Capillary Wave Theory of Adsorbed Liquid Films and the Structure of the Liquid-Vapor Interface

In this paper we try to work out in detail the implications of a microscopic theory for capillary waves under the assumption that the density is given along lines normal to the interface. Our study provides interface Hamiltonians for adsorbed films in a variety of systems, and shows that the corrections to the classical capillary wave spectrum are of the same order as the surface tension. This implies that it is possible, at least in principle, to measure them in x-ray surface scattering experiments. Interestingly, our study also sheds some light on the nature of the liquid-vapor interface in the absence of external fields and allows us to reconcile the Fisk-Widom scaling hypothesis with capillary wave theory.Comment: Revised version, 51 pages, 4 figure

INSTABILITY OF A NIELSEN-OLESEN VORTEX EMBEDDED IN THE ELECTROWEAK THEORY: II. ELECTROWEAK VORTICES AND GAUGE EQUIVALENCE

Vortex configurations in the electroweak gauge theory are investigated. Two gauge-inequivalent solutions of the field equations, the Z and W vortices, have previously been found. They correspond to embeddings of the abelian Nielsen-Olesen vortex solution into a U(1) subgroup of SU(2)xU(1). It is shown here that any electroweak vortex solution can be mapped into a solution of the same energy with a vanishing upper component of the Higgs field. The correspondence is a gauge equivalence for all vortex solutions except those for which the winding numbers of the upper and lower Higgs components add to zero. This class of solutions, which includes the W vortex, instead corresponds to a singular solution in the one-component gauge. The results, combined with numerical investigations, provide an argument against the existence of other vortex solutions in the gauge-Higgs sector of the Standard Model.Comment: 6 pages, plain latex, no figures, submitted to Mod. Phys. Lett. A as "Electroweak Vortices and Gauge Equivalence"

Gravitation as a Supersymmetric Gauge Theory

We propose a gauge theory of gravitation. The gauge potential is a connection of the Super SL(2,C) group. A MacDowell-Mansouri type of action is proposed where the action is quadratic in the Super SL(2,C) curvature and depends purely on gauge connection. By breaking the symmetry of the Super SL(2,C) topological gauge theory to SL(2,C), a spinor metric is naturally defined. With an auxiliary anti-commuting spinor field, the theory is reduced to general relativity. The Hamiltonian variables are related to the ones given by Ashtekar. The auxiliary spinor field plays the role of Witten spinor in the positive energy proof for gravitation.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Localized corrosion of high performance metal alloys in an acid/salt environment

Various vacuum jacketed cryogenic supply lines at the Space Shuttle launch site at Kennedy Space Center use convoluted flexible expansion joints. The atmosphere at the launch site has a very high salt content, and during a launch, fuel combustion products include hydrochloric acid. This extremely corrosive environment has caused pitting corrosion failure in the thin walled 304L stainless steel flex hoses. A search was done to find a more corrosion resistant replacement material. The study focussed on 19 metal alloys. Tests which were performed include electrochemical corrosion testing, accelerated corrosion testing in a salt fog chamber, and long term exposure at a beach corrosion testing site. Based on the results of these tests, several nickel based alloys were found to have very high resistance to this corrosive environment. Also, there was excellent agreement between the electrochemical tests and the actual beach exposure tests. This suggests that electrochemical testing may be useful for narrowing the field of potential candidate alloys before subjecting samples to long term beach exposure

Evaluation of candidate alloys for the construction of metal flex hoses in the STS launch environment

Various vacuum jacketed cryogenic supply lines at the Shuttle launch site use convoluted flexible expansion joints. The atmosphere at the launch site has a very high salt content, and during a launch fuel combustion products include hydrochloric acid. This extremely corrosive environment has caused pitting corrosion failure in the flex hoses, which were made out of 304L stainless steel. A search was done to find a more corrosion resistant replacement material. Nineteen metal alloys were tested. Tests which were performed include electrochemical corrosion testing, accelerated corrosion testing in a salt fog chamber, long term exposure at the beach corrosion testing site, and pitting corrosion tests in ferric chloride solution. Based on the results, the most corrosion resistant alloys were found to be, in order, Hastelloy C-22, Inconel 625, Hastelloy C-276, Hastelloy C-4, and Inco Alloy G-3. Of these top five alloys, the Hastelloy C-22 stands out as being the best of the alloys tested

Quilts, Regionalism, and Collaborations in Folklore Scholarship

Collaboration