333 research outputs found
First observations of beam losses due to bound-free pair production in a heavy-ion collider
We report the first observations of beam losses due to bound-free pair
production at the interaction point of a heavy-ion collider. This process is
expected to be a major luminosity limit for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
when it operates with 208Pb82+ ions because the localized energy deposition by
the lost ions may quench superconducting magnet coils. Measurements were
performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) during operation with
100 GeV/nucleon 63Cu29+ ions. At RHIC, the rate, energy and magnetic field are
low enough so that magnet quenching is not an issue. The hadronic showers
produced when the single-electron ions struck the RHIC beampipe were observed
using an array of photodiodes. The measurement confirms the order of magnitude
of the theoretical cross section previously calculated by others.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Added journal ref. Corrected typos. Fixed fig 1.
Minor improvements to fig. 1,3,4. Rephrased a small number of sentences
(p1,3,4). Added numerical values of the aperture and the displacement for Au
(p 2). Changed reference 5, added name in acknowledgments (p 4
An Overview of the 13:8 Mean Motion Resonance between Venus and Earth
It is known since the seminal study of Laskar (1989) that the inner planetary
system is chaotic with respect to its orbits and even escapes are not
impossible, although in time scales of billions of years. The aim of this
investigation is to locate the orbits of Venus and Earth in phase space,
respectively to see how close their orbits are to chaotic motion which would
lead to unstable orbits for the inner planets on much shorter time scales.
Therefore we did numerical experiments in different dynamical models with
different initial conditions -- on one hand the couple Venus-Earth was set
close to different mean motion resonances (MMR), and on the other hand Venus'
orbital eccentricity (or inclination) was set to values as large as e = 0.36 (i
= 40deg). The couple Venus-Earth is almost exactly in the 13:8 mean motion
resonance. The stronger acting 8:5 MMR inside, and the 5:3 MMR outside the 13:8
resonance are within a small shift in the Earth's semimajor axis (only 1.5
percent). Especially Mercury is strongly affected by relatively small changes
in eccentricity and/or inclination of Venus in these resonances. Even escapes
for the innermost planet are possible which may happen quite rapidly.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, submitted to CMD
Hormone Resistance in Prostate Cancer
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44511/1/10555_2004_Article_203064.pd
The Instability Transition for the Restricted 3-Body Problem. III. The Lyapunov Exponent Criterion
We establish a criterion for the stability of planetary orbits in stellar
binary systems by using Lyapunov exponents and power spectra for the special
case of the circular restricted 3-body problem (CR3BP). The centerpiece of our
method is the concept of Lyapunov exponents, which are incorporated into the
analysis of orbital stability by integrating the Jacobian of the CR3BP and
orthogonalizing the tangent vectors via a well-established algorithm originally
developed by Wolf et al. The criterion for orbital stability based on the
Lyapunov exponents is independently verified by using power spectra. The
obtained results are compared to results presented in the two previous papers
of this series. It is shown that the maximum Lyapunov exponent can be used as
an indicator for chaotic behaviour of planetary orbits, which is consistent
with previous applications of this method, particularly studies for the Solar
System. The chaotic behaviour corresponds to either orbital stability or
instability, and it depends solely on the mass ratio of the binary components
and the initial distance ratio of the planet relative to the stellar separation
distance. Our theoretical results allow us to link the study of planetary
orbital stability to chaos theory noting that there is a large array of
literature on the properties and significance of Lyapunov exponents. Although
our results are given for the special case of the CR3BP, we expect that it may
be possible to augment the proposed Lyapunov exponent criterion to studies of
planets in generalized stellar binary systems, which is strongly motivated by
existing observational results as well as results expected from ongoing and
future planet search missions.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables; accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
Stability of Terrestrial Planets in the Habitable Zone of Gl 777 A, HD 72659, Gl 614, 47 Uma and HD 4208
We have undertaken a thorough dynamical investigation of five extrasolar
planetary systems using extensive numerical experiments. The systems Gl 777 A,
HD 72659, Gl 614, 47 Uma and HD 4208 were examined concerning the question of
whether they could host terrestrial like planets in their habitable zones
(=HZ). First we investigated the mean motion resonances between fictitious
terrestrial planets and the existing gas giants in these five extrasolar
systems. Then a fine grid of initial conditions for a potential terrestrial
planet within the HZ was chosen for each system, from which the stability of
orbits was then assessed by direct integrations over a time interval of 1
million years. The computations were carried out using a Lie-series integration
method with an adaptive step size control. This integration method achieves
machine precision accuracy in a highly efficient and robust way, requiring no
special adjustments when the orbits have large eccentricities. The stability of
orbits was examined with a determination of the Renyi entropy, estimated from
recurrence plots, and with a more straight forward method based on the maximum
eccentricity achieved by the planet over the 1 million year integration.
Additionally, the eccentricity is an indication of the habitability of a
terrestrial planet in the HZ; any value of e>0.2 produces a significant
temperature difference on a planet's surface between apoapse and periapse. The
results for possible stable orbits for terrestrial planets in habitable zones
for the five systems are summarized as follows: for Gl 777 A nearly the entire
HZ is stable, for 47 Uma, HD 72659 and HD 4208 terrestrial planets can survive
for a sufficiently long time, while for Gl 614 our results exclude terrestrial
planets moving in stable orbits within the HZ.Comment: 14 pages, 18 figures submitted to A&
Global Networks of Trade and Bits
Considerable efforts have been made in recent years to produce detailed
topologies of the Internet. Although Internet topology data have been brought
to the attention of a wide and somewhat diverse audience of scholars, so far
they have been overlooked by economists. In this paper, we suggest that such
data could be effectively treated as a proxy to characterize the size of the
"digital economy" at country level and outsourcing: thus, we analyse the
topological structure of the network of trade in digital services (trade in
bits) and compare it with that of the more traditional flow of manufactured
goods across countries. To perform meaningful comparisons across networks with
different characteristics, we define a stochastic benchmark for the number of
connections among each country-pair, based on hypergeometric distribution.
Original data are thus filtered by means of different thresholds, so that we
only focus on the strongest links, i.e., statistically significant links. We
find that trade in bits displays a sparser and less hierarchical network
structure, which is more similar to trade in high-skill manufactured goods than
total trade. Lastly, distance plays a more prominent role in shaping the
network of international trade in physical goods than trade in digital
services.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure
Science Requirements and Conceptual Design for a Polarized Medium Energy Electron-Ion Collider at Jefferson Lab
This report presents a brief summary of the science opportunities and program
of a polarized medium energy electron-ion collider at Jefferson Lab and a
comprehensive description of the conceptual design of such a collider based on
the CEBAF electron accelerator facility.Comment: 160 pages, ~93 figures This work was supported by the U.S. Department
of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Contract No. DE-AC05-06OR23177,
DE-AC02-06CH11357, DE-AC05-060R23177, and DESC0005823. The U.S. Government
retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish
or reproduce this manuscript for U.S. Government purpose
Effects of increased nitrate intake from beetroot juice on blood markers of oxidative stress and inflammation in older adults with hypertension
Background: Vascular oxidative stress and low-grade inflammation are important in the pathology of cardiovascular disorders, including hypertension. Cell culture and animal studies suggest that inorganic dietary nitrate may attenuate oxidative stress and inflammation through nitric oxide (NO), and there is a need to investigate whether this translates to humans. Aim: In this randomised, placebo-controlled crossover study, by measuring a combination of multiple blood biomarkers, we evaluated whether previously reported benefits of dietary nitrate translate to a reduced oxidative stress and an improved inflammation status in 15 men and women (age range: 56â71 years) with treated hypertension. Methods: We investigated the effects of a single âŒ400 mg-dose of nitrate at 3 h post-ingestion (3H POST) and the daily consumption of 2 Ă âŒ400 mg of nitrate over 4 weeks (4WK POST), through nitrate-rich versus nitrate-depleted (placebo) beetroot juice. Measurements included plasma nitrate and nitrite (NOx), oxidised low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL), F2-isoprostanes, protein carbonyls, oxidised (GSSG) and reduced glutathione (GSH); and serum high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), chemokines, cytokines, and adhesion molecules. Flow cytometry was used to assess the relative proportion of blood monocyte subsets. Results: At 4WK POST nitrate intervention, the oxLDL/NOx ratio decreased (mainly due to increases in plasma nitrate and nitrite) and the GSH/GSSG ratio (a sensitive biomarker for alterations in the redox status) increased, compared with placebo (for both ratios P \u3c 0.01). The relative proportion of classical (CD14+CD16â) monocytes decreased at 4WK POST for placebo compared to nitrate intervention (P \u3c 0.05). Other oxidative stress and inflammatory markers were not altered by increased nitrate intake relative to placebo. Conclusions: The data from this study point toward a subtle alteration in the redox balance toward a less pro-oxidative profile by a regular intake of inorganic nitrate from plant foods. Clinical trial registry number: NCT04584372 (ClinicialTrials.gov)
SPICES: Spectro-Polarimetric Imaging and Characterization of Exoplanetary Systems
SPICES (Spectro-Polarimetric Imaging and Characterization of Exoplanetary
Systems) is a five-year M-class mission proposed to ESA Cosmic Vision. Its
purpose is to image and characterize long-period extrasolar planets and
circumstellar disks in the visible (450 - 900 nm) at a spectral resolution of
about 40 using both spectroscopy and polarimetry. By 2020/22, present and
near-term instruments will have found several tens of planets that SPICES will
be able to observe and study in detail. Equipped with a 1.5 m telescope, SPICES
can preferentially access exoplanets located at several AUs (0.5-10 AU) from
nearby stars (25 pc) with masses ranging from a few Jupiter masses to Super
Earths (2 Earth radii, 10 M) as well as circumstellar
disks as faint as a few times the zodiacal light in the Solar System
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