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When a less-viscous solution of a reactant 
$A$ displaces a more-viscous solution of another reactant 
$B$, a fast bimolecular 
$A + B \rightarrow C$ reaction decreasing locally the viscosity can influence the viscous fingering (VF) instability taking place between the two miscible solutions. We show both experimentally and numerically that, for monotonic viscosity profiles, this decrease in viscosity has opposite effects on the fingering pattern depending on the injection flow rate. For high flow rates, the reaction enhances the shielding effect, creating VF patterns with a lower surface density, i.e. thinner fingers covering a smaller area. In contrast, for lower flow rates, the reaction stabilises the VF dynamics, i.e. delays the instability and gives a less-deformed displacement, reaching in some cases an almost-stable displacement. Nonlinear simulations of reactive VF show that these opposite effects at low or high flow rates can only be reproduced if the diffusivity of 
$A$ is larger than that of 
$B$, which favours a larger production of the product 
$C$ and, hence, a larger viscosity decrease. The analysis of one-dimensional viscosity profiles reconstructed on the basis of a one-dimensional reaction–diffusion–advection model confirms that the VF stabilisation at low Péclet number and in the presence of differential diffusion of reactants originates from an optimum reaction-driven decrease in the gradient of the monotonic viscosity profile.
Mass loss is a key property to understand stellar evolution and in particular for low-metallicity environments. Our knowledge has improved dramatically over the last decades both for single and binary evolutionary models. However, episodic mass loss although definitely present observationally, is not included in the models, while its role is currently undetermined. A major hindrance is the lack of large enough samples of classified stars. We attempted to address this by applying an ensemble machine-learning approach using color indices (from IR/Spitzer and optical/Pan-STARRS photometry) as features and combining the probabilities from three different algorithms. We trained on M31 and M33 sources with known spectral classification, which we grouped into Blue/Yellow/Red/B[e] Supergiants, Luminous Blue Variables, classical Wolf-Rayet and background galaxies/AGNs. We then applied the classifier to about one million Spitzer point sources from 25 nearby galaxies, spanning a range of metallicites (
). Equipped with spectral classifications we investigated the occurrence of these populations with metallicity.
In many geophysical and astrophysical flows, suppression of fluctuations along one direction of the flow drives a quasi-two-dimensional upscale flux of kinetic energy, leading to the formation of strong vortex condensates at the largest scales. Recent studies have shown that the transition towards this condensate state is hysteretic, giving rise to a limited bistable range in which both the condensate state as well as the regular three-dimensional state can exist at the same parameter values. In this work, we use direct numerical simulations of thin-layer flow to investigate whether this bistable range survives as the domain size and turbulence intensity are increased. By studying the time scales at which rare transitions occur from one state into the other, we find that the bistable range grows as the box size and/or Reynolds number 
$Re$ are increased, showing that the bistability is neither a finite-size nor a finite-
$Re$ effect. We furthermore predict a cross-over from a bimodal regime at low box size, low 
$Re$ to a regime of pure hysteresis at high box size, high 
$Re$, in which any transition from one state to the other is prohibited at any finite time scale.
Using direct numerical simulations of rotating Rayleigh–Bénard convection, we explore the transitions between turbulent states from a three-dimensional (3-D) flow state towards a quasi-2-D condensate known as the large-scale vortex (LSV). We vary the Rayleigh number 
$Ra$ as control parameter and study the system response (strength of the LSV) in terms of order parameters, assessing the energetic content in the flow and the upscale energy flux. By sensitively probing the boundaries of the region of existence of the LSV in parameter space, we find discontinuous transitions and we identify the presence of a hysteresis loop as well as a memoryless abrupt growth dynamics. We show furthermore that the creation of the condensate state coincides with a discontinuous transition of the energy transport into the largest mode of the system.
