Kaonic hydrogen and K^- p scattering

Chiral SU(3) effective field theory in combination with a relativistic coupled channels approach is used to perform a novel analysis of the strong interaction shift and width in kaonic hydrogen in view of the new accurate DEAR measurements. Questions of consistency with previous K^- p data are examined. Coulomb and isospin breaking effects turn out to be important and are both taken into account in this work.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Finite Element Model study of the Effect of Corner Rounding on Detectability of Corner Cracks using Bolt-Hole Eddy Current

Recent work has shown that the detectability of corner cracks in bolt-holes is compromised when rounding of corners arises, as might occur during bolt-hole removal. Probability of Detection (POD) studies normally require a large number of samples of both fatigue cracks and electric discharge machined notches. In the particular instance of rounding of bolt-hole corners, the generation of such a large set of samples representing the full spectrum of potential rounding would be prohibitive. In this paper, the application of Finite Element Method (FEM) modeling is used to supplement the study of detection of cracks forming at the rounded corners of bolt-holes. FEM models show that rounding of the corner of the bolt-hole reduces the size of the response to a corner crack to a greater extent than can be accounted for by loss of crack area. This reduced sensitivity can be ascribed to a lower concentration of eddy currents at the rounded corner surface and greater lift-off of pick-up coils relative to that of a straight-edge corner. A rounding with a radius of 0.4 mm (.016 inch) showed a 20% reduction in the strength of the crack signal. Assuming linearity of the crack signal with crack size, this would suggest an increase in the minimum detectable size by 25%. Modeling results are consistent with measurements performed on cracks grown on bolt-hole samples extracted from service

Wind measurement system

A system for remotely measuring vertical and horizontal winds present in discrete volumes of air at selected locations above the ground is described. A laser beam is optically focused in range by a telescope, and the output beam is conically scanned at an angle about a vertical axis. The backscatter, or reflected light, from the ambient particulates in a volume of air, the focal volume, is detected for shifts in wavelength, and from these, horizontal and vertical wind components are computed

Kinematics of massive star ejecta in the Milky Way as traced by 26^26Al

Context. Massive stars form in groups and their winds and supernova explosions create superbubbles up to kpc in size. The fate of their ejecta is of vital importance for the dynamics of the interstellar medium, for chemical evolution models, and the chemical enrichment of galactic halos and the intergalactic medium. However, ejecta kinematics and the characteristic scales in space and time have not been explored in great detail beyond ~10 Ka. Aims: Through measurement of radioactive 26Al with its decay time constant at ~106 years, we aim to trace the kinematics of cumulative massive-star and supernova ejecta independent of the uncertain gas parameters over million-year time scales. Our goal is to identify the mixing time scale and the spatio-kinematics of such ejecta from the pc to kpc scale in our Milky Way. Methods: We use the SPI spectrometer on the INTEGRAL observatory and its observations along the Galactic ridge to trace the detailed line shape systematics of the 1808.63 keV gamma-ray line from 26Al decay. We determine line centroids and compare these to Doppler shift expectations from large-scale systematic rotation around the Galaxy centre, as observed in other Galactic objects. Results: We measure the radial velocities of gas traced by 26Al, averaged over the line of sight, as a function of Galactic longitude. We find substantially higher velocities than expected from Galactic rotation, the average bulk velocity being ~200 km s-1 larger than predicted from Galactic rotation. The observed radial velocity spread implies a Doppler broadening of the gamma-ray line that is consistent with our measurements of the overall line width. We can reproduce the observed characteristics with 26Al sources located along the inner spiral arms, when we add a global blow-out preference into the forward direction away from arms into the inter-arm region, as is expected when massive stars are offset towards the spiral-arm leading edge. With the known connection of superbubbles to the gaseous halo, this implies angular-momentum transfer in the disk-halo system and consequently also radial gas flows. The structure of the interstellar gas above the disk affects how ionizing radiation may escape and ionize intergalactic gas.Peer reviewe

Focused laser Doppler velocimeter

A system for remotely measuring velocities present in discrete volumes of air is described. A CO2 laser beam is focused by a telescope at such a volume, a focal volume, and within the focusable range, near field, of the telescope. The back scatter, or reflected light, principally from the focal volume, passes back through the telescope and is frequency compared with the original frequency of the laser, and the difference frequency or frequencies represent particle velocities in that focal volume

Breakdown of Angular Momentum Selection Rules in High Pressure Optical Pumping Experiments

We present measurements, using two complementary methods, of the breakdown of atomic angular momentum selection rules in He-broadened Rb vapor. Atomic dark states are rendered weakly absorbing due to fine-structure mixing during Rb-He collisions. The effect substantially increases the photon demand for optical pumping of dense vapors

Epistomatal Wax Injury to Red Spruce Needles (Picea rubens Sarg.) Grown in Elevated Levels of Ozone and Acidified Rain

Red spruce seedlings (Picea rubens Sarg.) were exposed to charcoal-filtered air, at 0.07 ppm or 0.15 ppm ozone (O3), alone or in combination with pH 4.2 or pH 3.0 acidified rain, and examined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to determine if epistomatal wax fine structure was affected. Acidified rain in combination with 0.15 ppm O3 produced changes in wax tubule morphology. Changes were moderate at pH 4.2 and severe at pH 3.0. Needles collected from Whiteface Mountain, New York, displayed injured epistomatal wax structure similar to that observed on needles exposed in the laboratory to 0.15 ppm O3 plus pH 3.0 acidified rain

Active Brownian particles with velocity-alignment and active fluctuations

We consider a model of active Brownian particles with velocity-alignment in two spatial dimensions with passive and active fluctuations. Hereby, active fluctuations refers to purely non-equilibrium stochastic forces correlated with the heading of an individual active particle. In the simplest case studied here, they are assumed as independent stochastic forces parallel (speed noise) and perpendicular (angular noise) to the velocity of the particle. On the other hand, passive fluctuations are defined by a noise vector independent of the direction of motion of a particle, and may account for example for thermal fluctuations. We derive a macroscopic description of the active Brownian particle gas with velocity-alignment interaction. Hereby, we start from the individual based description in terms of stochastic differential equations (Langevin equations) and derive equations of motion for the coarse grained kinetic variables (density, velocity and temperature) via a moment expansion of the corresponding probability density function. We focus here in particular on the different impact of active and passive fluctuations on the onset of collective motion and show how active fluctuations in the active Brownian dynamics can change the phase-transition behaviour of the system. In particular, we show that active angular fluctuation lead to an earlier breakdown of collective motion and to emergence of a new bistable regime in the mean-field case.Comment: 5 figures, 22 pages, submitted to New Journal of Physic

Measurement of the Casimir force between dissimilar metals

The first precise measurement of the Casimir force between dissimilar metals is reported. The attractive force, between a Cu layer evaporated on a microelectromechanical torsional oscillator, and an Au layer deposited on an Al$_2$O$_3$ sphere, was measured dynamically with a noise level of 6 fN/$\sqrt{\rm{Hz}}$. Measurements were performed for separations in the 0.2-2 $\mu$m range. The results agree to better than 1% in the 0.2-0.5 $\mu$m range with a theoretical model that takes into account the finite conductivity and roughness of the two metals. The observed discrepancies, which are much larger than the experimental precision, can be attributed to a lack of a complete characterization of the optical properties of the specific samples used in the experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure