8,191 research outputs found
Effluent sampling of Titan 3 C vehicle exhaust
Downwind in situ ground-level measurements of the exhaust from a Titan 3 C launch vehicle were made during a normal launch. The measurement activity was conducted as part of an overall program to obtain field data for comparison with the multilayer dispersion model currently being used to predict the behavior of rocket vehicle exhaust clouds. All measurements were confined to land, ranging from the launch pad to approximately 2 kilometers downwind from the pad. Measurement systems included detectors for hydrogen chloride (HCl), carbon dioxide (CO2), and particulates (Al2O3). Airborne and ground-based optical systems were employed to monitor exhaust cloud rise, growth, and movement. These measurement systems, located along the ground track (45 deg azimuth from the launch pad) of the exhaust cloud, showed no effluents attributable to the launch. Some hydrogen chloride and aluminum oxide were detected in the surface wind direction (15 deg azimuth) from the pad. Comparisons with the model were made in three areas: (1) assumption of cloud geometry at stabilization; (2) prediction of cloud stabilization altitude; and (3) prediction of the path of cloud travel. In addition, the importance of elemental analyses of the particulate samples is illustrated
Improved He I Emissivities in the Case B Approximation
We update our prior work on the case B collisional-recombination spectrum of
He I to incorporate \textit{ab initio} photoionisation cross-sections. This
large set of accurate, self-consistent cross-sections represents a significant
improvement in He I emissivity calculations because it largely obviates the
piecemeal nature that has marked all modern works. A second, more recent set of
\textit{ab initio} cross-sections is also available, but we show that those are
less consistent with bound-bound transition probabilities than our adopted set.
We compare our new effective recombination coefficients with our prior work and
our new emissivities with those by other researchers, and we conclude with
brief remarks on the effects of the present work on the He I error budget. Our
calculations cover temperatures K and densities cm. Full results are available online.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS Letters; 4 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, 1
supplemental fil
Locating the pseudogap closing point in cuprate superconductors: absence of entrant or reentrant behavior
Current descriptions of the pseudogap in underdoped cuprates envision a
doping-dependent transition line which descends monotonically towards
zero just beyond optimal doping. There is much debate as to the location of the
terminal point where vanishes, whether or not there is a phase
transition at and exactly how behaves below within the
superconducting dome. One perspective sees cutting the dome and
continuing to descend monotonically to zero at holes/Cu
referred to here as `entrant behavior'. Another perspective derived from
photoemission studies is that intersects the dome near holes/Cu then turns back below , falling to zero again
around referred to here as `reentrant behavior'. By
examining thermodynamic data for BiSrCaCuO we show
that neither entrant nor reentrant behavior is experimentally supported.
Rather, sharply delimits the pseudogap regime and for
the pseudogap is always present, independent of temperature. Similar
results are found for YCaBaCuO. For both
materials is not a temperature but a crossover scale, , reflecting instead the underlying pseudogap energy which
vanishes as .Comment: 20 Pages, 9 Figures, in press Phys. Rev.
Characterization of soil and postlaunch pad debris from Cape Canaveral launch complex and analysis of soil interaction with aqueous HCl
Soil samples were fractionated and analyzed in order to assess the physical and chemical interactions of entrained soil with solid-rocket exhaust clouds. The sandy soil consisted primarily of quartz (silica) particles, 30 to 500 microns in diameter, and also contained seashell fragments. Differential and cumulative soil-mass size distributions are presented along with mineralogy, elemental compositions, and solution pH histories. About 90 percent of the soil mass consisted of particles 165 microns in diameter. Characteristic reaction times in aqueous HC1 slurries varied from a few minutes to several days, and capacities for reaction under acidic conditions varied from 10 to 40 g HCl/kg soil, depending on particle size. Airborne lifetimes of particles 165 microns are conservatively 30 min, and this major grouping is predicted to represent a small short-term chemical sink for up to 5% of the total HC1. The smaller and more minor fractions, below a 165 micron diameter, may act as giant cloud condensation nuclei over much longer airborne lifetimes. Finally, the demonstrated time dependency of neutralization is a complicating factor; it can influence the ability to deduce in-cloud HCl scavenging with reaction and can affect the accuracy of measured chemical compositions of near-field wet deposition
Thermodynamic properties of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 calculated from the electronic dispersion
The electronic dispersion for Bi2Sr2CaCu2O(8+d) has been determined from
angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). From this dispersion we
calculate the entropy and superfluid density. Even with no adjustable
parameters we obtain an exceptional match with experimental data across the
entire phase diagram, thus indirectly confirming both the ARPES and
thermodynamic data. The van Hove singularity is crossed in the overdoped region
giving a distinctive linear-in-T temperature dependence in the superfluid
density there.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Isotope Effect in the Superfluid Density of HTS Cuprates: Stripes, Pseudogap and Impurities
Underdoped cuprates exhibit a normal-state pseudogap, and their spins and
doped carriers tend to spatially separate into 1- or 2-D stripes. Some view
these as central to superconductivity, others as peripheral and merely
competing. Using LaSrCuZnO we show that an oxygen
isotope effect in and in the superfluid density can be used to
distinguish between the roles of stripes and pseudogap and also to detect the
presence of impurity scattering. We conclude that stripes and pseudogap are
distinct, and both compete and coexist with superconductivity.Comment: Revised submission to PRL with added appendix on a possible isotope
effect in the effective mass, 4 pages, 3 figure
Effluent sampling of Scout D and Delta launch vehicle exhausts
Characterization of engine-exhaust effluents (hydrogen chloride, aluminum oxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide) has been attempted by conducting field experiments monitoring the exhaust cloud from a Scout-Algol III vehicle launch and a Delta-Thor vehicle launch. The exhaust cloud particulate size number distribution (total number of particles as a function of particle diameter), mass loading, morphology, and elemental composition have been determined within limitations. The gaseous species in the exhaust cloud have been identified. In addition to the ground-based measurements, instrumented aircraft flights through the low-altitude, stabilized-exhaust cloud provided measurements which identified CO and HCI gases and Al2O3 particles. Measurements of the initial exhaust cloud during formation and downwind at several distances have established sampling techniques which will be used for experimental verification of model predictions of effluent dispersion and fallout from exhaust clouds
Discovery of 9 Ly alpha emitters at redshift z~3.1 using narrow-band imaging and VLT spectroscopy
Narrow-band imaging surveys aimed at detecting the faint emission from the
5007 [O III] line of intracluster planetary nebulae in Virgo also probe high
redshift z=3.1 Ly alpha emitters. Here we report on the spectroscopic
identification of 9 Ly alpha emitters at z=3.13, obtained with the FORS
spectrograph at Unit 1 of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT UT1). The spectra
of these high redshift objects show a narrow, isolated Ly alpha emission with
very faint (frequently undetected) continuum, indicating a large equivalent
width. No other features are visible in our spectra. Our Ly alpha emitters are
quite similar to those found by Hu (1998), Cowie & Hu (1998) and Hu et al.
(1998). Using simple population synthesis models, on the assumption that these
sources are regions of star formation, we conclude that the nebulae are nearly
optically thick and must have a very low dust content, in order to explain the
high observed Ly alpha equivalent widths. For the cosmological and star
formation parameters we adopted, the total stellar mass produced would seem to
correspond to the formation of rather small galaxies, some of which are perhaps
destined to merge. The implied star formation density in our sampled comoving
volume is probably somewhat smaller than, but of the same order of magnitude as
the star formation density at z=3 derived by other authors from Lyman-break
galaxy surveys. This result agrees with the expectation that the Ly alpha
emitters are a low-metallicity (or low-dust) tail in a distribution of star
forming regions at high redshifts. Finally, the Ly alpha emitters may
contribute as many H-ionizing photons as QSOs at z=3.Comment: 26 pages, 17 Postscript figures, ApJ in pres
The 21cm Signature of the First Stars
We predict the 21-cm signature of the first metal-free stars. The soft X-rays
emitted by these stars penetrate the atomic medium around their host halos,
generating Lyman alpha photons that couple the spin and kinetic temperatures.
These creates a region we call the Lyman alpha sphere, visible in 21-cm against
the CMB, which is much larger than the HII region produced by the same star.
The spin and kinetic temperatures are strongly coupled before the X-rays can
substantially heat the medium, implying that a strong 21-cm absorption signal
from the adiabatically cooled gas in Hubble expansion around the star is
expected when the medium has not been heated previously. A central region of
emission from the gas heated by the soft X-rays is also present although with a
weaker signal than the absorption. The Lyman alpha sphere is a universal
signature that should be observed around any first star illuminating its
vicinity for the first time. The 21-cm radial profile of the Lyman alpha sphere
can be calculated as a function of the luminosity, spectrum and age of the
star. For a star of a few hundred solar masses and zero metallicity (as
expected for the first stars), the physical radius of the Lyman alpha sphere
can reach tens of kiloparsecs. The first metal-free stars should be strongly
clustered because of high cosmic biasing; this implies that the regions
producing a 21-cm absorption signal may contain more than one star and will
generally be irregular and not spherical, because of the complex distribution
of the gas. We discuss the feasiblity of detecting these Lyman alpha spheres,
which would be present at redshifts in the Cold Dark Matter model.
Their observation would represent a direct proof of the detection of a first
star.Comment: replaced with ApJ accepted version. Many minor revisions and
additional references, major results unchange
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