Feasibility investigation of a low-temperature, variable infrared source. Horizon definition study

Feasibility of low temperature, variable infrared source - calibration of instrumentation used in defining earth horizo

Comment on "Bounding and approximating parabolas for the spectrum of Heisenberg spin systems" by Schmidt, Schnack and Luban

Recently, Schmidt et al. proved that the energy spectrum of a Heisenberg spin system (HSS) is bounded by two parabolas, i.e. lines which depend on the total spin quantum number S as S(S+1). The prove holds for homonuclear HSSs which fulfill a weak homogenity condition. Moreover, the extremal values of the exact spectrum of various HSS which were studied numerically were found to lie on approximate parabolas, named rotational bands, which could be obtained by a shift of the boundary parabolas. In view of this, it has been claimed that the rotational band structure (RBS) of the energy spectrum is a general behavior of HSSs. Furthermore, since the approximate parabolas are very close to the true boundaries of the spectrum for the examples discussed, it has been claimed that the methods allow to predict the detailed shape of the spectrum and related properties for a general HSS. In this comment I will show by means of examples that the RBS hypothesis is not valid for general HSSs. In particular, weak homogenity is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for a HSS to exhibit a spectrum with RBS.Comment: Comments on the work of Schmidt et al, Europhys. Lett. 55, 105 (2001), cond-mat/0101228 (for the reply see cond-mat/0111581). To be published in Europhys. Let

Simulation of Thematic Mapper performance as a function of sensor scanning parameters

The investigation and results of the Thematic Mapper Instrument Performance Study are described. The Thematic Mapper is the advanced multispectral scanner initially planned for the Earth Observation Satellite and now planned for LANDSAT D. The use of existing digital airborne scanner data obtained with the Modular Multispectral Scanner (M2S) at Bendix provided an opportunity to simulate the effects of variation of design parameters of the Thematic Mapper. Analysis and processing of this data on the Bendix Multispectral Data Analysis System were used to empirically determine categorization performance on data generated with variations of the sampling period and scan overlap parameters of the Thematic Mapper. The Bendix M2S data, with a 2.5 milliradian instantaneous field of view and a spatial resolution (pixel size) of 10-m from 13,000 ft altitude, allowed a direct simulation of Thematic Mapper data with a 30-m resolution. The flight data chosen were obtained on 30 June 1973 over agricultural test sites in Indiana

Hourly Variability in Q0957+561

We have continued our effort to re-reduce archival Q0957+561 brightness monitoring data and present results for 1629 R-band images using the methods for galaxy subtraction and seeing correction reported previously. The new dataset comes from 4 observing runs, several nights apiece, with sampling of typically 5 minutes, which allows the first measurement of the structure function for variations in the R-band from timescales of hours to years. Comparison of our reductions to previous reductions of the same data, and to r-band photometry produced at Apache Point Observatory shows good overall agreement. Two of the data runs, separated by 417 days, permit a sharpened value for the time delay of 417.4 days, valid only if the time delay is close to the now-fashionable 417-day value; our data do not constrain a delay if it is more than three days from this 417-day estimate. Our present results show no unambiguous signature of the daily microlensing, though a suggestive feature is found in the data. Both time delay measurement and microlensing searches suffer from from the lack of sampling at half-day offsets, inevitable at a single observatory, hence the need for round-the-clock monitoring with participation by multiple observatories.Comment: AASTeX 4.0 preprint style, 21 pages, 8 EPS figure

Correctness of an STM Haskell implementation

A concurrent implementation of software transactional memory in Concurrent Haskell using a call-by-need functional language with processes and futures is given. The description of the small-step operational semantics is precise and explicit, and employs an early abort of conflicting transactions. A proof of correctness of the implementation is given for a contextual semantics with may- and should-convergence. This implies that our implementation is a correct evaluator for an abstract specification equipped with a big-step semantics

Emittance measurement study

Directional spectral emittance of black body cavitie

Reduced basis method for source mask optimization

Image modeling and simulation are critical to extending the limits of leading edge lithography technologies used for IC making. Simultaneous source mask optimization (SMO) has become an important objective in the field of computational lithography. SMO is considered essential to extending immersion lithography beyond the 45nm node. However, SMO is computationally extremely challenging and time-consuming. The key challenges are due to run time vs. accuracy tradeoffs of the imaging models used for the computational lithography. We present a new technique to be incorporated in the SMO flow. This new approach is based on the reduced basis method (RBM) applied to the simulation of light transmission through the lithography masks. It provides a rigorous approximation to the exact lithographical problem, based on fully vectorial Maxwell's equations. Using the reduced basis method, the optimization process is divided into an offline and an online steps. In the offline step, a RBM model with variable geometrical parameters is built self-adaptively and using a Finite Element (FEM) based solver. In the online step, the RBM model can be solved very fast for arbitrary illumination and geometrical parameters, such as dimensions of OPC features, line widths, etc. This approach dramatically reduces computational costs of the optimization procedure while providing accuracy superior to the approaches involving simplified mask models. RBM furthermore provides rigorous error estimators, which assure the quality and reliability of the reduced basis solutions. We apply the reduced basis method to a 3D SMO example. We quantify performance, computational costs and accuracy of our method.Comment: BACUS Photomask Technology 201

Modelling of Breathing Phenomena within Large Storage Tanks During Rapid Cooling with Ambient Rain

Storage tanks in the process industry are often filled with hazardous media under atmospheric conditions. Due to heavy rain showers the tank content is cooled down and the system temperature drops significantly. During this process the pressure decreases and condensate forms. It is known that “vacuum” can cause serious damage on storage tanks due to undersized venting devices. To describe the transient storage tank behaviour modelling of complex inbreathing fluid flow, heat transfer, condensation, retrograde gas states or thermodynamic nonequilibrium is needed. Conservative sizing of protection devices for storage tanks is only possible if the influencing phenomena and their couplings are well understood. The influence of heat transfer through film condensation as an example phenomenon is mentioned by several authors in science and industry, but not included in common models. With the new approach of ARTEM (advanced reactor and storage tank emission model) phenomena, like condensation or complex heat transfer will be considered for transient vessel venting. Experience and preparatory work have shown that detailed modelling with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tools is necessary to analyse the complex multiscale phenomena accurately and in sufficient detail. As a first step towards ARTEM, an analytical parameter study on tank breathing with common sizing models and a CFD study on heat transfer through a tank wall is presented