641 research outputs found
On the absence of appreciable half-life changes in alpha emitters cooled in metals to 1 Kelvin and below
The recent suggestion that dramatic changes may occur in the lifetime of
alpha and beta decay when the activity, in a pure metal host, is cooled to a
few Kelvin, is examined in the light of published low temperature nuclear
orientation (LTNO) experiments, with emphasis here on alpha decay. In LTNO
observations are made of the anisotropy of radioactive emissions with respect
to an axis of orientation. Correction of data for decay of metallic samples
held at temperatures at and below 1 Kelvin for periods of days and longer has
been a routine element of LTNO experiments for many years. No evidence for any
change of half life on cooling, with an upper level of less than 1%, has been
found, in striking contrast to the predicted changes, for alpha decay, of
several orders of magnitude. The proposal that such dramatic changes might
alleviate problems of disposal of long-lived radioactive waste is shown to be
unrealistic.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Nucl.Phys.A.
Revised version, including quantitative analysis of the sensitivity of
nuclear orientation experiments, discussed in this work, to changes of
alpha-decay lifetimes in metals at low temperatures. Conclusions remain
unchange
Tomographic Measurements of Longitudinal Phase Space Density
Tomography is now a very broad topic with a wealth of algorithms for the reconstruction of both qualitative and quantitative images. One of the simplest algorithms has been modified to take into accou nt the non-linearity of large-amplitude synchrotron motion. This permits the accurate reconstruction of longitudinal phase space density from one-dimensional bunch profile data. The method is a hybrid one which incorporates particle tracking, and considerable effort has been invested to optimize the computer code so that it may also be compiled to exploit parallel architectures efficiently. A selec tion of the results obtained at different CERN accelerators is presented. The starting-point in each case is simply a "mountain range" of digitized bunch profiles
Model-based investigation on the effects of spatial evenness, and size selection in thinning of Picea abies stands
Size and spatial distribution of trees are important for forest stand growth, but the extent to which it matters in thinning operations, in terms of wood production and stand economy, has rarely been documented. Here we investigate how the choice of spatial evenness and tree-size distribution of residual trees impacts wood production and stand economy. A spatially explicit individual-based growth model was used, in conjunction with empirical cost functions for harvesting and forwarding, to calculate net production and net present value for different thinning operations in Norway spruce stands in Northern Sweden. The in silico thinning operations were defined by three variables: (1) spatial evenness after thinning, (2) tree size preference for harvesting, and (3) basal area reduction. We found that thinning that increases spatial evenness increases net production and net present value by around 2.0%, compared to the worst case. When changing the spatial evenness in conjunction with size preference we could observe an improvement of the net production and net present value up to 8.0%. The magnitude of impact differed greatly between the stands (from 1.7% to 8.0%) and was highest in the stand with the lowest stem density
Wire scanners in low energy accelerators
Fast wire scanners are today considered as part of standard instrumentation
in high energy synchrotrons. The extension of their use to synchrotrons working
at lower energies, where Coulomb scattering can be important and the transverse
beam size is large, introduces new complications considering beam heating of
the wire, composition of the secondary particle shower and geometrical
consideration in the detection set-up. A major problem in treating these
effects is that the creation of secondaries in a thin carbon wire by a
energetic primary beam is difficult to describe in an analytical way. We are
here presenting new results from a full Monte Carlo simulation of this process
yielding information on heat deposited in the wire, particle type and energy
spectrum of secondaries and angular dependence as a function of primary beam
energy. The results are used to derive limits for the use of wire scanners in
low energy accelerators.Comment: 20 pages, 8 Postscript figures, uses elsart.cl
Ectomycorrhizal root tips in relation to site and stand characteristics in Norway spruce and Scots pine stands in boreal forests
A Second Generation Radioactive Nuclear Beam Facility at CERN
The proposed Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL) at CERN would be an ideal driver for a proton-driven second-generation Radioactive Nuclear Beam facility. We propose to investigate the feasibility of constructing such a facility at CERN close to the present PS Booster ISOLDE facility. The existing ISOLDE facility would be fed with a 10 micro-amps proton beam from SPL, providing the physics community with a low-intensity experimental area. A second, new facility would be built with target stations deep underground, permitting proton beam intensities of more than 100 micro-amps. The secondary beams can be post-accelerated to 20-100 MeV/u and there will be a storage ring complex and large segmented detectors in the experimental area. Also, benefits from a muon-ion collider or from merging the ions and muons should be investigated. Since the antiproton decelerator would be nearby, the opportunities for antiprotonic radioactive atom studies should be pursued as well
SPITZER: Accretion in Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs in the Lambda Orionis Cluster
We present multi-wavelength optical and infrared photometry of 170 previously
known low mass stars and brown dwarfs of the 5 Myr Collinder 69 cluster (Lambda
Orionis). The new photometry supports cluster membership for most of them, with
less than 15% of the previous candidates identified as probable non-members.
The near infrared photometry allows us to identify stars with IR excesses, and
we find that the Class II population is very large, around 25% for stars (in
the spectral range M0 - M6.5) and 40% for brown dwarfs, down to 0.04 Msun,
despite the fact that the H(alpha) equivalent width is low for a significant
fraction of them. In addition, there are a number of substellar objects,
classified as Class III, that have optically thin disks. The Class II members
are distributed in an inhomogeneous way, lying preferentially in a filament
running toward the south-east. The IR excesses for the Collinder 69 members
range from pure Class II (flat or nearly flat spectra longward of 1 micron), to
transition disks with no near-IR excess but excesses beginning within the IRAC
wavelength range, to two stars with excess only detected at 24 micron.
Collinder 69 thus appears to be at an age where it provides a natural
laboratory for the study of primordial disks and their dissipation.Comment: ApJ, in pres
Benchmarking Technical and Cost Factors in Forest Felling and Processing Operations in Different Global Regions during the Period 2013-2014
In a global bioeconomy, benchmarking costs is essential in the evaluation of current forest harvesting systems and addressing decisions on the most efficient supply chains for available forest resources. Benchmarking cost rates in forestry is challenging, due to a lack of harmonized terminology and difficulties in collecting information on comparable forest technologies. This study provides a first-time series of cost factors to be used when modeling and evaluating the cost competitiveness of forest felling and processing operations on a global scale. It is based on an expert survey using a standardized method of data collection. This benchmarking identifies and updates the knowledge of technical and socio-economic factors capable of influencing the cost rates of forest felling and processing operations across different regions. This study is expected to act as a reference for larger investigations, and for regular updates, with the aim to provide current data that can be used by forest practitioners and decision makers for improving their cost efficiency and for designing future supply systems more effectively
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