ$\kappa$-Minkowski space–time, compatible with Doubly Special Relativity, that is motivated to describe Quantum Gravity effects. Furthermore we have also considered the electromagnetic field to be dynamical and have derived the modified forms of Lienard–Wiechert like potentials for these extended charged particle models. In all the above cases we exploit the new and extended form of κ$\kappa$-Minkowski algebra where electromagnetic effects are incorporated in the lowest order, in the Dirac framework of Hamiltonian constraint analysis.     

Accelerator neutrino beams

Neutrino beams at from high-energy proton accelerators have been instrumental discovery tools in particle physics. Neutrino beams are derived from the decays of charged π$\pi$ and K   mesons, which in turn are created from proton beams striking thick nuclear targets. The precise selection and manipulation of the π/K$\pi /K$ beam control the energy spectrum and type of neutrino beam. This article describes the physics of particle production in a target and manipulation of the particles to derive a neutrino beam, as well as numerous innovations achieved at past experimental facilities.     

Diffusion-limited aggregates grown on nonuniform substrates

In the present paper, patterns of diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) grown on nonuniform substrates are investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. We consider a nonuniform substrate as the largest percolation cluster of dropped particles with different structures and forms that occupy more than a single site on the lattice. The aggregates are grown on such clusters, in the range the concentration, p$p$, from the percolation threshold, _pc$p_c$ up to the jamming coverage, _pj$p_j$. At the percolation threshold, the aggregates are asymmetrical and the branches are relatively few. However, for larger values of p$p$, the patterns change gradually to a pure DLA. Tiny qualitative differences in this behavior are observed for different k$k$ sizes. Correspondingly, the fractal dimension of the aggregates increases as p$p$ raises in the same range _pc≤p≤_pj$p_c\le p\le p_j$. This behavior is analyzed and discussed in the framework of the existing theoretical approaches.     

Non-Abelian fusion rules from an Abelian system

We demonstrate the emergence of non-Abelian fusion rules for excitations of a two dimensional lattice model built out of Abelian degrees of freedom. It can be considered as an extension of the usual toric code model on a two dimensional lattice augmented with matter fields. It consists of the usual C(Z_p)$\mathbb{C}\left({\mathbb{Z}}_p\right)$ gauge degrees of freedom living on the links together with matter degrees of freedom living on the vertices. The matter part is described by a n$n$ dimensional vector space which we call H_n$H_n$. The Z_p${\mathbb{Z}}_p$ gauge particles act on the vertex particles and thus H_n$H_n$ can be thought of as a C(Z_p)$\mathbb{C}\left({\mathbb{Z}}_p\right)$ module. An exactly solvable model is built with operators acting in this Hilbert space. The vertex excitations for this model are studied and shown to obey non-Abelian fusion rules. We will show this for specific values of n$n$ and p$p$, though we believe this feature holds for all n>p$n>p$. We will see that non-Abelian anyons of the quantum double of C(S₃)$\mathbb{C}\left(S_3\right)$ are obtained as part of the vertex excitations of the model with n=6$n=6$ and p=3$p=3$. Ising anyons are obtained in the model with n=4$n=4$ and p=2$p=2$. The n=3$n=3$ and p=2$p=2$ case is also worked out as this is the simplest model exhibiting non-Abelian fusion rules. Another common feature shared by these models is that the ground states have a higher symmetry than Z_p${\mathbb{Z}}_p$. This makes them possible candidates for realizing quantum computation.     

Tsallis non-extensive statistics,intermittent turbulence,SOC and chaos in the solar plasma. Part two: Solar flares dynamics

In this study which is the continuation of the first part (Pavlos et al. 2012) [1], the nonlinear analysis of the solar flares index is embedded in the non-extensive statistical theory of Tsallis (1988) [3]. The q$q$-triplet of Tsallis, as well as the correlation dimension and the Lyapunov exponent spectrum were estimated for the singular value decomposition (SVD) components of the solar flares timeseries. Also the multifractal scaling exponent spectrum f(a)$f\left(a\right)$, the generalized Renyi dimension spectrum D(q)$D\left(q\right)$ and the spectrum J(p)$J\left(p\right)$ of the structure function exponents were estimated experimentally and theoretically by using theq$q$-entropy principle included in Tsallis non-extensive statistical theory, following Arimitsu and Arimitsu (2000) [25]. Our analysis showed clearly the following: (a) a phase transition process in the solar flare dynamics from a high dimensional non-Gaussian self-organized critical (SOC) state to a low dimensional also non-Gaussian chaotic state, (b) strong intermittent solar corona turbulence and an anomalous (multifractal) diffusion solar corona process, which is strengthened as the solar corona dynamics makes a phase transition to low dimensional chaos, (c) faithful agreement of Tsallis non-equilibrium statistical theory with the experimental estimations of the functions: (i) non-Gaussian probability distribution function P(x)$P\left(x\right)$, (ii) f(a)$f\left(a\right)$ and D(q)$D\left(q\right)$, and (iii) J(p)$J\left(p\right)$ for the solar flares timeseries and its underlying non-equilibrium solar dynamics, and (d) the solar flare dynamical profile is revealed similar to the dynamical profile of the solar corona zone as far as the phase transition process from self-organized criticality (SOC) to chaos state. However the solar low corona (solar flare) dynamical characteristics can be clearly discriminated from the dynamical characteristics of the solar convection zone.     

How to improve the diagnosis of kinetic energy in δf PIC codes

This paper propose to analyse the effect of the shape factor that is used in plasma PIC δf$\delta f$ codes to make interpolations between the grid and the particles positions. In δf$\delta f$ codes, the total density fluctuates, even when it should be conserved. We show that, in some cases, the computed non-physical part of the particle kinetic energy fluctuations is dependent on those of the total density. We deduce a method that can reduce drastically the statistical fluctuations in the diagnostics of the kinetic energy.     

Magnetic properties of barium ferrite nanoparticles: Quantitative test of the Stoner–Wohlfarth theory for uniaxial single-domain magnetic particles

We have successfully synthesized single-domain barium ferrite particles with uniaxial anisotropy. We have coated them with amorphous silica to reduce interparticle interactions so that the assembly of these particles behaves like a noninteracting randomly oriented uniaxial single-domain particle system, a prototype for the Stoner–Wohlfarth model. From the magnetic hysteresis loops of the particle system in a wide temperature range (10–700 K$10\text{–}700\text{K}$), we simultaneously determine the magnetic anisotropic field _HK$H_K$, the reduced remanence _Mr/_Ms$M_r/M_s$, and the coercive field _HC$H_C$ in the whole temperature range below the Curie temperature. These complete sets of data allow us to quantitatively test the Stoner–Wohlfarth theory and the agreement between experiment and theory is good.     

Percolation of dimers on square lattices

A theoretical approach, based on exact calculations of configurations on finite rectangular cells, is applied to study the percolation of homonuclear dimers on square lattices. An efficient algorithm allows us to calculate the detailed structure of the configuration space for M=_Lx×_Ly$M=L_x\times L_y$ cells, with M$M$ varying from 16 to 36. The percolation process has been monitored by following the percolation function, defined as the ratio between the number of percolating configurations and the total number of available configurations for a given cell size and concentration of occupied sites. The percolation threshold has been calculated by means of two complementary methods: one based on well-known renormalization techniques and the other based on determining the inflection point of the percolation function curves. A comparison of the results obtained by these two methods has been performed. The study includes the use of finite-size scaling theory to extrapolate numerical results towards the thermodynamic limit. The effect of jamming due to dimers is also established. Finally, the critical exponents ν$\nu$, β$\beta$ and γ$\gamma$ have been obtained and values compared with numerical results and expected theoretical estimations. The present results show agreement and even improvement (in the case of γ$\gamma$) with respect to some numeric values available in the literature.     

Opinion evolution on a BA scaling network

In this paper, the dynamics of opinion formation is investigated based on a BA (Barabási–Albert) scale-free network, using a majority–minority rule governed by parameter q$q$. As the value of q$q$ is smoothly varied, a phase transition occurs between an ordered phase and a disordered one. By performing extensive Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the phase transition is dependent on the system size, as well as on m$m$, the number of edges added at each time step during the growth of the BA scaling network. Additionally, some theoretical analysis is given based on mean-field theory, by neglecting fluctuations and correlations. It is observed that the theoretical results coincide with results from simulations, especially for very large m$m$.     

Supertwistors and massive particles

In the (super)twistor formulation of massless (super)particle mechanics, the mass-shell constraint is replaced by a “spin-shell” constraint from which the spin content can be read off. We extend this formalism to massive (super)particles (with N$N$-extended space–time supersymmetry) in three and four space–time dimensions, explaining how the spin-shell constraints are related to spin, and we use it to prove equivalence of the massive N=1$N=1$ and BPS-saturated N=2$N=2$ superparticle actions. We also find the supertwistor form of the action for “spinning particles” with N$N$-extended worldline supersymmetry, massless in four dimensions and massive in three dimensions, and we show how this simplifies special features of the N=2$N=2$ case.