Constrained deformation of a confined solid: anomalous failure by nucleation of smectic bands

We report results of computer simulations of the deformation and failure behavior of a thin crystalline strip of "hard disks" in two dimensions confined within a quasi-one-dimensional "hard-wall" channel of fixed width corresponding to a few disk diameters. Starting from a commensurate triangular solid, stretching the strip along its length introduces a rectangular distortion. This, beyond a critical strain, leads to failure of the solid by "phase separation" into alternating bands of solid and smectic-like phases. The critical strain is inversely proportional to the channel width, i.e., thinner strips are stronger. The large plastic deformation which precedes failure is observed to be reversible.     

Phase coherence, visibility, and the superfluid-Mott-insulator transition on one-dimensional optical lattices

We study the phase coherence and visibility of trapped atomic condensates on one-dimensional optical lattices, by means of quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We obtain structures in the visibility similar to the kinks recently observed experimentally by Gerbier et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 050404 (2005); 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.050404cond-mat/0507087]. We examine these features in detail and offer a connection to the evolution of the density profiles as the depth of the lattice is increased. Our simulations reveal that, as the interaction strength U is increased, the evolution of superfluid and Mott-insulating domains stall for finite intervals of U. The density profiles do not change with increasing U. We show here that in one dimension the visibility provides unequivocal signatures of the melting of Mott domains with densities larger than 1.     

Effect of hydrogen peroxide on mammalian chromatin: electron microscopic studies.

Chromatins purified from rat liver as well as from cultured Chinese hamster V79 cells were treated with hydrogen peroxide in presence of iron in vitro. When examined in a transmission electron microscope, chromatins from both the sources were found to lose the native morphology. There were evidences of aggregation of the chromatin fibers. This could be due to DNA-protein and DNA interstrand crosslinking induced by Fenton reaction.     

Elastic properties of 2D colloidal crystals from video microscopy

Elastic constants of two-dimensional (2D) colloidal crystals are determined by measuring strain fluctuations induced by Brownian motion of particles. Paramagnetic colloids confined to an air-water interface of a pendant drop are crystallized under the action of a magnetic field, which is applied perpendicular to the 2D layer. Using video microscopy and digital image processing we measure fluctuations of the microscopic strain obtained from random displacements of the colloidal particles from their mean (reference) positions. From these we calculate system-size dependent elastic constants, which are extrapolated using finite-size scaling to obtain their values in the thermodynamic limit. The data are found to agree rather well with zero-temperature calculations.     

Lasing performance of Tm:YAG minirod grown by laser-heated pedestalgrowth technique

A 2-μm Tm:YAG laser using a 1-mm diameter laser rod fabricated from material grown by the laser-heated pedestal growth technique has been characterized. Laser performance was found to be essentially identical to that obtained with bulk grown crystals. This demonstrates the usefulness of this technique for solid-state laser material evaluation and for the growth of laser-quality crystals in sizes suitable for laser diode pumping     

Ground and flight test results for standard VOR and double parasitic loop counterpoise antennas

Results of ground and flight tests carried out at 109 MHz to study the vertical plane radiation patterns of standard VOR and double parasitic loop counterpoise antennas above ground are discussed. The ground tests consist of the measurement of the fields produced in the quasi-radiation zone of the test antenna The flight tests consist of measuring the far field with the help of an aircraft flying at a constant altitude along chosen radial paths to and from the test antenna. The reduced test results are compared with available theoretical values.     

A decomposition theorem and related results for the discriminatory processor sharing queue

In this paper, we study a discriminatory processor sharing queue with Poisson arrivals,K classes and general service times. For this queue, we prove a decomposition theorem for the conditional sojourn time of a tagged customer given the service times and class affiliations of the customers present in the system when the tagged customer arrives. We show that this conditional sojourn time can be decomposed inton+1 components if there aren customers present when the tagged customer arrives. Further, we show that thesen+1 components can be obtained as a solution of a system of non-linear integral equations. These results generalize known results about theM/G/1 egalitarian processor sharing queue.     

Boundary conformed co-ordinate systems for selected two-dimensional fluid flow problems. Part I: Generation of BFGs

In this paper the generation of general curvilinear co-ordinate systems for use in selected two-dimensional fluid flow problems is presented. The curvilinear co-ordinate systems are obtained from the numerical solution of a system of Poisson equations. The computational grids obtained by this technique allow for curved grid lines such that the boundary of the solution domain coincides with a grid line. Hence, these meshes are called boundary fitted grids (BFG). The physical solution area is mapped onto a set of connected rectangles in the transformed (computational) plane which form a composite mesh. All numerical calculations are performed in the transformed plane. Since the computational domain is a rectangle and a uniform grid with mesh spacings Δξ = Δη = 1 (in two-dimensions) is used, the computer programming is substantially facilitated. By means of control functions, which form the r.h.s. of the Poisson equations, the clustering of grid lines or grid points is governed. This allows a very fine resolution at certain specified locations and includes adaptive grid generation. The first two sections outline the general features of BFGs, and in section 3 the general transformation rules along with the necessary concepts of differential geometry are given. In section 4 the transformed grid generation equations are derived and control functions are specified. Expressions for grid adaptation arc also presented. Section 5 briefly discusses the numerical solution of the transformed grid generation equations using sucessive overrelaxation and shows a sample calculation where the FAS (full approximation scheme) multigrid technique was employed. In the companion paper (Part II), the application of the BFG method to selected fluid flow problems is addressed.     

On Fourier coefficients of Maass cusp forms in 3-dimensional hyperbolic space

In this article we establish the analogue of a theorem of Kuznetsov (theorem 6 of [3]) in the case of 3-dimensional hyperbolic space. We also consider a generalization of this result for higher dimensional hyperbolic spaces and discuss the relevant ingredients of a proof. Dedicated to the memory of Professor K G Ramanathan