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Bernhard Mehlig

Publications and source records attributed to Bernhard Mehlig.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2018

Time-dependent lift and drag on a rigid body in a viscous steady linear flow

We compute the leading-order inertial corrections to the instantaneous force acting on a rigid body moving with a time-dependent slip velocity in a linear flow field, assuming that the variation of the undisturbed flow at the body scale is much larger than the slip velocity between the body and the fluid. Motivated by applications to turbulent particle-laden flows, we seek a formulation allowing this force to be determined for an arbitrarily-shaped body moving in a general linear flow. We express the equations governing the flow disturbance in a non-orthogonal coordinate system moving with the undisturbed flow and solve the problem using matched asymptotic expansions. The use of the co-moving coordinates enables the leading-order inertial corrections to the force to be obtained at any time in an arbitrary linear flow field. We then specialize this approach to compute the time-dependent force components for a sphere moving in three canonical flows: solid body rotation, planar elongation, and uniform shear. We discuss the behaviour and physical origin of the different force components in the short-time and quasi-steady limits. Last, we illustrate the influence of time-dependent and quasi-steady inertial effects by examining the sedimentation of prolate and oblate spheroids in a pure shear flow.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2017

Emergent scar lines in chaotic advection of passive directors

We examine the spatial field of orientations of slender fibers that are advected by a two-dimensional fluid flow. The orientation field of these passive directors are important in a wide range of industrial and geophysical flows. We introduce emergent scar lines as the dominant coherent structures in the orientation field of passive directors in chaotic flows. Previous work has identified the existence of scar lines where the orientation rotates by π over short distances, but the lines that were identified disappeared as time progressed. As a result, earlier work focused on topological singularities in the orientation field which we find to play a negligible role at long times. We use the standard map as a simple time-periodic two-dimensional (2D) flow that produces Lagrangian chaos. This class of flows produce persistent patterns in passive scalar advection, and we find that a different kind of persistent pattern develops in the passive director orientation field. We identify the mechanism by which emergent scar lines grow to dominate these patterns at long times in complex flows. Emergent scar lines form where the recent stretching of the fluid element is perpendicular to earlier stretching. Thus these scar lines can be labeled by their age, defined as the time since their stretching reached a maximum.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2015

Measurement of particle motion in optical tweezers embedded in a Sagnac interferometer

We have constructed a counterpropagating optical tweezers setup embedded in a Sagnac interferometer in order to increase the sensitivity of position tracking for particles in the geometrical optics regime. Enhanced position determination using a Sagnac interferometer has previously been described theoretically by Taylor et al. [Journal of Optics 13, 044014 (2011)] for Rayleigh-regime particles trapped in an antinode of a standing wave. We have extended their theory to a case of arbitrarily-sized particles trapped with orthogonally-polarized counterpropagating beams. The working distance of the setup was sufficiently long to optically induce particle oscillations orthogonally to the axis of the tweezers with an auxiliary laser beam. Using these oscillations as a reference, we have experimentally shown that Sagnac-enhanced back focal plane interferometry is capable of providing an improvement of more than 5 times in the signal-to-background ratio, corresponding to a more than 30-fold improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio. The experimental results obtained are consistent with our theoretical predictions. In the experimental setup, we used a method of optical levitator-assisted liquid droplet delivery in air based on commercial inkjet technology, with a novel method to precisely control the size of droplets.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2015

Analysis of the Correlation Dimension for Inertial Particles

We obtain an implicit equation for the correlation dimension which describes clustering of inertial particles in a complex flow onto a fractal measure. Our general equation involves a propagator of a nonlinear stochastic process in which the velocity gradient of the fluid appears as additive noise. When the long-time limit of the propagator is considered our equation reduces to an existing large-deviation formalism, from which it is difficult to extract concrete results. In the short-time limit, however, our equation reduces to a solvability condition on a partial differential equation. We show how this approach leads to a perturbative expansion of the correlation dimension, for which the coefficients can be obtained exactly and in principle to any order. We derive the perturbation series for the correlation dimension of inertial particles suspended in three-dimensional spatially smooth random flows with white-noise time correlations, obtaining the first 33 non-zero coefficients exactly.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2015

How nanochannel confinement affects the DNA melting transition within the Poland-Scheraga model

When double-stranded DNA molecules are heated, or exposed to denaturing agents, the two strands get separated. The statistical physics of this process has a long history, and is commonly described in term of the Poland-Scheraga (PS) model. Crucial to this model is the configurational entropy for a melted region (compared to the entropy of an intact region of the same size), quantified by the loop factor. In this study we investigate how confinement affects the DNA melting transition, by using the loop factor for an ideal Gaussian chain. By subsequent numerical solutions of the PS model, we demonstrate that the melting temperature depends on the persistence lengths of single-stranded and double-stranded DNA. For realistic values of the persistence lengths the melting temperature is predicted to decrease with decreasing channel diameter. We also demonstrate that confinement broadens the melting transition. These general findings hold for the three scenarios investigated: namely 1. homo-DNA, i.e. identical basepairs along the DNA molecule; 2. random sequence DNA, and 3. "real" DNA, here T4 phage DNA. We show that cases 2 and 3 in general give rise to broader transitions than case 1. Case 3 exhibits a similar phase transition as case 2 provided the random sequence DNA has the same ratio of AT to GC basepairs. A simple analytical estimate for the shift in melting temperature is provided as a function of nanochannel diameter. For homo-DNA, we also present an analytical prediction of the melting probability as a function of temperature.

q-bio.BM↗
arXiv2013

Demography-adjusted tests of neutrality based on genome-wide SNP data

Tests of the neutral evolution hypothesis are usually built on the standard null model which assumes that mutations are neutral and population size remains constant over time. However, it is unclear how such tests are affected if the last assumption is dropped. Here, we extend the unifying framework for tests based on the site frequency spectrum, introduced by Achaz and Ferretti, to populations of varying size. A key ingredient is to specify the first two moments of the frequency spectrum. We show that these moments can be determined analytically if a population has experienced two instantaneous size changes in the past. We apply our method to data from ten human populations gathered in the 1000 genomes project, estimate their demographies and define demography-adjusted versions of Tajima's $D$, Fay & Wu's $H$, and Zeng's $E$. The adjusted test statistics facilitate the direct comparison between populations and they show that most of the differences among populations seen in the original tests can be explained by demography. We carried out whole genome screens for deviation from neutrality and identified candidate regions of recent positive selection. We provide track files with values of the adjusted and original tests for upload to the UCSC genome browser.

q-bio.PE↗
arXiv2012

Universal anomalous diffusion of weakly damped particles

We show that anomalous diffusion arises in two different models for the motion of randomly forced and weakly damped particles: one is a generalisation of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process with a random force which depends on position as well as time, the other is a generalisation of the Chandrasekhar-Rosenbluth model of stellar dynamics, encompassing non-Coulombic potentials. We show that both models exhibit anomalous diffusion of position $x$ and momentum $p$ with the same exponents: $ \sim C_x t^2$ and $ \sim C_p t^{2/5}$. We are able to determine the prefactors $C_x$, $C_p$ analytically.

nlin.CD↗
arXiv2009

Emergent order in rheoscopic swirls

We discuss the reflection of light by a rheoscopic fluid (a suspension of microscopic rod-like crystals) in a steady two-dimensional flow. This is determined by an order parameter which is a non-oriented vector, obtained by averaging solutions of a nonlinear equation containing the strain rate of the fluid flow. Exact solutions of this equation are obtained from solutions of a linear equation which are analogous to Bloch bands for a one-dimensional Schrodinger equation with a periodic potential. On some contours of the stream function, the order parameter approaches a limit, and on others it depends increasingly sensitively upon position. However, in the long-time limit a local average of the order parameter is a smooth function of position in both cases. We analyse the topology of the order parameter and the structure of the generic zeros of the order parameter field.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2009

Correlation Dimension of Inertial Particles in Random Flows

We obtain an implicit equation for the correlation dimension of dynamical systems in terms of an integral over a propagator. We illustrate the utility of this approach by evaluating the correlation dimension for inertial particles suspended in a random flow. In the limit where the correlation time of the flow field approaches zero, taking the short-time limit of the propagator enables the correlation dimension to be determined from the solution of a partial differential equation. We develop the solution as a power series in a dimensionless parameter which represents the strength of inertial effects.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2009

Poincare Indices of Rheoscopic Visualisations

Suspensions of small anisotropic particles, termed 'rheoscopic fluids', are used for flow visualisation. By illuminating the fluid with light of three different colours, it is possible to determine Poincare indices for vector fields formed by the longest axis of the particles. Because this vector field is non-oriented, half-integer Poincare indices are possible, and are observed experimentally. An exact solution for the direction vector appears to preclude the existence of topological singularities. However, we show that upon averaging over the random initial orientations of particles, singularities with half-integer Poincare index appear. We describe their normal forms.

physics.flu-dyn↗
arXiv2008

Planet Formation by Concurrent Collapse

After reviewing the difficulties faced by the conventional theory of planet formation (based upon the aggregation of microscopic dust particles), we describe an alternative hypothesis. We propose that planets form by gravitational collapse at the same time as the star about which they orbit. This 'concurrent collapse' hypothesis avoids theoretical difficulties associated with the conventional model and suggests satisfying explanations for various poorly understood phenomena. We introduce new explanations for FU Orionis outbursts seen in young stars, the discovery of exoplanets with eccentric orbits and the existence of small rocky objects such as chondrules in the solar system.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2008

Fingerprints of Random Flows?

We consider the patterns formed by small rod-like objects advected by a random flow in two dimensions. An exact solution indicates that their direction field is non-singular. However, we find from simulations that the direction field of the rods does appear to exhibit singularities. First, ` scar lines' emerge where the rods abruptly change direction by $π$. Later, these scar lines become so narrow that they ` heal over' and disappear, but their ends remain as point singularities, which are of the same type as those seen in fingerprints. We give a theoretical explanation for these observations.

nlin.PS↗
arXiv2006

Colliding Particles in Highly Turbulent Flows

We discuss relative velocities and the collision rate of small particles suspended in a highly turbulent fluid. In the limit where the viscous damping is very weak, we estimate the relative velocities using the Kolmogorov cascade principle.

nlin.CD↗
arXiv2006

Semilinear Response

We discuss the response of a quantum system to a time-dependent perturbation with spectrum Φ(ω). This is characterised by a rate constant D describing the diffusion of occupation probability between levels. We calculate the transition rates by first-order perturbation theory, so that multiplying Φ(ω) by a constant λchanges the diffusion constant to λD. However, we discuss circumstances where this linearity does notextend to the function space of intensities, so that if intensities Φ_i(ω) yield diffusion constants D_i, then the intensity \sum_i Φ_i(ω) does not result in a diffusion constant \sum_i D_i. This `semilinear' response can occur in the absorption of radiation by small metal particles.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗
arXiv2006

Caustic activation of rain showers

We show quantitatively how the collision rate of droplets of visible moisture in turbulent air increases very abruptly as the intensity of the turbulence passes a threshold, due to the formation of fold caustics in their velocity field. The formation of caustics is an activated process, in which a measure of the intensity of the turbulence, termed the Stokes number St, is analogous to temperature in a chemical reaction: the rate of collision contains a factor exp(-C/St). Our results are relevant to the long-standing problem of explaining the rapid onset of rainfall from convecting clouds. Our theory does not involve spatial clustering of particles.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗
arXiv1999

Spectral Statistics in Chaotic Systems with Two Identical Connected Cells

Chaotic systems that decompose into two cells connected only by a narrow channel exhibit characteristic deviations of their quantum spectral statistics from the canonical random-matrix ensembles. The equilibration between the cells introduces an additional classical time scale that is manifest also in the spectral form factor. If the two cells are related by a spatial symmetry, the spectrum shows doublets, reflected in the form factor as a positive peak around the Heisenberg time. We combine a semiclassical analysis with an independent random-matrix approach to the doublet splittings to obtain the form factor on all time (energy) scales. Its only free parameter is the characteristic time of exchange between the cells in units of the Heisenberg time.

chao-dyn↗
arXiv1998

Smoothed universal correlations in the two-dimensional Anderson model

We report on calculations of smoothed spectral correlations in the two-dimensional Anderson model for weak disorder. As pointed out in (M. Wilkinson, J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 21, 1173 (1988)), an analysis of the smoothing dependence of the correlation functions provides a sensitive means of establishing consistency with random matrix theory. We use a semiclassical approach to describe these fluctuations and offer a detailed comparison between numerical and analytical calculations for an exhaustive set of two-point correlation functions. We consider parametric correlation functions with an external Aharonov-Bohm flux as a parameter and discuss two cases, namely broken time-reversal invariance and partial breaking of time-reversal invariance. Three types of correlation functions are considered: density-of-states, velocity and matrix element correlation functions. For the values of smoothing parameter close to the mean level spacing the semiclassical expressions and the numerical results agree quite well in the whole range of the magnetic flux.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗