Texture Determination from Ultrasonic Wave Speeds for Hexagonal Close Pack and Cubic Materials

Crystallographic texture in polycrystalline hexagonal close pack (HCP) and cubic materials, often developed during thermomechanical deformations, has profound effects on properties at the macroscopic or component level. In this talk, a novel theoretical convolution model is presented, which couples the single crystal wave speed (the kernel function) with the polycrystal crystallographic orientation distribution function to give the resultant polycrystal wave speed function. Firstly developed on HCP [1] and then successfully extended to general anisotropic materials [2], the theoretical model expresses the three functions as harmonic expansions, thus enabling the calculation of any one of them when the other two are known. Hence, the forward problem of determination of polycrystal wave speed is solved for all crystal systems. Verifications are provided on various textures, showing near-perfect representation of the sensitivity of wave speed to texture as well as quantitative predictions of polycrystal wave speed. More importantly, the model also presents a solution to the long-standing inverse problem of detecting texture using ultrasound, with proof of principle established where the wave velocities propagating in groups of HCP and cubic polycrystals with different known textures are computationally calculated, and then the texture information is recovered solely from simulated velocities through the model, and the results show good agreements with the original textures. With possibilities of developing a powerful tool for bulk texture measurement and wave propagation studies in general for HCP, cubic materials now shown, further experimental validations of the proposed model are then conducted. A series of samples cut from typical HCP and cubic materials, including commercially pure (CP) Ti, copper, Ti-6Al-4V, are examined by carefully designed experimental setup for the measurement of the angular variations of ultrasonic wave velocities. Texture information of the samples are extracted out from these measured velocities using the model, for the comparison and calibration against the set of information of the same samples measured independently by the well-established neutron diffraction technique. This part of the research is still ongoing and we hope to be able to show results soon

Fermion Determinants

The current status of bounds on and limits of fermion determinants in two, three and four dimensions in QED and QCD is reviewed. A new lower bound on the two-dimensional QED determinant is derived. An outline of the demonstration of the continuity of this determinant at zero mass when the background magnetic field flux is zero is also given.Comment: 10 page

Chern-Simons matrix model: coherent states and relation to Laughlin wavefunctions

Using a coherent state representation we derive many-body probability distributions and wavefunctions for the Chern-Simons matrix model proposed by Polychronakos and compare them to the Laughlin ones. We analyze two different coherent state representations, corresponding to different choices for electron coordinate bases. In both cases we find that the resulting probability distributions do not quite agree with the Laughlin ones. There is agreement on the long distance behavior, but the short distance behavior is different.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX; one reference added, abstract and section 5 expanded, typos correcte

Mass Spectra of N=2 Supersymmetric SU(n) Chern-Simons-Higgs Theories

An algebraic method is used to work out the mass spectra and symmetry breaking patterns of general vacuum states in N=2 supersymmetric SU(n) Chern-Simons-Higgs systems with the matter fields being in the adjoint representation. The approach provides with us a natural basis for fields, which will be useful for further studies in the self-dual solutions and quantum corrections. As the vacuum states satisfy the SU(2) algebra, it is not surprising to find that their spectra are closely related to that of angular momentum addition in quantum mechanics. The analysis can be easily generalized to other classical Lie groups.Comment: 17 pages, use revte

A note on a gauge-gravity relation and functional determinants

We present a refinement of a recently found gauge-gravity relation between one-loop effective actions: on the gauge side, for a massive charged scalar in 2d dimensions in a constant maximally symmetric electromagnetic field; on the gravity side, for a massive spinor in d-dimensional (Euclidean) anti-de Sitter space. The inclusion of the dimensionally regularized volume of AdS leads to complete mapping within dimensional regularization. In even-dimensional AdS, we get a small correction to the original proposal; whereas in odd-dimensional AdS, the mapping is totally new and subtle, with the `holographic trace anomaly' playing a crucial role.Comment: 6 pages, io

The I-mode confinement regime at ASDEX Upgrade: global propert ies and characterization of strongly intermittent density fluctuations

Properties of the I­mode confinement regime on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak are summarized. A weak dependence of the power threshold for the L­I transition on the toroidal magnetic field strength is found. During improved confinement, the edge radial electric field well deepens. Stability calculations show that the I­mode pedestal is peeling­ballooning stable. Turbulence investigations reveal strongly intermittent density fluctuations linked to the weakly coherent mode in the confined plasma, which become stronger as the confinement quality increases. Across all investigated structure sizes ( ≈ ⊥ k 5 – 12 cm − 1 , with ⊥ k the perpendicular wavenumber of turbulent density fluctuations), the intermittent turbulence bursts are observed. Comparison with bolometry data shows that they move poloidally toward the X­point and finally end up in the divertor. This might be indicative that they play a role in inhibiting the density profile growth, such that no pedestal is formed in the edge density profile.European Union (EUROfusion 633053)European Union (EUROfusion AWP15­ENR­09/IPP­02

Slip intermittency and dwell fatigue in titanium alloys: a discrete dislocation plasticity analysis

Slip intermittency and stress oscillations in titanium alloy Ti-7Al-O that were observed using in-situ far-field high energy X-ray diffraction microscopy (ff-HEDM) are investigated using a discrete dislocation plasticity (DDP) model. The mechanistic foundation of slip intermittency and stress oscillations are shown to be dislocation escape from obstacles during stress holds, governed by a thermal activation constitutive law. The stress drop events due to -basal slip are larger in magnitude than those along -prism, which is a consequence of their differing rate sensitivities, previously found from micropillar testing. It is suggested that interstitial oxygen suppresses stress oscillations by inhibiting the thermal activation process. Understanding of these mechanisms is of benefit to the design and safety assessment of jet engine titanium alloys subjected to dwell fatigue

ENOBIO - First tests of a dry electrophysiology electrode using carbon nanotubes

We describe the development and first tests of Enobio, a dry electrode sensor concept for biopotential applications. In the proposed electrodes, the tip of the electrode is covered with a forest of multi-walled CNTs that can be coated with Ag/AgCl to provide ionic-electronic transduction. The CNT brush-like structure is to penetrate the outer layers of the skin improving electrical contact as well as increae the contact surface area. In this paper, we report the results of the first tests of this concept -- immersion on saline solution and pig skin signal detection. These indicate performance on a par with state of the art research-oriented wet electrodes.Comment: Submitted and accepted at the 28th IEEE EMBS International Conference, New York City, August 31st-September 3rd, 2006. Figures updated with proper filtering and averagin

Self-DUal SU(3) Chern-Simons Higgs Systems

We explore self-dual Chern-Simons Higgs systems with the local $SU(3)$ and global $U(1)$ symmetries where the matter field lies in the adjoint representation. We show that there are three degenerate vacua of different symmetries and study the unbroken symmetry and particle spectrum in each vacuum. We classify the self-dual configurations into three types and study their properties.Comment: Columbia Preprint CU-TP-635, 19 page