160,290 research outputs found
Nuclear Structure Aspects of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
We decompose the neutrinoless double-beta decay matrix elements into sums of
products over the intermediate nucleus with two less nucleons. We find that the
sum is dominated by the J^pi=0^+ ground state of this intermediate nucleus for
both the light and heavy neutrino decay processes. This provides a new
theoretical tool for comparing and improving nuclear structure models. It also
provides the connection to two-nucleon transfer experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Cosmological constraints from Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster counts: an approach to account for missing redshifts
The accumulation of redshifts provides a significant observational bottleneck
when using galaxy cluster surveys to constrain cosmological parameters. We
propose a simple method to allow the use of samples where there is a fraction
of the redshifts that are not known. The simplest assumption is that the
missing redshifts are randomly extracted from the catalogue, but the method
also allows one to take into account known selection effects in the
accumulation of redshifts. We quantify the reduction in statistical precision
of cosmological parameter constraints as a function of the fraction of missing
redshifts for simulated surveys, and also investigate the impact of making an
incorrect assumption for the distribution of missing redshifts.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Ap
Coaxial Atomic Force Microscope Tweezers
We demonstrate coaxial atomic force microscope (AFM) tweezers that can trap
and place small objects using dielectrophoresis (DEP). An attractive force is
generated at the tip of a coaxial AFM probe by applying a radio frequency
voltage between the center conductor and a grounded shield; the origin of the
force is found to be DEP by measuring the pull-off force vs. applied voltage.
We show that the coaxial AFM tweezers (CAT) can perform three dimensional
assembly by picking up a specified silica microsphere, imaging with the
microsphere at the end of the tip, and placing it at a target destination.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, in review at Applied Physics Letter
Characterization of a spheromak plasma gun: The effect of refractory electrode coatings
In order to investigate the proposition that high-Z impurities are responsible for the anomalously short lifetime of the Caltech spheromak, the center electrode of the spheromak plasma gun has been coated with a variety of metals (bare steel, copper, nickel, chromium, rhodium, and tungsten). Visible light (230β890 nm) emitted directly from the plasma in the gun breech was monitored for each of the coated electrodes. Plasma density and temperature and spheromak lifetime were compared for each electrode. Results indicate little difference in gun performance or macroscopic plasma parameters. The chromium and tungsten electrodes performed marginally better in that a previously reported helicity injection effect [Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 2144 (1990)] is only observed in discharges using these electrode coatings. There are subtle differences in the detailed line emission spectra from the different electrodes, but the spectra are remarkably similar. The fact that (1) contrary to expectations, attempts to reduce high-Z impurities had only marginal effect on the spheromak lifetime coupled with (2) an estimate of Zeff<2 based on a 0-D model suggests that it is not impurities but some other mechanism that limits the lifetime of small, cold spheromaks. We will discuss the general characteristics of the spheromak gun as well as effects due to the coatings
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