5,017 research outputs found
Measuring the muon's anomalous magnetic moment to 0.14 ppm
The anomalous magnetic moment (g-2) of the muon was measured with a precision
of 0.54 ppm in Experiment 821 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. A difference
of 3.2 standard deviations between this experimental value and the prediction
of the Standard Model has persisted since 2004; in spite of considerable
experimental and theoretical effort, there is no consistent explanation for
this difference. This comparison hints at physics beyond the Standard Model,
but it also imposes strong constraints on those possibilities, which include
supersymmetry and extra dimensions. The collaboration is preparing to relocate
the experiment to Fermilab to continue towards a proposed precision of 0.14
ppm. This will require 20 times more recorded decays than in the previous
measurement, with corresponding improvements in the systematic uncertainties.
We describe the theoretical developments and the experimental upgrades that
provide a compelling motivation for the new measurement.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, presented at International Nuclear Physics
Conference 2010 (INPC 2010
Viscoelastic response of sonic band-gap materials
A brief report is presented on the effect of viscoelastic losses in a high
density contrast sonic band-gap material of close-packed rubber spheres in air.
The scattering properties of such a material are computed with an on-shell
multiple scattering method, properties which are compared with the lossless
case. The existence of an appreciable omnidirectional gap in the transmission
spectrum, when losses are present, is also reported.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Solar Carbon Monoxide, Thermal Profiling, and the Abundances of C, O, and their Isotopes
A solar photospheric "thermal profiling" analysis is presented, exploiting
the infrared rovibrational bands of carbon monoxide (CO) as observed with the
McMath-Pierce Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) at Kitt Peak, and from above
the Earth's atmosphere by the Shuttle-borne ATMOS experiment. Visible continuum
intensities and center-limb behavior constrained the temperature profile of the
deep photosphere, while CO center-limb behavior defined the thermal structure
at higher altitudes. The oxygen abundance was self consistently determined from
weak CO absorptions. Our analysis was meant to complement recent studies based
on 3-D convection models which, among other things, have revised the historical
solar oxygen (and carbon) abundance downward by a factor of nearly two;
although in fact our conclusions do not support such a revision. Based on
various considerations, an oxygen abundance of 700+/-100 ppm (parts per million
relative to hydrogen) is recommended; the large uncertainty reflects the model
sensitivity of CO. New solar isotopic ratios also are reported for 13C, 17O,
and 18O.Comment: 90 pages, 19 figures (some with parts "a", "b", etc.); to be
published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement
Regulating Scotland's social landlords: localised resistance to technologies of performance management
Influenced by Foucault's later work on governmentality, this paper explores the regulation of social landlords as a 'technology of performance' concerned with governing the conduct of dispersed welfare agencies and the professionals within them. This is a mode of power that is both voluntary and coercive; it seeks to realise its ambitions not through direct acts of intervention, but by promoting the responsible self-governance of autonomous subjects. Through an analysis of the regulatory framework for social landlords in Scotland, this paper highlights the creation of a performance culture that seeks to mobilise housing organisations to reconcile their local management systems and service provision to external standards, whilst simultaneously wielding punitive interventions for non-compliance. However, housing professionals are not passive in all of this, and indeed, actively challenged and resisted these top-down attempts to govern them at arm's-length
ArgoNeuT, a liquid argon time projection chamber in a low energy neutrino beam
ArgoNeuT (Argon Neutrino Test), a NSF/DOE project at Fermilab, is the first
LArTPC to go in a low energy neutrino beam and just the second LArTPC to go in
a neutrino beam ever. ArgoNeuT sits just upstream of the on-axis MINOS near
detector in the NuMI beamline, about 1 km from the target station and 100 m
underground. The detector features a 47X40X90 cm (169 L) active volume TPC with
a fully contained recirculation and purification system. Among other physics,
ArgoNeuT will measure the charged-current quasi-elastic (anti-) neutrino cross
section on argon at an energy of ~3 GeV.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 11th
International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics
(TAUP 2009), Rome, Italy, 1-5 July 200
A far-UV survey of three hot, metal-polluted white dwarf stars: WD0455-282, WD0621-376, and WD2211-495
Using newly obtained high-resolution data () from the
\textit{Hubble Space Telescope}, and archival UV data from the \textit{Far
Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer} we have conducted a detailed UV survey of
the three hot, metal-polluted white dwarfs WD0455-282, WD0621-376, and
WD2211-495. Using bespoke model atmospheres we measured , log
, and photospheric abundances for these stars. In conjunction with data from
Gaia we measured masses, radii, and gravitational redshift velocities for our
sample of objects. We compared the measured photospheric abundances with those
predicted by radiative levitation theory, and found that the observed Si
abundances in all three white dwarfs, and the observed Fe abundances in
WD0621-376 and WD2211-495, were larger than those predicted by an order of
magnitude. These findings imply not only an external origin for the metals, but
also ongoing accretion, as the metals not supported by radiative levitation
would sink on extremely short timescales. We measured the radial velocities of
several absorption features along the line of sight to the three objects in our
sample, allowing us to determine the velocities of the photospheric and
interstellar components along the line of sight for each star. Interestingly,
we made detections of circumstellar absorption along the line of sight to
WD0455-282 with three velocity components. To our knowledge, this is the first
such detection of multi-component circumstellar absorption along the line of
sight to a white dwarf.Comment: 19 pages, 23 figures, 8 tables. Accepted for publication in the
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ
Recent atmospheric neutrino results from Soudan 2
An updated measurement of the atmospheric nu_mu/nu_e ratio-of-ratios,
0.68+-0.11+-0.06, has been obtained using a 4.6-kty exposure of the Soudan-2
iron tracking calorimeter. The L/E distributions have been analyzed for effects
of nu_mu -> nu_x oscillations, and an allowed region in the Delta m^2 vs. sin^2
2 theta plane has been determined.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures; presented at TAUP99, the 6th Int. Workshop on
Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics, Sept. 6-10, 1999, College de
France, Paris, Franc
Supersymmetric large tan(beta) corrections to DeltaM_(d,s) and B_(d,s) -> mu+mu- revisited
We point out that in the minimal supersymmetric standard model terms from the
mixing of Higgs and Goldstone bosons which are connected to the renormalization
of tan(beta) via Slavnov-Taylor identities give rise to corrections that do not
vanish in the limit where the supersymmetric particles are much heavier than
the Higgs bosons. These additional contributions have important
phenomenological implications as they can lead to potentially large
supersymmetric effects in DeltaM_d and to a significant increase of DeltaM_s
relative to the standard model prediction for a light pseudoscalar Higgs A0. We
calculate all the missing one-loop pieces and combine them with the known
effective non-holomorphic terms to obtain improved predictions for the
B_(d,s)-anti-B_(d,s) mass differences DeltaM_(d,s) and the branching ratios of
B_(d,s) -> mu+mu- in the large tan(beta) regime of the minimal supersymmetric
standard model with minimal flavor violation.Comment: 8 pp; few typos corrected; version to appear in Phys. Rev.
NLTE modeling of Stokes vector center-to-limb variations in the CN violet system
The solar surface magnetic field is connected with and even controls most of
the solar activity phenomena. Zeeman effect diagnostics allow for measuring
only a small fraction of the fractal-like structured magnetic field. The
remaining hidden magnetic fields can only be accessed with the Hanle effect.
Molecular lines are very convenient for applying the Hanle effect diagnostics
thanks to the broad range of magnetic sensitivities in a narrow spectral
region. With the UV version of the Zurich Imaging Polarimeter ZIMPOL II
installed at the 45 cm telescope of the Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno
(IRSOL), we simultaneously observed intensity and linear polarization
center-to-limb variations in two spectral regions containing the (0,0) and
(1,1) bandheads of the CN B 2 {\Sigma} - X 2 {\Sigma} system. Here we present
an analysis of these observations. We have implemented coherent scattering in
molecular lines into a NLTE radiative transfer code. A two-step approach was
used. First, we separately solved the statistical equilibrium equations and
compute opacities and intensity while neglecting polariza- tion. Then we used
these quantities as input for calculating scattering polarization and the Hanle
effect. We have found that it is impossible to fit the intensity and
polarization simultaneously at different limb angles in the frame- work of
standard 1D modeling. The atmosphere models that provide correct intensity
center-to-limb variations fail to fit linear polar- ization center-to-limb
variations due to lacking radiation field anisotropy. We had to increase the
anisotropy by means of a specially introduced free parameter. This allows us to
successfully interpret our observations. We discuss possible reasons for
underestimating the anisotropy in the 1D modeling.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in
Astronomy&Astrophysic
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