Effective potential of scalar-tensor gravity with quartic self-interaction of scalar field

One-loop effective potential of scalar-tensor gravity with a quartic scalar field self-interaction is evaluated up to first post-Minkowskian order. The potential develops an instability in the strong field regime which is expected from an effective theory. Depending on model parameters the instability region can be exponentially far in a strong field region. Possible applications of the model for inflationary scenarios are highlighted. It is shown that the model can enter the slow-roll regime with a certain set of parameters.

The morphological and biological characteristics of the specimens from Monarda didyma

The plants of the genus Monarda of the family Lamiaceae are little known in our country. The species Monarda didyma is mainly distributed. It is used in landscaping as a perennial ornamental crop. In addition to its original blossoms, it has a pleasant aroma combining the aromas of bergamot, lemon and mint, due to the essential oils contained in the leaves, blossoms and stems of the plant. The Institute of Ornamental and Medicinal Plants - Sofia has a perennial species collection in which the genus Monarda is represendted by 32 genotypes of the Monarda didyma species. The plants are characterized by different habit, color and shape of the blossoms. During the phenological observations it was established that in the Sofia field region the Мonarda vegetation begins in the beginning of March and ends in the beginning of October. The flowering period in almost all samples covers the months of June to August, with mass flowering in the beginning of July. Biometric measurements show differences in the size of the tufts formed, the size of the leaves and the flowers. After analyzes, genotypes with emphasized decorative qualities were separated, which will be used to diversify the range of seedlings in the Monarda didyma type offered on the market.

Frozen n-Tetradecane Investigated by Cryo-Atom Probe Tomography

Atom probe tomography (APT) has been established in the microscopic chemical and spatial analysis of metallic or semiconductors nanostructures. In recent years, and especially with the development of a transfer shuttle system and adapted preparation protocols, the field of frozen liquids has been opened up. Still, very limited knowledge is available about the evaporation and fragmentation behavior of frozen liquids in APT. In this work, efforts were made to extend the method toward organic and biological soft matter, which are mostly built from hydrocarbon chains, the evaporation and fragmentation behavior of simple alkane chains (n-tetradecanes). Tetradecane shows a very complex evaporation behavior whereby peaks of C1–C15 can be observed. Based on multihit events and the representation of these in correlation plots, more detailed information about the evaporation behavior and the decay of molecules into smaller fragments in the region near the tip can be studied. A variety of different dissociation tracks of larger molecules in their excited state and their subsequent decay in low-field regions, on the way to the detector, could be observed and the dissociation zone in the low-field region was calculated.

Coupling of Potential Flow and CFD Model for Fluid and Structure Interactions

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools are widely used to simulate wave and structure interactions in marine & offshore industry. However, conventional CFD tools require significant computational resources. This is largely due to the requirement of large computational domain to ensure adequate development of nonlinear wave evolutions as well as to avoid boundary effects resulting from wave interacting with any fixed or floating structures in the domain. Furthermore, very fine mesh elements are required to avoid excessive numerical dissipation during wave propagation. All of these factors will significantly increase the computational costs, resulting in the conventional CFD approaches being impractical for simulations of wave-structure interactions over a long duration. In this paper, a coupled potential flow and CFD model is developed to reduce the simulation cost. The model decomposes the simulation domain into far-field and near-field region. Wave propagation in the far-field region is simulated by a potential flow solver (High-Order Spectral or HOS method), while the wave-structure interactions in the near-field region are simulated by a fully nonlinear, viscous, and two-phase CFD solver (Star-CCM+). A forcing zone is distributed between the two regions to blend the computational outputs from the potential flow into the CFD solvers. The coupling algorithm has been developed to improve the accuracy and efficiency. The coupled solver is applied to simulate two cases, namely regular wave propagation, and regular wave interaction with a vertical cylinder. Finally, a simulation of a 3D wave encountering an FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) is presented.

3D conformal bandpass millimeter-wave frequency selective surface with improved fields of view

Conventional planar frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) are characterized in the far-field region and they are sensitive to the incidence angle of impinging waves. In this paper, a spherical dome FSS is presented, aiming to provide improved angular stable bandpass filtering performance as compared to its planar counterpart when the FSS is placed in the near-field region of an antenna source. A comparison between the conformal FSS and a finite planar FSS is presented through simulations at the frequency range between 26 to 40 GHz in order to demonstrate the advantages of utilizing the conformal FSS in the near-field. The conformal FSS is 3D printed and copper electroplated, which leads to a low-cost and lightweight bandpass filter array. Placing it in the near-field region of a primary antenna can be used as radomes to realize compact high-performance mm-wave systems. The comparison between simulated and measured conformal FSS results is in good agreement. The challenges that arise when designing, manufacturing, and measuring this type of structure are reported and guidelines to overcome these are presented.

Experimental observation of asymmetrical microwave jets and far-field distribution generated by a dual-material system

In this paper, we report the experimental and numerical investigation of plane wave diffraction by an all-dielectric dual-material cuboid. Edge diffraction by a cuboid leads to the generation of a narrow, high intensity beam in the near-field region called a photonic jet. We examine the dependence of the jet behavior and orientation on the materials and dimensions of constitutive parts in the microwave frequency domain. The possibility to shift and deviate the resultant microwave jet in the near-field region of such a structure depending on the size of constitutive parts is demonstrated numerically. Experimentally, we observe a shift in the spatial position of the jet. The experimental asymmetric electric field profile observed in the far-field region is attributed to the input of multiple edge waves generated by the dual-material cuboid. The presented results may be scaled at different frequency bands such as optical frequencies for designing nanostructures enabling the focusing and deviation functionality and creation of new optical devices which would satisfy the needs of emerging nanophotonic applications.

Far-Field Impacts of a Super Typhoon on Upper Ocean Phytoplankton Dynamics

Super typhoon Rammasun (2014) traveled across the South China Sea on July 16–18. Its far-field impacts on phytoplankton dynamics in the upper ocean were documented by a Biogeochemical-Argo (BGC-Argo) float located 200 km to the left of its track. Both surface chlorophyll-a concentration (Chla) and particulate backscattering coefficient (bbp) were observed to increase substantially within two distinct stages. The initial increase occurred during the passage of the typhoon, and the subsequent increase happened 5 days after the typhoon. In contrast, depth-integrated Chla and bbp in the upper 150 m underwent negligible changes throughout the entire period. The key lies in the fact that surface phytoplankton increases in the far-field region resulted from the physically driven vertical redistribution of particles, rather than from biological alternations. The first increase was attributed to the typhoon-induced strong turbulence which deepened the surface mixed layer, and thus entrained subsurface particles to the surface; the second was due to the post-typhoon adiabatic quasi-geostrophic adjustment of the upper ocean that gradually raised the isopycnals (and thus subsurface particles). These results challenge the prevailing wisdom on typhoon impacts, and thus shed new lights on the nature of the upper ocean responses to typhoons from both physical and biological perspectives.

Analytical solution for unsteady flow behind ionizing shock wave in a rotational axisymmetric non-ideal gas with azimuthal or axial magnetic field

The approximate analytical solution for the propagation of gas ionizing cylindrical blast (shock) wave in a rotational axisymmetric non-ideal gas with azimuthal or axial magnetic field is investigated. The axial and azimuthal components of fluid velocity are taken into consideration and these flow variables, magnetic field in the ambient medium are assumed to be varying according to the power laws with distance from the axis of symmetry. The shock is supposed to be strong one for the ratio C 0 V s 2 ${\left(\frac{{C}_{0}}{{V}_{s}}\right)}^{2}$ to be a negligible small quantity, where C 0 is the sound velocity in undisturbed fluid and V S is the shock velocity. In the undisturbed medium the density is assumed to be constant to obtain the similarity solution. The flow variables in power series of C 0 V s 2 ${\left(\frac{{C}_{0}}{{V}_{s}}\right)}^{2}$ are expanded to obtain the approximate analytical solutions. The first order and second order approximations to the solutions are discussed with the help of power series expansion. For the first order approximation the analytical solutions are derived. In the flow-field region behind the blast wave the distribution of the flow variables in the case of first order approximation is shown in graphs. It is observed that in the flow field region the quantity J 0 increases with an increase in the value of gas non-idealness parameter or Alfven-Mach number or rotational parameter. Hence, the non-idealness of the gas and the presence of rotation or magnetic field have decaying effect on shock wave.