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Design, characterization, and fabrication of solar-retroreflective cool-wall materials
Raising urban albedo increases the fraction of incident sunlight returned to outer space, cooling cities and their buildings. We evaluated the angular distribution of solar radiation incident on exterior walls in 17 U S. climates to develop performance parameters for solar-retroreflective walls, then applied first-principle physics and ray-tracing simulations to explore designs. Our analysis indicates that retroreflective walls must function at large incidence angles to reflect a substantial portion of summer sunlight, and that this will be difficult to attain with materials that rely on total internal reflection. Gonio-spectrophotometer measurements of the solar spectral bi-directional reflectivity of a bicycle reflector showed little to no retroreflection at large incidence angles. Visual comparisons of retroreflection to specular first-surface reflection for four different retroreflective safety films using violet and green lasers suggest their retroreflection to be no greater than 0.09 at incidence angles up to 45°, and no greater than 0.30 at incidence angles of up to 70°. Attempts to produce a two-surface retroreflector with orthogonal mirror grooves by cutting and polishing an aluminum block indicate that residual surface roughness impedes retroreflection. Ongoing efforts focus on forming orthogonal surfaces with aluminized Mylar film, a material with very high specular reflectance across the solar spectrum. We investigated (1) folding or stamping a free film; (2) adhering the film to a pre-shaped substrate; or (3) attaching the film to a flat ductile substrate, then shaping. The latter two methods were more successful but yielded imperfect right angles
The absorption spectrum around nu=1: evidence for a small size Skyrmion
We measure the absorption spectrum of a two-dimensional electron system
(2DES) in a GaAs quantum well in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic
field. We focus on the absorption spectrum into the lowest Landau Level around
nu=1. We find that the spectrum consists of bound electron-hole complexes,
trion and exciton like. We show that their oscillator strength is a powerful
probe of the 2DES spatial correlations. We find that near nu=1 the 2DES ground
state consists of Skyrmions of small size (a few magnetic lengths).Comment: To be published in Phys Rev Lett. To be presented in ICSP2004,
Flagstaff, Arizona. 4 figures (1 of them in color). 5 page
Views on the orientation of science in decision-making revealed in undergraduate students' discussion on socio-scientific issues
The aim of this study was to identify students? views on the orientation of science and to investigate the relationship between their views and decision-making on socio-scientific issues (SSI). In this study, 27 university students attending a science course were asked to discuss four controversial issues: the Toyota recall, the green car, the global warming and swine influenza (influenza A (H1N1)). The study was comprised of two stages. At the first stage, we examined students? views on the nature of science and on the orientation of science with the open-ended questionnaire based on VNOS and VOSTS. While they held relatively similar views on the nature of science, their views on the orientation of science were distinct as pragmatic, intrinsic, communal and ethical views. At the second stage, to examine the role of their views on the orientation of science in decision-making, we selected four students who had similar views on NOS but different views on the orientation of science. The four students were selected from each group of views on the orientation of science and their decision-making processes were analyzed following grounded theory. Across SSIs, they relied upon their views on the orientation of science as the strategies for decision, though considered different perception, and causal and contextual conditions. This study indicates that understanding students? views on the orientation of science would be helpful for achieving scientific literacy for informed decision
Acoustoelectric current and pumping in a ballistic quantum point contact
The acoustoelectric current induced by a surface acoustic wave (SAW) in a
ballistic quantum point contact is considered using a quantum approach. We find
that the current is of the "pumping" type and is not related to drag, i.e. to
the momentum transfer from the wave to the electron gas. At gate voltages
corresponding to the plateaus of the quantized conductance the current is
small. It is peaked at the conductance step voltages. The peak current
oscillates and decays with increasing SAW wavenumber for short wavelengths.
These results contradict previous calculations, based on the classical
Boltzmann equation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Adiabatic transport in nanostructures
A confined system of non-interacting electrons, subject to the combined
effect of a time-dependent potential and different external
chemical-potentials, is considered. The current flowing through such a system
is obtained for arbitrary strengths of the modulating potential, using the
adiabatic approximation in an iterative manner. A new formula is derived for
the charge pumped through an un-biased system (all external chemical potentials
are kept at the same value); It reproduces the Brouwer formula for a
two-terminal nanostructure. The formalism presented yields the effect of the
chemical potential bias on the pumped charge on one hand, and the modification
of the Landauer formula (which gives the current in response to a constant
chemical-potential difference) brought about by the modulating potential on the
other. Corrections to the adiabatic approximation are derived and discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
Operational reliability assessment of the GEOS A spacecraft
Decision theory application to GEOS A spacecraft operational reliability assessmen
Acoustoelectric effect in a finite-length ballistic quantum channel
The dc current induced by a coherent surface acoustic wave (SAW) of wave
vector q in a ballistic channel of length L is calculated. The current contains
two contributions, even and odd in q. The even current exists only in a
asymmetric channel, when the electron reflection coefficients r_1 and r_2 at
both channel ends are different. The direction of the even current does not
depend on the direction of the SAW propagation, but is reversed upon
interchanging r_1 and r_2. The direction of the odd current is correlated with
the direction of the SAW propagation, but is insensitive to the interchange of
r_1 and r_2. It is shown that both contributions to the current are non zero
only when the electron reflection coefficients at the channel ends are energy
dependent. The current exhibits geometric oscillations as function of qL. These
oscillations are the hallmark of the coherence of the SAW and are completely
washed out when the current is induced by a flux of non-coherent phonons. The
results are compared with those obtained previously by different methods and
under different assumptions.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
The status of the quantum dissipation-fluctuation relation and Langevin equation
I examine the arguments which have been given for quantum
fluctuation-dissipation theorems. I distinguish between a weak form of the
theorem, which is true under rather general conditions, and a strong form which
requires a Langevin equation for its statement. I argue that the latter has not
been reliably derived.Comment: 9 page
High-Energy Aspects of Astrophysical Jets
Various aspects of the high-energy emission from relativistic jets associated
wi th compact astrophysical systems are reviewed. The main leptonic and
hadronic processes responsible for the production of high-energy -rays,
very-high energy neutrinos and ultra-high energy cosmic rays are discussed.
Relations between the pair production and photomeson production
opacities are derived, and their consequences for the relative emission of
-rays and neutrinos are examined. The scaling of the size and location
of the various emission zones and other quantities with black hole mass and
dimensionless luminosity is elucidated. The results are applied to individual
classes of objects, including blazars, microquasars and gamma-ray bursts. It is
concluded that if baryons are present in the jet at sufficient quantities, then
under optimal conditions most systems exhibiting relativistic jets may be
detectable by upcoming neutrino telescopes. An exception is the class of TeV
blazars, for which -ray observations imply neutrino yields well below
detection limit.Comment: Invited review, references added, typos corrected, some changes mad
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