Cloud-Chamber Study of the Production and Decay of Strange Particles

Out of 1242 decay events observed in a magnetic cloud chamber array triggered on penetrating showers, a total of 54 associated V-particle pairs has been obtained. All the associations observed are consistent with the "strangeness" selection rules. A statistical analysis of the numbers of double and single events has been used to obtain rough estimates of the fractions of neutral K particles and neutral hyperons which decay by "invisible" modes, and of the relative frequencies of occurrence of various production processes. The main uncertainties in the resulting values are discussed in detail

Cloud-Chamber Investigation of Charged V Particles

An analysis of 84 charged V events obtained during two years of operation of a vertical magnetic cloud-chamber array is presented. The particular features of interest which are studied in detail are the distribution of P*, the momentum of the charged secondary in the rest system of the primary, and the possible existence of a component of short lifetime (i.e., τ<5×10^-10 sec). The P* distribution from 19 slow, accurately measurable positive events is shown to imply that the large majority of these events arise from one or more two-body decays from primaries of mass approximately equal to that of the τ meson. One case turns out to be inconsistent with this interpretation, and is presumed to represent a three-body decay. The P* distribution from 6 slow, accurately measurable negative events is consistent with a single two-body decay having a P* value of about 200 Mev/c. This suggests the existence of a negative counterpart to the well-known θ0 particle, though the statistics are much too poor to permit any strong conclusion. The lifetime analysis provides strong evidence for the existence of a negative component of lifetime equal to or less than (1.3±0.6)×10^-10 sec. The transverse momentum distribution for these short-lived events is shown to suggest a two-body decay with a P* value of 201±12 Mev/c

Planetary Science Goals for the Spitzer Warm Era

The overarching goal of planetary astronomy is to deduce how the present collection of objects found in our Solar System were formed from the original material present in the proto-solar nebula. As over two hundred exo-planetary systems are now known, and multitudes more are expected, the Solar System represents the closest and best system which we can study, and the only one in which we can clearly resolve individual bodies other than planets. In this White Paper we demonstrate how to use Spitzer Space Telescope InfraRed Array Camera Channels 1 and 2 (3.6 and 4.5 µm) imaging photometry with large dedicated surveys to advance our knowledge of Solar System formation and evolution. There are a number of vital, key projects to be pursued using dedicated large programs that have not been pursued during the five years of Spitzer cold operations. We present a number of the largest and most important projects here; more will certainly be proposed once the warm era has begun, including important observations of newly discovered objects

Optical Guidance System /OGS/ for rendezvous and docking Final report

Optical guidance system for Apollo rendezvous and dockin