A Facility for Low-energy Antiproton and Ion Research

The future accelerator facility for beams of ions and antiprotons at Darmstadt will provide antiproton beams of intensities that are two orders of magnitude higher than currently available. Within the foreseen scheme, antiprotons can be decelerated to 30 MeV. The low-energy antiproton community has recently formed a users group to make use of this opportunity to create a next-generation low-energy antiproton facility called FLAIR, which will be able to provide cooled antiproton beams well below 100 keV kinetic energy. This talk gives an overview of the layout and physics program of the proposed facility.Comment: Proceedings of the XLII Interantional Winter Meeting on Nuclear Physics, Bormio (Italy), Janaury 25 - February 1, 200

High Precision Laser and Microwave Spectroscopy of Antiprotonic Helium

This talk gives an overview of the recent results on the precision spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium which was performed by the ASACUSA collaboration at the Antiproton Decelerator of CERN. The laser spectroscopy of energy levels of the antiproton has reached a relative accuracy of $\sim 10^{-7}$, and by comparing the experimental value for the transition wavelengths with theoretical calculations, a CPT test on the equality of proton and antiproton charge and mass of $<6\times10^{-8}$ has been obtained. In a recent experiment, the hyperfine structure of the $(n,l)=(37,35)$ state of antiprotonic helium has been measured for the first time with an accuracy of $3 \times 10^{-5}$.Comment: Invited talk at the XIVth Rencontres de Blois on Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry, Blois, June 200

Relationship between thoracic kyphosis and neural axis abnormalities in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Purpose:Previous studies have suggested an association between increased thoracic kyphosis and neural axis abnormalities in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). However, the basis for this finding is unclear, and this association has been mainly noted in retrospective studies on a non-consecutive series of patients. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between thoracic kyphosis and neural axis abnormalities in patients with AIS. Methods:We studied a consecutive series of AIS patients treated with spinal fusion. Thoracic kyphosis (T2 to T12) was measured from preoperative lateral radiographs. All patients underwent a spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) prior to surgery, and MRI reports were reviewed to determine the presence of neural axis abnormalities. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics and chi-squared analysis. Results:This study included 210 patients with AIS. There were no significant differences in age or gender between patients with thoracic hypokyphosis (kyphosis &lt; 20°), normal thoracic kyphosis (kyphosis 20° to 40°) and thoracic hyperkyphosis (kyphosis &gt; 40°) (p &gt; 0.05). Neural axis abnormalities were present in 17.9% of patients with thoracic hypokyphosis, 9.8% of patients with normal thoracic kyphosis and 13.6% of patients with thoracic hyperkyphosis (p = 0.60). There were no significant differences in rates of Chiari malformation, syrinx, intra-spinal masses and other central nervous system abnormalities between groups (p &gt; 0.05). Conclusions:Thoracic kyphosis was not associated with neural axis abnormalities in our consecutive series of patients with AIS. Increased thoracic kyphosis may not be a reliable indicator for the presence of neural axis abnormalities in patients with AIS. Level of Evidence:IV

Polar and magnetic order in GaV4Se8

In the present work, we provide results from specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, dielectric constant, ac conductivity, and electrical polarization measurements performed on the lacunar spinel GaV4Se8. With decreasing temperature, we observe a transition from the paraelectric and paramagnetic cubic state into a polar, probably ferroelectric state at 42 K followed by magnetic ordering at 18 K. The polar transition is likely driven by the Jahn-Teller effect due to the degeneracy of the V4 cluster orbitals. The excess polarization arising in the magnetic phase indicates considerable magnetoelectric coupling. Overall, the behavior of GaV4Se8 in many respects is similar to that of the skyrmion host GaV4S8, exhibiting a complex interplay of orbital, spin, lattice, and polar degrees of freedom. However, its dielectric behavior at the polar transition markedly differs from that of the Jahn-Teller driven ferroelectric GeV4S8, which can be ascribed to the dissimilar electronic structure of the Ge compound.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Revised version according to suggestions of referee

Pull-out strength of axially loaded steel rods bonded in glulam parallel to the grain

Bonded-in steel rods are very efficient in withstanding high forces applied to timber members. Investigations of bonded-in rods started in the late eighties of the last century and several design models were published since. By comparing these approaches on base of an extensive literature review a certain degree of discrepancy and partly even contradiction can be found. The paper describes a test program which aimed to study the influence of timber density and of geometric parameters on the pull-out strength of single axially loaded steel rods. Following the GSA®-procedure, which is a well established glued-in rods joint in Switzerland, rods with metric thread were bonded in glulam made of Norway spruce lamellas using an epoxy-type adhesive. The tests showed that the influence of the timber density can be quantified by a power function of ρ with an exponent of 0.6. The parameters length of the glued zone ℓ and diameter of the hole d H can be summarized in the slenderness ratio λ = ℓ/d H, which itself is related to the mean shear strength in the anchoring zone by an exponent of approximately −1/3. In order to prevent the specimens from premature splitting, distances between the axis of the rod and the edge of the specimen of 2.3 times the diameter of the rod have been use

Precise laser spectroscopy of the antiprotonic helium atom and CPT test on antiproton mass and charge

We have measured twelve transition frequencies of the antiprotonic helium atom (pbar-He+) with precisions of 0.1--0.2 ppm using a laser spectroscopic method. The agreement between the experiment and theories was so good that we can put a limit on the proton-antiproton mass (or charge) difference. The new limit is expected to be much smaller than the already published value, 60 ppb.Comment: proceeding of the conference, "PANIC02

Perspectives of Nuclear Physics in Europe: NuPECC Long Range Plan 2010

The goal of this European Science Foundation Forward Look into the future of Nuclear Physics is to bring together the entire Nuclear Physics community in Europe to formulate a coherent plan of the best way to develop the field in the coming decade and beyond.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; The primary aim of Nuclear Physics is to understand the origin, evolution, structure and phases of strongly interacting matter, which constitutes nearly 100% of the visible matter in the universe. This is an immensely important and challenging task that requires the concerted effort of scientists working in both theory and experiment, funding agencies, politicians and the public.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Nuclear Physics projects are often “big science”, which implies large investments and long lead times. They need careful forward planning and strong support from policy makers. This Forward Look provides an excellent tool to achieve this. It represents the outcome of detailed scrutiny by Europe’s leading experts and will help focus the views of the scientific community on the most promising directions in the field and create the basis for funding agencies to provide adequate support.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; The current NuPECC Long Range Plan 2010 “Perspectives of Nuclear Physics in Europe” resulted from consultation with close to 6 000 scientists and engineers over a period of approximately one year. Its detailed recommendations are presented on the following pages. For the interested public, a short summary brochure has been produced to accompany the Forward Look.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt