Experimental Investigation of Influence of Interfacial Tension on Convection of Two-Layer Immiscible Liquid

Bdnard-Marangoni convections of two-layer fluids heated from the bottom are investigated experimentally with a particle imagine velocimetry. The flows are visualized from the side, and various velocity fields near the onset of convection, such as three-layer vortex convective patterns, are observed when the depth ratio varies in a wide range. A new classification of the convective patterns is proposed with more detail than in previous studies. The analysis of the results indicates that the interface tension greatly influences the motion intensities of the bottom and top layers. The dimensionless wave number increases with the Bond number when the motion in the top layer is not more intense than that in the bottom layer, which agrees with the theoretical prediction.     

Transition to Chaos in the Floating Half Zone Convection

The transition process from steady convection to chaos is experimentally studied in thermocapillary convections of floating half zone. The onset of temperature oscillations in the liquid bridge of floating half zone and further transitions of the temporal convective behaviour are detected by measuring the temperature in the liquid bridge. The fast Fourier transform reveals the frequency and amplitude characteristics of the flow transition. The experimental results indicate the existence of a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations that culminate in chaos. The measured Feigenbaum numbers are δ2 =4.69 and δ4 = 4.6, which are comparable with the theoretical asymptotic value δ=4.669.     

Thermocapillary Convection in an Inhomogeneous Porous Layer

A new model consisting of an inhomogeneous porous medium saturated by incompressible fluid is investigated. We focus on the effects of inhomogeneity for the streamline patterns and instabilities of the system. Influences of the ＇mean porosity＇ and gradient of distributions of porosity are also emphasized. The results cannot be obtained by studying the media with constant porosity as carried out by other researchers, and have not been discussed before.     

Direct Numerical Simulation of the Rayleigh-Taylor Instability with the Spectral Element Method

A novel method is proposed to simulate Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities using a specially-developed unsteady three-dimensional high-order spectral element method code. The numerical model used consists of Navier-Stokes equations and a transport-diffusive equation. The code is first validated with the results of linear stability perturbation theory. Then several characteristics of the Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities are studied using this three-dimensional unsteady code, including instantaneous turbulent structures and statistical turbulent mixing heights under different initial wave numbers. These results indicate that turbulent structures of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities are strongly dependent on the initial conditions. The results also suggest that a high-order numerical method should provide the capability of simulating small scale fluctuations of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities of turbulent flows.     

Experimental Investigation of Thermocapillary Convection in a Liquid Layer with Evaporating Interface

Thermocapillary convection coupling with the evaporation effect of evaporating liquids is studied experimentally. This study focused on an evaporation liquid layer in a rectangular cavity subjected to a horizontal temperature gradient when the top evaporating surface is open to air, while most previous works only studied pure thermocapillary convection without evaporation. Two liquids with different evaporating rates are used to study the coupling of evaporation and thermocapillary convection, and the interfacial temperature profiles for different temperature gradients are measured. The experimental results indicate evidently the influence of evaporation effect on the thermocapillary convection and interfacial temperature profiles. The steady multicellular flow and the oscillatory multicellular flow in the evaporation liquid layer are observed by using the particle-image-velocimetry method.     

Onset of Unsteady Horizontal Convection in Rectangular Tank at Pr=1

The horizontal convection within a rectangular tank is numerically simulated. The flow is found to be unsteady at high Rayleigh numbers. There is a Hopf bifurcation of Ra from steady solutions to periodic solutions, and the critical Rayleigh number Rac is obtained to be Rac = 5.5377×10^8 for the middle plume forcing at Pr = 1, which is much larger than the value previously obtained. In addition, the unstable perturbations are always generated from the central jet, which implies that the onset of instability is due to velocity shear （shear instability） other than thermally dynamics （thermal instability）. Finally, Paparella and Young＇s first hypotheses [J. Fluid Mech. 466 （2002） 205] about the destabilization of the flow is numerically proven, i.e. the middle plume forcing can lead to a destabilization of the flow.     

Reversibility of Temperature-Induced Liquid Transition in Pb26Sn42Bi32 Melt: Experimental Evidence with Electrical Property

Exploring nature of liquid structures and properties is becoming more interesting in various fundamental and applied fields. With different resorts including the resistivity method, temperature-induced liquid-liquid structure transitions （TI-LLST） have been suggested and verified to occur in some liquid alloys, while the reversibility of TI- LLST has rarely been examined as yet. Unlike some other investigated liquid alloys, here we show that electrical resistivity of Pb26Sn42Bi32 melt exhibit an anomalous change in the first heating run and a reversible change in the following cooling and heating cycles. Taking account of the structural sensitivity of electrical resistivity, the abnormal patterns suggest two sorts of TI-LLST that are irreversible and reversible in the liquid ternary alloy, respectively. This interesting phenomenon together with other growing evidence imply that liquid structures and their change characteristics are multiform and complex.     

Relativistic Mean Field Study of the Z=117 Isotopic Chain

The properties of the Z = 117 isotopic chain are studied within the framework of the axially deformed relativistic mean field theory （RMFT） in the blocked BCS approximation. The ground-state properties, such as hinging energies, deformations as well as the possible α decay energies and lifetimes are calculated with the parameter set of NL-Z2 and compared with results from the finite range droplet model. The analysis by RMFT shows that the isotopes in the range of mass number A =291 ~ 300 exhibit higher stability, which suggests that they may be promising nuclei to be hopefully synthesized in the lab among the nuclei Z = 117.     

Experimental Investigation on a Highly Sensitive Atomic Magnetometer

A highly sensitive all-optical atomic magnetometer based on the magnetooptical effect which uses the advanced technique of single laser beam detection is reported and demonstrated experimentally. A sensitivity of 0.5pT/Hz^1/2 is obtained by analyzing the magnetic noise spectrum, which exceeds that of most traditional magnetometers. This kind of atomic magnetometer is very compact, has a low power consumption, and has a high theoretical sensitivity limit, which make it suitable for many applications.     

Three-Dimensional Waves in Tilt Thermal Boundary Layers

We numerically and theoretically study the stabilities of tilt thermal boundary layers immersed in stratified air. An interesting phenomenon is revealed： the stationary longitudinal-roll mode becomes unstable to some oscillating state even when the Grashof number is smaller than its corresponding critical value. By stability analysis, this phenomenon is explained in terms of a new three-dimensional wave mode. The effect of the tilt angle on the stability of the boundary flows is investigated. Since the new three-dimensional wave is found to be the most unstable mode when the title angle is between 30° and 64°, it is expected to play an important role in the transition to turbulence.     

Experimental Research of Spontaneous Evolution from Ultracold Rydberg Atoms to Plasma

The spontaneous evolution from ultracold Rydberg atoms to plasma is investigated in a caesium MOT by using the method of field ionization. The plasma transferred from atoms in different Rydberg states （n = 22-32） are obtained experimentally. Dependence of the threshold time of evolving to plasma and the threshold number of initial Rydberg atoms on the principal quantum number of initial Rydberg states is studied. The experimental results are in agreement with hot-cold Rydberg-Rydberg atom collision ionization theory.     

First-Principles Study of Li Doping in a Double-Wall Carbon Nanotube

By performing first-principles calculations, we study Li doping in a double-wall carbon nanotube where a （5,0） tube is confined inside a （14,0） tube. There are three possible sites for Li doping and two of them are energetically favorable. The change of energy band structure is closely related to the doping sites and the charge transfer is investigated. Bader charge analysis indicates that Li prefers to donate its electron to the inner （5,0） tube. Moreover, the Li capacity of the system can reach LIC4.75 which makes it a promising candidate for Li-ion battery materials.     

Fabrication of a Mono-Domain Alignment Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Device Using a Polar Self-Assembled Monolayer

A mono-domain ferroelectric liquid crystal device (FLCD) is fabricated using a novel method. The cell used in this method is an asymmetric cell, typically the combination of a polar self-assembled monolayer (SAM) for one substrate and a rubbed polyimide for the other substrate. A defect-free alignment of ferroelectric liquid crystal is fabricated without applying a dc voltage to remove degeneracy in the layer structure. The contact angles of self-assembled monolayer and PI-2942 are measured and the polarity of SAM is higher than the PI alignment. It is found that the polarity of self-assembled monolayer is a key factor in the formation of mono-domain alignment of FLC.     

Adsorption and Reaction of CO on （100） Surface of SrTiO3 by Density Function Theory Calculation

Adsorption and reaction of CO on two possible terminations of SrTiO3 （100） surface are investigated by the first-principles calculation of plane wave ultrasoft pseudopotentiai based on the density function theory. The adsorption energy, Mulliken population analysis, density of states （DOS） and electronic density difference of CO on SrTiO3 （100） surface, which have never been investigated before as far as we know are performed. The calculated results reveal that the Ti-CO orientation is the most stable configuration and the adsorption energy （0.449eV） is quite small. CO molecules adsorb weakly on the SrTiO3 （100） surface, there is predominantly electrostatic attraction between CO and the surface rather than a chemical bonding mechanism.     

Comment on ＂Mechanism for Alternating Electric Fields Induced-Effects on Cytosolic Calcium＂

The article entitled： ＂Mechanism for Alternating Electric Fields Induced-Effects on Cytosolic Calcium＂ by Luo Ming-Yan et al. concerns the mechanism for action of electromagnetic fields on cells, reported by us （see Panagopoulos et a/., and Panagopoulos and Margaritis）. This mechanism proposed by us is well known and it is considered to be most valid from all the proposed theories concerning bioeffects of weak electromagnetic fields （see Creasey and Goldberg and Liboff）.     

Reply to Comment on ＂Mechanism for Alternating Electric Fields Induced-Effects on Cytosolic Calcium＂

Our article （Chin. Phys. Lett. 26 （2009） 017102） was attempting to calculate the possible existence of the window effects on the physiological signal changes by the external electric field. It is attempted mainly to combine the vibrated-ion model of Panagopoulos et al.（Refs. in our article） and the cellular model of Kuster et al. （Ref. in our article） and Tortes et al. （Ref. in our article）. We did not attempt to take the initiative of theoretical bases of both the groups.     

Wavelet Cross-Spectrum Analysis of Multi-Scale Disturbance Instability and Transition on Sharp Cone Hypersonic Boundary Layer

Experimental measurement of hypersonic boundary layer stability and transition on a sharp cone with a half angle of 5° is carried out at free-coming stream Mach number 6 in a hypersonic wind tunnel. Mean andfluctuation surface-thermal-flux characteristics of the hypersonic boundary layer flow are measured by Pt-thin-film thermocouple temperature sensors installed at 28 stations on the cone surface along longitudinal direction. At hypersonic speeds, the dominant flow instabilities demonstrate that the growth rate of the second mode tends to exceed that of the low-frequency mode. Wavelet-based cross-spectrum technique is introduced to obtain the multi-scale cross-spectral characteristics of the fluctuating signals in thefrequency range of the second mode. Nonlinear interactions both of the second mode disturbance and the first mode disturbance are demonstrated to be dominant instabilities in the initial stage of laminar-turbulence transition for hypersonic shear flow.     

Numerical analysis of the Eckhaus instability in travelling-wave convection in binary mixtures

The Eckhaus stability boundaries of travelling periodic roll patterns arising in binary fluid convection is analysed using high-resolution numerical methods. We present results corresponding to three different values of the separation ratio used in experiments. Our results show that the subcritical branches of travelling waves bifurcating at the onset of convection suffer sideband instabilities that are restabilised further away in the branch. If this restabilisation is produced after the turning point of the travelling-wave branch, these waves do not become stable in a saddle node bifurcation as would have been the case in a smaller domain. In the regions of instability of the uniform travelling waves we expect to find either transitions between states of different wave number or modulated travelling waves arising in these bifurcations.     

Observational Constraints on the Unified Dark-Energy--Dark-Matter Model

We investigate the constraints on a generalized Chaplygin gas （GCG） model using the gold sample type-Ia supernovae （She Ia） data, the new Supernova Legacy Survey （SNLS） Sne Ia data and the size of baryonic acoustic oscillation peak found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey （SDSS）. In a spatially flat universe case we obtain, at a 95.4% confidence level, A8 = 0.76^＋0.07 -0.07 and α= 0.028^＋0.322 -0.2382 Our results are consistent with the ACDM model （α= 0）, but rule out the standard Chaplygin gas model （α= 1）.