Field support, data analysis and associated research for the acoustic grenade sounding program

Temperature and horizontal winds in the 30 to 90 km altitude range of the upper atmosphere, were determined by acoustic grenade soundings conducted at Wallops Island, Virginia and Kourou, French Guiana. Field support provided at these locations included deployment of the large area microphone system, supervision, maintenance and operation of sound ranging stations; and coordination of activities. Data analysis efforts included the analysis of field data to determine upper atmospheric meteorological parameters. Profiles for upper atmospheric temperature, wind and density are provided in plots and tables for each of the acoustic grenade soundings conducted during the contract period. Research efforts were directed toward a systematic comparison of temperature data from acoustic grenade with other meteorological sensor probes in the upper atmosphere

Origin and Dynamics of the Mutually Inclined Orbits of Upsilon Andromedae c and d

We evaluate the orbital evolution and several plausible origins scenarios for the mutually inclined orbits of Upsilon Andromedae c and d. These two planets have orbital elements that oscillate with large amplitudes and lie close to the stability boundary. This configuration, and in particular the observed mutual inclination, demands an explanation. The planetary system may be influenced by a nearby low-mass star, Upsilon And B, which could perturb the planetary orbits, but we find it cannot modify two coplanar orbits into the observed mutual inclination of ~30 deg. However, it could incite ejections or collisions between planetary companions that subsequently raise the mutual inclination to >30 deg. Our simulated systems with large mutual inclinations tend to be further from the stability boundary than Upsilon And, but we are able to produce similar systems. We conclude that scattering is a plausible mechanism to explain the observed orbits of Upsilon And c and d, but we cannot determine whether the scattering was caused by instabilities among the planets themselves or by perturbations from Upsilon And B. We also develop a procedure to quantitatively compare numerous properties of the observed system to our numerical models. Although we only implement this procedure to Upsilon And, it may be applied to any exoplanetary system.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Astrophysical Journa

Diagnosis of Structural Damage and Movement Due to More Than One Cause

A structural and ground investigation was carried out on a domestic property at Leigh, Lancashire, England. The settlement of the property was measured and showed a complex pattern of movement which was separated into: (i) an overall tilt towards the east; (ii) an outward tilt of the northern and southern ends; and (iii) severe tilting and cracking at the northern end. Following detailed investigation separate causes were assigned to each of these movements as: (i) preferential longwall mining to the east of the site; (ii) eccentric loading at the northern and southern ends; and (iii) moisture removal from the stiff clay beneath the northern end by the roots of a nearby tree. Details of the settlement of the property, soil conditions and mining situation are presented together with appraisal and analysis of the separated movements

Optimisation of confinement in a fusion reactor using a nonlinear turbulence model

The confinement of heat in the core of a magnetic fusion reactor is optimised using a multidimensional optimisation algorithm. For the first time in such a study, the loss of heat due to turbulence is modelled at every stage using first-principles nonlinear simulations which accurately capture the turbulent cascade and large-scale zonal flows. The simulations utilise a novel approach, with gyrofluid treatment of the small-scale drift waves and gyrokinetic treatment of the large-scale zonal flows. A simple near-circular equilibrium with standard parameters is chosen as the initial condition. The figure of merit, fusion power per unit volume, is calculated, and then two control parameters, the elongation and triangularity of the outer flux surface, are varied, with the algorithm seeking to optimise the chosen figure of merit. A two-fold increase in the plasma power per unit volume is achieved by moving to higher elongation and strongly negative triangularity.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, accepted to JP

Hadronic Spectral Function and Charm Meson Production

At the chiral restoration/deconfinement transition, most hadrons undergo a Mott transition from being bound states in the confined phase to resonances in the deconfined phase. We investigate the consequences of this qualitative change in the hadron spectrum on final state interactions of charmonium in hot and dense matter, and show that the Mott effect for D-mesons leads to a critical enhancement of the J/Psi dissociation rate. Anomalous J/Psi suppression in the NA50 experiment is discussed as well as the role of the Mott effect for the heavy flavor kinetics in future experiments at the LHC. The status of our calculations of hadron-hadron cross sections using the quark interchange and chiral Lagrangian approaches is reviewed, and an Ansatz for a unification of these schemes is given.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the Budapest'02 Workshop on Quark & Hadron Dynamics, Budapest, Hungary, March 3-7, 200

Multiscale Gyrokinetics for Rotating Tokamak Plasmas: Fluctuations, Transport and Energy Flows

This paper presents a complete theoretical framework for plasma turbulence and transport in tokamak plasmas. The fundamental scale separations present in plasma turbulence are codified as an asymptotic expansion in the ratio of the gyroradius to the equilibrium scale length. Proceeding order-by-order in this expansion, a framework for plasma turbulence is developed. It comprises an instantaneous equilibrium, the fluctuations driven by gradients in the equilibrium quantities, and the transport-timescale evolution of mean profiles of these quantities driven by the fluctuations. The equilibrium distribution functions are local Maxwellians with each flux surface rotating toroidally as a rigid body. The magnetic equillibrium is obtained from the Grad-Shafranov equation for a rotating plasma and the slow (resistive) evolution of the magnetic field is given by an evolution equation for the safety factor q. Large-scale deviations of the distribution function from a Maxwellian are given by neoclassical theory. The fluctuations are determined by the high-flow gyrokinetic equation, from which we derive the governing principle for gyrokinetic turbulence in tokamaks: the conservation and local cascade of free energy. Transport equations for the evolution of the mean density, temperature and flow velocity profiles are derived. These transport equations show how the neoclassical corrections and the fluctuations act back upon the mean profiles through fluxes and heating. The energy and entropy conservation laws for the mean profiles are derived. Total energy is conserved and there is no net turbulent heating. Entropy is produced by the action of fluxes flattening gradients, Ohmic heating, and the equilibration of mean temperatures. Finally, this framework is condensed, in the low-Mach-number limit, to a concise set of equations suitable for numerical implementation.Comment: 113 pages, 3 figure

Dual Band Electrodes in Generator-Collector Mode: Simultaneous Measurement of Two Species

A computational model for the simulation of a double band collector-generator experiment is applied to the situation where two electrochemical reactions occur concurrently. It is shown that chronoamperometric measurements can be used to take advantage of differences in diffusion coefficients to measure the concentrations of both electroactive species simultaneously, by measuring the time at which the collection efficiency reaches a specific value. The separation of the electrodes is shown to not affect the sensitivity of the method (in terms of percentage changes in the measured time to reach the specified collection efficiency), but wider gaps can provide a greater range of (larger) absolute values of this characteristic time. It is also shown that measuring the time taken to reach smaller collection efficiencies can allow for the detection of smaller amounts of whichever species diffuses faster. The case of a system containing both ascorbic acid and opamine in water is used to exemplify the method, and it is shown that mole fractions of ascorbic acid between 0.055 and 0.96 can, in principle, be accurately measured.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figure

Bi-layer splitting in overdoped high TcT_{c} cuprates

Recent angle-resolved photoemission data for overdoped Bi2212 are explained. Of the peak-dip-hump structure, the peak corresponds the $\vec q =0$ component of a hole condensate which appears at $T_c$. The fluctuating part of this same condensate produces the hump. The bilayer splitting is large enough to produce a bonding hole and an electron antibonding quasiparticle Fermi surface. Smaller bilayer splittings observed in some experiments reflect the interaction of the peak structure with quasiparticle states near, but not at, the Fermi surface.Comment: 4 pages with 2 figures - published versio

Effective action for Dirac fields in a constant electromagnetic background

We obtain, through zeta function methods, the one-loop effective action for massive Dirac fields in the presence of a uniform, but otherwise general, electromagnetic background. We show the agreement of our result with previous ones, concerning particular limit cases