Comparisons of Supergranule Characteristics During the Solar Minima of Cycles 22/23 and 23/24

Supergranulation is a component of solar convection that manifests itself on the photosphere as a cellular network of around 35 Mm across, with a turnover lifetime of 1-2 days. It is strongly linked to the structure of the magnetic field. The horizontal, divergent flows within supergranule cells carry local field lines to the cell boundaries, while the rotational properties of supergranule upflows may contribute to the restoration of the poloidal field as part of the dynamo mechanism that controls the solar cycle. The solar minimum at the transition from cycle 23 to 24 was notable for its low level of activity and its extended length. It is of interest to study whether the convective phenomena that influences the solar magnetic field during this time differed in character to periods of previous minima. This study investigates three characteristics (velocity components, sizes and lifetimes) of solar supergranulation. Comparisons of these characteristics are made between the minima of cycles 22/23 and 23/24 using MDI Doppler data from 1996 and 2008, respectively. It is found that whereas the lifetimes are equal during both epochs (around 18 h), the sizes are larger in 1996 (35.9 +/- 0.3 Mm) than in 2008 (35.0 +/- 0.3 Mm), while the dominant horizontal velocity flows are weaker (139 +/- 1 m/s in 1996; 141 +/- 1 m/s in 2008). Although numerical differences are seen, they are not conclusive proof of the most recent minimum being inherently unusual.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures. Solar Physics, in pres

An Energy Feedback System for the MIT/Bates Linear Accelerator

We report the development and implementation of an energy feedback system for the MIT/Bates Linear Accelerator Center. General requirements of the system are described, as are the specific requirements, features, and components of the system unique to its implementation at the Bates Laboratory. We demonstrate that with the system in operation, energy fluctuations correlated with the 60 Hz line voltage and with drifts of thermal origin are reduced by an order of magnitude

A High Power Hydrogen Target for Parity Violation Experiments

Parity-violating electron scattering measurements on hydrogen and deuterium, such as those underway at the Bates and CEBAF laboratories, require luminosities exceeding $10^{38}$cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$, resulting in large beam power deposition into cryogenic liquid. Such targets must be able to absorb 500 watts or more with minimal change in target density. A 40~cm long liquid hydrogen target, designed to absorb 500~watts of beam power without boiling, has been developed for the SAMPLE experiment at Bates. In recent tests with 40~$\mu$A of incident beam, no evidence was seen for density fluctuations in the target, at a sensitivity level of better than 1\%. A summary of the target design and operational experience will be presented.Comment: 13 pages, 9 postscript figure

The Strange Quark Contribution to the Proton's Magnetic Moment

We report a new determination of the strange quark contribution to the proton's magnetic form factor at a four-momentum transfer Q2 = 0.1 (GeV/c)^2 from parity-violating e-p elastic scattering. The result uses a revised analysis of data from the SAMPLE experiment which was carried out at the MIT-Bates Laboratory. The data are combined with a calculation of the proton's axial form factor GAe to determine the strange form factor GMs(Q2=0.1)=0.37 +- 0.20 +- 0.26 +- 0.07. The extrapolation of GMs to its Q2=0 limit and comparison with calculations is also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Low-Energy Universality in Atomic and Nuclear Physics

An effective field theory developed for systems interacting through short-range interactions can be applied to systems of cold atoms with a large scattering length and to nucleons at low energies. It is therefore the ideal tool to analyze the universal properties associated with the Efimov effect in three- and four-body systems. In this "progress report", we will discuss recent results obtained within this framework and report on progress regarding the inclusion of higher order corrections associated with the finite range of the underlying interaction.Comment: Commissioned article for Few-Body Systems, 47 pp, 16 fig

Comparison of large-scale flows on the Sun measured by time-distance helioseismology and local correlation tracking technique

We present a direct comparison between two different techniques time-distance helioseismology and a local correlation tracking method for measuring mass flows in the solar photosphere and in a near-surface layer: We applied both methods to the same dataset (MDI high-cadence Dopplergrams covering almost the entire Carrington rotation 1974) and compared the results. We found that after necessary corrections, the vector flow fields obtained by these techniques are very similar. The median difference between directions of corresponding vectors is 24 degrees, and the correlation coefficients of the results for mean zonal and meridional flows are 0.98 and 0.88 respectively. The largest discrepancies are found in areas of small velocities where the inaccuracies of the computed vectors play a significant role. The good agreement of these two methods increases confidence in the reliability of large-scale synoptic maps obtained by them.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, just before acceptance in Solar Physic

Future Directions in Parity Violation: From Quarks to the Cosmos

I discuss the prospects for future studies of parity-violating (PV) interactions at low energies and the insights they might provide about open questions in the Standard Model as well as physics that lies beyond it. I cover four types of parity-violating observables: PV electron scattering; PV hadronic interactions; PV correlations in weak decays; and searches for the permanent electric dipole moments of quantum systems.Comment: Talk given at PAVI 06 workshop on parity-violating interactions, Milos, Greece (May, 2006); 10 page

Proton strangeness form factors in (4,1) clustering configurations

We reexamine a recent result within a nonrelativistic constituent quark model (NRCQM) which maintains that the uuds\bar s component in the proton has its uuds subsystem in P state, with its \bar s in S state (configuration I). When the result are corrected, contrary to the previous result, we find that all the empirical signs of the form factors data can be described by the lowest-lying uuds\bar s configuration with \bar s in P state that has its uuds subsystem in $S$ state (configuration II). Further, it is also found that the removal of the center-of-mass (CM) motion of the clusters will enhance the contributions of the transition current considerably. We also show that a reasonable description of the existing form factors data can be obtained with a very small probability P_{s\bar s}=0.025% for the uuds\bar s component. We further see that the agreement of our prediction with the data for G_A^s at low-q^2 region can be markedly improved by a small admixture of configuration I. It is also found that by not removing CM motion, P_{s\bar s} would be overestimated by about a factor of four in the case when transition dominates over direct currents. Then, we also study the consequence of a recent estimate reached from analyzing the existing data on quark distributions that P_{s\bar s} lies between 2.4-2.9% which would lead to a large size for the five-quark (5q) system, as well as a small bump in both G^s_E+\eta G^s_M and G^s_E in the region of q^2 =< 0.1 GeV^2.Comment: Prepared for The Fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics 2011 in Seoul, South Korea, 22-26 August 201

Parity Violation in Elastic Electron-Proton Scattering and the Proton's Strange Magnetic Form Factor

We report a new measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry in elastic electron scattering from the proton at backward scattering angles. This asymmetry is sensitive to the strange magnetic form factor of the proton as well as electroweak axial radiative corrections. The new measurement of A = -4.92±0.61±0.73 ppm provides a significant constraint on these quantities. The implications for the strange magnetic form factor are discussed in the context of theoretical estimates for the axial corrections