Telecommunications and data acquisition support for the Pioneer Venus Project: Pioneers 12 and 13, prelaunch through March 1984

The support provided by the Telecommunications and Data Acquisition organization of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to the Pioneer Venus missions is described. The missions were the responsibility of the Ames Research Center (ARC). The Pioneer 13 mission and its spacecraft design presented one of the greatest challenges to the Deep Space Network (DSN) in the implementation and operation of new capabilities. The four probes that were to enter the atmosphere of Venus were turned on shortly before arrival at Venus, and the DSN had to acquire each of these probes in order to recover the telemetry being transmitted. Furthermore, a science experiment involving these probes descending through the atmosphere required a completed new data type to be generated at the ground stations. This new data type is known as the differential very long baseline interferometry. Discussions between ARC and JPL of the implementation requirements involved trade-offs in spacecraft design and led to a very successful return of science data. Specific implementation and operational techniques are discussed, not only for the prime mission, but also for the extended support to the Pioneer 12 spacecraft (in orbit around Venus) with its science instruments including that for radar observations of the planet

In-medium Yang-Mills equations: a derivation and canonical quantization

The equations for Yang-Mills field in a medium are derived in a linear approximation with respect to the gauge coupling parameter and the external field. The obtained equations closely resemble the macroscopic Maxwell equations. A canonical quantization is performed for a family of Fermi-like gauges in the case of constant and diagonal (in the group indices) tensors of electric permittivity and magnetic permeability. The physical subspace is defined and the gauge field propagator is evaluated for a particular choice of the gauge. The propagator is applied for evaluation of the cross-section of ellastic quark scattering in the Born approximation. Possible applications to Cherenkov-type gluon radiation are commented briefly.Comment: 27 pages, references added, version extended with emphasis on non-Abelian gauge group impact on medium characteristics. To appear in J. Phys.

Hadronization of a Quark-Gluon Plasma in the Chromodielectric Model

We have carried out simulations of the hadronization of a hot, ideal but effectively massive quark-gluon gas into color neutral clusters in the framework of the semi-classical SU(3) chromodielectric model. We have studied the possible quark-gluon compositions of clusters as well as the final mass distribution and spectra, aiming to obtain an insight into relations between hadronic spectral properties and the confinement mechanism in this model.Comment: 34 pages, 37 figure

Bremsstrahlung from an Equilibrating Quark-Gluon Plasma

The photon production rate from a chemically equilibrating quark-gluon plasma likely to be produced at RHIC (BNL) and LHC (CERN) energies is estimated taking into account bremsstrahlung. The plasma is assumed to be in local thermal equilibrium, but with a phase space distribution that deviates from the Fermi or Bose distribution by space-time dependent factors (fugacities). The photon spectrum is obtained by integrating the photon rate over the space-time history of the plasma, adopting a boost invariant cylindrically symmetric transverse expansion of the system with different nuclear profile functions. Initial conditions obtained from a self-screened parton cascade calculation and, for comparison, from the HIJING model are used. Compared to an equilibrated plasma at the same initial energy density, taken from the self-screened parton cascade, a moderate suppression of the photon yield by a factor of one to five depending on the collision energy and the photon momentum is observed. The individual contributions to the photon production, however, are completely different in the both scenarios.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, shortened version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Photon Emission from a Parton Gas at Chemical Non-Equilibrium

We compute the hard photon production rate of a chemically non-equilibrated quark-gluon plasma. We assume that the plasma is already thermally equilibrated, i.~e. describable by a temperature, but with a phase-space distribution that deviates from the Fermi/Bose distribution by a time dependent factor (fugacity). The photon spectrum is obtained by integrating the photon rate over the space-time evolution of the quark-gluon plasma. Some consequences for ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, uuencoded Postscript file, figures include

Chemical equilibration and thermal dilepton production from the quark gluon plasma at finite baryon density

The chemical equilibration of a highly unsaturated quark-gluon plasma has been studied at finite baryon density. It is found that in the presence of small amount of baryon density, the chemical equilibration for gluon becomes slower and the temperature decreases less steeply as compared to the baryon free plasma. As a result, the space time integrated yield of dilepton is enhanced if the initial temperature of the plasma is held fixed. Even at a fixed initial energy density, the suppression of the dilepton yields at higher baryo-chemical potential is compensated, to a large extent, by the slow cooling of the plasma.Comment: Latex, 19 pages, 8 postscript figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Hydrodynamical Description of 200 A GeV/c S+Au Collisions: Hadron and Electromagnetic Spectra

We study relativistic S+Au collisions at 200 A GeV/c using a hydrodynamical approach. We test various equations of state (EOSs), which are used to describe the strongly interacting matter at densities attainable in the CERN-SPS heavy ion experiments. For each EOS, suitable initial conditions can be determined to reproduce the experimental hadron spectra; this emphasizes the ambiguity between the initial conditions and the EOS in such an approach. Simultaneously, we calculate the resulting thermal photon and dielectron spectra, and compare with experiments. If one allows the excitation of resonance states with increasing temperature, the electro-magnetic signals from scenarios with and without phase transition are very similar and are not resolvable within the current experimental resolution. With regard to the CERES dilepton data, none of the EOSs considered, in conjunction with the standard leading order dilepton rates, succeed in reproducing the observed excess of dileptons below the rho peak. Our work, however, suggests that an improved measurement of the photon and dilepton spectra has the potential to strongly constrain the EOS.Comment: Uses REVTeX, 48 pages, 13 Postscript figure

Robust Detection of Hierarchical Communities from Escherichia coli Gene Expression Data

Determining the functional structure of biological networks is a central goal of systems biology. One approach is to analyze gene expression data to infer a network of gene interactions on the basis of their correlated responses to environmental and genetic perturbations. The inferred network can then be analyzed to identify functional communities. However, commonly used algorithms can yield unreliable results due to experimental noise, algorithmic stochasticity, and the influence of arbitrarily chosen parameter values. Furthermore, the results obtained typically provide only a simplistic view of the network partitioned into disjoint communities and provide no information of the relationship between communities. Here, we present methods to robustly detect coregulated and functionally enriched gene communities and demonstrate their application and validity for Escherichia coli gene expression data. Applying a recently developed community detection algorithm to the network of interactions identified with the context likelihood of relatedness (CLR) method, we show that a hierarchy of network communities can be identified. These communities significantly enrich for gene ontology (GO) terms, consistent with them representing biologically meaningful groups. Further, analysis of the most significantly enriched communities identified several candidate new regulatory interactions. The robustness of our methods is demonstrated by showing that a core set of functional communities is reliably found when artificial noise, modeling experimental noise, is added to the data. We find that noise mainly acts conservatively, increasing the relatedness required for a network link to be reliably assigned and decreasing the size of the core communities, rather than causing association of genes into new communities.Comment: Due to appear in PLoS Computational Biology. Supplementary Figure S1 was not uploaded but is available by contacting the author. 27 pages, 5 figures, 15 supplementary file

Dynamics of Hot Bulk QCD Matter: from the Quark-Gluon Plasma to Hadronic Freeze-Out

We introduce a combined macroscopic/microscopic transport approach employing relativistic hydrodynamics for the early, dense, deconfined stage of the reaction and a microscopic non-equilibrium model for the later hadronic stage where the equilibrium assumptions are not valid anymore. Within this approach we study the dynamics of hot, bulk QCD matter, which is expected to be created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at the SPS, the RHIC and the LHC. Our approach is capable of self-consistently calculating the freeze-out of the hadronic system, while accounting for the collective flow on the hadronization hypersurface generated by the QGP expansion. In particular, we perform a detailed analysis of the reaction dynamics, hadronic freeze-out, and transverse flow.Comment: 55 pages, 15 figure

Feasibility studies of the time-like proton electromagnetic form factor measurements with PANDA at FAIR

The possibility of measuring the proton electromagnetic form factors in the time-like region at FAIR with the \PANDA detector is discussed. Detailed simulations on signal efficiency for the annihilation of $\bar p +p$ into a lepton pair as well as for the most important background channels have been performed. It is shown that precision measurements of the differential cross section of the reaction $\bar p +p \to e^++ e^-$ can be obtained in a wide angular and kinematical range. The individual determination of the moduli of the electric and magnetic proton form factors will be possible up to a value of momentum transfer squared of $q^2\simeq 14$ (GeV/c)$^2$. The total $\bar p +p\to e^++e^-$ cross section will be measured up to $q^2\simeq 28$ (GeV/c)$^2$. The results obtained from simulated events are compared to the existing data. Sensitivity to the two photons exchange mechanism is also investigated.Comment: 12 pages, 4 tables, 8 figures Revised, added details on simulations, 4 tables, 9 figure