Thermal velocity

About: Thermal velocity is a(n) research topic. Over the lifetime, 3399 publication(s) have been published within this topic receiving 77113 citation(s). The topic is also known as: thermal speed.

Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Dilute Atomic Vapor

Abstract: A Bose-Einstein condensate was produced in a vapor of rubidium-87 atoms that was confined by magnetic fields and evaporatively cooled. The condensate fraction first appeared near a temperature of 170 nanokelvin and a number density of 2.5 x 10 12 per cubic centimeter and could be preserved for more than 15 seconds. Three primary signatures of Bose-Einstein condensation were seen. (i) On top of a broad thermal velocity distribution, a narrow peak appeared that was centered at zero velocity. (ii) The fraction of the atoms that were in this low-velocity peak increased abruptly as the sample temperature was lowered. (iii) The peak exhibited a nonthermal, anisotropic velocity distribution expected of the minimum-energy quantum state of the magnetic trap in contrast to the isotropic, thermal velocity distribution observed in the broad uncondensed fraction.

A Collective Description of Electron Interactions: II. Collective vs Individual Particle Aspects of the Interactions

Abstract: The behavior of the electrons in a dense electron gas is analyzed in terms of their density fluctuations. These density fluctuations may be split into two components. One component is associated with the organized oscillation of the system as a whole, the so-called "plasma" oscillation. The other is associated with the random thermal motion of the individual electrons and shows no collective behavior. It represents a collection of individual electrons surrounded by comoving clouds of charge which screen the electron fields within a distance of the order of magnitude of the Debye length. This split up of the density fluctuations corresponds to an effective separation of the Coulomb interaction into long-range and short-range parts; the separation occurs at roughly the Debye length.The relation between the individual and collective aspects of the electron gas is discussed in detail, and a general physical picture of the behavior of the system is given. It is shown that for phenomena involving distances greater than the Debye length, the system behaves collectively; for distances shorter than this length, it may be treated as a collection of approximately free individual particles, whose interactions may be described in terms of two-body collisions.This approach is used to study the interaction of a specified electron with the remainder of the electron gas. It is shown that the collective part of the response of this remainder to the field of the specified particle screens this field within a distance of the order of the Debye length; this furnishes a detailed description of the screening process. Moreover, if the specified particle moves with greater than the mean thermal speed, it excites collective oscillations in the form of a wake trailing the particle. The frequency of these collective oscillations and the energy emitted by the particle are calculated. A correspondence theoretical method is used to treat this phenomenon for the electrons in a metal. The results are in good agreement with the experiments of Ruthemann and Lang on the energy loss of kilovolt electrons in this metallic films.The generalization of these methods to an arbitrary interparticle force is carried out, and a criterion is obtained for the validity of a collective description of the particle interactions. It is shown that strong forces and high particle density favor collective behavior, while high random thermal velocities oppose it.

Mean-flow scaling of turbulent pipe flow

Abstract: Measurements of the mean velocity profile and pressure drop were performed in a fully developed, smooth pipe flow for Reynolds numbers from 31×103 to 35×106. Analysis of the mean velocity profiles indicates two overlap regions: a power law for 60 9×103). Von Karman's constant was shown to be 0.436 which is consistent with the friction factor data and the mean velocity profiles for 600 5%) than those predicted by Prandtl's relation. A new friction factor relation is proposed which is within ±1.2% of the data for Reynolds numbers between 10×103 and 35×106, and includes a term to account for the near-wall velocity profile.

Laser Deceleration of an Atomic Beam

Abstract: Deceleration and velocity bunching of Na atoms in an atomic beam have been observed. The deceleration, caused by absorption of counterpropagating resonant laser light, amounts to 40% of the initial thermal velocity, corresponding to about 15 000 absorptions. Atoms were kept in resonance with the laser by using a spatially varying magnetic field to provide a changing Zeeman shift to compensate for the changing Doppler shift as the atoms decelerated.

Lagrangian coherent structures from approximate velocity data

Abstract: This paper examines whether hyperbolic Lagrangian structures—such as stable and unstable manifolds—found in model velocity data represent reliable predictions for mixing in the true fluid velocity field. The error between the model and the true velocity field may result from velocity interpolation, extrapolation, measurement imprecisions, or any other deterministic source. We find that even large velocity errors lead to reliable predictions on Lagrangian coherent structures, as long as the errors remain small in a special time-weighted norm. More specifically, we show how model predictions from the Okubo–Weiss criterion or from finite-time Lyapunov exponents can be validated. We also estimate how close the true Lagrangian coherent structures are to those predicted by models.