Preparation of monotectic alloys having a controlled microstructure by directional solidification under dopant-induced interface breakdown

Monotectic alloys having aligned spherical particles of rods of the minor component dispersed in a matrix of the major component are prepared by forming a melt containing predetermined amounts of the major and minor components of a chosen monotectic system, providing in the melt a dopant capable of breaking down the liquid solid interface for the chosen alloy, and directionally solidfying the melt at a selected temperature gradient and a selected rate of movement of the liquid-solid interface (growth rate). Shaping of the minor component into spheres or rods and the spacing between them are controlled by the amount of dopant and the temperature gradient and growth rate values. Specific alloy systems include Al Bi, Al Pb and Zn Bi, using a transition element such as iron

A Complete Atlas of HI Absorption toward HII Regions in the Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS1)

We present a complete catalog of H I emission and absorption spectrum pairs, toward H II regions, detectable within the boundaries of the Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS I), a total of 252 regions. The catalog is presented in graphical, numerical and summary formats. We demonstrate an application of this new dataset through an investigation of the locus of the Near 3kpc Arm.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJS Feb 6, 2014. Data files and Figure Set (252 images) to appear in the on-line version of the journa

Foundation Heave at ASCO II Nuclear Power Plant

Excavation of 75m of claystone at Asco Unit II resulted in foundation heave in excess of anticipated elastic rebound. The heave was found to be caused by expansive clay minerals in the rock swelling in the presence of water. Upper-bound estimates of future heave were made based on past trends, and structures analyzed to demonstrate their capacity to resist heave-caused deformations. The primary factor in controlling heave is the amount of water available to the bedrock

A generalization of Hausdorff dimension applied to Hilbert cubes and Wasserstein spaces

A Wasserstein spaces is a metric space of sufficiently concentrated probability measures over a general metric space. The main goal of this paper is to estimate the largeness of Wasserstein spaces, in a sense to be precised. In a first part, we generalize the Hausdorff dimension by defining a family of bi-Lipschitz invariants, called critical parameters, that measure largeness for infinite-dimensional metric spaces. Basic properties of these invariants are given, and they are estimated for a naturel set of spaces generalizing the usual Hilbert cube. In a second part, we estimate the value of these new invariants in the case of some Wasserstein spaces, as well as the dynamical complexity of push-forward maps. The lower bounds rely on several embedding results; for example we provide bi-Lipschitz embeddings of all powers of any space inside its Wasserstein space, with uniform bound and we prove that the Wasserstein space of a d-manifold has "power-exponential" critical parameter equal to d.Comment: v2 Largely expanded version, as reflected by the change of title; all part I on generalized Hausdorff dimension is new, as well as the embedding of Hilbert cubes into Wasserstein spaces. v3 modified according to the referee final remarks ; to appear in Journal of Topology and Analysi

HI Absorption Toward HII Regions at Small Galactic Longitudes

We make a comprehensive study of HI absorption toward HII regions located within Galactic longitudes less than 10 degrees. Structures in the extreme inner Galaxy are traced using the longitude-velocity space distribution of this absorption. We find significant HI absorption associated with the Near and Far 3kpc Arms, the Connecting Arm, Banias Clump 1 and the H I Tilted Disk. We also constrain the line of sight distances to HII regions, by using HI absorption spectra together with the HII region velocities measured by radio recombination lines.Comment: Complete figure set available in online version of journal. Accepted by ApJ August 8, 201

Shot Noise in Graphene

We report measurements of current noise in single- and multi-layer graphene devices. In four single-layer devices, including a p-n junction, the Fano factor remains constant to within +/-10% upon varying carrier type and density, and averages between 0.35 and 0.38. The Fano factor in a multi-layer device is found to decrease from a maximal value of 0.33 at the charge-neutrality point to 0.25 at high carrier density. These results are compared to theoretical predictions for shot noise in ballistic and disordered graphene.Comment: related papers available at http://marcuslab.harvard.ed

The Kinematic Properties of the Extended Disks of Spiral Galaxies: A Sample of Edge-On Galaxies

We present a kinematic study of the outer regions (R_25<R<2 R_25) of 17 edge-on disk galaxies. Using deep long-slit spectroscopy (flux sensitivity a few 10^-19 erg s^-1 cm^-2 arcsec^-2), we search for H-alpha emission, which must be emitted at these flux levels by any accumulation of hydrogen due to the presence of the extragalactic UV background and any other, local source of UV flux. We present results from the individual galaxy spectra and a stacked composite. We detect H-alpha in many cases well beyond R_25 and sometimes as far as 2 R_25. The combination of sensitivity, spatial resolution, and kinematic resolution of this technique thus provides a powerful complement to 21-cm observations. Kinematics in the outer disk are generally disk-like (flat rotation curves, small velocity dispersions) at all radii, and there is no evidence for a change in the velocity dispersion with radius. We place strong limits, few percent, on the existence of counter-rotating gas out to 1.5 R_25. These results suggest that thin disks extend well beyond R_25; however, we also find a few puzzling anomalies. In ESO 323-G033 we find two emission regions that have velocities close to the systemic velocity rather than the expected rotation velocity. These low relative velocities are unlikely to be simply due to projection effects and so suggest that these regions are not on disk-plane, circular orbits. In MCG-01-31-002 we find emission from gas with a large velocity dispersion that is co-rotating with the inner disk.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

The DDO IVC Distance Project: Survey Description and the Distance to G139.6+47.6

We present a detailed analysis of the distance determination for one intermediate Velocity Cloud (IVC G139.6+47.6) from the ongoing DDO IVC Distance Project. Stars along the line of sight to G139.6+47.6 are examined for the presence of sodium absorption attributable to the cloud, and the distance bracket is established by astrometric and spectroscopic parallax measurements of demonstrated foreground and background stars. We detail our strategy regarding target selection, observational setup, and analysis of the data, including a discussion of wavelength calibration and sky subtraction uncertainties. We find a distance estimate of 129 (+/- 10) pc for the lower limit and 257 (+211-33) pc for the upper limit. Given the high number of stars showing absorption due to this IVC, we also discuss the small-scale covering factor of the cloud and the likely significance of non-detections for subsequent observations of this and other similar IVC's. Distance measurements of the remaining targets in the DDO IVC project will be detailed in a companion paper.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, LaTe