Duke Physics

Horst Meyer, Fritz London Professor Emeritus  

Office Location: 0069 Physics
Office Phone: (919) 660-2520
Email Address: hm@phy.duke.edu
Web Page: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~hm

Specialties:
Experimental condensed matter physics
Nonlinear dynamics and complex systems

Education:
Ph.D., University of Geneva, 1953
B.S., University of Geneva, 1949

Research Categories: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics

Current projects: Analysis of convection data of supercritical ³He.

Research Description: Professor Horst Meyer is interested in the properties of fluids near their liquid-vapor critical point. These show a singular behavior as the critical point is approached. For instance the compressibility and the specific heat diverge, and so does the thermal conductivity. The thermal diffusivity, however, tends to zero, and the equilibration times become very long. The program at Duke, supported by a NASA grant, has focussed on a comprehensive study of these properties in ³He and in ³He-⁴He mixtures. Recently the equilibration mechanism of ³He near the critical point was investigated. The most recent studies deal with heat transfer in ³He, where the transition from conduction to convection and to early turbulence are investigated and compared with predictions and numerical simulations by several groups in Japan and in France. These studies are relevant to the NASA microgravity program. Earlier research dealt with heat transfer in liquid ⁴He and ³He-⁴He mixtures near the superfluid transition, and with the investigation of the orientational ordering in solid hydrogen and deuterium by various methods (NMR, heat transport, acoustics).

Areas of Interest:
Solid hydrogen and deuterium
Liquid and solid ³He
Liquid ³He-⁴He mixtures, static&dynamic properties
Superfluid transition in ⁴He
Convection and turbulence

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. H Meyer and G Accary, Time Scaling in the Convection Onset of Supercritical 3He, Journal of Low Temperature Physics, vol. 169 no. 5-6 (December, 2012), pp. 282-290 [repository], [doi] .
2. with G. Accary, Time Scaling in the Convection Onset of Supercritical  ³He, J. Low Temp. Phys. 169 282-290 (2012) [pdf] .
3. G Accary and H Meyer, Perturbation-controlled numerical simulations of the convection onset in a supercritical fluid layer, Physical Review E, vol. 74 no. 4 (October, 2006) [doi] .
4. H Meyer, Onset of the convection in a supercritical fluid, Physical Review E, vol. 73 no. 1 (January, 2006) [doi] .
5. with A Furukawa and A Onuki, Numerical simulations studies of the convective instability onset in a supercritical fluid, Physical Review E - Statistical Physics, Plasmas, Fluids, and Related Interdisciplinary Topics, vol. 71 no. 067301 (2005) .

Highlight:
Professor Horst Meyer is interested in the properties of fluids near their liquid-vapor critical point. These show a singular behavior as the critical point is approached. For instance the compressibility and the specific heat diverge, and so does the thermal conductivity. The thermal diffusivity, however, tends to zero, and the equilibration times become very long. The program at Duke, supported by a NASA grant, has focussed on a comprehensive study of these properties in ³He and in ³He-⁴He mixtures. Recently the equilibration mechanism of ³He near the critical point was investigated. The most recent studies deal with heat transfer in ³He, where the transition from conduction to convection and to early turbulence are investigated and compared with predictions and numerical simulations by several groups in Japan and in France. These studies are relevant to the NASA microgravity program. Earlier research dealt with heat transfer in liquid ⁴He and ³He-⁴He mixtures near the superfluid transition, and with the investigation of the orientational ordering in solid hydrogen and deuterium by various methods (NMR, heat transport, acoustics).

Bio/Profile