2,103 research outputs found
Experimental investigation of the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect in low-Z targets
In the CERN NA63 collaboration we have addressed the question of the
potential inadequacy of the commonly used Migdal formulation of the
Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect by measuring the photon emission by 20
and 178 GeV electrons in the range 100 MeV - 4 GeV, in targets of
LowDensityPolyEthylene (LDPE), C, Al, Ti, Fe, Cu, Mo and, as a reference
target, Ta. For each target and energy, a comparison between simulated values
based on the LPM suppression of incoherent bremsstrahlung is shown, taking
multi-photon effects into account. For these targets and energies, we find that
Migdal's theoretical formulation is adequate to a precision of better than
about 5%, irrespective of the target substance.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figure
Demonstration of synchronised scanning Lidar measurements of 2D velocity fields in a boundary-layer wind tunnel
This paper combines the currently relevant research methodologies of scaled wind turbine model experiments in wind tunnels with remote-sensing short-range WindScanner Lidar measurement technology. The wind tunnel of the Politecnico di Milano was equipped with three wind turbine models and two short-range WindScanner Lidars to demonstrate the benefits of synchronised scanning Lidars in such experimental surroundings for the first time. The dual- Lidar system can provide fully synchronised trajectory scans with sampling time scales ranging from seconds to minutes. First, staring mode measurements were compared to hot wire probe measurements commonly used in wind tunnels. This yielded goodness of fit coefficients of 0.969 and 0.902 for the 1 Hz averaged u- and v-components of the wind speed, respectively, validating the 2D measurement capability of the Lidar scanners. Subsequently, the measurement of wake profiles on a line as well as wake area scans were executed to illustrate the applicability of Lidar scanning to measuring small scale wind flow effects. The downsides of Lidar with respect to the hot wire probes are the larger measurement probe volume and the loss of some measurements due to moving blades. In contrast, the benefits are the high flexibility in conducting both point measurements and area scanning, and the fact that remote sensing techniques do not disturb the flow while measuring. The research campaign revealed a high potential for using short-range WindScanner Lidar for accurately measuring small scale flow structures in a wind tunnel
Theoretical and experimental signal-to-noise ratio assessment in new direction sensing continuous-wave Doppler lidar
Source control options for reducing emission of priority pollutants from urban areas.
The overall aim of the ScorePP project is to develop comprehensive and appropriate source
control strategies that authorities, cities, water utilities and the chemical industry can employ
to reduce emissions of priority pollutants (PPs) from urban areas into the receiving water
environment. Focus is on the 33 priority and priority hazardous substances and substance
groups identified in the European Water Framework Directive. However, this list may be
expanded to include emerging pollutants or reduced if appropriate model compounds can be
identified. The initial work focuses on 67 substances, including substances identified in the
proposed European environmental quality standard (EQS) directive as well as the defined
example compounds and several organometallic derivatives. Information on inherent
properties, environmental presence and fate, and legislative issues is made available in open
database format, and a data management system combining chemical identification (CAS#),
NACE economic activity classifications and NOSE-P emission source classifications has been
developed as a basis for spatial characterisation of PP sources using GIS. Further work will
focus on dynamic urban scale source-flux models, identifying emission patterns and
optimising monitoring programmes in case studies and multi-criteria comparison of source
control versus end-of-pipe mitigation options in relation to their economic, social and
environmental impacts
Quantitative comparison of electron temperature fluctuations to nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations in C-Mod Ohmic L-mode discharges
Long wavelength turbulent electron temperature fluctuations (k[subscript lower case y]ρ[subscript lower case s] 0.8) of Ohmic L-mode plasmas at Alcator C-Mod [E. S. Marmar et al., Nucl. Fusion 49, 104014 (2009)] with a correlation electron cyclotron emission diagnostic. The relative amplitude and frequency spectrum of the fluctuations are compared quantitatively with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations using the GYRO code [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, J. Comput. Phys. 186, 545 (2003)] in two different confinement regimes: linear Ohmic confinement (LOC) regime and saturated Ohmic confinement (SOC) regime. When comparing experiment with nonlinear simulations, it is found that local, electrostatic ion-scale simulations (k[subscript lower case y]ρ[subscript lower case s] ≲ 1.7) performed at r/a ∼ 0.85 reproduce the experimental ion heat flux levels, electron temperature fluctuation levels, and frequency spectra within experimental error bars. In contrast, the electron heat flux is robustly under-predicted and cannot be recovered by using scans of the simulation inputs within error bars or by using global simulations. If both the ion heat flux and the measured temperature fluctuations are attributed predominantly to long-wavelength turbulence, then under-prediction of electron heat flux strongly suggests that electron scale turbulence is important for transport in C-Mod Ohmic L-mode discharges. In addition, no evidence is found from linear or nonlinear simulations for a clear transition from trapped electron mode to ion temperature gradient turbulence across the LOC/SOC transition, and also there is no evidence in these Ohmic L-mode plasmas of the “Transport Shortfall” [C. Holland et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 052301 (2009)].United States. Department of Energy (Grant No. DE-SC0006419)United States. Department of Energy (Grant No. E-FC02-99ER54512)United States. Department of Energy. Office of Science (Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231
VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy of the afterglow of the Swift GRB 130606A: Chemical abundances and reionisation at
The reionisation of the Universe is thought to have ended around z~6, as
inferred from spectroscopy of distant bright background sources, such as
quasars (QSO) and gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. Furthermore, spectroscopy
of a GRB afterglow provides insight in its host galaxy, which is often too dim
and distant to study otherwise. We present the high S/N VLT/X-shooter spectrum
of GRB130606A at z=5.913. We aim to measure the degree of ionisation of the IGM
between 5.02<z<5.84 and to study the chemical abundance pattern and dust
content of its host galaxy. We measured the flux decrement due to absorption at
Ly, and wavelength regions. The hydrogen and metal
absorption lines formed in the host galaxy were fitted with Voigt profiles to
obtain column densities. Our measurements of the Ly-forest optical
depth are consistent with previous measurements of QSOs, but have a much
smaller uncertainty. The analysis of the red damping wing yields a neutral
fraction (3). We obtain column density measurements of
several elements. The ionisation corrections due to the GRB is estimated to be
negligible (<0.03 dex), but larger corrections may apply due to the
pre-existing radiation field (up to 0.4 dex based on sub-DLA studies). Our
measurements confirm that the Universe is already predominantly ionised over
the redshift range probed in this work, but was slightly more neutral at z>5.6.
GRBs are useful probes of the ionisation state of the IGM in the early
Universe, but because of internal scatter we need a larger statistical sample
to draw robust conclusions. The high [Si/Fe] in the host can be due to dust
depletion, alpha-element enhancement, or a combination of both. The very high
value of [Al/Fe]=2.40+/-0.78 might connected to the stellar population history.
We estimate the host metallicity to be -1.7<[M/H]<-0.9 (2%-13% of solar).
(trunc.)Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure
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