Michael S. Mahoney, 1939–2008

Perhaps the clearest testimony to the scholarly range and depth of Princeton's now‐lamented Michael S. Mahoney lies in the dismay of his colleagues in the last few years, as they contemplated his imminent retirement. How to maintain coverage of his fields? Fretting over this question, the program in history of science that he did so much to build recently found itself sketching a five-year plan that involved replacing him with no fewer than four new appointments: a historian of mathematics with the ability to handle the course on Greek antiquity, a historian of the core problems of the Scientific Revolution, a historian of technology who could cover the nineteenth‐century United States and Britain, and, finally, a historian of the computer-and-media revolution. In his passing we have lost a small department

Probing States in the Mott Insulator Regime

We propose a method to probe states in the Mott insulator regime produced from a condensate in an optical lattice. We consider a system in which we create time-dependent number fluctuations in a given site by turning off the atomic interactions and lowering the potential barriers on a nearly pure Mott state to allow the atoms to tunnel between sites. We calculate the expected interference pattern and number fluctuations from such a system and show that one can potentially observe a deviation from a pure Mott state. We also discuss a method in which to detect these number fluctuations using time-of-flight imaging.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Send correspondence to [email protected]

Quantum imaging of spin states in optical lattices

We investigate imaging of the spatial spin distribution of atoms in optical lattices using non-resonant light scattering. We demonstrate how scattering spatially correlated light from the atoms can result in spin state images with enhanced spatial resolution. Furthermore, we show how using spatially correlated light can lead to direct measurement of the spatial correlations of the atomic spin distribution

Submarine groundwater discharge: an unseen yet potentially important coastal phenomenon

In collaboration with researchers from Florida State University, Florida Sea Grant introduces an important but poorly known topic: submarine groundwater discharge. Although nearly invisible, submarine groundwater discharge influences coastal systems. This brochure helps explain this important phenomenon. (8pp.

Quantitative test of thermal field theory for Bose-Einstein condensates

We present numerical results from a full second order quantum field theory of Bose-Einstein condensates applied to the 1997 JILA experiment [D. S. Jin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. Vol. 78, 764 (1997)]. Good agreement is found for the energies and decay rates for both the lowest-energy m = 2 and m = 0 modes. The anomalous behaviour of the m = 0 mode is due to experimental perturbation of the non-condensate. The theory includes the coupled dynamics of the condensate and thermal cloud, the anomalous pair average and all relevant finite size effects.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Uses revtex4, amsmath, amssymb and psfra

Solar composition from the Genesis Discovery Mission

Science results from the Genesis Mission illustrate the major advantages of sample return missions. (i) Important results not otherwise obtainable except by analysis in terrestrial laboratories: the isotopic compositions of O, N, and noble gases differ in the Sun from other inner solar system objects. The N isotopic composition is the same as that of Jupiter. Genesis has resolved discrepancies in the noble gas data from solar wind implanted in lunar soils. (ii) The most advanced analytical instruments have been applied to Genesis samples, including some developed specifically for the mission. (iii) The N isotope result has been replicated with four different instruments

Nucleosynthesis in the early history of the solar system

Nucleosynthesis in early history of solar syste

Hydrogen and fluorine in the surfaces of lunar samples

The resonant nuclear reaction F-19 (p, alpha gamma)0-16 has been used to perform depth sensitive analyses for both fluorine and hydrogen in lunar samples. The resonance at 0.83 MeV (center-of-mass) in this reaction has been applied to the measurement of the distribution of trapped solar protons in lunar samples to depths of about 1/2 micrometer. These results are interpreted in terms of terrestrial H2O surface contamination and a redistribution of the implanted solar H which has been influenced by heavy radiation damage in the surface region. Results are also presented for an experiment to test the penetration of H2O into laboratory glass samples which have been irradiated with 0-16 to simulate the radiation damaged surfaces of lunar glasses. Fluorine determinations have been performed in a 1 pm surface layer on lunar samples using the same F-19 alpha gamma)0-16 resonance. The data are discussed from the standpoint of lunar fluorine and Teflon contamination