Precorrected-FFT Accelerated Singular Boundary Method for High-Frequency Acoustic Radiation and Scattering

This paper presents a precorrected-FFT (pFFT) accelerated singular boundary method (SBM) for acoustic radiation and scattering in the high-frequency regime. The SBM is a boundary-type collocation method, which is truly free of mesh and integration and easy to program. However, due to the expensive CPU time and memory requirement in solving a fully-populated interpolation matrix equation, this method is usually limited to low-frequency acoustic problems. A new pFFT scheme is introduced to overcome this drawback. Since the models with lots of collocation points can be calculated by the new pFFT accelerated SBM (pFFT-SBM), high-frequency acoustic problems can be simulated. The results of numerical examples show that the new pFFT-SBM possesses an obvious advantage for high-frequency acoustic problems.

Berry–Esseen Bounds of the Quasi Maximum Likelihood Estimators for the Discretely Observed Diffusions

For stationary ergodic diffusions satisfying nonlinear homogeneous Itô stochastic differential equations, this paper obtains the Berry–Esseen bounds on the rates of convergence to normality of the distributions of the quasi maximum likelihood estimators based on stochastic Taylor approximation, under some regularity conditions, when the diffusion is observed at equally spaced dense time points over a long time interval, the high-frequency regime. It shows that the higher-order stochastic Taylor approximation-based estimators perform better than the basic Euler approximation in the sense of having smaller asymptotic variance.

Average density of states of amorphous Hamiltonians: role of phonon mediated coupling of nano-clusters

Based on a description of an amorphous solid as a collection of coupled nanosize molecular clusters referred as basic blocks, we analyse the statistical properties of its Hamiltonian. The information is then used to derive the ensemble averaged density of the vibrational states (nonphonon) which turns out to be a Gaussian in the bulk of the spectrum and an Airy function in the low frequency regime. A comparison with experimental data for five glasses confirms validity of our theoretical predictions.

Jeans analysis with κ-deformed Kaniadakis distribution in f (R) gravity

The influence of the κ-deformed Kaniadakis distribution on Jeans instability in the background of f(R) gravity is investigated, the dispersion relation considering the κ-deformed Kaniadakis distribution is derived by exploiting the kinetic theory. The cases of high and low frequency perturbations are analyzed, respectively, it is found that the range of the unstable modes and the growth rates decrease with the increased distribution index κ in both of high and low frequency regime. Finally, based on the derivation of effective temperature, the relation between Jeans mass and temperature is studied, it is found that lower Jeans mass means that the system is more likely to collapse due to gravitational instability, the system is unstable for lower distribution index κ.

Remnant Radio Galaxy Candidates of Small Angular Sizes

Remnant radio galaxies (RRGs), characterized by the cessation of AGN activity, represent a short-lived last phase of radio galaxy’s life-cycle. Hitherto, searches for RRGs, mainly based on the morphological criteria, have identified large angular size sources resulting into a bias towards the remnants of powerful FR-II radio galaxies. In this study we make the first attempt to perform a systematic search for RRGs of small angular sizes (<30′′) in the XMM−LSS field. By using spectral curvature criterion we discover 48 remnant candidates exhibiting strong spectral curvature i.e., α150MHz325MHz−α325MHz1.4GHz≥ 0.5. Spectral characteristics at higher frequency regime (>1.4 GHz) indicate that some of our remnant candidates can depict recurrent AGN activity with an active core. We place an upper limit on the remnant fraction (frem) to be 3.9%, which increases to 5.4% if flux cutoff limit of S150MHz≥ 10 mJy is considered. Our study unveils, hitherto unexplored, a new population of small-size (<200 kpc) remnant candidates that are often found to reside in less dense environments and at higher redshifts (z) > 1.0. We speculate that a relatively shorter active phase and/or low jet power can be plausible reasons for the small size of remnant candidates.

Current-pumping performance of axial-symmetric superconducting dynamo designs

<p>In this project, the current pumping performances of three high temperature superconducting (HTS) dynamos (mechanically-rotating flux pumps) were investigated. These flux pumps (FPs) were identified as the Gen 1, Gen 2 and Gen 4 FP respectively. They were modelled using simple DC equivalent circuits and their performances were defined by three output parameters: DC open-circuit voltage (Voc), dynamic resistance (Rd) and DC short-circuit current (Isc). The experimental results showed that these FPs produced non-zero DC output voltages across their stators and each supplied DC output currents into series connected superconducting circuits. The Gen 1 FP was cooled with liquid nitrogen and operated at 77 K. The stators were made from 12-mm wide copper-coated yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) HTS conductors. The objective of the experiment was to investigate the effect of the rotor magnet size, geometry and orientation (with respect to the stators) on the FP performance. The design parameters, based on the width and the length of the magnet with respect to the stator, for optimal FP performance were determined. The Gen 2 FP was also cooled with liquid nitrogen and operated at 77 K. The stators were made from 46-mm wide Ag-coated YBCO HTS conductors. The objective of the experiment was to investigate the effect of stator width on the FP performance at various magnet frequencies. This was done by slitting two of the stators to form parallel stators with equal width, but smaller than the original conductor width. The experimental results showed that the FP performance was highly dependent on the operating frequency. Three operating frequency regimes were observed: low, mid and high. At high frequency, the Voc decreased and the Rd increased signifcantly. This was attributed to the local heating effect in the stator due to the increase in the current density. As a result, the FP produced zero output current in this regime. The AC voltage waveforms measured across the stators in different frequency regimes were very different in shapes and amplitudes. Therefore, these waveforms can be used to identify the operating frequency regime of the FP. At some operating frequencies in the mid frequency regime, bi-stable operating modes were observed, each mode resulted in different output parameters. The Gen 4 FP was constructed in this project. It was cooled via thermal conduction method using a cryorefrigerator system. It had an axial-symmetric stator design where the shape of the stator is cylindrical. The width of the stator was considerably larger compared with the Gen 1 and Gen 2 FPs. The experiment objective was to investigate whether this design would produce a DC current, and then characterise the FP performance at different operating temperatures. The experimental results showed that the time-averaged DC output voltage of the Gen 4 FP was much higher compared with the Gen 1 and Gen 2 FPs. The reason is that it produced a DC output voltage for almost the entire rotor cycle. The experimental results also indicated that the Gen 4 FP has the capability to produce output currents in the kA range.</p>

Current-pumping performance of axial-symmetric superconducting dynamo designs

<p>In this project, the current pumping performances of three high temperature superconducting (HTS) dynamos (mechanically-rotating flux pumps) were investigated. These flux pumps (FPs) were identified as the Gen 1, Gen 2 and Gen 4 FP respectively. They were modelled using simple DC equivalent circuits and their performances were defined by three output parameters: DC open-circuit voltage (Voc), dynamic resistance (Rd) and DC short-circuit current (Isc). The experimental results showed that these FPs produced non-zero DC output voltages across their stators and each supplied DC output currents into series connected superconducting circuits. The Gen 1 FP was cooled with liquid nitrogen and operated at 77 K. The stators were made from 12-mm wide copper-coated yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) HTS conductors. The objective of the experiment was to investigate the effect of the rotor magnet size, geometry and orientation (with respect to the stators) on the FP performance. The design parameters, based on the width and the length of the magnet with respect to the stator, for optimal FP performance were determined. The Gen 2 FP was also cooled with liquid nitrogen and operated at 77 K. The stators were made from 46-mm wide Ag-coated YBCO HTS conductors. The objective of the experiment was to investigate the effect of stator width on the FP performance at various magnet frequencies. This was done by slitting two of the stators to form parallel stators with equal width, but smaller than the original conductor width. The experimental results showed that the FP performance was highly dependent on the operating frequency. Three operating frequency regimes were observed: low, mid and high. At high frequency, the Voc decreased and the Rd increased signifcantly. This was attributed to the local heating effect in the stator due to the increase in the current density. As a result, the FP produced zero output current in this regime. The AC voltage waveforms measured across the stators in different frequency regimes were very different in shapes and amplitudes. Therefore, these waveforms can be used to identify the operating frequency regime of the FP. At some operating frequencies in the mid frequency regime, bi-stable operating modes were observed, each mode resulted in different output parameters. The Gen 4 FP was constructed in this project. It was cooled via thermal conduction method using a cryorefrigerator system. It had an axial-symmetric stator design where the shape of the stator is cylindrical. The width of the stator was considerably larger compared with the Gen 1 and Gen 2 FPs. The experiment objective was to investigate whether this design would produce a DC current, and then characterise the FP performance at different operating temperatures. The experimental results showed that the time-averaged DC output voltage of the Gen 4 FP was much higher compared with the Gen 1 and Gen 2 FPs. The reason is that it produced a DC output voltage for almost the entire rotor cycle. The experimental results also indicated that the Gen 4 FP has the capability to produce output currents in the kA range.</p>

A science friction story – Molecular interactions in semiflexible polymer networks

Established model theories, developed to capture the mechanical behavior of soft complex materials composed of semiflexible polymers assume entropic interactions between filaments to determine the mechanical response. In recent studies, the general accepted tube model has been challenged in terms of its basic assumption about filament-filament interactions, but also because of its predictions regarding the frequency dependence of the elastic modulus in the intermediate frequency regime. A central question is how molecular interactions and friction between network constituents influence the rheological response of isotropic entangled networks of semiflexible polymers. It was shown that friction forces between aligned pairs of actin filaments are not negligible. Here, we systematically investigate the influence of friction forces and attractive interactions on network rheology by means of a targeted surface modification. We show that these forces have a qualitative and quantitative influence on the viscoelastic properties of semiflexible polymer networks and contribute to the response to nonlinear deformations. By comparing two polymer model systems with respect to their surface compositions we give a possible explanation about the origin of acting forces on a molecular level.