511 research outputs found
Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience?
Given the increasingly global stresses on forests, many ecologists argue that managers must maintain ecological resilience: the capacity of ecosystems to absorb disturbances without undergoing fundamental change. In this review we ask: Can the emerging paradigm of natural-disturbance-based management (NDBM) maintain ecological resilience in managed forests? Applying resilience theory requires careful articulation of the ecosystem state under consideration, the disturbances and stresses that affect the persistence of possible alternative states, and the spatial and temporal scales of management relevance. Implementing NDBM while maintaining resilience means recognizing that (i) biodiversity is important for long-term ecosystem persistence, (ii) natural disturbances play a critical role as a generator of structural and compositional heterogeneity at multiple scales, and (iii) traditional management tends to produce forests more homogeneous than those disturbed naturally and increases the likelihood of unexpected catastrophic change by constraining variation of key environmental processes. NDBM may maintain resilience if silvicultural strategies retain the structures and processes that perpetuate desired states while reducing those that enhance resilience of undesirable states. Such strategies require an understanding of harvesting impacts on slow ecosystem processes, such as seed-bank or nutrient dynamics, which in the long term can lead to ecological surprises by altering the forest's capacity to reorganize after disturbance
Branching Fractions for D0 -> K+K- and D0 -> pi+pi-, and a Search for CP Violation in D0 Decays
Using the large hadroproduced charm sample collected in experiment E791 at
Fermilab, we have measured ratios of branching fractions for the two-body
singly-Cabibbo-suppressed charged decays of the D0:
(D0 -> KK)/(D0 -> Kpi) = 0.109 +- 0.003 +- 0.003,
(D0 -> pipi)/(D0 -> Kpi) = 0.040 +- 0.002 +- 0.003, and
(D0 -> KK)/(D0 -> pipi) = 2.75 +- 0.15 +- 0.16. We have looked for
differences in the decay rates of D0 and D0bar to the CP eigenstates K+K- and
pi+pi-, and have measured the CP asymmetry parameters
A_CP(K+K-) = -0.010 +- 0.049 +- 0.012 and
A_CP(pi+pi-) = -0.049 +- 0.078 +- 0.030, both consistent with zero.Comment: 10 Postscript pages, including 2 figures. Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Search for Rare and Forbidden Dilepton Decays of the D+, Ds, and D0 Charmed Mesons
We report the results of a search for flavor-changing neutral current,
lepton-flavor violating, and lepton-number violating decays of D+, Ds, and D0
mesons (and their antiparticles) into modes containing muons and electrons.
Using data from Fermilab charm hadroproduction experiment E791, we examine the
pi,l,l and K,l,l decay modes of D+ and Ds and the l+l- decay modes of D0. No
evidence for any of these decays is found. Therefore, we present
branching-fraction upper limits at 90% confidence level for the 24 decay modes
examined. Eight of these modes have no previously reported limits, and fourteen
are reported with significant improvements over previously published results.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX, elsart.cls, epsf.sty, amsmath.sty
Submitted to Physics Letters
Search for CP Violation in Charged D Meson Decays
We report results of a search for CP violation in the singly
Cabibbo-suppressed decays D+ -> K- K+ pi+, phi pi+, K*(892)0 K+, and pi- pi+
pi+ based on data from the charm hadroproduction experiment E791 at Fermilab.
We search for a difference in the D+ and D- decay rates for each of the final
states. No evidence for a difference is seen. The decay rate asymmetry
parameters A(CP), defined as the difference in the D+ and D- decay rates
divided by the sum of the decay rates, are measured to be: A(CP)(K K pi) =
-0.014 +/- 0.029, A(CP)(phi pi) = -0.028 +/- 0.036, A(CP)(K*(892) K) = -0.010
+/- 0.050, and A(CP)(pi pi pi) = -0.017 +/- 0.042.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; Elsevier LaTe
Asymmetries between the production of D+ and D- mesons from 500 GeV/c pi- nucleon interactions as a function of xF and pt**2
We present asymmetries between the production of D+ and D- mesons in Fermilab
experiment E791 as a function of xF and pt**2. The data used here consist of
74,000 fully-reconstructed charmed mesons produced by a 500 GeV/c pi- beam on C
and Pt foils. The measurements are compared to results of models which predict
differences between the production of heavy-quark mesons that have a light
quark in common with the beam (leading particles) and those that do not
(non-leading particles). While the default models do not agree with our data,
we can reach agreement with one of them, PYTHIA, by making a limited number of
changes to parameters used
Measurement of the form-factor ratios for D+ --> K* l nu
The form factor ratios rv=V(0)/A1(0), r2=A2(0)/A1(0) and r3=A3(0)/A1(0) in
the decay D+ --> K* l nu, K* -->K-pi+ have been measured using data from charm
hadroproduction experiment E791 at Fermilab. From 3034 (595) signal
(background) events in the muon channel, we obtain rv=1.84+-0.11+-0.09,
r2=0.75+-0.08+-0.09 and, as a first measurement of r3, we find 0.04+-0.33
+-0.29. The values of the form factor ratios rv and r2 measured for the muon
channel are combined with the values of rv and r2 that we have measured in the
electron channel. The combined E791 results for the muon and electron channels
are rv=1.87+-0.08+-0.07 and r2=0.73+-0.06+-0.08.Comment: 9 pages + 3 figures ; submitted to PL
Differential cross sections, charge production asymmetry, and spin-density matrix elements for D*(2010) produced in 500 GeV/c pi^- nucleon interactions
We report differential cross sections for the production of D*(2010) produced
in 500 GeV/c pi^- nucleon interactions from experiment E791 at Fermilab, as
functions of Feynman-x (x_F) and transverse momentum squared (p_T^2). We also
report the D* +/- charge asymmetry and spin-density matrix elements as
functions of these variables. Investigation of the spin-density matrix elements
shows no evidence of polarization. The average values of the spin alignment are
\eta= 0.01 +- 0.02 and -0.01 +- 0.02 for leading and non-leading particles,
respectively.Comment: LaTeX2e (elsart.cls). 13 pages, 6 figures (eps files). Submitted to
Physics Letters
A new method for the simulation of alloys: Application to interfacial segregation
We present a new, accurate method for determining the properties of defects in alloys at finite temperature, including equilibrium segregation. This method is based upon a point approximation for the configurational entropy, an Einstein model for vibrational contributions to the free energy and may be employed with any type of description of atomic interactions. The atomic structure, segregation and thermodynamics of a defect in an alloy is determined by minimizing the free energy with respect to atomic coordinates and composition of each site at constant chemical potential. In order to test the accuracy of this approach, we compare our results with accurate Monte Carlo determinations. Overall, very good agreement for segregation to free surfaces and grain boundaries in Cu---Ni alloys is obtained. One of the main advantages this new method enjoys over other methods such as Monte Carlo, is the efficiency with which the atomic structure of a defect, segregation and thermodynamic properties can be determined. This efficiency is obtained in the framework of a very straightforward method and with little loss in accuracy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29021/1/0000051.pd
Mass Splitting and Production of and Measured in N Interactions
From a sample of decaying to the
final state, we have observed, in the hadroproduction experiment E791 at
Fermilab, and through
their decays to . The mass difference ) is measured to be ; for
, we find .
The rate of production from decays of the triplet is
(22\pm 2\pm 3) {%} of the total production assuming equal rate
of production from all three, as measured for and .
We do not observe a statistically significant baryon-antibaryon
production asymmetry. The and spectra of from
decays are observed to be similar to those for all 's
produced.Comment: 15 pages, uuencoded postscript 3 figures uuencoded, tar-compressed
fil
An improved method for measuring muon energy using the truncated mean of dE/dx
The measurement of muon energy is critical for many analyses in large
Cherenkov detectors, particularly those that involve separating
extraterrestrial neutrinos from the atmospheric neutrino background. Muon
energy has traditionally been determined by measuring the specific energy loss
(dE/dx) along the muon's path and relating the dE/dx to the muon energy.
Because high-energy muons (E_mu > 1 TeV) lose energy randomly, the spread in
dE/dx values is quite large, leading to a typical energy resolution of 0.29 in
log10(E_mu) for a muon observed over a 1 km path length in the IceCube
detector. In this paper, we present an improved method that uses a truncated
mean and other techniques to determine the muon energy. The muon track is
divided into separate segments with individual dE/dx values. The elimination of
segments with the highest dE/dx results in an overall dE/dx that is more
closely correlated to the muon energy. This method results in an energy
resolution of 0.22 in log10(E_mu), which gives a 26% improvement. This
technique is applicable to any large water or ice detector and potentially to
large scintillator or liquid argon detectors.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figure
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