Oxygen sparging of residue salts

Oxygen sparge is a process for treating salt residues at Los Alamos National Laboratory by sparging oxygen through molten salts. Oxygen reacts with the plutonium trichloride in these salts to form plutonium dioxide. There is further reaction of the plutonium dioxide with plutonium metal and the molten salt to form plutonium oxychloride. Both of the oxide plutonium species are insoluble in the salt and collect atthe bottom of the crucible. This results in a decrease of a factor of 2--3 in the amount of salt that must be treated, and the amount of waste generated by aqueous treatment methods

Cold Nuclear Matter Effects on Dijet Productions in Relativistic Heavy-ion Reactions at LHC

We investigate the cold nuclear matter(CNM) effects on dijet productions in high-energy nuclear collisions at LHC with the next-to-leading order perturbative QCD. The nuclear modifications for dijet angular distributions, dijet invariant mass spectra, dijet transverse momentum spectra and dijet momentum imbalance due to CNM effects are calculated by incorporating EPS, EKS, HKN and DS param-etrization sets of parton distributions in nucleus . It is found that dijet angular distributions and dijet momentum imbalance are insensitive to the initial-state CNM effects and thus provide optimal tools to study the final-state hot QGP effects such as jet quenching. On the other hand, the invariant mass spectra and the transverse momentum spectra of dijet are generally enhanced in a wide region of the invariant mass or transverse momentum due to CNM effects with a feature opposite to the expected suppression because of the final-state parton energy loss effect in the QGP. The difference of EPS, EKS, HKN and DS parametrization sets of nuclear parton distribution functions is appreciable for dijet invariant mass spectra and transverse momentum spectra at p+Pb collisions, and becomes more pronounced for those at Pb+Pb reactions.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Quantum walk on distinguishable non-interacting many-particles and indistinguishable two-particle

We present an investigation of many-particle quantum walks in systems of non-interacting distinguishable particles. Along with a redistribution of the many-particle density profile we show that the collective evolution of the many-particle system resembles the single-particle quantum walk evolution when the number of steps is greater than the number of particles in the system. For non-uniform initial states we show that the quantum walks can be effectively used to separate the basis states of the particle in position space and grouping like state together. We also discuss a two-particle quantum walk on a two- dimensional lattice and demonstrate an evolution leading to the localization of both particles at the center of the lattice. Finally we discuss the outcome of a quantum walk of two indistinguishable particles interacting at some point during the evolution.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, To appear in special issue: "quantum walks" to be published in Quantum Information Processin

QCD Factorized Drell-Yan Cross Section at Large Transverse Momentum

We derive a new factorization formula in perturbative quantum chromodynamics for the Drell-Yan massive lepton-pair cross section as a function of the transverse momentum $Q_T$ of the pair. When $Q_T$ is much larger than the pair's invariant mass $Q$, this factorization formula systematically resums the logarithmic contributions of the type $\alpha_s^m \ln^m(Q_T^2/Q^2)$ to all orders in the strong coupling $\alpha_s$. When $Q_T\sim Q$, our formula yields the same Drell-Yan cross section as conventional fixed order QCD perturbation theory. We show that resummation is important when the collision energy $\sqrt{S}$ is large enough and $Q_T\gg Q$, and we argue that perturbative expansions are more stable and reliable in terms of the modified factorization formula.Comment: 36 pages, latex, including 16 figure

Global QCD Analysis and the CTEQ Parton Distributions

The CTEQ program for the determination of parton distributions through a global QCD analysis of data for various hard scattering processes is fully described. A new set of distributions, CTEQ3, incorporating several new types of data is reported and compared to the two previous sets of CTEQ distributions. Comparison with current data is discussed in some detail. The remaining uncertainties in the parton distributions and methods to further reduce them are assessed. Comparisons with the results of other global analyses are also presented.Comment: (Change in Latex style only: 2up style removed since many don't have it.) 35 pages, 23 figures separately submitted as uuencoded compressed ps-file; Michigan State Report # MSU-HEP/41024 and CTEQ 40

Inclusive Dijet Production at HERA: Direct Photon Cross Sections in Next-To-Leading Order QCD

We have calculated inclusive two-jet cross sections in next-to-leading order QCD for direct photoproduction in low $Q^2$ $ep$ collisions at HERA. Infrared and collinear singularities in real and virtual contributions are cancelled with the phase space slicing method. Analytical formulas for the different contributions giving the dependence on the slicing parameter are presented. Various one- and two-jet distributions have been computed demonstrating the flexibility of the method.Comment: 30 pages, latex, 11 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Solar Wind Turbulence and the Role of Ion Instabilities

International audienc

Origins of the Ambient Solar Wind: Implications for Space Weather

The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal heating and the acceleration of the ambient solar wind. We also discuss where the community stands in its ability to forecast how variations in the solar wind (i.e., fast and slow wind streams) impact the Earth. Although the last few decades have seen significant progress in observations and modeling, we still do not have a complete understanding of the relevant physical processes, nor do we have a quantitatively precise census of which coronal structures contribute to specific types of solar wind. Fast streams are known to be connected to the central regions of large coronal holes. Slow streams, however, appear to come from a wide range of sources, including streamers, pseudostreamers, coronal loops, active regions, and coronal hole boundaries. Complicating our understanding even more is the fact that processes such as turbulence, stream-stream interactions, and Coulomb collisions can make it difficult to unambiguously map a parcel measured at 1 AU back down to its coronal source. We also review recent progress -- in theoretical modeling, observational data analysis, and forecasting techniques that sit at the interface between data and theory -- that gives us hope that the above problems are indeed solvable.Comment: Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Special issue connected with a 2016 ISSI workshop on "The Scientific Foundations of Space Weather." 44 pages, 9 figure

Quantum walks: a comprehensive review

Quantum walks, the quantum mechanical counterpart of classical random walks, is an advanced tool for building quantum algorithms that has been recently shown to constitute a universal model of quantum computation. Quantum walks is now a solid field of research of quantum computation full of exciting open problems for physicists, computer scientists, mathematicians and engineers. In this paper we review theoretical advances on the foundations of both discrete- and continuous-time quantum walks, together with the role that randomness plays in quantum walks, the connections between the mathematical models of coined discrete quantum walks and continuous quantum walks, the quantumness of quantum walks, a summary of papers published on discrete quantum walks and entanglement as well as a succinct review of experimental proposals and realizations of discrete-time quantum walks. Furthermore, we have reviewed several algorithms based on both discrete- and continuous-time quantum walks as well as a most important result: the computational universality of both continuous- and discrete- time quantum walks.Comment: Paper accepted for publication in Quantum Information Processing Journa

Hadron Production in Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering

Characteristics of hadron production in diffractive deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering are studied using data collected in 1994 by the H1 experiment at HERA. The following distributions are measured in the centre-of-mass frame of the photon dissociation system: the hadronic energy flow, the Feynman-x (x_F) variable for charged particles, the squared transverse momentum of charged particles (p_T^{*2}), and the mean p_T^{*2} as a function of x_F. These distributions are compared with results in the gamma^* p centre-of-mass frame from inclusive deep-inelastic scattering in the fixed-target experiment EMC, and also with the predictions of several Monte Carlo calculations. The data are consistent with a picture in which the partonic structure of the diffractive exchange is dominated at low Q^2 by hard gluons.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.