Evolution of dopant-induced helium nanoplasmas

Two-component nanoplasmas generated by strong-field ionization of doped helium nanodroplets are studied in a pump-probe experiment using few-cycle laser pulses in combination with molecular dynamics simulations. High yields of helium ions and a pronounced, droplet size-dependent resonance structure in the pump-probe transients reveal the evolution of the dopant-induced helium nanoplasma. The pump-probe dynamics is interpreted in terms of strong inner ionization by the pump pulse and resonant heating by the probe pulse which controls the final charge states detected via the frustration of electron-ion recombination

τ\tauSPECT: A spin-flip loaded magnetic ultracold neutron trap for a determination of the neutron lifetime

The confinement of ultracold neutrons (UCNs) in a three dimensional magnetic field gradient trap allows for a measurement of the free neutron lifetime with superior control over spurious loss channels and can provide a large kinetic energy acceptance to enhance statistical sensitivity. In this paper, we present the first successful implementation of a pulsed spin-flip based loading scheme for a three-dimensional magnetic UCN trap. The measurements with the $\tau$SPECT experiment were performed at the pulsed UCN source of the research reactor TRIGA Mainz. We report on detailed investigations of major systematic effects influencing the neutron storage time, statistically limited by the size of the recorded data set. The extracted neutron storage time constant of $\tau = 859(16)\mathrm{s}$ is compatible with, but not to be interpreted as, a measurement of the free neutron lifetime.Comment: 15 pages, 19 figure

Measurement of Low-Energy Cosmic-Ray Antiprotons at Solar Minimum

The absolute fluxes of the cosmic-ray antiprotons at solar minimum are measured in the energy range 0.18 to 1.4 GeV, based on 43 events unambiguously detected in BESS '95 data. The resultant energy spectrum appears to be flat below 1 GeV, compatible with a possible admixture of primary antiproton component with a soft energy spectrum, while the possibility of secondary antiprotons alone explaining the data cannot be excluded with the present accuracy. Further improvement of statistical accuracy and extension of the energy range are planned in future BESS flights.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages including 4 eps figures. Submitted to PR

Precision Measurement of Cosmic-Ray Antiproton Spectrum

The energy spectrum of cosmic-ray antiprotons has been measured in the range 0.18 to 3.56 GeV, based on 458 antiprotons collected by BESS in recent solar-minimum period. We have detected for the first time a distinctive peak at 2 GeV of antiprotons originating from cosmic-ray interactions with the interstellar gas. The peak spectrum is reproduced by theoretical calculations, implying that the propagation models are basically correct and that different cosmic-ray species undergo a universal propagation. Future BESS flights toward the solar maximum will help us to study the solar modulation and the propagation in detail and to search for primary antiproton components.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages including 4 eps figure

Secondary proton flux induced by cosmic ray interactions with the atmosphere

The atmospheric secondary proton flux is studied for altitudes extending from sea level up to the top of atmosphere by means of a 3-dimensional Monte-Carlo simulation procedure successfully used previously to account for flux measurements of protons, light nuclei, and electrons-positrons below the geomagnetic cutoff (satellite data), and of muons and antiprotons (balloon data). The calculated flux are compared with the experimental measurements from sea level uo to high float ballon altitudes. The agreement between data and simulation results are very good at all altitudes, including the lowest ones, where the calculations become extremely sensitive to the proton production cross section. The results are discussed in this context. The calculations are extended to the study of quasi trapped particles above the atmosphere to about 5 Earth radii, for prospective purpose.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Making New "New AI" Friends : Designing a Social Robot for Diabetic Children from an Embodied AI Perspective

Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Robin is a cognitively and motivationally autonomous affective robot toddler with "robot diabetes" that we have developed to support perceived self-efficacy and emotional wellbeing in children with diabetes by providing them with positive mastery experiences of diabetes management in a playful but realistic and natural interaction context. Underlying the design of Robin is an "Embodied" (formerly also known as "New") Artificial Intelligence approach to robotics. In this paper we discuss the rationale behind the design of Robin to meet the needs of our intended end users (both children and medical staff), and how "New AI" provides a suitable approach to developing a friendly companion that fulfills the therapeutic and affective requirements of our end users beyond other approaches commonly used in assistive robotics and child-robot interaction. Finally, we discuss how our approach permitted our robot to interact with and provide suitable experiences of diabetes management to children with very different social interaction styles.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters