Interferometric study of buoyancy-driven convection in a differentially heated circular fluid layer

The present study is concerned with buoyancy-driven convection experiments in a circular horizontal differentially heated layer of air. The radius-to-height ratio of 14, and Rayleigh numbers of 5,861 and 12,124 have been considered. A Mach–Zehnder interferometer has been used to visualize the convection patterns in the fluid layer. The fluid layer has been imaged at view angles of 0, 45 and 90°. Results obtained show that fringe patterns appropriate for a cavity square in plan are seen in the fluid layer during the early stages of the experiments. After the passage of the initial transients, steady fringes have been observed in the fluid layer for a Rayleigh number of 5,861. At Ra=12,124, a dominant pattern was detectable combined with mild unsteadiness. The steady thermal field at Ra=5,861 displayed symmetry with respect to the viewing angle. A stronger three dimensionality was seen at the higher Rayleigh number. The average steady state Nusselt numbers were found to vary with view angle from 1.91 to 2.04 at Ra=5,861 and 2.28 to 2.43 at Ra = 12,124. The cavity-averaged Nusselt numbers are in good agreement with the available correlations.     

On “Comment on Supersymmetry, PT-symmetry and spectral bifurcation”

In “Comment on Supersymmetry, PT-symmetry and spectral bifurcation” [1], Bagchi and Quesne correctly show the presence of a class of states for the complex Scarf-II potential in the unbroken PT-symmetry regime, which were absent in [2]. However, in the spontaneously broken PT-symmetry case, their argument is incorrect since it fails to implement the condition for the potential to be PT-symmetric: C^PT[2(A − B) + α] = 0. It needs to be emphasized that in the models considered in [2], PT is spontaneously broken, implying that the potential is PT-symmetric, whereas the ground state is not. Furthermore, our supersymmetry (SUSY)-based ‘spectral bifurcation’ holds independent of the sl(2) symmetry consideration for a large class of PT-symmetric potentials.     

Complex solitary waves and soliton trains in KdV and mKdV equations

We demonstrate the existence of complex solitary wave and periodic solutions of theKorteweg-de Vries (KdV) and modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equations. The solutions ofthe KdV (mKdV) equation appear in complex-conjugate pairs and are even (odd) under thesimultaneous actions of parity (??) and time-reversal (??) operations. The corresponding localized solitons arehydrodynamic analogs of Bloch soliton in magnetic system, with asymptotically vanishingintensity. The ????-odd complex soliton solution is shown to beiso-spectrally connected to the fundamental sech² solution through supersymmetry. Physically, thesecomplex solutions are analogous to the experimentally observed grey solitons of non-liner Schödinger equation, governing the dynamics of shallow waterwaves and hence may also find physical verification.     

Reversal in solvatochromism in some novel styrylpyridinium dyes having a hydrophobic cleft

The influence of solvent polarity on the electronic transition of four different N-hexadecyl styrylpyridinium dyes has been investigated in 15 solvents. The E(T)(30) scale has been used to propose a quantitative approach towards the relative stability of the electronic ground and excited state species. The extents of contribution of dipolar aprotic solvents towards the solvation of the excited species have been determined to be 42-48% for some of the dyes. Instead of a steady solvatochromism, all the dyes suffer a reversal in solvatochromism. The transitions of the solvatochromism, referred to as solvatochromic switches, are found to be at E(T)(30) values of approximately 50 for methyl and N,N-dimethylamino substituted dyes while at 37.6 for hydroxyl substituted dye and approximately 45 for 4-(1-methyl-2-phenylethenyl) pyridinium dye. A reversal in the trend of solvent effect in the later dye corresponding to 4-(4-methyl styryl)pyridinium dye has been attributed to an analogy of series and parallel electron flow.     

A rapid room temperature chemical route for the synthesis of graphene: metal-mediated reduction of graphene oxide

A rapid and facile route for the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide sheets (rGOs) at room temperature by the chemical reduction of graphene oxide using Zn/acid in aqueous solution is demonstrated.     

Grain boundary defects induced room temperature ferromagnetism in V doped ZnO thin films

Vanadium (V) doped ZnO thin films (Zn_1‐xV_x O, where x = 0, 0.05, 0.10) have been grown on sapphire substrates by RF magnetron sputtering to realize room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM). The grown films have been subjected to X‐ray diffraction (XRD), resonant Raman scattering, photoluminescence (PL) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements to investigate their structural, optical and magnetic properties, respectively. The full width at half maximum of XRD and Raman scattering peaks increases with V ion concentration indicates that the V ions have been substituted on Zn²⁺ ions in the ZnO matrix. The increase in oxygen vacancies with V concentration is evidenced by PL measurements. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry analysis confirms the presence of the V ions in the films. The room temperature VSM measurements reveal the signature of ferromagnetism in V doped ZnO thin films. It has been observed that the grain boundary defects, i.e., oxygen vacancies play a crucial role in inducing RTFM in V doped ZnO films. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Synthesis of nano ZnO thin film on Al foil by rf glow discharge plasma and its effect on E. coli and P. aeruginosa

Nano ZnO thin films were deposited on thin Al foils by a rf glow discharge plasma method in which sublimed zinc acetate vapor (precursor) reacted with oxygen plasma inside a low-pressure reactor. The films were microstructurally characterized using XRD, TEM, FESEM, optical reflectance and micro-Raman spectroscopy methods. In view of the good scope of ZnO coating in food packaging, the antibacterial activity in the ZnO thin films was studied by exposing the films to E. coli and P. aeruginosa for up to 8 h. Bacterial cell inhibition of up to 98–99 % was observed in the thin films.     

Microstructural analysis of neutron-irradiation induced changes in polyester fibre studied using EPMA

Electron microscopy is an important characterization technique for the study of textile fibre as it gives more information on fabric wear, nature of fibre fracture, chemical degradation, abrasion, fatigue and many others. Electron Probe Micro Analyzer (EPMA) micrographs of virgin and some neutron-irradiated samples (graphite coated) are discussed. The filament diameter, D, of virgin PET fibre obtained from EPMA study was 12.5 μn. The surface topography of single filament distinctly reveals the core and sheath parts of the filament. The core diameter of the virgin fibre was estimated to be 1.43 μm. The fibre irradiated at fluence 1 × 10¹² n/cm² shows radiation induced sphere like polymer balls or spherulites of diameter 2.27 μm in the expanded core region. Due to irradiation, the sheath area crosslinks with expanded core region, which may be responsible for increase of strength and hardness of the polymer materials. Moreover, the micrograph at 3000 X magnifications clearly shows that there is no preferred orientation of the polymer in any direction confirming the isotropic nature of the sample.      

Particulate assisted growth of ZnO nanorods and microrods by pulsed laser deposition

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on the gallium nitride (GaN) and sapphire (Al₂O₃) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) without using any metal catalyst. The experiment was carried out at three different laser wavelengths of Nd:YAG laser (λ = 1064 nm, λ = 532 nm) and KrF excimer laser (λ = 248 nm). The ZnO films grown at λ = 532 nm revealed the presence of ZnO nanorods and microrods. The diameter of the rods varies from 250 nm to 2 μm and the length varies between 9 and 22 μm. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the rods revealed the absence of frozen balls at the tip of the ZnO rods. The growth of ZnO rods has been explained by vapor-solid (V-S) mechanism. The origin of growth of ZnO rods has been attributed to the ejection of micrometric and sub-micrometric sized particulates from the ZnO target. The ZnO films grown at λ = 1064 nm and λ = 248 nm do not show the rod like morphology. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has not shown the presence of any impurity except zinc and oxygen.     

Viability of variable generalised Chaplygin gas: a thermodynamical approach

The viability of the variable generalised Chaplygin gas (VGCG) model is analysed from the standpoint of its thermodynamical stability criteria with the help of an equation of state, \(P = - \frac{B}{\rho ^{\alpha } }\), where \(B = B_{0}V^{-\frac{n}{3}}\). Here \(B_{0}\) is assumed to be a positive universal constant, n is a constant parameter and V is the volume of the cosmic fluid. We get the interesting result that if the well-known stability conditions of a fluid is adhered to, the values of n are constrained to be negative definite to make \( \left( \frac{\partial P}{\partial V}\right) _{S} <0\) & \( \left( \frac{\partial P}{\partial V}\right) _{T} <0\) throughout the evolution. Moreover the positivity of thermal capacity at constant volume \(c_{V}\) as also the validity of the third law of thermodynamics are ensured in this case. For the particular case \(n = 0\) the effective equation of state reduces to \(\Lambda \)CDM model in the late stage of the universe while for \(n <0\) it mimics a phantom-like cosmology which is in broad agreement with the present SNe Ia constraints like VGCG model. The thermal equation of state is discussed and the EoS parameter is found to be an explicit function of temperature only. Further for large volume the thermal equation of state parameter is identical with the caloric equation of state parameter when \( T \rightarrow 0\). It may also be mentioned that like Santos et al. our model does not admit of any critical points. We also observe that although the earlier model of Lu explains many of the current observational findings of different probes it fails to explain the crucial tests of thermodynamical stability.