Pierfrancesco Di Cintio

Temperature inversion in long-range interacting systems

Temperature inversions occur in nature, e.g., in the solar corona and in interstellar molecular clouds: Somewhat counterintuitively, denser parts of the system are colder than dilute ones. We propose a simple and appealing way to spontaneously generate temperature inversions in systems with long-range interactions, by preparing them in inhomogeneous thermal equilibrium states and then applying an impulsive perturbation. In similar situations, short-range systems would typically relax to another thermal equilibrium, with a uniform temperature profile. By contrast, in long-range systems, the interplay between wave-particle interaction and spatial inhomogeneity drives the system to nonequilibrium stationary states that generically exhibit temperature inversion. We demonstrate this mechanism in a simple mean-field model and in a two-dimensional self-gravitating system. Our work underlines the crucial role the range of interparticle interaction plays in determining the nature of steady states out of thermal equilibrium.

Relaxation of spherical systems with long-range interactions: a numerical investigation

The process of relaxation of a system of particles interacting with long-range forces is relevant to many areas of physics. For obvious reasons, in Stellar Dynamics much attention has been paid to the case of r-2 force law. However, recently the interest in alternative gravities has emerged, and significant differences with respect to Newtonian gravity have been found in relaxation phenomena. Here we begin to explore this matter further, by using a numerical model of spherical shells interacting with an r-α force law obeying the superposition principle. We find that the virialization and phase-mixing times depend on the exponent α, with small values of α corresponding to longer relaxation times, similarly to what happens when comparing for N-body simulations in classical gravity and in Modified Newtonian Dynamics.

Multiparticle collision simulations of two-dimensional one-component plasmas: Anomalous transport and dimensional crossovers

By means of hybrid multiparticle collsion-particle-in-cell (MPC-PIC) simulations we study the dynamical scaling of energy and density correlations at equilibrium in moderately coupled two-dimensional (2D) and quasi-one-dimensional (1D) plasmas. We find that the predictions of nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics for the structure factors of density and energy fluctuations in 1D systems with three global conservation laws hold true also for 2D systems that are more extended along one of the two spatial dimensions. Moreover, from the analysis of the equilibrium energy correlators and density structure factors of both 1D and 2D neutral plasmas, we find that neglecting the contribution of the fluctuations of the vanishing self-consistent electrostatic fields overestimates the interval of frequencies over which the anomalous transport is observed. Such violations of the expected scaling in the currents correlation are found in different regimes, hindering the observation of the asymptotic scaling predicted by the theory.

Anomalous dynamical scaling in anharmonic chains and plasma models with multiparticle collisions.

We study the anomalous dynamical scaling of equilibrium correlations in one-dimensional systems. Two different models are compared: the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain with cubic and quartic nonlinearity and a gas of point particles interacting stochastically through multiparticle collision dynamics. For both models-that admit three conservation laws-by means of detailed numerical simulations we verify the predictions of nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics for the structure factors of density and energy fluctuations at equilibrium. Despite this, violations of the expected scaling in the currents correlation are found in some regimes, hindering the observation of the asymptotic scaling predicted by the theory. In the case of the gas model this crossover is clearly demonstrated upon changing the coupling constant.

Dynamical origin of non-thermal states in galactic filaments

Observations strongly suggest that filaments in galactic molecular clouds are in a non-thermal state. As a simple model of a filament we study a two-dimensional system of self-gravitating point particles by means of numerical simulations of the dynamics, with various methods: direct

Radially anisotropic systems with r-α forces - II: radial-orbit instability

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Radially anisotropic systems with forces: equilibrium states

-body integration of the equations of motion, particle-in-cell simulations and a recently developed numerical scheme that includes multiparticle collisions in a particle-in-cell approach. Studying the collapse of Gaussian overdensities we find that after the damping of virial oscillations the system settles in a non-thermal steady state whose radial density profile is similar to the observed ones, thus suggesting a dynamical origin of the non-thermal states observed in real filaments. Moreover, for sufficiently cold collapses the density profiles are anticorrelated with the kinetic temperature, i.e., exhibit temperature inversion, again a feature that has been found in some observations of filaments. The same happens in the state reached after a strong perturbation of an initially isothermal cylinder. Finally, we discuss our results in the light of recent findings in other contexts (including non-astrophysical ones) and argue that the same kind of non-thermal states may be observed in any physical system with long-range interactions.

Reply to "Comment on 'Temperature inversion in long-range interacting systems' ".

We continue to investigate the dynamics of collisionless systems of particles interacting via additive

Transport in perturbed classical integrable systems: the pinned Toda chain.

r^{-\alpha}

Collisional relaxation and dynamical scaling in multiparticle collisions dynamics.

interparticle forces. Here we focus on the dependence of the radial-orbit instability on the force exponent