Effect of curvature on a statistical model of quark-gluon-plasma fireball in the hadronic medium

The free energy of a quark-gluon plasma fireball in the hadronic medium is calculated in the Ramanathan et al statistical model after incorporating the effect of curvature. The result with the inclusion of curvature is found to produce significant improvements in all the parameters we calculated with respect to the earlier results. The surface tension with this curvature effect is found to be 0.17T _c³, which is two times the earlier value of surface tension which is 0.078T _c³, and this new result is nearly close to the lattice value 0.24T _c³. As far as transition is concerned, a thermodynamic variable like entropy shows weakly first-order phase transition and it shows continuity in the behaviour of specific heat.     

Inherent hydrostatic tensile strength of tungsten nanocrystals

Abstract

Experimental value of strength of nano-sized crystal under uniform triaxial (hydrostatic) tension was obtained for the first time. Strength was measured by in situ high-field mechanical testing of tungsten defect-free nano-sized specimen carried out inside a field-ion microscope. At temperature 77 K, this strength is 28 ± 3 GPa. Based on the MD simulation findings, it is ascertained that under these conditions the instability of an entire nano-sized specimen (global instability) is initiated by the Bain transition within a local region of the specimen. The model of ‘fluctuation-induced Bain transition’ is offered. Within the framework of the model proposed, it is exhibited that possibility of realisation of such local Bain transition under global hydrostatic tension is due to the fluctuation of local tensile stresses. In general, it is shown that fluctuation-induced Bain transition governs the level of the strength of nano-sized bcc crystals under hydrostatic tension.     

MHD oscillatory flow on free convection–radiation through a porous medium with constant suction velocity

Unsteady two-dimensional hydromagnetic free convection and thermal radiation flow of an electrically conducting viscous-incompressible fluid, through a highly porous medium bounded by a vertical plane surface of constant temperature are presented. The Rosseland diffusion approximation is used to describe the radiative heat flux in the energy equation. Expressions for the velocity and temperature are obtained. The free-stream velocity of the fluid vibrates about a mean constant value and the surface absorbs the fluid with constant velocity. Effects of varying R (radiative parameter), G (Grashof number), k′ (permeability of the porous medium) and M (magnetic parameter upon the velocity field and the effect of varying R and Pr (Prandtl number) on the temperature are discussed.     

Quasi-2D and prewetting transitions of square-well fluids on a square-well substrate

Molecular simulation methodologies are employed to study the first-order transition of variable square-well (SW) fluids on a wide range of weak attractive surfaces. Surface phase diagram of SW fluids of attractive well diameter λ _ff = 1.5, 1.75, 2.0 on a smooth, structureless surface modelled by a SW potential is reported via grand-canonical transition-matrix Monte Carlo (GC-TMMC) and histogram reweighting techniques. Fluids with λ _ff = 1.5 and 1.75 show quasi-2D vapour–liquid phase transition; on the other hand, prewetting transition is visible for a SW fluid with larger well-extent λ _ff = 2.0. The prewetting line, its length, and closeness to the bulk saturation curve are found to depend strongly on the nature of the fluid–fluid and fluid–wall interaction potentials. Boundary tension of surface coexistence films is calculated by two methods. First, the finite size scaling approach of Binder is used to evaluate the boundary tension via GC-TMMC. Second, the results of the boundary tension are verified by virtue of its relation to the pressure tensor components, which are calculated using a NVT-Monte Carlo approach. The results from the two methods are in good agreement. Boundary tension is found to increase with the increase in the wall–fluid interaction range for the quasi-2D system; conversely, boundary tension for thin–thick film, at prewetting transition, decreases with the increase in the wall–fluid interaction range.     

Surface tension and Curie temperature in ferroelectric nanowires and nanodots

The effect of surface tension associated internal pressure on the Curie phase transition in ferroelectric nanowires and nanodots has been investigated using a modified Landau–Ginzburg–Devonshire phenomenological approach. Based on experimental data on the size- dependent phase transition in freely suspended single-crystalline ferroelectric nanocrystals, bulk surface tension coefficients for BaTiO₃ and PbTiO₃ have been determined to be of the order of 1–2 N/m. The present theoretical study reproduces the size dependence of the transition temperature experimentally acquired in individual BaTiO₃ single-crystalline nanowires. In the case of PbTiO₃ single-crystalline nanodots, however, in order to fit the theoretically calculated size-dependent ferroelectric transition with the experimental data, an effective surface tension coefficient has been introduced, which is size dependent and can be much higher than the bulk value. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Solid-liquid phase transition in small water clusters: a molecular dynamics simulation study

Water clusters, (H₂O) _n , of varying sizes (n = 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, and 40) have been studied at different temperatures from 0 to 200 K using molecular dynamics simulations. Transitions between solid and liquid phases were investigated to estimate the melting temperature of the clusters. Although the melting temperatures showed non-monotonic behaviour as a function of cluster size, their general tendency follows the classical relationship T _m ∝ n ^?1/3 to the cluster size n. Moreover, it was observed that the liquid-solid surface tension decreased with the cluster size in a similar way to the liquid-vapour surface tension in bulk water. Upon cooling, ice-like crystals were formed from the smaller clusters with n up to 20, while the larger clusters were transformed to glassy structures. The decrease in the glass transition temperature with the cluster size was observed to be much less than the corresponding melting temperature. The mutual order of the melting and glass-transition temperatures were found to be reversed compared with that observed for bulk water.     

Model calculation of the surface tension of liquid Ga-Bi alloy

A convenient model, based on some assumptions, for calculating the composition and temperature dependence of the surface tension of binary liquid alloys is reported. The theoretical calculations of the surface tension of gallium-rich-bismuth alloys are presented. The calculated results are compared with the reported experimental data. A relatively good agreement with experimental behavior of the composition dependence of the surface tension was found, but a disagreement was observed with experimental temperature behavior of the surface tension of these alloys. The calculations were conducted in the temperature range from almost 320 K to about 800 K. The surface tension was calculated from eutectic composition (x_Bi = 0.0022) to x_Bi = 0.1, and worked out by linear equations. The model calculation and analysis indicate a first order surface phase transition in this system, which is in accord with experimental findings. For this system, γ decreases linearly with increasing temperature at fixed Bi mole fraction x_Bi, and thus, suggesting a positive surface excess entropy. It is also found that the surface tension isotherms show the linear dependence on the concentration, in the logarithm scale of x_Bi, in the very narrow concentration range.     

Isochoric temperature coefficient of surface tension andS o-parameter of quasi-spherical molecular liquids

The Sharma parameterS _o which is characteristic of molten alkali halides and polymers has also been shown to be characteristic of a wide variety of liquids. Calculated data using the volume expansivity of the liquid establish the constancy of theS _o-parameter which retains, on an average, a constant value of 1·11 for quasi-spherical molecular liquids. It is shown thatS _o-parameter is also related to volume expansivity of the surface layer of the liquid, temperature coefficient of surface tension of liquids and describes the temperature and volume or pressure dependence of thermodynamic Grüneisen parameter and isochoric heat capacity with significant contribution for influencing the thermoacoustic and surface tension properties of liquids.     

Anomalous behaviour of sound velocity in the highT c superconductor YBa2Cu3O7

The longitudinal acoustic wave velocity in YBa₂Cu₃O₇ has been measured in the range 300 to 85 K using the ultrasonic pulse superposition technique. The sound velocity shows a steep drop in its value at 260 K and decreases continuously till the superconducting transition temperature. BelowT _c the sound velocity increases steeply. A hysteresis is seen when the experiments are performed during a cooling-warming cycle. The results are compared with recent measurements by Ewertet al on the samples with the same chemical composition.     

Annihilation rates of ortho—positronium in organic liquids: correlation with liquid compressibility and polarization ratio

The bubble model of ortho—positronium annihilation rates customarily employs the value of the planar-surface tension in the estimation of the (surface) energy required to expand a normal interstitial cavity to form the bubble. However, bubble radii are estimated to be only about 0.4 nm; the surface of such a small bubble is expected to have a tension different from that of the planar surface. We have replaced the surface tension parameter by the isothermal compressibility, which is thought not to have a nanostructure limitation. The model has been further improved by introducing the polarization ratio (n ² _D ? 1)/(n ² _D + 2) as a parameter, n _D being the refractive index of the organic liquid. Calculations are presented for 20 liquids.     

Stability of fluid flow past a membrane

The stability of the flow of a fluid past a solid membrane of infinitesimal thickness is investigated using a linear stability analysis. The system consists of two fluids of thicknesses R and H R and bounded by rigid walls moving with velocities and , and separated by a membrane of infinitesimal thickness which is flat in the unperturbed state. The fluids are described by the Navier-Stokes equations, while the constitutive equation for the membrane incorporates the surface tension, and the effect of curvature elasticity is also examined for a membrane with no surface tension. The stability of the system depends on the dimensionless strain rates and in the two fluids, which are defined as and for a membrane with surface tension , and and for a membrane with zero surface tension and curvature elasticity K. In the absence of fluid inertia, the perturbations are always stable. In the limit , the decay rate of the perturbations is O(k ³ ) smaller than the frequency of the fluctuations. The effect of fluid inertia in this limit is incorporated using a small wave number asymptotic analysis, and it is found that there is a correction of smaller than the leading order frequency due to inertial effects. This correction causes long wave fluctuations to be unstable for certain values of the ratio of strain rates and ratio of thicknesses H. The stability of the system at finite Reynolds number was calculated using numerical techniques for the case where the strain rate in one of the fluids is zero. The stability depends on the Reynolds number for the fluid with the non-zero strain rate, and the parameter , where is the surface tension of the membrane. It is found that the Reynolds number for the transition from stable to unstable modes, , first increases with , undergoes a turning point and a further increase in the results in a decrease in . This indicates that there are unstable perturbations only in a finite domain in the plane, and perturbations are always stable outside this domain. Received: 29 May 1997 / Revised: 9 October 1997 / Accepted: 26 November 1997     

Phase transition studies in N-(p-n-pentyloxy benzylidene) p-Toluidine

The variations of molar volume M_v and ultrasonic velocity V with temperature in N(p-n-pentyloxy benzylidene) p-toluidine are presented. The molar volume jump at the nematicisotropic transition suggests it is of first order. The adiabatic compressibility β _ad, molar sound velocity or Rao number R_n , molar compressibility or Wada constant A, the thermal expansion coefficient α, and Van der Waals constant b, are computed. Molar sound velocity and molar compressibility are compared with the values of other members of the homologous series and are found to be in good agreement with Rao's and Wada's observations. The order parameter S_k, at the nematic-isotropic phase transition is 0.441 from our experimental results and the Maier-Saupe table and is found to be in good agreement with the theoretical value.     

Transient convective burning of a periodic fuel-droplet array

The transient convective burning of fuel-droplets interacting within 3-D infinite periodic arrays in a hot gas stream is numerically studied for the first time, with considerations of droplet regression, deceleration due to the drag of the droplets, internal liquid motion, variable properties, non-uniform liquid temperature, surface tension, and n-octane one-step oxidation kinetics. Depending upon the initial conditions and other constraints, a flame is established early as either a wake flame or an envelope flame. An initial envelope flame remains an envelope flame, and an initial wake flame has a tendency to develop from a wake flame to an envelope flame. The flame shows no strong tendency to modify significantly the standoff distance during the lifetime of the droplet. For an initial wake flame, the moment of wake-to-envelope transition is advanced as the initial droplet spacing (intermediate) is decreased, but tends to be postponed as the initial droplet spacing is further reduced. The burning rate at smaller initial droplet spacing or smaller initial Reynolds number might be greater for some period during the lifetime because of an earlier wake-to-envelope transition which elevates the average surface temperature. Lower ambient temperature yields a later wake-to-envelope transition time and smaller mass burning rate. At the lower ambient pressure with the same initial relative stream velocity, the average surface temperature is reduced, the wake-to-envelope transition is later, and the mass burning rate is smaller. Validation of our analysis is made by comparing with the results of an isolated droplet Wu and Sirignano [11].     

Physical mechanism of the (tri)critical point generation

We discuss some ideas resulting from a phenomenological relation recently declared between the tension of string connecting the static quark-antiquark pair and surface tension of corresponding cylindrical bag. This relation analysis leads to the temperature of vanishing surface tension coefficient of the QGP bags at zero baryonic charge density as T _?? = 152.9 ± 4.5 MeV. We develop the view point that this temperature value is not a fortuitous coincidence with the temperature of (partial) chiral symmetry restoration as seen in the lattice QCD simulations. Besides, we argue that T _?? defines the QCD (tri)critical endpoint temperature and claim that a negative value of surface tension coefficient recently discovered is not a sole result but is quite familiar for ordinary liquids at the supercritical temperatures.     

On the surface properties of a nanodiamond

The dependences of the specific surface energy, the surface tension, and the surface pressure on the size, the surface shape, and the temperature of a nanodiamond with a free surface have been investigated using the Mie-Lennard-Jones interatomic interaction potential. The nanocrystal has the form of a parallelepiped faceted by the (100) planes with a square base. The number of atoms N in the nanocrystal varies from 5 to ∞. The isothermal isomorphic dependences of the specific surface energy, its isochoric derivative with respect to the temperature, the surface tension, and the surface pressure on the nanodiamond size have been calculated at temperatures ranging from 20 to 4300 K. According to the results of the calculations, the surface energy under this conditions is positive, which indicates that the nanodiamond cannot be fragmented at temperatures up to 4300 K. The surface pressure for the nanodiamond P _sf (N) ∼ N ^−1/3 is considerably less than the Laplace pressure P _ls (N)^−1/3 ∼ N ^−1/3 for the same nanocrystal at the given values of the temperature, the density, and the number of atoms N. As the temperature increases from 20 to 4300 K, the lowering of the isotherm P _sf (N) is considerably more pronounced than that of the isotherm P _ls (N). At high temperatures, the isotherm P _sf (N) changes the shape of the size dependence and goes to the range of extension of small nanocrystals. It has been demonstrated that the lattice parameter of the nanodiamond can either decrease or increase with a decrease in the nanocrystal size. The most significant change in the lattice parameter of the nanodiamond is observed at temperatures below 1000 K.     

Pressure effect on grain boundary wetting at various temperatures

Bicrystals of Fe-6 at.% Si alloy containing <001> 5 tilt grain boundaries with a deposited zinc layer have been annealed at various hydrostatic pressure at four temperatures between 700° and 905°C. After the anneals the dihedral angle of the grain boundary groove formed at the site of the grain boundary intersection with the solid-melt interphase boundary has been measured. The transition from complete to incomplete wetting of the grain boundary by the zinc-rich melt (dewetting phase transition) has been found to occur as the pressure increased at all temperatures studied. The temperature dependence of the dewetting transition pressure p _w has been determined. That dependence has a minimum at a temperature of 790°C, which is close to the peritectic temperature in the Fe–Zn system (782°C). A thermodynamic analysis of the wetting phenomena in the two-component system, based on Becker's regular solution model for the surface tension of the interphase boundary, explains the minimum in the p _w (T) dependence.     

Finite temperature effective potential for the abelian Higgs model to the ordere 4,λ 2

A complete calculation of the finite temperature effective potential for the abelian Higgs model to the ordere ⁴, λ² is presented and the result is expressed in terms of physical parameters defined at zero temperature. The absence of a linear term is verified explicitly to the given order and proven to survive to all orders. The first order phase transition has weakened in comparison with lower order calculation, which shows up in a considerable decrease of the surface tension.     

Surface tension estimation of high temperature melts of the binary alloys Ag–Au

Abstract

Surface tension calculation of the binary alloys Ag–Au at the temperature of 1381 K, where Ag and Au have similar electronic structures and their atomic radii are comparable, are carried out in this study using several equations over entire composition range of Au. Apparently, the deviations from ideality of the bulk solutions, such as activities of Ag and Au are small and the maximum excess Gibbs free energy of mixing of the liquid phase is for instance ?4500 J/mol at X_Au = 0.5. Besides, the results obtained in Ag–Au alloys that at a constant temperature the surface tension increases with increasing composition while the surface tension decreases as the temperature increases for entire composition range of Au. Although data about surface tension of the Ag–Au alloy are limited, it was possible to make a comparison for the calculated results for the surface tension in this study with the available experimental data. Taken together, the average standard error analysis that especially the improved Guggenheim model in the other models gives the best agreement along with the experimental results at temperature 1383 K although almost all models are mutually in agreement with the other one.     

Nature of a nonzero frequency shift of a hyperfine transition in two-dimensional atomic hydrogen

We propose the explanation of a small yet finite frequency shift of a hyperfine transition in two-dimensional atomic hydrogen bound to the surface of superfluid helium at T < 0.1 K. The nonzero shift is caused, first, by the interaction between adsorbed atoms, which effectively reduces their binding energy to the helium surface by a value proportional to their density and, consequently, reduces the deviation of the hyperfine constant from the free-atom value. Second, the transition between the hyperfine states b and c is shifted owing to a difference in the interaction of the b and c atoms with the residual atoms in the state a that appear due to one and two-body nuclear relaxation. This shift is also linear in the density of the two-dimensional gas. The net effect of the two contributions qualitatively agrees with the experimentally observed value of the shift.