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1. Wake Vortices and Dissipation in a Tidally Modulated Flow Past a Three‐Dimensional Topography

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JC018470  

   Puthan, Pranav ; Pawlak, Geno ; Sarkar, Sutanu ( August 2022 , Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans)

   Large eddy simulations are employed to investigate the role of tidal modulation strength on wake vortices and dissipation in flow past three‐dimensional topography, specifically a conical abyssal hill. The barotropic current is of the formU_c + U_t sin(Ω_tt), whereU_candU_tare the mean and oscillatory components, respectively, and Ω_tis the tidal frequency. A regime with strong stratification and weak rotation is considered. The velocity ratioR = U_t/U_cis varied from 0 to 1. Simulation results show that the frequency of wake vortices reduces gradually with increasingRfrom its natural shedding frequency atR = 0 to Ω_t/2 whenR ≥ 0.2. The ratio ofRand the excursion number, denoted as, controls the shift in the vortex frequency. When, vortices are trapped in the wake during tidal deceleration, extending the vortex shedding cycle to two tidal cycles. Elevated dissipation rates in the obstacle lee are observed in the lateral shear layer, hydraulic jet, and the near wake. The regions of strong dissipation are spatially intermittent, with values exceedingduring the maximum‐velocity phase, whereDis the base diameter of the hill. The maximum dissipation rate during the tidal cycle increases monotonically withRin the downstream wake. Additionally, the normalized area‐integrated dissipation rate in the hydraulic response region scales withRas (1 + R)⁴. Results show that the wake dissipation energetically dominates the internal wave flux in this class of low‐Froude number geophysical flows.

    

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2. Toward an Integrated View of Ionospheric Plasma Instabilities: 4. Behavior in the Transitional Valley Region

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA027303  

   Makarevich, Roman A. ( November 2019 , Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics)

   Behavior of unstable plasma waves generated by the Farley‐Buneman instability (FBI) and the gradient drift instability (GDI) is analyzed in the transitional valley region near 120 km in altitude. The analysis is based on the expression for the FBI/GDI growth rateγthat has been recently generalized to include ion inertia effects for arbitrary altitude and wavelength, within the limits imposed by the fluid and local approaches. It is found that the ion inertia leads to a different instability behavior when the convection component is between the two critical values determined by the ion acoustic speedC_sand the ratior_ibetween the ion collision and gyrofrequency. The most interesting case occurs near 120 km, just below wherer_i=1. From analysis of electron density gradientsG=∇n/nthat result in marginal instability conditionγ=0 (i.e., critical gradientsG₀), there exists a critical scale whereG₀=0 and below which all waves are unstable to FBI. Above this scale,G₀>0 and gradients need to be sufficiently strongG>G₀for the plasma to become unstable through GDI. There also exists a maximum in dependence, which refers to the least unstable scale and gradient. For convection outside of the specified range, no critical or least unstable scale exists, which is a typical situation outside of the transitional valley region. Overall, this analysis shows that the FBI convection thresholds and the GDI critical gradients are modified by the ion inertia and that the effects are most pronounced in the transitional valley region near 120 km.

    

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3. NMR Study of CO 2 Capture by Butylamine and Oligopeptide KDDE in Aqueous Solution: Capture Efficiency and Gibbs Free Energy of the Capture Reaction as a Function of pH**

   https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.202300053  

   Yang, Kaidi ; Schell, Joseph ; Gallazzi, Fabio ; Wycoff, Wei ; Glaser, Rainer ( April 2023 , ChemPhysChem)

   We have been interested in the development of rubisco‐based biomimetic systems for reversible CO₂capture from air. Our design of the chemical CO₂capture and release (CCR) system is informed by the understanding of the binding of the activator CO₂(^ACO₂) in rubisco (ribulose‐1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase). The active site consists of the tetrapeptide sequence Lys‐Asp‐Asp‐Glu (or KDDE) and the Lys sidechain amine is responsible for the CO₂capture reaction. We are studying the structural chemistry and the thermodynamics of CO₂capture based on the tetrapeptide CH₃CO−KDDE−NH₂(“KDDE”) in aqueous solution to develop rubisco mimetic CCR systems. Here, we report the results of¹H NMR and¹³C NMR analyses of CO₂capture by butylamine and by KDDE. The carbamylation of butylamine was studied to develop the NMR method and with the protocol established, we were able to quantify the oligopeptide carbamylation at much lower concentration. We performed a pH profile in the multi equilibrium system and measured amine species and carbamic acid/carbamate species by the integration of¹H NMR signals as a function of pH in the range 8≤pH≤11. The determination of ΔG₁(R) for the reaction R−NH₂+CO₂R−NH−COOH requires the solution of a multi‐equilibrium equation system, which accounts for the dissociation constantsK₂andK₃controlling carbonate and bicarbonate concentrations, the acid dissociation constantK₄of the conjugated acid of the amine, and the acid dissociation constantK₅of the alkylcarbamic acid. We show how the multi‐equilibrium equation system can be solved with the measurements of the daughter/parent ratioX, the knowledge of the pH values, and the initial concentrations [HCO₃⁻]₀and [R‐NH₂]₀. For the reaction energies of the carbamylations of butylamine and KDDE, our best values are ΔG₁(Bu)=−1.57 kcal/mol and ΔG₁(KDDE)=−1.17 kcal/mol. Both CO₂capture reactions are modestly exergonic and thereby ensure reversibility in an energy‐efficient manner. These results validate the hypothesis that KDDE‐type oligopeptides may serve as reversible CCR systems in aqueous solution and guide designs for their improvement.

    

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4. A time domain approach for the exponential stability of a linearized compressible flow‐structure PDE system

   https://doi.org/10.1002/mma.6833  

   Guven Geredeli, Pelin ( September 2020 , Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences)

   This work is motivated by a longstanding interest in the long time behavior of flow‐structure interaction (FSI) PDE dynamics. We consider a linearized compressible flow structure interaction (FSI) PDE model with a view of analyzing the stability properties of both the compressible flow and plate solution components. In our earlier work, we gave an answer in the affirmative to question of uniform stability for finite energy solutions of said compressible flow‐structure system, by means of a “frequency domain” approach. However, the frequency domain method of proof in that work is not “robust” (insofar as we can see), when one wishes to study longtime behavior of solutions of compressible flow‐structure PDE models, which track the appearance of the ambient state onto the boundary interface. Nor is a frequency domain approach in this earlier work availing when one wishes to consider the dynamics, in long time, of solutions to physically relevant nonlinear versions of the compressible flow‐structure PDE system under present consideration (e.g., the Navier–Stokes nonlinearity in the PDE flow component or a nonlinearity of Berger/Von Karman type in the plate equation). Accordingly, in the present work, we operate in the time domain by way of obtaining the necessary energy estimates, which culminate in an alternative proof for the uniform stability of finite energy compressible flow‐structure solutions. Since there is a need to avoid steady states in our stability analysis, as a prerequisite result, we also show here that zero is an eigenvalue for the generators of flow‐structure systems, whether the material derivative term be absent or present. Moreover, we provide a clean characterization of the (one dimensional) zero eigenspace, with or without material derivative, under an appropriate assumption on the underlying ambient vector field.

    

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5. The Origin of Power-law Spectra in Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acfe7c  

   Zhang, Hao ; Sironi, Lorenzo ; Giannios, Dimitrios ; Petropoulou, Maria ( October 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Magnetic reconnection is often invoked as a source of high-energy particles, and in relativistic astrophysical systems it is regarded as a prime candidate for powering fast and bright flares. We present a novel analytical model—supported and benchmarked with large-scale three-dimensional kinetic particle-in-cell simulations in electron–positron plasmas—that elucidates the physics governing the generation of power-law energy spectra in relativistic reconnection. Particles with Lorentz factorγ≳ 3σ(here,σis the magnetization) gain most of their energy in the inflow region, while meandering between the two sides of the reconnection layer. Their acceleration time is$t_{\mathrm{acc}}\sim \gamma {\eta }_{\mathrm{rec}}^{-1}{\omega }_{\mathrm{c}}^{-1}\simeq 20\gamma {\omega }_{\mathrm{c}}^{-1}$, whereη_rec≃ 0.06 is the inflow speed in units of the speed of light andω_c=eB₀/mcis the gyrofrequency in the upstream magnetic field. They leave the region of active energization aftert_esc, when they get captured by one of the outflowing flux ropes of reconnected plasma. We directly measuret_escin our simulations and find thatt_esc∼t_accforσ≳ few. This leads to a universal (i.e.,σ-independent) power-law spectrum${\mathit{dN}}_{\mathrm{free}}/d\gamma \propto {\gamma }^{-1}$for the particles undergoing active acceleration, and$\mathit{dN}/d\gamma \propto {\gamma }^{-2}$for the overall particle population. Our results help to shed light on the ubiquitous presence of power-law particle and photon spectra in astrophysical nonthermal sources.

    

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