LENS® and SFF: Enabling Technologies for Optimized Structures

Optimized, lightweight, high-strength structures are needed in many applications from aerospace to automotive. In pursuit of such structures, there have been proposed analytical solutions and some specialized FEA solutions for specific structures such as automobile frames. However, generalized 3D optimization methods have been unavailable for use by most designers. Moreover, in the cases where optimized structural solutions are available, they are often hollow, curving, thin wall structures that cannot be fabricated by conventional manufacturing methods. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Rhode Island teamed to solve these problems. The team has been pursuing two methods of optimizing models for generalized loading conditions, and also has been investigating the methods needed to fabricate these structures using Laser Engineered Net Shaping™ (LENS®) and other rapid prototyping methods. These solid freeform fabrication (SFF) methods offer the unique ability to make hollow, high aspect ratio features out of many materials. The manufacturing development required for LENS to make these complex structures has included the addition of rotational axes to Sandia’s LENS machine bringing the total to 5 controlled axes. The additional axes have required new efforts in process planning. Several of the unique structures that are only now possible through the use of SFF technology are shown as part of the discussion of this exciting new application for SFF.Mechanical Engineerin

String spectra near some null cosmological singularities

We construct cosmological spacetimes with null Kasner-like singularities as purely gravitational solutions with no other background fields turned on. These can be recast as anisotropic plane-wave spacetimes by coordinate transformations. We analyse string quantization to find the spectrum of string modes in these backgrounds. The classical string modes can be solved for exactly in these time-dependent backgrounds, which enables a detailed study of the near singularity string spectrum, (time-dependent) oscillator masses and wavefunctions. We find that for low lying string modes(finite oscillation number), the classical near-singularity string mode functions are non-divergent for various families of singularities. Furthermore, for any infinitesimal regularization of the vicinity of the singularity, we find a tower of string modes of ultra-high oscillation number which propagate essentially freely in the background. The resulting picture suggests that string interactions are non-negligible near the singularity.Comment: Latex, 30pgs; v2. minor clarifications, references adde

Parametric Excitation and Squeezing in a Many-Body Spin System

We demonstrate a new method to coherently excite and control the quantum spin states of an atomic Bose gas using parametric excitation of the collective spin by time varying the relative strength of the Zeeman and spin-dependent collisional interaction energies at multiples of the natural frequency of the system. Compared to the usual single-particle quantum control techniques used to excite atomic spins (e.g. Rabi oscillations using rf or microwave fields), the method demonstrated here is intrinsically many-body, requiring inter-particle interactions. While parametric excitation of a classical system is ineffective from the ground state, we show that in our quantum system, parametric excitation from the quantum ground state leads to the generation of quantum squeezed states

Modelling Gaia CCD pixels with Silvaco 3D engineering software

Gaia will only achieve its unprecedented measurement accuracy requirements with detailed calibration and correction for radiation damage. We present our Silvaco 3D engineering software model of the Gaia CCD pixel and two of its applications for Gaia: (1) physically interpreting supplementary buried channel (SBC) capacity measurements (pocket-pumping and first pixel response) in terms of e2v manufacturing doping alignment tolerances; and (2) deriving electron densities within a charge packet as a function of the number of constituent electrons and 3D position within the charge packet as input to microscopic models being developed to simulate radiation damage.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, contributed poster, appearing in proceedings of the ELSA conference: Gaia, at the frontiers of astrometry, 7-11 June 2010, S\`evres, Pari

Holography and Cosmological Singularities

Certain null singularities in ten dimensional supergravity have natural holographic duals in terms of Matrix Theory and generalizations of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In many situations the holographic duals appear to be well defined in regions where the supergravity develops singularities. We describe some recent progress in this area.Comment: Anomaly equation corrected. References adde

Cognitive performance in multiple system atrophy

The cognitive performance of a group of patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) of striato-nigral predominance was compared with that of age and IQ matched control subjects, using three tests sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction and a battery sensitive to memory and learning deficits in Parkinson's disease and dementia of the Alzheimer type. The MSA group showed significant deficits in all three of the tests previously shown to be sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction. Thus, a significant proportion of patients from the MSA group failed an attentional set-shifting test, specifically at the stage when an extra-dimensional shift was required. They were also impaired in a subject-ordered test of spatial working memory. The MSA group showed deficits mostly confined to measures of speed of thinking, rather than accuracy, on the Tower of London task. These deficits were seen in the absence of consistent impairments in language or visual perception. Moreover, the MSA group showed no significant deficits in tests of spatial and pattern recognition previously shown to be sensitive to patients early in the course of probable Alzheimer's disease and only a few patients exhibited impairment on the Warrington Recognition Memory Test. There were impairments on other tests of visual memory and learning relative to matched controls, but these could not easily be related to fundamental deficits of memory or learning. Thus, on a matching-to-sample task the patients were impaired at simultaneous but not delayed matching to sample, whereas difficulties in a pattern-location learning task were more evident at its initial, easier stages. The MSA group showed no consistent evidence of intellectual deterioration as assessed from their performance on subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the National Adult Reading Test (NART). Consideration of individual cases showed that there was some heterogeneity in the pattern of deficits in the MSA group, with one patient showing no impairment, even in the face of considerable physical disability. The results show a distinctive pattern of cognitive deficits, unlike those previously seen using the same tests in patients with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and suggesting a prominent frontal-lobe-like component. The implications for concepts of 'subcortical' dementia and 'fronto-striatal' cognitive dysfunction are considered

Toward the End of Time

The null-brane space-time provides a simple model of a big crunch/big bang singularity. A non-perturbative definition of M-theory on this space-time was recently provided using matrix theory. We derive the fermion couplings for this matrix model and study the leading quantum effects. These effects include particle production and a time-dependent potential. Our results suggest that as the null-brane develops a big crunch singularity, the usual notion of space-time is replaced by an interacting gluon phase. This gluon phase appears to constitute the end of our conventional picture of space and time.Comment: 31 pages, reference adde

Spin chains and combinatorics: twisted boundary conditions

The finite XXZ Heisenberg spin chain with twisted boundary conditions was considered. For the case of even number of sites $N$, anisotropy parameter -1/2 and twisting angle $2 \pi /3$ the Hamiltonian of the system possesses an eigenvalue $-3N/2$. The explicit form of the corresponding eigenvector was found for $N \le 12$. Conjecturing that this vector is the ground state of the system we made and verified several conjectures related to the norm of the ground state vector, its component with maximal absolute value and some correlation functions, which have combinatorial nature. In particular, the squared norm of the ground state vector is probably coincides with the number of half-turn symmetric alternating sign $N \times N$ matrices.Comment: LaTeX file, 7 page

Exact Relativistic Two-Body Motion in Lineal Gravity

We consider the N-body problem in (1+1) dimensional lineal gravity. For 2 point masses (N=2) we obtain an exact solution for the relativistic motion. In the equal mass case we obtain an explicit expression for their proper separation as a function of their mutual proper time. Our solution gives the exact Hamiltonian to infinite order in the gravitational coupling constant.Comment: latex, 11 pages, 2 figures, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Cognitive Information Processing

Contains reports on four research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 P01 GM-14940-01)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 PO1 GM-15006-01)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force) under Contract DA 28-043-AMC-02536(E