Social cost considerations and legal constraints in implementing modular integrated utility systems

Social costs associated with the design, demonstration, and implementation of the Modular Integrated Utility System are considered including the social climate of communities, leadership patterns, conflicts and cleavages, specific developmental values, MIUS utility goal assessment, and the suitability of certian alternative options for use in a program of implementation. General considerations are discussed in the field of socio-technological planning. These include guidelines for understanding the conflict and diversity; some relevant goal choices and ideas useful to planners of the MIUS facility

Ion engine thrust vector study, phase 2 Quarterly report

Performance prediction for expected thrust misalignment in electron bombardment ion thruste

On closed rotating worlds

A new solution for the stationary closed world with rigid rotation is obtained for the spinning fluid source. It is found that the spin and vorticity are locally balanced. This model qualitatively shows that the local rotation of the cosmological matter can be indeed related to the global cosmic vorticity, provided the total angular momentum of the closed world is vanishing.Comment: 10 pages, Revtex, to appear in Phys. Rev. D6

Ion engine thrust vector study

Probability of thrust vector misalignment in ion thrustor arra

Trimaximal neutrino mixing from vacuum alignment in A4 and S4 models

Recent T2K results indicate a sizeable reactor angle theta_13 which would rule out exact tri-bimaximal lepton mixing. We study the vacuum alignment of the Altarelli-Feruglio A4 family symmetry model including additional flavons in the 1' and 1" representations and show that it leads to trimaximal mixing in which the second column of the lepton mixing matrix consists of the column vector (1,1,1)^T/sqrt{3}, with a potentially large reactor angle. In order to limit the reactor angle and control the higher order corrections, we propose a renormalisable S4 model in which the 1' and 1" flavons of A4 are unified into a doublet of S4 which is spontaneously broken to A4 by a flavon which enters the neutrino sector at higher order. We study the vacuum alignment in the S4 model and show that it predicts accurate trimaximal mixing with approximate tri-bimaximal mixing, leading to a new mixing sum rule testable in future neutrino experiments. Both A4 and S4 models preserve form dominance and hence predict zero leptogenesis, up to renormalisation group corrections.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, version to be published in JHE

Brownian dynamics around the core of self-gravitating systems

We derive the non-Maxwellian distribution of self-gravitating $N$-body systems around the core by a model based on the random process with the additive and the multiplicative noise. The number density can be obtained through the steady state solution of the Fokker-Planck equation corresponding to the random process. We exhibit that the number density becomes equal to that of the King model around the core by adjusting the friction coefficient and the intensity of the multiplicative noise. We also show that our model can be applied in the system which has a heavier particle. Moreover, we confirm the validity of our model by comparing with our numerical simulation.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Fishing for evidence of impact

In this article Gill Rowland, Hazel King, Penny Webb, Alison Cogger and Karen Vincent use seafaring imagery to portray a research project focussed on enriching mentoring within a school university initial teaching training partnership. They report on the professional development benefits gained from use of their framework for both school based mentors and university-based mentors

Measurement of Plane Stress States using Electromagnetic-Acoustic Transducers

Assessment of structural safety requires knowledge of the shape of any defect and the stresses acting on it. Ultrasonics can be used to measure applied stress since there is a (small) change in velocity with stress. However the problem becomes more difficult when measuring residual stress. Here the influence of other factors such as variation in microstructure must be accounted for. For example, one method is to measure the percent difference in velocity of orthogonally polarized shear waves (the acoustic birefringence B). When the material symmetry and stress axes coincide [1], B=Bo+CaD where Be is the birefringence in the unstressed state, Ca is the acoustoelastic constant and D is the difference of principal stresses. The usual procedure is to measure B at a “reference” location where stresses are known, and assume homogeneity of microstructure

Mass-Radius Relationships for Solid Exoplanets

We use new interior models of cold planets to investigate the mass-radius relationships of solid exoplanets, considering planets made primarily of iron, silicates, water, and carbon compounds. We find that the mass-radius relationships for cold terrestrial-mass planets of all compositions we considered follow a generic functional form that is not a simple power law: $\log_{10} R_s = k_1 + 1/3 \log_{10}(M_s) - k_2 M_s^{k_3}$ for up to $M_p \approx 20 M_{\oplus}$, where $M_s$ and $R_s$ are scaled mass and radius values. This functional form arises because the common building blocks of solid planets all have equations of state that are well approximated by a modified polytrope of the form $\rho = \rho_0 + c P^n$. We find that highly detailed planet interior models, including temperature structure and phase changes, are not necessary to derive solid exoplanet bulk composition from mass and radius measurements. For solid exoplanets with no substantial atmosphere we have also found that: with 5% fractional uncertainty in planet mass and radius it is possible to distinguish among planets composed predominantly of iron or silicates or water ice but not more detailed compositions; with $\sim$~5% uncertainty water ice planets with $\gtrsim 25$ water by mass may be identified; the minimum plausible planet size for a given mass is that of a pure iron planet; and carbon planet mass-radius relationships overlap with those of silicate and water planets due to similar zero-pressure densities and equations of state. We propose a definition of "super Earths'' based on the clear distinction in radii between planets with significant gas envelopes and those without.Comment: ApJ, in press, 33 pages including 16 figure