Compton Polarimetry at a TEV Collider

An electron beam polarization of 80% or greater will be a key feature of a 1 TeV Linear Collider. Accurate measurements of the beam polarization will therefore be needed. We discuss design considerations and capabilities for a Compton-scattering polarimeter located in the extraction line from the Interaction Point. Polarization measurements with 1% accuracy taken parasitic to collision data look feasible, but detailed simulations are needed. Polarimeter design issues are similar for both electron-positron and electron-electron collider modes, though beam disruption creates more difficulties for the electron-electron mode.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Interaction of a Modulated Electron Beam with a Plasma

The results of a theoretical and experimental investigation of the high-frequency interaction of an electron beam with a plasma are reported. An electron beam, modulated at a microwave frequency, passes through a uniform region of a mercury arc discharge after which it is demodulated. Exponentially growing wave amplification along the electron beam was experimentally observed for the first time at a microwave frequency equal to the plasma frequency. Approximate theories of the effects of 1) plasma-electron collision frequencies, 2) plasma-electron thermal velocities and 3) finite beam diameter, are given. In a second experiment the interaction between a modulated electron beam and a slow electrostatic wave on a plasma column has been studied. A strong interaction occurs when the velocity of the electron beam is approximately equal to the velocity of the wave and the interaction is essentially the same as that which occurs in traveling-wave amplifiers, except that here the plasma colum replaces the usual helical slow-wave circuit. The theory predicting rates of growth is presented and compared with the experimental results

The nature of turbulence in OMC1 at the star forming scale: observations and simulations

Aim: To study turbulence in the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC1) by comparing observed and simulated characteristics of the gas motions. Method: Using a dataset of vibrationally excited H2 emission in OMC1 containing radial velocity and brightness which covers scales from 70AU to 30000AU, we present the transversal structure functions and the scaling of the structure functions with their order. These are compared with the predictions of two-dimensional projections of simulations of supersonic hydrodynamic turbulence. Results: The structure functions of OMC1 are not well represented by power laws, but show clear deviations below 2000AU. However, using the technique of extended self-similarity, power laws are recovered at scales down to 160AU. The scaling of the higher order structure functions with order deviates from the standard scaling for supersonic turbulence. This is explained as a selection effect of preferentially observing the shocked part of the gas and the scaling can be reproduced using line-of-sight integrated velocity data from subsets of supersonic turbulence simulations. These subsets select regions of strong flow convergence and high density associated with shock structure. Deviations of the structure functions in OMC1 from power laws cannot however be reproduced in simulations and remains an outstanding issue.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted A&A. Revised in response to referee. For higher resolution, see http://www.astro.phys.au.dk/~maikeng/sim_paper

Observations of spatial and velocity structure in the Orion Molecular Cloud

Observations are reported of H2 IR emission in the S(1) v=1-0 line at 2.121 microns in the Orion Molecular Cloud, OMC1, using the GriF instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. GriF is a combination of adaptive optics and Fabry-Perot interferometry, yielding a spatial resolution of 0.15" to 0.18" and a velocity discrimination as high as 1 km/s. Thanks to the high spatial and velocity resolution of the GriF data, 193 bright H2 emission regions can be identified in OMC1. The general characteristics of these features are described in terms of radial velocities, brightness and spatial displacement of maxima of velocity and brightness, the latter to yield the orientation of flows in the plane of the sky. Strong spatial correlation between velocity and bright H2 emission is found and serves to identify many features as shocks. Important results are: (i) velocities of the excited gas illustrate the presence of a zone to the south of BN-IRc2 and Peak 1, and the west of Peak 2, where there is a powerful blue-shifted outflow with an average velocity of -18 km/s. This is shown to be the NIR counterpart of an outflow identified in the radio from source I, a very young O-star. (ii) There is a band of weak velocity features (<5 km/s) in Peak 1 which may share a common origin through an explosive event, in the BN-IRc2 region, with the fast-moving fingers (or bullets) to the NW of OMC1. (iii) A proportion of the flows are likely to represent sites of low mass star formation and several regions show multiple outflows, probably indicative of multiple star formation within OMC1. The high spatial and velocity resolution of the GriF data show these and other features in more detail than has previously been possible.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figures, submitted to A&A Version 2: Several additions, including a section on protostellar candidates in OMC1, have been made based on the referee's suggestions v3: corrected typograph

Neural processing of imminent collision in humans

Detecting a looming object and its imminent collision is imperative to survival. For most humans, it is a fundamental aspect of daily activities such as driving, road crossing and participating in sport, yet little is known about how the brain both detects and responds to such stimuli. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess neural response to looming stimuli in comparison with receding stimuli and motion-controlled static stimuli. We demonstrate for the first time that, in the human, the superior colliculus and the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus respond to looming in addition to cortical regions associated with motor preparation. We also implicate the anterior insula in making timing computations for collision events

Persistent Challenges of Quantum Chromodynamics

Unlike some models whose relevance to Nature is still a big question mark, Quantum Chromodynamics will stay with us forever. Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), born in 1973, is a very rich theory supposed to describe the widest range of strong interaction phenomena: from nuclear physics to Regge behavior at large E, from color confinement to quark-gluon matter at high densities/temperatures (neutron stars); the vast horizons of the hadronic world: chiral dynamics, glueballs, exotics, light and heavy quarkonia and mixtures thereof, exclusive and inclusive phenomena, interplay between strong forces and weak interactions, etc. Efforts aimed at solving the underlying theory, QCD, continue. In a remarkable entanglement, theoretical constructions of the 1970s and 1990s combine with today's ideas based on holographic description and strong-weak coupling duality, to provide new insights and a deeper understanding.Comment: Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize Lecture at the April Meeting of APS, Dallas, TX, April 22-25, 2006; v.2: reference added; v.3: reference adde

Individual Control of Risk: Seat Belt Use, Subjective Norms and the Theory of Reasoned Action

When faced with a risk for which an inexpensive solution is available, individuals often choose the risk rather than the solution. Protection from certain kinds of risks, e.g., using seat belts or condoms or insulating against radon, is largely under personal control, but individuals often choose not to comply with behaviors which would reduce the risk. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has been used to predict when individuals will comply. The authors attempted to validate aspects of the TRA by the use of scenarios. Factor analysis of their data supports the theory that intention is a major determinate of behavior but fails to establish the influence of scenarios on subjects\u27 intention to wear seat belts

Phenomenology of the Flavor-Asymmetry in the Light-Quark Sea of the Nucleon

A phenomenological ansatz for the flavor-asymmetry of the light sea distributions of the nucleon, based on the Pauli exclusion principle, is proposed. This ansatz is compatible with the measured flavor-asymmetry of the unpolarized sea distributions, $\bar{d}>\bar{u}$, of the nucleon. A prediction for the corresponding polarized flavor-asymmetry is presented and shown to agree with predictions of (chiral quark--soliton) models which successfully reproduced the flavor-asymmetry of the unpolarized sea.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures, uses epsfi

Polarization of Astronomical Maser Radiation. IV. Circular Polarization Profiles

Profile comparison of the Stokes parameters $V$ and $I$ is a powerful tool for maser data analysis, providing the first direct methods for unambiguous determination of (1) the maser saturation stage, (2) the amplification optical depth and intrinsic Doppler width of unsaturated masers, and (3) the comparative magnitudes of Zeeman splitting and Doppler linewidth. Circular polarization recently detected in OH 1720 MHz emission from the Galactic center appears to provide the first direct evidence for maser saturation.Comment: 14 pages, 1 Postscript figures (included), uses aaspp4.sty. To appear in Astrophysical Journa

Transition Radiation in QCD matter

In ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions a finite size QCD medium is created. In this paper we compute radiative energy loss to zeroth order in opacity by taking into account finite size effects. Transition radiation occurs on the boundary between the finite size medium and the vacuum, and we show that it lowers the difference between medium and vacuum zeroth order radiative energy loss relative to the infinite size medium case. Further, in all previous computations of light parton radiation to zeroth order in opacity, there was a divergence caused by the fact that the energy loss is infinite in the vacuum and finite in the QCD medium. We show that this infinite discontinuity is naturally regulated by including the transition radiation.Comment: 21 page, 22 figure