Spatio-temporal patterns in the thermoconvection of a planar nematic layer: I. Weakly nonlinear models

We study theoretically the formation of convection patterns in a laterally extended planar nematic layer heated from below, in the linear and weakly nonlinear regimes. By reformulating the viscous coupling terms of the basic nematohydrodynamic equations, a simple interpretation of the flow effects on the director dynamics can be proposed. A detailed linear analysis of the problem is presented. A systematic method to investigate nonlinear mechanisms is developed, and exemplified by the study of the nonlinear saturation in rolls. The extension of the roll amplitude equation with the envelope formalism is used to characterize the dynamics of the roll modulations near threshold. Coupled envelope equations are shown to describe the structure of the point defects in zig-zags observed experimentally. Finally the bifurcation to the bimodal varicose is studied. The secondary wavevector in the bimodal appears to be selected by a rotation of the director in the horizontal plane. Quantitative predictions concerning the amplitude of this rotation are given. Received: 1st December 1997 / Revised: 25 May 1998 / Accepted: 2 June 1998     

Improved modeling of flows down inclined planes

New models of film flows down inclined planes have been derived by combining a gradient expansion at first or second order to weighted residual techniques with polynomials as test functions. The two-dimensional formulation has been extended to account for three-dimensional flows as well. The full second-order two-dimensional model can be expressed as a set of four coupled evolution equations for four slowly varying fields, the thickness h, the flow rate q and two other quantities measuring the departure from the flat-film semi-parabolic velocity profile. A simplified model has been obtained in terms of h and q only. Including viscous dispersion effects properly, it closely sticks to the asymptotic expansion in the appropriate limit. Our new models improve over previous ones in that they remain valid deep into the strongly nonlinear regime, as shown by the comparison of our results relative to travelling-wave and solitary-wave solutions with those of both direct numerical simulations and experiments. Received 14 September 1999 and Received in final form 6 January 2000     

Statistical analysis of the transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow

We argue on general grounds that the transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow is best studied experimentally at a statistical level. We present such a statistical analysis of experimental data guided by a parallel investigation of a simple coupled map lattice model for spatiotemporal intermittency. We confirm that this generic type of spatiotemporal chaos is relevant in the context of plane Couette flow, where the linear stability of the laminar regime at all Reynolds numbers insures the necessary local subcriticality. Using large ensembles of similar experiments, we show the existence of a well-defined threshold Reynolds number above which a unique, turbulent, intermittent attractor coexists with the laminar flow. Furthermore, our data reveals that this transition to spatiotemporal intermittency is discontinuous, i.e. akin to a first-order phase transition. Received: 10 April 1998 / Revised: 22 June 1998 / Accepted: 24 June 1998     

Nonparabolic multivalley balance-equation approach to impact ionization: Application to wurtzite GaN

Extended nonparabolic multivalley balance equations including impact ionization (II) process are presented and are applied to study electron transport and impact ionization in wurtzite-phase GaN with a , L-M, and conduction band structure at high electric field up to 1000kV/cm. Hot-electron transport properties and impact ionization coefficient are calculated taking account of the scatterings from ionized impurity, polar optical, deformation potential, and intervalley interactions. It is shown that, for wurtzite GaN when the electric field approximately equals 530kV/cm, the II process begins to contribute to electron transport and results in an increase of the electron velocity and a decrease of the electron temperature, in comparison with the case without the II process. Similar calculations for GaAs are also carried out and quantitative agreement is obtained between the calculated II coefficients by this present approach and the experimental data. Relative to GaAs, GaN has a higher threshold electric field for II and a smaller II coefficient. Received: 27 April 1998 / Revised: 17 July 1998 / Accepted: 13 August 1998     

Nonlinear-driven instability of dynamical plasma in solids: Emergence of spatially self-organized order and chaotic-like behavior

We analyze in detail the nonlinear kinetics of a carrier system in a photoinjected plasma in semiconductors under the action of constant illumination with ultraviolet light. We show that the spatially homogeneous steady-state becomes unstable, and a charge density wave emerges after a critical intensity of the incident radiation is achieved. It is shown that this instability can only follow in doped p-type materials. In bulk systems the critical intensity was found to be too high making the phenomenon not observable under realistic experimental conditions. However, a more efficient electron excitation can be obtained in low dimensional p-type systems, like some molecular and biological polymers, where the interaction may follow by chemical interaction with the medium. We show that for intensities beyond the critical threshold an increasing number of modes provide further contributions (subharmonics) to the space inhomogeneity. It is conjectured that this process could lead the system to display chaotic-like behavior. Received 8 July 1998 and Received in final form 6 May 1999     

Electron angular distributions in double photoionization: Use of effective Sommerfeld parameters

We present calculations of the fivefold differential cross-section (FDCS) for double photoionization of helium at excess energies of 6 and 20 eV above threshold. Our results are obtained using for the final double-continuum state a product of three Coulomb wave functions, with the Sommerfeld parameters modified to describe the strength of interaction of any two particles affected by the third particle. Our calculations are compared with recent absolute measurements by D?rner et al. (Phys. Rev. A 57, 1074 (1998)), both in coplanar and non-coplanar geometries. Very good agreement is obtained for the shape of the angular distributions, and differences in the absolute magnitude exist in comparison with the standard choice of Sommerfeld parameters. Received: 17 July 1998 / Received in final form and Accepted: 23 October 1998     

Study of the 4He(e,e′d)pn Reaction

 The cross section for the ⁴He(e,e′d)pn reaction has been measured in parallel and in (q, ω)-constant kinematics for values of the three-momentum transfer of 406, 495 and 595 MeV/c, and for a range in missing momentum. Just above threshold this reaction can be characterized as a spin/isospin flip transition of the involved pn pair. By using two electron energies (576 and 370 MeV) the longitudinal and transverse structure functions could be separated. The cross sections turn out to be purely transverse, as expected for a spin/isospin flip transition. The data are well described by new covariant and current-conserving calculations that include the major final-state interaction effects. Received August 20, 1998; modified October 12, 1998; accepted for publication January 30, 1999     

Rheological behaviour and shear thickening exhibited by aqueous CTAB micellar solutions

In this experimental work we carefully investigate the rheological behaviour and in particular the shear thickening exhibited by aqueous micellar solutions of CTAB with NaSal as added counterion. We are particularly interested in the evolution of the critical shear rate (at which shear thickening occurs) versus C _D , the surfactant concentration. We show that , at fixed salt concentration C _S , increases with C _D following a power law evolution with a positive exponent of + 5.8. On the other hand we show that if the ratio C _D / C _S is fixed, decreases with C _D with a negative exponent of -2.0. Nevertheless investigations of the zero shear viscosity indicate that in all situations (implying variation of the surfactant concentration C _D , or the salt concentration C _S or the temperature) is a decreasing function of the length of the micelles. All these evolutions are compatible with a gelation mechanism which could possibly be associated with entanglement effects of large interacting flowing structures. Received: 3 March 1998 / Revised: 16 June 1998 / Accepted: 3 July 1998     

Competing bulk and surface fields in d=2 Ising films near bulk criticality: effects of fluctuations

The two-dimensional Ising films with bulk H and surface H₁ fields of opposite sign are studied above and close to bulk criticality by the density matrix renormalization group method. This technique, applied recently to d=2 Ising films, allows for very accurate results for the adsorption as a function of the reduced deviation from the critical temperature .For strong H₁ three distinct classes of shapes of ,determined by the value of the parameter ,where L is the width of the film, are found in agreement with earlier predictions [A. Macioek, A. Ciach, R. Evans, J. Chem. Phys. 108, 9765 (1998)]. For strong and for weak bulk fields is a monotonic function, increasing for strong H and decreasing for weak H, in agreement with scaling analysis and earlier mean-field results. For H between these extreme cases assumes a maximum for and for a depletion occurs, as in recent experiments for critical adsorption in porous materials. For a limited range of H a qualitatively new behavior of is found. In addition to a maximum, a minimum of for appears, which in the mean-field analysis was absent. Received: 11 February 1998 / Received in final form: 16 February 1998 / Accepted: 17 March 1998     

Interactive method for computation of viscous flow with recirculation

An interactive method is proposed for the solution of two-dimensional, laminar flow fields with identifiable regions of recirculation, such as the shear layer driven cavity flow. The method treats the flow field as composed of two regions, with an appropriate mathematical model adopted for each region. The shear layer is computed by the compressible boundary layer equations, and the slowly recirculating flow by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The flow field is solved iteratively by matching the local solutions in the two regions. For this purpose a new matching method utilizing an overlap between the two computational regions is developed, and shown to be most satisfactory. Matching of u, v, as well as u/y is amply accomplished using the present approach, and the stagnation points corresponding to separation and reattachment of the dividing streamline are computed as part of the interactive solution. The interactive method is applied to the test problem of shear layer driven cavity. The computational results are used to show the validity and applicability of the present approach.     

Reaction kinetics in polymer melts

We study the reaction kinetics of end-functionalized polymer chains dispersed in an unreactive polymer melt. Starting from an infinite hierarchy of coupled equations for many-chain correlation functions, a closed equation is derived for the 2nd order rate constant k after postulating simple physical bounds. Our results generalize previous 2-chain treatments (valid in dilute reactants limit) by Doi [#!doi:inter2!#], de Gennes [#!gennes:polreactionsiandii!#], and Friedman and O'Shaughnessy [#!ben:interdil_all_aip!#], to arbitrary initial reactive group density n₀ and local chemical reactivity Q. Simple mean field (MF) kinetics apply at short times, .For high Q, a transition occurs to diffusion-controlled (DC) kinetics with (where x_t is rms monomer displacement in time t) leading to a density decay . If n₀ exceeds the chain overlap threshold, this behavior is followed by a regime where during which k has the same power law dependence in time, , but possibly different numerical coefficient. For unentangled melts this gives while for entangled cases one or more of the successive regimes ,t ^-3/8 and t ^-3/4 may be realized depending on the magnitudes of Q and n₀. Kinetics at times longer than the longest polymer relaxation time are always MF. If a DC regime has developed before then the long time rate constant is where R is the coil radius. We propose measuring the above kinetics in a model experiment where radical end groups are generated by photolysis. Received: 2 June 1998 / Revised: 9 July 1998 / Accepted: 10 July 1998     

Flow equations and extended Bogoliubov transformation for the Heisenberg antiferromagnet near the classical limit

The Heisenberg spin-S quantum antiferromagnet is studied near the large-spin limit, applying a new continuous unitary transformation which extends the usual Bogoliubov transformation to higher order in the 1/S-expansion of the Hamiltonian. This allows to diagonalize the bosonic Hamiltonian resulting from the Holstein-Primakoff representation beyond the conventional spin-wave approximation. The zero-temperature flow equations derived from the extension of the Bogoliubov transformation to order for the ground-state energy, the spin-wave velocity, and the staggered magnetization are solved exactly and yield results which are in agreement with those obtained by a perturbative treatment of the magnon interactions. Received: 19 March 1998 / Revised: 2 June 1998 / Accepted: 8 June 1998     

Photon statistics of a bad-cavity laser near threshold

A simple model of a bad-cavity laser is presented based on Haken's master equation for N pumped two-level atoms in a cavity. Via adiabatic elimination of fast variables the whole photon statistics is solved analytically near threshold. It is shown that the second order coherence function g ⁽²⁾ (0) has a very different behavior near threshold for a bad-cavity laser compared to a good-cavity laser. The power spectrum illustrates nicely the different time scales involved in the dynamics. Received: 13 November 1998 / Revised: 19 May 1998 / Accepted: 6 July 1998     

Semiclassical approach to the three-body muon-transfer collisions

Muon-transfer rates in collisions of hydrogen-like atoms or with light nuclei t, ³He, ⁴He, ⁶Li or ⁷Li, are calculated in a semiclassical approximation to the Faddeev-Hahn equations. The two nuclei involved are treated classically, while the motion of the muon in their Coulomb field is considered from the quantum mechanical point of view. The experimentally observed strong dependence on the charge of the nuclei is reproduced. Received: 1st November 1997 / Revised: 26 March 1998 / Accepted: 18 August 1998     

Structure and rheology of concentrated wormlike micelles [4]at the shear-induced isotropic-to-nematic transition

We have investigated the simple shear flow behavior of wormlike micelles using small-angle neutron scattering and mechanical measurements. Ternary surfactant solutions made of cetylpyridinium chloride, hexanol and brine (0.2 M NaCl) and hereafter abbreviated as CPCl-Hex were studied in the concentrated regime, . In a preliminary report (Berret et al. [#!ref16!#]), the discontinuity of slope observed in the shear stress versus shear rate curve was interpreted in terms of first-order phase transition between an isotropic state and a shear-induced nematic state ( transition). At the transition rate, , the solution exhibits a macroscopic phase separation into viscous and fluid layers (inhomogeneous shear flow). Above a second characteristic shear rate, the flow becomes homogeneous again, the sheared solution being nematic only. The neutron patterns obtained in the two-state inhomogeneous region have been re-examined. Based on a consistent analysis of both orientational and translational degrees of freedom related to the wormlike micelles, we emphasize new features for the transition. In the present paper, the shear rate variations of the relative proportions of each phase in the two-state region, as well as the viscosity ratio between isotropic and nematic phases are derived. We demonstrate in addition that slightly above the transition rate, the shear induced nematic phase is already strongly oriented, with an order parameter P ₂ = 0.65. The orientational state is that of a nematic flow-oriented monodomain. Finally, from the locations of the neutron scattering maxima for each isotropic and nematic contributions, we evaluate the concentrations for each phase and and derived a dynamical phase diagram of CPCl-Hex, in terms of the stress versus and . According to the classification by Schmitt et al. [#!ref22!#], the transition observed in CPCl-Hex micellar solutions could result from a positive flow-concentration coupling, in agreement with the observed monotonically increasing shear stress in the two-phase region. Received: 16 February 1998 / Revised: 18 February 1998 / Accepted: 24 May 1998     

Ionization of Rydberg atoms in THz-laser fields at the transition from low to high scaled frequencies

We have studied the ionization of Rydberg-excited xenon atoms in THz-laser fields and by quantum dynamical calculations. The experimental threshold laser field strength for 10% ionization probability follows an n^*-1.68 (1.04 THz) dependence (n^* effective principal quantum number) with additional weak resonance structures and shows that ionization does not occur by a Landau-Zener mechanism. At scaled frequencies of to 5.6 the simulated threshold fields for ionization in oscillatory fields show a dependence on the principal quantum number n of n^-4.1 to n^-1.35. Received: 17 February 1998 / Revised: 20 April 1998 / Accepted: 21 April 1998     

Dynamics and Stability of a Weak Detonation Wave

One dimensional weak detonation waves of a basic reactive shock wave model are proved to be nonlinearly stable, i.e. initially perturbed waves tend asymptotically to translated weak detonation waves. This model system was derived as the low Mach number limit of the one component reactive Navier-Stokes equations by Majda and Roytburd [SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comput. 43, 1086–1118 (1983)], and its weak detonation waves have been numerically observed as stable. The analysis shows in particular the key role of the new nonlinear dynamics of the position of the shock wave, The shock translation solves a nonlinear integral equation, obtained by Green's function techniques, and its solution is estimated by observing that the kernel can be split into a dominating convolution operator and a remainder. The inverse operator of the convolution and detailed properties of the traveling wave reduce, by monotonicity, the remainder to a small L ₁ perturbation. Received: 17 August 1998 / Accepted: 13 November 1998     

Effect of topological thresholds on thermal behaviour of germanium telluride glasses containing metallic additive

Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) studies on Ag_xGe₁₅Te_85-x glasses have been undertaken over a wide range of compositions, to understand the effect of topological thresholds on thermal properties. It is found that the compositional dependence of glass transition temperature (T _g ), crystallization temperature (T _c ), activation energy for crystallization and thermal stability show anomalies at the rigidity percolation threshold. Unusual variations also observed in different thermal properties at the composition x = 20, clearly establishes the occurrence of chemical threshold in these glasses. Received: 27 January 1998 / Revised: 12 June 1998 / Accepted: 3 July 1998     

Boundary Layers for the Navier–Stokes Equations¶of Compressible Fluids

The global unique solvability is proved for the Navier–Stokes equations of compressible fluids for the one-dimensional spiral flows between two circular cylinders. The zero shear viscosity limit μ→ 0 is justified. The value O(μ^α), 0 < α < 1/2, is established for the boundary layer thickness. Received: 11 December 1998 / Accepted: 9 June 1999