Shock shapes and pressure distributions for large angle pointed cones in helium at Mach numbers of 8 and 20

Shock shape and surface pressure measurements on hypersonic pointed cones in heliu

Surge current and electron swarm tunnel tests of thermal blanket and ground strap materials

The results are described of a series of current conduction tests with a thermal control blanket to which grounding straps have been attached. The material and the ground strap attachment procedure are described. The current conduction tests consisted of a surge current examination of the ground strap and a dilute flow, energetic electron deposition and transport through the bulk of the insulating film of this thermal blanket material. Both of these test procedures were used previously with thermal control blanket materials

Electric prototype power processor for a 30cm ion thruster

An electrical prototype power processor unit was designed, fabricated and tested with a 30 cm mercury ion engine for primary space propulsion. The power processor unit used the thyristor series resonant inverter as the basic power stage for the high power beam and discharge supplies. A transistorized series resonant inverter processed the remaining power for the low power outputs. The power processor included a digital interface unit to process all input commands and internal telemetry signals so that electric propulsion systems could be operated with a central computer system. The electrical prototype unit included design improvement in the power components such as thyristors, transistors, filters and resonant capacitors, and power transformers and inductors in order to reduce component weight, to minimize losses, and to control the component temperature rise. A design analysis for the electrical prototype is also presented on the component weight, losses, part count and reliability estimate. The electrical prototype was tested in a thermal vacuum environment. Integration tests were performed with a 30 cm ion engine and demonstrated operational compatibility. Electromagnetic interference data was also recorded on the design to provide information for spacecraft integration

Localized Asymmetric Atomic Matter Waves in Two-Component Bose-Einstein Condensates Coupled with Two Photon Microwave Field

We investigate localized atomic matter waves in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates coupled by the two photon microwave field. Interestingly, the oscillations of localized atomic matter waves will gradually decay and finally become non-oscillating behavior even if existing coupling field. In particular, atom numbers occupied in two different hyperfine spin states will appear asymmetric occupations after some time evolution.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of the interaction strength in a Bose-Fermi mixture with 87Rb and 40K

A quantum degenerate, dilute gas mixture of bosonic and fermionic atoms was produced using 87Rb and 40K. The onset of degeneracy was confirmed by observing the spatial distribution of the gases after time-of-flight expansion. Further, the magnitude of the interspecies scattering length between the doubly spin polarized states of 87Rb and 40K, |a_RbK|, was determined from cross-dimensional thermal relaxation. The uncertainty in this collision measurement was greatly reduced by taking the ratio of interspecies and intraspecies relaxation rates, yielding |a_RbK| = 250 +/- 30 a_0, which is a lower value than what was reported in [M. Modugno et al., Phys. Rev. A 68, 043626 (2003)]. Using the value for |a_RbK| reported here, current T=0 theory would predict a threshold for mechanical instability that is inconsistent with the experimentally observed onset for sudden loss of fermions in [G. Modugno et al., Science 297, 2240 (2002)].Comment: RevTeX4 + 4 eps figures; Replaced with published versio

Cross-Dimensional relaxation in Bose-Fermi mixtures

We consider the equilibration rate for fermions in Bose-Fermi mixtures undergoing cross-dimensional rethermalization. Classical Monte Carlo simulations of the relaxation process are performed over a wide range of parameters, focusing on the effects of the mass difference between species and the degree of initial departure from equilibrium. A simple analysis based on Enskog's equation is developed and shown to be accurate over a variety of different parameter regimes. This allows predictions for mixtures of commonly used alkali atoms.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, uses Revtex 4. This is a companion paper to [PRA 70, 021601(R) (2004)] (cond-mat/0405419