We investigatethe reconstruction of high pT hadronically-decaying top quarksat the Large Hadron Collider. One of the main challenges in identifying energetictop quarks is that the decay products become increasingly collimated. This reducesthe efficacy of conventional reconstruction methods that exploit the topology of thetop quark decay chain. We focus on the cases where the decay products of the topquark are reconstructed as a single jet, a"top-jet." The most basic"top-tag" methodbased on jet mass measurement is considered in detail. To analyze the feasibility ofthe top-tagging method, both theoretical and experimental aspects of the large QCDjet background contribution are examined. Based on a factorization approach, wederive a simple analytic approximation for the shape of the QCD jet mass spectrum.We observe very good agreement with the Monte Carlo simulation. We consider high pT tt bar production in the Standard Model as an example, and show that our theoretical QCD jet mass distributions can efficiently characterize the background via sideband analyses. We show that with 25 fb-1 of data, our approach allows us to resolve top-jets with pT _> 1 TeV, from the QCD background, and about 1.5 TeV top-jets with 100 fb-1, without relying on b-tagging. To further improve the significancewe consider jet shapes …

The goal of the EZturb mix model in KULL is to predict the turbulent mixing process as it evolves from Rayleigh-Taylor, Richtmyer-Meshkov, or Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. In this report we focus on an example of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (which occurs when a shock hits an interface between fluids of different densities) with the additional complication of reshock. The experiment by Vetter & Sturtevant (VS) [1], involving a Mach 1.50 incident shock striking an air/SF{sub 6} interface, is a good one to model, now that we understand how the model performs for the Benjamin shock tube [2] and a prototypical incompressible Rayleigh-Taylor problem [3]. The x-t diagram for the VS shock tube is quite complicated, since the transmitted shock hits the far wall at {approx}2 millisec, reshocks the mixing zone slightly after 3 millisec (which sets up a release wave that hits the wall at {approx}4 millisec), and then the interface is hit with this expansion wave around 5 millisec. Needless to say, this problem is much more difficult to model than the Bejamin shock tube.

Even though RHIC has two full Siberian snakes in each ring, there are various perturbations to the ideal case including orbit errors at the snakes, experiment solenoids, injection bumps, and interlaced horizontal-vertical bumps at the hydrogen jet polarimeter. These errors can cause depolarization by shifting the spin tune and tilting the stable spin direction away from vertical. Tilting of the stable spin axis can enhance horizontal depolarizing resonances. This paper presents preliminary results for some of these error scenarios, as well as their impact on the stable spin directions at STAR and PHENIX.

Continued advances in the design of ignition targets have stimulating new development paths for target fabrication, with potentially important simplifications for fielding cryogenic ignition targets for the National Ignition Facility. Including graded dopants in ablators as well as optimizing capsule and fuel layer dimensions increase implosion stability. This has led to developments of micron-scale fill tubes to fill and field the targets. Rapid progress has been made in development of the graded dopant layers in capsules as well as their characterization, in fabrication methods for micro-fill-tubes, and in fuel fill control with these fill tubes. Phase-contrast x-ray radiography has allowed characterization of fuel layers in beryllium targets. This target development program includes participation from General Atomics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Durability of Carbon-Fiber Composites Project was established at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop experimentally based, durability-driven design guidelines to assure the long-term (15-year) structural integrity of carbon-fiber-based composite systems for automotive structural applications. The project addressed characterization and modeling the durability of a progression of carbon-reinforced thermoset materials, each of which has the same urethane matrix. The primary purpose of this report is to provide the individual specimen test data. Basic mechanical property testing and results for a reference [{+-}45{sup o}]{sub 3S} crossply composite and a quasi-isotropic, [0/90{sup o}/{+-}45{sup o}]{sub S} version of the reference crossply are provided. The matrix and individual {+-}45{sup o} stitch-bonded mats are the same in both cases. Although the composite utilized aerospace-grade carbon-fiber reinforcement, it was made by a rapid-molding process suitable for high-volume automotive use. Behavioral trends, effects of temperature and environment, and corresponding design knockdown factors are established for both materials. The reference crossply is highly anisotropic with two dominant fiber orientations--0/90{sup o} and {+-}45{sup o}. Therefore properties were developed for both orientations.

We have measured a contrast of 6.5 {center_dot} 10{sup -8} from 10-25{lambda}/D in visible light on the Extreme Adaptive Optics testbed using a shaped pupil for diffraction suppression. The testbed was designed with a minimal number of high-quality optics to ensure low wavefront error and uses a phase shifting diffraction interferometer for metrology. This level of contrast is within the regime needed for imaging young Jupiter-like planets, a primary application of high-contrast imaging. We have concluded that wavefront error, not pupil quality, is the limiting error source for improved contrast in our system.

We present a hybrid fluid-particle algorithm to simulate flow and transport of DNA-laden fluids in microdevices. Relevant length scales in microfluidic systems range from characteristic channel sizes of millimeters to micron scale geometric variation (e.g., post arrays) to 10 nanometers for the length of a single rod in a bead-rod polymer representation of a biological material such as DNA. The method is based on a previous fluid-particle algorithm in which long molecules are represented as a chain of connected rods, but in which the physically unrealistic behavior of rod crossing occurred. We have extended this algorithm to include screened Coulombic forces between particles by implementing a Debye-Hueckel potential acting between rods. In the method an unsteady incompressible Newtonian fluid is discretized with a second-order finite difference method in the interior of the Cartesian grid domain; an embedded boundary volume-of-fluid formulation is used near boundaries. The bead-rod polymer model is fully coupled to the solvent through body forces representing hydrodynamic drag and stochastic thermal fluctuations. While intrapolymer interactions are modeled by a soft potential, polymer-structure interactions are treated as perfectly elastic collisions. We demonstrate this method on flow and transport of a polymer through a post array microchannel in 2D where …

In the U.S., the increasing financial support for customer-sited photovoltaic (PV) systems provided through publicly-funded incentive programs has heightened concerns about the long-term performance of these systems. Given the barriers that customers face to ensuring that their PV systems perform well, and the responsibility that PV incentive programs bear to ensure that public funds are prudently spent, these programs should, and often do, play a critical role in addressing PV system performance. To provide a point of reference for assessing the current state of the art, and to inform program design efforts going forward, we examine the approaches to encouraging PV system performance used by 32 prominent PV incentive programs in the U.S. We identify eight general strategies or groups of related strategies that these programs have used to address factors that affect performance, and describe key implementation details. Based on this review, we then offer recommendations for how PV incentive programs can be effectively designed to mitigate potential performance issues.

This report deals with the impact of fabrication processes on the localized corrosion behavior of Alloy 22 (N06022). The four fabrication processes that were analyzed are: (1) Surface stress mitigation of final closure weld, (2) Manufacturing of the mockup container, (3) Black annealing of the container and (4) Use of different heats of Alloy 22 for container fabrication. Immersion and Electrochemical tests performed in the laboratory are generally aggressive and do not represent actual repository environments in Yucca Mountain. For example, to determine the intergranular attack in the heat affected zone of a weldment, tests are conducted in boiling acidic and oxidizing solutions according to ASTM standards. These solutions are used to compare the behavior of differently treated metallic coupons. Similarly for electrochemical tests many times pure sodium chloride or calcium chloride solutions are used. Pure chloride solutions are not representative of the repository environment. (1) Surface Stress Mitigation--When metallic plates are welded, for example using the Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) method, residual tensile stresses may develop in the vicinity of the weld seam. Processes such as Low Plasticity Burnishing (LPB) and Laser Shock Peening (LSP) could be applied locally to eliminate the residual stresses produced by welding. In …

This research focused on efforts to prepare and characterize the first copper-indium-boron-diselenide (CIBS) photovoltaic materials. Attempts to fabricate CIBS in thin-film form followed a three-step process: 1) RF sputtering of copper, indium, and boron to form a copper-indium-boron (CIB) alloy; 2) ex-situ selenization of CIB via physical vapor deposition; 3) annealing the final product. No CIBS materials were produced with this method due to the formation of an unstable boron diselenide species that formed in step 2. Detailed investigations of the CIB alloy formation revealed that boron does not adequately mix with the copper and indium in step 1. In the last year, a nanoscience-based method has shown greater promise for successful CIBS preparation. In this two-step method, sources of copper, indium, boron, and selenium are combined and heated in a high-boiling amine solvent. The isolated product is then annealed at temperatures between 400-500 deg. C. Currently, purified CIBS has not been isolated and characterized but further study and development of this nanoscience-based method is in progress through the support of two grants from the DOE Office of Energy Renewability and Efficiency and the State of Nebraska’s Nebraska Research Initiative program. The research described in this report resulted in four …

We present the results of a search for B{sup +} meson decays into {gamma}{ell}{sup +}{nu}{sub {ell}}, where {ell} = e,{mu}. We use a sample of 232 million B{bar B} meson pairs recorded at the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II B factory. We measure a partial branching fraction {Delta}{beta} in a restricted region of phase space that reduces the effect of theoretical uncertainties, requiring the lepton energy to be in the range 1.875 and 2.850 GeV, the photon energy to be in the range 0.45 and 2.35 GeV, and the cosine of the angle between the lepton and photon momenta to be less than -0.36, with all quantities computed in the {Upsilon}(4S) center-of-mass frame. We find {Delta}{Beta}(B{sup +} {yields} {gamma}{ell}{sup +}{nu}{sub {ell}}) = (-0.3{sub 1.5}{sup +1.3}(statistical){sub -0.6}{sup +0.6}(systematic) {+-} 0.1(theoretical)) x 10{sup -6}, under the assumption of lepton universality. Interpreted as a 90% confidence-level Bayesian upper limit, the result corresponds to 1.7 x 10{sup -6} for a prior at in amplitude, and 2.3 x 10{sup -6} for a prior at in branching fraction.

Aquifer microcosms were used to determine how ethanol and methyl-tert-butyl ether (MtBE) affect monoaromatic hydrocarbon degradation under different electron-accepting conditions commonly found in contaminated sites experiencing natural attenuation. Response variability was investigated by using aquifer material from four sites with different exposure history. The lag phase prior to BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) and ethanol degradation was typically shorter in microcosms with previously contaminated aquifer material, although previous exposure did not always result in high degradation activity. Toluene was degraded in all aquifer materials and generally under a broader range of electron-accepting conditions compared to benzene, which was degraded only under aerobic conditions. MtBE was not degraded within 100 days under any condition, and it did not affect BTEX or ethanol degradation patterns. Ethanol was often degraded before BTEX compounds, and had a variable effect on BTEX degradation as a function of electron-accepting conditions and aquifer material source. An occasional enhancement of toluene degradation by ethanol occurred in denitrifying microcosms with unlimited nitrate; this may be attributable to the fortuitous growth of toluene-degrading bacteria during ethanol degradation. Nevertheless, experiments with flow-through aquifer columns showed that this beneficial effect could be eclipsed by an ethanol-driven depletion of electron acceptors, which …

During the last quarter of FY2004, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) conducted a brief study of power plant options for a z-pinch-based inertial fusion energy (Z-IFE) power plant. Areas that were covered include chamber design, thick-liquid response, neutronics and activation, and systems studies. This report summarizes the progress made in each of these areas, provides recommendations for improvements to the basic design concept, and identifies future work that is needed. As a starting point to the LLNL studies, we have taken information provided in several publications and presentations. In particular, many of the basic parameters were taken from the ZP-3 study, which is described in reference 4. The ZP-3 design called for 12 separate target chambers, with any 10 of them operating at a given time. Each chamber would be pulsed at a repetition rate of 0.1 Hz with a target yield of 3 GJ. Thus, each chamber would have a fusion power of 300 MW for a power plant total of 3000 MW. The ZP-3 study considered several options for the recyclable transmission lines (RTL). Early in the study, the LLNL group questioned the use of many chambers as well as the yield limitation of 3 GJ. The feeling …

A source evaluation case study is presented for observations of algae toxicity in an intermittent stream passing through the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near Livermore, California. A five-step procedure is discussed to determine the cause of water toxicity problems and to determine appropriate environmental management practices. Using this approach, an upstream electrical transfer station was identified as the probable source of herbicides causing the toxicity. In addition, an analytical solution for solute transport in overland flow was used to estimate the application level of 40 Kg/ha. Finally, this source investigation demonstrates that pesticides can impact stream water quality regardless of application within levels suggested on manufacturer labels. Environmental managers need to ensure that pesticides that could harm aquatic organisms (including algae) not be used within close proximity to streams or storm drainages and that application timing should be considered for environmental protection.

The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is a fundamental fluid instability that occurs when perturbations on an interface separating gases with different properties grow following the passage of a shock. This instability is typically studied in shock tube experiments, and constitutes a fundamental example of a complex hydrodynamic flow. Numerical simulations and models for the instability growth and evolution have also been used to further understand the physics of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability. In the present work, the formally high-order accurate weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) shock-capturing method using a third-order total-variation diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta time-evolution scheme (as implemented in the HOPE code [57]) is applied to simulate the single-mode Richtmyer-Meshkov instability with reshock in two spatial dimensions. The initial conditions and computational domain for the simulations are modeled after the Collins and Jacobs [23] single-mode, Mach 1.21 air(acetone)/SF6 shock tube experiment. The following boundary conditions are used: (1) periodic in the spanwise direction corresponding to the cross-section of the test section; (2) outflow at the entrance of the test section in the streamwise direction, and; (3) reflecting at the end wall of the test section in the streamwise direction. The present investigation has three principal motivations: (1) to provide additional validation of the HOPE …

Currently, large physics simulations produce 3D fields whose individual surfaces, after conventional extraction processes, contain upwards of hundreds of millions of triangles. Detailed interactive viewing of these surfaces requires powerful compression to minimize storage, and fast view-dependent optimization of display triangulations to drive high-performance graphics hardware. In this work we provide an overview of an end-to-end multiresolution dataflow strategy whose goal is to increase efficiencies in practice by several orders of magnitude. Given recent advancements in subdivision-surface wavelet compression and view-dependent optimization, we present algorithms here that provide the ''glue'' that makes this strategy hold together. Shrink-wrapping converts highly detailed unstructured surfaces of arbitrary topology to the semi-structured form needed for wavelet compression. Remapping to triangle bintrees minimizes disturbing ''pops'' during real-time display-triangulation optimization and provides effective selective-transmission compression for out-of-core and remote access to these huge surfaces.

Cadmium manganese telluride (CMT) has high potential as a material for room-temperature nuclear-radiation detectors. We investigated indium-doped CMT crystals taken from the stable growth region of the ingot, and compared its characteristics with that from the last-to-freeze region. We employed different techniques, including synchrotron white-beam X-ray topography (SWBXT), current-voltage (I-V) measurements, and low-temperature photoluminescence spectra, and we also assessed their responses as detectors to irradiation exposure. The crystal from the stable growth region proved superior to that from the last-to-freeze region; it is a single-grain crystal, free of twins, and displayed a resistivity higher by two orders-of-magnitude. The segregation of indium dopant in the ingot might be responsible for its better resistivity. Furthermore, we recorded a good response in the detector fabricated from the crystal taken from the stable growth region; its ({mu}{tau}){sub e} value was 2.6 x 10{sup -3} cm{sup 2}/V, which is acceptable for thin detectors, including for applications in medicine.

The authors have succeeded in growing GaN1?xAsx alloys over a large composition range (0 < x < 0.8) by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The enhanced incorporation of As was achieved by growing the films with high As{sub 2} flux at low (as low as 100 C) growth temperatures, which is much below the normal GaN growth temperature range. Using x-ray and transmission electron microscopy, they found that the GaNAs alloys with high As content x > 0.17 are amorphous. Optical absorption measurements together with x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy results reveal a continuous gradual decrease in band gap from -3.4 to < 1 eV with increasing As content. The energy gap reaches its minimum of -0.8 eV at x - 0.8. The composition dependence of the band gap of the crystalline GaN{sub 1?x}As{sub x} alloys follows the prediction of the band anticrossing model (BAC). However, our measured band gap of amorphous GaN{sub 1?x}As{sub x} with 0.3 < x < 0.8 are larger than that predicted by BAC. The results seem to indicate that for this composition range the amorphous GaN{sub 1?x}As{sub x} alloys have short-range ordering that resembles random crystalline GaN{sub 1?x}As{sub x} alloys. They have demonstrated the possibility of …

We discuss two recent calculations of higher-order QeD corrections to scattering of transversely polarized hadrons. A basic concept underlying much of the theoretical description of high-energy hadronic scattering is the factorization theorem, which states that large momentum-transfer reactions may be factorized into long-distance pieces that contain information on the structure of the nucleon in terms of its parton densities, and parts that are short-distance and describe the hard interactions of the partons. Two crucial points are that on the one hand the long-distance contributions are universal, i.e., they are the same in any inelastic reaction under consideration, and that on the other hand the short-distance pieces depend only on the large scales related to the large momentum transfer in the overall reaction and, therefore, may be evaluated using QCD perturbation theory. The lowest order for the latter can generally only serve to give a rough description of the reaction under study. It merely captures the main features, but does not usually provide a quantitative understanding. The first-order ('next-to-leading order' (NLO)) corrections are generally indispensable in order to arrive at a firmer theoretical prediction for hadronic cross sections, and in some cases even an all-order resummation of large perturbative corrections is …

Phase change heat transfer is notorious for increasing the irreversibility of, and therefore decreasing the efficiency of, geothermal power plants. Its significant contribution to the overall irreversibility of the plant makes it the most important source of inefficiency in the process. Recent studies here have shown the promotion of drop wise condensation in the lab by means of increasing the surface energy density of a tube with nanotechnology. The use of nanotechnology has allowed the creation of surface treatments which discourage water from wetting a tube surface during a static test. These surface treatments are unique in that they create high- contact angles on the condensing tube surfaces to promote drop wise condensation.

During Run-8, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided collisions of spin-polarized proton beams at two interaction regions. Physics data were taken with vertical orientation of the beam polarization, which in the 'Yellow' RHIC ring was significantly lower than in previous years. We present recent developments and improvements as well as the luminosity and polarization performance achieved during Run-8, and we discuss possible causes of the not as high as previously achieved polarization performance of the 'Yellow' ring.

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A new commercial cutting tool software package replaced an internally created legacy system. This report describes the issues that surfaced during the migration and installation of the commercial package and the solutions employed. The primary issues discussed are restructuring the data between two drastically different database schemas and the creation of individual component graphics.

In calculating the strengths of depolarizing resonances it may be convenient to reformulate the equations of spin motion in a coordinate system based on the actual trajectory of the particle, as introduced by Kondratenko, rather than the conventional one based on a reference orbit. It is shown that resonance strengths calculated by the conventional and the revised formalisms are identical. Resonances induced by radiofrequency dipoles or solenoids are also treated; with rf dipoles it is essential to consider not only the direct effect of the dipole but also the contribution from oscillations induced by it.