ALBERT

Description: Direct numerical simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) between two air masses with a temperature difference of 70 K is presented using compressible Navier-Stokes formulation in a non-equilibrium thermodynamic framework. The two-dimensional flow is studied in an isolated box with non-periodic walls in both vertical and horizontal directions. The non-conducting interface separating the two air masses is impulsively removed at t = 0 (depicting a heaviside function). No external perturbation has been used at the interface to instigate the instability at the onset. Computations have been carried out for rectangular and square cross sections. The formulation is free of Boussinesq approximation commonly used in many Navier-Stokes formulations for RTI. Effect of Stokes’ hypothesis is quantified, by using models from acoustic attenuation measurement for the second coefficient of viscosity from two experiments. Effects of Stokes’ hypothesis on growth of mixing layer and evolution of total entropy for the Rayleigh-Taylor system are reported. The initial rate of growth is observed to be independent of Stokes’ hypothesis and the geometry of the box. Following this stage, growth rate is dependent on the geometry of the box and is sensitive to the model used. As a consequence of compressible formulation, we capture pressure wave-packets with associated reflection and rarefaction from the non-periodic walls. The pattern and frequency of reflections of pressure waves noted specifically at the initial stages are reflected in entropy variation of the system.

Description: Colloidal particles were exposed to a random potential energy landscape that has been created optically via a speckle pattern. The mean particle density as well as the potential roughness, i.e., the disorder strength, were varied. The local probability density of the particles as well as its main characteristics were determined. For the first time, the disorder-averaged pair density correlation function g (1) ( r ) and an analogue of the Edwards-Anderson order parameter g (2) ( r ), which quantifies the correlation of the mean local density among disorder realisations, were measured experimentally and shown to be consistent with replica liquid state theory results.

Description: A rigorous and systematic computational and theoretical study, the first of its kind, for the laminar natural convective flow above rectangular horizontal surfaces of various aspect ratios ϕ (from 1 to ∞) is presented. Two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations (for ϕ → ∞) and three-dimensional CFD simulations (for 1 ≤ ϕ 〈 ∞) are performed to establish and elucidate the role of finiteness of the horizontal planform on the thermo-fluid-dynamics of natural convection. Great care is taken here to ensure grid independence and domain independence of the presented solutions. The results of the CFD simulations are compared with experimental data and similarity theory to understand how the existing simplified results fit, in the appropriate limiting cases, with the complex three-dimensional solutions revealed here. The present computational study establishes the region of a high-aspect-ratio planform over which the results of the similarity theory are approximately valid, the extent of this region depending on the Grashof number. There is, however, a region near the edge of the plate and another region near the centre of the plate (where a plume forms) in which the similarity theory results do not apply. The sizes of these non-compliance zones decrease as the Grashof number is increased. The present study also shows that the similarity velocity profile is not strictly obtained at any location over the plate because of the entrainment effect of the central plume. The 3-D CFD simulations of the present paper are coordinated to clearly reveal the separate and combined effects of three important aspects of finiteness: the presence of leading edges, the presence of planform centre, and the presence of physical corners in the planform. It is realised that the finiteness due to the presence of physical corners in the planform arises only for a finite value of ϕ in the case of 3-D CFD simulations (and not in 2-D CFD simulations or similarity theory). The presence of physical corners is related here to several significant aspects of the solution—the conversion of in-plane velocity to out-of-plane velocity near the diagonals, the star-like non-uniform distribution of surface heat flux on heated planforms, the three-dimensionality of the temperature field, and the complex spatial structure of the velocity iso-surfaces. A generic theoretical correlation for the Nusselt number is deduced for the averaged surface heat flux for various rectangular surfaces (1 ≤ ϕ 〈 ∞) over a wide range of Grashof number. Innovative use of numerical visualization images is made to generate a comprehensive, quantitative understanding of the physical processes involved.

Description: Heating of collisionless plasmas in closed adiabatic magnetic cycle comprising of a quasi static compression followed by a non quasi static constrained expansion against a constant external pressure is proposed. Thermodynamic constraints are derived to show that the plasma always gains heat in cycles having at least one non quasi static process. The turbulent relaxation of the plasma to the equilibrium state at the end of the non quasi static expansion is discussed and verified via 1D Particle in Cell (PIC) simulations. Applications of this scheme to heating plasmas in open configurations (mirror machines) and closed configurations (tokamak, reverse field pinche) are discussed.

Description: Superconducting nanowires can be fabricated by decomposition of an organometallic gas using a focused beam of Ga ions. However, physical damage and unintentional doping often result from the exposure to the ion beam, motivating the search for a means to achieve similar structures with a beam of electrons instead of ions. This has so far remained an experimental challenge. We report the fabrication of superconducting tungsten nanowires by electron-beam-induced-deposition, with critical temperature of 2.0 K and critical magnetic field of 3.7 T, and compare them with superconducting wires made with ions. This work is an important development for the template-free realization of nanoscale superconducting devices, without the requirement of an ion beam column.

Description: A device based on current-induced spin-orbit torque (SOT) that functions as an electronic neuron is proposed in this work. The SOT device implements an artificial neuron's thresholding (transfer) function. In the first step of a two-step switching scheme, a charge current places the magnetization of a nano-magnet along the hard-axis, i.e., an unstable point for the magnet. In the second step, the SOT device (neuron) receives a current (from the synapses) which moves the magnetization from the unstable point to one of the two stable states. The polarity of the synaptic current encodes the excitatory and inhibitory nature of the neuron input and determines the final orientation of the magnetization. A resistive crossbar array, functioning as synapses, generates a bipolar current that is a weighted sum of the inputs. The simulation of a two layer feed-forward artificial neural network based on the SOT electronic neuron shows that it consumes ∼3× lower power than a 45 nm digital CMOS implementation, while reaching ∼80% accuracy in the classification of 100 images of handwritten digits from the MNIST dataset.

Description: Journal of Physical Oceanography, Ahead of Print. 〈br/〉