Recent Progress in Double Beta Decay

At least one neutrino has a mass of about 50 meV or larger. However, the absolute mass scale for the neutrino remains unknown. Studies of double beta decay offer hope for determining the absolute mass scale. Furthermore, the critical question: Is the neutrino its own antiparticle? is unanswered. In particular, zero-neutrino double beta decay can address the issues of lepton number conservation, the particle-antiparticle nature of the neutrino, and its mass. A summary of the recent progress in double beta decay, and the related technologies will be discussed in the context of the future double beta decay program.Comment: Invited submission to Mod. Phys. Lett.

Lessons Learned in Eurasia Ministry: Mostly the Hard Way

The present article is based on a speech delivered at a conference of the United Methodist Church: “Eurasia-Central Asia – In Mission Together,” Fulton, Maryland, May 5, 2017

Digital program analyzes supersonic flow field within bell-shaped rocket nozzles

Digital computer program computes and analyzes supersonic flow field in axisymmetric rocket nozzle for specified gas properties, nozzle geometry, and input or starting line. Method of characteristics is used for solution of set of hyperbolic partial differential equations

A Concept for Exploring Western Music Tonality in Physical Space

Musical theory about the structure and morphology of Western tonality is quite difficult to teach to young children, due to the relatively complex mathematical concepts behind tonality. Children usually grasp the concepts of musical harmony intuitively through listening to music examples. Placing the 12 notes of the well-tempered scale into a spatial arrangement, in which the proximity of these notes represents their mutual harmonic relationship, would allow to link physical motion through a spatial area with the exploration of music tonality. Music theorists have postulated the Circle of Fifth, the “Spiral Array”, and the “Tonnetz” as paradigms for spatial arrangements of music notes which allow mapping the distance between notes onto their “mutual consonance”. These approaches mostly have been of qualitative nature, leaving the actual numeric parameters of the spatial description undetermined. In this paper, these parameters have been determined, leading to a concrete numerical description of the planar Tonnetz. This allows the design of a physical space in which the music notes are distributed in space according to their musical consonance. Set up in an outdoor area, handheld devices (e.g. PDA) with integrated Global Positioning System can be used to play these notes at their actual physical location. This makes it possible for children to explore this musical space by moving through the real spatial area and experience the relationships of the notes through their proximity. Defining a range for each note as a circular area around each note location, consonant chords can be produced in those areas where those circles overlap. Using this concept, games can be developed in which the listeners have to perform certain tasks related to this musical space. This appears to be a promising approach for the music education of young children who can intuitively learn about music morphology without being explicitly taught about the complex theoretical mathematical background

Solar neutrino interactions with the double beta decay nuclei of 82^{82}Se, 100^{100}Mo and 150^{150}Nd

Solar neutrinos interact within double-beta decay (\BB) detectors and contribute to backgrounds for \BB\ experiments. Background contributions due to solar neutrino interactions with \BB\ nuclei of $^{82}$Se, $^{100}$Mo, and $^{150}$Nd are evaluated. They are shown to be significant for future high-sensitivity \BB\ experiments that may search for Majorana neutrino masses in the inverted-hierarchy mass region. The impact of solar neutrino backgrounds and their reduction are discussed for future \BB\ experiments.Comment: submitted to PR

Evaluation of turbulence induced noise in coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering

The effect of turbulence in a transonic wind tunnel on coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering is considered. The driving pump and Stokes waves are taken to be coaxially propagating Gaussian beam waves which are focused on the Raman active medium through the turbulent boundary layer of the flow tube. The random index of refraction variations in the layer are modeled as phase perturbations of the driving waves which cause a reduction of the mean on-axis field and an increase in the mean diameter of the beams. Effective Gaussian beam parameters are developed and the radiated anti-Stokes power calculated as a function of the phase screen parameters. A significant reduction in signal strength occurs for realistic estimates of the phase screen parameter appropriate to a confined transonic flow. A method for estimating the signal degradation which could be applied to other experimental situations is presented