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An original noncontact measurement technique to determine the phase transition for the superconductor YBa2Cu3Ox is described. A piezoelectric is used to vibrate the sample normal to the superconductor surface, and a small coil which has a permanent magnet adhered to it, or an electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) for out-of-plane waves, is used to detect (by means of standard lock-in techniques) these vibrations, both on the Ohmic and the superconducting regimes as temperature is lowered. The magnitude of the induced voltage (by eddy currents) on the EMAT is plotted against temperature (T), and the changes in the conductivity in the Ohmic regime as well as during the superconducting transition (88.7

We present a numerical study of the spatial correlations of a quasi-two-dimensional granular fluid kept in a nonstatic steady state via vertical shaking. The simulations explore a wide range of vertical accelerations, restitution coefficients, and packing fractions, always staying below the crystallization limit. From the simulations we obtain the relevant pair distribution functions (PDFs), and effective potentials for the interparticle interaction are extracted from these PDFs via the Ornstein-Zernike equation with the Percus-Yevick closure. The correlations in the granular structures originating from these effective potentials are checked against the originating PDF using standard Monte Carlo simulations, and we find in general an excellent agreement. The resulting effective potentials show an increase of the spatial correlation at contact with the decreasing values of the restitution coefficient, and a tendency of the potentials to display deeper wells for more dissipative dynamics. A general exception to this trend appears for a range of values of the forcing, which depends on the restitution coefficient, but not on the density, where resonant bouncing increases correlations, resulting in deeper potential wells. The nature of these resonances is explored and shown to be the result of synchronization in the parabolic flights of the particles.

Depletion-induced aggregation of rods enhanced by clustering is observed to produce a novel model of attractive pairs of rods separated by a line of spheres in a quasi-2D, vertically-shaken, granular gas of rods and spheres. We show that the stability of these peculiar granular aggregates increases as a function of shaking intensity. Velocity distributions of spheres inside and outside of a pair of rods trapping a line of spheres show a clear suppression of the momentum acquired by the trapped spheres. The condensed phase formed between the rods is caused by a clustering instability of the trapped spheres, enhanced by a vertical guidance produced by the confining rods. The liberated area corresponding to direct excluded-volume pairs and indirect depletion-aggregated pairs is measured as a function of time. The stability of rod pairs mediated by spheres reveals an attraction comparable in strength to the one purely induced by depletion forces.

We study the formation of crystalline clusters for a two-dimensional (2D) sinusoidally vibrated granular gas, with maximum vertical acceleration smaller than gravity, using fully 3D simulations. It is found that this phenomenon arises from the spontaneous segregation of the granulate into two dynamical modes: one of grains that bounce in synchrony with the motion of the sustaining plate ("bouncers") and another of grains that cease to bounce and simply rolls on the plate, without ever loosing contact with it ("rollers"). These two dynamical categories are quite robust with respect to perturbations. The populations for bouncers and rollers depend on the preparation of the granulate and can be made to take arbitrary values in all the range of accelerations where both dynamical modes are present. It is found that the dynamical mode with the largest population coalesces in clusters under the influence of the other mode, whose grains act as a higher pressure gas that compresses the clusters. In this way it is possible to produce clusters of rollers or clusters of bouncers. A gas made of grains from only one dynamical class shows only weak density fluctuations. When the occupation fractions for both modes are similar, one observes segregation and clusters of both types. The clustering of the gas is monitored using both the average coordination number and the local hexatic order parameter ψ(6). Energy flows in the plane are monitored, and it is shown that roller-bouncer collisions increase horizontal kinetic energy, while all other types of collisions reduce this energy. We find that friction with the substrate is the main sink of horizontal energy for these granular gases.

We present a novel study on the effect of a magnetic field applied on a binary mixture doped with magnetic nanoparticles close to its demixing transition. Turbidity measurements in the Faraday configuration show that the effect of applying an external field produces changes in the critical opalescence of the mixture that allow us to track an aggregation produced by critical Casimir forces and a reversible aggregation due to the formation of chain-like flocks in response to the external magnetic field. The observation of a crossover of the aggregation curves through optical signals is interpreted as the evolution from low to high power dispersion nuclei due to an increase in the radius of the condensation seed brought about by Casimir or magnetic interactions. Finally, evidence of an enhanced magnetocaloric effect due to the coupling between mixing and ordering phase transitions is presented which opens up a nonsolid state approach of designing refrigerating cycles and devices.

Convection velocity measurements in vertically vibrated granular materials are presented. The convection velocity close to the walls grows quadratically with the difference between the maximum and critical, or excess, amplitude (proposed as a dynamic parameter to describe related problems) and it is shown numerically that the average bed-bottom relative velocity during the distancing between them, grows linearly with the squared as well. This is interpreted as the signature of an inertial shearing force or momentum transfer proportional to the bed-container relative velocity, acting mainly during the bed-plate distancing part of each cycle which leads to the formation of the convective flux.