PREPARED FOR The Texas Clean Energy Coalition PREPARED BY

and George Mitchell Foundation. All results and any errors are the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the opinion of the project’s sponsors, The Brattle Group, Inc. or its clients. Acknowledgement: We would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance. Comverge: Colin Meeha

The Molecular Outflow in NGC 253 at a Resolution of Two Parsecs

We present 0.'' 15 (similar to 2.5 pc) resolution ALMA CO(3-2) observations of the starbursting center in NGC 253. Together with archival ALMA CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) data, we decompose the emission into disk and nondisk components. We find similar to 7%-16% of the CO luminosity to be associated with the nondisk component (1.2-4.2 x 10(7) K km s(-1) pc(2)). The total molecular gas mass in the center of NGC 253 is similar to 3.6 x 10(8) M-circle dot with similar to 0.5 x 10(8) M-circle dot (similar to 15%) in the nondisk component. These measurements are consistent across independent mass estimates through three CO transitions. The high-resolution CO(3-2) observations allow us to identify the molecular outflow within the nondisk gas. Using a starburst conversion factor, we estimate the deprojected molecular mass outflow rate, kinetic energy, and momentum in the starburst of NGC 253. The deprojected molecular mass outflow rate is in the range of similar to 14-39 M-circle dot yr(-1) with an uncertainty of 0.4 dex. The large spread arises due to different interpretations of the kinematics of the observed gas while the errors are due to unknown geometry. The majority of this outflow rate is contributed by distinct outflows perpendicular to the disk, with a significant contribution by diffuse molecular gas. This results in a mass-loading factor eta = (M) over dot(out)/(M) over dot(SFR) in the range eta similar to 8-20 for gas ejected out to similar to 300 pc. We find the kinetic energy of the outflow to be similar to 2.5-4.5 x 10(54) erg and a typical error of similar to 0.8 dex, which is similar to 0.1% of the total or similar to 8% of the kinetic energy supplied by the starburst. The outflow momentum is 4.8-8.7 x 10(8) M-circle dot km s(-1) (similar to 0.5 dex error) or similar to 2.5%-4% of the kinetic momentum released into the ISM by the feedback. The unknown outflow geometry and launching sites are the primary sources of uncertainty in this study.Peer reviewe

A kinematic analysis of a haptic handheld stylus in a virtual environment: a study in healthy subjects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Virtual Reality provides new options for conducting motor assessment and training within computer-generated 3 dimensional environments. To date very little has been reported about normal performance in virtual environments. The objective of this study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of a clinical procedure measuring trajectories with a haptic handheld stylus in a virtual environment and to establish normative data in healthy subjects using this haptic device.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty-eight normal subjects; aged from 20 to 69, performed 3 dimensional hand movements in a virtual environment using a haptic device on three occasions within one week. Test-retest stability and standardized normative data were obtained for all subjects.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No difference was found between test and retest. The limits of agreement revealed that changes in an individual's performance could not be detected. There was a training effect between the first test occasion and the third test occasion. Normative data are presented.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A new test was developed for recording the kinematics of the handheld haptic stylus in a virtual environment. The normative data will be used for purposes of comparison in future assessments, such as before and after training of persons with neurological deficits.</p

The Third wave in globalization theory

This essay examines a proposition made in the literature that there are three waves in globalization theory—the globalist, skeptical, and postskeptical or transformational waves—and argues that this division requires a new look. The essay is a critique of the third of these waves and its relationship with the second wave. Contributors to the third wave not only defend the idea of globalization from criticism by the skeptics but also try to construct a more complex and qualified theory of globalization than provided by first-wave accounts. The argument made here is that third-wave authors come to conclusions that try to defend globalization yet include qualifications that in practice reaffirm skeptical claims. This feature of the literature has been overlooked in debates and the aim of this essay is to revisit the literature and identify as well as discuss this problem. Such a presentation has political implications. Third wavers propose globalist cosmopolitan democracy when the substance of their arguments does more in practice to bolster the skeptical view of politics based on inequality and conflict, nation-states and regional blocs, and alliances of common interest or ideology rather than cosmopolitan global structures

The Temperature Distribution of Dense Molecular Gas in the Center of NGC 253

[abridged] We present interferometric maps of ammonia (NH3) of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 [star formation rate: ~2.8 Mo yr^(-1)]. The observations have been taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and include the para-NH3 (1,1), (2,2), and the ortho-NH3 (3,3) and (6,6) inversion lines. Six major complexes of dense ammonia are identified, three of them on either side of the starburst center, out to projected galactocentric radii of \~250 pc. [...] The application of radiative transfer large velocity gradient models reveals that the bulk of the ammonia molecules is embedded in a one-temperature gas phase. Kinetic temperatures of this gas are ~200 and 140 K toward the south-west and north-east [of the nucleus of NGC 253], respectively. The temperatures under which ammonia was formed in the past are with >~30 K also warmer toward the south-west than toward the north-east (~15-20 K). This is indicated by the ortho-to-para ammonia ratio which is ~1 and 1.5-2.5 toward the south-west and north-east, respectively. Ammonia column densities in the brightest complexes are in the range of 6-11x10^(14) cm^(-2), which adds up to a total ammonia mass of ~20 Mo, about evenly distributed toward both sides of the nucleus. [...] Toward the center of NGC 253, NH3 (1,1), (2,2), and (6,6) is detected in absorption against an unresolved continuum source. At the same location, however, ammonia (3,3) is found in emission which indicates maser activity. This would be the first detected extragalactic NH3 maser. Evidence for an expanding shell in the south-western complex is provided. [...] The shell and X-ray properties can be reproduced by the energy input of a highly obscured young stellar cluster with a mass of ~10^5 Mo which also heats the dense gas.Comment: 42 pages including 13 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Non-standard neutrino interactions in IceCube

Non-standard neutrino interactions (NSI) may arise in various types of new physics. Their existence would change the potential that atmospheric neutrinos encounter when traversing Earth matter and hence alter their oscillation behavior. This imprint on coherent neutrino forward scattering can be probed using high-statistics neutrino experiments such as IceCube and its low-energy extension, DeepCore. Both provide extensive data samples that include all neutrino flavors, with oscillation baselines between tens of kilometers and the diameter of the Earth. DeepCore event energies reach from a few GeV up to the order of 100 GeV - which marks the lower threshold for higher energy IceCube atmospheric samples, ranging up to 10 TeV. In DeepCore data, the large sample size and energy range allow us to consider not only flavor-violating and flavor-nonuniversal NSI in the μ−τ sector, but also those involving electron flavor. The effective parameterization used in our analyses is independent of the underlying model and the new physics mass scale. In this way, competitive limits on several NSI parameters have been set in the past. The 8 years of data available now result in significantly improved sensitivities. This improvement stems not only from the increase in statistics but also from substantial improvement in the treatment of systematic uncertainties, background rejection and event reconstruction

IceCube Search for Earth-traversing ultra-high energy Neutrinos

The search for ultra-high energy neutrinos is more than half a century old. While the hunt for these neutrinos has led to major leaps in neutrino physics, including the detection of astrophysical neutrinos, neutrinos at the EeV energy scale remain undetected. Proposed strategies for the future have mostly been focused on direct detection of the first neutrino interaction, or the decay shower of the resulting charged particle. Here we present an analysis that uses, for the first time, an indirect detection strategy for EeV neutrinos. We focus on tau neutrinos that have traversed Earth, and show that they reach the IceCube detector, unabsorbed, at energies greater than 100 TeV for most trajectories. This opens up the search for ultra-high energy neutrinos to the entire sky. We use ten years of IceCube data to perform an analysis that looks for secondary neutrinos in the northern sky, and highlight the promise such a strategy can have in the next generation of experiments when combined with direct detection techniques