Physics
Weakly ionized plasmas can be found in the lower layers of the solar and stellar atmospheres and in structures such as prominences and spicules. A variety of density perturbations and bulk flows detected in these environments have been…
In a low Reynolds number fluid environment that microswimmers encounter, back-and-forth motion cannot lead to net displacement. In mammalian sperm, the mechanical wave propagating along their single flagellum breaks the cancellation between…
Virological measurements are often treated as reports of virion structure, mechanics, dielectric response, infectivity, or titer. In practice, an experiment observes a protocol-conditioned projection of a richer latent virion--environment…
Why does the mammalian vascular tree maintain a conserved branching exponent $\alpha^* \approx 2.72$ across a $10^7$-fold range in body mass, despite a fundamental shift from viscous to wave-dominated transport? We prove this universality…
High-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets and other advances have led to renewed interest in magnetic mirrors for fusion energy. The non-Maxwellian nature of mirror plasmas necessitates kinetic modeling to predict, optimize and design…
We present an explicit multiscale algorithm for solving differential equations for problems with high-frequency modes that can be averaged over by separating and scaling the fast and slow dynamics within a single equation. We introduce a…
Murray's cubic branching law ($\alpha=3$) predicts a universal diameter scaling exponent for all hierarchical transport networks, yet arterial trees yield $\alpha \sim 2.7-2.9$. We show that this discrepancy has a structural origin:…
Why do we use nano-antennas for fusion? In three sentences: The present laser induced fusion plans use extreme mechanical shock compression to get one hotspot and then ignition. Still fusion burning spreads slower than expansion, and…
Biofilms in porous media critically influence hydraulic properties in environmental and engineered systems. However, a mechanistic understanding of how microbial life controls permeability remains elusive. By combining microfluidics,…
The pursuit-evasion game is studied for two adversarial active agents, modelled as a deterministic self-steering pursuer and a stochastic, cognitive evader. The pursuer chases the evader by reorienting its propulsion direction with limited…
We demonstrate that a symmetry of the local gyrokinetic model is broken when the safety factor q is almost (but not exactly) a rational number and magnetic shear is $\hat{s} \approx 0$. Tokamaks with such a q profile will spontaneously…
We reconsider the footprints of radiation friction in a head-on collision of a bunch of relativistic charged particles with a laser pulse by demonstrating that forward and backward radiation and radiation friction are coherently enhanced in…
Living cells are energy- and information-processing systems that sustain a nonequilibrium steady state (NESS) by continuously consuming energy and dissipating heat, as required by the second law of thermodynamics. The rate of heat…
We develop an analytical theory of coherent (scaled quadratically with the number of particles) radiation and coherent radiation friction in a head-on collision of a dense charged particle bunch with an intense laser pulse. We demonstrate…
Primary hemostasis is initiated by platelet adhesion and aggregation at a site of vascular injury and is strongly regulated by local hydrodynamic conditions. At elevated shear rates, platelet capture is mediated by von Willebrand factor…
A mechanism of resonant excitation of surface magnetoplasmons (SMPs) is proposed in the terahertz (THz) frequency range by {\emph{beating of two p-polarized lasers}}, obliquely incident at an angle $\theta$ on a graphene sheet deposited…
This work presents the compact experimental negative triangularity reactor (CENTAUR), a low overnight cost, high-field tokamak, breakeven reactor design, achieving a predicted total fusion power of 40MW and scientific energy gain of 1.3.…
Body-mass growth is usually described by continuous models that represent the gradual increase of mass toward an adult or asymptotic value. In this work, we formulate and test an alternative description based on a Fibonacci-inspired…
The idea of an energy cascade in the inertial range is often invoked in turbulent space plasmas to estimate the energy dissipation rate. Laws governing the behavior of third-order structure functions in the inertial range, so-called…
Building on recent progress in the understanding of particle transport in magnetized plasmas, we derive a scaling law for the formation of nonthermal spectral tails in mildly and strongly magnetized turbulent environments. We validate this…