Mesoscopic Modeling of Capillarity-Induced Two-Phase Transport in a Microfluidic Porous Structure

Mesoscopic modeling at the pore scale offers great promise in exploring the underlying structure transport performance of flow through porous media. The present work studies the fluid flow subjected to capillarity-induced resonance in porous media characterized by different porous structure and wettability. The effects of porosity and wettability on the displacement behavior of the fluid flow through porous media are discussed. The results are presented in the form of temporal evolution of percentage saturation and displacement of the fluid front through porous media. The present study reveals that the vibration in the form of acoustic excitation could be significant in the mobilization of fluid through the porous media. The dependence of displacement of the fluid on physicochemical parameters like wettability of the surface, frequency along with the porosity is analyzed. It was observed that the mean displacement of the fluid is more in the case of invading fluid with wetting phase where the driving force strength is not so dominant.     

Self‐Assembly and Gelation of Poly(aryl ether) Dendrons Containing Hydrazide Units: Factors Controlling the Formation of Helical Structures

Self‐assembly of AB₂ and AB₃ type low molecular weight poly(aryl ether) dendrons that contain hydrazide units were used to investigate mechanistic aspects of helical structure formation during self‐assembly. The results suggest that there are three important aspects that control helical structure formation in such systems with acyl hydrazide/hydrazone linkage: i) J‐type aggregation, ii) the hydrogen‐bond donor/acceptor ability of the solvent, and iii) the dielectric constant of the solvent. The monomer units self‐assemble to form dimer structures through hydrogen‐bonding and further assembly of the hydrogen‐bonded dimers leads to macroscopic chirality in the present case. Dimer formation was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy and by mass spectrometry. The self‐assembly in the system was driven by hydrogen‐bonding and π–π stacking interactions. The morphology of the aggregates formed was examined by scanning electron microscopy, and the analysis suggests that aprotic solvent systems facilitate helical fibre formation, whereas introduction of protic solvents results in the formation of flat ribbons. This detailed mechanistic study suggests that the self‐assembly follows a nucleation–elongation model to form helical structures, rather than the isodesmic model.     

A Continuous Transition Between Quantum and Classical Mechanics. II

Examples are worked out using a new equation proposed in the previous paper to show that it has new physical predictions for mesoscopic systems.     

Equivariant Spectral Triples on the Quantum SU(2) Group

We characterize all equivariant odd spectral triples for the quantum SU(2) group acting on its L ₂-space and having a nontrivial Chern character. It is shown that the dimension of an equivariant spectral triple is at least three, and given any element of the K-homology group of SU_q(2), there is an equivariant odd spectral triple of dimension 3 inducing that element. The method employed to get equivariant spectral triples in the quantum case is then used for classical SU(2), and we prove that for p < 4, there does not exist any equivariant spectral triple with nontrivial K-homology class and dimension p acting on the L ₂-space.The first author would like to acknowledge support from the National Board of Higher Mathematics, India.     

A monotone iterative scheme for a nonlinear second order equation based on a generalized anti–maximum principle

In this paper, a generalized anti–maximum principle for the second order differential operator with potentials is proved. As an application, we will give a monotone iterative scheme for periodic solutions of nonlinear second order equations. Such a scheme involves the L^p norms of the growth, 1 ≤ p ≤ ∞, while the usual one is just the case p = ∞.     

Thermal and dielectric behaviors of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) copolymers at the curie transition

The thermal and dielectric behaviors of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) copolymers near the ferroelectric-to-paraelectric phase transition are investigated for samples with 20, 25, 30, and 40 mol% trifluoroethylene (TrFE). The data suggest that the transition becomes continuous for a particular composition near 50 mol% TrFE. Experimental data are sensitive to thermal history (kinetics of crystallization, and kinetics and cycling over the structural transition). It is found that several anomalies are present at the structural change, and in particular the 30 mol% TrFE sample shows the most marked anomalies. These phenomena can be attributed to defects, but another possibility would be the existence of an intemediate supplementary phase. Both hypotheses are discussed.     

Directed and elliptic flow in 197Au+197Au at intermediate energies

Directed and elliptic flow for the ¹⁹⁷Au+¹⁹⁷Au system at incident energies between 40 and 150 MeV per nucleon has been measured using the INDRA 4π multi-detector. For semi-central collisions, the excitation function of elliptic flow shows a transition from in-plane to out-of-plane emission at around 100 MeV per nucleon. The directed flow changes sign at a bombarding energy between 50 and 60 MeV per nucleon and remains negative at lower energies. Molecular dynamics calculations (CHIMERA) indicate sensitivity of the global squeeze-out transition on the σ _NN and demonstrate the importance of angular momentum conservation in transport codes at low energies.     

Volcanic monitoring for radon and chemical species in the soil and in spring water samples

Soil radon has been monitored at two fixed stations in the northern flank of Popocatepetl Volcano, a high risk volcano located 60 km SE from Mexico City. Water samples from three springs were also studied for radon as well as major and trace elements. Radon in the soil was recorded using track detectors. Radon in the water samples was evaluated using the liquid scintillation method and an Alphaguard. The major elements were determined through conventional chemical methods and trace elements using an ICP-MS equipment. Soil radon levels were low, indicating a moderate diffuse degassing through the flanks of the volcano. Groundwater radon had almost no relation with the eruptive stages. Water chemistry was stable in the reported time (2000–2002).     

Jet physics in ALICE

The strong suppression of high-p_T hadrons observed in heavy ion collisions at RHIC indicates the interaction of high energy partons with a dense colored medium prior to hadronization. We review the main results from the high-p_T hadron analysis at RHIC and what they tell us about the medium. We then concentrate on the new possibilities that the wider kinematic range at the LHC will offer and how they will help us to better characterize the medium produced in these collisions.