4,103 research outputs found
Thermal stress cycling of GaAs solar cells
A thermal cycling experiment was performed on GaAs solar cells to establish the electrical and structural integrity of these cells under the temperature conditions of a simulated low-Earth orbit of 3-year duration. Thirty single junction GaAs cells were obtained and tests were performed to establish the beginning-of-life characteristics of these cells. The tests consisted of cell I-V power output curves, from which were obtained short-circuit current, open circuit voltage, fill factor, and cell efficiency, and optical micrographs, spectral response, and ion microprobe mass analysis (IMMA) depth profiles on both the front surfaces and the front metallic contacts of the cells. Following 5,000 thermal cycles, the performance of the cells was reexamined in addition to any factors which might contribute to performance degradation. It is established that, after 5,000 thermal cycles, the cells retain their power output with no loss of structural integrity or change in physical appearance
High Resolution BPM Upgrade for the ATF Damping Ring at KEK
A beam position monitor (BPM) upgrade at the KEK Accelerator Test Facility
(ATF) damping ring has been accomplished, carried out by a KEK/FNAL/SLAC
collaboration under the umbrella of the global ILC R&D effort. The upgrade
consists of a high resolution, high reproducibility read-out system, based on
analog and processing, and also implements a new automatic gain error
correction schema. The technical concept and realization as well as results of
beam studies are presented.Comment: 3 pp. 10th European Workshop on Beam Diagnostics and Instrumentation
for Particle Accelerators DIPAC 2011, 16-18 May 2011. Hamburg, German
Preliminary calibration of a generic scramjet combustor
The results of a preliminary investigation of the combustion of hydrogen fuel at hypersonic flow conditions are provided. The tests were performed in a generic, constant-area combustor model with test gas supplied by a free-piston-driven reflected-shock tunnel. Static pressure measurements along the combustor wall indicated that burning did occur for combustor inlet conditions of P(static) approximately equal to 19kPa, T(static) approximately equal to 1080 K, and U approximately equal to 3630 m/s with a fuel equivalence ratio approximately equal to 0.9. These inlet conditions were obtained by operating the tunnel with stagnation enthalpy approximately equal to 8.1 MJ/kg, stagnation pressure approximately equal to 52 MPa, and a contoured nozzle with a nominal exit Mach number of 5.5
Shock tunnel studies of scramjet phenomena, supplement 5
A series of reports are presented on SCRAMjet studies, shock tunnel studies, and expansion tube studies. The SCRAMjet studies include: (1) Investigation of a Supersonic Combustion Layer; (2) Wall Injected SCRAMjet Experiments; (3) Supersonic Combustion with Transvers, Circular, Wall Jets; (4) Dissociated Test Gas Effects on SCRAMjet Combustors; (5) Use of Silane as a Fuel Additive for Hypersonic Thrust Production, (6) Pressure-length Correlations in Supersonic Combustion; (7) Hot Hydrogen Injection Technique for Shock Tunnels; (8) Heat Release - Wave Interaction Phenomena in Hypersonic Flows; (9) A Study of the Wave Drag in Hypersonic SCRAMjets; (10) Parametric Study of Thrust Production in the Two Dimensional SCRAMjet; (11) The Design of a Mass Spectrometer for use in Hypersonic Impulse Facilities; and (12) Development of a Skin Friction Gauge for use in an Impulse Facility. The shock tunnel studies include: (1) Hypervelocity flow in Axisymmetric Nozzles; (2) Shock Tunnel Development; and (3) Real Gas Efects in Hypervelocity Flows over an Inclined Cone. The expansion tube studies include: (1) Investigation of Flow Characteristics in TQ Expansion Tube; and (2) Disturbances in the Driver Gas of a Shock Tube
Discrepancy between experimental and theoretical -decay rates resolved from first principles
-decay, a process that changes a neutron into a proton (and vice
versa), is the dominant decay mode of atomic nuclei. This decay offers a unique
window to physics beyond the standard model, and is at the heart of
microphysical processes in stellar explosions and the synthesis of the elements
in the Universe. For 50 years, a central puzzle has been that observed
-decay rates are systematically smaller than theoretical predictions.
This was attributed to an apparent quenching of the fundamental coupling
constant 1.27 in the nucleus by a factor of about 0.75 compared
to the -decay of a free neutron. The origin of this quenching is
controversial and has so far eluded a first-principles theoretical
understanding. Here we address this puzzle and show that this quenching arises
to a large extent from the coupling of the weak force to two nucleons as well
as from strong correlations in the nucleus. We present state-of-the-art
computations of -decays from light to heavy nuclei. Our results are
consistent with experimental data, including the pioneering measurement for
Sn. These theoretical advances are enabled by systematic effective
field theories of the strong and weak interactions combined with powerful
quantum many-body techniques. This work paves the way for systematic
theoretical predictions for fundamental physics problems. These include the
synthesis of heavy elements in neutron star mergers and the search for
neutrino-less double--decay, where an analogous quenching puzzle is a
major source of uncertainty in extracting the neutrino mass scale.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figure
Giant microwave photoresistance of two-dimensional electron gas
We measure microwave frequency (4-40 GHz) photoresistance at low magnetic
field B, in high mobility 2D electron gas samples, excited by signals applied
to a transmission line fabricated on the sample surface. Oscillatory
photoresistance vs B is observed. For excitation at the cyclotron resonance
frequency, we find an unprecedented, giant relative photoresistance (\Delta
R)/R of up to 250 percent. The photoresistance is apparently proportional to
the square root of applied power, and disappears as the temperature is
increased.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
The UVES Large Program for testing fundamental physics - III. Constraints on the fine-structure constant from 3 telescopes
Large statistical samples of quasar spectra have previously indicated
possible cosmological variations in the fine-structure constant, . A
smaller sample of higher signal-to-noise ratio spectra, with dedicated
calibration, would allow a detailed test of this evidence. Towards that end, we
observed equatorial quasar HS 15491919 with three telescopes: the Very Large
Telescope, Keck and, for the first time in such analyses, Subaru. By directly
comparing these spectra to each other, and by `supercalibrating' them using
asteroid and iodine-cell tests, we detected and removed long-range distortions
of the quasar spectra's wavelength scales which would have caused significant
systematic errors in our measurements. For each telescope we measure
the relative deviation in from the current laboratory value,
, in 3 absorption systems at redshifts
, 1.342, and 1.802. The nine measurements of
are all consistent with zero at the 2- level,
with 1- statistical (systematic) uncertainties 5.6--24 (1.8--7.0) parts
per million (ppm). They are also consistent with each other at the 1-
level, allowing us to form a combined value for each telescope and, finally, a
single value for this line of sight: ppm, consistent with both zero and
previous, large samples. We also average all Large Programme results measuring
ppm.
Our results demonstrate the robustness and reliability at the 3 ppm level
afforded by supercalibration techniques and direct comparison of spectra from
different telescopes.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figures, 9 table
An HST/COS legacy survey of high-velocity ultraviolet absorption in the Milky Way's circumgalactic medium and the Local Group
To characterize the absorption properties of this circumgalactic medium (CGM)
and its relation to the LG we present the so-far largest survey of metal
absorption in Galactic high-velocity clouds (HVCs) using archival ultraviolet
(UV) spectra of extragalactic background sources. The UV data are obtained with
the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
and are supplemented by 21 cm radio observations of neutral hydrogen. Along 270
sightlines we measure metal absorption in the lines of SiII, SiIII, CII, and
CIV and associated HI 21 cm emission in HVCs in the velocity range
|v_LSR|=100-500 km s^-1. With this unprecedented large HVC sample we were able
to improve the statistics on HVC covering fractions, ionization conditions,
small-scale structure, CGM mass, and inflow rate. For the first time, we
determine robustly the angular two point correlation function of the
high-velocity absorbers, systematically analyze antipodal sightlines on the
celestial sphere, and compare the absorption characteristics with that of
Damped Lyman alpha absorbers (DLAs) and constrained cosmological simulations of
the LG. Our study demonstrates that the Milky Way CGM contains sufficient
gaseous material to maintain the Galactic star-formation rate at its current
level. We show that the CGM is composed of discrete gaseous structures that
exhibit a large-scale kinematics together with small-scale variations in
physical conditions. The Magellanic Stream clearly dominates both the cross
section and mass flow of high-velocity gas in the Milky Way's CGM. The possible
presence of high-velocity LG gas underlines the important role of the local
cosmological environment in the large-scale gas-circulation processes in and
around the Milky Way (abridged).Comment: 37 pages, 25 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in A&
Double quantum dot with tunable coupling in an enhancement-mode silicon metal-oxide semiconductor device with lateral geometry
We present transport measurements of a tunable silicon
metal-oxide-semiconductor double quantum dot device with lateral geometry.
Experimentally extracted gate-to-dot capacitances show that the device is
largely symmetric under the gate voltages applied. Intriguingly, these gate
voltages themselves are not symmetric. Comparison with numerical simulations
indicates that the applied gate voltages serve to offset an intrinsic asymmetry
in the physical device. We also show a transition from a large single dot to
two well isolated coupled dots, where the central gate of the device is used to
controllably tune the interdot coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Applied Physics Letter
- …