Comment on "Giant absorption cross section of ultracold neutrons in Gadolinium"

Rauch et al (PRL 83, 4955, 1999) have compared their measurements of the Gd cross section for Ultra-cold neutrons with an exptrapolation of the cross section for thermal neutrons and interpreted the discrepancy in terms of coherence properties of the neutron. We show the extrapolation used is based on a misunderstanding and that coherence properties play no role in absorption.Comment: 2 pages, 1 postscript figure, comment on Rauch et al, PRL 83,4955 (1999

Matter wave pulses characteristics

We study the properties of quantum single-particle wave pulses created by sharp-edged or apodized shutters with single or periodic openings. In particular, we examine the visibility of diffraction fringes depending on evolution time and temperature; the purity of the state depending on the opening-time window; the accuracy of a simplified description which uses ``source'' boundary conditions instead of solving an initial value problem; and the effects of apodization on the energy width.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

The FLASHForward Facility at DESY

The FLASHForward project at DESY is a pioneering plasma-wakefield acceleration experiment that aims to produce, in a few centimetres of ionised hydrogen, beams with energy of order GeV that are of quality sufficient to be used in a free-electron laser. The plasma wave will be driven by high-current density electron beams from the FLASH linear accelerator and will explore both external and internal witness-beam injection techniques. The plasma is created by ionising a gas in a gas cell with a multi-TW laser system, which can also be used to provide optical diagnostics of the plasma and electron beams due to the <30 fs synchronisation between the laser and the driving electron beam. The operation parameters of the experiment are discussed, as well as the scientific program.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figure

Electromagnetic energy penetration in the self-induced transparency regime of relativistic laser-plasma interactions

Two scenarios for the penetration of relativistically intense laser radiation into an overdense plasma, accessible by self-induced transparency, are presented. For supercritical densities less than 1.5 times the critical one, penetration of laser energy occurs by soliton-like structures moving into the plasma. At higher background densities laser light penetrates over a finite length only, that increases with the incident intensity. In this regime plasma-field structures represent alternating electron layers separated by about half a wavelength by depleted regions.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication to PR

Ability of herpes simplex virus vectors to boost immune responses to DNA vectors and to protect against challenge by simian immunodeficiency virus

AbstractThe immunogenicity and protective capacity of replication-defective herpes simplex virus (HSV) vector-based vaccines were examined in rhesus macaques. Three macaques were inoculated with recombinant HSV vectors expressing Gag, Env, and a Tat-Rev-Nef fusion protein of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Three other macaques were primed with recombinant DNA vectors expressing Gag, Env, and a Pol-Tat-Nef-Vif fusion protein prior to boosting with the HSV vectors. Robust anti-Gag and anti-Env cellular responses were detected in all six macaques. Following intravenous challenge with wild-type, cloned SIV239, peak and 12-week plasma viremia levels were significantly lower in vaccinated compared to control macaques. Plasma SIV RNA in vaccinated macaques was inversely correlated with anti-Rev ELISPOT responses on the day of challenge (P value<0.05), anti-Tat ELISPOT responses at 2 weeks post challenge (P value <0.05) and peak neutralizing antibody titers pre-challenge (P value 0.06). These findings support continued study of recombinant herpesviruses as a vaccine approach for AIDS

RF-BASED SYNCHRONIZATION OF THE SEED AND PUMP-PROBE LASERS TO THE OPTICAL SYNCHRONIZATION SYSTEM AT FLASH

Abstract At FLASH, UV and soft X-ray pulses with durations in the order of 10 fs are generated. To fully exploit the opportunities provided by these short laser pulses, an optical synchronization system to synchronize external lasers and stabilize the electron bunch arrival time is being constructed. A seeded free-electron laser (FEL) section, called sFLASH, is installed upstream of the existing SASE undulators. After higher-harmonic generation, the femtosecond seed laser pulse needs to be temporally and spatially overlapped with the electron bunch. Furthermore, for time-resolved pump-probe experiments, using an experimental laser and the FEL pulse, the synchronization between pump and probe laser pulses is crucial. While the best performance for synchronizing these lasers within 10 fs will be achieved by using an optical cross-correlator, in this paper we present a precursor that relies on an RF-based locking mechanism. The setup includes a coarse and a fine phase measurement between the laser pulses of the reference and the synchronized system after their conversion to an RF signal

DEVELOPMENT OF AN ALTERNATIVE, PHOTODIODE-BASED, FEMTOSECOND STABLE DETECTION PRINCIPLE FOR THE LINK STABILIZATION IN THE OPTICAL SYNCHRONIZATION SYSTEMS AT FLASH AND XFEL

Abstract The fs-stable timing information in the optical synchronization system at FLASH and the upcoming European XFEL is based on the distribution of laser pulses in optical bers. The optical length of the bers is continuously monitored and drifts in signal propagation time are actively compensated in order to provide a phase stable pulse train at the end of the ber link. At present, optical cross-correlation is used to measure the optical length changes. To overcome some of the disadvantages of the current scheme, a different approach for the detection of the optical ber link length variation was developed. This new scheme uses 10 GHz photodiodes to measure the amplitude modulation of harmonics created by overlapping two pulse trains. The long-term stability of the prototype of this detector over 33 h was demonstrated to be below 5 fs (peakto-peak) with a rms jitter of about 0.86 fs. The detection principle itself is practically insensitive to environmental in uences and needs only about 10 % of the optical power, compared to the optical cross-correlator