Dark Matter Seeding in Neutron Stars

We present a mechanism that may seed compact stellar objects with stable lumps of quark matter, or {\it strangelets}, through the self-annihilation of gravitationally accreted WIMPs. We show that dark matter particles with masses above a few GeV may provide enough energy in the nuclear medium for quark deconfinement and subsequent strangelet formation. If this happens this effect may then trigger a partial or full conversion of the star into a strange star. We set a new limit on the WIMP mass in the few-GeV range that seems to be consistent with recent indications in dark matter direct detection experiments.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Prepared for 19th Particles and Nuclei International Conference (PANIC 2011), Boston, USA 25-29 Jul 201

Thermal measurements of microwave transmitter feedhorn window

Thermal measurements of microwave transmitter feedhorn windows were performed using an imaging infrared radiometer. The measurement technique is described and results are presented for windows made of 0.001-in. Kapton (trademark of Dupont Chemical Co.) and 0.1-in. HTP-6 (Space Shuttle tile material). Measured and calculated temperatures agree well