Performance characterizations and thermodynamic analysis of magnesium sulfate-impregnated zeolite 13X and activated alumina composite sorbents for thermal energy storage

The composite sorbents of MgSO4-impregnated zeolite 13X and activated alumina are developed for thermal energy storage (TES) with different temperature ranges. The sorption and desorption characteristics of raw and MgSO4-impregnated activated alumina are studied, and the performances of the selected sorbents are tested in a closed-system TES device. The results are compared with those of raw and MgSO4-impregnated zeolite 13X. It is shown that the impregnated MgSO4 improves the overall TES performances of zeolite 13X and activated alumina. Compared to the raw host matrices, the impregnated MgSO4 remarkably accelerates the temperature-rising rate of zeolite 13X to about three times and improves the temperature lift of activated alumina by 32.5%. The experimental energy storage densities of MgSO4-impregnated zeolite 13X and activated alumina are 123.4 kWh m−3and 82.6 kWh m−3, respectively. The sorption temperature region of activated alumina is more aligned with the preferred hydration temperature of MgSO4 in comparison with zeolite 13X. The hydration characteristics of MgSO4 can resolve the solution leakage issue of open systems. Thermodynamic analysis is conducted to evaluate the performances of the TES device with different sorbents. It is found that entransy can be used to assess thermally and electrically driven TES systems reasonably

Measuring the Temperature of Hot Nuclear Fragments

A new thermometer based on fragment momentum fluctuations is presented. This thermometer exhibited residual contamination from the collective motion of the fragments along the beam axis. For this reason, the transverse direction has been explored. Additionally, a mass dependence was observed for this thermometer. This mass dependence may be the result of the Fermi momentum of nucleons or the different properties of the fragments (binding energy, spin etc..) which might be more sensitive to different densities and temperatures of the exploding fragments. We expect some of these aspects to be smaller for protons (and/or neutrons); consequently, the proton transverse momentum fluctuations were used to investigate the temperature dependence of the source

Recent results from parton cascade and microscopic transport

Parton cascade is a microscopic transport approach for the study of the space-time evolution of the Quark-Gluon Plasma produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions and its experimental manifestations. In the following, parton cascade calculations on elliptic flow and thermalization will be discussed. Dynamical evolution is shown to be important for the production of elliptic flow including the scaling and the breaking of the scaling of elliptic flow. The degree of thermalization is estimated using both an elastic parton cascade and a radiative transport model. A longitudinal to transverse pressure ratio, $P_L/P_T\approx 0.8$, is shown to be expected in the central cell in central collisions. This provides information on viscous corrections to the ideal hydrodynamical approach.Comment: Presented at Hot Quarks 2008, Estes Park, Colorado, USA, 18-23 August 200

Two-Loop Helicity Amplitudes for Quark-Gluon Scattering in QCD and Gluino-Gluon Scattering in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory

We present the two-loop QCD helicity amplitudes for quark-gluon scattering, and for quark-antiquark annihilation into two gluons. These amplitudes are relevant for next-to-next-to-leading order corrections to (polarized) jet production at hadron colliders. We give the results in the `t Hooft-Veltman and four-dimensional helicity (FDH) variants of dimensional regularization. The transition rules for converting the amplitudes between the different variants are much more intricate than for the previously discussed case of gluon-gluon scattering. Summing our two-loop expressions over helicities and colors, and converting to conventional dimensional regularization, gives results in complete agreement with those of Anastasiou, Glover, Oleari and Tejeda-Yeomans. We describe the amplitudes for 2 to 2 scattering in pure N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, obtained from the QCD amplitudes by modifying the color representation and multiplicities, and verify supersymmetry Ward identities in the FDH scheme.Comment: 77 pages. v2: corrected errors in eqs. (3.7) and (3.8) for one-loop assembly; remaining results unaffecte

Two-Particle Correlation Functions for the 200-MeV 3-He + Ag Reaction

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478

High pressure phases in highly piezoelectric Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3

Two novel room-temperature phase transitions are observed, via synchrotron x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, in the Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 alloy under hydrostatic pressures up to 16 GPa. A monoclinic (M)-to-rhombohedral (R1) phase transition takes place around 2-3 GPa, while this R1 phase transforms into another rhombohedral phase, R2, at about 6-7 GPa. First-principles calculations assign the R3m and R3c symmetry to R1 and R2, respectively, and reveal that R2 acts as a pressure-induced structural bridge between the polar R3m and a predicted antiferrodistortive R-3c phase.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages with 3 figures embedded. Figs 1 and 3 in colo

Phase diagram of the ferroelectric-relaxor (1-x)PbMg(1/3)Nb(2/3)O3-xPbTiO3

Synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction measurements have been performed on unpoled ceramic samples of (1-x)PbMg(1/3)Nb(2/3)O3-xPbTiO3 (PMN-xPT) with 30%<= x<= 39% as a function of temperature around the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), which is the line separating the rhombohedral and tetragonal phases in the phase diagram. The experiments have revealed very interesting features previously unknown in this or related systems. The sharp and well-defined diffraction profiles observed at high and intermediate temperatures in the cubic and tetragonal phases, respectively, are in contrast to the broad features encountered at low temperatures. These peculiar characteristics, which are associated with the monoclinic phase of MC-type previously reported by Kiat et al and Singh et al., can only be interpreted as multiple coexisting structures with MC as the major component. An analysis of the diffraction profiles has allowed us to properly characterize the PMN-xPT phase diagram and to determine the stability region of the monoclinic phase, which extends from x= 31% to x= 37% at 20 K. The complex lansdcape of observed phases points to an energy balance between the different PMN-xPT phases which is intrinsically much more delicate than that of related systems such as PbZr(1-x)TixO3 or (1-x)PbZn(1/3)Nb(1/3)O3-xPbTiO3. These observations are in good accord with an optical study of x= 33% by Xu et al., who observed monoclinic domains with several different polar directions coexisting with rhombohedral domains, in the same single crystal.Comment: REVTeX4, 11 pages, 10 figures embedde

Threshold Electrodisintegration of ^3He

Cross sections were measured for the near-threshold electrodisintegration of ^3He at momentum transfer values of q=2.4, 4.4, and 4.7 fm^{-1}. From these and prior measurements the transverse and longitudinal response functions R_T and R_L were deduced. Comparisons are made against previously published and new non-relativistic A=3 calculations using the best available NN potentials. In general, for q<2 fm^{-1} these calculations accurately predict the threshold electrodisintegration of ^3He. Agreement at increasing q demands consideration of two-body terms, but discrepancies still appear at the highest momentum transfers probed, perhaps due to the neglect of relativistic dynamics, or to the underestimation of high-momentum wave-function components.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, REVTEX4, submitted to Physical Review

A tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transition in a ferroelectric perovskite: the structure of PbZr(0.52)Ti(0.48)O3

The perovskite-like ferroelectric system PbZr(1-x)Ti(x)O3 (PZT) has a nearly vertical morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) around x=0.45-0.50. Recent synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction measurements by Noheda et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. 74, 2059 (1999)] have revealed a new monoclinic phase between the previously-established tetragonal and rhombohedral regions. In the present work we describe a Rietveld analysis of the detailed structure of the tetragonal and monoclinic PZT phases on a sample with x= 0.48 for which the lattice parameters are respectively: at= 4.044 A, ct= 4.138 A, at 325 K, and am= 5.721 A, bm= 5.708 A, cm= 4.138 A, beta= 90.496 deg., at 20K. In the tetragonal phase the shifts of the atoms along the polar [001] direction are similar to those in PbTiO3 but the refinement indicates that there are, in addition, local disordered shifts of the Pb atoms of ~0.2 A perpendicular to the polar axis.. The monoclinic structure can be viewed as a condensation along one of the directions of the local displacements present in the tetragonal phase. It equally well corresponds to a freezing-out of the local displacements along one of the directions recently reported by Corker et al.[J. Phys. Condens. Matter 10, 6251 (1998)] for rhombohedral PZT. The monoclinic structure therefore provides a microscopic picture of the MPB region in which one of the "locally" monoclinic phases in the "average" rhombohedral or tetragonal structures freezes out, and thus represents a bridge between these two phases.Comment: REVTeX, 7 figures. Modifications after referee's suggestion: new figure (figure 5), comments in 2nd para. (Sect.III) and in 2nd & 3rd para. (Sect. IV-a), in the abstract: "...of ~0.2 A perpendicular to the polar axis.

A Quantitative Model of Energy Release and Heating by Time-dependent, Localized Reconnection in a Flare with a Thermal Loop-top X-ray Source

We present a quantitative model of the magnetic energy stored and then released through magnetic reconnection for a flare on 26 Feb 2004. This flare, well observed by RHESSI and TRACE, shows evidence of non-thermal electrons only for a brief, early phase. Throughout the main period of energy release there is a super-hot (T>30 MK) plasma emitting thermal bremsstrahlung atop the flare loops. Our model describes the heating and compression of such a source by localized, transient magnetic reconnection. It is a three-dimensional generalization of the Petschek model whereby Alfven-speed retraction following reconnection drives supersonic inflows parallel to the field lines, which form shocks heating, compressing, and confining a loop-top plasma plug. The confining inflows provide longer life than a freely-expanding or conductively-cooling plasma of similar size and temperature. Superposition of successive transient episodes of localized reconnection across a current sheet produces an apparently persistent, localized source of high-temperature emission. The temperature of the source decreases smoothly on a time scale consistent with observations, far longer than the cooling time of a single plug. Built from a disordered collection of small plugs, the source need not have the coherent jet-like structure predicted by steady-state reconnection models. This new model predicts temperatures and emission measure consistent with the observations of 26 Feb 2004. Furthermore, the total energy released by the flare is found to be roughly consistent with that predicted by the model. Only a small fraction of the energy released appears in the super-hot source at any one time, but roughly a quarter of the flare energy is thermalized by the reconnection shocks over the course of the flare. All energy is presumed to ultimately appear in the lower-temperature T<20 MK, post-flare loops