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At least 451 records · Page 25

Neutrino Trapping and Out-of-Equilibrium Effects in Binary Neutron-Star Merger Remnants

We study out-of-thermodynamic-equilibrium effects in neutron-star mergers with 3D general-relativistic neutrino-radiation large-eddy simulations. During mergers, the cores of the neutron stars remain cold (T ~ a few MeV) and out of thermodynamic equilibrium with trapped neutrinos originating from the hot collisional interface between the stars. However, within ~2 to 3 ms matter and neutrinos reach equilibrium everywhere in the remnant massive neutron star. Furthermore, our results show that dissipative effects, such as bulk viscosity, if present, are only active for a short window of time after the merger.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NUMERICAL CALCULATION OF LOSSES OF TRAPPED VORTICES UNDER STRONG RF MEISSNER CURRENT AND DC SUPERHEATING FIELD IN TYPE II SUPERCONDUCTORS

Research on the vortex dynamics and enhancing of superheating field in superconductors has attracted much attention in accelerator physics community to develop next-generation high-performance accelerator cavities. However, the extreme dynamics of curvilinear elastic vortices driven by very strong currents close to the depairing limit or superheating field of a superconductor with a nanostructured surface has not been well understood. We calculated the superheating field Hsh and critical momentum kc characterizing the wavelength of the instability ?m of the Meissner state to flux penetration by solving numerically the Ginzburg?Landau equations. A bulk superconductor, superconductor with the inhomogeneous surface disorder (S-S), and multilayered surface (S-I-S) have been thoroughly investigated in this work. Our result showed that S-S and S-I-S structures can enhance the superheating field well above their clean limit. In this work extensive numerical simulation of the power dissipated by an oscillating vortex segment driven by the surface ac Meissner currents was performed. Our simulations take into account the nonlinear vortex line tension, vortex mass, Bardeen?Stephen viscous vortex drag applicable at low fields, and nonlinear Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) viscous drag coefficient ?(v) at high fields and pinning force. We showed that the LO decrease of ?(v) with the vortex velocity v could radically change the field dependence of the surface resistance Ri(H) caused by trapped vortices. At low frequencies Ri(H) exhibits a conventional increase with H. However, as frequency increases, the surface resistance becomes a nonmonotonic function of H which decreases with H at higher fields irrespective of the pinning distribution. Overheating can mask the descending field dependence of Ri(H) as frequency increases. Our numerical simulations also show that the LO effect can cause a vortex bending instability at high field amplitudes and frequencies, giving rise to the formation of dynamic kinks along with the vortex when a vortex is pinned strongly to one end. Nonlinear losses of trapped vortices in thick films under high-amplitude RF fields as functions of frequency, mean free path and pinning characteristics have been calculated.

Pathirana, Walive↗

Colloidal superionic conductors

Nanoparticles with highly asymmetric sizes and charges that self-assemble into crystals via electrostatics may exhibit behaviors reminiscent of those of metals or superionic materials. Here, we use coarse-grained molecular simulations with underdamped Langevin dynamics to explore how a binary charged colloidal crystal reacts to an external electric field. As the field strength increases, we find transitions from insulator (ionic state), to superionic (conductive state), to laning, to complete melting (liquid state). In the superionic state, the resistivity decreases with increasing temperature, which is contrary to metals, yet the increment decreases as the electric field becomes stronger. Additionally, we verify that the dissipation of the system and the fluctuation of charge currents obey recently developed thermodynamic uncertainty relation. Our results describe charge transport mechanisms in colloidal superionic conductors.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Interplay between LHCSR proteins and state transitions governs the NPQ response in Chlamydomonas during light fluctuations

Abstract Photosynthetic organisms use sunlight as the primary energy source to fix CO 2 . However, in nature, light energy is highly variable, reaching levels of saturation for periods ranging from milliseconds to hours. In the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii , safe dissipation of excess light energy by nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) is mediated by light‐harvesting complex stress‐related (LHCSR) proteins and redistribution of light‐harvesting antennae between the photosystems (state transition). Although each component underlying NPQ has been documented, their relative contributions to NPQ under fluctuating light conditions remain unknown. Here, by monitoring NPQ in intact cells throughout high light/dark cycles of various illumination periods, we find that the dynamics of NPQ depend on the timescales of light fluctuations. We show that LHCSRs play a major role during the light phases of light fluctuations and describe their role in growth under rapid light fluctuations. We further reveal an activation of NPQ during the dark phases of all high light/dark cycles and show that this phenomenon arises from state transition. Finally, we show that LHCSRs and state transition synergistically cooperate to enable NPQ response during light fluctuations. These results highlight the dynamic functioning of photoprotection under light fluctuations and open a new way to systematically characterize the photosynthetic response to an ever‐changing light environment.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Detailed mixing measurements from single-hole converging ECN injectors using Rayleigh scattering

Time resolved liquid and vapor fields of dodecane and oxymethylene ethers are measured from Spray A-3 and Spray D using high speed Rayleigh scattering and diffuse back illumination at the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) Spray A condition of 900 K and 22.8 kg/m 3 . Global quantities including mixture fraction, vapor and liquid penetration, as well as spreading angle are measured. The mixture fraction fields and vapor penetration profiles are well predicted by the 1-D Musculus-Kattke model. The mixture fraction field and vapor penetration from Spray A-3 are similar to those measured from Spray A in previous works. Spray D exhibits higher mixture fraction fields and vapor penetration due to its larger nozzle diameter. The quasi-steady mixture fraction fields from these injectors scale well when distance from the injector is normalized by the nozzle diameter. The turbulent dissipation structures were also analyzed based on the orientation, thickness, and magnitude of the mixing layers. Furthermore, the orientation and thickness are similar to other measurements in atmospheric gas jets, while the magnitude is lower. The thickness and magnitude are subject to uncertainties due to limitations in the imaging resolution of the system but still provide an order of magnitude as a useful reference for comparison against computational fluid dynamic simulations.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Decoherence and Brownian motion of a polarizable particle near a medium

Optically levitated nanoparticles are ideal experimental testbeds for investigating macroscopic superpositions and microscopic thermodynamics. Integrating such levitated nanoparticles with photonic structures can enable strong coupling between their center-of-mass motion and guided photonic modes, facilitating enhanced control and probing of their motion. When coupling a particle to a photonic structure, such as a waveguide, the effects of fluctuations become prominent at nanoscales. In this work, we analyze the classical and quantized center-of-mass motion of a polarizable particle interacting with the fluctuations of the electromagnetic field in the presence of a medium. We derive a position localization master equation for the particle's quantized center of mass, and examine its classical center-of-mass momentum diffusion, elucidating correspondences between classical and quantum Brownian motion of polarizable particles near media. We study the decoherence rate of the particle in the presence of a planar surface as a function of temperature and distance from the surface, comparing it to common sources of decoherence. Our results are pertinent to experiments aimed at preparing levitated nanospheres in macroscopic quantum states and investigating their Brownian dynamics.

Brownian motion↗

Dynamics of Spin Polarization in Tilted Polariton Rings

We have observed the effect of pseudomagnetic field originating from the polaritonic analog of spin-orbit coupling [transverse electric and transverse magnetic (TE-TM) splitting] on a polariton condensate in a ring-shaped microcavity. The effect gives rise to a stable four-leaf pattern around the ring as seen from the linear polarization measurements of the condensate photoluminescence. This pattern is found to originate from the interplay of the cavity potential, energy relaxation, and TE-TM splitting in the ring. Our observations are compared to the dissipative one-dimensional spinor Gross-Pitaevskii equation with the TE-TM splitting energy, which shows good qualitative agreement.

CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS↗

Spin waves and high-frequency response in layered superconductors with helical magnetic structure

Here, we evaluate the spin-wave spectrum and dynamic susceptibility in a layered superconductor with helical interlayer magnetic structure. We especially focus on the structure in which the moments rotate 90 degrees from layer to layer realized in the iron pnictide RbEuFe 4 As 4 . While in nonmagnetic superconductors low-frequency magnetic field decays on the distance of the order of the London penetration depth, spin waves mediate its propagation to much larger distances limited by external dissipation mechanisms. The spin-wave spectrum in superconductors is strongly renormalized due to the long-range electromagnetic interactions between the oscillating magnetic moments. This leads to strong enhancement of the frequency of the mode coupled with uniform field and this enhancement exists only within a narrow range of the c-axis wave vectors of the order of the inverse London penetration depth. The key feature of materials like RbEuFe 4 As 4 is that this uniform mode corresponds to the maximum frequency of the spin-wave spectrum with respect to the c-axis wave vector. As a consequence, the high-frequency surface resistance acquires a very distinct asymmetric feature spreading between the bare and renormalized frequencies. Finally, we also consider excitation of spin waves with the Josephson effect in a tunneling contact between helical-magnetic and conventional superconductors and study the interplay between the spin-wave features and geometrical cavity resonances in the current-voltage characteristics.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Numerical Modeling of Atmospheric Rime Ice Accretion on an Airfoil Using an Eulerian Approach

This paper presents an approach to numerically simulate the inherently unsteady rime ice accretion problem on a two-dimensional airfoil and elucidate the associated variations under different icing conditions. The airflow field and the water impingement on the airfoil are obtained based on an Eulerian two-phase model. A dynamic mesh strategy is employed to unsteadily account for the changes in the ice profile and its impact on the air and droplet flow by continuously reconstructing the computational grid at each time-step through smoothing and layering mechanisms. All main icing modules including the airflow field, droplet trajectory, icing thickness profile, and mesh management are fully coupled within the same computational framework without resorting to any external tools. Classical icing theory is employed to model the rime ice roughness, and it is assumed that the ice accretes in a direction normal to the airfoil surface. The governing Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) conservation equations along with the energy and continuity equations are solved to produce the velocity and temperature fields. A convective film heat transfer coefficient is computed based on the surface heat flux and a recovery temperature which takes into account the dissipative heat release in the boundary layer in the vicinity of the airfoil surface. With the implemented strategy and calculating the convective heat transfer coefficient, the water film thickness is also calculated along with the ice shape. Furthermore, the model is validated by comparing the local collection efficiency distribution and ice shape with experimental data, and the results show that the implemented approach provides acceptable predictions of ice accretion profiles and rates.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Semi-Lagrangian nodal discontinuous Galerkin method for the BGK model

In this work, we propose a semi-Lagrangian (SL) nodal discontinuous Galerkin (DG) solver for the BGK equation. The BGK model was introduced by Bhatnagar, Gross, and Krook [1] as a relaxation model for the fundamental Boltzmann equation [5], which describes the kinetic dynamic of rarefied gases with a probability distribution function. The challenges of designing efficient numerical schemes for the Boltzmann equation mainly come from its high dimensionality and complicated nonlinear collision operator. The BGK model gains interests since it has much lower computational cost, due to the relatively simple structure of the relaxation operator in replacement of the collision operator, while simultaneously preserving several important physical properties, such as macroscopic quantities and dissipation of entropy.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Cost-efficient finite-volume high-order schemes for compressible magnetohydrodynamics

We present an efficient dimension-by-dimension finite-volume method which solves the adiabatic magnetohydrodynamics equations at high discretization order, using the constrained-transport approach on Cartesian grids. Results are presented up to tenth order of accuracy. The algorithmic architecture of this method is very close to that of commonly employed second-order schemes: it requires only one reconstructed value per face for each computational cell, independently of the scheme's order. This property is highly beneficial for the numerical efficiency. It results from reusing the required values already available in neighboring grid cells, in contrast to standard algorithms that require a number of reconstructions and evaluations which increases with the scheme's order of accuracy. At a given resolution, these high-order schemes present significantly less numerical dissipation than commonly employed lower-order approaches. Thus, results of comparable accuracy are achievable at a substantially coarser resolution, yielding overall performance gains. We also present a way to include physical dissipative terms: viscosity, magnetic diffusivity and cooling functions, respecting the finite-volume and constrained-transport frameworks. Benefits of this method are shown through applications in turbulent flows.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Light regulation of light-harvesting antenna size substantially enhances photosynthetic efficiency and biomass yield in green algae

One of the major factors limiting biomass productivity in algae is the low thermodynamic efficiency of photosynthesis. The greatest thermodynamic inefficiencies in photosynthesis occur during the conversion of light into chemical energy. At full sunlight the light-harvesting antenna captures photons at a rate nearly 10 times faster than the rate-limiting step in photosynthetic electron transport. Excess captured energy is dissipated by non-productive pathways including the production of reactive oxygen species. Substantial improvements in photosynthetic efficiency have been achieved by reducing the optical cross-section of the light-harvesting antenna by selectively reducing chlorophyll b levels and peripheral light-harvesting complex subunits. Smaller light-harvesting antenna, however, may not exhibit optimal photosynthetic performance in low or fluctuating light environments. Additionally, we describe a translational control system to dynamically adjust light-harvesting antenna sizes for enhanced photosynthetic performance. Furthermore, by expressing a chlorophyllide a oxygenase (CAO) gene having a 5' mRNA extension encoding a Nab1 translational repressor binding site in a CAO knockout line it was possible to continuously alter chlorophyll b levels and correspondingly light-harvesting antenna sizes by light-activated Nab1 repression of CAO expression as a function of growth light intensity. Significantly, algae having light-regulated antenna sizes had substantially higher photosynthetic rates and two-fold greater biomass productivity than the parental wild-type strains as well as near wild-type ability to carry out state transitions and non-photochemical quenching. These results have broad implications for enhanced algae and plant biomass productivity.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Connecting energetics to dynamics in particle growth by oriented attachment using real-time observations

The interplay between crystal and solvent structure, interparticle forces and ensemble particle response dynamics governs the process of crystallization by oriented attachment (OA), yet a quantitative understanding is lacking. Using as a model system ZnO, we combine in situ TEM observations of single particle and ensemble assembly dynamics with simulations of interparticle forces and responses to relate experimentally derived interparticle potentials to the underlying interactions. We show that OA is driven by forces and torques due to a combination of electrostatic ion-solvent correlations and dipolar interactions that act at separations well beyond 5 nm. Importantly, coalignment is achieved before particles reach separations at which strong attractions drive the final jump to contact. The observed barrier to attachment is negligible, while dissipative factors in the quasi-2D confinement of the TEM fluid cell lead to abnormal diffusivities with timescales for rotation much less than for translation, thus enabling OA to dominate.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Fracture mechanisms of sodium silicate glasses

Reactive classical molecular dynamics simulations of sodium silicate glasses, xNa 2 O–(100 – x)SiO 2 (x = 10–30), under quasi-static loading, were performed for the analysis of molecular scale fracture mechanisms. Mechanical properties of the sodium silicate glasses were consistent with experimentally reported values, and the amount of crack propagation varied with reported fracture toughness values. The most crack propagation occurred in NS20 systems (20-mol% Na 2 O) compared with the other simulated compositions. Dissipation via two mechanisms, the first through sodium migration as a lower activation energy process and the second through structural rearrangement as a higher activation energy process, was calculated and accounted for the energy that was not stored elastically or associated with the formation of new fracture surfaces. Here, a correlation between crack propagation and energy dissipation was identified, with systems with higher crack propagation exhibiting less energy dissipation. Sodium silicate glass compositions with lower energy dissipation also exhibited the most sodium movement and structural rearrangement within 10 Å of the crack tip during loading. Therefore, high sodium mobility near the crack tip may enable energy dissipation without requiring formation of structural defects. Therefore, the varying mobilities of the network modifiers near crack tips influence the brittleness and the crack growth rate of modified amorphous oxide systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Dynamical chemistry: non-equilibrium effective actions for reactive fluids

Abstract We present two approaches for describing chemical reactions taking place in fluid phase. The first method mirrors the usual derivation of the hydrodynamic equations of motion by relating conserved—or to account for chemical reactions, non-conserved—currents to local-equilibrium parameters. The second method involves a higher-brow approach in which we attack the same problem from the perspective of non-equilibrium effective field theory (EFT). Non-equilibrium effective actions are defined using the in–in formalism on the Schwinger–Keldysh contour and are therefore capable of describing thermal fluctuations and dissipation as well as quantum effects. The non-equilibrium EFT approach is especially powerful as all terms in the action are fully specified by the symmetries of the system; in particular the second law of thermodynamics does not need to be included by hand, but is instead derived from the action itself. We find that the equations of motion generated by both methods agree, but the EFT approach yields certain advantages. To demonstrate some of these advantages we construct a quadratic action that is valid to very small distance scales—much smaller than the scales at which ordinary hydrodynamic theories break down. Such an action captures the full thermodynamic and quantum behavior of reactions and diffusion at quadratic order. Finally, taking the low-frequency and low-wavenumber limit, we reproduce the linearized version of the well-known reaction–diffusion equations as a final coherence check.

Mechanics↗

On the discretization error of the discrete generalized quantum master equation

The transfer tensor method (TTM) [Cerrillo and Cao, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 , 110401 (2014)] can be considered a discrete-time formulation of the Nakajima–Zwanzig quantum master equation (NZ-QME) for modeling non-Markovian quantum dynamics. A recent paper [Makri, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 21 , 5037 (2025)] raised concerns regarding the consistency of the TTM discretization, particularly a spurious term at the initial time t = 0. Here, this work presents a detailed analysis of the discretization structure of the TTM, clarifying the origin of the initial-time correction and establishing a consistent relationship between the TTM discrete-time memory kernel K N and the continuous-time NZ-QME kernel $\mathscr{K}$( N Δ t ). This relationship is validated numerically using the spin-boson model, demonstrating convergence of reconstructed memory kernels and accurate dynamical evolution as Δ t → 0. While the TTM provides a consistent discretization, we note that alternative schemes are also viable, such as the midpoint derivative/midpoint integral scheme proposed in Makri’s work. The relative performance of various schemes for either computing accurate $\mathscr{K}$( N Δ t ) from exact dynamics or obtaining accurate dynamics from exact $\mathscr{K}$( N Δ t ) warrants further investigation.

Density-matrix↗

Characterizing skyrmion flow phases with principal component analysis

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a powerful method that can identify patterns in large, complex data sets by constructing low-dimensional order parameters from higher-dimensional feature vectors. There are increasing efforts to use space-and-time-dependent PCA to detect transitions in nonequilibrium systems that are difficult to characterize with equilibrium methods. Here, we demonstrate that feature vectors incorporating the position and velocity information of driven skyrmions moving through random disorder permit PCA to resolve different types of disordered skyrmion motion as a function of driving force and the ratio of the Magnus force to the dissipation. Since the Magnus force creates gyroscopic motion and a finite Hall angle, skyrmions can exhibit a greater range of flow phases than what is observed in overdamped driven systems with quenched disorder. We show that in addition to identifying previously known skyrmion flow phases, PCA detects several additional phases, including different types of channel flow, moving fluids, and partially ordered states. Guided by the PCA analysis, we further characterize the disordered flow phases to elucidate the different microscopic dynamics and show that the changes in the PCA-derived order parameters can be connected to features in bulk transport measures, including the transverse and longitudinal velocity-force curves, differential conductivity, topological defect density, and changes in the skyrmion Hall angle as a function of drive. We discuss how asymmetric feature vectors can be used to improve the resolution of the PCA analysis, and how this technique can be extended to find disordered phases in other nonequilibrium systems with time-dependent dynamics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗