Evaluating the Effectiveness of Shielding Material, Vehicle Shape and Astronaut Position for Deep Space Travel

Background: As future crewed, deep space missions are being planned, it is important to assess how spacecraft design can be used to minimize radiation exposure. Collectively with shielding material, vehicle shape and astronaut position must be used to protect astronauts from the two primary sources of space radiation: Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and Solar Particle Events (SPEs). Methods: The On-Line Tool for the Assessment of Radiation in Space (OLTARIS) version 4.1 analysis package is used to evaluate and analyze this detailed radiation field. Developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration\u27s (NASA) Langley Research Center, the tool enables engineering and research related space radiation calculations. Each configuration is evaluated in whole body effective dose equivalent (ED). This research evaluates 70 aerospace materials, 2 vehicle shapes and 3 astronaut positions. Results and Conclusions: The material analyses show that for metals, aluminum outperforms and therefore is the most feasible metal for deep space travel. But when evaluating all materials, polyethylene outperforms all feasible aerospace materials. The vehicle shape and astronaut position analyses show that moving a human phantom closer to a wall does significantly decrease the ED. This pattern is not dependent on material nor boundary condition, but the mean shielding thickness a source ray must travel through for the GCR boundary condition. For shielding thicknesses greater than 30 g/cm 2 for polyethylene and 100g/cm 2 for aluminum, the results suggest that having astronauts’ habitats and work areas located further from the center will help protect astronauts longer from deep space radiation.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1067/thumbnail.jp

Effects of Surface Roughness on the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 over Cu

We have investigated the role of surface roughening on the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) over Cu. The activity and product selectivity of Cu surfaces roughened by plasma pretreatment in Ar, O2, or N2 were compared with that of electrochemically polished Cu samples. Differences in total and product current densities, the ratio of current densities for HER (the hydrogen evolution reaction) to CO2RR, and the ratio of current densities for C2+ to C1 products depend on the electrochemically active surface and are nearly independent of plasma composition. Theoretical analysis of an electropolished and roughened Cu surface reveals a higher fraction of undercoordinated Cu sites on the roughened surface, sites that bind CO preferentially. Roughened surfaces also contain square sites similar to those on a Cu(100) surface but with neighboring step sites, which adsorb OC-COH, a precursor to C2+ products. These findings explain the increases in the formation of oxygenates and hydrocarbons relative to CO and the ratio of oxygenates to hydrocarbons observed with increasing surface roughness

A primary electron beam facility at CERN

This paper describes the concept of a primary electron beam facility at CERN, to be used for dark gauge force and light dark matter searches. The electron beam is produced in three stages: A Linac accelerates electrons from a photo-cathode up to 3.5 GeV. This beam is injected into the Super Proton Synchrotron, SPS, and accelerated up to a maximum energy of 16 GeV. Finally, the accelerated beam is slowly extracted to an experiment, possibly followed by a fast dump of the remaining electrons to another beamline. The beam parameters are optimized using the requirements of the Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX) as benchmark.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Modifications to the SPS LSS6 Septa for LHC and the SPS Septa Diluters

The Large Hadron Collider required the modification of the existing extraction channel in the long straight section (LSS) 6 of the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), including the suppression of the electrostatic wire septa. The newly set up fast extraction will be used to transfer protons at 450 GeV/c as well as ions via the 2.9 km long transfer line TI 2 to Ring 1 of the LHC. The girder of the existing SPS DC septa was modified to accommodate a new septum protection element. Changes were also applied to the septum diluter in the fast extraction channel in LSS4, leading to the other LHC ring and the CNGS facility. The requirements and the layout of the new LSS6 extraction channel will be described including a discussion of the design and performance of the installed septum diluters

Predicting Solid-State Heats of Formation of Newly Synthesized Polynitrogen Materials by Using Quantum Mechanical Calculations

We present density functional theory level predictions and analysis of the basic properties of newly synthesized high-nitrogen compounds together with 3,6-bis(2H-tetrazol-5-yl)-1,2,4,5-tetrazine (BTT) and 3,3′-azobis(6-amino-1,2,4,5-tetrazine) (DAAT), for which experimental data are available. The newly synthesized high-nitrogen compounds are based on tricycle fused 1,2,4-triazine and 1,2,4,5-tetrazine heterocycles. In this work, the molecules BTT and DAAT have been studied in order to validate the theoretical approach and to facilitate further progress developments for the molecules of interest. Molecular structural properties are clarified, and IR spectra predictions are provided to help detection of those compounds in the experiment. The energy content of the molecules in the gas phase is evaluated by calculating standard enthalpies of formation, by using a special selection of isodesmic reaction paths. We also include estimates of the condensed-phase heats of formation and heats of sublimation in the framework of the Politzer approach. The obtained properties are consistent with those new high-nitrogen compounds being a promising set of advanced energetic materials

Schottky-barrier-free contacts with two-dimensional semiconductors by surface-engineered MXenes

Two-dimensional (2D) metal carbides and nitrides, called MXenes, have attracted great interest for applications such as energy storage. Here we demonstrate their potential as Schottky-barrier-free metal contacts to 2D semiconductors, providing a solution to the contact-resistance problem in 2D electronics. Based on first principles calculations, we find that the surface chemistry strongly affects the Fermi level of MXenes: O termination always increases the work function with respect to that of bare surface, OH always decreases it, while F exhibits either trend depending on the specific material. This phenomenon originates from the effect of surface dipoles, which together with the weak Fermi level pinning, enable Schottky-barrier-free hole (or electron) injection into 2D semiconductors through van der Waals junctions with some of the O-terminated (or all the OH-terminated) MXenes. Furthermore, we suggest synthetic routes to control the surface terminations based on the calculated formation energies. This study enhances the understanding of the correlation between surface chemistry and electronic/transport properties of 2D materials, and also gives practical predictions for improving 2D electronics

Quantum entanglement of charges in bound states with finite-size dyons

We show that the presence of finite-size monopoles can lead to a number of interesting physical processes involving quantum entanglement of charges. Taking as a model the classical solution of the N=2 SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, we study interaction between dyons and scalar particles in the adjoint and fundamental representation. We find that there are bound states of scalars and dyons, which, remarkably, are always an entangled configuration of the form |\psi > =|dyon+> |scalar-> +/- |dyon->|scalar+>. We determine the energy levels and the wave functions and also discuss their stability.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures. Minor correction in references (to appear in JHEP04 (2002) 010

Self-organised droplet flow patterns in microchannels

This paper was presented at the 2nd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2009), which was held at Brunel University, West London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IPEM, the Italian Union of Thermofluid dynamics, the Process Intensification Network, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.In this work, we have investigated the generation and behaviour of self-organised droplet flow patterns in microchannels. The water droplets, which are generated at a T-junction where the carrier is oil, move into an expanded channel and are self reorganised into various flow patterns: single-profile, double-helix-profile, triple-helix-profile, and more. We find that increasing water/oil flow rate ratio and Capillary number lead to more densely packed droplet flow patterns. The channel geometry also plays an essential role where the 300-μm-deep expansion channel can form multiple layers of droplets while only single layer of droplets can be observed in the 200-μm-deep expansion channel

Rhodium complexes bearing tetradentate diamine-bis(phenolate) ligands

Using tetradentate, dianionic ligands, several new rhodium complexes have been prepared. Some of these diamine-bis(phenolate) compounds, are active for C–H activation of benzene. These complexes are air and thermally stable. All four complexes were characterized by X-ray diffraction

Uniqueness of Flat Spherically Symmetric Spacelike Hypersurfaces Admitted by Spherically Symmetric Static Spactimes

It is known that spherically symmetric static spacetimes admit a foliation by {\deg}at hypersurfaces. Such foliations have explicitly been constructed for some spacetimes, using different approaches, but none of them have proved or even discussed the uniqueness of these foliations. The issue of uniqueness becomes more important due to suitability of {\deg}at foliations for studying black hole physics. Here {\deg}at spherically symmetric spacelike hy- persurfaces are obtained by a direct method. It is found that spherically symmetric static spacetimes admit {\deg}at spherically symmetric hypersurfaces, and that these hypersurfaces are unique up to translation under the time- like Killing vector. This result guarantees the uniqueness of {\deg}at spherically symmetric foliations for such spacetimes.Comment: 10 page