Nuclear Transparency in Heavy Ion Collisions at 14.6 GeV/nucleon

The probability of a projectile nucleon to traverse a target nucleus without interaction is calculated for central Si-Pb collisions and compared to the data of E814. The calculations are performed in two independent ways, via Glauber theory and using the transport code UrQMD. For central collisions Glauber predictions are about 30 to 50% higher than experiment, while the output of UrQMD does not show the experimental peak of beam rapidity particles.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Thermal Equilibration and Expansion in Nucleus-Nucleus Collision at the AGS

The rather complete data set of hadron yields from central Si + A collisions at the Brookhaven AGS is used to test whether the system at freeze-out is in thermal and hadro-chemical equilibrium. Rapidity and transverse momentum distributions are discussed with regards to the information they provide on hydrodynamic flow.Comment: 11 pages + 2 uuencoded figure

Examining the safety performance of intersections on arterial roadways and near service ramp terminals

Recent transportation bills have required each state to have a Highway Safety Improvement Program which emphasizes a data-driven approach to improving highway safety. This data-driven paradigm, coupled with the fact that approximately 40 percent of traffic crashes in the U.S. occur at intersections, has led to substantial research focusing on intersections. This study focuses on three areas of intersection safety: vehicular crashes, pedestrian and cyclist crashes, and crashes near ramp-terminal intersections. The impact of geometric characteristics on vehicular crashes at intersections using five years of crash data at an aggregate and disaggregate level. The within sample predictive ability of negative binomial models estimated using aggregate crash data (with empirical Bayes methodology) was compared to that of a disaggregate model estimated using a site-specific random effects negative binomial framework. Pedestrian and cyclist crashes are often difficult to model on a large scale as exposure information is typically not collected or maintained by road agencies. To this end, the characteristics affecting pedestrian and cyclist crashes at intersections have been examined using census tract-level commuter information from the American Community Survey in lieu of observed pedestrian and cyclist volume. Finally, ramp terminal intersections provide important points of connection between restricted access roadways (such as interstates) and adjacent land. The safety performance along the corridors adjacent to the ramp terminal intersections is directly related to the proximity between the ramp terminal and access points such as driveways and intersections. This study explores the effect of ramp terminal and access point proximity on corridor safety and provides a framework for road agencies to evaluate corridor-level safety implications based on the proximity between ramp terminals and access points, the volume of the crossroad, and the volume of the access point

Ice properties in ISO 19906's second edition

The second edition of ISO 19906 Arctic Offshore structures was issued in 2019. In this paper, we describe the changes that were made to sections dealing with ice properties and discuss the relationship between them and ice actions. The changes can be divided into five groups: 1) Physical properties (temperature, density and porosity), 2) modulus of elasticity, 3) ice friction, 4) mechanical properties in level ice (uniaxial and multi-axial compressive strength, flexural strength and borehole jack strength), and 5) the keel properties of first-year ridge (Mohr-Coulomb, macro-porosity). The standard is written in such a way so that simple approaches in design guidelines complement more elaborate models. Both currently face at least three challenges, namely, the lack of full-scale data, a complicated physical environment, and a lack of understanding of the deformation mechanisms taking place in the ice

New method for measuring azimuthal distributions in nucleus-nucleus collisions

The methods currently used to measure azimuthal distributions of particles in heavy ion collisions assume that all azimuthal correlations between particles result from their correlation with the reaction plane. However, other correlations exist, and it is safe to neglect them only if azimuthal anisotropies are much larger than 1/sqrt(N), with N the total number of particles emitted in the collision. This condition is not satisfied at ultrarelativistic energies. We propose a new method, based on a cumulant expansion of multiparticle azimuthal correlations, which allows to measure much smaller values of azimuthal anisotropies, down to 1/N. It is simple to implement and can be used to measure both integrated and differential flow. Furthermore, this method automatically eliminates the major systematic errors, which are due to azimuthal asymmetries in the detector acceptance.Comment: final version (misprints corrected), to be published in Phys.Rev.

Effects of momentum conservation on the analysis of anisotropic flow

We present a general method for taking into account correlations due to momentum conservation in the analysis of anisotropic flow, either by using the two-particle correlation method or the standard flow vector method. In the latter, the correlation between the particle and the flow vector is either corrected through a redefinition (shift) of the flow vector, or subtracted explicitly from the observed flow coefficient. In addition, momentum conservation contributes to the reaction plane resolution. Momentum conservation mostly affects the first harmonic in azimuthal distributions, i.e., directed flow. It also modifies higher harmonics, for instance elliptic flow, when they are measured with respect to a first harmonic event plane such as one determined with the standard transverse momentum method. Our method is illustrated by application to NA49 data on pion directed flow.Comment: RevTeX 4, 10 pages, 1 eps figure. Version accepted for publication in Phys Rev

Anisotropic flow in 4.2A GeV/c C+Ta collisions

Anisotropic flow of protons and negative pions in 4.2A GeV/c C+Ta collisions is studied using the Fourier analysis of azimuthal distributions. The protons exhibit pronounced directed flow. Directed flow of pions is positive in the entire rapidity interval and indicates that the pions are preferentially emitted in the reaction plane from the target to the projectile. The elliptic flow of protons and negative pions is close to zero. Comparison with the quark-gluon-string model (QGSM) and relativistic transport model (ART 1.0) show that they both yield a flow signature similar to the experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.