Gravitational self-force corrections to gyroscope precession along circular orbits in the Kerr spacetime

We generalize to Kerr spacetime previous gravitational self-force results on gyroscope precession along circular orbits in the Schwarzschild spacetime. In particular we present high order post-Newtonian expansions for the gauge invariant precession function along circular geodesics valid for an arbitrary Kerr spin parameter and show agreement between these results and those derived from the full post-Newtonian conservative dynamics.

Rheology of an Inverted Cholesteric Droplet under Shear Flow

The dynamics of a quasi two-dimensional isotropic droplet in a cholesteric liquid crystal medium under symmetric shear flow is studied by lattice Boltzmann simulations. We consider a geometry in which the flow direction is along the axis of the cholesteric, as this setup exhibits a significant viscoelastic response to external stress. We find that the dynamics depends on the magnitude of the shear rate, the anchoring strength of the liquid crystal at the droplet interface and the chirality.

Morphology and flow patterns in highly asymmetric active emulsions

We investigate numerically, by a hybrid lattice Boltzmann method, the morphology and the dynamics of an emulsion made of a polar active gel, contractile or extensile, and an isotropic passive fluid. We focus on the case of a highly off-symmetric ratio between the active and passive components. In absence of any activity we observe an hexatic-ordered droplets phase, with some defects in the layout. We study how the morphology of the system is affected by activity both in the contractile and extensile case.

Mesoscopic model for soft flowing systems with tunable viscosity ratio

We propose a mesoscopic model of binary fluid mixtures with tunable viscosity ratio based on a two-range pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann method, for the simulation of soft flowing systems. In addition to the short-range repulsive interaction between species in the classical single-range model, a competing mechanism between the short-range attractive and midrange repulsive interactions is imposed within each species.

Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence with singular nonuniform initial conditions

We perform direct numerical simulations of three-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence with a nonuniform singular initial temperature background. In such conditions, the mixing layer evolves under the driving of a varying effective At wood number; the long-time growth is still self-similar, but no longer proportional to t(2) and depends on the singularity exponent c of the initial profile Delta T proportional to z(c). We show that universality is recovered when looking at the efficiency, defined as the ratio of the variation rates of the kinetic energy over the heat flux.

Geometric properties of particle trajectories in turbulent flows

We study the statistics of curvature and torsion of Lagrangian trajectories from direct numerical simulations of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence (at Re-lambda approximate to 280) in order to extract informations on the geometry of small-scale coherent structures in turbulent flows. We find that, as previously observed by Braun et al. (W. Braun, F. De Lillo, and B. Eckhardt, Geometry of particle paths in turbulent flows, J. Turbul. 7 (2006), p. 62) and Xu et al. (H. Xu, N.T. Ouellette, and E. Bodenschatz, Curvature of Lagrangian trajectories in turbulence, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (2007), p.

High-Reynolds-number turbulent cavity flow using the lattice Boltzmann method

We present a boundary condition scheme for the lattice Boltzmann method that has significantly improved stability for modeling turbulent flows while maintaining excellent parallel scalability. Simulations of a three-dimensional lid-driven cavity flow are found to be stable up to the unprecedented Reynolds number Re = 5 x 10(4) for this setup. Excellent agreement with energy balance equations, computational and experimental results are shown. We quantify rises in the production of turbulence and turbulent drag, and determine peak locations of turbulent production.

A rare mutation model in a spatial heterogeneous environment

We propose a stochastic model in evolutionary game theory where individuals (or subpopulations) can mutate changing their strategies randomly (but rarely) and explore the external environment. This environment affects the selective pressure by modifying the payoff arising from the interactions between strategies. We derive a Fokker-Planck integro-differential equation and provide Monte Carlo simulations for the Hawks vs Doves game. In particular we show that, in some cases, taking into account the external environment favors the persistence of the low-fitness strategy.

Gene Regulatory Network Modeling of Macrophage Differentiation Corroborates the Continuum Hypothesis of Polarization States

Macrophages derived from monocyte precursors undergo specific polarization processes which are influenced by the local tissue environment: classically-activated (M1) macrophages, with a pro-inflammatory activity and a role of effector cells in Th1 cellular immune responses, and alternatively-activated (M2) macrophages, with anti-inflammatory functions and involved in immunosuppression and tissue repair. At least three different subsets of M2 macrophages, namely M2a, M2b and M2c, are characterized in the literature based on their eliciting signals.