Status of CMS and preparations for first physics

The status of the CMS experiment is described. After a brief review of the detector design and a short overview of the first 5 years of assembly, the focus of this presentation will be the parallel activities of completing and commissioning over the last 2 years and the readiness of CMS for the exciting prospect of first LHC operation.Comment: ICHEP08, Philadelphia, USA, July 2008. 9 page

Constraining differential rotation of Sun-like stars from asteroseismic and starspot rotation periods

In previous work we identified six Sun-like stars observed by Kepler with exceptionally clear asteroseismic signatures of rotation. Here, we show that five of these stars exhibit surface variability suitable for measuring rotation. In order to further constrain differential rotation, we compare the rotation periods obtained from light-curve variability with those from asteroseismology. The two rotation measurement methods are found to agree within uncertainties, suggesting that radial differential rotation is weak, as is the case for the Sun. Furthermore, we find significant discrepancies between ages from asteroseismology and from three different gyrochronology relations, implying that stellar age estimation is problematic even for Sun-like stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 5 pages, 4 figure

Requirements and capabilities for planetary missions. Volume 2: Mars polar orbiter penetrator 1981

The Mars Polar Orbiter/Penetrator 1981 mission, intended to investigate the manner in which Mars has evolved, and which surveys its geochemistry, performs climatological investigations, and attempts to determine the planet's gravitational field, was described. The spacecraft, modified from the Viking Orbiter design, carries a new remote-sensing payload and six penetrators. The penetrators are released from a 2.46-h, 1000-km sun synchronous circular orbit and interrogated daily throughout the 2-year orbital mission. X-band telemetry is used to increase data return

Estimated Surface Motions of the Earth's Core

Estimated surface fluid motions of earth core, and rotational and irrotational flow dat

Requirements and Capabilities for Planetary Missions: Mariner Encke Ballistic Flyby 1980

This mission will provide a broad-based fast reconnaissance of comet Encke, building a data base for subsequent more detailed comet investigations, including rendezvous. After a 3 month flight, the spacecraft will encounter the comet at a nominal range of about 500 km. Flyby velocity will be 7 to 28 km/sec depending on choice of arrival data (0 to 35 days before Encke perihelion) and launch vehicle. The spacecraft will be similar to the MVM 73 spacecraft, with scan platform and 117 kbps encounter data rate, and designed to survive the thermal environment of 0.34 to 0.8 AU

Surface-effect corrections for oscillation frequencies of evolved stars

Accurate modelling of solar-like oscillators requires that modelled mode frequencies are corrected for the systematic shift caused by improper modelling of the near-surface layers, known as the surface effect. ... We investigate how much additional uncertainty is introduced to stellar model parameters by our uncertainty about the functional form of the surface effect. At the same time, we test whether any of the parametrizations is significantly better or worse at modelling observed subgiants and low-luminosity red giants. We model six stars observed by Kepler that show clear mixed modes. We fix the input physics of the stellar models and vary the choice of surface correction ... Models using a solar-calibrated power law correction consistently fit the observations more poorly than the other four corrections. Models with the remaining four corrections generally fit ... about equally well, with the combined surface correction by Ball & Gizon perhaps being marginally superior. The fits broadly agree on the model parameters within about the $2\sigma$ uncertainties, with discrepancies between the modified Lorentzian and free power law corrections occasionally exceeding the $3\sigma$ level. Relative to the best-fitting values, the total uncertainties on the masses, radii and ages of the stars are all less than 2, 1 and 6 per cent, respectively. A solar-calibrated power law ... appears unsuitable for use with more evolved solar-like oscillators. Among the remaining surface corrections, the uncertainty in the model parameters introduced by the surface effects is about twice as large as the uncertainty in the individual fits for these six stars. Though the fits are thus somewhat less certain because of our uncertainty of how to manage the surface effect, these results also demonstrate that it is feasible to model the individual mode frequencies of subgiants and low-luminosity red giants. ...Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 13 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables. Abstract slightly abridged to meet arXiv's 1920 character limi

Comparison of estimates of surface fluid motions of the earth's core various epochs

Method of determining velocity of surface fluid motions of earth core for various epoch

Analysis of B-> \phi K Decays in QCD Factorization

We analyze the decay $B\to \phi K$ within the framework of QCD-improved factorization. We found that although the twist-3 kaon distribution amplitude dominates the spectator interactions, it will suppress the decay rates slightly. The weak annihilation diagrams induced by $(S-P)(S+P)$ penguin operators, which are formally power-suppressed by order $(\Lambda/m_b)^2$, are chirally and logarithmically enhanced. Therefore, these annihilation contributions are not subject to helicity suppression and can be sizable. The predicted branching ratio of $B^-\to\phi K^-$ is $(3.8\pm0.6)\times 10^{-6}$ in the absence of annihilation contributions and it becomes $(4.3^{+3.0}_{-1.4})\times 10^{-6}$ when annihilation effects are taken into account. The prediction is consistent with CLEO and BaBar data but smaller than the BELLE result.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. A major change for the presentation of branching-ratio predictions. Experimental data are update

The C-Theorem and Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Asymptotically Free Vectorlike Gauge Theories

We confront Cardy's suggested c-function for four-dimensional field theories with the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetries in asymptotically free vectorlike gauge theories with fermions transforming according to different representations under the gauge group. Assuming that the infrared limit of the c-function is determined by the dimension of the associated Goldstone manifold, we find that this c-function always decreases between the ultraviolet and infrared fixed points.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, a few references adde

Acoustic based safety emergency vehicle detection for intelligent transport systems

A system has been investigated for the detection of incoming direction of an emergency vehicle. Acoustic detection methods based on a cross microphone array have been implemented. It is shown that source detection based on time delay estimation outperforms sound intensity techniques, although both techniques perform well for the application. The relaying of information to the driver as a warning signal has been investigated through the use of ambisonic technology and a 4 speaker array which is ubiquitous in most modern vehicles. Simulations show that accurate warning information may be relayed to the driver and afford correct action