Initial bound state studies in light-front QCD

We present the first numerical QCD bound state calculation based on a renormalization group-improved light-front Hamiltonian formalism. The QCD Hamiltonian is determined to second order in the coupling, and it includes two-body confining interactions. We make a momentum expansion, obtaining an equal-time-like Schrodinger equation. This is solved for quark-antiquark constituent states, and we obtain a set of self-consistent parameters by fitting B meson spectra.Comment: 38 pages, latex, 5 latex figures include

Systematic Renormalization in Hamiltonian Light-Front Field Theory

We develop a systematic method for computing a renormalized light-front field theory Hamiltonian that can lead to bound states that rapidly converge in an expansion in free-particle Fock-space sectors. To accomplish this without dropping any Fock sectors from the theory, and to regulate the Hamiltonian, we suppress the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian between free-particle Fock-space states that differ in free mass by more than a cutoff. The cutoff violates a number of physical principles of the theory, and thus the Hamiltonian is not just the canonical Hamiltonian with masses and couplings redefined by renormalization. Instead, the Hamiltonian must be allowed to contain all operators that are consistent with the unviolated physical principles of the theory. We show that if we require the Hamiltonian to produce cutoff-independent physical quantities and we require it to respect the unviolated physical principles of the theory, then its matrix elements are uniquely determined in terms of the fundamental parameters of the theory. This method is designed to be applied to QCD, but for simplicity, we illustrate our method by computing and analyzing second- and third-order matrix elements of the Hamiltonian in massless phi-cubed theory in six dimensions.Comment: 47 pages, 6 figures; improved referencing, minor presentation change

An Improved Technique for Measurement of Cold HI in Molecular Cloud Cores

The presence of atomic gas mixed with molecular species in a "molecular" cloud may significantly affect its chemistry, the excitation of some species, and can serve as probe of the cloud's evolution. Cold neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) in molecular clouds is revealed by its self absorption of background galactic HI 21-cm emission. The properties of this gas can be investigated quantitatively through observation of HI Narrow Self-Absorption (HINSA). In this paper, we present a new technique for measuring atomic gas physical parameters from HINSA observations that utilizes molecular tracers to guide the HINSA extraction. This technique offers a significant improvement in the precision with which HI column densities can be determined over previous methods, and it opens several new avenues of study of relevance to the field of star formation.Comment: Accepted for Astrophycal Journal 8/200

Glueballs in a Hamiltonian Light-Front Approach to Pure-Glue QCD

We calculate a renormalized Hamiltonian for pure-glue QCD and diagonalize it. The renormalization procedure is designed to produce a Hamiltonian that will yield physical states that rapidly converge in an expansion in free-particle Fock-space sectors. To make this possible, we use light-front field theory to isolate vacuum effects, and we place a smooth cutoff on the Hamiltonian to force its free-state matrix elements to quickly decrease as the difference of the free masses of the states increases. The cutoff violates a number of physical principles of light-front pure-glue QCD, including Lorentz covariance and gauge covariance. This means that the operators in the Hamiltonian are not required to respect these physical principles. However, by requiring the Hamiltonian to produce cutoff-independent physical quantities and by requiring it to respect the unviolated physical principles of pure-glue QCD, we are able to derive recursion relations that define the Hamiltonian to all orders in perturbation theory in terms of the running coupling. We approximate all physical states as two-gluon states, and use our recursion relations to calculate to second order the part of the Hamiltonian that is required to compute the spectrum. We diagonalize the Hamiltonian using basis-function expansions for the gluons' color, spin, and momentum degrees of freedom. We examine the sensitivity of our results to the cutoff and use them to analyze the nonperturbative scale dependence of the coupling. We investigate the effect of the dynamical rotational symmetry of light-front field theory on the rotational degeneracies of the spectrum and compare the spectrum to recent lattice results. Finally, we examine our wave functions and analyze the various sources of error in our calculation.Comment: 75 pages, 17 figures, 1 tabl

Beam test results for the FiberGLAST instrument

The FiberGLAST scintillating fiber telescope is a large-area instrument concept for NASA\u27s GLAST program. The detector is designed for high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, and uses plastic scintillating fibers to combine a photon pair tracking telescope and a calorimeter into a single instrument. A small prototype detector has been tested with high energy photons at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. We report on the result of this beam test, including scintillating fiber performance, photon track reconstruction, angular resolution, and detector efficiency

Estimation of GRB detection by FiberGLAST

FiberGLAST is one of several instrument concepts being developed for possible inclusion as the primary Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) instrument. The predicted FiberGLAST effective area is more than 12,000 cm2 for energies between 30 MeV and 300 GeV, with a field of view that is essentially flat from 0°–80°. The detector will achieve a sensitivity more than 10 times that of EGRET. We present results of simulations that illustrate the sensitivity of FiberGLAST for the detection of gamma-ray bursts

Development and testing of a fiber/multianode photomultiplier system for use on FiberGLAST

A scintillating fiber detector is currently being studied for the NASA Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission. This detector utilizes modules composed of a thin converter sheet followed by an x, y plane of scintillating fibers to examine the shower of particles created by high energy gamma-rays interacting in the converter material. The detector is composed of a tracker with 90 such modular planes and a calorimeter with 36 planes. The two major component of this detector are the scintillating fibers and their associated photodetectors. Here we present current status of development and test result of both of these. The Hamamatsu R5900-00-M64 multianode photomultiplier tube (MAPMT) is the baseline readout device. A characterization of this device has been performed including noise, cross- talk, gain variation, vibration, and thermal/vacuum test. A prototype fiber/MAPMT system has been tested at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices at Louisiana State University with a photon beam and preliminary results are presented

TOI-150: A transiting hot Jupiter in the TESS southern CVZ

We report the detection of a hot Jupiter ($M_{p}=1.75_{-0.17}^{+0.14}\ M_{J}$,$R_{p}=1.38\pm0.04\ R_{J}$) orbiting a middle-aged star ($\log g=4.152^{+0.030}_{-0.043}$) in the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) southern continuous viewing zone ($\beta=-79.59^{\circ}$). We confirm the planetary nature of the candidate TOI-150.01 using radial velocity observations from the APOGEE-2 South spectrograph and the Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph, ground-based photometric observations from the robotic Three-hundred MilliMeter Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, and Gaia distance estimates. Large-scale spectroscopic surveys, such as APOGEE/APOGEE-2, now have sufficient radial velocity precision to directly confirm the signature of giant exoplanets, making such data sets valuable tools in the TESS era. Continual monitoring of TOI-150 by TESS can reveal additional planets and subsequent observations can provide insights into planetary system architectures involving a hot Jupiter around a star about halfway through its main-sequence life.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted to ApJ

The Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO)

AST/RO, a 1.7 m diameter telescope for astronomy and aeronomy studies at wavelengths between 200 and 2000 microns, was installed at the South Pole during the 1994-1995 Austral summer. The telescope operates continuously through the Austral winter, and is being used primarily for spectroscopic studies of neutral atomic carbon and carbon monoxide in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. The South Pole environment is unique among observatory sites for unusually low wind speeds, low absolute humidity, and the consistent clarity of the submillimeter sky. Four heterodyne receivers, an array receiver, three acousto-optical spectrometers, and an array spectrometer are installed. A Fabry-Perot spectrometer using a bolometric array and a Terahertz receiver are in development. Telescope pointing, focus, and calibration methods as well as the unique working environment and logistical requirements of the South Pole are described.Comment: 57 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to PAS