Space Shuttle Lightning Protection

The technology for lightning protection of even the most advanced spacecraft is available and can be applied through cost-effective hardware designs and design-verification techniques. In this paper, the evolution of the Space Shuttle Lightning Protection Program is discussed, including the general types of protection, testing, and anlayses being performed to assess the lightning-transient-damage susceptibility of solid-state electronics

Canonical and Grand Canonical Ensemble Expectation Values from Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations

We show how canonical ensemble expectation values can be extracted from quantum Monte Carlo simulations in the grand canonical ensemble. In order to obtain results for all particle sectors, a modest number of grand canonical simulations must be performed, each at a different chemical potential. From the canonical ensemble results, grand canonical expectation values can be extracted as a continuous function of the chemical potential. Results are presented from the application of this method to the two-dimensional Hubbard model.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Chrysler improved numerical differencing analyzer for third generation computers CINDA-3G

New and versatile method has been developed to supplement or replace use of original CINDA thermal analyzer program in order to take advantage of improved systems software and machine speeds of third generation computers. CINDA-3G program options offer variety of methods for solution of thermal analog models presented in network format

Stopping distance for high energy jets in weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasmas

We derive a simple formula for the stopping distance for a high-energy quark traveling through a weakly-coupled quark gluon plasma. The result is given to next-to-leading-order in an expansion in inverse logarithms ln(E/T), where T is the temperature of the plasma. We also define a stopping distance for gluons and give a leading-log result. Discussion of stopping distance has a theoretical advantage over discussion of energy loss rates in that stopping distances can be generalized to the case of strong coupling, where one may not speak of individual partons.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures [change from v1: fixed embarrassing reference error

How rapidly do neutron stars spin at birth? Constaints from archival X-ray observations of extragalactic supernovae

Traditionally, studies aimed at inferring the distribution of birth periods of neutron stars are based on radio surveys. Here we propose an independent method to constrain the pulsar spin periods at birth based on their X-ray luminosities. In particular, the observed luminosity distribution of supernovae (SNe) poses a constraint on the initial rotational energy of the embedded pulsars, via the correlation found for radio pulsars, and under the assumption that this relation continues to hold beyond the observed range. We have extracted X-ray luminosities (or limits) for a large sample of historical SNe observed with Chandra, XMM and Swift, which have been firmly classified as core-collapse SNe. We have then compared these observational limits with the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the pulsar X-ray luminosity distribution for a range of values of the birth parameters. We find that a pulsar population dominated by millisecond periods at birth is ruled out by the data

Summary of the proceedings of the Mars Surface Sample Return Symposium

A summary is made of various technical and scientific aspects of a Mars surface sample return mission. Particular attention was focused on the question of back contamination. Data are also given on problems inherent in the back contamination issue and return sample mission; areas where additional research is needed were pointed out. Quarantine procedures, safety measures, and sterilization effects on organic-inorganic data, and biological problems were also dealt with

High-Fidelity Readout in Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics Using the Jaynes-Cummings Nonlinearity

We demonstrate a qubit readout scheme that exploits the Jaynes-Cummings nonlinearity of a superconducting cavity coupled to transmon qubits. We find that in the strongly-driven dispersive regime of this system, there is the unexpected onset of a high-transmission "bright" state at a critical power which depends sensitively on the initial qubit state. A simple and robust measurement protocol exploiting this effect achieves a single-shot fidelity of 87% using a conventional sample design and experimental setup, and at least 61% fidelity to joint correlations of three qubits.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Geodesics in the static Mallett spacetime

Mallett has exhibited a cylindrically symmetric spacetime containing closed timelike curves produced by a light beam circulating around a line singularity. I analyze the static version of this spacetime obtained by setting the intensity of the light to zero. Some null geodesics can escape to infinity, but all timelike geodesics in this spacetime originate and terminate at the singularity. Freely falling matter originally at rest quickly attains relativistic velocity inward and is destroyed at the singularity.Comment: 5 page