Mass Transfer through Vapour–liquid Interfaces: a Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study

A quasi-stationary molecular dynamics simulation method for studying mass transfer through vapour–liquid interfaces of mixtures driven by gradients of the chemical potential based on the dual control volume (DCV) method is described and tested. The rectangular simulation volume contains three bulk domains: a liquid domain in the middle with vapour on each side such that there are two vapour–liquid interfaces. The mass flux is generated by prescribing the chemical potential in control volumes in the vapour domains close to the outer boundary of the simulation volume. The simulation method was applied for studies of two binary Lennard-Jones mixtures: one in which a strong enrichment of the low-boiling component at the vapour–liquid interface is observed and another in which there is practically no enrichment. The two mixtures differ only in the dispersive interactions; their bulk diffusion coefficients are similar. Furthermore, the prescribed chemical potential difference was the same in all simulations. Nevertheless, important differences in the mass flux of the low-boiling component were observed for the two mixtures at all studied temperatures which might be related to the enrichment at the interfaces.

The Formation of Isolated Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies in Romulus25

We use the Romulus25 cosmological simulation volume to identify the largest-ever simulated sample of field ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs). At z = 0, we find that isolated UDGs have average star formation rates, colors, and virial masses for their stellar masses and environment. UDGs have moderately elevated HI masses, being 70% (300%) more HI-rich than typical isolated dwarf galaxies at luminosities brighter (fainter) than MB=-14. However, UDGs are consistent with the general isolated dwarf galaxy population and make up ∼20% of all field galaxies with 107<M⋆/M⊙<109. The HI masses, effective radii, and overall appearances of our UDGs are consistent with existing observations of field UDGs, but we predict that many isolated UDGs have been missed by current surveys. Despite their isolation at z = 0, the UDGs in our sample are the products of major mergers. Mergers are no more common in UDG than non-UDG progenitors, but mergers that create UDGs tend to happen earlier – almost never occurring after z = 1, produce a temporary boost in spin, and cause star formation to be redistributed to the outskirts of galaxies, resulting in lower central star formation rates. The centers of the galaxies fade as their central stellar populations age, but their global star formation rates are maintained through bursts of star formation at larger radii, producing steeper negative g-r color gradients. This formation channel is unique relative to other proposals for UDG formation in isolated galaxies, demonstrating that UDGs can potentially be formed through multiple mechanisms.

Massive neutrinos leave fingerprints on cosmic voids

ABSTRACT Do void statistics contain information beyond the tracer 2-point correlation function? Yes! As we vary the sum of the neutrino masses, we find void statistics contain information absent when using just tracer 2-point statistics. Massive neutrinos uniquely affect cosmic voids. We explore their impact on void clustering using both the DEMNUni and MassiveNuS simulations. For voids, neutrino effects depend on the observed void tracers. As the neutrino mass increases, the number of small voids traced by cold dark matter particles increases and the number of large voids decreases. Surprisingly, when massive, highly biased, haloes are used as tracers, we find the opposite effect. The scale at which voids cluster, as well as the void correlation, is similarly sensitive to the sum of neutrino masses and the tracers. This scale-dependent trend is not due to simulation volume or halo density. The interplay of these signatures in the void abundance and clustering leaves a distinct fingerprint that could be detected with observations and potentially help break degeneracies between different cosmological parameters. This paper paves the way to exploit cosmic voids in future surveys to constrain the mass of neutrinos.

Two Degree-of-Freedom µ Synthesis Control With Kalman Filter for Flight Environment Simulation Volume With Sensors Uncertainty

Flight Environment Simulation Volume (FESV) is the most important subsystem of Altitude Ground Test Facilities (AGTF). Its control precision of temperature and pressure determines the level of test ability of AGTF. However, in practice, the sensor hysteresis and noise may greatly affect the control precision of FESV. To improve the control performance of FESV in practice, a new control structure of two degree-of-freedom (DOF) μ synthesis control with the extended Kalman filter (EKF) considering actuators and sensors uncertainty is proposed, which constitutes a core support part of the paper. For the problem of sensors de-noising, an EKF is devised to provide a credible feedback signal to the two DOF μ controller. Aiming at the problem of reference command’s rapid change, one freedom feed forward is adopted, while another freedom output feedback is used to ensure good servo tracking as well as disturbance and noise rejection; furthermore to overcome the overshoot problem and acquire dynamic tuning, an integral is introduced in inner loop; additionally, two performance weighting functions are designed to achieve robustness and control energy limit considering the uncertainties in system. In order to verify the effectiveness of the designed two DOF μ synthesis controller with EKF, we suppose a typical engine test condition with Zoom-Climb and Mach Dash and consider time delay and Gaussian noise in the sensors. The simulation results show that the designed two DOF μ synthesis controller with EKF has good servo tracking and noise rejection performance and the relative steady-state and transient errors of temperature and pressure are both less than 0.1% and 0.2% respectively. Additionally, we validate the robust performance of the designed two DOF μ controller with EKF by using the upper bound value of the uncertainty parameters. Furthermore, to verify the advantage of the designed two DOF μ controller with EKF, we compare its control results with those of without EKF and μ controller without considering sensor time delay. The comparison results show that the designed two DOF μ controller with EKF provides better performance. Finally, to verify the advantage of μ synthesis controller, we designed a PID controller and compare the simulation result with μ controller, the comparison result show that the designed μ controller is better than PID controller.

On the small-scale clustering of quasars: constraints from the MassiveBlack II simulation

We examine recent high-precision measurements of small-scale quasar clustering (at z ∼ 0.5–2 on scales of ${\sim }25~\mathrm{kpc}\, h^{-1}$) from the SDSS in the context of the MassiveBlack II (MBII) cosmological hydrodynamic simulation and conditional luminosity function (CLF) modelling. At these high luminosities (g < 20.85 quasars), the MBII simulation volume ($100~\mathrm{cMpc}\, h^{-1}$ comoving boxsize) has only three quasar pairs at distances of 1–4 Mpc. The black hole masses for the pairs range between $M_{\rm bh}\sim 1{\, \rm and\, }3\times 10^{9}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot }\, h^{-1}$ and the quasar hosts are haloes of $M_{\rm h}\sim 1\hbox{--}3\times 10^{14}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot }\, h^{-1}$. Such pairs show signs of recent major mergers in the MBII simulation. By modelling the central and satellite AGN CLFs as lognormal and Schechter distributions, respectively (as seen in MBII AGNs), we arrive at CLF models which fit the simulation predictions and observed luminosity function and the small-scale clustering measured for the SDSS sample. The small-scale clustering of our mock quasars is well-explained by central--satellite quasar pairs that reside in $M_{\rm h}\gt 10^{14}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot }\, h^{-1}$ dark matter haloes. For these pairs, satellite quasar luminosity is similar to that of central quasars. Our CLF models imply a relatively steep increase in the maximum satellite luminosity, $L^*_{\mathrm{sat}}$, in haloes of $M_{\rm h}\gt 10^{14}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot }\, h^{-1}$ with associated larger values of $L^*_{\mathrm{sat}}$ at higher redshift. This leads to increase in the satellite fraction that manifests itself in an enhanced clustering signal at ≲1 Mpc h−1. For the ongoing eBOSS-CORE sample, we predict ∼200–500 quasar pairs at z ∼ 1.5 (with $M_{\rm h} \gtrsim 10^{13}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot }\, h^{-1}$ and $M_{\rm bh} \gtrsim 10^{8}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot }\, h^{-1}$) at ∼25 kpc scales. Such a sample would be ≳ 10 times larger than current pair samples.