An assessment of the lattice strain in the CrMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloy

The formation of single phase solid solutions from combinations of multiple principal elements, with differing atomic radii, has led to the suggestion that the lattices of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) must be severely distorted. To assess this hypothesis, total scattering measurements using neutron radiation have been performed on the CrMnFeCoNi alloy and compared with similar data from five compositionally simpler materials within the same system. The Bragg diffraction patterns from all of the studied materials were similar, consistent with a face-centered cubic structure, and none showed the pronounced dampening that would be expected from a highly distorted lattice. A more detailed evaluation of the local lattice strain was made by considering the first six coordination shells in the pair distribution functions (PDF), obtained from the total scattering data. Across this range, the HEA exhibited the broadest PDF peaks but these widths were not disproportionately larger than those of the simpler alloys. In addition, of all the materials considered, the HEA was at the highest homologous temperature, and hence the thermal vibrations of the atoms would be greatest. Consequently, the level of local lattice strain required to rationalise a given PDF peak width would be reduced. As a result, the data presented in this study do not indicate that the local lattice strain in the equiatomic CrMnFeCoNi HEA is anomalously large.The authors would like to thank the EPSRC/Rolls-Royce Strategic Partnership for funding (EP/M005607/1 and EP/H022309).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2016.09.03

Design and selection of high entropy alloys for hardmetal matrix applications using a coupled machine learning and CALPHAD methodology

This study aims to utilize a combined machine learning (ML) and CALculation of PHAse Diagrams (CALPHAD) methodology to design hardmetal matrix phases for metal-forming applications that can serve as the basis for carbide reinforcement. The vast compositional space that high entropy alloys (HEAs) occupy offers a promising avenue to satisfy the application design criteria of wear resistance and ductility. To efficiently explore this space, random forest ML models are constructed and trained from publicly available experimental HEA databases to make phase constitution and hardness predictions. Interrogation of the ML models constructed reveals accuracies >78.7% and a mean absolute error of 66.1 HV for phase and hardness predictions respectively. Six promising alloy compositions, extracted from the ML predictions and CALPHAD calculations, are experimentally fabricated and tested. The hardness predictions are found to be systematically under- and overpredicted depending on the alloy microstructure. In parallel, the phase classification models are found to lack sensitivity toward additional intermetallic phase formation. Despite the discrepancies identified between ML and experimental results, the fabricated compositions show promise for further experimental evaluation. These discrepancies are believed to be directly associated with the available databases but, importantly, have highlighted several avenues for both ML and database development

What explains the fall in child stunting in Sub-Saharan Africa?

There have been steep falls in rates of child stunting in much of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using Demographic and Health Survey data, we document significant reductions in stunting in seven SSA countries in the period 2005–2014. For each country, we distinguish potential determinants that move in a direction consistent with having contributed to the reduction in stunting from those that do not. We then decompose the change in stunting and in proximal determinants into a part that can be explained by changes in distal determinants and a residual part that captures the impact of unmeasured factors, such as vertical nutrition programs. We show that increases in coverage of child immunization, deworming medication and maternal iron supplementation often coincide with a fall in stunting. The magnitudes and directions of changes in two other proximal determinants – age-appropriate feeding and diarrhea prevalence – suggest that these have not been strong contributors to the fall in stunting. Utilization of maternity care emerges from the decomposition analysis as the most important distal determinant associated with reduced stunting, and also with increased coverage of iron supplementation, and, to a lesser extent, with child immunization and deworming medication. This circumstantial evidence is strong enough to warrant more detailed investigation of the extent to which maternity care is an effective channel through which to target further attacks on the blight of undernourished children

The composition of the protosolar disk and the formation conditions for comets

Conditions in the protosolar nebula have left their mark in the composition of cometary volatiles, thought to be some of the most pristine material in the solar system. Cometary compositions represent the end point of processing that began in the parent molecular cloud core and continued through the collapse of that core to form the protosun and the solar nebula, and finally during the evolution of the solar nebula itself as the cometary bodies were accreting. Disentangling the effects of the various epochs on the final composition of a comet is complicated. But comets are not the only source of information about the solar nebula. Protostellar disks around young stars similar to the protosun provide a way of investigating the evolution of disks similar to the solar nebula while they are in the process of evolving to form their own solar systems. In this way we can learn about the physical and chemical conditions under which comets formed, and about the types of dynamical processing that shaped the solar system we see today. This paper summarizes some recent contributions to our understanding of both cometary volatiles and the composition, structure and evolution of protostellar disks.Comment: To appear in Space Science Reviews. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-015-0167-

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters