7,126 research outputs found
Solid rocket motor nozzles
The steps in the nozzle design process are examined. The nozzle designer's role in defining design requirements and constraints is included along with discussions of each of the three basic phases of the nozzle design process itself: (1) aerodynamic design, in which the gas-contacting surfaces are configured to produce the required performance within the envelope limits; (2) thermal design, in which termal liners and thermal insulators are selected and configured to maintain the surfaces as closely as practical against effects of erosion and to limit the structure temperature to acceptable levels; and (3) structural design, in which materials are selected and configured to support the thermal components and to sustain the predicted loads. Analytical techniques that are used to establish thermal and structural design integrity and to predict nozzle performance are discussed along with methods for nozzle quality assurance. Emphasis is placed on nozzle design and materials for modern high-temperature aluminized propellants. Recurring nozzle design problems of graphite cracking and ejection, differential erosion at material interfaces, lack of sufficient proven nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques, the uncertainty of adhesive bonding, and inadequate definition of material properties, particularly at high temperatures are considered
On CPT Symmetry: Cosmological, Quantum-Gravitational and other possible violations and their phenomenology
I discuss various ways in which CPT symmetry may be violated, and their
phenomenology in current or immediate future experimental facilities, both
terrestrial and astrophysical. Specifically, I discuss first violations of CPT
symmetry due to the impossibility of defining a scattering matrix as a
consequence of the existence of microscopic or macroscopic space-time
boundaries, such as Planck-scale Black-Hole (event) horizons, or cosmological
horizons due to the presence of a (positive) cosmological constant in the
Universe. Second, I discuss CPT violation due to breaking of Lorentz symmetry,
which may characterize certain approaches to quantum gravity, and third, I
describe models of CPT non invariance due to violations of locality of
interactions. In each of the above categories I discuss experimental
sensitivities. I argue that the majority of Lorentz-violating cases of CPT
breaking, with minimal (linear) suppression by the Planck-mass scale, are
already excluded by current experimental tests. There are however some
(stringy) models which can evade these constraints.Comment: 27 pages latex, Conference talk Beyond the Desert 200
Probing EWSB Naturalness in Unified SUSY Models with Dark Matter
We have studied Electroweak Symmetry Breaking (EWSB) fine-tuning in the
context of two unified Supersymmetry scenarios: the Constrained Minimal
Supersymmetric Model (CMSSM) and models with Non-Universal Higgs Masses (NUHM),
in light of current and upcoming direct detection dark matter experiments. We
consider both those models that satisfy a one-sided bound on the relic density
of neutralinos, , and also the subset that satisfy
the two-sided bound in which the relic density is within the 2 sigma best fit
of WMAP7 + BAO + H0 data. We find that current direct detection searches for
dark matter probe the least fine-tuned regions of parameter-space, or
equivalently those of lowest Higgs mass parameter , and will tend to probe
progressively more and more fine-tuned models, though the trend is more
pronounced in the CMSSM than in the NUHM. Additionally, we examine several
subsets of model points, categorized by common mass hierarchies; M_{\chi_0}
\sim M_{\chi^\pm}, M_{\chi_0} \sim M_{\stau}, M_{\chi_0} \sim M_{\stop_1}, the
light and heavy Higgs poles, and any additional models classified as "other";
the relevance of these mass hierarchies is their connection to the preferred
neutralino annihilation channel that determines the relic abundance. For each
of these subsets of models we investigated the degree of fine-tuning and
discoverability in current and next generation direct detection experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures. v2: references added. v3: matches published
versio
Phenomenology and Cosmology of an Electroweak Pseudo-Dilaton and Electroweak Baryons
In many strongly-interacting models of electroweak symmetry breaking the
lowest-lying observable particle is a pseudo-Goldstone boson of approximate
scale symmetry, the pseudo-dilaton. Its interactions with Standard Model
particles can be described using a low-energy effective nonlinear chiral
Lagrangian supplemented by terms that restore approximate scale symmetry,
yielding couplings of the pseudo-dilaton that differ from those of a Standard
Model Higgs boson by fixed factors. We review the experimental constraints on
such a pseudo-dilaton in light of new data from the LHC and elsewhere. The
effective nonlinear chiral Lagrangian has Skyrmion solutions that may be
identified with the `electroweak baryons' of the underlying
strongly-interacting theory, whose nature may be revealed by the properties of
the Skyrmions. We discuss the finite-temperature electroweak phase transition
in the low-energy effective theory, finding that the possibility of a
first-order electroweak phase transition is resurrected. We discuss the
evolution of the Universe during this transition and derive an
order-of-magnitude lower limit on the abundance of electroweak baryons in the
absence of a cosmological asymmetry, which suggests that such an asymmetry
would be necessary if the electroweak baryons are to provide the cosmological
density of dark matter. We revisit estimates of the corresponding
spin-independent dark matter scattering cross section, with a view to direct
detection experiments.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, additional references adde
Past electron-positron g-2 experiments yielded sharpest bound on CPT violation for point particles
In our past experiments on a single electron and positron we measured the
cyclotron and spin-cyclotron difference frequencies omega_c and omega_a and the
ratios a = omega_a/ omega_c at omega_c = 141 Ghz for e^- and e^+ and later,
only for e^-, also at 164 Ghz. Here, we do extract from these data, as had not
done before, a new and very different figure of merit for violation of CPT
symmetry, one similar to the widely recognized impressive limit |m_Kaon -
m_Antikaon|/m_Kaon < 10^-18 for the K-mesons composed of two quarks. That
expression may be seen as comparing experimental relativistic masses of
particle states before and after the C, P, T operations had transformed
particle into antiparticle. Such a similar figure of merit for a non-composite
and quite different lepton, found by us from our Delta a = a^- - a^+ data, was
even smaller, h_bar |omega_a^- - omega_a^+|/2m_0 c^2 = |Delta a| h_bar
omega_c/2m_0 c^2) < 3(12) 10^-22.Comment: Improved content, Editorially approved for publication in PRL, LATEX
file, 5 pages, no figures, 16
The gravitino coupling to broken gauge theories applied to the MSSM
We consider gravitino couplings in theories with broken gauge symmetries. In
particular, we compute the single gravitino production cross section in W+ W-
fusion processes. Despite recent claims to the contrary, we show that this
process is always subdominant to gluon fusion processes in the high energy
limit. The full calculation is performed numerically; however, we give analytic
expressions for the cross section in the supersymmetric and electroweak limits.
We also confirm these results with the use of the effective theory of goldstino
interactions.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure
Bino Dark Matter and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis in the Constrained E6SSM with Massless Inert Singlinos
We discuss a new variant of the E6 inspired supersymmetric standard model
(E6SSM) in which the two inert singlinos are exactly massless and the dark
matter candidate has a dominant bino component. A successful relic density is
achieved via a novel mechanism in which the bino scatters inelastically into
heavier inert Higgsinos during the time of thermal freeze-out. The two massless
inert singlinos contribute to the effective number of neutrino species at the
time of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, where the precise contribution depends on the
mass of the Z' which keeps them in equilibrium. For example for mZ' > 1300 GeV
we find Neff \approx 3.2, where the smallness of the additional contribution is
due to entropy dilution. We study a few benchmark points in the constrained
E6SSM with massless inert singlinos to illustrate this new scenario.Comment: 24 pages, revised for publication in JHE
Computer Components and Systems
Contains reports on two research projects.U. S. Navy Bureau of Ships under Contract NObsr 7760
Realistic Standard Model Fermion Mass Relations in Generalized Minimal Supergravity (GmSUGRA)
Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) usually predict wrong Standard Model (SM)
fermion mass relation m_e/m_{\mu} = m_d/m_s toward low energies. To solve this
problem, we consider the Generalized Minimal Supergravity (GmSUGRA) models,
which are GUTs with gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking and higher
dimensional operators. Introducing non-renormalizable terms in the super- and
K\"ahler potentials, we can obtain the correct SM fermion mass relations in the
SU(5) model with GUT Higgs fields in the {\bf 24} and {\bf 75} representations,
and in the SO(10) model. In the latter case the gauge symmetry is broken down
to SU(3)_C X SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R X U(1)_{B-L}, to flipped SU(5)X U(1)_X, or to
SU(3)_C X SU(2)_L X U(1)_1 X U(1)_2. Especially, for the first time we generate
the realistic SM fermion mass relation in GUTs by considering the
high-dimensional operators in the K\"ahler potential.Comment: JHEP style, 29 pages, no figure,references adde
Quasi-Newtonian dust cosmologies
Exact dynamical equations for a generic dust matter source field in a
cosmological context are formulated with respect to a non-comoving
Newtonian-like timelike reference congruence and investigated for internal
consistency. On the basis of a lapse function (the relativistic
acceleration scalar potential) which evolves along the reference congruence
according to (), we find that
consistency of the quasi-Newtonian dynamical equations is not attained at the
first derivative level. We then proceed to show that a self-consistent set can
be obtained by linearising the dynamical equations about a (non-comoving) FLRW
background. In this case, on properly accounting for the first-order momentum
density relating to the non-relativistic peculiar motion of the matter,
additional source terms arise in the evolution and constraint equations
describing small-amplitude energy density fluctuations that do not appear in
similar gravitational instability scenarios in the standard literature.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX 2.09 (10pt), to appear in Classical and Quantum
Gravity, Vol. 15 (1998
- …