From collective periodic running states to completely chaotic synchronised states in coupled particle dynamics

We consider the damped and driven dynamics of two interacting particles evolving in a symmetric and spatially periodic potential. The latter is exerted to a time-periodic modulation of its inclination. Our interest is twofold: First, we deal with the issue of chaotic motion in the higher-dimensional phase space. To this end, a homoclinic Melnikov analysis is utilised assuring the presence of transverse homoclinic orbits and homoclinic bifurcations for weak coupling allowing also for the emergence of hyperchaos. In contrast, we also prove that the time evolution of the two coupled particles attains a completely synchronised (chaotic) state for strong enough coupling between them. The resulting "freezing of dimensionality" rules out the occurrence of hyperchaos. Second, we address coherent collective particle transport provided by regular periodic motion. A subharmonic Melnikov analysis is utilised to investigate persistence of periodic orbits. For directed particle transport mediated by rotating periodic motion, we present exact results regarding the collective character of the running solutions entailing the emergence of a current. We show that coordinated energy exchange between the particles takes place in such a manner that they are enabled to overcome--one particle followed by the other--consecutive barriers of the periodic potential resulting in collective directed motion.     

Cellular automaton fluids 1: Basic theory

Continuum equations are derived for the large-scale behavior of a class of cellular automaton models for fluids. The cellular automata are discrete analogues of molecular dynamics, in which particles with discrete velocities populate the links of a fixed array of sites. Kinetic equations for microscopic particle distributions are constructed. Hydrodynamic equations are then derived using the Chapman-Enskog expansion. Slightly modified Navier-Stokes equations are obtained in two and three dimensions with certain lattices. Viscosities and other transport coefficients are calculated using the Boltzmann transport equation approximation. Some corrections to the equations of motion for cellular automaton fluids beyond the Navier-Stokes order are given.     

Chaotic behavior of channeling particles

Channeling describes the collimated motion of energetic charged particles along the lattice plane or axis in a crystal. The energetic particles are steered through the channels formed by strings of atomic constituents in the lattice. In the case of planar channeling, the motion of a charged particle between the atomic planes can be periodic or quasiperiodic, such as a simple oscillatory motion in the transverse direction. In practice, however, the periodic motion of the channeling particles can be accompanied by an irregular, chaotic behavior. In this paper, the Moliere potential, which is considered as a good analytical approximation for the interaction of channeling particles with the rows of atoms in the lattice, is used to simulate the channeling behavior of positively charged particles in a tungsten (100) crystal plane. By appropriate selection of channeling parameters, such as the projectile energy E(0) and incident angle psi(0), the transition of channeling particles from regular to chaotic motion is demonstrated. It is argued that the fine structures that appear in the angular scan channeling experiments are due to the particles' chaotic motion.     

Anisotropic transport of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris in microfluidic channel

In this work, we study the regional dependence of transport behavior of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris inside microfluidic channel on applied fluid flow rate. The microalgae are treated as spherical naturally buoyant particles. Deviation from the normal diffusion or Brownian transport is characterized based on the scaling behavior of the mean square displacement(MSD) of the particle trajectories by resolving the displacements in the streamwise(flow) and perpendicular directions.The channel is divided into three different flow regions, namely center region of the channel and two near-wall boundaries and the particle motions are analyzed at different flow rates. We use the scaled Brownian motion to model the transitional characteristics in the scaling behavior of the MSDs. We find that there exist anisotropic anomalous transports in all the three flow regions with mixed sub-diffusive, normal and super-diffusive behavior in both longitudinal and transverse directions.     

An ellipsoidal model for small nonspherical particles

We have proposed an ellipsoidal model (ElM) for small nonspherical particles, i.e., we have proposed a method to construct “effective” ellipsoids the light scattering properties of which are similar to those of original particles. It has been shown that the semiaxes of a model ellipsoid should be determined from the requirement of equality of the volumes of particles, as well as of the equality of the ratios of their maximal longitudinal and transverse dimensions. Along with the ElM, the uniform internal field approximation (UFA) has also been considered, which is the first approximation in terms of the rigorous ЕВСМ solution of the electrostatic problem. In order to analyze the applicability of the ElM and UFA approximate approaches, rigorous methods for solving the problem of light scattering have been used, such as the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) and the SVM. The comparison of results of numerical calculations for parallelepipeds, finite circular cylinders and cones, Chebyshev particles and pseudospheroids has shown that the relative errors of calculations of the particle polarizability using ElM approximate formulas do not exceed 1–5%, while, for the absorption and scattering cross sections, they are roughly twice as large, since they depend on the squared polarizability module. As a rule, the ElM is preferable to the uniform field approximation, which is advantageous only in the case of a circular cylinder with close longitudinal and transverse dimensions.     

Measuring masses of semi-invisibly decaying particle pairs produced at hadron colliders

We introduce a variable useful for measuring masses of particles which are pair produced at hadron colliders, where each particle decays to one particle that is directly observable and another particle whose existence can only be inferred from missing transverse momentum. This variable is closely related to the transverse mass variable commonly used for measuring the W mass at hadron colliders, and like the transverse mass our variable extracts masses in a reasonably model independent way. Without considering either backgrounds or measurement errors we consider how our variable would perform measuring the mass of selectrons in a mSUGRA SUSY model at the LHC.     

Analytical solutions for particle transport through an inclined channel with gravitational effect

The combined mechanisms of Brownian diffusion and gravity settling are considered to investigate the transport and deposition of particles in an inclined rectangular channel in the laminar flow regime. The exact analytical solution for particle concentration is obtained with some reasonable transformations and the conventional method of separation of variables. The effects of Peclet number, depositional parameter, incline angle, and uphill and downhill airflows on the mean concentration of particles are discussed in detail. The results indicate that the exact solution obtained in the present study can describe the transport and deposition behavior of particles due to the combined mechanisms throughout a channel at any inclination angle.     

Orbital fractional parentage coefficients for the harmonic oscillator shell model

The Hamiltonian ofn particles moving in a common harmonic oscillator potential has as its symmetry group the unitary groupU(3n) in 3n dimensions,n particle states of the harmonic oscillator shell model can be characterized as bases of irreducible representations (BIR) of the groupU(3n) and of certain subgroups of this group. Use is made of these subgroups for the factorization and calculation of 2, 3, and 4 particle fractional parentage coefficients (fpc) of the harmonic oscillator shell model. Recoupling coefficients for subgroup chains of the symmetric groupS (n) appear as factors in the fpc. These coefficients are analyzed and calculated explicitly. The 2, 3 and 4 particle fpc of the 1s 1p shell configuration are obtained as products of these recoupling coefficients with known reduced Wigner coefficients of the unitary groupU(3) in 3 dimensions. Possible applications are indicated.     

Kinetic theory of gas-surface interaction

The kinetics of particle and energy exchange between gas and surface is treated in analogy to the transport of particles and energy in solutions using Onsager's theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. In addition to the coefficients of sticking and thermal accommodation a third kinetic coefficient is introduced describing the coupling of particle and energy transport. This coupling turns out to be particularly important at low temperatures reducing the accommodation coefficient from 2 to 1.The Onsager coefficients are then expressed in terms of the scattering properties of the surface. A simple model is treated to illustrate the general results and to provide estimates for the kinetic coefficients.Extract from doctoral thesis of H.M. submitted to Fachbereich Physik, Techn. Universität München, 1978     

Spatial Markov model of anomalous transport through random lattice networks

Flow through lattice networks with quenched disorder exhibits a strong correlation in the velocity field, even if the link transmissivities are uncorrelated. This feature, which is a consequence of the divergence-free constraint, induces anomalous transport of passive particles carried by the flow. We propose a Lagrangian statistical model that takes the form of a continuous time random walk with correlated velocities derived from a genuinely multidimensional Markov process in space. The model captures the anomalous (non-Fickian) longitudinal and transverse spreading, and the tail of the mean first-passage time observed in the Monte Carlo simulations of particle transport. We show that reproducing these fundamental aspects of transport in disordered systems requires honoring the correlation in the Lagrangian velocity.     

Transport Coefficients in Some Stochastic Models of the Revised Enskog Equation

A stochastic model of the revised Enskog equation is considered. A choice of the smearing function suggested by the work of Leegwater is used to apply the model to the repulsive part of the Lennard-Jones potential and the inverse-power soft-sphere potential. The virial coefficients obtained from the equilibrium properties of the models are in excellent agreement with the known exact coefficients for these models. The transport coefficients for the repulsive Lennard-Jones (RLP) model are also computed and appear to be of comparable accuracy to the Enskog-theory coefficients applied directly to a hard-sphere system, although exact results for the RLP with which to make an extensive comparison are not yet available. The pressure and the transport coefficients obtained from the model (shear viscosity, thermal conductivity, and self-diffusion) are compared with the pressure and the corresponding transport coefficients predicted by the Enskog and square-well kinetic theories.     

Computer simulation of particles with position-dependent mass

In the present work a dynamical system is investigated, in which the particles’ mass depends on their position in space. The first case study is that of a single point-like particle in one dimension, whose Hamiltonian is numerically integrated with a first-order, energy-conserving algorithm; subsequently, the model is extended to a Lennard-Jones fluid in three dimensions. The features of both setups are examined, and a simple, exact method is devised to obtain, from a system of particles with position-dependent mass, the same equilibrium observables that would be measured in a conventional simulation. The properties of these dynamical systems are explored, with possible applications in the development of efficient sampling strategies.     

Variational estimates of the diffusion coefficient of cosmic rays in a random magnetic field

A variational method is used to obtain estimates of the effective particle transport coefficients in a random static magnetic field. The particle propagation is described by an anisotropic diffusion equation. The diffusion coefficient parallel to the local magnetic field is much greater than the transverse diffusion coefficient. For large-scale magnetic-field variations the diffusion is described by effective coefficients. The variational approach can be used to find the effective parallel and perpendicular diffusion coefficients. It was shown that the instability growth rate of the magnetic field lines determines the upper estimate of the effective transverse diffusion coefficient. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 114, 398–405 (August 1998)     

Spatially hybrid computations for streamer discharges : II. Fully 3D simulations

We recently have presented first physical predictions of a spatially hybrid model that follows the evolution of a negative streamer discharge in full three spatial dimensions; our spatially hybrid model couples a particle model in the high field region ahead of the streamer with a fluid model in the streamer interior where electron densities are high and fields are low. Therefore the model is computationally efficient, while it also follows the dynamics of single electrons including their possible run-away. Here we describe the technical details of our computations, and present the next step in a systematic development of the simulation code. First, new sets of transport coefficients and reaction rates are obtained from particle swarm simulations in air, nitrogen, oxygen and argon. These coefficients are implemented in an extended fluid model to make the fluid approximation as consistent as possible with the particle model, and to avoid discontinuities at the interface between fluid and particle regions. Then two splitting methods are introduced and compared for the location and motion of the fluid-particle-interface in three spatial dimensions. Finally, we present first results of the 3D spatially hybrid model for a negative streamer in air. Future applications of the hybrid model lie in effects of electron density fluctuations on inception, propagation and branching of streamers, and in accurate calculations of electron energies at and of electron run-away from the streamer head. The last is relevant for hard radiation from streamer-leader systems and possibly for Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes.     

Visualization of saltating sand particle movement near a flat ground surface

Movement of natural sand particles (d=200−300 μm) in a simulated atmospheric boundary layer was visualized using a digital high-speed camera. The consecutive particle images recorded at 2000 fps (frame per second) enabled us to observe the particle transport in detail, especially near the flat sand surface. Various modes of sand saltation were identified. The transverse motion of particles, often ignored in previous studies, was also visualized. In addition, instantaneous velocity fields of saltating particles were obtained using a particle tracking velocimetry (PTV), and statistical analysis of saltating particle trajectories was performed. The qualitative and quantitative results of the present study will be useful for understanding the basic physics of transport of saltating sand particles.     

In‐Situ Measurement of Local Particle Flux Densities in a Complex Two‐Phase Flow

An optical measuring technique is presented allowing the exact in‐situ measurement of local particle flux densities in a confined channel flow by counting single particles penetrating an optically well defined measuring volume. This enables a precise flux determination up to the direct vicinity of planar walls. The measurement set‐up and its calibration as well as the whole test facility are described in detail. This measurement technique is used to study the particle transport in electrostatic precipitators. Exemplarily, results of particle flux profiles as well as precipitation, as gained from balances of parts of the precipitator channel, are presented. Furthermore, the possibility to determine particle velocity fluctuations is demonstrated.     

Fresnel particle tracing in three dimensions using diffraction phase microscopy

We have developed a novel experimental technique for tracking small particles in three dimensions with nanometer accuracy. The longitudinal positioning of a micrometer-sized particle is determined by using the Fresnel approximation to describe the transverse distribution of the wavefront that originated in the particle. The method utilizes the high-sensitivity quantitative phase imaging capability of diffraction phase microscopy recently developed in our laboratory. We demonstrate the principle of the technique with experiments on Brownian particles jittering in water both in bulk and in the vicinity of a boundary. The particles are localized in space within an error cube of 20 nm x 20 nm x 20 nm for a 33 Hz acquisition rate and 20s recording time.     

Dynamic properties of Lennard-Jones fluids and liquid metals

The dependence of the dynamic properties of liquid metals and Lennard-Jones fluids on the characteristics of the interaction potentials is analyzed. Molecular-dynamics simulations of liquids in analogous conditions but assuming that their particles interact either through a Lennard-Jones or a liquid-metal potential were carried out. The Lennard-Jones potentials were chosen so that both the effective size of the particles and the depth of the potential well were very close to those of the liquid-metal potentials. In order to investigate the extent to which the dynamic properties of liquids depend on the short-range attractive interactions as well as on the softness of the potential cores, molecular-dynamics simulations of the same systems but assuming purely repulsive interactions with the same potential cores were also performed. The study includes both single-particle dynamic properties, such as the velocity autocorrelation functions, and collective dynamic properties, such as the intermediate scattering functions, the dynamic structure factors, the longitudinal and transverse current correlations, and the transport coefficients.     

Rayleigh-like distribution of particle transverse momenta in collisions at high energies

The transverse momentum distributions of final-state particles produced in collisions at high energies are studied by using a two-component Rayleigh-like distribution. This representation is based on Liu's multisource ideal gas model which describes protons and fragments in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data of Au-Au, Cu-Cu, d-Au, and pp collisions at the relativistic heavy ion collider energies. The experimental particle momentum distributions of p-Be collisions at 6.4, 12.3, and 17.5 GeV/c, as well as Au-Au collisions at 1.5 AGeV are well described by a model based on a single Rayleigh-like distribution of particle transverse momenta.