Wet-oxidation waste management system for CELSS

A wet oxidation system will be useful in the Closed Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) as a facility to treat organic wastes and to redistribute inorganic compounds and elements. However at rather higher temperatures needed in this reaction, for instance, at 260 deg C, only 80% of organic in a raw material can be oxidized, and 20% of it will remain in the liquid mainly as acetic acid, which is virtually noncombustible. Furthermore, nitrogen is transformed to ammonium ions which normally cannot be absorbed by plants. To resolve these problems, it becomes necessary to use catalysts. Noble metals such as Ru, Rh and so on have proved to be partially effective as these catalysts. That is, oxidation does not occur completely, and the unexpected denitrification, instead of the expected nitrification, occurs. So, it is essential to develop the catalysts which are able to realize the complete oxidation and the nitrification

Spin Squeezing via One-Axis Twisting with Coherent Light

We propose a new method of spin squeezing of atomic spin, based on the interactions between atoms and off-resonant light which are known as paramagnetic Faraday rotation and fictitious magnetic field of light. Since the projection process, squeezed light, or special interactions among the atoms are not required in this method, it can be widely applied to many systems. The attainable range of the squeezing parameter is S^{-2/5}, where S is the total spin, which is limited by additional fluctuations imposed by coherent light and the spherical nature of the spin distribution.Comment: 4 pages,6 figure

Spectra, composition, and interactions of nuclei above 10 TeV using magnet-interferometric chambers

Although the SCIN-MAGIC experiment has, like all ASTROMAG and most other Attached Payload experiments, been 'deselected' from Space Station, it is expected that ultimately such emulsion chambers will be flown on the Station. Some brief studies are described which were made in support of the design efforts for such a program being conducted at NASA Marshall

Valley Polarization in Si(100) at Zero Magnetic Field

The valley splitting, which lifts the degeneracy of the lowest two valley states in a SiO$_2$/(100)Si/SiO$_2$ quantum well is examined through transport measurements. We demonstrate that the valley splitting can be observed directly as a step in the conductance defining a boundary between valley-unpolarized and polarized regions. This persists to well above liquid helium temperature and shows no dependence on magnetic field, indicating that single-particle valley splitting and valley-polarization exist in (100) silicon even at zero magnetic field.Comment: Accpeted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Flat Spectrum X-ray Emission from the Direction of a Molecular Cloud Associated with SNR RX J1713.7-3946

We report on the discovery of a hard X-ray source with ASCA from a molecular cloud in the vicinity of the SNR RX J1713.7-3946. The energy spectrum (1--10 keV) shows a flat continuum which is described by a power-law with photon index 1.0 +-0.4. We argue that this unusually flat spectrum can be best interpreted in terms of characteristic bremsstrahlung emission from the ionization-loss-flattened distribution of either sub-relativistic protons or mildly-relativistic electrons. The strong shock of the SNR RX J1713.7-3946, which presumably interacts with the molecular cloud, as evidenced by observations of CO-lines, seems to be a natural site of acceleration of such sub- or mildly-relativistic nonthermal particles. However, the observed X-ray luminosity of 1.7 10^35 erg/s (for 6 kpc distance) requires that a huge kinetic energy of about 10^50 erg be released in the form of nonthermal particles to illuminate the cloud. The shock-acceleration at RX J1713.7-3946 can barely satisfy this energetic requirement, unless (i) the source is located much closer than 6 kpc and/or (ii) the mechanical energy of the explosion essentially exceeds 10^51 erg. Another possibility would be that an essential part of the "lost" energy is somehow converted to plasma waves, which return this energy to nonthermal particles through their turbulent reacceleration on plasma waves. Irrespective of mechanisms responsible for production of high-energy particles, the flat X-ray emission seems to be a signature of a new striking energetic phenomenon in molecular clouds.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in PAS