Osmotic force-controlled microrheometry of entangled actin networks

In studying a magnetic bead's creep response to force pulses in an entangled actin network we have found a novel regime where the bead motion obeys a power law x(t) approximately t(1/2) over two decades in time. It is flanked by a short-time regime with x(t) approximately t(3/4) and a viscous with x(t)approximately t. In the intermediate regime the creep compliance depends on the actin concentration c as c(-beta) with beta approximately 1.1 +/- 0.3. We explain this behavior in terms of osmotic restoring force generated by the piling up of filaments in front of the moving bead. A model based on this concept predicts intermediate x(t) approximately t(1/2) and long-time regimes x(t) approximately t in which the compliance varies as c(-4/3), in agreement with experiment.     

Dissipative Particle Dynamics Simulations of Domain Growth and Phase Separation in Binary Immiscible Fluids

用并行耗散粒子动力学方法研究了二维和三维体系中不同淬火深度下二元不相容流体旋节线分离的相区增长过程. 在二维体系中,在浅度淬火条件下得到了动力学标度指数为1/2的融合机制和2/3的惯性流体动力学机制,在深度淬火情况下发现了有限尺寸效应. 在三维体系中,浅度淬火条件下n=1/3的扩散机制和两种不同淬火深度下n=2/3的惯性流体动力学机制. 由于耗散粒子动力学软相互作用势的本质,所以粘性效应无法被清晰地反映,在该时间区间里,不论是浅度还是深度淬火都表现出n=1/2的指数关系.     

New scaling law for the decay exponent of bimolecular reactions in unbounded transitional flows

We propose a new scaling law for global kinetics of the stoichiometric reaction A+B-->P in unsteady, transitional flows. We find in the nonlinear flow regime the decay as approximately t(-alpha) where alpha is related to a space-time scaling parameter psi as alpha proportional, variant psi(m), for the considered parameter range m=0.067. In the linear flow regime, we find that the maximum is alpha approximately 2/3 for psi approximately 1. The proposed scaling law should be useful for linking dynamical subgrid processes with reaction kinetics in a variety of transitional flow systems.     

Autocorrelation exponent of conserved spin systems in the scaling regime following a critical quench

We study the autocorrelation function of a conserved spin system following a quench at the critical temperature. Defining the correlation length L(t) approximately t(1/z), we find that for times t' and t satisfying L(t')infinity limit, we show that lambda(')(c)=d+2 and phi=z/2. We give a heuristic argument suggesting that this result is, in fact, valid for any dimension d and spin vector dimension n. We present numerical simulations for the conserved Ising model in d=1 and d=2, which are fully consistent with the present theory.     

Maximal height scaling of kinetically growing surfaces

The scaling properties of the maximal height of a growing self-affine surface with a lateral extent L are considered. In the late-time regime its value measured relative to the evolving average height scales like the roughness: h*(L) approximately L alpha. For large values its distribution obeys logP(h*(L)) approximately (-)A(h*(L)/L(alpha))(a). In the early-time regime where the roughness grows as t(beta), we find h*(L) approximately t(beta)[lnL-(beta/alpha)lnt+C](1/b), where either b = a or b is the corresponding exponent of the velocity distribution. These properties are derived from scaling and extreme-value arguments. They are corroborated by numerical simulations and supported by exact results for surfaces in 1D with the asymptotic behavior of a Brownian path.     

Defect production in nonlinear quench across a quantum critical point

We show that the defect density n, for a slow nonlinear power-law quench with a rate tau(-1) and an exponent alpha>0, which takes the system through a critical point characterized by correlation length and dynamical critical exponents nu and z, scales as n approximately tau(-alphanud/(alphaznu+1)) [n approximately (alphag((alpha-1)/alpha)/tau)(nud/(znu+1))] if the quench takes the system across the critical point at time t=0 [t=t(0) not = 0], where g is a nonuniversal constant and d is the system dimension. These scaling laws constitute the first theoretical results for defect production in nonlinear quenches across quantum critical points and reproduce their well-known counterpart for a linear quench (alpha=1) as a special case. We supplement our results with numerical studies of well-known models and suggest experiments to test our theory.     

Granular avalanches in fluids

Three regimes of granular avalanches in fluids are put in light depending on the Stokes number St which prescribes the relative importance of grain inertia and fluid viscous effects and on the grain/fluid density ratio r. In gas (r>1 and St>1, e.g., the dry case), the amplitude and time duration of avalanches do not depend on any fluid effect. In liquids (r approximately 1), for decreasing St, the amplitude decreases and the time duration increases, exploring an inertial regime and a viscous regime. These three regimes are described by the analysis of the elementary motion of one grain.     

Longitudinal relaxation of initially straight flexible and stiff polymers

The relaxation mechanism of an initially straight flexible or stiff polymer chain of length N in a viscous solvent is studied through Brownian dynamics simulations covering a broad range of time scales. After the short-time free diffusion, the chain's longitudinal reduction R2(0)-R2 approximately Nt1/2 at early intermediate times is shown to constitute a universal behavior for any chain stiffness caused by a quasisteady T approximately Nt(-1/2) relaxation of tensions associated with the deforming action of the Brownian forces. Stiff chains with a persistence length E > or = N are shown to exhibit a late intermediate-time longitudinal reduction R2(0)-R2 approximately N2E(-3/4)t1/4 associated with a T approximately N2E(-3/4)t(-3/4) relaxation of tensions affected by the deforming Brownian and the restoring bending forces.     

Observation of self-similar behavior of the 3D, nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor instability

The Rayleigh-Taylor unstable growth of laser-seeded, 3D broadband perturbations was experimentally measured in the laser-accelerated, planar plastic foils. The first experimental observation showing the self-similar behavior of the bubble size and amplitude distributions under ablative conditions is presented. In the nonlinear regime, the modulation sigma(rms) grows as alpha(sigma)gt(2), where g is the foil acceleration, t is the time, and alpha(sigma) is constant. The number of bubbles evolves as N(t) alpha(omegat sq.rt(9) + C)(-4) and the average size evolves as (t) alpha omega(2)gt(2), where C is a constant and omega = 0.83 +/- 0.1 is the measured scaled bubble-merging rate.     

Inertial mass of the Abrikosov vortex

We show that a large contribution to the inertial mass of the Abrikosov vortex comes from transversal displacements of the crystal lattice. The corresponding part of the mass per unit length of the vortex line is M(l)=(m(2)(e)c(2)/64 pi alpha(2)mu lambda(4)(L))ln((lambda(L)/xi), where m(e) is the bare electron mass, c is the speed of light, alpha=e(2)/Planck's over 2 pi c approximately 1/137 is the fine structure constant, mu is the shear modulus of the solid, lambda(L) is the London penetration length, and xi is the coherence length. In conventional superconductors, this mass can be comparable to or even greater than the vortex core mass computed by Suhl [Phys. Rev. Lett. 14, 226 (1965)]].     

Random walks on a ( 2+1)-dimensional deformable medium

A model of random walks on a deformable medium is proposed in 2+1 dimensions. The behavior of the walk is characterized by the stability parameter beta and the stiffness exponent alpha. The average square end-to-end distance l approximately equals (2nu) and the average number of visited sites approximately equals (k) are calculated. As beta increases, for each alpha there exists a critical transition point beta(c) from purely random walks ( nu = 1/2 and k approximate to 1) to compact growth ( nu = 1/3 and k = 2/3). The relationship between beta(c) and alpha can be expressed as beta(c) = e(alpha). The landscape generated by a walk is also investigated by means of the visit-number distribution N(n)(beta). There exists a scaling relationship of the form N(n)(beta)approximately n(-2)f(n/beta(z)).     

Heat conduction in a two-dimensional harmonic crystal with disorder

We study the problem of heat conduction in a mass-disordered two-dimensional harmonic crystal. Using two different stochastic heat baths, we perform simulations to determine the system size (L) dependence of the heat current (J). For white noise heat baths we find that J approximately 1/L(alpha) with alpha approximately equal to 0.59, while correlated noise heat baths give alpha approximately equal to 0.51. A special case with correlated disorder is studied analytically and gives alpha=3/2, which agrees also with results from exact numerics.     

Conformation of circular DNA in two dimensions

The conformation of circular DNA molecules of various lengths adsorbed in a 2D conformation on a mica surface is studied. The results confirm the conjecture that the critical exponent nu is topologically invariant and equal to the self-avoiding walk value (in the present case nu=3/4), and that the topology and dimensionality of the system strongly influence the crossover between the rigid regime and the self-avoiding regime at a scale L approximately 7l{p}. Additionally, the bond correlation function scales with the molecular length L as predicted. For molecular lengths L相似文献   

Budding dynamics of multicomponent membranes

The budding of multicomponent membranes is studied by computer simulations and scaling arguments. The simulation algorithm combines dynamic triangulation with Kawasaki exchange dynamics. The budding process exhibits three distinct time regimes: (i) formation and growth of intramembrane domains; (ii) formation of many buds; and (iii) coalescence of small buds into larger ones. The coalescence regime (iii) is characterized by scaling laws which describe the long-time behavior. Thus, the number of buds, N(bud), decays as N(bud) approximately 1/t(theta) for large time t with theta = 1/2 and theta = 2/3 in the absence and the presence of hydrodynamic interactions, respectively.     

Spinodal decomposition of two-dimensional fluid mixtures: A spectral analysis of droplet growth

The spinodal decomposition of two-dimensional fluid mixture is studied by numerical simulation. For the high viscous fluid mixture it has not been evident whether the interfacial tension is relevant to the droplet growth or not. A length scale R defined by the structure function extracting the effect of the long wavelength mode justifies a rapid growth close to R approximately t, but the length scale energetically defined reveals a much slower growth R approximately t(0.5), where t is time. This discrepancy represents the violation of the dynamical scaling with single length scale. The slow gowth of the length scale is attributed to the accumulation of the number of isolated droplets in phase separating state, whereas the rapid growth represents the relevance of the surface tension as the driving force in two dimensions. For a low viscous fluid mixture the dynamical scaling is a good assumption with the growth law R approximately t(2/3) up to a very large Reynolds number Re approximately 1500, which is the limit in the present simulation.     

Quasi-Gaussian statistics of hydrodynamic turbulence in 4 / 3 +epsilon dimensions

The statistics of two-dimensional turbulence exhibit a riddle: the scaling exponents in the regime of inverse energy cascade agree with the K41 theory of turbulence far from equilibrium, but the probability distribution functions are close to Gaussian-like in equilibrium. The skewness S identical with S3(R)/S(3/2)(2)(R) was measured as S (exp) approximately 0.03. This contradiction is lifted by understanding that two-dimensional turbulence is not far from a situation with equipartition of enstrophy, which exists as true thermodynamic equilibrium with K41 exponents in space dimension of d= 4 / 3. We evaluate the skewness S( d) for 4 / 3 < or =d< or =2, showing that S(d)=0 at d= 4 / 3, and that it remains as small as S (exp) in two dimensions.     

Current relaxation in nonlinear random media

We study the current relaxation of a wave packet in a nonlinear random sample coupled to the continuum and show that the survival probability decays as P(t) approximately 1/t(alpha). For intermediate times tt(*) and chi>chi(cr) we find a universal decay with alpha=2/3 which is a signature of the nonlinearity-induced delocalization. Experimental evidence should be observable in coupled nonlinear optical waveguides.     

Dynamic heterogeneities in a simple liquid over different time scales

The heterogeneous features of the supercooled state over different time regimes are explored in a self-consistent mode-coupling mode. The exponent a for the mean-square displacement approximately t(a), of a tagged particle is computed. The non-Gaussian parameter alpha(2)(t) shows a peak in the short time regime in addition to a second peak over longer times. The position of the short-time peak in alpha(2)(t) hardly shifts, while that of the other grows with density.     

Upper critical dimension, dynamic exponent, and scaling functions in the mode-coupling theory for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation

We study the mode-coupling approximation for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation in the strong-coupling regime. By constructing an ansatz consistent with the asymptotic forms of the correlation and response functions we determine the upper critical dimension d(c) = 4 and the expansion z = 2-(d-4)/4+O((4-d)2) around dc. We find the exact z = 3/2 value in d = 1, and estimate the values z approximately 1.62, z approximately 1.78 in d = 2, 3. The result dc = 4 and the expansion around dc are very robust and can be derived just from a mild assumption on the relative scale on which the response and correlation functions vary as z approaches 2.     

Phenomenology of Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence

I analyze the advanced mixing regime of the Rayleigh-Taylor incompressible turbulence in the small Atwood number Boussinesq approximation. The prime focus of my phenomenological approach is to resolve the temporal behavior and the small-scale spatial correlations of velocity and temperature fields inside the mixing zone, which grows as proportional, variant t(2). I show that the "5/3"-Kolmogorov scenario for velocity and temperature spectra is realized in three spatial dimensions with the viscous and dissipative scales decreasing in time, proportional, variant t(-1/4). The Bolgiano-Obukhov scenario is shown to be valid in two dimensions with the viscous and dissipative scales growing, proportional, variant t(1/8).