Survey of CELSS Concepts and Preliminary Research in Japan

Agricultural and other experiments relating to the development of a controlled ecological life support system (CELSS) were proposed. The engineering feasibility of each proposal was investigated by a CELSS experiment concept met study group. The CELSS experiment concept to clarify the goals of CELSS and to determine three phases to achieve the goals. The resulting phases, or missions, and preliminary proposals and studies needed to develop a CELSS are described

The applicability of the catalytic wet-oxidation to CELSS

The wet oxidation catalysis of Au, Pd, Pt, Rh or Ru on a ceramic honeycomb carrier was traced in detail by 16 to 20 repetitive batch tests each. As a result, Pt or Pd on a honeycomb carrier was shown to catalyze complete nitrogen gasification as N2. Though the catalysts which realize both complete nitrogen gasification and complete oxidation could not be found, the Ru+Rh catalyst was found to be most promising. Ru honeycomb catalyzed both nitrification and nitrogen gasification

Conformal Sigma Models with Anomalous Dimensions and Ricci Solitons

We present new non-Ricci-flat Kahler metrics with U(N) and O(N) isometries as target manifolds of superconformally invariant sigma models with an anomalous dimension. They are so-called Ricci solitons, special solutions to a Ricci-flow equation. These metrics explicitly contain the anomalous dimension and reduce to Ricci-flat Kahler metrics on the canonical line bundles over certain coset spaces in the limit of vanishing anomalous dimension.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Charged Particle Dynamics in the Field of a Slowly Rotating Compact Star

We study the dynamics of a charged particle in the field of a slowly rotating compact star in the gravitoelectromagnetic approximation to the geodesic equation . The star is assumed to be surrounded by an ideal, highly conducting plasma (taken as a magnetohydrodynamic fluid) with a stationary, axially symmetric electromagnetic field. The general relativistic Maxwell equations are solved to obtain the effects of the background spacetime on the electromagnetic field in the linearized Kerr spacetime. The equations of motion are then set up and solved numerically to incorporate the gravitational as well as the electromagnetic effects. The analysis shows that in the slow rotation approximation the frame dragging effects on the electromagnetic field are absent. However the particle is directly effected by the rotating gravitational source such that close to the star the gravitational and electromagnetic field produce contrary effects on the particle's trajectory.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures in B & W PostScript Forma

High-temperature, high-pressure spherical segment valve Patent

High-temperature, high-pressure spherical segment valv

Cool White Dwarfs Found in the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey

We present the results of a search for cool white dwarfs in the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT) Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS). The UKIDSS LAS photometry was paired with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to identify cool hydrogen-rich white dwarf candidates by their neutral optical colors and blue near-infrared colors, as well as faint Reduced Proper Motion magnitudes. Optical spectroscopy was obtained at Gemini Observatory, and showed the majority of the candidates to be newly identified cool degenerates, with a small number of G- to K-type (sub)dwarf contaminants. Our initial search of 280 deg2 of sky resulted in seven new white dwarfs with effective temperature T_eff ~ 6000 K. The current followup of 1400 deg2 of sky has produced thirteen new white dwarfs. Model fits to the photometry show that seven of the newly identified white dwarfs have 4120 K <= T_eff <= 4480 K, and cooling ages between 7.3 Gyr and 8.7 Gyr; they have 40 km/s <= v_tan <= 85 km/s and are likely to be thick disk 10-11 Gyr-old objects. The other half of the sample has 4610 K <= T_eff <= 5260 K, cooling ages between 4.3 Gyr and 6.9 Gyr, and 60 km/s <= v_tan <= 100 km/s. These are either thin disk remnants with unusually high velocities, or lower-mass remnants of thick disk or halo late-F or G stars.Comment: To appear in ApJ, accepted April 18 2011. 34 pages include 11 Figures and 5 Table

Phase transition in Pr0.5Ca0.5CoO3 and related cobaltites

We present an extensive investigation (magnetic, electric and thermal measurements and X-ray absorption spectroscopy) of the Pr0.5Ca0.5CoO3 and (Pr1-yYy)0.7Ca0.3CoO3 (y=0.0625-0.15) perovskites, in which a peculiar metal-insulator (M-I) transition, accompanied with pronounced structural and magnetic anomalies, occurs at 76 K and 40-132 K, respectively. The inspection of the M-I transition using the XANES data of Pr L3-edge and Co K-edge proofs the presence of Pr4+ ions at low temperatures and indicates simultaneously the intermediate spin to low spin crossover of Co species on lowering the temperature. The study thus definitively confirms the synchronicity of the electron transfer between Pr3+ ions and Co^(3+/4+)O3 subsystem and the transition to the low-spin, less electrically conducting phase. The large extent of the transfer is evidenced by the good quantitative agreement of the determined amount of the Pr4+ species, obtained either from the temperature dependence of the XANES spectra or via integration of the magnetic entropy change over the Pr4+ related Schottky peak in the low-temperature specific heat. These results show that the average valence of Pr3+/Pr4+ ions increases (in concomitance with the decrease of the formal Co valence) below TMI for (Pr0.925Y0.075)0.7Ca0.3CoO3 up to 3.16+ (the doping level of the CoO3 subsystem decreases from 3.30+ to 3.20+), for (Pr0.85Y0.15)0.7Ca0.3CoO3 up to 3.28+ (the decrease of doping level from 3.30+ to 3.13+) and for Pr0.5Ca0.5CoO3 up to 3.46+ (the decrease of doping level from 3.50+ to 3.27+).Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure