Production and Characterization of Femtosecond-Laser-Induced Air Plasma

The purpose of this research was to produce, characterize, and optimize laser induced air plasma as a preliminary step in using the plasma as a source of terahertz radiation. An 800 nanometer, 50 femtosecond, 0.75 Watt, pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser system was used as the source infrared beam. A beam expander was used to expand the beam to a diameter of approximately 6.5 mm, and the beam was focused through a 25 mm focal length achromatic lens to produce laser-induced plasma in ambient air. A 40 kHz ultrasonic transducer was used to detect the plasma. A second harmonic generation crystal was placed within the beam expander to generate 400 nm blue light, enabling production of THz in the plasma via four wave mixing; a third-order nonlinear process. While plasma-produced THz was not detected, all the preliminary groundwork was accomplished, including full characterization of the plasma, blue light, and alignment of the system to generate and detect THz. The electro-optic detection apparatus was assembled, aligned and used to successfully detect a diagnostic THz signal

Microscopic Enhancement of Heavy-Element Production

Realistic fusion barriers are calculated in a macroscopic-microscopic model for several soft-fusion heavy-ion reactions leading to heavy and superheavy elements. The results obtained in such a realistic picture are very different from those obtained in a purely macroscopic model. For reactions on 208:Pb targets, shell effects in the entrance channel result in fusion-barrier energies at the touching point that are only a few MeV higher than the ground state for compound systems near Z = 110. The entrance-channel fragment-shell effects remain far inside the touching point, almost to configurations only slightly more elongated than the ground-state configuration, where the fusion barrier has risen to about 10 MeV above the ground-state energy. Calculated single-particle level diagrams show that few level crossings occur until the peak in the fusion barrier very close to the ground-state shape is reached, which indicates that dissipation is negligible until very late in the fusion process. Whereas the fission valley in a macroscopic picture is several tens of MeV lower in energy than is the fusion valley, we find in the macroscopic-microscopic picture that the fission valley is only about 5 MeV lower than the fusion valley for soft-fusion reactions leading to compound systems near Z = 110. These results show that no significant ``extra-extra-push'' energy is needed to bring the system inside the fission saddle point and that the typical reaction energies for maximum cross section in heavy-element synthesis correspond to only a few MeV above the maximum in the fusion barrier.Comment: 7 pages. LaTeX. Submitted to Zeitschrift fur Physik A. 5 figures not included here. Complete preprint, including device-independent (dvi), PostScript, and LaTeX versions of the text, plus PostScript files of the figures, available at http://t2.lanl.gov/publications/publications.html or at ftp://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/mehe

SN1987A - a Testing Ground for the KARMEN Anomaly

We show, that SN1987A can serve as an astrophysical laboratory for testing the viability of the assertion that a new massive neutral fermion is implied by the KARMEN data. We show that a wide range of the parameters characterizing the proposed particle is ruled out by the above constraints making this interpretation very unlikely.Comment: 12 pages, 1 eps figure embedded, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Power Transmission Control using Distributed Max-Flow

Existing maximum flow algorithms use one processor for all calculations or one processor per vertex in a graph to calculate the maximum possible flow through a graph\u27s vertices. This is not suitable for practical implementation. We extend the max-flow work of Goldberg and Tarjan to a distributed algorithm to calculate maximum flow where the number of processors is less than the number of vertices in a graph. Our algorithm is applied to maximizing electrical flow within a power network where the power grid is modeled as a graph. Error detection measures are included to detect problems in a simulated power network. We show that our algorithm is successful in executing quickly enough to prevent catastrophic power outages

Tecnología y tipología del torques de Sintra (Lisboa, Portugal). Un adorno de oro del Bronce Atlántico compuesto por los tipos Sagrajas-Berzocana y Villena-Estremoz

Not available[es] El estudio del torques de Sintra (Lisboa) ha revelado detalles tecnológicos y tipológicos que indican una mezcla de dos tipos bien conocidos durante el Bronce Final Atlántico de la Península Ibérica: Sagrajas-Berzocana y Villena-Estremoz. Esta combinación refuerza la tesis según la cual ambas tradiciones orfebres coexistieron durante un tiempo. El torques está formado por distintos elementos fabricados con técnicas avanzadas, como la fusión adicional además de una variante de la cera perdida que requiere la utilización del torno. Se pone de relieve la importancia de la investigación tecnológica en los estudios sobre tipología y cronología de objetos metálicos. [fr] Sur la technologie et la typologie du collier de Sintra (Lisbonne, Portugal) - Un oeuvre d'orfèvrerie du Bronze Final Atlantique composé des types Sagrajas-Berzocana et Villena-Estremoz. L'étude du collier de Sintra (Lisbonne) a revélé des détails technologiques et typologiques indiquant une combinaison de deux types bien connus dans le Bronze Final Atlantique de la Péninsule Ibérique : Sagrajas-Berzocana et VilIena-Estremoz. Cette combinaison renforce la thèse selon laquelle les deux traditions d'orfèvrerie ont coexisté partiellement dans le temps. Le collier est constitué de différents éléments fabriqués avec des techniques avançees, comme la fonte additionnelle ainsi qu'une version élaborée de la cire perdue faisant appel au tour. L'importance des recherches technologiques pour la typologie et chronologie des objects métalliques est mise en évidence

Résolution en temps d'un circuit de coïncidences particule gamma

Des détecteurs à barrière de surface ont été utilisés dans un circuit de coïncidences rapides particule-gamma en vue de mesurer des vies moyennes de noyaux dans des états excités. L'influence sur la résolution en temps de différents facteurs (résistivité, tension de polarisation, etc.) a été étudiée

Search for long lived heaviest nuclei beyond the valley of stability

The existence of long lived superheavy nuclei (SHN) is controlled mainly by spontaneous fission and $\alpha$-decay processes. According to microscopic nuclear theory, spherical shell effects at Z=114, 120, 126 and N=184 provide the extra stability to such SHN to have long enough lifetime to be observed. To investigate whether the so-called "stability island" could really exist around the above Z, N values, the $\alpha$-decay half lives along with the spontaneous fission and $\beta$-decay half lives of such nuclei are studied. The $\alpha$-decay half lives of SHN with Z=102-120 are calculated in a quantum tunneling model with DDM3Y effective nuclear interaction using $Q_\alpha$ values from three different mass formulae prescribed by Koura, Uno, Tachibana, Yamada (KUTY), Myers, Swiatecki (MS) and Muntian, Hofmann, Patyk, Sobiczewski (MMM). Calculation of spontaneous fission (SF) half lives for the same SHN are carried out using a phenomenological formula and compared with SF half lives predicted by Smolanczuk {\it et al}. Possible source of discrepancy between the calculated $\alpha$-decay half lives of some nuclei and the experimental data of GSI, JINR-FLNR, RIKEN are discussed. In the region of Z=106-108 with N$\sim$ 160-164, the $\beta$-stable SHN $^{268}_{106}Sg_{162}$ is predicted to have highest $\alpha$-decay half life ($T_\alpha \sim 3.2hrs$) using $Q_\alpha$ value from MMM. Interestingly, it is much greater than the recently measured $T_\alpha$ ($\sim 22s$) of deformed doubly magic $^{270}_{108}Hs_{162}$ nucleus. A few fission-survived long-lived SHN which are either $\beta$-stable or having large $\beta$-decay half lives are predicted to exist near $^{294}110_{184}$, $^{293}110_{183}$, $^{296}112_{184}$ and $^{298}114_{184}$. These nuclei might decay predominantly through $\alpha$-particle emission.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl