Development of ERAU VOLTRON Hybrid-Electric Powerplant

The energy density of today’s batteries is not high enough for electric powered aircraft to achieve an operationally viable range plus FAA stipulated reserve flight times. Hybrid-electric power generation systems may be able to bridge the gap, providing a way for these aircraft to fly distances not possible with batteries alone. There is a recognition that gasoline-electric hybrid systems can deliver specific energy and specific power that are higher than any currently available battery system. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s (ERAU’s) Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC) is building a 70+ kW hybrid-electric power generation system using a rotary engine and Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) & Inverter. The rotary engine will be directly coupled to the PMSM which will generate electrical energy to power multi-rotor eVTOL vehicles. These results will be achieved by utilizing advanced control systems implemented on a National Instruments Compact RIO. Past research conducted at the EFRC demonstrated the ability to design and operate a hybrid-electric powerplant. The VOLTRON project will attempt to create a system with an even higher specific energy but with the compact size and high power characteristics of a rotary engine and eventually alternative fuel flexibility

The statistical analysis of acoustic phonetic data: exploring differences between spoken Romance languages

The historical and geographical spread from older to more modern languages has long been studied by examining textual changes and in terms of changes in phonetic transcriptions. However, it is more difficult to analyze language change from an acoustic point of view, although this is usually the dominant mode of transmission. We propose a novel analysis approach for acoustic phonetic data, where the aim will be to statistically model the acoustic properties of spoken words. We explore phonetic variation and change using a time-frequency representation, namely the log-spectrograms of speech recordings. We identify time and frequency covariance functions as a feature of the language; in contrast, mean spectrograms depend mostly on the particular word that has been uttered. We build models for the mean and covariances (taking into account the restrictions placed on the statistical analysis of such objects) and use these to define a phonetic transformation that models how an individual speaker would sound in a different language, allowing the exploration of phonetic differences between languages. Finally, we map back these transformations to the domain of sound recordings, allowing us to listen to the output of the statistical analysis. The proposed approach is demonstrated using recordings of the words corresponding to the numbers from ``one'' to ``ten'' as pronounced by speakers from five different Romance languages.John Coleman appreciates the support of UK Arts and Humanities Research Council grant AH/M002993/1, “Ancient Sounds: mixing acoustic phonetics, statistics and comparative philology to bring speech back from the past”. John Aston appreciates the support of UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant EP/K021672/2, “Functional Object Data Analysis and its Applications”

An improved measurement of muon antineutrino disappearance in MINOS

We report an improved measurement of muon anti-neutrino disappearance over a distance of 735km using the MINOS detectors and the Fermilab Main Injector neutrino beam in a muon anti-neutrino enhanced configuration. From a total exposure of 2.95e20 protons on target, of which 42% have not been previously analyzed, we make the most precise measurement of the anti-neutrino "atmospheric" delta-m squared = 2.62 +0.31/-0.28 (stat.) +/- 0.09 (syst.) and constrain the anti-neutrino atmospheric mixing angle >0.75 (90%CL). These values are in agreement with those measured for muon neutrinos, removing the tension reported previously.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. In submission to Phys.Rev.Let

Measurement of the Neutrino Mass Splitting and Flavor Mixing by MINOS

Measurements of neutrino oscillations using the disappearance of muon neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI neutrino beam as observed by the two MINOS detectors are reported. New analysis methods have been applied to an enlarged data sample from an exposure of 7.25×10^(20) protons on target. A fit to neutrino oscillations yields values of |Δm^2|=(2.32_(-0.08)^(+0.12))×10^(-3)  eV^2 for the atmospheric mass splitting and sin^2(2θ)>0.90 (90% C.L.) for the mixing angle. Pure neutrino decay and quantum decoherence hypotheses are excluded at 7 and 9 standard deviations, respectively

Measurement of the neutrino mass splitting and flavor mixing by MINOS

Measurements of neutrino oscillations using the disappearance of muon neutrinos from the Fermilab NuMI neutrino beam as observed by the two MINOS detectors are reported. New analysis methods have been applied to an enlarged data sample from an exposure of $7.25 imes 10^{20}$ protons on target. A fit to neutrino oscillations yields values of $|Delta m^2| = (2.32^{+0.12}_{-0.08}) imes10^{-3}$,eV$^2$ for the atmospheric mass splitting and m sin^2!(2 heta) > 0.90 (90%,C.L.) for the mixing angle. Pure neutrino decay and quantum decoherence hypotheses are excluded at 7 and 9 standard deviations, respectively

A Study of Muon Neutrino Disappearance Using the Fermilab Main Injector Neutrino Beam

We report the results of a search for muon-neutrino disappearance by the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search. The experiment uses two detectors separated by 734 km to observe a beam of neutrinos created by the Neutrinos at the Main Injector facility at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The data were collected in the first 282 days of beam operations and correspond to an exposure of 1.27e20 protons on target. Based on measurements in the Near Detector, in the absence of neutrino oscillations we expected 336 +/- 14 muon-neutrino charged-current interactions at the Far Detector but observed 215. This deficit of events corresponds to a significance of 5.2 standard deviations. The deficit is energy dependent and is consistent with two-flavor neutrino oscillations according to delta m-squared = 2.74e-3 +0.44/-0.26e-3 eV^2 and sin^2(2 theta) > 0.87 at 68% confidence level.Comment: In submission to Phys. Rev.