467 research outputs found
A review of landscape rehabilitation frameworks in ecosystem engineering for mine closure
Mining causes changes to the environment and rehabilitation is necessary at mine closure. There is a lack of appropriate frameworks for mine site rehabilitation. In most cases, restoring the mine to previous conditions
is challenging. Alternatively, mining companies can engineer ecosystems to suit new site conditions and aim for a self-sustaining and resilient ecosystem. In ecosystem design there should be consideration of the four key dimensions of any ecosystem; landscape, function, structure and composition (LFSC). Alcoa’s Bauxite mines and Barrick (Cowal) Limited’s Gold Mine have considered LFSC in their rehabilitation practices. From this, a framework based on LFSC is proposed as a means of planning, undertaking and monitoring
mine rehabilitation, which together aim for a self-sustaining and resilient ecosystem. Elements of this framework are being utilised in the industry, and are supported by research. The framework could be used
as an industry standard, utilised by regulatory bodies and potentially used in conjunction with other models and in other rehabilitation environments
An Absolute Measurement of Neutron Flux Using Calorimetry
This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478
Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime by Counting Trapped Protons
This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478
Study of the dependence of 198Au half-life on source geometry
We report the results of an experiment to determine whether the half-life of
\Au{198} depends on the shape of the source. This study was motivated by recent
suggestions that nuclear decay rates may be affected by solar activity, perhaps
arising from solar neutrinos. If this were the case then the -decay
rates, or half-lives, of a thin foil sample and a spherical sample of gold of
the same mass and activity could be different. We find for \Au{198},
, where
is the mean half-life. The maximum neutrino flux at the sample in our
experiments was several times greater than the flux of solar neutrinos at the
surface of the Earth. We show that this increase in flux leads to a significant
improvement in the limits that can be inferred on a possible solar contribution
to nuclear decays.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime by Counting Trapped Protons
This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478
Precision Measurement of PArity Violation in Polarized Cold Neutron Capture on the Proton: the NPDGamma Experiment
The NPDGamma experiment at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is
dedicated to measure with high precision the parity violating asymmetry in the
emission after capture of spin polarized cold neutrons in
para-hydrogen. The measurement will determine unambiguously the weak
pion-nucleon-nucleon () coupling constant {\it f}Comment: Proceedings of the PANIC'05 Conference, Santa Fe, NM, USA, October
24-28, 2005, 3 pages, 2 figure
Nab: Measurement Principles, Apparatus and Uncertainties
The Nab collaboration will perform a precise measurement of 'a', the
electron-neutrino correlation parameter, and 'b', the Fierz interference term
in neutron beta decay, in the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the SNS,
using a novel electric/magnetic field spectrometer and detector design. The
experiment is aiming at the 10^{-3} accuracy level in (Delta a)/a, and will
provide an independent measurement of lambda = G_A/G_V, the ratio of
axial-vector to vector coupling constants of the nucleon. Nab also plans to
perform the first ever measurement of 'b' in neutron decay, which will provide
an independent limit on the tensor weak coupling.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, talk presented at the International
Workshop on Particle Physics with Slow Neutrons, Grenoble, 29-31 May 2008; to
appear in Nucl. Instrum. Meth. in Physics Research
Toric G_2 and Spin(7) holonomy spaces from gravitational instantons and other examples
Non-compact G_2 holonomy metrics that arise from a T^2 bundle over a
hyper-Kahler space are discussed. These are one parameter deformations of the
metrics studied by Gibbons, Lu, Pope and Stelle in hep-th/0108191.
Seven-dimensional spaces with G_2 holonomy fibered over the Taub-Nut and the
Eguchi-Hanson gravitational instantons are found, together with other examples.
By considering the Apostolov-Salamon theorem math.DG/0303197, we construct a
new example that, still being a T^2 bundle over hyper-Kahler, represents a non
trivial two parameter deformation of the metrics studied in hep-th/0108191. We
then review the Spin(7) metrics arising from a T^3 bundle over a hyper-Kahler
and we find two parameter deformation of such spaces as well. We show that if
the hyper-Kahler base satisfies certain properties, a non trivial three
parameter deformations is also possible. The relation between these spaces with
the half-flat structures and almost G_2 holonomy spaces is briefly discussed.Comment: 27 pages. Typos corrected. Accepted for publication in
Commun.Math.Phy
Universal Correlations in Pion-less EFT with the Resonating Group Model: Three and Four Nucleons
The Effective Field Theory "without pions" at next-to-leading order is used
to analyze universal bound state and scattering properties of the 3- and
4-nucleon system. Results of a variety of phase shift equivalent nuclear
potentials are presented for bound state properties of 3H and 4He, and for the
singlet S-wave 3He-neutron scattering length a_0(3He-n). The calculations are
performed with the Refined Resonating Group Method and include a full treatment
of the Coulomb interaction and the leading-order 3-nucleon interaction. The
results compare favorably with data and values from AV18(+UIX) model
calculations. A new correlation between a_0(3He-n) and the 3H binding energy is
found. Furthermore, we confirm at next-to-leading order the correlations,
already found at leading-order, between the 3H binding energy and the 3H charge
radius, and the Tjon line. With the 3H binding energy as input, we get
predictions of the Effective Field Theory "without pions" at next-to-leading
order for the root mean square charge radius of 3H of (1.6\pm 0.2) fm, for the
4He binding energy of (28\pm 2.5) MeV, and for Re(a_0(3He-n)) of (7.5\pm
0.6)fm. Including the Coulomb interaction, the splitting in binding energy
between 3H and 3He is found to be (0.66\pm 0.03) MeV. The discrepancy to data
of (0.10\mp 0.03) MeV is model independently attributed to higher order charge
independence breaking interactions. We also demonstrate that different results
for the same observable stem from higher order effects, and carefully assess
that numerical uncertainties are negligible. Our results demonstrate the
convergence and usefulness of the pion-less theory at next-to-leading order in
the 4He channel. We conclude that no 4-nucleon interaction is needed to
renormalize the theory at next-to-leading order in the 4-nucleon sector.Comment: 24 pages revtex4, including 8 figures as .eps files embedded with
includegraphicx, leading-order results added, calculations include the LO
three-nucleon interaction explicitly, comment on Wigner bound added, minor
modification
Polarized interacting exciton gas in quantum wells and bulk semiconductors
We develop a theory to calculate exciton binding energies of both two- and
three-dimensional spin polarized exciton gases within a mean field approach.
Our method allows the analysis of recent experiments showing the importance of
the polarization and intensity of the excitation light on the exciton
luminescence of GaAs quantum wells. We study the breaking of the spin
degeneracy observed at high exciton density . Energy
level splitting betwen spin +1 and spin -1 is shown to be due to many-body
inter-excitonic exchange while the spin relaxation time is controlled by
intra-exciton exchange.Comment: Revtex, 4 figures sent by fax upon request by e-mai
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