Lattice Boltzmann Modeling of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Droplets Under an Oscillatory Electric Field

We numerically study the dynamics of quasi-two dimensional cholesteric liquid crystal droplets in the presence of a time-dependent electric field, rotating at constant angular velocity. A surfactant sitting at the droplet interface is also introduced to prevent droplet coalescence. The dynamics is modeled following a hybrid numerical approach, where a standard lattice Boltzmann technique solves the Navier-Stokes equation and a finite difference scheme integrates the evolution equations of liquid crystal and surfactant.

A multi-GPU aggregation-based AMG preconditioner for iterative linear solvers

We present and release in open source format a sparse linear solver which efficiently exploits heterogeneous parallel computers. The solver can be easily integrated into scientific applications that need to solve large and sparse linear systems on modern parallel computers made of hybrid nodes hosting Nvidia Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) accelerators.

Coarse-Graining of a Discrete Model for Edge Dislocations in the Regular Triangular Lattice

We consider a discrete model of planar elasticity where the particles, in the reference configuration, sit on a regular triangular lattice and interact through nearest-neighbor pairwise potentials, with bonds modeled as linearized elastic springs. Within this framework, we introduce plastic slip fields, whose discrete circulation around each tri-angle detects the possible presence of an edge dislocation.

A long-time behavior preserving numerical scheme for age-of-infection epidemic models with heterogeneous mixing

In this manuscript we propose a numerical method for non-linear integro-differential systems arising in age-of-infection models in a heterogeneously mixed population. The discrete scheme is based on direct quadrature methods and provides an unconditionally positive and bounded solution. Furthermore, we prove the existence of the numerical final size of the epidemic and show that it tends to its continuous equivalent as the discretization steplength vanishes.

A Preliminary Investigation of a Single Shock Impact on Italian Mortality Rates Using STMF Data: A Case Study of COVID-19

Mortality shocks, such as pandemics, threaten the consolidated longevity improvements, confirmed in the last decades for the majority of western countries. Indeed, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, mortality was falling for all ages, with a different behavior according to different ages and countries. It is indubitable that the changes in the population longevity induced by shock events, even transitory ones, affecting demographic projections, have financial implications in public spending as well as in pension plans and life insurance.

Screw dislocations in periodic media: Variational coarse graining of the discrete elastic energy

We study the asymptotic behavior, as the lattice spacing ? tends to zero, of the discrete elastic energy induced by topological singularities in an inhomogeneous ? periodic medium within a two-dimensional model for screw dislocations in the square lattice. We focus on the |log?| regime which, as ?->0 allows the emergence of a finite number of limiting topological singularities.