Gunshot wounds in parenchymatous organs: the morphology mainly depends on the physical properties of the affected tissues.

In contrast to gunshot wounds in skin and bone, the medico-legal literature pays little attention to the appearance of bullet penetration sites in abdominal organs. It was only in 1983 that Metter and Schulz published an article entitled "Morphological features of gunshot wounds in the liver and spleen." According to their observations, the organs in question showed stellate tears at the bullet penetration sites resembling skin wounds from contact shots to body regions having a bony support. The study presented simulated the real conditions by means of test shots to composite models consisting of porcine organs embedded in ballistic gelatin. The ammunition used was pistol cartridges 9 mm Luger with full metal jacket round nose bullets. The shots were video-documented with a high-speed camera in order to record the bullet's travel through the target. In addition, the composite models fired at underwent CT examinations followed by a macroscopic assessment of the organs. The study confirmed the findings of Metter and Schulz with regard to the star-like appearance of gunshot wounds in the liver and spleen. Likewise, the kidney showed radiating tears originating from the bullet path, whereas the wound track in pulmonary tissue was tube-shaped and lacked additional cracks. The varying wound patterns in parenchymatous organs can reasonably be explained as a consequence of the respective viscoelastic tissue properties.

Dispersion-Induced Beam Instability in Circular Accelerators.

The envelope instability near the 90° phase advance in periodically focused space charge dominated beams is a well-known phenomenon in linear transport sections or linacs. The corresponding stop band is usually avoided because of the resulting strong mismatch oscillations and beam loss. We show that in circular accelerators or transport sections including bending magnets the instability is modified due to the effect of dispersion. Using the two-dimensional envelope equations extended by the dispersion equation we identify an additional stop band above 120°. For periodic focusing the stop band results from the confluence of an envelope mode with the newly identified coherent dispersion mode. Results from perturbation theory are compared with the full envelope model and particle-in-cell simulation, which all show good agreement. The newly identified mode has several implications and applications for the characterization of intense beams in circular machines.

Extending the Nonlinear-Beam-Dynamics Concept of 1D Fixed Points to 2D Fixed Lines.

The origin of nonlinear dynamics traces back to the study of the dynamics of planets with the seminal work of Poincaré at the end of the nineteenth century: Les Méthodes Nouvelles de la Mécanique Céleste, Vols. 1-3 (Gauthier Villars, Paris, 1899). In his work he introduced a methodology fruitful for investigating the dynamical properties of complex systems, which led to the so-called "Poincaré surface of section," which allows one to capture the global dynamical properties of a system, characterized by fixed points and separatrices with respect to regular and chaotic motion. For two-dimensional phase space (one degree of freedom) this approach has been extremely useful and applied to particle accelerators for controlling their beam dynamics as of the second half of the twentieth century. We describe here an extension of the concept of 1D fixed points to fixed lines in two dimensions. These structures become the fundamental entities for characterizing the nonlinear motion in the four-dimensional phase space (two degrees of freedom).

Optical superfluid phase transitions and trapping of polariton condensates.

Semiconductor microcavities are used to support freely flowing polariton quantum liquids allowing the direct observation and optical manipulation of macroscopic quantum states. Incoherent optical excitation at a point produces radially expanding condensate clouds within the planar geometry. By using arbitrary configurations of multiple pump spots, we discover a geometrically controlled phase transition, switching from the coherent phase-locking of multiple condensates to the formation of a single trapped condensate. The condensation threshold becomes strongly dependent on the programmed superfluid geometry and sensitive to cooperative interactions between condensates. We directly image persistently circulating superfluid and show how flows of light-matter quasiparticles are dominated by the quantum pressure in such configurable laser-written potential landscapes.

New approach to resonance crossing.

Time-varying nonlinear oscillatory systems produce phenomena of resonance crossing and trapping of particles in resonance islands. Traditionally, such processes have been analyzed in terms of adiabatic conditions. Considering, as an example, a simplified one-dimensional model describing the "electron-cloud pinch" during a bunch passage in a particle accelerator, here we present an approach to resonance trapping which does not require any adiabatic condition. Instead we introduce the concept of the attraction point and investigate invariance and scaling properties of motion close to the attraction point, considering a single resonance crossing.

Incoherent effects of electron clouds in proton storage rings.

Electron clouds in the beam pipe of high-energy proton or positron storage rings can give rise to significant incoherent emittance growth, at densities far below the coherent-instability threshold. We identify two responsible mechanisms: namely, (1) a beam particle periodically crosses a resonance and (2) a beam particle periodically crosses a region of the bunch where its motion is linearly unstable. Formation of halo or beam-core blow up, respectively, are the result. Key ingredients for both processes are synchrotron motion and electron-induced tune shift. The mechanisms considered provide a possible explanation for reduced beam lifetime and emittance growth observed at several operating accelerators. Similar phenomena are likely to occur in other two-stream systems.

Collective emittance exchange with linear space charge forces and linear coupling.

We show that pronounced collective nonlinear behavior is present in a beam with linear coupling and space charge as described by the complete second order moment equations. The collective effects result in a shifted and broadened resonance condition as well as saturation effects in the emittance transfer. For slow stop-band crossing either the beam evolves along a skewed matched solution with full emittance exchange or the exchange is hindered by collective space charge effects, depending on the emittance ratio and direction of crossing.

Anisotropic free-energy limit of halos in high-intensity accelerators.

We study halo emittance growth in anisotropic beams and show that the rms emittance growth resulting from mismatch is highly anisotropic, depending on the tune ratio. We find that the free-energy limit calculated by Reiser [J. Appl. Phys. 70, 1919 (1991)] for an axisymmetric 1D halo can be extended to 2D if understood as an upper bound to the rms emittance growth averaged per degree of freedom. The thus-obtained "free-energy limit" of an ideal transport system is compared with the halo rms emittance growth in simulations of the Spallation Neutron Source linac.