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Physics Physics

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Thursday 2 July

Atomic Physics

Reconfigurable Bitter-Type Electromagnet for Zeeman Slowing

Emma G. Hataway, Emma K. Falk, Kaia E. O'Neill et al. (+2 more)

Many Zeeman slower magnets are geometrically captured by a vacuum chamber, preventing modification or repair without breaking vacuum. We describe a Bitter-type electromagnet coil design that can be easily disassembled, reconfigured, repaired, and replaced without disturbing the vacuum system. This coil, designed to slow lithium atoms, produces a near-ideal field profile with a single DC power supply. With a resistance of 5.7(9) m$\Omega$, an inductance of 8.8(2) $\mu$H, and switching times as low as $\sim100$ $\mu$s, the coil compares favorably to other designs, and can be disassembled, modified, and reassembled repeatedly without loss of performance. With forced-air cooling, the coil experiences moderate heating. This coil design offers greater flexibility than traditional electromagnet designs, and it can retrofitted onto existing UHV chambers.
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All authors Emma G. Hataway, Emma K. Falk, Kaia E. O'Neill, Morgan P. Berghof, Ben A. Olsen

Optics

Coupling loss and transmission in a multimode fiber-fed virtually imaged phased array (VIPA)

Matthew C. H. Leung, Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Colby Jurgenson et al. (+1 more)

The Virtually Imaged Phased Array (VIPA) is a spectral disperser that has seen increasing adoption across various applications, including optical telecommunications, high-resolution spectroscopy, and LiDAR. Although VIPAs are typically fed by single-mode optical fiber in these applications, there is growing interest in using a multimode optical fiber feed to enable higher throughput. However, a multimode fiber feed introduces several challenges, one of which is a fundamental limit on how much light can be coupled into a VIPA. In this work, we derive a closed-form expression for the minimum tilt angle of a multimode fiber-fed VIPA required for no etendue coupling loss, and we show that this angle depends solely on the input fiber's etendue, the focal ratio of the injection cylindrical lens, and the VIPA's intrinsic parameters. Moreover, we derive the 2D and 3D etendue that can be coupled into a VIPA, as well as the VIPA's etendue coupling efficiency and total transmission, given a particular configuration. We validate our mathematical models using ray-tracing simulations in Zemax OpticStudio non-sequential mode. Our results provide practical guidance for the design of high-throughput optical systems based on multimode fiber-fed VIPAs.
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All authors Matthew C. H. Leung, Andrew Szentgyorgyi, Colby Jurgenson, David Charbonneau

Applied Physics

Synergistic enhancement of Bi2Te3 Sb2Te3 PMMA thermoelectric generators via dithiol assisted conductivity and FEM based geometry optimization

Bejan Hamawandi, Jose F. Serrano Claumarchirant, Adem B. Ergul et al. (+6 more)

In recent decades, thermoelectric (TE) materials have proven to be a complementary source of renewable energy, as they can directly convert waste heat into electrical energy. Energy-efficient, reliable, and scalable synthetic routes for the fabrication of TE materials and their processing into functional devices via low-energy and low-waste routes are necessary for the broader adoption of these materials in various applications. In this work, we report the formulation of hybrid thermoelectric (hTE) inks based on nanostructured Sb2Te3 and Bi2Te3, using PMMA as the polymer matrix and hexanedithiol (HDT) as the binder. Percolation studies were conducted to determine the optimal film composition, with an 80% nanoparticle content yielding the highest TE performance. Finite element modelling (FEM) was employed to optimize the device geometry, including the cross-sectional area ratio of p- and n-type legs, to maximize power output. Based on these results, a flexible hTEG was fabricated using the optimized ink composition. The device exhibited an output power of 950 nW and a Power Output Density (PoD) of 40.37 nW cm-2 under a 30 K temperature gradient, significantly outperforming previously reported polymer-based flexible hTEGs incorporating chalcogenides. This study presents a sustainable and effective strategy for developing high-performance hybrid thermoelectric devices through ink formulation, composition optimization, and simulation-guided device design.
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All authors Bejan Hamawandi, Jose F. Serrano Claumarchirant, Adem B. Ergul, Kaspars Pudzs, Inga Pudza, Parva Parsa, Metehan Kirsanli, Oskars Bitmets, Muhammet S.Toprak

Chemical Physics

Auditing Haldane Consistency in Reversible Enzyme Kinetics: A Curated Two-Sided Backbone and a Labeled Fold-Error Benchmark

Megan Simons and Jonathan Washburn

Reversible enzyme kinetic constants can be audited through the Haldane relation: the apparent equilibrium constant implied by the rate law should match biochemical thermodynamics under matched conditions. We use the reciprocal cost $C_{\mathrm{Haldane}}=J(K'_{\mathrm{eq,kin}}/K'_{\mathrm{eq,thermo}})$, with $J(x)=\tfrac12(x+x^{-1})-1=\cosh(\ln x)-1$, as a calibrated, direction-symmetric reporting scale. The score is zero at agreement, penalizes reciprocal over- and underestimates equally, encodes the free-energy discrepancy in $RT$ units, and ranks records identically to $|\Delta\Delta G|$; the contribution is therefore biochemical curation, a reproducible workflow, and fold-error calibration rather than a new ordering. We apply the score to a curated demonstration set and, under prespecified inclusion criteria, assemble a two-sided backbone of twenty-one audited single-study records. Eight genuinely independent tests pair kinetics fit without a thermodynamic prior against separately measured equilibria; all eight fall within twofold (maximum $C_{\mathrm{Haldane}}=0.069$), although this remains a feasibility demonstration. Across the full backbone, eighteen records fall within twofold and three are flagged. The backbone is concentrated in carbohydrate isomerases and epimerases, so these results are within-family observations. Because real records carry no ground-truth labels, a semi-synthetic benchmark (twenty-nine within-twofold seeds, $1{,}885$ injected known-error cases) quantifies detectability: AUC $0.784$ ($95\%$ bootstrap CI $0.725$–$0.838$), conditional on the injected error taxonomy and invariant under monotone rescaling of $|\ln x|$. All data, code, protocol, and benchmark generator are archived for exact reproduction.
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Instrumentation and Detectors

First measurement of flux of the neutron background induced by accelerated neutrinos at the J-PARC facility

Hiroshi Ito, Ryo Shibayama, Chisako Ise et al. (+3 more)

This article reports the measurement of the neutron background flux accidentally induced by the neutrino beam at the J-PARC facility in Japan. In particular, neutrino-nucleus neutral-current quasi-elastic (NCQE) scattering events, $\nu~(\bar{\nu})+\rm{N}\to\nu~(\bar{\nu})+\rm{N'}$, can be obscured by a massive background of neutron-nucleus scattering events. The neutrons are produced within the materials (such as sand and concrete) located between the beam dump and the experimental area where the detectors are placed. We measured the accidental neutron events at the J-PARC neutrino facility using BGO and liquid scintillation detectors, with a plastic scintillation detector serving as an active veto counter. Based on a neutrino-mode data set of $2.972 \times 10^{20}$ POT, we observed 88 neutron-induced recoil proton events within an electron-equivalent recoil energy range of 0.98-11.60 $\rm MeV_{ee}$, selected via pulse-shape discrimination in the liquid scintillation detector. Accounting for the detection efficiency and resolution, and through comparison with simulations, the neutron flux was determined to be$[1.45^{+0.22}_{-0.24}~\rm{(stat.)} \pm 0.55~\rm{(sys.)}] \times 10^{-7}~\rm{cm}^{-2} \rm{s}^{-1}\rm{POT}^{-1}$,assuming an exponential neutron energy spectrum. This result will contribute to the evaluation of neutron backgrounds for neutrino experiments at the J-PARC facility.
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All authors Hiroshi Ito, Ryo Shibayama, Chisako Ise, Akihiro Minamino, Yusuke Koshio, Masaki Ishitsuka

Applied Physics

The Swiss Roll Metamaterial Revisited

Zachary Fritts and Anthony Grbic

In this work, we analytically model the Swiss roll metamaterial medium, showing that each unit cell can be thought of as a flux-coupled waveguide terminated in coupled inductors. The equivalent circuit model of the metamaterial accurately predicts its response, including its higher order resonances, even when made of a lossy, finite-thickness conductor. A closed-form solution for the response of this circuit model is then derived by solving a matrix equation of arbitrarily large dimensions. Along the way, we provide a general method for modeling the effective permeability of uniaxial, anisotropic metamaterials formed from axially invariant conducting inclusions.
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Optics

Avoiding a line-of-sight obstacle via deep sub-Rayleigh shadow-projection utilizing space-time wave packets

Layton A. Hall, Bryan L. Turo and Ayman F. Abouraddy

A challenge in optics, which is shared by other sources of radiation, is to direct a coherent beam to impinge on a target behind an obstacle intervening in the line-of-sight (LoS). While self-accelerating or bending beams can help avoid an LoS obstacle, the beam does not reach the LoS target downstream beyond the obstacle. If one instead avoids the obstacle by projecting a transverse null or shadow onto the axial plane at which it is located, an associated axial shadow is cast that extends over the effective Rayleigh length, which reduces the utility of this approach. Unless either the wavelength or the transverse shadow width is changed, this Rayleigh length can only be reduced by modifying the structure of the illumination beam. Here we show that space-time wave packets (STWPs), in which each spatial frequency is tightly associated with a single wavelength, when used as an illumination beam, can dramatically reduce the axial extent of the cast shadow. Indeed, by utilizing STWPs we produce deep sub-Rayleigh-length shadows, in some cases with a more than two orders-of-magnitude reduction below the conventional Rayleigh length. For example, a 5-mm-wide transverse shadow in a Gaussian beam at a wavelength of $\sim1$~$\mu$m has a Rayleigh length of $\sim25$~m, whereas the same shadow projected by an STWP extends only $\sim0.15$~m. We demonstrate this sub-Rayleigh-length reduction in the axially cast shadow accompanying transverse nulls whose widths extend over a broad span of widths from 80~$\mu$m to 48~mm – almost three orders-of-magnitude. These results may lead to advances in safe radiation therapy, non-LoS optical and wireless communications, selective stand-off detection, three-dimensional photolithography, and laser ablation and micro-machining.
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Computational Physics

CodeJeNN: A simple C++ neural network generator for physics applications

Jay Arcities, Pavel Popov, Eric J Ching et al. (+2 more)

Machine learning has shown promise for physics applications, but integrating Python-based libraries into high-performance C++ solvers can create performance bottlenecks. We present CodeJeNN, which addresses this gap by auto-generating self-contained C++ code from trained Keras models for inference. This eliminates external dependencies through inlined functions, allowing seamless integration into existing frameworks. We describe the Keras-to-C++ workflow, supported architectures, and limitations. CodeJeNN is demonstrated through inference benchmarks against Keras (eager and optimized) and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of a hydrogen-air mixing layer in which viscosity is modeled using a neural network, showing that the generated models integrate directly into a solver while remaining efficient and accurate.
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All authors Jay Arcities, Pavel Popov, Eric J Ching, Kamal Viswanath, Ryan F Johnson

Fluid Dynamics

Two-way coupling in active suspensions suppresses particle accumulation and induces non-monotonic flow stabilization

Miyi Wu, Ziyue Yu and Lei Fang

We experimentally study the two-way coupling between a swarm of centimetre-scale active swimmers (Artemia salina) and an electromagnetically driven quasi-two-dimensional cellular flow. The swimmer loading $N$ and the background forcing $E$ are varied independently across 85 conditions, and the coupled dynamics are characterized through Lagrangian diagnostics built on the attracting Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS) of the flow. In the dilute limit, swimmers accumulate onto the attracting LCS most strongly when their speed is comparable to the flow speed, recovering the mobility-selective accumulation predicted by one-way-coupled simulations at the fixed aspect ratio of A. salina. As the loading increases, this accumulation is progressively suppressed, a collective effect inaccessible to single-swimmer models. The back-action of the swarm on the flow is itself bidirectional and regime-dependent: at low forcing the swarm disorders the attracting-LCS web and scatters the topological critical points of the cellular pattern, whereas at high forcing it reorganizes and reinforces the skeleton. The temporal stability of the skeleton is correspondingly non-monotonic in both $N$ and $E$, with the conditions of maximal stability migrating systematically through the $(N,E)$ plane. This reinforcement of coherent structures has no counterpart in prior simulations, which reported a predominantly disruptive back-action. Resolving both directions of the coupling shows how collective activity can either erode or reinforce the transport skeleton of a structured flow.
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Fluid Dynamics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.GA

Small-scale dynamo saturation across magnetic Prandtl numbers using the EDQNM closure

Muhammed Irshad, Kandaswamy Subramanian and Pallavi Bhat

Small-scale dynamos (SSDs) are believed to be the primary source of magnetic fields in all turbulent astrophysical systems, especially those with weak rotation such as elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters. The initial kinematic phase of these dynamos is relatively well understood. Here we demonstrate analytically and numerically that, in an appropriate limit, the eddy-damped quasi-normal Markovian (EDQNM) closure for incompressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence is strictly equivalent to the earlier models of kinematic dynamos. Moreover, it allows the extension of the kinematic dynamo framework to multi-scale turbulent flows and into the nonlinear regime. The EDQNM closure also enables us to explore a wide parameter range which is inaccessible to direct numerical simulations of the SSD. Using nonhelical EDQNM simulations, we identify several asymptotic regimes of nonlinear dynamo action when the system is highly turbulent with fluid Reynolds number $Re \gtrsim 10^6$ for magnetic Prandtl number $Pm > 1$ and magnetic Reynolds number $Rm \gtrsim 10^6$ for $Pm < 1$: 1) the kinematic growth rate approaches a value independent of $Pm$, 2) the saturated magnetic to kinetic energy ratio similarly converges to $\simeq 0.55$ across $Pm$, while the ratio of magnetic to kinetic integral wavenumbers asymptotes to $\simeq 3$. For all $Pm$, we further find strong feedback between magnetic field and velocity field largely via Alfvénisation leading to a saturated kinetic and magnetic spectra with almost the same inertial range with a slope of $-3/2$. These findings could provide guidance for future global simulations and for modeling the nonlinear regime of astrophysical systems living in these extreme limits.
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Fluid Dynamics · Cross-listed from math.AP

On the sharpness of bounds on the rate of growth of Lebesgue norms of the velocity in Navier-Stokes flows

Fabian Bleitner and Bartosz Protas

In this paper we consider solutions $\boldsymbol{u}$ of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes system and investigate sharpness of the a priori bound \begin{align*} \frac{d}{dt}\|\boldsymbol{u}\|_q^q \leq C\|\boldsymbol{u}\|_q^{q\frac{q-1}{q-3}}, \qquad q > 3. \end{align*} This bound is closely related to the Ladyzhenskaya-Prodi-Serrin conditions characterizing classical solutions of the Navier-Stokes system. Velocity fields maximizing the rate of growth $(d/dt)\|\boldsymbol{u}\|_q^q$ under certain constraints are found as solutions of a suitable optimization problem which is solved numerically using a Riemannian conjugate gradient approach. The results obtained for different $q$ and increasing values of $\|\boldsymbol{u}\|_q$ indicate that the bound is indeed sharp, up to a numerical prefactor, and therefore cannot be fundamentally improved. Additionally, the results also suggest that the rate of growth $(d/dt)\|\boldsymbol{u}\|_q^q$ diverges as $q\to 3$.
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Geophysics · Cross-listed from math-ph

Transition-Set Morphometry for Inter-Scale Contacts in Digital Sandstones

O. M. Kiselev

This paper introduces a transition-set morphometry for quantifying inter-scale contacts in digital sandstones. Pore volume, a medial pore-throat subsystem, and fracture porosity are treated as distinct geometric subsystems. Their finite-neighborhood contacts are represented by transition sets such as $T_{VL}$, $T_{VF}$, and, when a residual skeleton is resolved, $T_{LF}$. The method measures the density, finite-scale dimension, and weighted contact measures of these sets. A matrix-mode test was performed on 21 digital sandstone samples from the Imperial College micro-CT collection and Digital Porous Media Portal dataset DRP-317. Permeability, expressed as $\log_{10}K$, served as an external response for assessing how much structural information the descriptors carry. The transition dimension $d_{VL}$ alone produced little independent predictive gain, whereas contact measures combining transition-set density with local pore radius were more informative. The adaptive measure $\widehat C_{VL}^{(d+1)}=\mu_{VL}(\overline D_{VL}/D_*)^{d_{VL}+1}$ increased leave-one-out $R^2$ from 0.752 to 0.881 in the combined sample and from 0.287 to 0.807 within DRP-317. Fractured datasets DRP-5, DRP-31, and DRP-285 were then used to test the transfer of the same transition-set construction to fracture-related contacts. The results support transition sets as reproducible morphometric descriptors of inter-scale contact.
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Chemical Physics

A self-adaptive tube restraint for free-energy calculations along path collective variables

Radu A. Talmazan, Cheng Giuseppe Chen, Chenyu Tang et al. (+1 more)

Path collective variables (PCVs) reduce a high-dimensional transition to a progress coordinate, s, and an orthogonal distance, z. Computing the free energy along s often requires restraining z, so that sampling embraces a tube centered on the reference path. However, a conventional fixed half-harmonic wall demands an a priori tube width that is both system dependent and s-dependent. Too tight a tube biases the path-projected free energy. Conversely, too loose a tube induces numerical instability and inter-channel leakage. We present an adaptive tube restraint the half-width of which evolves on the fly to track a fixed contour {\Delta}F* of the orthogonal free energy F(z|s), widening automatically in flat basins and narrowing at pinched saddles, with minimalist user intervention. We prove that, for a locally harmonic perpendicular well, a contour-following tube captures an s-independent fraction of the orthogonal partition function, so that in the hard-wall limit, its bias cancels out. In stark contrast, the bias of a fixed-width tube varies with s and distorts the free-energy landscape. We probe the algorithm on several model potentials, on N-Acetyl-N'-methylalanylamide isomerization, on the folding of the mini-protein chignolin, and on the folding-upon-binding of the ribose-binding protein. The method is implemented in the open-source Colvars library, and is, therefore, usable within popular MD engines, such as NAMD, LAMMPS, GROMACS, and Tinker-HP.
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All authors Radu A. Talmazan, Cheng Giuseppe Chen, Chenyu Tang, Christophe Chipot

Optics

Ultrafast All-Optical Polarization Control in a Plasmonic Metasurface by Selective Hot-Electron Heating of Orthogonal Gold Nanorods

Nikolaos Matthaiakakis, Lea Teste and George Kakarantzas

Metamaterials tailor light's degrees of freedom through static designs, but sub-picosecond, all-optical control without sacrificing signal throughput remains challenging. Here, a metasurface is presented whose unit cell contains two independent, orthogonal and spectrally detuned Au nanorod resonators. A femtosecond pump polarized along either nanorod selectively heats its electrons, modulating one polarization channel while the other serves as an essentially unperturbed phase reference, turning a static wave retarder into an ultrafast, all-optically reconfigurable one. The transient response is computed by coupling a Three-Temperature Model, benchmarked against published experiments, with Finite-Difference Time-Domain simulations. Hot electrons damp and red-shift the pumped resonance, modulating the amplitude ratio and phase retardation of the two channels. In transmission at normal incidence and sub-mJ cm$^{-2}$ fluence, a 45$^\circ$ probe undergoes changes of $\approx$10$^\circ$ in ellipticity and $\approx$15$^\circ$ in optical rotation within $\approx$100 fs (relaxation time $\approx$4 ps), while its transmittance ($\approx$0.4) changes by at most $\approx$0.05. A second, delayed pump along the other nanorod raises these changes to $\approx$15$^\circ$ and $\approx$22$^\circ$ and, for a suitably polarized probe, cancels the intensity change of the first within $\approx$60 fs while the polarization stays changed. Selective all-optical control of independent resonators offers a practical route to transmissive ultrafast polarization control.
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Fluid Dynamics

Semi-analytical model for the rising sheet generated by droplet-pair impact

Shushan Hu, Liwu Fan and Nan Hu

When two low-Ohnesorge-number drops impact a dry substrate simultaneously, their spreading lamellae collide and lift a free-standing vertical sheet. The sheet grows by inertial feeding from the spreading drops and is pulled back by capillary retraction at its rim. We develop a semi-analytical model for this rising sheet by extending the single-drop impact description of~\citet{Gordillo2019} to the two-drop geometry. The thin-film flow in the sheet is coupled at its base to the colliding lamellae and at its apex to a capillary-retarded rim. The sheet interior is then solved along ballistic characteristics in two stages: a lamella-fed stage, for which the velocity and thickness fields can be obtained in closed form, and a post-lamella stage, for which the inlet conditions are taken from simulations. The resulting framework gives the three-dimensional velocity and thickness fields and therefore the full sheet shape. On the centreline, the apex height and local thickness are obtained explicitly, showing that the different Weber-number exponents reported in the literature arise from a crossover rather than from a single universal scaling law. At sufficiently large Weber number, the apex pinches off. A linear Rayleigh–Plateau analysis, using the time-dependent jet diameter and deceleration predicted by the model, then bounds the maximum attainable height and closes the description of the pinch-off regime.
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Atomic Physics

Helium Ground State Treated in Classical Physics with Classical Zero-Point Radiation

Timothy H. Boyer

The ground state of the helium atom is considered within classical electrodynamics which includes classical electromagnetic zero-point radiation. Approximate energy balance between energy loss through emitted radiation and energy gain from classical zero-point radiation is found when the two electrons are treated as charges located on opposite ends of a diameter of a common circular orbit around the nucleus. The classical result gives approximately the same value as that given by the quantum calculation, but is a different value.
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Biological Physics

Electric Field Propagation with Spinal Cord Stimulation

Olivier Bernard, Réjean Fontaine, Oussama Eddaoui et al. (+3 more)

Spinal cord stimulation is routinely used for the treatment of chronic pain, and is increasingly being investigated for the restoration of movement after paralysis. However, most of our current knowledge on epidural spinal cord stimulation relies on empirical approaches and semi-hybrid models. Hence, optimizing this therapy requires a better theoretical understanding of how stimulation affects the target neural structures. Using the physical properties of tissues combined with an electromagnetic, dielectric, and metallic description of them, we derived the electric field transmission coefficient through a given number of layers of tissue in the spinal cord. We then used this model to calculate the transmission of electric field energy in target neural tissues such as grey or white matter for different pulse width. Simulations suggest that the propagation through the tissues of the spinal cord of an epidurally applied electric field has a complex relationship with the field pulse width. In addition the electric field energy is absorbed at the junction between dura matter and cerebrospinal fluid, and within the cerebrospinal fluid as induced current. These currents hit the different bodies floating within the cerebrospinal fluid, and/or dorsal horn in a very localized region of the spinal cord. The proposed models allow theoretical calculation of the transmission factor for different numbers of layers of tissue within the spinal canal, and for different electric field pulse widths. This eases the prediction of the expected energy reaching each layer of the spinal cord for different tissues, parameters, and electrode configurations, simplifying the optimization of spinal cord stimulation treatment.
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All authors Olivier Bernard, Réjean Fontaine, Oussama Eddaoui, Jonathan Harnie, Alain Frigon, Christian Iorio-Morin

Space Physics

Evolution and Impact of Switchbacks Throughout the Heliosphere

Alfred Mallet, Chen Shi, Anna Tenerani et al. (+23 more)

Magnetic switchbacks are large-amplitude fluctuations in the interplanetary magnetic field, and appear frequently in the near-Sun solar wind explored recently by Parker Solar Probe: these new observations have prompted many new studies into their properties and origins. Here, we first review what is known about how switchbacks evolve as they travel away from the Sun: both in terms of their expansion-driven growth and their decay due to various processes like turbulence, reconnection, dispersion, parametric instability, and interaction with interplanetary shocks. We then review the current state of knowledge on how switchbacks impact the physics of the solar wind as a whole: in terms of the turbulent cascade, acceleration and heating of the wind, modification of the open solar flux and scattering of energetic particles. Finally, we suggest future studies to further our understanding of switchback evolution and impacts on the heliosphere.
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All authors Alfred Mallet, Chen Shi, Anna Tenerani, Oleksiy Agapitov, Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti, Samuel Badman, Nina Bizien, Trevor Bowen, Mihir I. Desai, J.F. Drake, Timothy Horbury, Andrea Larosa, Maria S. Madjarska, Francesco Malara, Lorenzo Matteini, Mathew Owens, Victor Réville, Nikos Sioulas, Shirsh Lata Soni, Jonathan Squire, Gabriel Ho Hin Suen, Marc Swisdak, Marco Velli, Jaye Verniero, Nicholas Watkins, Luca Sorriso-Valvo

Geophysics · Cross-listed from cs.CV

Property-Constrained 3D Porous Media Reconstruction from 2D Images via Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks

Ali Sadeghkhani, Brandon Bennett and Arash Rabbani

This study presents a conditional Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN) framework for generating 3D porous media volumes with controlled porosity, trained exclusively on 2D thin section images. The key innovation lies in combining property-conditioned generation with 2D-to-3D reconstruction, eliminating the need for expensive 3D training data while maintaining control over petrophysical properties. The framework employs a hybrid architecture with a 3D generator and 2D discriminator, where multi-axis slice extraction enables learning 3D-consistent structures from 2D training data. Porosity labels are extracted using an Enhanced U-Net segmentation model. The methodology was demonstrated on two carbonate samples with different lithologies: dolomite-anhydrite and pure dolomite. Results show that the framework successfully generates realistic 3D volumes capturing lithological features such as anhydrite inclusions and fine crystalline textures. Porosity control achieved an $R^2$ of 0.93, with mean absolute errors of 0.019 and 0.010 for the heterogeneous and homogeneous samples, respectively.
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Optics

Nonlinear Self-Action across Temporal Regimes in Resonant Dielectric Metasurfaces

Alfonso Nardi, Sonia Freddi, Michael Scalora et al. (+8 more)

Quasi-bound states in the continuum (qBICs) enable exceptional field confinement, strongly reducing the pump intensity threshold for nonlinear light-matter interaction in dielectric metasurfaces. As a result, nonlinear self-action effects, often elusive in bulk nonlinear media, emerge at moderate excitation intensities. Here, nonlinear self-action in resonantly enhanced third-harmonic (TH) generation from a dielectric metasurface supporting a qBIC resonance is investigated across distinct temporal excitation regimes. These regimes establish different coupling conditions between the excitation and the resonant mode, causing the same nonlinear self-action to emerge through complementary intensity-dependent signatures. Under spectrally narrow picosecond excitation, resonance-enhanced TH generation shows pronounced deviations from cubic scaling at high intensities. In contrast, broadband femtosecond excitation transiently drives the resonance, encoding the nonlinear response in the spectral reshaping and broadening of the TH signal. Simulations reproduce both regimes: continuous-wave modeling captures picosecond power scaling and the role of higher-order nonlinear susceptibilities, while time-domain simulations resolve femtosecond dynamics. These results clarify how pulse duration, bandwidth, and resonant coupling determine the observable signatures of nonlinear self-action in resonant dielectric metasurfaces, linking field confinement to conversion efficiency, power-law scaling, and ultrafast spectral dynamics.
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All authors Alfonso Nardi, Sonia Freddi, Michael Scalora, Agostino Di Francescantonio, Johann Osmond, Sofia Martins, Attilio Zilli, Marco Finazzi, Michele Celebrano, Monica Bollani, Maria Antonietta Vincenti

Geophysics · Cross-listed from astro-ph.HE

High-Energy Neutrino Tomography of the Earth's Interior with IceCube

The IceCube Collaboration, R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann et al. (+417 more)

The Earth's interior reflects its geological evolution, from accretion to present-day dynamics. Its structure drives the geodynamo in the outer core, generating the magnetic field that shields the surface from charged cosmic radiation. The primary observables of the Earth's interior are its radial density distribution and derived quantities such as its mass and moment of inertia. These have traditionally been inferred from gravity and seismic wave propagation, which probe the macroscopic response of matter to gravitational and elastic forces. Here we instead constrain the Earth's density profile using high-energy neutrinos observed by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. We analyze 10.7 years of predominantly muon-neutrino data spanning 500 GeV–100 TeV, including atmospheric neutrinos produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the Earth's atmosphere and the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux. Neutrino attenuation depends on both the traversed column density and neutrino energy. By measuring the zenith- and energy-dependent flux suppression, we infer the Earth's radial density profile by fitting a concentric uniform-density shell model that incorporates neutrino fluxes, interaction cross sections, detector response, and glacial-ice systematic uncertainties. From the resulting density posteriors, we derive the Earth's mass and polar moment of inertia as measured by neutrinos. These are the most precise weak-interaction measurements of these quantities to date and are consistent with the Preliminary Reference Earth Model and independent gravitational determinations. Our results demonstrate that neutrinos provide a novel probe of planetary interiors via a distinct physical interaction, complementing gravity and seismology. With improved detectors and precision, neutrinos will further contribute to a multifaceted understanding of the Earth's structure.
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All authors The IceCube Collaboration, R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, J. A. Aguilar, M. Ahlers, J.M. Alameddine, S. Ali, N. M. Amin, K. Andeen, C. Argüelles, S. Athanasiadou, S. N. Axani, R. Babu, X. Bai, A. Balagopal V., S. W. Barwick, V. Basu, R. Bay, J. J. Beatty, J. Becker Tjus, P. Behrens, J. Beise, C. Bellenghi, S. Benkel, S. BenZvi, D. Berley, E. Bernardini, D. Z. Besson, E. Blaufuss, L. Bloom, S. Blot, F. Bontempo, J. Y. Book Motzkin, C. Boscolo Meneguolo, S. Böser, O. Botner, J. Böttcher, J. Braun, B. Brinson, Z. Brisson-Tsavoussis, L. Brusa, R. T. Burley, D. Butterfield, K. Carloni, J. Carpio, N. Chau, Y. C. Chen, Z. Chen, D. Chirkin, S. Choi, A. Chubarov, B. A. Clark, G. H. Collin, D. A. Coloma Borja, A. Connolly, J. M. Conrad, D. F. Cowen, C. De Clercq, J. J. DeLaunay, D. Delgado, T. Delmeulle, S. Deng, P. Desiati, K. D. de Vries, G. de Wasseige, T. DeYoung, J. C. Díaz-Vélez, S. DiKerby, T. Ding, M. Dittmer, A. Domi, L. Draper, L. Dueser, D. Durnford, K. Dutta, M. A. DuVernois, T. Ehrhardt, L. Eidenschink, A. Eimer, C. Eldridge, P. Eller, E. Ellinger, D. Elsässer, R. Engel, H. Erpenbeck, W. Esmail, S. Eulig, J. Evans, P. A. Evenson, K. L. Fan, K. Fang, K. Farrag, A. Fattorini, A. R. Fazely, A. Fedynitch, N. Feigl, C. Finley, D. Fox, A. Franckowiak, S. Fukami, P. Fürst, J. Gallagher, E. Ganster, A. Garcia, M. Garcia, E. Genton, L. Gerhardt, A. Ghadimi, C. Glaser, T. Glüsenkamp, J. G. Gonzalez, S. Goswami, A. Granados, D. Grant, S. J. Gray, S. Griffin, S. Griswold, K. M. Groth, D. Guevel, C. Günther, P. Gutjahr, C. Ha, A. Hallgren, L. Halve, F. Halzen, L. Hamacher, M. Handt, K. Hanson, J. Hardin, A. A. Harnisch, P. Hatch, A. Haungs, J. Häußler, K. Helbing, J. Hellrung, B. Henke, L. Hennig, F. Henningsen, L. Heuermann, R. Hewett, N. Heyer, S. Hickford, A. Hidvegi, C. Hill, G. C. Hill, R. Hmaid, K. D. Hoffman, A. Hollnagel, D. Hooper, S. Hori, K. Hoshina, M. Hostert, W. Hou, M. Hrywniak, T. Huber, K. Hultqvist, K. Hymon, A. Ishihara, W. Iwakiri, M. Jacquart, S. Jain, O. Janik, M. Jansson, M. Jin, N. Kamp, D. Kang, W. Kang, A. Kappes, L. Kardum, T. Karg, A. Karle, A. Katil, M. Kauer, J. L. Kelley, M. Khanal, A. Khatee Zathul, A. Kheirandish, T. Kim, H. Kimku, F. Kirchner, J. Kiryluk, C. Klein, S. R. Klein, Y. Kobayashi, S. Koch, A. Kochocki, R. Koirala, H. Kolanoski, T. Kontrimas, L. Köpke, C. Kopper, D. J. Koskinen, P. Koundal, M. Kowalski, T. Kozynets, A. Kravka, N. Krieger, T. Krishnan, K. Kruiswijk, E. Krupczak, E. Kun, N. Kurahashi, C. Lagunas Gualda, L. Lallement Arnaud, M. J. Larson, F. Lauber, J. P. Lazar, K. Leonard DeHolton, A. Leszczyńska, C. Li, J. Liao, C. Lin, Q. R. Liu, Y. T. Liu, M. Liubarska, C. Love, L. Lu, F. Lucarelli, W. Luszczak, Y. Lyu, M. Macdonald, E. Magnus, Y. Makino, E. Manao, S. Mancina, A. Mand, I. C. Mariş, S. Marka, Z. Marka, L. Marten, I. Martinez-Soler, R. Maruyama, J. Mauro, F. Mayhew, F. McNally, K. Meagher, A. Medina, M. Meier, Y. Merckx, L. Merten, S. Minji, J. Mitchell, L. Molchany, S. Mondal, T. Montaruli, R. W. Moore, Y. Morii, A. Mosbrugger, D. Mousadi, E. Moyaux, T. Mukherjee, M. Nakos, U. Naumann, R. Neshat, L. Neste, M. Neumann, H. Niederhausen, M. U. Nisa, K. Noda, A. Noell, A. Novikov, A. Obertacke, V. O'Dell, A. Olivas, R. Orsoe, J. Osborn, E. O'Sullivan, B. Owens, V. Palusova, H. Pandya, A. Parenti, C. Parisel, N. Park, V. Parrish, E. N. Paudel, L. Paul, C. Pérez de los Heros, T. Pernice, T. C. Petersen, J. Peterson, S. Pick, M. Plum, A. Pontén, V. Poojyam, B. Pries, R. Procter-Murphy, G. T. Przybylski, L. Pyras, C. Raab, J. Rack-Helleis, N. Rad, M. Ravn, K. Rawlins, Z. Rechav, A. Rehman, I. Reistroffer, E. Resconi, C. D. Rho, W. Rhode, L. Ricca, B. Riedel, A. Rifaie, E. J. Roberts, S. Rodan, M. Rongen, A. Rosted, C. Rott, T. Ruhe, L. Ruohan, D. Ryckbosch, J. Saffer, D. Salazar-Gallegos, P. Sampathkumar, A. Sandrock, G. Sanger-Johnson, M. Santander, S. Sarkar, M. Scarnera, M. Schaufel, H. Schieler, S. Schindler, L. Schlickmann, B. Schlüter, F. Schlüter, N. Schmeisser, T. Schmidt, A. Scholz, F. G. Schröder, S. Schwirn, S. Sclafani, D. Seckel, L. Seen, M. Seikh, S. Seunarine, P. A. Sevle Myhr, R. Shah, S. Shah, S. Shefali, N. Shimizu, B. Skrzypek, R. Snihur, J. Soedingrekso, D. Soldin, P. Soldin, G. Sommani, D. Song, C. Spannfellner, G. M. Spiczak, C. Spiering, J. Stachurska, M. Stamatikos, T. Stanev, T. Stezelberger, T. Stürwald, T. Stuttard, G. W. Sullivan, I. Taboada, S. Ter-Antonyan, A. Terliuk, A. Thakuri, M. Thiesmeyer, W. G. Thompson, J. Thwaites, S. Tilav, K. Tollefson, J. A. Torres, S. Toscano, D. Tosi, K. Upshaw, A. Vaidyanathan, N. Valtonen-Mattila, J. Valverde, J. Vandenbroucke, T. Van Eeden, N. van Eijndhoven, L. Van Rootselaar, J. van Santen, J. Vara, F. Varsi, M. Velazquez, M. Venugopal, M. Vereecken, S. Vergara Carrasco, S. Verpoest, D. Veske, A. Vijai, J. Villarreal, C. Walck, A. Wang, E. H. S. Warrick, C. Weaver, P. Weigel, A. Weindl, J. Weldert, A. Y. Wen, C. Wendt, J. Werthebach, M. Weyrauch, N. Whitehorn, C. H. Wiebusch, D. R. Williams, L. Witthaus, G. Wrede, X. W. Xu, J. P. Yanez, Y. Yao, E. Yildizci, S. Yoshida, F. Yu, S. Yu, T. Yuan, S. Yun-Cárcamo, A. Zander Jurowitzki, A. Zegarelli, S. Zhang, Z. Zhang, P. Zhelnin, P. Zilberman, C. Zilleruelo Cañas

Plasma Physics

RF Helicon Plasma Thruster for an Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion System (ABEP)

Francesco Romano

This dissertation focuses on Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) for propellant-less continuous orbiting in very low Earth orbits (VLEO) and very low Mars orbits (VLMO). ABEP utilizes an intake to collect atmospheric particles as propellant for an electric thruster, offsetting aerodynamic drag. An analytical system-level analysis assesses collectible mass flow, drag, and power requirements, using GOCE as a case study. Three intake designs are developed based on gas-surface interactions. Two diffuse-reflection designs yield collection efficiencies $\eta_c < 0.5$, while a specular-reflection design achieves $\eta_c < 0.95$. The specular intake demonstrates superior robustness against flow misalignment, maintaining high efficiency at large angles. The proposed ABEP thruster features a contactless, neutralizer-free design using a helicon plasma discharge, preventing erosion from aggressive species like atomic oxygen. Numerical simulations via the HELIC code determined key design parameters (frequency, magnetic field, plasma density), leading to the implementation of a resonant birdcage antenna with high electrical efficiency. The thruster was manufactured and experimentally validated using Ar, N_2, and O_2. Tests demonstrated successful ignition and operation across relevant mass flows with low power consumption ($P_f < 60$ W). Additionally, a B-dot probe was developed to detect helicon waves in the plasma plume. Ultimately, this work delivers verified intake designs and a novel contactless plasma thruster with high electrical efficiency (>99% in vacuum). Both components represent promising technologies for near-future ABEP applications. Future development outlooks, diagnostics, and spacecraft configurations are also discussed.
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Physics Education

Viscosity of cooking oil: From kitchen to classroom

Endre Joachim Lerheim Mossige

This paper presents a fun and relatable classroom experiment to measure the viscosity of cooking oil using household tools and ingredients like kitchen scales, mugs, and dried peas. The experiment requires no formal training in math or physics, and helps to build intuition about friction, Newton's laws of motion, and Archimedes' buoyancy law.
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Chemical Physics · Cross-listed from cs.LG

Beyond Adam: SOAP and Muon for Faster, Label-Efficient Training of Machine Learning Interatomic Potentials

Gil Harari, Yoel Zimmermann, Ola Tangen Kulseng et al. (+4 more)

Machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) have become a hallmark of AI for scientific simulation. While efforts on new architectures and datasets have led to increasingly accurate and general models, the choice of optimizer for training has largely remained unexplored, defaulting to Adam and its variants in the community. Here, we implement and systematically compare a class of recently proposed matrix-structured optimizers, including Muon, SOAP, and the hybrid SOAP-Muon, for training NequIP and Allegro MLIP models. We find that these optimizers can substantially outperform Adam in both convergence speed and final accuracy. SOAP and SOAP-Muon emerge as robust and consistently strong methods, while Muon only provides partial gains relative to Adam. The improvements are particularly pronounced under partial force supervision. Our results indicate that optimizer choice is an overlooked yet impactful design axis for MLIPs.
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All authors Gil Harari, Yoel Zimmermann, Ola Tangen Kulseng, Laura Zichi, Chuin Wei Tan, Marc L. Descoteaux, Boris Kozinsky

Instrumentation and Detectors

Cryogenic RF characterization of the MAGO cavity for high-frequency gravitational-wave detection

Can Dokuyucu, Bianca Giaccone, Tom Krokotsch et al. (+13 more)

Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities are promising resonant sensors for gravitational-wave detection in the kHz-MHz frequency range. We report the cryogenic RF characterization of a prototype superconducting niobium cavity with an unconventional geometry designed for narrow electromagnetic mode separation. Following an adapted surface preparation procedure, cryogenic tests were performed at Fermilab and DESY at temperatures down to 2\,K. Mechanical tuning at room temperature achieved a mode splitting of approximately 11\,kHz at cryogenic temperature. High electromagnetic quality factors consistent with previous prototype cavities were measured. The measurements further revealed phase transfer characteristics relevant for stable low-level RF control as well as indications of mode coupling potentially caused by one-point multipacting. In addition, first cryogenic measurements of the mechanical eigenmodes yielded mechanical quality factors significantly below commonly assumed theoretical values. These results demonstrate the successful application of established SRF preparation and characterization techniques to a non-standard resonator geometry and provide important experimental input for the development of future SRF-based gravitational-wave detectors.
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All authors Can Dokuyucu, Bianca Giaccone, Tom Krokotsch, Giovanni Marconato, Krisztian Peters, Marc Wenskat, Julien Branlard, Vijay Chouhan, Ivan Gonin, Anna Grassellino, Wolfgang Hillert, Timergali Khabiboulline, Oleksandr Melnychuk, Gudrid Moortgat-Pick, Alexandr Netepenko, Sam Posen

Atomic Physics

Microwave shielding of ultracold polar molecules on the transition $\boldsymbol{n=1 \rightarrow 2}$

Joy Dutta and Jeremy M. Hutson

We show that microwave shielding on the rotational transition $n=1\rightarrow 2$ can be effective in preventing destructive collisions between ultracold polar molecules. It is slightly less efficient than shielding on the transition $0\rightarrow 1$, but has some important advantages. In particular, it does not produce 2-molecule bound states under the conditions needed for shielding, so it will not enhance 3-body recombination. It thus obviates the need for double-field microwave shielding using a second field of different polarization.
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Instrumentation and Detectors

APEIRON: composing smart TDAQ systems for high energy physics experiments

Roberto Ammendola, Andrea Biagioni, Carlotta Chiarini et al. (+12 more)

We present APEIRON, a distributed heterogeneous processing framework comprising both hardware architecture and software stack for multi-FPGA systems. Targeting smart trigger and data acquisition (TDAQ) systems in high energy physics, APEIRON spans the full software hierarchy: from low-level device drivers to a high-level dataflow programming model based on High-Level Synthesis. We describe the framework design, its core communication infrastructure, and a particle identification application for the NA62 experiment as a representative physics use case.
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All authors Roberto Ammendola, Andrea Biagioni, Carlotta Chiarini, Andrea Ciardiello, Paolo Cretaro, Ottorino Frezza, Francesca Lo Cicero, Alessandro Lonardo, Michele Martinelli, Pier Stanislao Paolucci, Pierpaolo Perticaroli, Cristian Rossi, Francesco Simula, Matteo Turisini, Piero Vicini

Medical Physics · Cross-listed from eess.IV

Self-Auditing Residual Drifting for Pathology-Preserving Accelerated Knee MRI

Qing Lyu, Jianxu Wang, Mohammad Kawas et al. (+2 more)

Accelerated magnetic resonance imaging reduces acquisition time, but reconstruction from undersampled k-space can blur diagnostically relevant structures or introduce failures that are not captured by global image metrics. We propose SA-RDM-DC, a Self-Auditing Residual generative Drifting Model with Data Consistency for accelerated knee MRI. The method adapts the newly proposed generative drifting paradigm to accelerated MRI by training a physics-conditioned drift field from the zero-filled reconstruction toward the fully sampled residual correction. It predicts image- and missing-k-space residual corrections, enforces data consistency with acquired k-space, uses frequency-aware and residual drifting supervision to recover fine detail, and produces dense error maps and slice-level risk scores in the same inference pass. We evaluate SA-RDM-DC on multi-coil fastMRI knee data at acceleration factors of 4, 8, and 12, with fastMRI+ pathology annotations for region-level and classifier-based task preservation, and on SKM-TEA for zero-shot and fine-tuned protocol-shift evaluation. Compared with zero-filled reconstruction, UNet-image-SENSE, DC-UNet, Score-Diffusion, ELF-Diff, SENSE-VarNet, and MoDL baselines, SA-RDM-DC achieves the highest SSIM across fastMRI acceleration factors while retaining subsecond per-slice inference and avoiding the long sampling time of iterative diffusion baselines. In pathology-aware analysis, SA-RDM-DC preserves lesion-region structural fidelity and reduces meniscus prediction instability. Its self-auditing scores strongly identify high-error reconstructions on fastMRI and partially transfer as a selective-review signal under SKM-TEA protocol shift. These results support reconstruction evaluation that jointly considers image fidelity, pathology preservation, runtime, and case-specific reliability.
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All authors Qing Lyu, Jianxu Wang, Mohammad Kawas, Ge Wang, Christopher T. Whitlow

Physics and Society · Cross-listed from cond-mat.dis-nn

Complex dynamics in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick game

Desmond Chan and Tobias Galla

We study the outcome of adaptive learning of a large number of players engaging in sets of two-strategy two-player games. We are interested in typical games, and generate the payoff matrices at random at the beginning. The payoff matrices then remain fixed during the learning process. This provides a game theoretic foundation for the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) game, recently introduced by Garnier-Brun, Benzaquen and Bouchaud. The original model by these authors is a special case, with no bias towards any strategy. We here determine stability of learning for SK games with general random bias, and find that the nature of the stable state is affected by random fields. We also introduce a grand-canonical version of the SK game, in which players can choose to abstain. We determine the stability of learning for this game. Our analysis confirms that complex situations involving many players are frequently unlearnable, even if each player only chooses between two different actions. The rate with which players lose memory of past payoffs and the competitiveness of the game emerge as key parameters determining whether learning converges to a unique fixed point, whether there are many fixed points, or if the dynamics remains persistently volatile.
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Fluid Dynamics

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent drag reduction via piezoelectric actuation

Amir Amjadimanesh, Aman Kidanemariam, David Chappell et al. (+2 more)

We have conducted Direct Numerical Simulations of turbulent half-channel flow over realistic surface deformations at friction Reynolds number $Re_\tau=200$. We generated the surface deformations using piezoelectric actuators. We simulated the piezoelectric actuation over the practical actuation frequency range $(119Hz\le f_\mathrm{act}\le543Hz)$ and voltage range $(250V\le Q \le500V)$ beneath an Aluminum sheet using Finite Element Analysis. The sheet deformation amplitude and actuation frequency in viscous units vary within the range $2 \le \eta^+_\mathrm{max} \le 34$, and $-0.58 \le \omega^+ \le 0.70$. The vertical surface deformations from our actuation setup generate three types of waves: travelling, hybrid, and standing waves. Surface deformations are applied as bottom-wall boundary conditions of the turbulent channel flow to generate waves in the upstream, downstream, and spanwise directions. We achieved maximum drag reductions of 1.6%, 5.4%, and 27.6% for upstream, downstream, and spanwise waves, respectively. The streamwise waves generate alternating adverse and favorable pressure gradients, which locally increase and decrease drag, leading to a marginal net change in drag. In contrast, spanwise waves introduce transverse shear, accompanied by high- and low-streamwise-momentum zones that respectively attenuate and energize the near-wall turbulence. Such disruption of the near-wall turbulence-regeneration cycle produces up to $27\%$ drag reduction for the realistic spanwise hybrid wave; such an outcome demonstrates the efficacy of unconventional realistic surface deformations in achieving significant drag reduction.
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All authors Amir Amjadimanesh, Aman Kidanemariam, David Chappell, Mahdi Bodaghi, Amirreza Rouhi