41,029 research outputs found
Materials technology for an advanced space power nuclear reactor concept: Program summary
The results of a materials technology program for a long-life (50,000 hr), high-temperature (950 C coolant outlet), lithium-cooled, nuclear space power reactor concept are reviewed and discussed. Fabrication methods and compatibility and property data were developed for candidate materials for fuel pins and, to a lesser extent, for potential control systems, reflectors, reactor vessel and piping, and other reactor structural materials. The effects of selected materials variables on fuel pin irradiation performance were determined. The most promising materials for fuel pins were found to be 85 percent dense uranium mononitride (UN) fuel clad with tungsten-lined T-111 (Ta-8W-2Hf)
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in a Weakly Ionized Medium
Ambient interstellar material may become entrained in outflows from massive
stars as a result of shear flow instabilities. We study the linear theory of
the Kelvin - Helmholtz instability, the simplest example of shear flow
instability, in a partially ionized medium. We model the interaction as a two
fluid system (charged and neutral) in a planar geometry. Our principal result
is that for much of the relevant parameter space, neutrals and ions are
sufficiently decoupled that the neutrals are unstable while the ions are held
in place by the magnetic field. Thus, we predict that there should be a
detectably narrower line profile in ionized species tracing the outflow
compared with neutral species since ionized species are not participating in
the turbulent interface with the ambient ISM. Since the magnetic field is
frozen to the plasma, it is not tangled by the turbulence in the boundary
layer.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
The shape of primordial non-Gaussianity and the CMB bispectrum
We present a set of formalisms for comparing, evolving and constraining
primordial non-Gaussian models through the CMB bispectrum. We describe improved
methods for efficient computation of the full CMB bispectrum for any general
(non-separable) primordial bispectrum, incorporating a flat sky approximation
and a new cubic interpolation. We review all the primordial non-Gaussian models
in the present literature and calculate the CMB bispectrum up to l <2000 for
each different model. This allows us to determine the observational
independence of these models by calculating the cross-correlation of their CMB
bispectra. We are able to identify several distinct classes of primordial
shapes - including equilateral, local, warm, flat and feature (non-scale
invariant) - which should be distinguishable given a significant detection of
CMB non-Gaussianity. We demonstrate that a simple shape correlator provides a
fast and reliable method for determining whether or not CMB shapes are well
correlated. We use an eigenmode decomposition of the primordial shape to
characterise and understand model independence. Finally, we advocate a
standardised normalisation method for based on the shape
autocorrelator, so that observational limits and errors can be consistently
compared for different models.Comment: 32 pages, 20 figure
A brief introduction to equi-chordal and equi-isoclinic tight fusion frames
Equi-chordal and equi-isoclinic tight fusion frames (ECTFFs and EITFFs) are
both types of optimal packings of subspaces in Euclidean spaces. In the special
case where these subspaces are one-dimensional, ECTFFs and EITFFs both
correspond to types of optimal packings of lines known as equiangular tight
frames. In this brief note, we review some of the fundamental ideas and results
concerning ECTFFs and EITFFs
Primordial non-Gaussianity and the CMB bispectrum
We present a new formalism, together with efficient numerical methods, to
directly calculate the CMB bispectrum today from a given primordial bispectrum
using the full linear radiation transfer functions. Unlike previous analyses
which have assumed simple separable ansatze for the bispectrum, this work
applies to a primordial bispectrum of almost arbitrary functional form, for
which there may have been both horizon-crossing and superhorizon contributions.
We employ adaptive methods on a hierarchical triangular grid and we establish
their accuracy by direct comparison with an exact analytic solution, valid on
large angular scales. We demonstrate that we can calculate the full CMB
bispectrum to greater than 1% precision out to multipoles l<1800 on reasonable
computational timescales. We plot the bispectrum for both the superhorizon
('local') and horizon-crossing ('equilateral') asymptotic limits, illustrating
its oscillatory nature which is analogous to the CMB power spectrum
The fish fauna of the Iwokrama Forest
Fishes were collected from the rivers in and around the Iwokrama Forest during January-February and November-December 1997. Four hundred species of fish were recorded from forty families in ten orders. Many of these fishes are newly recorded from Guyana and several are thought to be endemic. The number of species recorded for the area is surprising given the low level of effort and suggests that this area may be particularly important from a fish diversity perspective. This paper focuses on species of particular interest from a management perspective including those considered economically important, rare or endangered. The paper is also the basis for developing fisheries management systems in the Iwokrama Forest and Rupununi Wetlands
Radiation from an accelerated quark via AdS/CFT
In this paper we investigate radiation by an accelerated quark in a strongly
coupled gauge theory via AdS/CFT correspondence. According to AdS/CFT
dictionary, we can read off energy density or energy flux of the radiation from
asymptotic gravitational field in AdS bulk sourced by an accelerated string
trailing behind the quark. In the case of an oscillating quark with frequency
, we show that the time averaged energy density is asymptotically
isotropic and it falls off as with
distance from the source. In a toy model of a scattered quark by an
external field, we simply estimate Poynting vector by the bremsstrahlung
radiation and show that the energy flux is anisotropic outgoing radiation.
Based on these investigations, we discuss the properties of strongly coupled
gauge theory radiation in comparison with electromagnetic radiation.Comment: 16 pages, no figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Recent work on daily life in the Ancient Near East
The everyday or daily life of peoples who lived in the ancient Near East (c. 3500 BCE to 100 CE) has been the subject of several books and articles. A brief survey of these is provided here, with an indication of content for selected entries
Current work on Egyptian lexicography
This is a brief survey of work, past and present, on the meanings of words in ancient Egyptian, with the emphasis on more recent projects. It includes descriptions of the dictionaries of Egyptian (including Coptic and Demotic)that are available in print and online. Particular importance is given to the study of etymology and there is also some reference to loanword
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