Compressible potential flows around round bodies: Janzen–Rayleigh expansion inferences

The subsonic, compressible, potential flow around a hypersphere can be derived using the Janzen–Rayleigh expansion (JRE) of the flow potential in even powers of the incident Mach number ${\mathcal {M}}_\infty$ . JREs were carried out with terms polynomial in the inverse radius $r^{-1}$ to high orders in two dimensions, but were limited to order ${\mathcal {M}}_\infty ^{4}$ in three dimensions. We derive general JRE formulae for arbitrary order, adiabatic index and dimension. We find that powers of $\ln (r)$ can creep into the expansion, and are essential in the three-dimensional (3-D) sphere beyond order ${\mathcal {M}}_\infty ^{4}$ . Such terms are apparently absent in the 2-D disk, as we verify up to order ${\mathcal {M}}_\infty ^{100}$ , although they do appear in other dimensions (e.g. at order ${\mathcal {M}}_\infty ^{2}$ in four dimensions). An exploration of various 2-D and 3-D bodies suggests a topological connection, with logarithmic terms emerging when the flow is simply connected. Our results have additional physical implications. They are used to improve the hodograph-based approximation for the flow in front of a sphere. The symmetry-axis velocity profiles of axisymmetric flows around different prolate spheroids are approximately related to each other by a simple, Mach-independent scaling.

Impact of anisotropy on the interaction of an atom with a one-dimensional nano-grating

We study the interaction of an atom with a one-dimensional nano-grating within the framework of macroscopic QED, with special emphasis on possible anisotropic contributions. To this end, we first derive the scattering Green’s tensor of the grating by means of a Rayleigh expansion and discuss its symmetry properties and asymptotes. We then determine the Casimir–Polder potential of an atom with the grating. In particular, we find that strong anisotropy can lead to a repulsive Casimir–Polder potential in the normal direction.