Measurement of species flux from a bubble using an acousto-electrochemical technique

An acousto-electrochemical technique is presented which, for the first time, offers the potential for measuring the flux of dissolved species in a liquid resulting from bubbles of a specific chosen size in the population. Laboratory trials are presented, but the device itself was damaged in the surf zone and no data was obtained from the ocean deployment. Nevertheless, the preceding laboratory tests demonstrate the viability of the technique. The device responds to perturbations of the fluid around a small electrode. Three such sources of motion must be characterised if it is to achieve the objective stated above. First, the perturbations resulting form the translatory motions of bubbles in the liquid. To obtain bubble radius resolution in the measurement of mass flux, however, it is necessary to apply to driving (‘pump’) sound field. Bubbles close to resonance will, in addition to a translatory motion, impart to the liquid a component of mass flux at the pump frequency. This is detected. However to show that this is the result of bubble wall pulsation, and not someother coupling, the amplitude of the pump field is increased until the electrochemical sensor detects Faraday waves on the bubble wall. Not only does this prove the relation between mass flux to bubble wall motion, it provides a second route by which the radius-resolved component of mass flux might be identified. In these preliminary laboratory tests, electrochemical detection of these motions was achieved through the observation of current produced by the reduction of a suitable redox agent present within the liquid phase of the solution employed. Preparations were made to obtain preliminary data from the Hurst Spit 2000 surf zone trial, but the device was damaged by the environment

Bin Packing Problem with uncertainty on item availability: an application to Capacity Planning in Logistics

Most modern companies are part of international economic networks, where goods are produced under different strategies, then transported over long distances and stored for variable periods of time at different locations along the considered network. These activities are often performed by first consolidating goods in appropriate bins, which are then stored at warehouses and shipped using multiple vehicles through various transportation modes. Companies thus face the problem of planning for sufficient capacity, e.g., negotiating it with third party logistic firms (3PLs) that specify both the capacity to be used and the logistical services to be performed. Given the time lag that usually exists between the capacity-planning decisions and the operational decisions that define how the planned capacity is used, the common assumption that all information concerning the parameters of the model is known is unlikely to be observed. We therefore propose a new stochastic problem, named the Variable Cost and Size Bin Packing Problem with Stochastic Items. The problem considers a company making a tactical capacity plan by choosing a set of appropriate bins, which are defined according to their specific volume and fixed cost. Bins included in the capacity plan are chosen in advance without the exact knowledge of what items will be available for the dispatching. When, during the operational phase, the planned capacity is not sufficient, extra capacity must be purchased. An extensive experimental plan is used to analyze the impact that diversity in instance structure has on the capacity planning and the effect of considering different levels of variability and correlation of the stochastic parameters related to items

Orbiting Resonances and Bound States in Molecular Scattering

A family of orbiting resonances in molecular scattering is globally described by using a single pole moving in the complex angular momentum plane. The extrapolation of this pole at negative energies gives the location of the bound states. Then a single pole trajectory, that connects a rotational band of bound states and orbiting resonances, is obtained. These complex angular momentum singularities are derived through a geometrical theory of the orbiting. The downward crossing of the phase-shifts through pi/2, due to the repulsive region of the molecular potential, is estimated by using a simple hard-core model. Some remarks about the difference between diffracted rays and orbiting are also given.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Physical Review

Wide Angle Polarization Analysis with Neutron Spin Filters

AbstractWe report substantial improvements in a compact wide angle neutron spin filter system that was recently employed on the Multi- Axis Crystal Spectrometer at the Center for Neutron Research at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. The apparatus consists of a cylindrical 3He polarizer cell and wide-angle 3He analyzer cells, a vertical solenoid to provide a uniform magnetic field, and a shielded radio-frequency solenoid for the polarizer cell. Nuclear magnetic resonance is employed to reverse the polarization in the polarizer cell and monitor the 3He polarization in all cells. The first experiment using this apparatus was carried out with cylindrical analyzer cells with limited angular coverage due to low polarizations in fused quartz cells. We present results for aluminosilicate glass analyzer cells that cover 110 ∘ and have long relaxation times (100h to 400h). Using two 100W diode bars spectrally narrowed with chirped volume Bragg gratings, we have obtained 65% - 80% 3He polarization in these cells. The 3He polarization has been measured by neutron transmission and electron paramagnetic resonance. Additional progress includes an improved holding field solenoid and decreased spin-flip losses

On practical problems to compute the ghost propagator in SU(2) lattice gauge theory

In SU(2) lattice pure gauge theory we study numerically the dependence of the ghost propagator G(p) on the choice of Gribov copies in Lorentz (or Landau) gauge. We find that the effect of Gribov copies is essential in the scaling window region, however, it tends to decrease with increasing beta. On the other hand, we find that at larger beta-values very strong fluctuations appear which can make problematic the calculation of the ghost propagator.Comment: 15 pages, 5 postscript figures. 2 Figures added Revised version as to be published in Phys.Rev.

Search for R-Parity Violating Decays of Scalar Fermions at LEP

A search for pair-produced scalar fermions under the assumption that R-parity is not conserved has been performed using data collected with the OPAL detector at LEP. The data samples analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 610 pb-1 collected at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) 189-209 GeV. An important consequence of R-parity violation is that the lightest supersymmetric particle is expected to be unstable. Searches of R-parity violating decays of charged sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks have been performed under the assumptions that the lightest supersymmetric particle decays promptly and that only one of the R-parity violating couplings is dominant for each of the decay modes considered. Such processes would yield final states consisting of leptons, jets, or both with or without missing energy. No significant single-like excess of events has been observed with respect to the Standard Model expectations. Limits on the production cross- section of scalar fermions in R-parity violating scenarios are obtained. Constraints on the supersymmetric particle masses are also presented in an R-parity violating framework analogous to the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.Comment: 51 pages, 24 figures, Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Measurement of the Hadronic Photon Structure Function F_2^gamma at LEP2

The hadronic structure function of the photon F_2^gamma is measured as a function of Bjorken x and of the factorisation scale Q^2 using data taken by the OPAL detector at LEP. Previous OPAL measurements of the x dependence of F_2^gamma are extended to an average Q^2 of 767 GeV^2. The Q^2 evolution of F_2^gamma is studied for average Q^2 between 11.9 and 1051 GeV^2. As predicted by QCD, the data show positive scaling violations in F_2^gamma. Several parameterisations of F_2^gamma are in agreement with the measurements whereas the quark-parton model prediction fails to describe the data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of Photon 2001, Ascona, Switzerlan

Measurement of the partial widths of the Z into up- and down-type quarks

Using the entire OPAL LEP1 on-peak Z hadronic decay sample, Z -> qbarq gamma decays were selected by tagging hadronic final states with isolated photon candidates in the electromagnetic calorimeter. Combining the measured rates of Z -> qbarq gamma decays with the total rate of hadronic Z decays permits the simultaneous determination of the widths of the Z into up- and down-type quarks. The values obtained, with total errors, were Gamma u = 300 ^{+19}_{-18} MeV and Gamma d = 381 ^{+12}_{-12} MeV. The results are in good agreement with the Standard Model expectation.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.

Measurement of the Strong Coupling alpha s from Four-Jet Observables in e+e- Annihilation

Data from e+e- annihilation into hadrons at centre-of-mass energies between 91 GeV and 209 GeV collected with the OPAL detector at LEP, are used to study the four-jet rate as a function of the Durham algorithm resolution parameter ycut. The four-jet rate is compared to next-to-leading order calculations that include the resummation of large logarithms. The strong coupling measured from the four-jet rate is alphas(Mz0)= 0.1182+-0.0003(stat.)+-0.0015(exp.)+-0.0011(had.)+-0.0012(scale)+-0.0013(mass) in agreement with the world average. Next-to-leading order fits to the D-parameter and thrust minor event-shape observables are also performed for the first time. We find consistent results, but with significantly larger theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, Submitted to Euro. Phys. J.