Comment on "Constraints on proton structure from precision atomic physics measurements"

We strongly disagree with the procedure used in a recent paper to extract the Zemach moment for hydrogen.Comment: 1 page, 2 figures, revtex - submitted to Physical Review Letter

Muonic Hydrogen and the Third Zemach Moment

We determine the third Zemach moment of hydrogen (_(2)) using only the world data on elastic electron-proton scattering. This moment dominates the O (Z alpha)^5 hadronic correction to the Lamb shift in muonic atoms. The resulting moment, _(2) = 2.71(13) fm^3, is somewhat larger than previously inferred values based on models. The contribution of that moment to the muonic hydrogen 2S level is -0.0247(12) meV.Comment: 3 pages, no figures, revtex - submitted to Physical Review

On the dependence of the wave function of a bound nucleon on its momentum and the EMC effect

It is widely discussed in the literature that the wave function of the nucleon bound in a nucleus is modified due to the interaction with the surrounding medium. We argue that the modification should strongly depend on the momentum of the nucleon. We study such an effect in the case of the point-like configuration component of the wave function of a nucleon bound in a nucleus A, considering the case of arbitrary final state of the spectator A-1 system. We show that for non relativistic values of the nucleon momentum, the momentum dependence of the nucleon deformation appears to follow from rather general considerations and discuss the implications of our theoretical observation for two different phenomena: i) the search for medium induced modifications of the nucleon radius of a bound nucleon through the measurement of the electromagnetic nucleon form factors via the A(e,e'p)X process, and ii) the A-dependence of the EMC effect; in this latter case we also present a new method of estimating the fraction of the nucleus light-cone momentum carried by the photons and find that in a heavy nuclei protons loose about 2% of their momentum.Comment: 38 pages, 1 figure; changed references and text in Section I (Introduction

Effect of kinematics on final state interactions in (e,e'p) reactions

Recent data from experiment E97-006 at TJNAF using the 12C(e,e'p) reaction at very large missing energies and momenta are compared to a calculation of two-step rescattering. A comparison between parallel and perpendicular kinematics suggests that the effects of final state interactions can be strongly reduced in the former case.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, submitted to LP

Detection of Methyl Radicals in a Flat Flame by Degenerate Four-Wave Mixing

We report the spatially resolved detection of methyl radicals in a methane–air f lat flame, using degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM). A frequency-tripled dye laser pumped with a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser was used to access the Herzberg b1 band of methyl near 216 nm. Using a nearly phase-conjugate geometry, we detected methyl with high spatial resolution [0.2 mm (0.3 mm) vertical (horizontal) and ,6 mm longitudinal] and with good signal-to-noise ratio in a rich sf _ 1.55d flame. Compared with laser absorption spectra, DFWM spectra were much less influenced by a broad featureless background. From the absorption data, we measured the peak methyl concentration to be 650 parts in 106, resulting in an estimated DFWM detection limit of 65 parts in 106.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86762/1/Sick48.pd

Collisional Quenching of High Rotational Levels in A_2_+ OH

Collisional removal of the v_=0 level of the A_2_+ state of the OH radical has been studied as a function of rotational level N_ at room temperature. OH in high rotational levels of the X_2_i state were created by 193 nm photolysis of HNO3 and excited to A_2_+ by a tunable dye laser. Time decays of fluorescence at varying pressures were measured. For O2 and H2, the quenching cross section _Q decreased with increasing N_ until N__10; for higher N_ it appears to remain approximately constant. Xe behaves the same way except that the decrease continues to N_=15. For Kr, _Q appears to decrease to within experimental error of zero at N_=10; and for N2 it was within error of zero above N_=10. These results have implications for laser-induced fluorescence atmospheric monitoring of OH and combustion temperature determinations, as well as a fundamental understanding of collisional quenching. Quenching of OH, N__1, by HNO3 was found to be 81±8 A2.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86761/1/Sick30.pd

Hunting behaviour in domestic cats: an exploratory study of risk and responsibility among cat owners

ArticleThis is the final version. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.The potential impact of domestic cats on wildlife is the subject of growing international interest and concern. While feral cats are often the primary focus of research and debate, in many societies a substantial proportion of domestic cats are owned by private individuals. We present a typology that classifies domestic cats in relation to varying degrees of human control over their reproduction, movement and provisioning. Understanding the perceptions and practices of cat owners will be key to identifying and mitigating any negative ecological effects of cat hunting behaviour. 2. To investigate how cat owners perceive (a) their pets’ hunting behaviour, (b) their responsibilities for managing this and (c) the mitigation strategies available, we conducted detailed interviews with a diverse sample of cat owners in the United Kingdom. 3. We identified a spectrum of views on hunting behaviour, from owners who perceived hunting as positive (for pest control, or as healthy cat behaviour) to those who were deeply concerned about its consequences for wild animals, their populations and welfare. However, hunting was widely understood as a normal, ‘natural’ component of cat behaviour, and owners rarely perceived a strong individual responsibility for preventing or reducing it. 4. Those who did wish to manage hunting perceived several barriers to this, including concern that they were unable to control behaviour effectively without compromising cat welfare; doubt about the efficacy and practicality of popular mitigation measures; and unfamiliarity with alternative options. We recommend that (a) initiatives directed at changing cat owners’ behaviour consider the multiple factors and competing priorities that inform their decision-making (particularly cat health and welfare and practicality or cost of interventions); (b) researchers work collaboratively with cat owners and veterinary, cat welfare and conservation organisations to identify effective solutions, and (c) some degree of accountability for managing problematic hunting behaviour should be promoted as a part of ‘responsible pet ownership’ initiatives

Measurement of digital particle image velocimetry precision using electro-optically created particle-image displacements

The displacement (velocity) precision achieved with digital particle image velocimetry (PIV) was measured. The purpose of this work was to determine the precision and sensitivity of digital PIV using real rather than theoretical images at 1 and 2 mm spatial resolution. The displacement measurement precision was determined by measuring the RMS noise from 60 identical displacement distributions. This work is unique in that it uses electro-optical image shifting to create a repeatable image displacement distribution of random particle fields. The displacement variance between images is caused by the shot-to-shot variation in: (1) the particle-image fields, (2) the camera noise and (3) the variance in the correlation peak detection. In addition to magnification variations, the particle-number density, imaging-lens f-stop and image-plane position errors were varied to determine the best configuration. The results indicate that both the ensemble-mean and the RMS fluctuations of the image displacements are affected by these parameters and comparisons with results found in the literature are presented. The extents of these variations are quantified. This variance does not, of course, include errors due to random gradients and out-of-plane pairing losses, which exist in real turbulent flows.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49061/2/e20705.pd