17 research outputs found
Hyperfine Suppression of Transitions in He
Two anomalously weak transitions within the
manifolds in He have been identified. Their transition strengths are
measured to be 1,000 times weaker than that of the strongest transition in the
same group. This dramatic suppression of transition strengths is due to the
dominance of the hyperfine interaction over the fine structure interaction. An
alternative selection rule based on \textit{IS}-coupling (where the nuclear
spin is first coupled to the total electron spin) is proposed. This provides
qualitative understanding of the transition strengths. It is shown that the
small deviations from the \textit{IS}-coupling model are fully accounted for by
an exact diagonalization of the strongly interacting states.Comment: 4 Pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in PR
Nuclear charge radius of He
The root-mean-square (rms) nuclear charge radius of ^8He, the most
neutron-rich of all particle-stable nuclei, has been determined for the first
time to be 1.93(3) fm. In addition, the rms charge radius of ^6He was measured
to be 2.068(11) fm, in excellent agreement with a previous result. The
significant reduction in charge radius from ^6He to ^8He is an indication of
the change in the correlations of the excess neutrons and is consistent with
the ^8He neutron halo structure. The experiment was based on laser spectroscopy
of individual helium atoms cooled and confined in a magneto-optical trap.
Charge radii were extracted from the measured isotope shifts with the help of
precision atomic theory calculations
Neutrinos
229 pages229 pages229 pagesThe Proceedings of the 2011 workshop on Fundamental Physics at the Intensity Frontier. Science opportunities at the intensity frontier are identified and described in the areas of heavy quarks, charged leptons, neutrinos, proton decay, new light weakly-coupled particles, and nucleons, nuclei, and atoms
The environmental impacts of palm oil in context
Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires balancing demands on land between agriculture (SDG 2) and biodiversity (SDG 15). The production of vegetable oils, and in particular palm oil, illustrates these competing demands and trade-offs. Palm oil accounts for 40% of the current global annual demand for vegetable oil as food, animal feed, and fuel (210 million tons (Mt)), but planted oil palm covers less than 5-5.5% of total global oil crop area (ca. 425 Mha), due to oil palm’s relatively high yields5. Recent oil palm expansion in forested regions of Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, where >90% of global palm oil is produced, has led to substantial concern around oil palm’s role in deforestation. Oil palm expansion’s direct contribution to regional tropical deforestation varies widely, ranging from 3% in West Africa to 47% in Malaysia. Oil palm is also implicated in peatland draining and burning in Southeast Asia. Documented negative environmental impacts from such expansion include biodiversity declines, greenhouse gas emissions, and air pollution. However, oil palm generally produces more oil per area than other oil crops, is often economically viable in sites unsuitable for most other crops, and generates considerable wealth for at least some actors. Global demand for vegetable oils is projected to increase by 46% by 20509. Meeting this demand through additional expansion of oil palm versus other vegetable oil crops will lead to substantial differential effects on biodiversity, food security, climate change, land degradation, and livelihoods. Our review highlights that, although substantial gaps remain in our understanding of the relationship between the environmental, socio-cultural and economic impacts of oil palm, and the scope, stringency and effectiveness of initiatives to address these, there has been little research into the impacts and trade-offs of other vegetable oil crops.
65 Greater research attention needs to be given to investigating the impacts of palm oil production
66 compared to alternatives for the trade-offs to be assessed at a global scale
Analysis method for detecting topological defect dark matter with a global magnetometer network
© 2020The Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches (GNOME) is a network of time-synchronized, geographically separated, optically pumped atomic magnetometers that is being used to search for correlated transient signals heralding exotic physics. GNOME is sensitive to exotic couplings of atomic spins to certain classes of dark matter candidates, such as axions. This work presents a data analysis procedure to search for axion dark matter in the form of topological defects: specifically, walls separating domains of discrete degenerate vacua in the axion field. An axion domain wall crossing the Earth creates a distinctive signal pattern in the network that can be distinguished from random noise. The reliability of the analysis procedure and the sensitivity of the GNOME to domain-wall crossings are studied using simulated data11sciescopu