31,578 research outputs found
A double-helix neutron detector using micron-size B-10 powder
A double-helix electrode configuration is combined with a B powder
coating technique to build large-area (9 in 36 in) neutron detectors.
The neutron detection efficiency for each of the four prototypes is comparable
to a single 2-bar He drift tube of the same length (36 in). One unit has
been operational continuously for 18 months and the change of efficiency is
less than 1%. An analytic model for pulse heigh spectra is described and the
predicted mean film thickness agrees with the experiment to within 30%. Further
detector optimization is possible through film texture, power size, moderator
box and gas. The estimated production cost per unit is less than 3k US\$ and
the technology is thus suitable for deployment in large numbers
Dynamical Friction on Star Clusters near the Galactic Center
Numerical simulations of the dynamical friction suffered by a star cluster
near the Galactic center have been performed with a parallelized tree code.
Gerhard (2001) has suggested that dynamical friction, which causes a cluster to
lose orbital energy and spiral in towards the galactic center, may explain the
presence of a cluster of very young stars in the central parsec, where star
formation might be prohibitively difficult owing to strong tidal forces. The
clusters modeled in our simulations have an initial total mass of 10^5-10^6
Msun and initial galactocentric radii of 2.5-30 pc. We have identified a few
simulations in which dynamical friction indeed brings a cluster to the central
parsec, although this is only possible if the cluster is either very massive
(~10^6 Msun), or is formed near the central parsec (<~ 5 pc). In both cases,
the cluster should have an initially very dense core (> 10^6 Msun pc-3). The
initial core collapse and segregation of massive stars into the cluster core,
which typically happens on a much shorter time scale than that characterizing
the dynamical inspiral of the cluster toward the Galactic center, can provide
the requisite high density. Furthermore, because it is the cluster core which
is most likely to survive the cluster disintegration during its journey
inwards, this can help account for the observed distribution of presumably
massive HeI stars in the central parsec.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Heterostructure solar cells
The performance of gallium arsenide solar cells grown on Ge substrates is discussed. In some cases the substrate was thinned to reduce overall cell weight with good ruggedness. The conversion efficiency of 2 by 2 cm cells under AMO reached 17.1 percent with a cell thickness of 6 mils. The work described forms the basis for future cascade cell structures, where similar interconnecting problems between the top cell and the bottom cell must be solved. Applications of the GaAs/Ge solar cell in space and the expected payoffs are discussed
Personalized Pancreatic Tumor Growth Prediction via Group Learning
Tumor growth prediction, a highly challenging task, has long been viewed as a
mathematical modeling problem, where the tumor growth pattern is personalized
based on imaging and clinical data of a target patient. Though mathematical
models yield promising results, their prediction accuracy may be limited by the
absence of population trend data and personalized clinical characteristics. In
this paper, we propose a statistical group learning approach to predict the
tumor growth pattern that incorporates both the population trend and
personalized data, in order to discover high-level features from multimodal
imaging data. A deep convolutional neural network approach is developed to
model the voxel-wise spatio-temporal tumor progression. The deep features are
combined with the time intervals and the clinical factors to feed a process of
feature selection. Our predictive model is pretrained on a group data set and
personalized on the target patient data to estimate the future spatio-temporal
progression of the patient's tumor. Multimodal imaging data at multiple time
points are used in the learning, personalization and inference stages. Our
method achieves a Dice coefficient of 86.8% +- 3.6% and RVD of 7.9% +- 5.4% on
a pancreatic tumor data set, outperforming the DSC of 84.4% +- 4.0% and RVD
13.9% +- 9.8% obtained by a previous state-of-the-art model-based method
Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Sgr A* Cluster
We present K-band ~ 2600 spectroscopy of five stars
(K ~ 14 - 16 mag) within 0.''5 of Sgr A*, the radio source associated with the
compact massive object suspected to be a 2.6 x 10 \msun black hole at the
center of our Galaxy. High spatial resolution of ~ 0.''09, and good strehl
ratios of ~ 0.2 achieved with adaptive optics on the 10-meter Keck telescope
make it possible to measure moderate-resolution spectra of these stars
individually for the first time. Two stars (S0-17 and S0-18) are identified as
late-type stars by the detection of CO bandhead absorption in their spectra.
Their absolute K magnitudes and CO bandhead absorption strengths are consistent
with early K giants. Three stars (S0-1, S0-2, and S0-16), with r
0.0075 pc (~ 0.''2) from Sgr A*, lack CO bandhead absorption, confirming the
results of earlier lower spectral and lower spatial resolution observations
that the majority of the stars in the Sgr A* Cluster are early-type stars. The
absolute K magnitudes of the early-type stars suggest that they are late O -
early B main sequence stars of ages 20 Myr. The presence of young stars in
the Sgr A* Cluster, so close to the central supermassive black hole, poses the
intriguing problem of how these stars could have formed, or could have been
brought, within its strong tidal field.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap
Weakly Nonlinear Analysis of Electroconvection in a Suspended Fluid Film
It has been experimentally observed that weakly conducting suspended films of
smectic liquid crystals undergo electroconvection when subjected to a large
enough potential difference. The resulting counter-rotating vortices form a
very simple convection pattern and exhibit a variety of interesting nonlinear
effects. The linear stability problem for this system has recently been solved.
The convection mechanism, which involves charge separation at the free surfaces
of the film, is applicable to any sufficiently two-dimensional fluid. In this
paper, we derive an amplitude equation which describes the weakly nonlinear
regime, by starting from the basic electrohydrodynamic equations. This regime
has been the subject of several recent experimental studies. The lowest order
amplitude equation we derive is of the Ginzburg-Landau form, and describes a
forward bifurcation as is observed experimentally. The coefficients of the
amplitude equation are calculated and compared with the values independently
deduced from the linear stability calculation.Comment: 26 pages, 2 included eps figures, submitted to Phys Rev E. For more
information, see http://mobydick.physics.utoronto.c
The Arches Cluster: Extended Structure and Tidal Radius
At a projected distance of ~26 pc from Sgr A*, the Arches cluster provides
insight to star formation in the extreme Galactic Center (GC) environment.
Despite its importance, many key properties such as the cluster's internal
structure and orbital history are not well known. We present an astrometric and
photometric study of the outer region of the Arches cluster (R > 6.25") using
HST WFC3IR. Using proper motions we calculate membership probabilities for
stars down to F153M = 20 mag (~2.5 M_sun) over a 120" x 120" field of view, an
area 144 times larger than previous astrometric studies of the cluster. We
construct the radial profile of the Arches to a radius of 75" (~3 pc at 8 kpc),
which can be well described by a single power law. From this profile we place a
3-sigma lower limit of 2.8 pc on the observed tidal radius, which is larger
than the predicted tidal radius (1 - 2.5 pc). Evidence of mass segregation is
observed throughout the cluster and no tidal tail structures are apparent along
the orbital path. The absence of breaks in the profile suggests that the Arches
has not likely experienced its closest approach to the GC between ~0.2 - 1 Myr
ago. If accurate, this constraint indicates that the cluster is on a prograde
orbit and is located front of the sky plane that intersects Sgr A*. However,
further simulations of clusters in the GC potential are required to interpret
the observed profile with more confidence.Comment: 24 pages (17-page main text, 7-page appendix), 24 figures, accepted
to Ap
van Vleck determinants: traversable wormhole spacetimes
Calculating the van Vleck determinant in traversable wormhole spacetimes is
an important ingredient in understanding the physical basis behind Hawking's
chronology protection conjecture. This paper presents extensive computations of
this object --- at least in the short--throat flat--space approximation. An
important technical trick is to use an extension of the usual junction
condition formalism to probe the full Riemann tensor associated with a thin
shell of matter. Implications with regard to Hawking's chronology protection
conjecture are discussed. Indeed, any attempt to transform a single isolated
wormhole into a time machine results in large vacuum polarization effects
sufficient to disrupt the internal structure of the wormhole before the onset
of Planck scale physics, and before the onset of time travel. On the other
hand, it is possible to set up a putative time machine built out of two or more
wormholes, each of which taken in isolation is not itself a time machine. Such
``Roman configurations'' are much more subtle to analyse. For some particularly
bizarre configurations (not traversable by humans) the vacuum polarization
effects can be arranged to be arbitrarily small at the onset of Planck scale
physics. This indicates that the disruption scale has been pushed down into the
Planck slop. Ultimately, for these configurations, questions regarding the
truth or falsity of Hawking's chronology protection can only be addressed by
entering the uncharted wastelands of full fledged quantum gravity.Comment: 42 pages, ReV_TeX 3.
Electroconvection in a Suspended Fluid Film: A Linear Stability Analysis
A suspended fluid film with two free surfaces convects when a sufficiently
large voltage is applied across it. We present a linear stability analysis for
this system. The forces driving convection are due to the interaction of the
applied electric field with space charge which develops near the free surfaces.
Our analysis is similar to that for the two-dimensional B\'enard problem, but
with important differences due to coupling between the charge distribution and
the field. We find the neutral stability boundary of a dimensionless control
parameter as a function of the dimensionless wave number .
, which is proportional to the square of the applied voltage, is
analogous to the Rayleigh number. The critical values and
are found from the minimum of the stability boundary, and its
curvature at the minimum gives the correlation length . The
characteristic time scale , which depends on a second dimensionless
parameter , analogous to the Prandtl number, is determined from the
linear growth rate near onset. and are coefficients in the
Ginzburg-Landau amplitude equation which describes the flow pattern near onset
in this system. We compare our results to recent experiments.Comment: 36 pages, 7 included eps figures, submitted to Phys Rev E. For more
info, see http://mobydick.physics.utoronto.ca
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