Physical characteristics of subglacial tills

A regional database of the physical properties of glacial tills has been interrogated to produce characteristic design values and baseline construction values. Glacioterrestrial glacial till, one of the most distributed deposits in the world, is typically a heterogeneous mixture of clays, silts, sands, gravels and cobbles, which can contain remnants of earlier till including glaciolacustrine and fluvioglacial deposits that have been gravitationally compacted and sheared. This results in a complex deposit, which is spatially variable both in composition and fabric to the extent that the selection of design profiles is challenging. A study of the intrinsic properties of the tills in the North East of England together with a statistical analysis has led to the identification of two distinctly different, heavily overconsolidated tills that have profiles of strength, water content and density that lead to characteristic values based on the regional database and baseline values based on the local database that provide a priori knowledge for future investigations. This a priori knowledge has been used to determine the characteristic and baseline values for a new dataset from the region after demonstrating that the data fit with the regional database

Predictions of acoustic signals from explosions above and below the ocean surface: source region calculations

In support of the Comprehensive Test Ban, research is underway on the long range propagation of signals from nuclear explosions in the deep underwater sound (SOFAR) channel. This first phase of our work at LLNL on signals in the source regions considered explosions in or above the deep (5000 m) ocean. We studied the variation of wave properties and source region energy coupling as a function of height or depth of burst. Initial calculations on CALE, a two-dimensional hydrodynamics code developed at LLNL by Robert Tipton, were linked at a few hundred milliseconds to a version of NRL`s weak shock code, NPE, which solves the nonlinear progressive wave equation. The wave propagation simulation was performed down to 5000 m depth and out to 10,000 m range. We have developed a procedure to convert the acoustic signals at 10 km range into `starter fields` for calculations on a linear acoustics code which will extend the propagation to ocean basin distances. Recently we have completed calculations to evaluate environmental effects (shallow water, bottom interactions) on signal propagation. We compared results at 25 km range from three calculations of the same I kiloton burst (50 m height-of-burst) in three different environments, namely, deep water, shallow water, and a case with shallow water sloping to deep water. Several results from this last `sloping bottom` case will be 2016 discussed below. In this shallow water study, we found that propagation through shallow water complicates and attenuates the signal; the changes made to the signal may impact detection and discrimination for bursts in some locations

Sonoluminescence, shock waves, and micro-thermonuclear fusion

We have performed numerical hydrodynamic simulations of the growth and collapse of a sonoluminescing bubble in a liquid. Our calculations show that spherically converging shock waves are generated during the collapse of the bubble. The combination of the shock waves and a realistic equation of state for the gas in the bubble provides an explanation for the measured picosecond optical pulse widths and indicates that the temperatures near the center of the bubble may exceed 3O eV. This leads naturally to speculation about obtaining micro-thermonuclear fusion in a bubble filled with deuterium (D{sub 2}) gas. Consequently, we performed numerical simulations of the collapse of a D{sub 2} bubble in D{sub 2}0. A pressure spike added to the periodic driving amplitude creates temperatures that may be sufficient to generate a very small, but measurable number of thermonuclear D-D fusion reactions in the bubble

Design and performance of the ADMX SQUID-based microwave receiver

The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) was designed to detect ultra-weakly interacting relic axion particles by searching for their conversion to microwave photons in a resonant cavity positioned in a strong magnetic field. Given the extremely low expected axion-photon conversion power we have designed, built and operated a microwave receiver based on a Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID). We describe the ADMX receiver in detail as well as the analysis of narrow band microwave signals. We demonstrate the sustained use of a SQUID amplifier operating between 812 and 860 MHz with a noise temperature of 1 K. The receiver has a noise equivalent power of 1.1x10^-24 W/sqrt(Hz) in the band of operation for an integration time of 1.8x10^3 s.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, Submitted to Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research,

Instantons and special geometry

We survey and discuss constructions of instantons on non-compact complete manifolds of special holonomy from the viewpoint of evolution equations and give several explicit examples

Anomalous c-axis charge dynamics in copper oxide materials

Within the t-J model, the c-axis charge dynamics of the copper oxide materials in the underdoped and optimally doped regimes is studied by considering the incoherent interlayer hopping. It is shown that the c-axis charge dynamics is mainly governed by the scattering from the in-plane fluctuation. In the optimally doped regime, the c-axis resistivity is a linear in temperatures, and shows the metallic-like behavior for all temperatures, while the c-axis resistivity in the underdoped regime is characterized by a crossover from the high temperature metallic-like behavior to the low temperature semiconducting-like behavior, which are consistent with experiments and numerical simulations.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, Three figures are adde

Nearby quasar remnants and ultra-high energy cosmic rays

As recently suggested, nearby quasar remnants are plausible sites of black-hole based compact dynamos that could be capable of accelerating ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). In such a model, UHECRs would originate at the nuclei of nearby dead quasars, those in which the putative underlying supermassive black holes are suitably spun-up. Based on galactic optical luminosity, morphological type, and redshift, we have compiled a small sample of nearby objects selected to be highly luminous, bulge-dominated galaxies, likely quasar remnants. The sky coordinates of these galaxies were then correlated with the arrival directions of cosmic rays detected at energies $> 40$ EeV. An apparently significant correlation appears in our data. This correlation appears at closer angular scales than those expected when taking into account the deflection caused by typically assumed IGM or galactic magnetic fields over a charged particle trajectory. Possible scenarios producing this effect are discussed, as is the astrophysics of the quasar remnant candidates. We suggest that quasar remnants be also taken into account in the forthcoming detailed search for correlations using data from the Auger Observatory.Comment: 2 figures, 4 tables, 11 pages. Final version to appear in Physical Review

Crime as risk taking

Engagement in criminal activity may be viewed as risk-taking behaviour as it has both benefits and drawbacks that are probabilistic. In two studies, we examined how individuals' risk perceptions can inform our understanding of their intentions to engage in criminal activity. Study 1 measured youths' perceptions of the value and probability of the benefits and drawbacks of engaging in three common crimes (i.e. shoplifting, forgery, and buying illegal drugs), and examined how well these perceptions predicted youths' forecasted engagement in these crimes, controlling for their past engagement. We found that intentions to engage in criminal activity were best predicted by the perceived value of the benefits that may be obtained, irrespective of their probabilities or the drawbacks that may also be incurred. Study 2 specified the benefit and drawback that youth thought about and examined another crime (i.e. drinking and driving). The findings of Study 1 were replicated under these conditions. The present research supports a limited rationality perspective on criminal intentions, and can have implications for crime prevention/intervention strategies

Parallel computing in information retrieval - An updated review

The progress of parallel computing in Information Retrieval (IR) is reviewed. In particular we stress the importance of the motivation in using parallel computing for Text Retrieval. We analyse parallel IR systems using a classification due to Rasmussen [1] and describe some parallel IR systems. We give a description of the retrieval models used in parallel Information Processing.. We describe areas of research which we believe are needed