Toxic Power: What the Toxics Release Inventory Tells Us About Power Plant Pollution

Examines nationwide and state electric utility data to show the quantity and nature of toxic pollutants reported by power plants, and describes the potential health damage they can cause. Suggests ways for reducing toxic power plant pollution

Kinetics and moving species during Co2Si formation by rapid thermal annealing

We have investigated the growth kinetics and identified the moving species during Co2Si formation by rapid thermal annealing (RTA). For the kinetics study, samples which consisted of a thin Co film on an evaporated Si substrate were used. To study which species moves, samples imbedded with two very thin Ta markers were employed. Upon RTA, only one silicide phase, Co2Si, was observed to grow before all Co was consumed. The square root of time dependence and the activation energy of about 2.1±0.2 eV were observed during the Co2Si formation up to 680 °C. The marker study indicated that Co is the dominant mobile species during Co2Si formation by RTA. We conclude that Co2Si grows by the same mechanisms during RTA and conventional thermal annealing

Vassiliev Invariants for Links from Chern-Simons Perturbation Theory

The general structure of the perturbative expansion of the vacuum expectation value of a product of Wilson-loop operators is analyzed in the context of Chern-Simons gauge theory. Wilson loops are opened into Wilson lines in order to unravel the algebraic structure encoded in the group factors of the perturbative series expansion. In the process a factorization theorem is proved for Wilson lines. Wilson lines are then closed back into Wilson loops and new link invariants of finite type are defined. Integral expressions for these invariants are presented for the first three primitive ones of lower degree in the case of two-component links. In addition, explicit numerical results are obtained for all two-component links of no more than six crossings up to degree four.Comment: 44 pages, LaTex, epsf.sty, 15 figure

Nonequilibrium quantum-impurities: from entropy production to information theory

Nonequilibrium steady-state currents, unlike their equilibrium counterparts, continuously dissipate energy into their physical surroundings leading to entropy production and time-reversal symmetry breaking. This letter discusses these issues in the context of quantum impurity models driven out of equilibrium by attaching the impurity to leads at different chemical potentials and temperatures. We start by pointing out that entropy production is often hidden in traditional treatments of quantum-impurity models. We then use simple thermodynamic arguments to define the rate of entropy production. Using the scattering framework recently developed by the authors we show that the rate of entropy production has a simple information theoretic interpretation in terms of the Shannon entropy and Kullback-Leibler divergence of nonequilibrium distribution function. This allows us to show that the entropy production is strictly positive for any nonequilibrium steady-state. We conclude by applying these ideas to the Resonance Level Model and the Kondo model.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure new version with minor clarification

KAJIAN PERBEDAAN CAMPURAN BERASPAL PANAS YANG MENGGUNAKAN BAHAN AGREGAT DENGAN BERAT JENIS (SPESIFIK GRAFITY) YANG BERBEDA

Berat jenis agregat dari berbagai sumber tidak akan sama, tergantung pada sifat fisik dan mekanik. Campuran beraspal panas dari berbagai sumber itu akan berbeda satu sama lain, Berat jenis akan mempengaruhi parameter-parameter pengujian Marshall berupa Stabilitas, Flow, VIM, VMA, VFB, kepadatan, (Spesifikasi Bina Marga tahun 2010 revisi 3). Penelitian ini akan mengkaji perbedaan campuran beraspal panas yang menggunakan bahan agregat dengan berat jenis (spesifik grafity) yang berbeda. Benda uji Marshall dibuat dengan menggunakan material batu pecah yang bersumber dari tiga tempat yaitu Kakaskasen Tomohon, Tateli Minahasa dan Matali Kotamobagu, dengan aspal penetrasi 60/70 ex Pertamina sebagai bahan pembentuk campuran beraspal panas. Setelah dilakukan pemeriksaan bahan selanjutnya dicari komposisi agregat yang memenuhi syarat untuk masing-masing campuran yaitu AC-WC dan dibuat campuran benda uji untuk 5 variasi kadar aspal untuk setiap sumber material. Hasil penelitian untuk ketiga material yang kadar aspalnya dibuat sama dan penambahan PC sebesar 1%, Maka nilai-nilai marshall menunjukkan angka yang berbeda, seperti berat jenis material Matali termasuk tinggi, sehingga berada di angka 2.7. pada pengujian Marshall di kadar aspal 6.5%, nilai stabilitas di dapat sebesar 2045 kg; flow = 2.70 mm; VIM = 3.53%; VMA = 17.67%; VFB = 80.10%; density =2.40 gr/cc; rasio filler = 0.85. Berat jenis material Tateli termasuk rendah, sehingga berada di angka 2.4 dan 2.3. pada pengujian Marshall di kadar aspal 6.5%, nilai stabilitas di dapat sebesar 1450 kg; flow= 3.01mm; VIM = 3.67%; VMA = 15.43%; VFB = 76.24%; density = 2.18 gr/cc; rasio filler = 1.41. Berat jenis material Kakaskasen termasuk rendah, sehingga berada di angka 2.4 dan 2.3. pada pengujian Marshall di kadar aspal 6.5%, nilai stabilitas di dapat sebesar 1535 kg, flow = 3.49mm; VIM = 4.58%; VMA=15.10%; VFB = 69.71%, density= 2.15 gr/cc; rasio filler = 1.07. Jika harga satuan pekerjaan Hotmix aspal diukur dalam satuan berat, maka dalam 1ton/m³ campuran yang dikalikan dengan harga satuan pekerjaan masih relatif menguntungkan.Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa material Matali merupakan material yang memiliki nilai density terbesar yaitu kisaran 2.40 sedangkan material Tateli dan material Kakaskasen memiliki nilai density yang relatif rendah sehingga menghasilkan nilai yang hampir sama yaitu sebesar 2.18 dan 2.15. hal ini disebabkan semakin tinggi nilai berat jenis pada material maka nilai density semakin tinggi. Jika satuan pembayaran dari campuran beraspal panas diukur dari satuan berat, maka menggunakan agregat yang mempunyai berat jenis yang lebih besar relatif lebih mengguntungkan. Dari kesimpulan tersebut disarankan pada pekerjaan perkerasan jalan, jika sebaiknya menggunakan material yang berat jenis tinggi seperti material Matali Kata kunci: Besaran Marshall, Berat jenis, AC-WC, Material, Densit

Formality of the chain operad of framed little disks

We extend Tamarkin's formality of the little disk operad to the framed little disk operad.Comment: 5 page

Renormalization Ambiguities in Chern-Simons Theory

We introduce a new family of gauge invariant regularizations of Chern-Simons theories which generate one-loop renormalizations of the coupling constant of the form $k\to k+2 s c_v$ where $s$ can take any arbitrary integer value. In the particular case $s=0$ we get an explicit example of a gauge invariant regularization which does not generate radiative corrections to the bare coupling constant. This ambiguity in the radiative corrections to $k$ is reminiscent of the Coste-L\"uscher results for the parity anomaly in (2+1) fermionic effective actions.Comment: 10 pages, harvmac, no changes, 1 Postscript figure (now included

The Sum over Topologies in Three-Dimensional Euclidean Quantum Gravity

In Hawking's Euclidean path integral approach to quantum gravity, the partition function is computed by summing contributions from all possible topologies. The behavior such a sum can be estimated in three spacetime dimensions in the limit of small cosmological constant. The sum over topologies diverges for either sign of $\Lambda$, but for dramatically different reasons: for $\Lambda>0$, the divergent behavior comes from the contributions of very low volume, topologically complex manifolds, while for $\Lambda<0$ it is a consequence of the existence of infinite sequences of relatively high volume manifolds with converging geometries. Possible implications for four-dimensional quantum gravity are discussed.Comment: 12 pages (LaTeX), UCD-92-1