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Anthropogenic climate change has increased the probability, severity, and duration of heat waves and droughts, subsequently escalating the risk of wildfires. Mathematical and computational models can enhance our understanding of wildfire propagation dynamics. In this work, we present a simplified Advection-Diffusion-Reaction (ADR) model that accounts for the effect of fuel moisture, and also considers wind, local radiation, natural convection and topography. The model explicitly represents fuel moisture effects by means of the apparent calorific capacity method, distinguishing between live and dead fuel moisture content. Using this model, we conduct exploratory simulations and present theoretical insights into various modeling decisions in the context of ADR-based models. We aim to shed light on the interplay between the different modeled mechanisms in wildfire propagation to identify key factors influencing fire spread and to estimate the model's predictive capacity.

We report the results of systematic investigation of localized dynamical states in the model of a one-dimensional magnetic wire, which is based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation. The dissipative term in the LLG equation is compensated by the parametric drive imposed by the external AC magnetic field, which is uniformly applied perpendicular to the rectilinear wire. The existence and stability of the localized states is studied in the plane of the relevant control parameters, viz., the amplitude of the driving term and the detuning of its frequency from the parametric resonance. With the help of systematically performed simulations of the LLG equation, existence and stability areas are identified in the parameter plane for several species of the localized states: stationary single- and two-soliton modes, single and double breathers, drifting double breathers with spontaneously broken inner symmetry, and multi-soliton complexes. Multistability occurs in this system. The breathers emit radiation waves (which explains their drift caused by the spontaneous symmetry breaking, as it breaks the balance between the recoil from the waves emitted to left and right), while the multi-soliton complexes exhibit cycles of periodic transitions between three-, five-, and seven-soliton configurations. Dynamical characteristics of the localized states are systematically calculated too. These include, in particular, the average velocity of the asymmetric drifting modes, and the largest Lyapunov exponent, whose negative and positive values imply that the intrinsic dynamics of the respective modes is regular or chaotic, respectively., Comment: Published in Symmetry, Volume 16, Issue 12, Year 2024

RISTRETTO is a visible high-resolution spectrograph fed by an extreme adaptive optics (AO) system, to be proposed as a visitor instrument on ESO VLT. The main science goal of RISTRETTO is to pioneer the detection and atmospheric characterisation of exoplanets in reflected light, in particular the temperate rocky planet Proxima b. RISTRETTO will be able to measure albedos and detect atmospheric features in a number of exoplanets orbiting nearby stars for the first time. It will do so by combining a high-contrast AO system working at the diffraction limit of the telescope to a high-resolution spectrograph, via a 7-spaxel integral-field unit (IFU) feeding single-mode fibers. Further science cases for RISTRETTO include the study of accreting protoplanets such as PDS70b/c through spectrally-resolved H-alpha emission, and spatially-resolved studies of Solar System objects such as icy moons and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. The project is in the manufacturing phase for the spectrograph sub-system, and the preliminary design phase for the AO front-end. Specific developments for RISTRETTO include a novel coronagraphic IFU combining a phase-induced amplitude apodizer (PIAA) to a 3D-printed microlens array feeding a bundle of single-mode fibers. It also features an XAO system with a dual wavefront sensor aiming at high robustness and sensitivity, including to pupil fragmentation. RISTRETTO is a pathfinder instrument in view of similar developments at the ELT, in particular the SCAO-IFU mode of ELT-ANDES and the future ELT-PCS instrument., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

The Spectrograph of the RISTRETTO instrument is now currently being manufactured. RISTETTO is an instrument designed to detect and characterize the reflected light of nearby exoplanets. It combines high contrast imaging and high resolution spectroscopy to detect the light of exoplanets. The high resolution spectrograph subject of this paper uses the doppler effect to disentangle the planetary signal from the stellar light leaks. In this paper we describe the final design of the spectrograph and report the status of its construction. The RISTRETTO spectrograph has seven diffraction limited spaxels. The spectrograph's resolution is 130000 in the 620-840 nm band. It is designed in a similar way as HARPS and ESPRESSO, being a warm, thermally controlled spectrograph under vacuum. It is designed to be compact and self contained so that it could be installed on different telescopes. It is however tailored to be installed on a nasmyth platform of a VLT telescope. We present updates to the design and the manufacturing of the instrument. In particular we present the performance of the thermal enclosure., Comment: Paper submitted to the SPIE conference Astronomical Telescope and Instrumentation, conference title : Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X, paper number : 13096-283

We present here the preliminary design of the RIZ module, one of the visible spectrographs of the ANDES instrument 1. It is a fiber-fed high-resolution, high-stability spectrograph. Its design follows the guidelines of successful predecessors such as HARPS and ESPRESSO. In this paper we present the status of the spectrograph at the preliminary design stage. The spectrograph will be a warm, vacuum-operated, thermally controlled and fiber-fed echelle spectrograph. Following the phase A design, the huge etendue of the telescope will be reformed in the instrument with a long slit made of smaller fibers. We discuss the system design of the spectrographs system., Comment: Paper submitted to the SPIE astronomical telescope and instrumentation 2024, conference title : Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X, paper reference number : 13096-171

We demonstrate the existence of semivortex (SV) solitons, with vorticities $0$ and $1$ in the two components, in a two-dimensional (2D) fermionic spinor system under the action of the Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling in the combination with the Zeeman splitting (ZS). In the ``heavy-atom" approximation, which was previously elaborated for the bosonic system, the usual kinetic energy is neglected, which gives rise to a linear spectrum with a bandgap. The model includes the effective Pauli self-repulsion with power $7/3$, as produced by the density-functional theory of Fermi superfluids. In the general case, the inter-component contact repulsion is included too. We construct a family of gap solitons of the SV type populating the spectral bandgap. A stability region is identified for the SV solitons, by means of systematic simulations, in the parameter plane of the cross-repulsion strength and chemical potential. The stability region agrees with the prediction of the anti-Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion, which is a relevant necessary stability condition for systems with self-repulsive nonlinearities. We also test the stability of the SV solitons against a sudden change of the ZS strength, which initiates robust oscillations in the spin state of the soliton due to transfer of particles between the system's components., Comment: Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, in press

This paper investigates the fluid dynamics of mixing in the tanks of small-scale vanadium redox flow batteries. These systems use two redox pairs dissolved in separate electrolytes to convert electrical energy into chemical energy, a process that can be reversed in an efficient way to restore the initial electrical energy with negligible chemical losses. After flowing through the electrochemical cell, the electrolytes are stored in separate tanks, where they discharge as submerged jets with small temperature and composition changes compared to the electrolyte already present in the tanks. The subsequent mixing process is critical for battery performance, as imperfect mixing tends to reduce the energy capacity and may lead to asymmetric battery operation. The analysis starts using order-of-magnitude estimates to determine the conditions under which the mixing process is dominated by momentum or buoyancy. Transient two-dimensional simulations illustrate the different flow regimes that emerge in the tanks under laminar flow conditions. The results show that, contrary to the common assumption, the electrolytes do not mix well in the tanks. In the presence of high-momentum -- and, specially, positively buoyant -- jets, a significant fraction of the electrolyte remains unmixed and unreacted for long periods, thus reducing the energy capacity. The results also show that the availability of reliable electrolyte properties is crucial for the accuracy of the numerical simulations, as, under the mixed convection conditions that typically prevail in vanadium redox flow batteries, small density variations can significantly impact the long-term mixing of the electrolytes. In particular, in momentum-dominated flows the cumulative effect of density changes over time eventually leads to flow instabilities that significantly promote mixing; therefore, they should be taken into account in future studies.

It is shown that if $X$ is a unitary operator so that a singular subspace of~$U$ is unitarily equivalent to a singular subspace of~$UX$ (or $XU$), for each unitary operator~$U$, then $X$ is the identity operator. In other words, there is no nontrivial generalization of Birman-Krein Theorem that includes the preservation of a singular spectral subspace in this context.

As part of the main focus of the BDF Working Group in 2021, this document reports on the study of alternative locations and possible optimisation that may accompany the reuse of existing facilities with the aim of significantly reducing the costs of the facility. Building on the BDF/SHiP Comprehensive Design Study (CDS), the assessment rests on the generic requirements and constraints that allow preserving the physics reach of the facility by making use of the $4\times 10^{19}$ protons per year at 400\,GeV that are currently not exploited at the SPS and for which no existing facility is compatible. The options considered involve the underground areas TCC4, TNC, and ECN3. Recent improvements of the BDF design at the current location (referred to as `TT90-TCC9-ECN4') are also mentioned together with ideas for yet further improvements. The assessments of the alternative locations compiled the large amount of information that is already available together with a set of conceptual studies that were performed during 2021. The document concludes with a qualitative comparison of the options, summarising the associated benefits and challenges of each option, such that a recommendation can be made about which location is to be pursued. The most critical location-specific studies required to specify the implementation and cost for each option are identified so that the detailed investigation of the retained option can be completed before the end of 2022.