arXiv subjects

A. G. Monastra

Publications and source records attributed to A. G. Monastra.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Swirl flow in microchannels: patterned slip walls enhance heat transport

Microchannel heat sinks (MCHS) are widely used for thermal management in high-power electronics due to their ability to dissipate large heat fluxes with minimal coolant consumption. While numerous strategies - such as geometric modifications, surface disruptions, and enhanced coolant formulations - have been explored to improve heat transfer, many of these approaches increase hydraulic resistance and pumping power requirements. Recent studies have shown that slip/no-slip wall patterns can enhance flow rates and convective heat removal without additional energy input, and that patterned microstructures can induce secondary swirling motions known to promote mixing and heat transfer. Motivated by these findings, we investigate a slip/no-slip pattern specifically designed to generate swirl flow inside a straight microchannel. Building upon prior work on passive chaotic advection and boundary-condition engineering, we assess the hydrodynamic and thermal performance of this patterned configuration under conditions relevant to laminar microchannel cooling. Our results demonstrate that appropriately arranged slip/no-slip regions can induce swirl without geometric perturbations or increased pumping power, ultimately improving heat transfer efficiency at fixed volumetric flow rate. This study highlights the potential of boundary-condition patterning as a simple, energy-neutral strategy for enhancing the performance of microfluidic heat-transfer devices.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Modeling considerations about a microchannel heat sink

Many computational studies on hotspot microfluidic cooling devices found in the literature rely on simplified assumptions and conventions that do not capture the full complexity of the conjugate thermal problem, such as constant thermophysical fluid properties, radiation and free air convection on the external walls. These assumptions are generally applied to typical microfluidic devices with a large number of microchannels and operating at Reynolds numbers between 100-1000. A one microchannel chip is a suitable starting point to analyze more systematically the implications of these assumptions, in particular at lower Reynolds numbers. Although it is a simpler system, it has been studied experimentally and numerically as a basic block of a thermal microfluidic device. In this work we analyze the modeling of the overall heat transfer from a hotspot to a microfluidic heat sink, focusing on the effect of the different thermal transfer mechanisms (conduction, convection and radiation), temperature-dependent thermophysical properties of the fluid and the chip material. The study is developed as a function of the pressure difference applied to the system based on simulations performed using a Finite Volume Method. Analyzing and comparing the different contributions to the energy losses, this work provides a critical discussion of the usually considered approximations, in order to make a reliable modeling of the overall thermal performance of a single rectangular straight channel embedded in a PDMS microfluidic chip.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Evolution of instabilities in filament buckling processes

In this work we study the dynamical buckling process of a thin filament immersed in a high viscous medium. We perform an experimental study to track the shape evolution of the filament during a constant velocity compression. Numerical simulations reproduce the dynamical features observed for the experimental data and allow quantifying the filament's load. We observe that both the filament's load and the wavenumber evolve in a step-wise manner. To achieve a physical insight of the process we apply a theoretical model to describe the buckling of a filament in a viscous medium. We solve a hydrodynamic equation in terms of normal modes for clamped-clamped boundary conditions and applied constant load. We find a good agreement with experimental data and simulations, suggesting that the proposed mechanistic model captures the essential features underlying the dynamical buckling process.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2015

Thermal transport in a 2D stressed nanostructure with mass gradient

Inspired by some recent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and experiments on suspended graphene nanoribbons, we study a simplified model where the atoms are disposed in a rectangular lattice coupled by nearest neighbor interactions which are quadratic in the interatomic distance. The system has a mechanical strain, and the border atoms are coupled to Langevin thermal baths. Atom masses vary linearly in the longitudinal direction, modeling an isotope or doping distribution. This asymmetry and tension modify thermal properties. Although the atomic interaction is quadratic, the potential is anharmonic in the coordinates. By direct MD simulations and solving Fokker--Planck equations at low temperatures, we can better understand the role of anharmonicities in thermal rectification. We observe an increasing thermal current with an increasing applied mechanical tension. The temperatures and thermal currents vary along the transverse direction. This effect can be useful to establish which parts of the system are more sensitive to thermal damage. We also study thermal rectification as a function of strain and system size.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Generalized random matrix conjecture for chaotic systems

The eigenvalues of quantum chaotic systems have been conjectured to follow, in the large energy limit, the statistical distribution of eigenvalues of random ensembles of matrices of size $N\rightarrow\infty$. Here we provide semiclassical arguments that extend the validity of this correspondence to finite energies. We conjecture that the spectrum of a generic fully chaotic system without time-reversal symmetry has, around some large but finite energy $E$, the same statistical properties as the Circular Unitary Ensemble of random matrices of dimension $N_{\rm eff} = \tH / \sqrt{24 d_1}$, where $\tH$ is Heisenberg time and $\sqrt{d_1}$ is a characteristic classical time, both evaluated at energy $E$. A corresponding conjecture is also made for chaotic maps.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2006

Average ground-state energy of finite Fermi systems

Semiclassical theories like the Thomas-Fermi and Wigner-Kirkwood methods give a good description of the smooth average part of the total energy of a Fermi gas in some external potential when the chemical potential is varied. However, in systems with a fixed number of particles N, these methods overbind the actual average of the quantum energy as N is varied. We describe a theory that accounts for this effect. Numerical illustrations are discussed for fermions trapped in a harmonic oscillator potential and in a hard wall cavity, and for self-consistent calculations of atomic nuclei. In the latter case, the influence of deformations on the average behavior of the energy is also considered.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2006

On the spacing distribution of the Riemann zeros: corrections to the asymptotic result

It has been conjectured that the statistical properties of zeros of the Riemann zeta function near $z = 1/2 + \ui E$ tend, as $E \to \infty$, to the distribution of eigenvalues of large random matrices from the Unitary Ensemble. At finite $E$ numerical results show that the nearest-neighbour spacing distribution presents deviations with respect to the conjectured asymptotic form. We give here arguments indicating that to leading order these deviations are the same as those of unitary random matrices of finite dimension $N_{\rm eff}=\log(E/2π)/\sqrt{12 Λ}$, where $Λ=1.57314 ...$ is a well defined constant.

math.NT↗

arXiv2005

Flooding of regular islands by chaotic states

We introduce a criterion for the existence of regular states in systems with a mixed phase space. If this condition is not fulfilled chaotic eigenstates substantially extend into a regular island. Wave packets started in the chaotic sea progressively flood the island. The extent of flooding by eigenstates and wave packets increases logarithmically with the size of the chaotic sea and the time, respectively. This new effect can be observed for island chains with just 10 islands.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2004

Fluctuations in the level density of a Fermi gas

We present a theory that accurately describes the counting of excited states of a noninteracting fermionic gas. At high excitation energies the results reproduce Bethe's theory. At low energies oscillatory corrections to the many--body density of states, related to shell effects, are obtained. The fluctuations depend non-trivially on energy and particle number. Universality and connections with Poisson statistics and random matrix theory are established for regular and chaotic single--particle motion.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2003

Nodal domain distributions for quantum maps

The statistics of the nodal lines and nodal domains of the eigenfunctions of quantum billiards have recently been observed to be fingerprints of the chaoticity of the underlying classical motion by Blum et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 88 (2002), 114101) and by Bogomolny and Schmit (Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 88 (2002), 114102). These statistics were shown to be computable from the random wave model of the eigenfunctions. We here study the analogous problem for chaotic maps whose phase space is the two-torus. We show that the distributions of the numbers of nodal points and nodal domains of the eigenvectors of the corresponding quantum maps can be computed straightforwardly and exactly using random matrix theory. We compare the predictions with the results of numerical computations involving quantum perturbed cat maps.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2003

Quantum thermodynamic fluctuations of a chaotic Fermi-gas model

We investigate the thermodynamics of a Fermi gas whose single-particle energy levels are given by the complex zeros of the Riemann zeta function. This is a model for a gas, and in particular for an atomic nucleus, with an underlying fully chaotic classical dynamics. The probability distributions of the quantum fluctuations of the grand potential and entropy of the gas are computed as a function of temperature and compared, with good agreement, with general predictions obtained from random matrix theory and periodic orbit theory (based on prime numbers). In each case the universal and non--universal regimes are identified.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2001

Thermodynamics of small Fermi systems: quantum statistical fluctuations

We investigate the probability distribution of the quantum fluctuations of thermodynamic functions of finite, ballistic, phase-coherent Fermi gases. Depending on the chaotic or integrable nature of the underlying classical dynamics, on the thermodynamic function considered, and on temperature, we find that the probability distributions are dominated either (i) by the local fluctuations of the single-particle spectrum on the scale of the mean level spacing, or (ii) by the long-range modulations of that spectrum produced by the short periodic orbits. In case (i) the probability distributions are computed using the appropriate local universality class, uncorrelated levels for integrable systems and random matrix theory for chaotic ones. In case (ii) all the moments of the distributions can be explicitly computed in terms of periodic orbit theory, and are system-dependent, non-universal, functions. The dependence on temperature and number of particles of the fluctuations is explicitly computed in all cases, and the different relevant energy scales are displayed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2001

Exact and semiclassical Husimi distributions of Quantum Map Eigenstates

The projector onto single quantum map eigenstates is written only in terms of powers of the evolution operator, up to half the Heisenberg time, and its traces. These powers are semiclassically approximated, by a complex generating function, giving the Husimi distribution of the eigenstates. The results are tested on the Cat and Baker maps.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2001

The Riemannium

The properties of a fictitious, fermionic, many-body system based on the complex zeros of the Riemann zeta function are studied. The imaginary part of the zeros are interpreted as mean-field single-particle energies, and one fills them up to a Fermi energy $E_F$. The distribution of the total energy is shown to be non-Gaussian, asymmetric, and independent of $E_F$ in the limit $E_F\to\infty$. The moments of the limit distribution are computed analytically. The autocorrelation function, the finite energy corrections, and a comparison with random matrix theory are also discussed.

nlin.CD↗