787 research outputs found
The PreAmplifier ShAper for the ALICE TPC-Detector
In this paper the PreAmplifier ShAper (PASA) for the Time Projection Chamber
(TPC) of the ALICE experiment at LHC is presented. The ALICE TPC PASA is an
ASIC that integrates 16 identical channels, each consisting of Charge Sensitive
Amplifiers (CSA) followed by a Pole-Zero network, self-adaptive bias network,
two second-order bridged-T filters, two non-inverting level shifters and a
start-up circuit. The circuit is optimized for a detector capacitance of 18-25
pF. For an input capacitance of 25 pF, the PASA features a conversion gain of
12.74 mV/fC, a peaking time of 160 ns, a FWHM of 190 ns, a power consumption of
11.65 mW/ch and an equivalent noise charge of 244e + 17e/pF. The circuit
recovers smoothly to the baseline in about 600 ns. An integral non-linearity of
0.19% with an output swing of about 2.1 V is also achieved. The total area of
the chip is 18 mm and is implemented in AMS's C35B3C1 0.35 micron CMOS
technology. Detailed characterization test were performed on about 48000 PASA
circuits before mounting them on the ALICE TPC front-end cards. After more than
two years of operation of the ALICE TPC with p-p and Pb-Pb collisions, the PASA
has demonstrated to fulfill all requirements
Statistical Mechanics of Nonuniform Magnetization Reversal
The magnetization reversal rate via thermal creation of soliton pairs in
quasi-1D ferromagnetic systems is calculated. Such a model describes e.g. the
time dependent coercivity of elongated particles as used in magnetic recording
media. The energy barrier that has to be overcome by thermal fluctuations
corresponds to a soliton-antisoliton pair whose size depends on the external
field. In contrast to other models of first order phase transitions such as the
phi^4 model, an analytical expression for this energy barrier is found for all
values of the external field. The magnetization reversal rate is calculated
using a functional Fokker-Planck description of the stochastic magnetization
dynamics. Analytical results are obtained in the limits of small fields and
fields close to the anisotropy field. In the former case the hard-axis
anisotropy becomes effectively strong and the magnetization reversal rate is
shown to reduce to the nucleation rate of soliton-antisoliton pairs in the
overdamped double sine-Gordon model. The present theory therefore includes the
nucleation rate of soliton-antisoliton pairs in the double sine-Gordon chain as
a special case. These results demonstrate that for elongated particles, the
experimentally observed coercivity is significantly lower than the value
predicted by the standard theories of N\'eel and Brown.Comment: 21 pages RevTex 3.0 (twocolumn), 6 figures available on request, to
appear in Phys Rev B, Dec (1994
Multi-Channel Inverse Scattering Problem on the Line: Thresholds and Bound States
We consider the multi-channel inverse scattering problem in one-dimension in
the presence of thresholds and bound states for a potential of finite support.
Utilizing the Levin representation, we derive the general Marchenko integral
equation for N-coupled channels and show that, unlike to the case of the radial
inverse scattering problem, the information on the bound state energies and
asymptotic normalization constants can be inferred from the reflection
coefficient matrix alone. Thus, given this matrix, the Marchenko inverse
scattering procedure can provide us with a unique multi-channel potential. The
relationship to supersymmetric partner potentials as well as possible
applications are discussed. The integral equation has been implemented
numerically and applied to several schematic examples showing the
characteristic features of multi-channel systems. A possible application of the
formalism to technological problems is briefly discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure
Thermal fluctuations in the interacting pion gas
We derive the two-particle fluctuation correlator in a thermal gas of
pi-mesons to the lowest order in an interaction due to a resonance exchange. A
diagrammatic technique is used. We discuss how this result can be applied to
event-by-event fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions, in particular, to search
for the critical point of QCD. As a practical example, we determine the shape
of the rapidity correlator.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, RevTe
The chiral phase transition in a random matrix model with molecular correlations
The chiral phase transition of QCD is analyzed in a model combining random
matrix elements of the Dirac operator with specially chosen non-random ones.
The special form of the latter is motivated by the assumption that the
fermionic quasi-zero modes associated with instanton and anti-instanton
configurations determine the chiral properties of QCD. Our results show that
the degree of correlation between these modes plays the decisive role. To
reduce the value of the chiral condensate by more than a factor of 2 about 95
percent of the instantons and anti-instantons must form so-called molecules.
This conclusion agrees with numerical results of the Stony Brook group.Comment: published version (minor changes in text and one additional
reference, one misprint in published version corrected); 12 pages including 1
figure, LaTeX with elsart.sty and psfig.st
Macrospin approximation and quantum effects in models for magnetization reversal
The thermal activation of magnetization reversal in magnetic nanoparticles is
controlled by the anisotropy-energy barrier. Using perturbation theory, exact
diagonalization and stability analysis of the ferromagnetic spin-s Heisenberg
model with coupling or single-site anisotropy, we study the effects of quantum
fluctuations on the height of the energy barrier. Opposed to the classical
case, there is no critical anisotropy strength discriminating between reversal
via coherent rotation and via nucleation/domain-wall propagation. Quantum
fluctuations are seen to lower the barrier depending on the anisotropy
strength, dimensionality and system size and shape. In the weak-anisotropy
limit, a macrospin model is shown to emerge as the effective low-energy theory
where the microscopic spins are tightly aligned due to the ferromagnetic
exchange. The calculation provides explicit expressions for the anisotropy
parameter of the effective macrospin. We find a reduction of the
anisotropy-energy barrier as compared to the classical high spin-s limit.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure
A Comparative Study of the Formation of Aromatics in Rich Methane Flames Doped by Unsaturated Compounds
For a better modeling of the importance of the different channels leading to
the first aromatic ring, we have compared the structures of laminar rich
premixed methane flames doped with several unsaturated hydrocarbons: allene and
propyne, because they are precursors of propargyl radicals which are well known
as having an important role in forming benzene, 1,3-butadiene to put in
evidence a possible production of benzene due to reactions of C4 compounds,
and, finally, cyclopentene which is a source of cyclopentadienylmethylene
radicals which in turn are expected to easily isomerizes to give benzene. These
flames have been stabilized on a burner at a pressure of 6.7 kPa (50 Torr)
using argon as dilutant, for equivalence ratios (?) from 1.55 to 1.79. A unique
mechanism, including the formation and decomposition of benzene and toluene,
has been used to model the oxidation of allene, propyne, 1,3 butadiene and
cyclopentene. The main reaction pathways of aromatics formation have been
derived from reaction rate and sensitivity analyses and have been compared for
the three types of additives. These combined analyses and comparisons can only
been performed when a unique mechanism is available for all the studied
additives
Wave nucleation rate in excitable systems in the low noise limit
Motivated by recent experiments on intracellular calcium dynamics, we study
the general issue of fluctuation-induced nucleation of waves in excitable
media. We utilize a stochastic Fitzhugh-Nagumo model for this study, a
spatially-extended non-potential pair of equations driven by thermal (i.e.
white) noise. The nucleation rate is determined by finding the most probable
escape path via minimization of an action related to the deviation of the
fields from their deterministic trajectories. Our results pave the way both for
studies of more realistic models of calcium dynamics as well as of nucleation
phenomena in other non-equilibrium pattern-forming processes
The continuum limit of quark number susceptibilities
We report the continuum limit of quark number susceptibilities in quenched
QCD. Deviations from ideal gas behaviour at temperature T increase as the
lattice spacing is decreased from T/4 to T/6, but a further decrease seems to
have very little effect. The measured susceptibilities are 20% lower than the
ideal gas values, and also 10% below the hard thermal loop (HTL) results. The
off-diagonal susceptibility is several orders of magnitude smaller than the HTL
results. We verify a strong correlation between the lowest screening mass and
the susceptibility. We also show that the quark number susceptibilities give a
reasonable account of the Wroblewski parameter, which measures the strangeness
yield in a heavy-ion collision.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Spectroscopy of resonance decays in high-energy heavy-ion collisions
Invariant mass distributions of the hadronic decay products from resonances
formed in relativistic heavy ion collision (RHIC) experiments are investigated
with a view to disentangle the effects of thermal motion and the phase space of
decay products from those of intrinsic changes in the structure of resonances
at the freeze-out conditions. Analytic results of peak mass shifts for the
cases of both equal and unequal mass decay products are derived. The shift is
expressed in terms of the peak mass and width of the vacuum or medium-modified
spectral functions and temperature. Examples of expected shifts in meson (e.g.,
rho, omega, and sigma) and baryon (e.g., Delta) resonances that are helpful to
interpret recent RHIC measurements at BNL are provided. Although significant
downward mass shifts are caused by widened widths of the meson in
medium, a downward shift of at least 50 MeV in its intrinsic mass is required
to account for the reported downward shift of 60-70 MeV in the peak of the
rho-invariant mass distribution. An observed downward shift from the vacuum
peak value of the Delta distinctively signals a significant downward shift in
its intrinsic peak mass, since unlike for the rho-meson, phase space functions
produce an upward shift for the Delta isobar.Comment: published version with slight change of title and some typos
corrected, 12 pages, 5 figure
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