Gimbal bearing design considerations and friction control

The design considerations of bearing selection, bearing fits, bearing installation, and thermal control are discussed for a gimbal with a high stiffness, low friction torque requirement. Tradeoffs between a quad set of small diameter spread apart or a large diameter bearing pair resulted in a cleaner, lighter, stiffer unit with the latter selection. Bearing fits were designed to eliminate clearances with tolerances of .00127 mm 00005 in) on the bearing shafts and housings. The problems in metrology are discussed and a perferred technique for measurement of small cross-section bearings described. A technique for installation to assure proper seating of the bearing is offered. Where transient thermal conditions are involved, a method of controlling bearing friction by active control of bearing temperature gradients including the use of bearing unload test curves is described

Resistless high resolution optical lithography on silicon

In this letter, we report on the high resolution patterning of a silicon surface without using a resist layer. A hydrogen passivated silicon surface is chemically modified by illumination with ultraviolet light (UV, λ=350.7 nm) in air. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) revealed that silicon oxide was formed at the illuminated areas. A light interference pattern was made on the silicon surface by two UV laser beams, oxidation occurred only at the maximum intensity, but not at the minimum. In this way oxide lines were fabricated with a width below 200 nm on a 500 nm period. The oxide lines were used as a wet etch mask to etch more than 25 nm into Si(110) without affecting the oxide. The advantage of this technique is that it is a very simple process which allows the high resolution patterning over large areas of silicon without using a resist

A New Universality for Random Sequential Deposition of Needles

Percolation and jamming phenomena are investigated for random sequential deposition of rectangular needles on $d=2$ square lattices. Associated thresholds $p_c^{perc}$ and $p_c^{jam}$ are determined for various needle sizes. Their ratios $p_c^{perc} / p_c^{jam}$ are found to be a constant $0.62 \pm 0.01$ for all sizes. In addition the ratio of jamming thresholds for respectively square blocks and needles is also found to be a constant $0.79 \pm 0.01$. These constants exhibit some universal connexion in the geometry of jamming and percolation for both anisotropic shapes (needles versus square lattices) and isotropic shapes (square blocks on square lattices). A universal empirical law is proposed for all three thresholds as a function of $a$.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 4 eps figures include

Nanometer lithography on silicon and hydrogenated amorphous silicon with low-energy electrons

We report the local oxidation of hydrogen terminated silicon (Si) surfaces induced with the scanning-tunneling microscope (STM) operating in air and by a beam of free low-energy electrons. With STM, oxide lines were written in Si(100) and Si(110) and transferred into the substrate by wet etching. In case of Si(110) trenches with a width as small as 35 nm and a depth of 300 nm were made. The same process has also successfully been applied to the patterning of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films. We demonstrate the fabrication of metallic ‘nanowires’ using a-Si:H as resist layer. With regard to the process of oxidation, it is found that the oxide written with STM is apparently not proportional to the electron current, in contrast to results obtained with a beam of free electrons in an oxygen gas-environment. The dose needed to remove the hydrogen was determined as a function of electron energy. This dose is minimal for 100 eV electrons amounting to 4 mC/cm2

Pulsar-black hole binaries: prospects for new gravity tests with future radio telescopes

The anticipated discovery of a pulsar in orbit with a black hole is expected to provide a unique laboratory for black hole physics and gravity. In this context, the next generation of radio telescopes, like the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), with their unprecedented sensitivity, will play a key role. In this paper, we investigate the capability of future radio telescopes to probe the spacetime of a black hole and test gravity theories, by timing a pulsar orbiting a stellar-mass-black-hole (SBH). Based on mock data simulations, we show that a few years of timing observations of a sufficiently compact pulsar-SBH (PSR-SBH) system with future radio telescopes would allow precise measurements of the black hole mass and spin. A measurement precision of one per cent can be expected for the spin. Measuring the quadrupole moment of the black hole, needed to test GR's no-hair theorem, requires extreme system configurations with compact orbits and a large SBH mass. Additionally, we show that a PSR-SBH system can lead to greatly improved constraints on alternative gravity theories even if they predict black holes (practically) identical to GR's. This is demonstrated for a specific class of scalar-tensor theories. Finally, we investigate the requirements for searching for PSR-SBH systems. It is shown that the high sensitivity of the next generation of radio telescopes is key for discovering compact PSR-SBH systems, as it will allow for sufficiently short survey integration times.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRA

Singularity free cosmological solutions of Einstein-Maxwell equations

We report on a new two-parameter class of cosmological solutions to the Einstein-Maxwell equations. The solutions have everywhere regular curvature invariants. We prove that the solutions are geodesically complete and globally hyperbolic.Comment: 8 pages,latex; v2 some typos correcte

Diamagnetic Phase Transition and Phase Diagrams in Beryllium

The model of diamagnetic phase transition in beryllium which takes into account the quasi 2-dimensional shape of the Fermi surface of beryllium is proposed. It explains correctly the recent experimental data on observation of non-homogeneous phase in beryllium at the conditions of strong dHvA effect when the strong correlation of electron gas results in instability of homogeneous phase and formation of Condon domain structure.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Recycling Pulsars: spins, masses and ages

Although the first millisecond pulsars (MSPs) were discovered 30 years ago we still do not understand all details of their formation process. Here, we present new results from Tauris, Langer & Kramer (2012) on the recycling scenario leading to radio MSPs with helium or carbon-oxygen white dwarf companions via evolution of low- and intermediate mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs, IMXBs). We discuss the location of the spin-up line in the (P,Pdot)-diagram and estimate the amount of accreted mass needed to obtain a given spin period and compare with observations. Finally, we constrain the true ages of observed recycled pulsars via calculated isochrones in the (P,Pdot)-diagram.Comment: Contributed talk, Proceedings of IAUS 291 "Neutron Stars and Pulsars: Challenges and Opportunities after 80 years", J. van Leeuwen (ed.); 4 pages, 2 figure