864 research outputs found
Space shuttle navigation analysis
A detailed analysis of space shuttle navigation for each of the major mission phases is presented. A covariance analysis program for prelaunch IMU calibration and alignment for the orbital flight tests (OFT) is described, and a partial error budget is presented. The ascent, orbital operations and deorbit maneuver study considered GPS-aided inertial navigation in the Phase III GPS (1984+) time frame. The entry and landing study evaluated navigation performance for the OFT baseline system. Detailed error budgets and sensitivity analyses are provided for both the ascent and entry studies
Robust Trajectory Planning for Autonomous Parafoils under Wind Uncertainty
A key challenge facing modern airborne delivery systems, such as parafoils, is the ability to accurately and consistently deliver supplies into di cult, complex terrain. Robustness is a primary concern, given that environmental wind disturbances are often highly uncertain and time-varying, coupled with under-actuated dynamics and potentially narrow drop zones. This paper presents a new on-line trajectory planning algorithm that enables a large, autonomous parafoil to robustly execute collision avoidance and precision landing on mapped terrain, even with signi cant wind uncertainties. This algorithm is designed to handle arbitrary initial altitudes, approach geometries, and terrain surfaces, and is robust to wind disturbances which may be highly dynamic throughout the terminal approach. Explicit, real-time wind modeling and classi cation is used to anticipate future disturbances, while a novel uncertainty-sampling technique ensures that robustness to possible future variation is e ciently maintained. The designed cost-to-go function enables selection of partial paths which intelligently trade o between current and reachable future states. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm reduces the worst-case impact of wind disturbances relative to state-of-the-art approaches.Charles Stark Draper Laborator
Consistent Probabilistic Description of the Neutral Kaon System
The neutral Kaon system has both CP violation in the mass matrix and a
non-vanishing lifetime difference in the width matrix. This leads to an
effective Hamiltonian which is not a normal operator, with incompatible
(non-commuting) masses and widths. In the Weisskopf-Wigner Approach (WWA), by
diagonalizing the entire Hamiltonian, the unphysical non-orthogonal
"stationary" states are obtained. These states have complex
eigenvalues whose real (imaginary) part does not coincide with the eigenvalues
of the mass (width) matrix. In this work we describe the system as an open
Lindblad-type quantum mechanical system due to Kaon decays. This approach, in
terms of density matrices for initial and final states, provides a consistent
probabilistic description, avoiding the standard problems because the width
matrix becomes a composite operator not included in the Hamiltonian. We
consider the dominant-decay channel to two pions, so that one of the Kaon
states with definite lifetime becomes stable. This new approach provides
results for the time dependent decay rates in agreement with those of the WWA.Comment: 10 pages latex, non-trivial observations and clarifications made
compared to previous version, concerning interpretation of results (relevant
parametrization) which leads to agreement of time-dependent rates with those
of WWA. References added. Matches version to appear in Phys. Lett.
T and CPT Symmetries in Entangled Neutral Meson Systems
Genuine tests of an asymmetry under T and/or CPT transformations imply the
interchange between in-states and out-states. I explain a methodology to
perform model-indepedent separate measurements of the three CP, T and CPT
symmetry violations for transitions involving the decay of the neutral meson
systems in B- and {\Phi}-factories. It makes use of the quantum-mechanical
entanglement only, for which the individual state of each neutral meson is not
defined before the decay of its orthogonal partner. The final proof of the
independence of the three asymmetries is that no other theoretical ingredient
is involved and that the event sample corresponding to each case is different
from the other two. The experimental analysis for the measurements of these
three asymmetries as function of the time interval {\Delta}t > 0 between the
first and second decays is discussed, as well as the significance of the
expected results. In particular, one may advance a first observation of true,
direct, evidence of Time-Reserval-Violation in B-factories by many standard
deviations from zero, without any reference to, and independent of,
CP-Violation. In some quantum gravity framework the CPT-transformation is
ill-defined, so there is a resulting loss of particle-antiparticle identity.
This mechanism induces a breaking of the EPR correlation in the entanglement
imposed by Bose statistics to the neutral meson system, the so-called
{\omega}-effect. I present results and prospects for the {\omega}-parameter in
the correlated neutral meson-antimeson states.Comment: Proc. DISCRETE 2010, Symposium on Prospects in the Physics of
Discrete Symmetries, December 2010, Rom
Thermodynamics of the superconducting state in Calcium at 200 GPa
The thermodynamic parameters of the superconducting state in Calcium under
the pressure at 200 GPa were calculated. The Coulomb pseudopotential values
() from 0.1 to 0.3 were taken into consideration. It has been
shown, that the specific heat's jump at the critical temperature and the
thermodynamic critical field near zero Kelvin strongly decrease with
. The dimensionless ratios and
significantly differ from the predictions based on the BCS model. In
particular, decreases from 2.64 to 1.97 with the Coulomb
pseudopotential; whereas increases from 0.140 to 0.157. The numerical
results have been supplemented by the analytical approach.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Cytosolic chaperones influence the fate of a toxin dislocated from the endoplasmic reticulum
The plant cytotoxin ricin enters target mammalian cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis and undergoes retrograde transport to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here, its catalytic A chain (RTA) is reductively separated from the cell-binding B chain, and free RTA enters the cytosol where it inactivates ribosomes. Cytosolic entry requires unfolding of RTA and dislocation across the ER membrane such that it arrives in the cytosol in a vulnerable, nonnative conformation. Clearly, for such a dislocated toxin to become active, it must avoid degradation and fold to a catalytic conformation. Here, we show that, in vitro, Hsc70 prevents aggregation of heat-treated RTA, and that RTA catalytic activity is recovered after chaperone treatment. A combination of pharmacological inhibition and cochaperone expression reveals that, in vivo, cytosolic RTA is scrutinized sequentially by the Hsc70 and Hsp90 cytosolic chaperone machineries, and that its eventual fate is determined by the balance of activities of cochaperones that regulate Hsc70 and Hsp90 functions. Cytotoxic activity follows Hsc70-mediated escape of RTA from an otherwise destructive pathway facilitated by Hsp90. We demonstrate a role for cytosolic chaperones, proteins typically associated with folding nascent proteins, assembling multimolecular protein complexes and degrading cytosolic and stalled, cotranslocational clients, in a toxin triage, in which both toxin folding and degradation are initiated from chaperone-bound states
Cytosolic chaperones influence the fate of a toxin dislocated from the endoplasmic reticulum
The plant cytotoxin ricin enters target mammalian cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis and undergoes retrograde transport to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here, its catalytic A chain (RTA) is reductively separated from the cell-binding B chain, and free RTA enters the cytosol where it inactivates ribosomes. Cytosolic entry requires unfolding of RTA and dislocation across the ER membrane such that it arrives in the cytosol in a vulnerable, nonnative conformation. Clearly, for such a dislocated toxin to become active, it must avoid degradation and fold to a catalytic conformation. Here, we show that, in vitro, Hsc70 prevents aggregation of heat-treated RTA, and that RTA catalytic activity is recovered after chaperone treatment. A combination of pharmacological inhibition and cochaperone expression reveals that, in vivo, cytosolic RTA is scrutinized sequentially by the Hsc70 and Hsp90 cytosolic chaperone machineries, and that its eventual fate is determined by the balance of activities of cochaperones that regulate Hsc70 and Hsp90 functions. Cytotoxic activity follows Hsc70-mediated escape of RTA from an otherwise destructive pathway facilitated by Hsp90. We demonstrate a role for cytosolic chaperones, proteins typically associated with folding nascent proteins, assembling multimolecular protein complexes and degrading cytosolic and stalled, cotranslocational clients, in a toxin triage, in which both toxin folding and degradation are initiated from chaperone-bound states
Quantum Fields on the Groenewold-Moyal Plane
We give an introductory review of quantum physics on the noncommutative
spacetime called the Groenewold-Moyal plane. Basic ideas like star products,
twisted statistics, second quantized fields and discrete symmetries are
discussed. We also outline some of the recent developments in these fields and
mention where one can search for experimental signals.Comment: 50 pages, 3 figures. v2: published versio
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Searching for life with rovers: exploration methods and science results from the 2004 field campaign of the “Life in the Atacama” project and applications to future Mars Missions
LITA develops and field tests a long-range automated rover and a science payload to search for microbial life in the Atacama. The Atacama's evolution provides a unique training ground for designing and testing exploration strategies and life detection methods for the search for life on Mars
Normal tau polarisation as a sensitive probe of CP violation in chargino decay
CP violation in the spin-spin correlations in chargino production and
subsequent two-body decay into a tau and a tau-sneutrino is studied at the ILC.
From the normal polarisation of the tau, an asymmetry is defined to test the
CP-violating phase of the higgsino mass parameter \mu. Asymmetries of more than
\pm70% are obtained, also in scenarios with heavy first and second generation
sfermions. Bounds on the statistical significances of the CP asymmetries are
estimated. As a result, the normal tau polarisation in the chargino decay is
one of the most sensitive probes to constrain or measure the phase \phi_\mu at
the ILC, motivating further detailed experimental studies.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, gzipped tar fil
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