Hyperbolic billiards with nearly flat focusing boundaries, I

The standard Wojtkowski-Markarian-Donnay-Bunimovich technique for the hyperbolicity of focusing or mixed billiards in the plane requires the diameter of a billiard table to be of the same order as the largest ray of curvature along the focusing boundary. This is due to the physical principle that is used in the proofs, the so-called defocusing mechanism of geometrical optics. In this paper we construct examples of hyperbolic billiards with a focusing boundary component of arbitrarily small curvature whose diameter is bounded by a constant independent of that curvature. Our proof employs a nonstandard cone bundle that does not solely use the familiar dispersing and defocusing mechanisms.     

Spacelike hypersurfaces with constant higher order mean curvature in Minkowski space–time

In this paper, we develop a series of general integral formulae for compact spacelike hypersurfaces with hyperplanar boundary in the (n+1)-dimensional Minkowski space–time . As an application of them, we prove that the only compact spacelike hypersurfaces in having constant higher order mean curvature and spherical boundary are the hyperplanar balls (with zero higher order mean curvature) and the hyperbolic caps (with nonzero constant higher order mean curvature). This extends previous results obtained by the first author, jointly with Pastor, for the case of constant mean curvature [J. Geom. Phys. 28 (1998) 85] and the case of constant scalar curvature [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 18 (2000) 75].     

The Dirac Operator on Untrapped Surfaces

We establish a sharp extrinsic lower bound for the first eigenvalue of the Dirac operator of an untrapped surface in initial data sets without apparent horizon in terms of the norm of its mean curvature vector. The equality case leads to rigidity results for the constraint equations with spherical boundary as well as uniqueness results for surfaces with constant mean curvature vector field in Minkowski space.     

Gauge invariance versus masslessness in de Sitter spaces

The connection between gauge invariance, masslessness and null cone propagation is a flat space property which does not persist even in constant curvature geometries. In particular, we show that both the gauge invariant spin $\text{3}\text{2}$ and 2 fields in anti-de Sitter space have support inside the cone, whereas where are conformally invariant, but gauge variant, models which do propagate on the light cone. The Maxwell field in constant curvature spaces of dimension other than four also does not have null cone propagation; again there is a conformally invariant model which does.     

Constant Mean Curvature Spacelike Surfaces in Three-Dimensional Generalized Robertson–Walker Spacetimes

Several uniqueness and non-existence results on complete constant mean curvature spacelike surfaces lying between two slices in certain three-dimensional generalized Robertson–Walker spacetimes are given. They are obtained from a local integral estimation of the squared length of the gradient of a distinguished smooth function on a constant mean curvature spacelike surface, under a suitable curvature condition on the ambient spacetime. As a consequence, all the entire bounded solutions to certain family of constant mean curvature spacelike surface differential equations are found.     

On the Toroidal Surfaces of Revolution with Constant Mean Curvatures

It is shown that the surface with a constant mean curvature encloses the extremal volume among all toroidal surfaces of given area. The exact solution for the corresponding variational problem is derived, and its parametric analysis is performed in the limits of high and small mean curvatures. An absence of smooth torus with constant mean curvature is proved, and the extremal surface is demonstrated to have at least one edge located on the outer side of the torus.     

Receptivity to free-stream disturbance waves for hypersonic flow over a blunt cone

A high-order shock-fitting finite difference scheme is studied and used to do direction numerical simulation (DNS) of hypersonic unsteady flow over a blunt cone with fast acoustic waves in the free stream, and the receptivity problem in the blunt cone hypersonic boundary layers is studied. The results show that the acoustic waves are the strongest disturbance in the blunt cone hypersonic boundary layers. The wave modes of disturbance in the blunt cone boundary layers are first, second, and third modes which are generated and propagated downstream along the wall. The results also show that as the frequency decreases, the amplitudes of wave modes of disturbance increase, but there is a critical value. When frequency is over the critial value, the amplitudes decrease. Because of the discontinuity of curvature along the blunt cone body, the maximum amplitudes as a function of frequencies are not monotone. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10632050 and 10502052)     

A high-order boundary integral method for surface diffusions on elastically stressed axisymmetric rods

Many applications in materials involve surface diffusion of elastically stressed solids. Study of singularity formation and long-time behavior of such solid surfaces requires accurate simulations in both space and time. Here we present a high-order boundary integral method for an elastically stressed solid with axi-symmetry due to surface diffusions. In this method, the boundary integrals for isotropic elasticity in axi-symmetric geometry are approximated through modified alternating quadratures along with an extrapolation technique, leading to an arbitrarily high-order quadrature; in addition, a high-order (temporal) integration factor method, based on explicit representation of the mean curvature, is used to reduce the stability constraint on time-step. To apply this method to a periodic (in axial direction) and axi-symmetric elastically stressed cylinder, we also present a fast and accurate summation method for the periodic Green’s functions of isotropic elasticity. Using the high-order boundary integral method, we demonstrate that in absence of elasticity the cylinder surface pinches in finite time at the axis of the symmetry and the universal cone angle of the pinching is found to be consistent with the previous studies based on a self-similar assumption. In the presence of elastic stress, we show that a finite time, geometrical singularity occurs well before the cylindrical solid collapses onto the axis of symmetry, and the angle of the corner singularity on the cylinder surface is also estimated.     

Foliations of space-times by spacelike hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature

The foliations under discussion are of two different types, although in each case the leaves areC ² spacelike hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature. For manifolds, such as that of the Friedmann universe with closed spatial sections, which are topologicallyI×S ³,I an open interval, the leaves will be spacelike hypersurfaces without boundary and the foliation will fill the manifold. In the case of the domain of dependence of a spacelike hypersurface,S, with boundaryB, the leaves will be spacelike hypersurfaces with boundary,B, and the foliation will fillD(S). It is shown that a local energy condition ensures that the constant mean curvature increases monotonically with time through such foliations and that, in the case of a foliation whose leaves are spacelike hypersurfaces without boundary in a manifold where this energy condition is satisfied globally, the foliation is unique.     

Hypersurfaces of constant mean extrinsic curvature

The existence of hypersurfaces of constant mean extrinsic curvature is examined. Using techniques developed by Choquet-Bruhat in her work on related subjects and techniques used by D'Eath in his study of perturbed Robertson-Walker universes, theorems are proved about the existence of slices of constant mean extrinsic curvature for spacetimes in a neighbourhood of the open Robertson-Walker Universes. It is shown in particular that those spacetimes which lie in a neighbourhood of Minkowski space or de-Sitter space admit slices of constant mean extrinsic curvature. By modifying the techniques used to prove these theorems, it is shown that asymptotically simple spacetimes which are close to Minkowski space admit slices of constant mean extrinsic curvature. The behaviour of these slices near null infinity is examined and it is shown that a large family of such hypersurfaces exists, indexed by the BMS supertranslations.     

Far-from-constant mean curvature solutions of Einstein's constraint equations with positive Yamabe metrics

We establish new existence results for the Einstein constraint equations for mean extrinsic curvature arbitrarily far from constant. The results hold for rescaled background metric in the positive Yamabe class, with freely specifiable parts of the data sufficiently small, and with matter energy density not identically zero. Two technical advances make these results possible: A new topological fixed-point argument without smallness conditions on spatial derivatives of the mean extrinsic curvature, and a new global supersolution construction for the Hamiltonian constraint that is similarly free of such conditions. The results are presented for strong solutions on closed manifolds, but also hold for weak solutions and for compact manifolds with boundary. These results are apparently the first that do not require smallness conditions on spatial derivatives of the mean extrinsic curvature.     

Existence of Constant Mean Curvature Foliations in Spacetimes with Two-Dimensional Local Symmetry

It is shown that in a class of maximal globally hyperbolic spacetimes admitting two local Killing vectors, the past (defined with respect to an appropriate time orientation) of any compact constant mean curvature hypersurface can be covered by a foliation of compact constant mean curvature hypersurfaces. Moreover, the mean curvature of the leaves of this foliation takes on arbitrarily negative values and so the initial singularity in these spacetimes is a crushing singularity. The simplest examples occur when the spatial topology is that of a torus, with the standard global Killing vectors, but more exotic topologies are also covered. In the course of the proof it is shown that in this class of spacetimes a kind of positive mass theorem holds. The symmetry singles out a compact surface passing through any given point of spacetime and the Hawking mass of any such surface is non-negative. If the Hawking mass of any one of these surfaces is zero then the entire spacetime is flat. Received: 15 July 1996 / Accepted: 12 March 1997     

Universal and shape dependent features of surface superconductivity

We analyze the response of a type II superconducting wire to an external magnetic field parallel to it in the framework of Ginzburg–Landau theory. We focus on the surface superconductivity regime of applied field between the second and third critical values, where the superconducting state survives only close to the sample’s boundary. Our first finding is that, in first approximation, the shape of the boundary plays no role in determining the density of superconducting electrons. A second order term is however isolated, directly proportional to the mean curvature of the boundary. This demonstrates that points of higher boundary curvature (counted inwards) attract superconducting electrons.     

Surface layers in general relativity and their relation to surface tensions

For a thin shell, the intrinsic 3-pressure will be shown to be analogous to -A, whereA is the classical surface tension: First, interior and exterior Schwarzschild solutions will be matched together such that the surface layer generated at the common boundary has no gravitational mass; then its intrinsic 3-pressure represents a surface tension fulfilling Kelvin's relation between mean curvature and pressure difference in the Newtonian limit. Second, after a suitable definition of mean curvature, the general relativistic analog to Kelvin's relation will be proven to be contained in the equation of motion of the surface layer.     

Stability of travelling wave solutions for coupled surface and grain boundary motion

We investigate the spectral stability of the travelling wave solution for the coupled motion of a free surface and grain boundary that arises in materials science. In this problem a grain boundary, which separates two materials that are identical except for their crystalline orientation, evolves according to mean curvature. At a triple junction, this boundary meets the free surfaces of the two crystals, which move according to surface diffusion. The model is known to possess a unique travelling wave solution. We study the linearization about the wave, which necessarily includes a free boundary at the location of the triple junction. This makes the analysis more complex than that of standard travelling waves, and we discuss how existing theory applies in this context. Furthermore, we compute numerically the associated point spectrum by restricting the problem to a finite computational domain with appropriate physical boundary conditions. Numerical results strongly suggest that the two-dimensional wave is stable with respect to both two- and three-dimensional perturbations.     

LES of spatially developing turbulent boundary layer over a concave surface

We revisit the problem of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer over a concave surface. Unlike previous investigations, we simulate the combined effects of streamline curvature as well as curvature-induced pressure gradients on the turbulence. Our focus is on investigating the response of the turbulent boundary layer to the sudden onset of curvature and the destabilising influence of concave surface in the presence of pressure gradients. This is of interest for evaluating the turbulence closure models. At the beginning of the curve, the momentum thickness Reynolds number is 1520 and the ratio of the boundary layer thickness to the radius of curvature is δ₀/R = 0.055. The radial profiles of the mean velocity and turbulence statistics at different locations along the concave surface are presented. Our recently proposed curvature-corrected Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model is assessed in an a posteriori sense and the improvements obtained over the base model are reported. From the large Eddy simulation (LES) results, it was found that the maximum influence of concave curvature is on the wall-normal component of the Reynolds stress. The budgets of wall-normal Reynolds stress also confirmed this observation. At the onset of curvature, the effect of adverse pressure gradient is found to be predominant. This decreases the skin friction levels below that in the flat section.     

DNS of compressible turbulent boundary layer around a sharp cone

Direct numerical simulation of the turbulent boundary layer over a sharp cone with 20° cone angle (or 10° half-cone angle) is performed by using the mixed seventh-order up-wind biased finite difference scheme and sixth-order central difference scheme. The free stream Mach number is 0.7 and free stream unit Reynolds number is 250000/inch. The characteristics of transition and turbulence of the sharp cone boundary layer are compared with those of the flat plate boundary layer. Statistics of fully developed turbulent flow agree well with the experimental and theoretical data for the turbulent flat-plate boundary layer flow. The near wall streak-like structure is shown and the average space between streaks (normalized by the local wall unit) keeps approximately invariable at different streamwise locations. The turbulent energy equation in the cylindrical coordinate is given and turbulent energy budget is studied. The computed results show that the effect of circumferential curvature on turbulence characteristics is not obvious.     

On surfaces whose twistor lifts are harmonic sections

We study surfaces whose twistor lifts are harmonic sections, and characterize these surfaces in terms of their second fundamental forms. As a corollary, under certain assumptions for the curvature tensor, we prove that the twistor lift is a harmonic section if and only if the mean curvature vector field is a holomorphic section of the normal bundle. For surfaces in four-dimensional Euclidean space, a lower bound for the vertical energy of the twistor lifts is given. Moreover, under a certain assumption involving the mean curvature vector field, we characterize a surface in four-dimensional Euclidean space in such a way that the twistor lift is a harmonic section, and its vertical energy density is constant.     

Curvature-induced bound states and coherent electron transport on the surface of a truncated cone

We study the curvature-induced bound states and the coherent transport properties for a particle constrained to move on a truncated cone-like surface. With longitudinal hard wall boundary condition, the probability densities and spectra energy shifts are calculated, and are found to be obviously affected by the surface curvature. The bound-state energy levels and energy differences decrease as increasing the vertex angle or the ratio of axial length to bottom radius of the truncated cone. In a two-dimensional (2D) GaAs substrate with this geometric structure, an estimation of the ground-state energy shift of ballistic transport electrons induced by the geometric potential (GP) is addressed, which shows that the fraction of the ground-state energy shift resulting from the surface curvature is unnegligible under some region of geometric parameters. Furthermore, we model a truncated cone-like junction joining two cylinders with different radii, and investigate the effect of the GP on the transmission properties by numerically solving the open-boundary 2D Schrödinger equation with GP on the junction surface. It is shown that the oscillatory behavior of the transmission coefficient as a function of the injection energy is more pronounced when steeper GP wells appear at the two ends of the junction. Moreover, at specific injection energy, the transmission coefficient is oscillating with the ratio of the cylinder radii at incoming and outgoing sides.     

Atomistic Simulation of Curvature Driven Grain Boundary Migration

We present two dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of grain boundary migration using the half-loop bicrystal geometry in the experiments of Shvindlerman et al. We examine the dependence of steady-state grain boundary migration rate on grain boundary curvature by varying the half-loop width at constant temperature. The results confirm the classical result derived by absolute reaction rate theory that grain boundary velocity is proportional to the curvature. We then measure the grain boundary migration rate for fixed half-loop width at varying temperatures. Analysis of this data establishes an Arrhenius relation between the grain boundary mobility and temperature, allowing us to extract the activation energy for grain boundary migration. Since grain boundaries have an excess volume, curvature driven grain boundary migration increases the density of the system during the simulations. In simulations performed at constant pressure, this leads to vacancy generation during the boundary migration, making the whole migration process jerky.