Arrival time and magnitude of airborne fission products from the Fukushima, Japan, reactor incident as measured in Seattle, WA, USA

We report results of air monitoring started due to the recent natural catastrophe on 11 March 2011 in Japan and the severe ensuing damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor complex. On 17-18 March 2011, we registered the first arrival of the airborne fission products 131-I, 132-I, 132-Te, 134-Cs, and 137-Cs in Seattle, WA, USA, by identifying their characteristic gamma rays using a germanium detector. We measured the evolution of the activities over a period of 23 days at the end of which the activities had mostly fallen below our detection limit. The highest detected activity amounted to 4.4 +/- 1.3 mBq/m^3 of 131-I on 19-20 March.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, published in Journal of Environmental Radioactivit

THE INTERPLAY OF THE K+K- ATOM AND THE f_0(975) RESONANCE

We predict that production of the K+K- atom in pd-3^HeX and similar reactions exhibits a drastic missing mass spectrum due to the interplay with f_0(975) resonance. We point out that high precision studies of the K+K- atom may shed a new light on the nature of f_0(975).Comment: 13 page

Challenges of open innovation: the paradox of firm investment in open-source software

Open innovation is a powerful framework encompassing the generation, capture, and employment of intellectual property at the firm level. We identify three fundamental challenges for firms in applying the concept of open innovation: finding creative ways to exploit internal innovation, incorporating external innovation into internal development, and motivating outsiders to supply an ongoing stream of external innovations. This latter challenge involves a paradox, why would firms spend money on R&D efforts if the results of these efforts are available to rival firms? To explore these challenges, we examine the activity of firms in opensource software to support their innovation strategies. Firms involved in open-source software often make investments that will be shared with real and potential rivals. We identify four strategies firms employ – pooled R&D/product development, spinouts, selling complements and attracting donated complements – and discuss how they address the three key challenges of open innovation. We conclude with suggestions for how similar strategies may apply in other industries and offer some possible avenues for future research on open innovation

The SAMPLE Experiment and Weak Nucleon Structure

One of the key elements to understanding the structure of the nucleon is the role of its quark-antiquark sea in its ground state properties such as charge, mass, magnetism and spin. In the last decade, parity-violating electron scattering has emerged as an important tool in this area, because of its ability to isolate the contribution of strange quark-antiquark pairs to the nucleon's charge and magnetism. The SAMPLE experiment at the MIT-Bates Laboratory, which has been focused on s-sbar contributions to the proton's magnetic moment, was the first of such experiments and its program has recently been completed. In this paper we give an overview of some of the experimental aspects of parity-violating electron scattering, briefly review the theoretical predictions for strange quark form factors, summarize the SAMPLE measurements, and place them in context with the program of experiments being carried out at other electron scattering facilities such as Jefferson Laboratory and the Mainz Microtron.Comment: 61 pages, review articl

Active Galactic Nuclei at the Crossroads of Astrophysics

Over the last five decades, AGN studies have produced a number of spectacular examples of synergies and multifaceted approaches in astrophysics. The field of AGN research now spans the entire spectral range and covers more than twelve orders of magnitude in the spatial and temporal domains. The next generation of astrophysical facilities will open up new possibilities for AGN studies, especially in the areas of high-resolution and high-fidelity imaging and spectroscopy of nuclear regions in the X-ray, optical, and radio bands. These studies will address in detail a number of critical issues in AGN research such as processes in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes, physical conditions of broad-line and narrow-line regions, formation and evolution of accretion disks and relativistic outflows, and the connection between nuclear activity and galaxy evolution.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures; review contribution; "Exploring the Cosmic Frontier: Astrophysical Instruments for the 21st Century", ESO Astrophysical Symposia Serie

Transverse spin effects in hadron-pair production from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

First measurements of azimuthal asymmetries in hadron-pair production in deep-inelastic scattering of muons on transversely polarised ^6LiD (deuteron) and NH_3 (proton) targets are presented. The data were taken in the years 2002-2004 and 2007 with the COMPASS spectrometer using a muon beam of 160 GeV/c at the CERN SPS. The asymmetries provide access to the transversity distribution functions, without involving the Collins effect as in single hadron production. The sizeable asymmetries measured on the NH_ target indicate non-vanishing u-quark transversity and two-hadron interference fragmentation functions. The small asymmetries measured on the ^6LiD target can be interpreted as indication for a cancellation of u- and d-quark transversities.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, updated to the published versio

Study of the Decay phi --> eta pi0 gamma with the KLOE detector

In a sample of 5.3x10^7 phi-decays observed with the KLOE detector at the Frascati phi-factory Dafne we find 605 eta pi0 gamma events with eta --> gamma\gamma and 197 eta pi0 gamma events with eta --> pi+ pi- pi0. The decay phi --> eta pi0 gamma is dominated by the process phi --> a0 gamma. From a fit to the eta pi0 mass spectrum we find BR(phi --> ao(980) gamma)= (7.4 +- 0.7)x10^-5.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys.Lett.

Dalitz plot analysis of e+ e- --> pi0 pi0 gamma events at SQRT(s) ~ M(phi) with the KLOE detector

We have studied the Dalitz plot of the e+ e- --> pi0 pi0 gamma events collected at SQRT(s) ~ M(phi) with the KLOE detector. In the dipion invariant mass (Mpp) region below 700 MeV, the process under study is dominated by the non-resonant process e+ e- --> omega pi0 with omega --> pi0 gamma whereas, for higher Mpp values, the radiative phi decay to the f0(980) is the dominant mechanism. Different theoretical models are used to fit the Dalitz plot, taking also into account a possible contribution of the sigma(600). For each model, we extract the f0(980) mass and its coupling to pipi, KKbar and to the phi.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, submitted to European Physics Journal

A new measurement of the Collins and Sivers asymmetries on a transversely polarised deuteron target

New high precision measurements of the Collins and Sivers asymmetries of charged hadrons produced in deep-inelastic scattering of muons on a transversely polarised 6LiD target are presented. The data were taken in 2003 and 2004 with the COMPASS spectrometer using the muon beam of the CERN SPS at 160 GeV/c. Both the Collins and Sivers asymmetries turn out to be compatible with zero, within the present statistical errors, which are more than a factor of 2 smaller than those of the published COMPASS results from the 2002 data. The final results from the 2002, 2003 and 2004 runs are compared with naive expectations and with existing model calculations.Comment: 40 pages, 28 figure

Spin asymmetry A_1^d and the spin-dependent structure function g_1^d of the deuteron at low values of x and Q^2

We present a precise measurement of the deuteron longitudinal spin asymmetry A_1^d and of the deuteron spin-dependent structure function g_1^d at Q^2 < 1 GeV^2 and 4*10^-5 < x < 2.5*10^-2 based on the data collected by the COMPASS experiment at CERN during the years 2002 and 2003. The statistical precision is tenfold better than that of the previous measurement in this region. The measured A_1^d and g_1^d are found to be consistent with zero in the whole range of x.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure