Ionization of Infalling Gas

H-alpha emission from neutral halo clouds probes the radiation and hydrodynamic conditions in the halo. Armed with such measurements, we can explore how radiation escapes from the Galactic plane and how infalling gas can survive a trip through the halo. The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) is one of the most sensitive instruments for detecting and mapping optical emission from the ISM. Here, we present recent results exploring the ionization of two infallling high-velocity complexes. First, we report on our progress mapping H-alpha emission covering the full extent of Complex A. Intensities are faint (<100 mR; EM <0.2 pc cm^-6 but correlate on the sky and in velocity with 21-cm emission. Second, we explore the ionized component of some Anti-Center Complex clouds studied by Peek et al. (2007) that show dynamic shaping from interaction with the Galactic halo.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; to appear in proceedings of "The Role of Disk-Halo Interaction in Galaxy Evolution: Outflow vs Infall?" held in Espinho, Portugal during 2008 Augus

Stiffness changes during low temperature thermal treatment of Scots pine, assessed by acoustic NDT

The change, over time, in density, longitudinal modulus of elasticity, shear modulus and chemical structure of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) under thermal treatment (110, 120 and 140ºC) was evaluated. The determinations of the specific changes were carried out by means of impulse excitation, ultrasonic time-of-flight and near infrared spectroscopy. The results show, that the stiffness and density decrease was linear with time, with no evidence of a slowing rate of degradation even at 140ºC, after loss of more than half the original wood stiffness and more than a quarter of the original mass. At all temperatures the ratio between the longitudinal modulus and shear modulus was unchanged by the treatment for individual samples and the stiffness change was proportional to mass loss irrespective of the temperature and time. Examination of the NIR spectra revealed modifications in the amorphous carbohydrates structure and small changes in the lignin structure

Comparison of coal liquefaction processes. Final report on Task 006

Five processes were studied to determine which could give best results for supplying hydrocarbon fuels to replace petroleum products. The processes were Fischer-Tropsch; M-Gasoline; H-Coal; Exxon Donor Solvent; and Solvent Refined Coal. The conclusions of the study are that all of the processes are considered commercially feasible and, because the different products from the different processes will meet different market demands, any significant future liquids from coal market will probably use some of each of these processes. The anticipated conversion efficiency values are given to indicate resource utilization. Simplified capital costs are approximated for each process. These are used in combination with product amounts and relative values to achieve a cost ranking. Because the study was concerned solely with liquid products, Fischer-Tropsch was at a disadvantage. The remaining four were relatively close and a final decision would depend upon the actual end use requirements. For a situation with residual fuels selling at severe discounts, M-Gasoline and H-Coal (Syncrude Mode) were the better choices

Blue laser cooling transitions in Tm I

We have studied possible candidates for laser cooling transitions in $^{169}$Tm in the spectral region 410 -- 420 nm. By means of saturation absorption spectroscopy we have measured the hyperfine structure and rates of two nearly closed cycling transitions from the ground state $4\textrm{f}^{13}6\textrm{s}^2(^2\textrm{F}_0)(J_g=7/2)$ to upper states $4\textrm{f}^{12}(^3\textrm{H}_5)5\textrm{d}_{3/2}6\textrm{s}^2(J_e=9/2)$ at 410.6 nm and $4\textrm{f}^{12}(^3\textrm{F}_4)5\textrm{d}_{5/2}6\textrm{s}^2(J_e=9/2)$ at 420.4 nm and evaluated the life times of the excited levels as 15.9(8) ns and 48(6) ns respectively. Decay rates from these levels to neighboring opposite-parity levels are evaluated by means of Hartree-Fock calculations. We conclude, that the strong transition at 410.6 nm has an optical leak rate of less then $2\cdot10^{-5}$ and can be used for efficient laser cooling of $^{169}$Tm from a thermal atomic beam. The hyperfine structure of two other even-parity levels which can be excited from the ground state at 409.5 nm and 418.9 nm is also measured by the same technique. In addition we give a calculated value of $7(2)$ s$^{-1}$ for the rate of magnetic-dipole transition at 1.14 $\mu$m between the fine structure levels $(J_g=7/2)\leftrightarrow(J'_g=5/2)$ of the ground state which can be considered as a candidate for applications in atomic clocks.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Anomalous Scaling of Structure Functions and Dynamic Constraints on Turbulence Simulations

The connection between anomalous scaling of structure functions (intermittency) and numerical methods for turbulence simulations is discussed. It is argued that the computational work for direct numerical simulations (DNS) of fully developed turbulence increases as $Re^{4}$, and not as $Re^{3}$ expected from Kolmogorov's theory, where $Re$ is a large-scale Reynolds number. Various relations for the moments of acceleration and velocity derivatives are derived. An infinite set of exact constraints on dynamically consistent subgrid models for Large Eddy Simulations (LES) is derived from the Navier-Stokes equations, and some problems of principle associated with existing LES models are highlighted.Comment: 18 page

Apodization technique for fiber grating fabrication with a halftone transmission amplitude mask

Experimental results of fiber Bragg gratings fabricated with halftone amplitude transmission masks and 10-cm-long phase masks are presented for the first time to our knowledge. The performance of the devices is evaluated in terms of their spectral characteristics and deviation from linear group delay. Good out-of-band sidelobe suppression of -27 dB and group-delay ripple of ?9.5 ps is achieved for fully apodized grating devices

Electron Exchange Coupling for Single Donor Solid-State Qubits

Inter-valley interference between degenerate conduction band minima has been shown to lead to oscillations in the exchange energy between neighbouring phosphorus donor electron states in silicon \cite{Koiller02,Koiller02A}. These same effects lead to an extreme sensitivity of the exchange energy on the relative orientation of the donor atoms, an issue of crucial importance in the construction silicon-based spin quantum computers. In this article we calculate the donor electron exchange coupling as a function of donor position incorporating the full Bloch structure of the Kohn-Luttinger electron wavefunctions. It is found that due to the rapidly oscillating nature of the terms they produce, the periodic part of the Bloch functions can be safely ignored in the Heitler-London integrals as was done by Koiller et. al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88,027903(2002),Phys. Rev. B. 66,115201(2002)], significantly reducing the complexity of calculations. We address issues of fabrication and calculate the expected exchange coupling between neighbouring donors that have been implanted into the silicon substrate using an 15keV ion beam in the so-called 'top down' fabrication scheme for a Kane solid-state quantum computer. In addition we calculate the exchange coupling as a function of the voltage bias on control gates used to manipulate the electron wavefunctions and implement quantum logic operations in the Kane proposal, and find that these gate biases can be used to both increase and decrease the magnitude of the exchange coupling between neighbouring donor electrons. The zero-bias results reconfirm those previously obtained by Koiller.Comment: 10 Pages, 8 Figures. To appear in Physical Review

A Geometric Picture of Entanglement and Bell Inequalities

We work in the real Hilbert space H_s of hermitian Hilbert-Schmid operators and show that the entanglement witness which shows the maximal violation of a generalized Bell inequality (GBI) is a tangent functional to the convex set S subset H_s of separable states. This violation equals the euclidean distance in H_s of the entangled state to S and thus entanglement, GBI and tangent functional are only different aspects of the same geometric picture. This is explicitly illustrated in the example of two spins, where also a comparison with familiar Bell inequalities is presented.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 4 references adde

Meridional Circulation and Global Solar Oscillations

We investigate the influence of large-scale meridional circulation on solar p-modes by quasi-degenerate perturbation theory, as proposed by \cite{lavely92}. As an input flow we use various models of stationary meridional circulation obeying the continuity equation. This flow perturbs the eigenmodes of an equilibrium model of the Sun. We derive the signatures of the meridional circulation in the frequency multiplets of solar p-modes. In most cases the meridional circulation leads to negative average frequency shifts of the multiplets. Further possible observable effects are briefly discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submittted to Solar Physics Topical Issue "HELAS

The t W- Mode of Single Top Production

The t W- mode of single top production is proposed as an important means to study the weak interactions of the top quark. While the rate of this mode is most likely too small to be observed at Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron, it is expected to be considerably larger at the CERN LHC. In this article the inclusive t W- rate is computed, including O(1 / log (m_t^2 / m_b^2)) corrections, and when combined with detailed Monte Carlo simulations including the top and W decay products, indicate that the t W- single top process may be extracted from the considerable t tbar and W+ W- j backgrounds at low luminosity runs of the LHC.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure