617 research outputs found
Recent Results from the SIMPLE Dark Matter Search
SIMPLE is an experimental search for evidence of spin-dependent dark matter,
based on superheated droplet detectors using CClF. We report
preliminary results of a 0.6 kgdy exposure of five one liter devices, each
containing 10 g active mass, in the 1500 mwe LSBB (Rustrel, France). In
combination with improvements in detector sensitivity, the results exclude a
WIMP--proton interaction above 5 pb at M = 50 GeV/c.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures,contribution to IDM2004, Sept. 6-10, 2004,
Edinburgh, U
Lazy Abstraction-Based Controller Synthesis
We present lazy abstraction-based controller synthesis (ABCS) for
continuous-time nonlinear dynamical systems against reach-avoid and safety
specifications. State-of-the-art multi-layered ABCS pre-computes multiple
finite-state abstractions of varying granularity and applies reactive synthesis
to the coarsest abstraction whenever feasible, but adaptively considers finer
abstractions when necessary. Lazy ABCS improves this technique by constructing
abstractions on demand. Our insight is that the abstract transition relation
only needs to be locally computed for a small set of frontier states at the
precision currently required by the synthesis algorithm. We show that lazy ABCS
can significantly outperform previous multi-layered ABCS algorithms: on
standard benchmarks, lazy ABCS is more than 4 times faster
Synthesizing SystemC Code from Delay Hybrid CSP
Delay is omnipresent in modern control systems, which can prompt oscillations
and may cause deterioration of control performance, invalidate both stability
and safety properties. This implies that safety or stability certificates
obtained on idealized, delay-free models of systems prone to delayed coupling
may be erratic, and further the incorrectness of the executable code generated
from these models. However, automated methods for system verification and code
generation that ought to address models of system dynamics reflecting delays
have not been paid enough attention yet in the computer science community. In
our previous work, on one hand, we investigated the verification of delay
dynamical and hybrid systems; on the other hand, we also addressed how to
synthesize SystemC code from a verified hybrid system modelled by Hybrid CSP
(HCSP) without delay. In this paper, we give a first attempt to synthesize
SystemC code from a verified delay hybrid system modelled by Delay HCSP
(dHCSP), which is an extension of HCSP by replacing ordinary differential
equations (ODEs) with delay differential equations (DDEs). We implement a tool
to support the automatic translation from dHCSP to SystemC
The SIMPLE Phase II Dark Matter Search
Phase II of SIMPLE (Superheated Instrument for Massive ParticLe Experiments)
searched for astroparticle dark matter using superheated liquid
CClF droplet detectors. Each droplet generally requires an energy
deposition with linear energy transfer (LET) 150 keV/m for a
liquid-to-gas phase transition, providing an intrinsic rejection against
minimum ionizing particles of order 10, and reducing the backgrounds to
primarily and neutron-induced recoil events. The droplet phase
transition generates a millimetric-sized gas bubble which is recorded by
acoustic means. We describe the SIMPLE detectors, their acoustic
instrumentation, and the characterizations, signal analysis and data selection
which yield a particle-induced, "true nucleation" event detection efficiency of
better than 97% at a 95% C.L. The recoil- event discrimination,
determined using detectors first irradiated with neutrons and then doped with
alpha emitters, provides a recoil identification of better than 99%; it differs
from those of COUPP and PICASSO primarily as a result of their different
liquids with lower critical LETs. The science measurements, comprising two
shielded arrays of fifteen detectors each and a total exposure of 27.77 kgd,
are detailed. Removal of the 1.94 kgd Stage 1 installation period data, which
had previously been mistakenly included in the data, reduces the science
exposure from 20.18 to 18.24 kgd and provides new contour minima of
= 4.3 10 pb at 35 GeV/c in the
spin-dependent sector of WIMP-proton interactions and = 3.6
10 pb at 35 GeV/c in the spin-independent sector. These
results are examined with respect to the fluorine spin and halo parameters used
in the previous data analysis.Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures; accepted Physical Review
On the direct search for spin-dependent WIMP interactions
We examine the current directions in the search for spin-dependent dark
matter. We discover that, with few exceptions, the search activity is
concentrated towards constraints on the WIMP-neutron spin coupling, with
significantly less impact in the WIMP-proton sector. We review the situation of
those experiments with WIMP-proton spin sensitivity, toward identifying those
capable of reestablishing the balance.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Compositionality for Quantitative Specifications
We provide a framework for compositional and iterative design and verification of systems with quantitative information, such as rewards, time or energy. It is based on disjunctive modal transition systems where we allow actions to bear various types of quantitative information. Throughout the design process the actions can be further refined and the information made more precise. We show how to compute the results of standard operations on the systems, including the quotient (residual), which has not been previously considered for quantitative non-deterministic systems. Our quantitative framework has close connections to the modal nu-calculus and is compositional with respect to general notions of distances between systems and the standard operations
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