Survey of degradation modes of candidate materials for high-level radioactive-waste disposal containers; Overview

Three iron- to nickel-based austenitic alloys and three copper-based alloys are being considered as candidate materials for the fabrication of high-level radioactive-waste disposal containers. The austenitic alloys are Types 304L and 316L stainless steels and the high-nickel material Alloy 825. The copper-based alloys are CDA 102 (oxygen-free copper), CDA 613 (Cu-7Al), and CDA 715 (Cu-30Ni). Waste in the forms of both spent fuel assemblies from reactors and borosilicate glass will be sent to the prospective repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The decay of radionuclides will result in the generation of substantial heat and gamma radiation. Container materials may undergo any of several modes of degradation in this environment, including undesirable phase transformations due to a lack of phase stability; atmospheric oxidation; general aqueous corrosion; pitting; crevice corrosion; intergranular stress corrosion cracking; and transgranular stress corrosion cracking. Problems specific to welds, such as hot cracking, may also occur. A survey of the literature has been prepared as part of the process of selecting, from among the candidates, a material that is adequate for repository conditions. The modes of degradation are discussed in detail in the survey to determine which apply to the candidate alloys and the extent to which they may actually occur. The eight volumes of the survey are summarized in Sections 1 through 8 of this overview. The conclusions drawn from the survey are also given in this overview

Design and Fabrication of a Radiation-Hard 500-MHz Digitizer Using Deep Submicron Technology

The proposed International Linear Collider (ILC) will use tens of thousands of beam position monitors (BPMs) for precise beam alignment. The signal from each BPM is digitized and processed for feedback control. We proposed the development of an 11-bit (effective) digitizer with 500 MHz bandwidth and 2 G samples/s. The digitizer was somewhat beyond the state-of-the-art. Moreover we planned to design the digitizer chip using the deep-submicron technology with custom transistors that had proven to be very radiation hard (up to at least 60 Mrad). The design mitigated the need for costly shielding and long cables while providing ready access to the electronics for testing and maintenance. In FY06 as we prepared to submit a chip with test circuits and a partial ADC circuit we found that IBM had changed the availability of our chosen IC fabrication process (IBM 6HP SiGe BiCMOS), making it unaffordable for us, at roughly 3 times the previous price. This prompted us to change our design to the IBM 5HPE process with 0.35 µm feature size. We requested funding for FY07 to continue the design work and submit the first prototype chip. Unfortunately, the funding was not continued and we will summarize below the work accomplished so far

Study of the Radiation Hardness of VCSEL and PIN Arrays

The silicon trackers of the ATLAS experiment at LHC (CERN) use optical links for data transmission. VCSEL arrays operating at 850 nm are used to transmit optical signals while PIN arrays are used to convert the optical signals into electrical signals. We investigate the feasibility of using the devices at the Super LHC (SLHC). We irradiated VCSEL and GaAs PIN arrays from three vendors and silicon PIN arrays from one vendor. All arrays can be operated up to the SLHC dosage except the GaAs PIN arrays which have very low responsivities after irradiation and hence are probably not suitable for the SLHC application

Search for the Decay τ−→4pi−3π+(π0)ντ\tau^{-}\to 4pi^{-}3\pi^{+}(\pi^{0})\nu_{\tau}

We have searched for the decay of the tau lepton into seven charged particles and zero or one pi0. The data used in the search were collected with the CLEO II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.61 fb^(-1). No evidence for a signal is found. Assuming all the charged particles are pions, we set an upper limit on the branching fraction, B(tau- -> 4pi- 3pi+ (pi0) nu_tau) < 2.4 x 10^(-6) at the 90% confidence level. This limit represents a significant improvement over the previous limit.Comment: 9 page postscript file, postscript file also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

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

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 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