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We analyze the dynamics of small particles vertically confined, by means of a linear restoring force, to move within a horizontal fluid slab in a three-dimensional (3D) homogeneous isotropic turbulent velocity field. The model that we introduce and study is possibly the simplest description for the dynamics of small aquatic organisms that, due to swimming, active regulation of their buoyancy, or any other mechanism, maintain themselves in a shallow horizontal layer below the free surface of oceans or lakes. By varying the strength of the restoring force, we are able to control the thickness of the fluid slab in which the particles can move. This allows us to analyze the statistical features of the system over a wide range of conditions going from a fully 3D incompressible flow (corresponding to the case of no confinement) to the extremely confined case corresponding to a two-dimensional slice. The background 3D turbulent velocity field is evolved by means of fully resolved direct numerical simulations. Whenever some level of vertical confinement is present, the particle trajectories deviate from that of fluid tracers and the particles experience an effectively compressible velocity field. Here, we have quantified the compressibility, the preferential concentration of the particles, and the correlation dimension by changing the strength of the restoring force. The main result is that there exists a particular value of the force constant, corresponding to a mean slab depth approximately equal to a few times the Kolmogorov length scale η, that maximizes the clustering of the particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretically predicted vanishment of the macroscopic contact angle hysteresis is found experimentally along with a small but finite force of adhesion (FAd≈-0.5 μN) that, unexpectedly, is independent of the history of the preload. Our results agree with the prediction of a model in which the surface tension of the liquid provides the counterpart of the restoring force of an elastic solid, evidencing that the dewetting of a liquid in the absence of strong pinning points is equivalent to the detachment of an elastic solid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We predict that a low-permittivity oblate body (disk-shaped object) above a thin metal substrate (plate with a hole) immersed in a fluid of intermediate permittivity will experience a metastable equilibrium (restoring force) near the center of the hole. Stability is the result of a geometry-induced transition in the sign of the force, from repulsive to attractive, that occurs as the disk approaches the hole—in planar or nearly planar geometries, the same material combination yields a repulsive force at all separations, in accordance with the Dzyaloshinskiĭ-Lifshitz-Pitaevskiĭ condition of fluid-induced repulsion between planar bodies. We explore the stability of the system with respect to rotations and lateral translations of the disks and demonstrate interesting transitions (bifurcations) in the rotational stability of the disks as a function of their size. Finally, we consider the reciprocal situation in which the disk-plate materials are interchanged and find that in this case the system also exhibits metastability. The forces in the system are sufficiently large to be observed in experiments and should enable measurements based on the diffusion dynamics of the suspended bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by understanding the emergence of thermodynamic restoring forces and oscillations, we develop a quantum-mechanical model of a bath of spins coupled to the elasticity of a material. We show our model reproduces the behavior of a variety of entropic springs while enabling investigation of nonequilibrium resonator states in the quantum domain. We find our model emerges naturally in disordered elastic media, such as glasses, and is an additional expected effect in systems with anomalous specific heat and 1/f noise at low temperatures due to two-level systems that fluctuate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]