11,711 research outputs found
Using Laboratory Experiments For Policy Making: An Example From The Georgia Irrigation Reduction Auction
In April 2000, the Georgia legislature passed a law requiring that the state use an unspecified "auction-like process" to pay some farmers to suspend irrigation in declared drought years. In response, we conducted a series of laboratory and field experiments to test a variety of auction procedures. This paper reports the results of these experiments, and how they were used by the policy makers who determined the auction procedures. Experimental results are compared with farmers' bidding behavior in the state-run irrigation auction conducted in March 2001. Working Paper # 2002-00
The aging of tungsten filaments and its effect on wire surface kinetics in hot-wire chemical vapor deposition
Wire-desorbed radicals present during hot-wire chemical vapor deposition growth have been measured by quadrupole mass spectrometry. New wires produce Si as the predominant radical for temperatures above 1500 K, with a minor contribution from SiH3, consistent with previous measurements; the activation energy for the SiH3 signal suggests its formation is catalyzed. Aged wires also produce Si as the predominant radical (above 2100 K), but show profoundly different radical desorption kinetics. In particular, the Si signal exhibits a high temperature activation energy consistent with evaporation from liquid silicon. The relative abundance of the other SiHx species suggests that heterogeneous pyrolysis of SiH4 on the wire may be occurring to some extent. Chemical analysis of aged wires by Auger electron spectroscopy suggests that the aging process is related to the formation of a silicide at the surface, with silicon surface concentrations as high as 15 at. %. A limited amount (2 at. %) of silicon is observed in the interior as well, suggesting that diffusion into the wire occurs. Calculation of the relative rates for the various wire kinetic processes, coupled with experimental observations, reveals that silicon diffusion through the silicide is the slowest process, followed by Si evaporation, with SiH4 decomposition being the fastest
Quantum-limited mass flow of liquid He
We consider theoretically the possibility of observing unusual quantum fluid
behavior in liquid He and solutions of He in He systems
confined to nano-channels. In the case of pure ballistic flow at very low
temperature conductance will be quantized in units of . We show that
these steps should be sensitive to increases in temperature. We also use of a
random scattering matrix simulation to study flow with diffusive wall
scattering. Universal conductance fluctuations analogous to those seen in
electron systems should then be observable. Finally we consider the possibility
of the cross-over to a one-dimensional system at sufficiently low temperature
where the system could form a Luttinger liquid
A Geometrical Method of Decoupling
The computation of tunes and matched beam distributions are essential steps
in the analysis of circular accelerators. If certain symmetries - like midplane
symmetrie - are present, then it is possible to treat the betatron motion in
the horizontal, the vertical plane and (under certain circumstances) the
longitudinal motion separately using the well-known Courant-Snyder theory, or
to apply transformations that have been described previously as for instance
the method of Teng and Edwards. In a preceeding paper it has been shown that
this method requires a modification for the treatment of isochronous cyclotrons
with non-negligible space charge forces. Unfortunately the modification was
numerically not as stable as desired and it was still unclear, if the extension
would work for all thinkable cases. Hence a systematic derivation of a more
general treatment seemed advisable.
In a second paper the author suggested the use of real Dirac matrices as
basic tools to coupled linear optics and gave a straightforward recipe to
decouple positive definite Hamiltonians with imaginary eigenvalues. In this
article this method is generalized and simplified in order to formulate a
straightforward method to decouple Hamiltonian matrices with eigenvalues on the
real and the imaginary axis. It is shown that this algebraic decoupling is
closely related to a geometric "decoupling" by the orthogonalization of the
vectors , and , that were introduced with the
so-called "electromechanical equivalence". We present a structure-preserving
block-diagonalization of symplectic or Hamiltonian matrices, respectively. When
used iteratively, the decoupling algorithm can also be applied to n-dimensional
systems and requires iterations to converge to a given
precision.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur
Concurrent Gaming Disorder/Internet Gaming Disorder and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Dependency in Emerging Adults [pre-print]
A growing proportion of young adults report regularly playing video games and using electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). Although video gaming is often normative and adaptive, excessive gaming is associated with adverse health outcomes and dependency, as seen in gaming disorder/internet gaming disorder (GD/IGD). Possible additive detrimental effects of ENDS use on the physical outcomes of GD/IGD lend particular concern to these concurrent behaviors. The present study explored group differences in concurrent ENDS and GD/IGD dependency by demographic factors, including age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, racial identity, relationship status, and year in school. The interaction effect of symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the association between ENDS dependency and GD/IGD was also examined. Lastly, group differences in ADHD symptoms for individuals who endorse (1) neither GD/IGD nor ENDS dependency, (2) either GD/IGD or ENDS dependency, or (3) both GD/IGD and ENDS dependency were explored. Data were collected in a large, multi-university sample of college students (N = 1,054). Higher symptoms of GD/IGD were positively associated with greater symptoms of ENDS dependency. Men and individuals with significant symptoms of ADHD were at an increased risk of concurrent GD/IGD and ENDS dependency. These results may be used to identify demographic and psychological associations linked to these comorbidities, ultimately informing future prevention strategies
Spectral representation of the effective dielectric constant of graded composites
We generalize the Bergman-Milton spectral representation, originally derived
for a two-component composite, to extract the spectral density function for the
effective dielectric constant of a graded composite. This work has been
motivated by a recent study of the optical absorption spectrum of a graded
metallic film [Applied Physics Letters, 85, 94 (2004)] in which a broad
surface-plasmon absorption band has been shown to be responsible for enhanced
nonlinear optical response as well as an attractive figure of merit. It turns
out that, unlike in the case of homogeneous constituent components, the
characteristic function of a graded composite is a continuous function because
of the continuous variation of the dielectric function within the constituent
components. Analytic generalization to three dimensional graded composites is
discussed, and numerical calculations of multilayered composites are given as a
simple application.Comment: Physical Review E, submitted for publication
Discrepancy between experimental and theoretical -decay rates resolved from first principles
-decay, a process that changes a neutron into a proton (and vice
versa), is the dominant decay mode of atomic nuclei. This decay offers a unique
window to physics beyond the standard model, and is at the heart of
microphysical processes in stellar explosions and the synthesis of the elements
in the Universe. For 50 years, a central puzzle has been that observed
-decay rates are systematically smaller than theoretical predictions.
This was attributed to an apparent quenching of the fundamental coupling
constant 1.27 in the nucleus by a factor of about 0.75 compared
to the -decay of a free neutron. The origin of this quenching is
controversial and has so far eluded a first-principles theoretical
understanding. Here we address this puzzle and show that this quenching arises
to a large extent from the coupling of the weak force to two nucleons as well
as from strong correlations in the nucleus. We present state-of-the-art
computations of -decays from light to heavy nuclei. Our results are
consistent with experimental data, including the pioneering measurement for
Sn. These theoretical advances are enabled by systematic effective
field theories of the strong and weak interactions combined with powerful
quantum many-body techniques. This work paves the way for systematic
theoretical predictions for fundamental physics problems. These include the
synthesis of heavy elements in neutron star mergers and the search for
neutrino-less double--decay, where an analogous quenching puzzle is a
major source of uncertainty in extracting the neutrino mass scale.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figure
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