22,851 research outputs found
Paramagnetic resonance effect in viscoelastic materials Annual progress report, 1 Jan. - 31 Dec. 1968
Electron paramagnetic resonance investigation of fracture in viscoelastic material
Free radical formation during machining and fracture of polymers
Electron paramagnetic resonance measurements of free radical formation during cutting and grinding of polymer
Laboratory mid-IR spectra of equilibrated and igneous meteorites. Searching for observables of planetesimal debris
Meteorites contain minerals from Solar System asteroids with different
properties (like size, presence of water, core formation). We provide new
mid-IR transmission spectra of powdered meteorites to obtain templates of how
mid-IR spectra of asteroidal debris would look like. This is essential for
interpreting mid-IR spectra of past and future space observatories, like the
James Webb Space Telescope. We show that the transmission spectra of wet and
dry chondrites, carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites and achondrite and
chondrite meteorites are distinctly different in a way one can distinguish in
astronomical mid-IR spectra. The two observables that spectroscopically
separate the different meteorites groups (and thus the different types of
parent bodies) are the pyroxene-olivine feature strength ratio and the peak
shift of the olivine spectral features due to an increase in the iron
concentration of the olivine
Neutrinoless double beta decay in chiral effective field theory: lepton number violation at dimension seven
We analyze neutrinoless double beta decay () within the
framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory. Apart from the
dimension-five Weinberg operator, the first contributions appear at dimension
seven. We classify the operators and evolve them to the electroweak scale,
where we match them to effective dimension-six, -seven, and -nine operators. In
the next step, after renormalization group evolution to the QCD scale, we
construct the chiral Lagrangian arising from these operators. We develop a
power-counting scheme and derive the two-nucleon currents up
to leading order in the power counting for each lepton-number-violating
operator. We argue that the leading-order contribution to the decay rate
depends on a relatively small number of nuclear matrix elements. We test our
power counting by comparing nuclear matrix elements obtained by various methods
and by different groups. We find that the power counting works well for nuclear
matrix elements calculated from a specific method, while, as in the case of
light Majorana neutrino exchange, the overall magnitude of the matrix elements
can differ by factors of two to three between methods. We calculate the
constraints that can be set on dimension-seven lepton-number-violating
operators from experiments and study the interplay between
dimension-five and -seven operators, discussing how dimension-seven
contributions affect the interpretation of in terms of the
effective Majorana mass .Comment: Matches version published in JHE
Image Ellipticity from Atmospheric Aberrations
We investigate the ellipticity of the point-spread function (PSF) produced by
imaging an unresolved source with a telescope, subject to the effects of
atmospheric turbulence. It is important to quantify these effects in order to
understand the errors in shape measurements of astronomical objects, such as
those used to study weak gravitational lensing of field galaxies. The PSF
modeling involves either a Fourier transform of the phase information in the
pupil plane or a ray-tracing approach, which has the advantage of requiring
fewer computations than the Fourier transform. Using a standard method,
involving the Gaussian weighted second moments of intensity, we then calculate
the ellipticity of the PSF patterns. We find significant ellipticity for the
instantaneous patterns (up to more than 10%). Longer exposures, which we
approximate by combining multiple (N) images from uncorrelated atmospheric
realizations, yield progressively lower ellipticity (as 1 / sqrt(N)). We also
verify that the measured ellipticity does not depend on the sampling interval
in the pupil plane using the Fourier method. However, we find that the results
using the ray-tracing technique do depend on the pupil sampling interval,
representing a gradual breakdown of the geometric approximation at high spatial
frequencies. Therefore, ray tracing is generally not an accurate method of
modeling PSF ellipticity induced by atmospheric turbulence unless some
additional procedure is implemented to correctly account for the effects of
high spatial frequency aberrations. The Fourier method, however, can be used
directly to accurately model PSF ellipticity, which can give insights into
errors in the statistics of field galaxy shapes used in studies of weak
gravitational lensing.Comment: 9 pages, 5 color figures (some reduced in size). Accepted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Using a bootstrap method to choose the sample fraction in tail index estimation
Tail index estimation depends for its accuracy on a precise choice of the sample fraction, i.e. the number of extreme order statistics on which the estimation is based. A complete solution to the sample fraction selection is given by means of a two step subsample bootstrap method. This method adaptively determines the sample fraction that minimizes the asymptotic mean squared error. Unlike previous methods, prior knowledge of the second order parameter is not required. In addition, we are able to dispense with the need for a prior estimate of the tail index which already converges roughly at the optimal rate. The only arbitrary choice of parameters is the number of Monte Carlo replications.tail index;bias;bootstrap;mean squared error;optimal extreme sample fraction
Micron-sized forsterite grains in the pre-planetary nebula of IRAS 17150-3224 - Searching for clues on the mysterious evolution of massive AGB stars
We study the grain properties and location of the forsterite crystals in the
circumstellar environment of the pre-planetary nebula (PPN) IRAS 17150-3224 in
order to learn more about the as yet poorly understood evolutionary phase prior
to the PPN. We use the best-fit model for IRAS 17150-3224 of Meixner et al.
(2002) and add forsterite to this model. We investigate different spatial
distributions and grain sizes of the forsterite crystals in the circumstellar
environment. We compare the spectral bands of forsterite in the mid-infrared
and at 69 micrometre in radiative transport models to those in ISO-SWS and
Herschel/PACS observations. We can reproduce the non-detection of the
mid-infrared bands and the detection of the 69 micrometre feature with models
where the forsterite is distributed in the whole outflow, in the superwind
region, or in the AGB-wind region emitted previous to the superwind, but we
cannot discriminate between these three models. To reproduce the observed
spectral bands with these three models, the forsterite crystals need to be
dominated by a grain size population of 2 micrometre up to 6 micrometre. We
hypothesise that the large forsterite crystals were formed after the superwind
phase of IRAS 17150-3224, where the star developed an as yet unknown hyperwind
with an extremely high mass-loss rate (10^-3 Msol/yr). The high densities of
such a hyperwind could be responsible for the efficient grain growth of both
amorphous and crystalline dust in the outflow. Several mechanisms are discussed
that might explain the lower-limit of 2 micrometre found for the forsterite
grains, but none are satisfactory. Among the mechanisms explored is a possible
selection effect due to radiation pressure based on photon scattering on
micron-sized grains.Comment: Accepted by A&
Evaluation of Low-Temperature Geothermal Potential in Cache Valley, Utah
The purpose of this research was to continue the assessment of the low-temperature geothermal resources of Cache Valley, Utah initiated by the Utah Geological and Mineral Survey under U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contract DE-AS07-77ET 28393. Field work consisted of locating 90 wells and springs throughout the study area, collecting water samples for later laboratory analyses, and field measurement of pH, temperature, bicarbonate alkalinity, and electrical conductivity. Na+, K+, Ca+2, Mg+2, SiO2, Fe, SO4-2, C1-, F-, and total dissolved solids were determined in the laboratory. Temperature profiles were measured in 12 additional, unused wells. Thermal gradients calculated from the profiles were approximately the same as the average for the Basin and Range province, about 35 degrees C/km. One well produced a gradient of 297 degrees C/km, most were probably as a result of a near-surface occurrence of warm water. Possible warm water reservoir temperatures were calculated using both the silica an the Na-K-Ca geothermometers, with the results averaging about 50-100 degrees C. If mixing calculations were applied, taking into account the temperatures and silica contents of both warm springs or wells and the cold groundwater, reservoir temperatures up to about 200 degrees C were indicated. Considering measured surface water temperatures, calculated reservoir temperatures, thermal gradients, and the local geology, most of the Cache Valley, Utah area is unsuited for geothermal development. However, the areas of North Logan, Benson, and Trenton were found to have anomalously warm groundwater in comparison to the background temperature of 13.0 degrees C for the study area. The warm water has potential for isolated energy development but is not warm enough for major commercial development
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