arXiv subjects

C. G. Hoover

Publications and source records attributed to C. G. Hoover.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Physical Analysis of Bennu Samples Reveals Regolith Production by Collisional Disruption on Near-Earth Asteroids

Owing to the extremely low gravity of small near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), it has been assumed that impact-generated rock fragments escape into space and thus do not contribute to the accumulation of regolith. However, centimeter-sized stones returned from the small NEA Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission exhibit impact craters up to a few millimeters wide, implying that impact fragments and impact-processed rocks are retained despite the microgravity environment. To understand how, we combined detailed physical analysis of Bennu samples, laboratory experiments of impacts into simulant rocks, and 3D numerical simulations of disruptive impacts into boulders. We find that the majority (85% by mass) of impact fragments eject toward and penetrate the asteroid's weak, porous surface, leading to their retention. In addition, crater depth-to-diameter ratios (d/D) suggest that the Bennu samples (median crater d/D = 0.36 $\pm$ 0.1) are structurally representative of the asteroid's large boulders (median crater d/D = 0.33 $\pm$ 0.08, measured previously). Our analyses indicate that most of Bennu's surface rocks (those with diameters $\lesssim$ 20 m) could be products of in situ collisional disruption. This impact-driven mechanism of regolith production likely occurs on other small NEAs with highly porous surfaces.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2019

Aspects of Nosé and Nosé-Hoover Dynamics Elucidated

Some paradoxical aspects of the Nosé and Nosé-Hoover dynamics of 1984 and Dettmann's dynamics of 1996 are elucidated. Phase-space descriptions of thermostated harmonic oscillator dynamics can be simultaneously expanding, incompressible, or contracting, as is described here by a variety of three- and four-dimensional phase-space models. These findings illustrate some surprising consequences when Liouville's continuity equation is applied to Hamiltonian flows.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2015

What is liquid? Lyapunov instability reveals symmetry-breaking irreversibilities hidden within Hamilton's many-body equations of motion

Typical Hamiltonian liquids display exponential "Lyapunov instability", also called "sensitive dependence on initial conditions". Although Hamilton's equations are thoroughly time-reversible, the forward and backward Lyapunov instabilities can differ, qualitatively. In numerical work, the expected forward/backward pairing of Lyapunov exponents is also occasionally violated. To illustrate, we consider many-body inelastic collisions in two space dimensions. Two mirror-image colliding crystallites can either bounce, or not, giving rise to a single liquid drop, or to several smaller droplets, depending upon the initial kinetic energy and the interparticle forces. The difference between the forward and backward evolutionary instabilities of these problems can be correlated with dissipation and with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Accordingly, these asymmetric stabilities of Hamilton's equations can provide an "Arrow of Time". We illustrate these facts for two small crystallites colliding so as to make a warm liquid. We use a specially-symmetrized form of Levesque and Verlet's bit-reversible Leapfrog integrator. We analyze trajectories over millions of collisions with several equally-spaced time reversals.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2014

Fracture toughness of calcium-silicate-hydrate grains from molecular dynamics simulations

Cement is the most widely used manufacturing material in the world and improving its toughness would allow for the design of slender infrastructure, requiring less material. To this end, we investigate by means of molecular dynamics simulations the fracture of calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H), the binding phase of cement, responsible for its mechanical properties. For the first time, we report values of the fracture toughness, critical energy release rate, and surface energy of C-S-H grains. This allows us to discuss the brittleness of the material at the atomic scale. We show that, at this scale, C-S-H breaks in a ductile way, which prevents from using methods based on linear elastic fracture mechanics. Knowledge of the fracture properties of C-S-H at the nanoscale opens the way for an upscaling approach to the design of tougher cement.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

Nonlinear Stresses and Temperatures in Transient Adiabatic and Shear Flows via Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics -- Three Definitions of Temperature

We compare nonlinear stresses and temperatures for adiabatic shear flows, using up to 262,144 particles, with those from corresponding homogeneous and inhomogeneous flows. Two varieties of kinetic temperature tensors are compared to the configurational temperatures. This comparison leads to an improved form for the local and instantaneous smooth-particle averaged stream velocity and to a recognition of rotational contributions to the configurational temperature.

nlin.CD↗