MHD mixed convection flow and heat transfer in a porous medium

The effects of a steady two-dimensional laminar MHD mixed convection flow and heat transfer against a heated vertical semi-infinite permeable surface in a porous medium are discussed. The coupled nonlinear partial differential equations describing the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy are solved by a perturbation technique. The results are presented to illustrate the influence of Hartmann number (M), Prandtl number (Pr), permeability parameter (K _p ), suction/blowing parameter (f _w ), heat generation/absorption coefficient (?), and mixed convection or buoyancy parameter (γ). The effects of different parameters on the velocity and temperature as well as the skin friction and wall heat transfer are discussed with the help of figures.     

Investigation of zero-frequency solutions to the pion dispersion equation

The instability of nuclear matter is considered for the case where it is generated by the vanishing of the frequencies of collective excitations belonging to specific types (specifically, excitations that have the pion quantum numbers J ^π = 0^?). The behavior of zero-frequency solutions to the pion dispersion equation is analyzed versus the strength G′ of spin—isospin particle—hole interaction. It is shown that there exists a strength value G′_tr (|G′_tr| ? 1) such that, for G′ < G′_tr, zero-frequency solutions are excitations of the ω _P type, while, for G′ ≥ G′_tr, such solutions are excitations of the ω _c type. Excitations of the ω _P type for G′ < ?1 describe the instability of nuclear matter against small density fluctuations (Pomeranchuk’s instability), while excitations of the ω _c type are responsible for the instability associated with pion condensation at G′ ≈ 2. For stable nuclear matter, the solutions ω _P(κ) and ω _c (κ) lie on unphysical sheets of the complex plane of frequency.     

Recurrence procedure for calculating kernels of the nonlinear collision integral of the Boltzmann equation

A recurrence procedure for a sequential construction of kernels \(G_{{l_1},{l_2}}^l\) (c, c₁, c₂) appearing upon the expansion of a nonlinear collision integral of the Boltzmann equation in spherical harmonics is developed. The starting kernel for this procedure is kernel G_0,0⁰ (c, c₁, c₂) of the collision integral for the distribution function isotropic with respect to the velocities. Using the recurrence procedure, a set of kernels \(G_{{l_1},{l_2}}^{ + l}\) (c, c₁, c₂) for a gas consisting of hard spheres and Maxwellian molecules is constructed. It is shown that the resultant kernels exhibit similarity and symmetry properties and satisfy the relations following from the conservation laws.     

Analytical assessment of some characteristic ratios for <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>-wave superconductors

We evaluate some thermodynamic quantities and characteristic ratios that describe low- and high-temperature s-wave superconducting systems. Based on a set of fundamental equations derived within the conformal transformation method, a simple model is proposed and studied analytically. After including a one-parameter class of fluctuations in the density of states, the mathematical structure of the s-wave superconducting gap, the free energy difference, and the specific heat difference is found and discussed in an analytic manner. Both the zero-temperature limit T = 0 and the subcritical temperature range T ? T_c are discussed using the method of successive approximations. The equation for the ratio R₁, relating the zero-temperature energy gap and the critical temperature, is formulated and solved numerically for various values of the model parameter. Other thermodynamic quantities are analyzed, including a characteristic ratio R₂, quantifying the dynamics of the specific heat jump at the critical temperature. It is shown that the obtained model results coincide with experimental data for low-T_c superconductors. The prospect of application of the presented model in studies of high-T_c superconductors and other superconducting systems of the new generation is also discussed.     

Equilibrium and stability of the charged particles’ fluxes drifting crosswise to the strong magnetic field at the expense of the Hall charge separation

The current equilibrium is investigated, where the generation of the Hall electric field on the magnetic Debye radius r _B = B ₀/(4πen _e) is considered by the drifting of the relativistic electrons crosswise to the strong magnetic field. In this case, the electron propagation is possible at the distance d that is essentially larger than the electron radius of the backward reflection in the magnetic field r ₀ ? m _e v _z c/(eB ₀). The instability of the joint drift motion of ions and electrons is investigated for the frequency oscillation w much higher than the ion cyclotron frequency w _Bi and by 4π n _i m _i c ² ? B ₀ ² and (k · B ₀) = 0. It is shown that the resonance effects by the ion beam’s plasma frequency w ? kv ₀ = w _pi leads to the generation of the nonpotential perturbations with the characteristic increment Imw ～ 10^?1 ÷ 10^{? 2} w _pi. Estimates show that the instability, associated with the propagation of the high-energy ion beam through the strong magnetic field, can essentially be like the edge-localized mode in tokamaks.     

Scattering of Josephson plasmons on random quantum jumpers in a disordered <Emphasis Type="Italic">I</Emphasis>-layer of an <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">I</Emphasis>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis> junction

A formula for the relaxation time of Josephson plasmons on random quantum jumpers, i.e., quantum resonant-percolation trajectories (QRPT) in a disordered I-layer of a tunnel S–I–S junction is derived. Domain Ω_r (μ ? E₀, c), in which the strongest plasmon damping takes place, is plotted in the plane of parameters (μ ? E₀, c).     

The structure of a vortex line and the lower critical field in superconducting alloys

The structure of an isolated vortex line, and the lower critical fieldH _c 1, is calculated by means of the generalized Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory for arbitrary values of the GL-parameterk(≧1/√2) and the mean free pathl at temperaturesT in the vicinity ofT _c . The free energy functional including the corrections of order [1?(T/T _c )] to the GL-functional is derived exactly. The corresponding Euler-Lagrange equations determining the zero-order (GL) contributions and the corrections of order [1?(T/T _c )] to the order parameter,f(r), and the superfluid velocity,v(r), have been solved numerically. The shapes of the first-order corrections off(r), v(r), and the magnetic field,h(r) are found to depend markedly, for a given value ofκ, on a second parameter,α=0.882(ξ ₀ /l) (whereξ ₀ is theBCS-coherence-distance). The deviations from the GL-solutions become largest forh(r) at parameter valuesk≈ 1 andα ≈ 0(the deviation ofh(0) is about 6% atT=0.9T _c forκ=1 andα=0). The ratioH _c1/H _c (where the thermodynamic criticalH _c has the BCS-temperature-dependence) is found to increase slightly in the “clean” limit (α=0), and to decrease slightly in the “dirty” limit (α=∞) asT decreases (the variation ofH _c 1/H _c is always less than 3% for arbitrary values ofκ andα asT decreases fromT _c to 0.9T _c ).     

Heat capacity anomaly in the vicinity of the tricritical and upper critical points

The anomalous behavior of the isochoric heat capacity of a mixture of methane, pentane and heptane is studied experimentally in the vicinity of the liquid-vapor critical point in the cases when (a) the critical temperature T _c approaches the tricritical point T _TCP and (b) the critical temperature approaches the upper critical end point T _U . It is shown that in all cases, the singular part of the heat capacity of the mixture has the form C_sing=A¦τ¦^?α, where τ=(T ? T _c )/T _c and α≈0.11. When T _c →T _U , amplitude A of the heat capacity anomaly is found to be approximately constant. At the same time, the amplitude of the anomaly tends to zero in the vicinity of the tricritical point: A∝¦τ_c¦^ε, where τ_c=(T _c ? T _TCP )/T _TCP and ε=1.6?1.7. The inevitable vanishing of this mode of the heat capacity anomaly leads to a negative value of the critical index \(\tilde \alpha\) characterizing the heat capacity anomaly at the tricritical point, while the tricritical point theory and the isomorphism hypothesis predict \(\tilde \alpha = 0.5\).     

Spezifische Wärme und magnetische Suszeptibilität supraleitender,binärer komplexer Phasen von Übergangsmetallen

Measurements of the electronic specific heat in the normal and superconducting state of 15 superconducting binary complex phases of theσ- andχ-structure are presented. The alloys have been prepared under high vacuum in an electron-beam melting apparatus described in detail. In the investigated range between 6 and 7 valence-electrons, the obvious correlation betweenT _c, the superconducting critical temperature, andγ, the coefficient of the electronic specific heat, leads to agreement with the empirical rules, found byMatthias. Recently,Morel andAnderson andGarland have calculated the values of the deviation of the normal isotope-effect. With these values it is possible to relate the observedT _c-data for most of the transition metal alloys investigated so far to the density of states at the Fermi level and to a systematically varying electron-phonon interaction parameter. In the superconducting state, an exponential dependence of the electronic specific heat on 1/T is found in the range betweenT _c/2 andT _c/6. However the parameters are somewhat different from those predicted by theory. The values ofγ observed also account for the lack of any correlation between the total magnetic susceptibility and the superconducting critical temperature for these phases.     

Ferroelastic phase transition in crystalline K<Subscript>3</Subscript>Na(CrO<Subscript>4</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>: Acoustic studies

Ultrasonic studies of the temperature behavior of the velocity and damping of sound for the xx and zz longitudinal and yx and zx transverse waves in K₃Na(CrO₄)₂ have been carried out in the temperature interval 185–295 K, which includes the region of the ferroelastic phase transition. The acoustic parameters for both shear and longitudinal waves were found to have anomalies in the region of the phase transition with a Curie temperature of 235.5 K. A theoretical analysis of the softening of the elastic moduli c₄₄ and c₆₆ was performed on the basis of the Landau expansion in terms of the strain tensor components ?₄ and (?₂-?₁)/2 considered as the linearly coupled primary and secondary order parameter, respectively. The absolute values of the elastic moduli c₁₁, c₃₃, c₄₄, c₆₆, c₁₂, and c₁₄ at 295 K were calculated.     

Enhancement of pseudogap anomalies induced by nanoscale structural inhomogeneity in YBa<Subscript>2</Subscript>Cu<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>6.93</Subscript> high-<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis><Subscript>c</Subscript> superconductor

The magnetization M(H) in the superconducting state, dc magnetic susceptibility χ(T) in the normal state, and specific heat C(T) near the superconducting transition temperature T _c have been measured for a series of fine-crystalline YBa₂Cu₃O _y samples having nearly optimum values of y = 6.93 ± 0.3 and T _c = (91.5 ± 0.5) K. The samples differ only in the degree of nanoscale structural inhomogeneity. The characteristic parameters of superconductors (the London penetration depth and the Ginzburg–Landau parameter) and the thermodynamic critical field H _c are determined by the analysis of the magnetization curves M(H). It is found that the increase in the degree of nanoscale structural inhomogeneity leads to an increase in the characteristic parameters of superconductors and a decrease in H _c(T) and the jump of the specific heat ΔC/T _c. It is shown that the changes in the physical characteristics are caused by the suppression of the density of states near the Fermi level. The pseudogap is estimated by analyzing χ(T). It is found that the nanoscale structural inhomogeneity significantly enhances and probably even creates the pseudogap regime in the optimally doped high-T _c superconductors.     

Dependence of the magnitude and direction of the persistent current on the magnetic flux in superconducting rings

The obtained periodic magnetic-field dependences I _c+(Φ/Φ₀) and I _c?(Φ/Φ₀) of the critical current measured in opposite directions on asymmetric superconducting aluminum rings has made it possible to explain previously observed quantum oscillations of dc voltage as a result of alternating current rectification. It was found that a higher rectification efficiency of both single rings and ring systems is caused by hysteresis of the current-voltage characteristics. The asymmetry of current-voltage characteristics providing the rectification effect is due to the relative shifts of the magnetic dependences I _c?(Φ/Φ₀) = I _c+(Φ/Φ₀ + Δ?) of the critical current measured in opposite directions. This shift means that the position of I _c+(Φ/Φ₀) and I _c?(Φ/Φ₀) minima does not correspond to n + 0.5 magnetic flux Φ quanta, which is in direct contradiction to measured Little-Parks resistance oscillations. Despite this contradiction, the amplitude I _{c, an}(Φ/Φ₀) = I _c+(Φ/Φ₀) ? I _c?(Φ/Φ₀) of critical current anisotropy oscillations and its variations with temperature correspond to the expected amplitude of persistent current oscillations and its variations with temperature.     

Magnetic properties of Fe<Subscript>3</Subscript>C ferromagnetic nanoparticles encapsulated in carbon nanotubes

The low-temperature dependences of magnetic characteristics (namely, the coercive force H _c , the remanent magnetization M _r , local magnetic anisotropy fields H _a, and the saturation magnetization M _s ) determined from the irreversible and reversible parts of the magnetization curves for Fe₃C ferromagnetic nanoparticles encapsulated in carbon nanotubes are investigated experimentally. The behavior of the temperature dependences of the coercive force H _c (T) and the remanent magnetization M _r (T) indicates a single-domain structure of the particles under study and makes it possible to estimate their blocking temperature T _B = 420–450 K. It is found that the saturation magnetization M _s and the local magnetic anisotropy field H _a vary with temperature as ～T ^5/2.     

Nonlinear Hall effect in a quasi-two-dimensional electron system

The nonlinear electron transport in GaAs double quantum wells with two occupied size-quantization levels has been studied at a temperature of 4.2 K in the magnetic fields B < 1 T. It has been found that a sinusoidal electric current I _ac induces the generation of higher harmonics of both longitudinal V _xx (B) and Hall V _xy (B) voltages in the quasi-two-dimensional electron system under consideration. The Hall voltage oscillating in the magnetic field has been shown to appear in the electron system with two occupied size-quantization levels in the presence of microwave radiation and dc electric current I _dc. The experimental data indicate the independent contributions of the diagonal and off-diagonal components of the conductivity tensor to the nonlinear magnetotransport at high filling factors.     

Magnetic Properties of Composite Materials Based on a Solid Solution of Type (CuInSe<Subscript>2</Subscript>)<Subscript>1 – <Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>(MeSe)<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript> (Me = Mn,Fe) and Polyethylene

Basic magnetic characteristics (coercive force H_c, residual magnetization M_r, magnetization M, and saturation magnetization M_s) of solid solutions of type (CuInSe₂)_1–x(MeSe)_x (Me = Mn, Fe) have been investigated in a wide temperature interval (100–300 K). The existence of a magnetic phase transition has been established for all studied solid solutions at low temperatures, and the Néel temperatures have been determined from the temperature dependences of the magnetization. It is shown that the temperature dependences of coercive force H_c and of magnetization M can be described using the thermal relaxation (fluctuation) theory.     

Almost mobility edges and the existence of critical regions in one-dimensional quasiperiodic lattices

We study a one-dimensional quasiperiodic system described by the Aubry–André model in the small wave vector limit and demonstrate the existence of almost mobility edges and critical regions in the system. It is well known that the eigenstates of the Aubry–André model are either extended or localized depending on the strength of incommensurate potential V being less or bigger than a critical value V _c , and thus no mobility edge exists. However, it was shown in a recent work that for the system with V < V _c and the wave vector α of the incommensurate potential is small, there exist almost mobility edges at the energy E _c±, which separate the robustly delocalized states from “almost localized” states. We find that, besides E _c±, there exist additionally another energy edges E _c′±, at which abrupt change of inverse participation ratio (IPR) occurs. By using the IPR and carrying out multifractal analyses, we identify the existence of critical regions among |E _c±|?≤?|E|?≤?|E _c′±| with the mobility edges E _c± and E _c′± separating the critical region from the extended and localized regions, respectively. We also study the system with V > V _c , for which all eigenstates are localized states, but can be divided into extended, critical and localized states in their dual space by utilizing the self-duality property of the Aubry–André model.     

Temperature dependence of the upper critical field of superconducting alloys

The upper critical field,H _c2, is calculated in the temperature range close toT _c for arbitrary values of the mean free path 1. The method is to treat the fourth-order term in the linearized differential equation for the gap parameter as a perturbation to the harmonic oscillator equation. The Nambu-Tuan term, which determines the structure of the “clean-limit” and “dirty-limit” parts of the fourth-order term, is calculated by means of the ladder diagram technique for impurity interaction lines. The result is that the magnitude of the slope of the curveH _c2/√2H _c κ versust=T/T _c att=1 decreases monotonically from the value 0.41 to 0.12 as the ratio of the BCS coherence lengthξ ₀ to the mean free path 1 increases from 0 to ∞. For 1?ξ ₀ this slope is about 0.26.     

On the theory of the resonant interaction of electrons with a high-frequency electric field in one-dimensional two-barrier nanostructures with symmetric barriers of finite height and width

The theory of the interaction of electrons with a high-frequency electric field in one-dimensional two-barrier nanostructures with symmetric barriers of finite height and widths was developed. An exact solution to the Schrödinger equation was found for electrons in this nanostructure in the absence of high-frequency electric field. An analytical expression for the direct current I ₀ induced in this structure by an incident electron flux with energy ε differing slightly from the resonant level energy ε _r (|ε ? ε _r | << ε _r ) was derived. In the small-signal approximation, the active (field-phased) component I _c of the alternating electric current was calculated. At ε > ε _r , the current I _c is negative in the entire frequency range, which suggests the possibility of ac electric field amplification and generation in the two-barrier resonant-tunneling structure with the barriers of finite height and width. Within the applicability of the theory (?ω << ε _r ), the frequency at which amplification and generation of the ac electric field are possible reaches ω ? 10¹³ s ^?1; the power transferred by electrons to the field is ～1 W/cm².     

Unsteady boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over a stretching sheet with variable fluid properties in the presence of thermal radiation

In this paper, we investigated numerically an unsteady boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over a stretching sheet in the presence of thermal radiation with variable fluid properties. Using a set of suitable similarity transformations, the governing partial differential equations are reduced into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. System of the nonlinear ordinary differential equations are then solved by the Keller-box method. The physical parameters taken into consideration for the present study are: Prandtl number Pr, Lewis number Le, Brownian motion parameter N _b, thermophoresis parameter N _t, radiation parameter N _r, unsteady parameter M. In addition to these parameters, two more new parameters namely variable thermophoretic diffusion coefficient parameter e and variable Brownian motion diffusion coefficient parameter β have been introduced in the present study. Effects of these parameters on temperature, volume fraction of the nanoparticles, surface heat and mass transfer rates are presented graphically and discussed briefly. To validate our method, we have compared the present results with some previously reported results in the literature. The results are found to be in a very good agreement.     

Study of collective flow effects in CC collisions at a momentum of 4.2 GeV/<Emphasis Type="Italic">c</Emphasis> per nucleon

Directed (in-plane) flows of protons, pions, and projectile light fragments (d, t, ³He, ⁴He) have been observed by investigating the dependence of the mean transverse momentum in the reaction plane 〈p _x 〉 on the rapidity y in the c.m. system for CC collisions at a momentum of 4.2 GeV/c per nucleon. The comparison of our in-plane-flow results of protons with flow data for various projectile/target configurations was made using the scaled flow F _s = F/(A _P ^1/3 + A _T ^1/3 ). F _s demonstrates a common scaling behavior for flow values from different systems. From azimuthal distributions of protons and π^? mesons, out-of-plane (squeeze-out) flow effects have been observed and the parameter a₂ (the measure of the anisotropic emission strength) has been extracted. The quark-gluon string model reproduces the experimental results quite well.