No Arabic abstract
We investigate the concept of molecular-sized outward-swinging gate. Our theoretical analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, and direct solution of the governing equations all suggest that across such a gate, under the condition of local nonchaoticity, the probabilities of particle crossing are unequal in the two directions. It was confirmed by an experiment using a nanoporous membrane one-sidedly surface-grafted with bendable organic chains. Remarkably, through the membrane, gas spontaneously and repeatedly flew from the low-pressure side to the high-pressure side, clearly demonstrating an asymmetric gas permeability. We show that while this phenomenon is counterintuitive, it follows the basic principle of thermodynamics, as entropy remains maximized. What makes the system unique is that the locally nonchaotic gate interrupts the probability distribution of the local microstates, and imposes additional constraints on the global microstates, so that entropy reaches a nonequilibrium maximum. Such a mechanism is fundamentally different from Maxwells demon, and is consistent with microscopic reversibility. When the local nonchaoticity is lost, the gate would converge to the classical systems, such as Smoluchowskis trapdoor and Feynmans rachet.
A glass is a non-equilibrium thermodynamic state whose physical properties depend on time. Glass formation from the melt, as well as the inverse process of liquid structural recovery from the glass are non-equilibrium processes. A positive amount of entropy is produced during such irreversible processes. In this paper, we address the issue of the determination of entropy production during glass transition. Firstly, we theoretically determine the entropy production by means of the statistical model of a two-level system coupled to a master equation driving the time dependency of the occupancy probability of each state. Thermodynamic cycles of the type liquid-glass-liquid are considered in order to test the validity of the Clausius theorem. Secondly, we determine experimentally the production of entropy from differential scanning calorimetry experiments on the PolyVinylAcetate glass-former. Aging experiments are also considered. From the data treatments proposed here, we are able to determine the rate of production of entropy in each part of the experiments. Although being on the order of few % or less of the configurational entropy involved in the glass formation, the positive production of entropy is clearly determined. For all the thermodynamic cycles considered in these calorimetric experiments, the Clausius theorem is fulfilled.
We experimentally demonstrate how thermal properties in an non-equilibrium quantum many- body system emerge locally, spread in space and time, and finally lead to the globally relaxed state. In our experiment, we quench a one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas by coherently splitting it into two parts. By monitoring the phase coherence between the two parts we observe that the thermal correlations of a prethermalized state emerge locally in their final form and propagate through the system in a light-cone-like evolution. Our results underline the close link between the propagation of correlations and relaxation processes in quantum many-body systems.
We report on the translation and rotation of particle clusters made through the combination of spherical building blocks. These clusters present ideal model systems to study the motion of objects with complex shape. Because they could be separated into fractions of well-defined configurations on a sufficient scale and their overall dimensions were below 300 nm, the translational and rotational diffusion coefficients of particle duplets, triplets and tetrahedrons could be determined by a combination of polarized dynamic light scattering (DLS) and depolarized dynamic light scattering (DDLS). The use of colloidal clusters for DDLS experiments overcomes the limitation of earlier experiments on the diffusion of complex objects near surfaces because the true 3D diffusion can be studied. When the exact geometry of the complex assemblies is known, different hydrodynamic models for calculating the diffusion coefficient for objects with complex shapes could be applied. Because hydrodynamic friction must be restricted to the cluster surface the so-called shell model, in which the surface is represented as a shell of small friction elements, was most suitable to describe the dynamics. A quantitative comparison of the predictions from theoretical modeling with the results obtained by DDLS showed an excellent agreement between experiment and theory.
The velocity fluctuations present in macroscopically homogeneous suspensions of neutrally buoyant, non-Brownian spheres undergoing simple shear flow, and their dependence on the microstructure developed by the suspensions, are investigated in the limit of vanishingly small Reynolds numbers using Stokesian dynamics simulations. We show that, in the dilute limit, the standard deviation of the velocity fluctuations is proportional to the volume fraction, in both the transverse and the flow directions, and that a theoretical prediction, which considers only for the hydrodynamic interactions between isolated pairs of spheres, is in good agreement with the numerical results at low concentrations. We also simulate the velocity fluctuations that would result from a random hard-sphere distribution of spheres in simple shear flow, and thereby investigate the effects of the microstructure on the velocity fluctuations. Analogous results are discussed for the fluctuations in the angular velocity of the suspended spheres. In addition, we present the probability density functions for all the linear and angular velocity components, and for three different concentrations, showing a transition from a Gaussian to an Exponential and finally to a Stretched Exponential functional form as the volume fraction is decreased. We also show that, although the pair distribution function recovers its fore-aft symmetry in dilute suspensions, it remains anisotropic and that this anisotropy can be accurately described by assuming the complete absence of any permanent doublets of spheres. We finally present a simple correction to the analysis of laser-Doppler velocimetry measurements.
A Swinging Atwood Machine (SAM) is built and some experimental results concerning its dynamic behaviour are presented. Experiments clearly show that pulleys play a role in the motion of the pendulum, since they can rotate and have non-negligible radii and masses. Equations of motion must therefore take into account the inertial momentum of the pulleys, as well as the winding of the rope around them. Their influence is compared to previous studies. A preliminary discussion of the role of dissipation is included. The theoretical behaviour of the system with pulleys is illustrated numerically, and the relevance of different parameters is highlighted. Finally, the integrability of the dynamic system is studied, the main result being that the Machine with pulleys is non-integrable. The status of the results on integrability of the pulley-less Machine is also recalled.