The International Linear Collider

In this article, we describe the key features of the recently completed technical design for the International Linear Collider (ILC), a 200-500 GeV linear electron-positron collider (expandable to 1 TeV) that is based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) technology. The machine parameters and detector characteristics have been chosen to complement the Large Hadron Collider physics, including the discovery of the Higgs boson, and to further exploit this new particle physics energy frontier with a precision instrument. The linear collider design is the result of nearly twenty years of R&D, resulting in a mature conceptual design for the ILC project that reflects an international consensus. We summarize the physics goals and capability of the ILC, the enabling R&D and resulting accelerator design, as well as the concepts for two complementary detectors. The ILC is technically ready to be proposed and built as a next generation lepton collider, perhaps to be built in stages beginning as a Higgs factory.Comment: 41 page

Designing Catastrophe Bonds to Securitize Systemic Risks in Agriculture: The Case of Georgia Cotton

This article makes an initial attempt to design catastrophe (CAT) bond products for agriculture and examines the potential of these instruments as mechanisms for transferring agricultural risks from insurance companies to investors/speculators in the global capital market. The case of Georgia cotton is considered as a specific example. The CAT bond contracts are based on percentage deviations of realized state average yields relative to the long-run average. The contracts are priced using historical state-level cotton yield data. The principal finding of the study is that the proposed CAT bonds demonstrate potential as risk transfer mechanisms for crop insurance companies.CAT bonds, catastrophe bond pricing, catastrophe insurance, disaster risk, reinsurance, risk securitization, Risk and Uncertainty,

Valuing Avoided Soil Erosion by Considering Private and Public Net Benefits

The population in New Zealand is expected to increase to over five million by the mid 2020’s from the current level of 4.3 million (Statistics New Zealand, 2009). An increasing demand for primary produce as a result may put pressure on marginal land to be farmed. Understanding the economic value of avoided erosion in New Zealand is therefore an important factor in policy making to optimise the soil related activities in the economy. Establishing a methodology for estimating the economic value of avoided soil erosion is the first step in assessing the problem. This study uses the future forest scenarios developed by Scion to identify potential afforestation areas and thereby compare the current erosion/sedimentation status under current land-use (non woody vegetation) with potential future afforestation. The study aims to quantify the incremental public and private net benefits from the change in scenario. The notion has come under different headings in the literature, such as on-site and off-site erosion effects or sediment and soil erosion effects, all of which recognize the importance of separation of effects to avoid double-counting. The separation into public and private benefits and costs in this case, while avoiding double-counting, will also help identify appropriate policy instruments to avoid soil erosion damage using the private and public net benefit framework (Pannell, 2008).Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Cryopumping Field Joint Can Testing

For long installations, vacuum jacketed piping often comes in 40 foot sections that are butt welded together in the field. A short can is then welded over the bare pipe connection to allow for insulation to be protected from the environment. Traditionally, the field joint is insulated with multilayer insulation and a vacuum is pulled on the can to minimize heat leak through the bare section and prevent frost from forming on the pipe section. The vacuum jacketed lines for the Ares I mobile launch platform were to be a combined 2000 feet long, with 60+ pipe sections and field joint cans. Historically, Kennedy Space Center has drilled a hole in the long sections to create a common vacuum with the field joint can to minimize maintenance on the vacuum jacketed piping. However, this effort looked at ways to use a passive system that didn't require a vacuum, but may cryopump to create its own vacuum. Various forms of aerogel, multilayer insulations, and combinations thereof were tested to determine the best method of insulating the field joint while minimizing maintenance and thermal losses

Temperature-dependent Hall scattering factor and drift mobility in remotely doped Si:B/SiGe/Si heterostructures

Hall-and-Strip measurements on modulation-doped SiGe heterostructures and combined Hall and capacitance–voltage measurements on metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS)-gated enhancement mode structures have been used to deduce Hall scattering factors, rH, in the Si1 – xGex two-dimensional hole gas. At 300 K, rH was found to be equal to 0.4 for x = 0.2 and x = 0.3. Knowing rH, it is possible to calculate the 300 K drift mobilities in the modulation-doped structures which are found to be 400 cm2 V – 1 s – 1 at a carrier density of 3.3 × 1011 cm – 2 for x = 0.2 and 300 cm2 V – 1 s – 1 at 6.3 × 1011 cm – 2 for x = 0.3, factors of between 1.5 and 2.0 greater than a Si pMOS control