The Atomic and Molecular Interactions Gordon Conferences is justifiably recognized for its broad scope, touching on areas ranging from fundamental gas phase and gas-condensed matter collision dynamics, to laser-molecule interactions, photophysics, and unimolecular decay processes. The meeting has traditionally involved scientists engaged in fundamental research in gas and condensed phases and those who apply these concepts to systems of practical chemical and physical interest. A key tradition in this meeting is the strong mixing of theory and experiment throughout. The program for 2008 conference continues these traditions. At the 2008 AMI GRC, there will be talks in 5 broadly defined and partially overlapping areas of intermolecular interactions and chemical dynamics: (1) Photoionization and Photoelectron Spectroscopy; (2) Molecules in Strong Fields; (3) Photodissociation Dynamics; (4) Astrochemistry; and (5) Reaction Dynamics. These areas encompass many of the most productive and exciting areas of chemical physics, including both reactive and nonreactive processes, intermolecular and intramolecular energy transfer, and photodissociation and unimolecular processes. Gas phase dynamics, van der Waals and cluster studies, laser-matter interactions and multiple potential energy surface phenomena will all be discussed. Limited funds are available to support attendance for students and post-docs. Advisors should email the conference chair requesting such support, …

With both China and the United States relying heavily on coal for electricity, senior government officials from both countries have urged immediate action to push forward technology that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants. They discussed possible actions at a high-level workshop in April 2009 at the Harvard Kennedy School jointly sponsored by the Belfer Center's Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) research group, China's Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The workshop examined issues surrounding Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) coal plants, which turn coal into gas and remove impurities before the coal is combusted, and the related carbon capture and sequestration, in which the carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored underground to avoid releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Though promising, advanced coal technologies face steep financial and legal hurdles, and almost certainly will need sustained support from governments to develop the technology and move it to a point where its costs are low enough for widespread use.

The High Flux Isotope Reactor resumed operation in June of 2007 with a super-critical hydrogen cold source in horizontal beam tube 4. Cold guide 4 is a guide system designed to deliver neutrons from this source at reasonable flux at wavelengths greater than 4 Å to several instruments, and includes a 15-m, 96-section, 4-channel bender. A time-of-flight spectrum with calibrated detector was recorded at port C of cold guide 4, and compared to McStas simulations, to generate a brightness spectrum.

A presentation at the 22nd Industry Growth Forum by Marty Murphy that provides an overview of the event

Fits to the precision electroweak data that include the NuTeV measurement are considered in family universal, anomaly free U(1) extensions of the Standard Model. In data sets from which the hadronic asymmetries are excluded, some of the Z{prime} models can double the predicted value of the Higgs boson mass, from {approx} 60 to {approx} 120 GeV, removing the tension with the LEP II lower bound, while also modestly improving the {chi}{sup 2} confidence level. The effect of the Z{prime} models on both m{sub H} and the {chi}{sup 2} confidence level is increased when the NuTeV measurement is included in the fit. Both the original NuTeV data and a revised estimate by the PDG are considered.

The Phase II upgrade to the LHC collimation system calls for complementing the 30 high robust Phase I graphite collimators with 30 high Z Phase II collimators. One option is to use metallic rotatable collimators and this design will be discussed here. The Phase II collimators must be robust in various operating conditions and accident scenarios. Design issues include: (1) Collimator jaw deflection due to heating and sagitta must be small when operated in the steady state condition, (2) Collimator jaws must withstand transitory periods of high beam impaction with no permanent damage, (3) Jaws must recover from accident scenario where up to 8 full intensity beam pulses impact on the jaw surface and (4) The beam impedance contribution due to the collimators must be small to minimize coherent beam instabilities. This paper reports on recent updates to the design and testing.

The NSS5/SP-STM2 conference was held in Athens, Ohio July 15-19, 2008. The conference brought together a prestigious group of scientists from all over the globe to focus for 3 ½ days on a variety of nanoscience topics, particularly on nanoscale spectroscopy and spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. The conference was attended by many young scientists as well as senior scientists. Attendees to the conference were drawn from more than 10 countries and included 28 invited speakers, who are the leading scientists in their respective research areas. Included among the invited speakers were 4 plenary speakers - eminent scientists in their fields. The conference was divided into two parallel sessions – the NSS5 session and the SP-STM2 session.

We use N-body simulations and observationally-normalized relations between dark matter halo mass, stellar mass, and cold gas mass to derive robust expectations about the baryonic content of major mergers out to redshift z {approx} 2. First, we find that the majority of major mergers (m/M > 0.3) experienced by Milky Way size dark matter halos should have been gas-rich, and that gas-rich mergers are increasingly common at high redshift. Though the frequency of major mergers into galaxy halos in our simulations greatly exceeds the observed late-type galaxy fraction, the frequency of gas-poor major mergers is consistent with the observed fraction of bulge-dominated galaxies across the halo mass range M{sub DM} {approx} 10{sup 11} - 10{sup 13} M{sub {circle_dot}}. These results lend support to the conjecture that mergers with high baryonic gas fractions play an important role in building and/or preserving disk galaxies in the universe. Secondly, we find that there is a transition mass below which a galaxy's past major mergers were primarily gas-rich and above which they were gas poor. The associated stellar mass scale corresponds closely to that marking the observed bimodal division between blue, star-forming, disk-dominated systems and red, bulge-dominated systems with old populations. Finally, we find …

As a part of the Waste Acceptance Product Specifications (WAPS) for Vitrified High-Level Waste Forms defined by the Department of Energy - Office of Environmental Management, the phase stability must be determined for each of the projected high-level waste (HLW) types at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Specifically, WAPS 1.4.1 requires the glass transition temperature (Tg) to be defined and time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagrams to be developed. The Tg of a glass is an indicator of the approximate temperature where the supercooled liquid converts to a solid on cooling or conversely, where the solid begins to behave as a viscoelastic solid on heating. A TTT diagram identifies the crystalline phases that can form as a function of time and temperature for a given waste type or more specifically, the borosilicate glass waste form. In order to assess durability, the Product Consistency Test (PCT) was used and the durability results compared to the Environmental Assessment (EA) glass. The measurement of glass transition temperature and the development of TTT diagrams have already been performed for the seven Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) projected compositions as defined in the Waste Form Compliance Plan (WCP). These measurements were performed before DWPF start-up and the results …

We analyze the angular clustering of z {approx} 2.3 distant red galaxies (DRGs) measured by Quadri et al. (2008). We find that, with robust estimates of the measurement errors and realistic halo occupation distribution modeling, the measured clustering can be well fit within standard halo occupation models, in contrast to previous results. However, in order to fit the strong break in w({theta}) at {theta} = 10{double_prime}, nearly all satellite galaxies in the DRG luminosity range are required to be DRGs. Within this luminosity-threshold sample, the fraction of galaxies that are DRGs is {approx} 44%, implying that the formation of DRGs is more efficient for satellite galaxies than for central galaxies. Despite the evolved stellar populations contained within DRGs at z = 2.3, 90% of satellite galaxies in the DRG luminosity range have been accreted within 500 Myr. Thus, satellite DRGs must have known they would become satellites well before the time of their accretion. This implies that the formation of DRGs correlates with large-scale environment at fixed halo mass, although the large-scale bias of DRGs can be well fit without such assumptions. Further data are required to resolve this issue. Using the observational estimate that {approx} 30% of DRGs have …

Achieving significant reductions in retail electric sales is becoming a priority for policymakers in many states and is echoed at the federal level with the introduction of legislation to establish a national energy efficiency resource standard. Yet, as the National Action Plan on Energy Efficiency (NAPEE) pointed out, many utilities continue to shy away from seriously expanding their energy efficiency program offerings because they claim there is insufficient profit motivation, or even a financial disincentive, when compared to supply-side investments. In response to an information request from the Kansas Corporation Commission staff, we conducted a financial analysis to assess the utility business case in Kansas for pursuing more aggressive energy efficiency that complies with recent state legislation. Kansas' utilities are vertically integrated and don't face retail competition. With historically low retail rates and modest experience with energy efficiency, the achievement of rapid and substantial sales reductions from energy efficiency will require a viable utility business model. Using a conglomerate of the three largest utilities in Kansas, we quantitatively illustrate the tradeoff between ratepayer and shareholder interests when a 1percent reduction in incremental sales is achieved through energy efficiency both with and without the impact of future carbon regulation. We then …

The scope of the CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company, LLC (CHPRC) Groundwater and Technical Integration Support (Master Project) is for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory staff to provide technical and integration support to CHPRC. This work includes conducting investigations at the 300-FF-5 Operable Unit and other groundwater operable units, and providing strategic integration, technical integration and assessments, remediation decision support, and science and technology. The projects under this Master Project will be defined and included within the Master Project throughout the fiscal year, and will be incorporated into the Master Project Plan. This Quality Assurance Management Plan provides the quality assurance requirements and processes that will be followed by the CHPRC Groundwater and Technical Integration Support (Master Project) and all releases associated with the CHPRC Soil and Groundwater Remediation Project. The plan is designed to be used exclusively by project staff.

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is an x-ray Free-Electron Laser (FEL) project presently in a commissioning phase at SLAC. We report here on very low emittance measurements made at low bunch charge, and a few femtosecond bunch length produced by the LCLS bunch compressors. Start-to-end simulations associated with these beam parameters show the possibilities of generating hundreds of GW at 1.5 {angstrom} x-ray wavelength and nearly a single longitudinally spike at 1.5 nm with 2-fs duration.

Long-term changes and fluctuations in river flow, water properties, tides, and sediment transport in the Columbia River and its estuary have had a profound effect on Columbia River salmonids and their habitat. Understanding the river-flow, temperature, tidal, and sediment-supply regimes of the Lower Columbia River (LCR) and how they interact with habitat is, therefore, critical to development of system management and restoration strategies. It is also useful to separate management and climate impacts on hydrologic properties and habitat. This contract, part of a larger project led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), consists of three work elements, one with five tasks. The first work element relates to reconstruction of historic conditions in a broad sense. The second and third elements consist, respectively, of participation in project-wide integration efforts, and reporting. This report focuses on the five tasks within the historic reconstruction work element. It in part satisfies the reporting requirement, and it forms the basis for our participation in the project integration effort. The first task consists of several topics related to historic changes in river stage and tide. Within this task, the chart datum levels of 14 historic bathymetric surveys completed before definition of Columbia River Datum …

Gain an in-depth understanding of the role of quark flavor.

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at the Savannah River Site vitrifies radioactive High Level Waste (HLW) for repository internment. The process consists of three major steps: waste pretreatment, vitrification, and canister decontamination/sealing. HLW consists of insoluble metal hydroxides (primarily iron, aluminum, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and uranium) and soluble sodium salts (carbonate, hydroxide, nitrite, nitrate, and sulfate). The pretreatment process in the Chemical Processing Cell (CPC) consists of two process tanks, the Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) and the Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) as well as a melter feed tank. During SRAT processing, nitric and formic acids are added to the sludge to lower pH, destroy nitrite and carbonate ions, and reduce mercury and manganese. During the SME cycle, glass formers are added, and the batch is concentrated to the final solids target prior to vitrification. During these processes, hydrogen can be produced by catalytic decomposition of excess formic acid. The waste contains silver, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, and mercury, but silver and palladium have been shown to be insignificant factors in catalytic hydrogen generation during the DWPF process. A full factorial experimental design was developed to ensure that the existence of statistically significant two-way interactions could be determined without …

The NEMS-MP model generates numerous results for each run of a scenario. (This model is the integrated National Energy Modeling System [NEMS] version used for the Multi-Path Transportation Futures Study [MP].) This appendix examines additional findings beyond the primary results reported in the Multi-Path Transportation Futures Study: Vehicle Characterization and Scenario Analyses (Reference 1). These additional results are provided in order to help further illuminate some of the primary results. Specifically discussed in this appendix are: (1) Energy use results for light vehicles (LVs), including details about the underlying total vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the average vehicle fuel economy, and the volumes of the different fuels used; (2) Resource fuels and their use in the production of ethanol, hydrogen (H{sub 2}), and electricity; (3) Ethanol use in the scenarios (i.e., the ethanol consumption in E85 vs. other blends, the percent of travel by flex fuel vehicles on E85, etc.); (4) Relative availability of E85 and H2 stations; (5) Fuel prices; (6) Vehicle prices; and (7) Consumer savings. These results are discussed as follows: (1) The three scenarios (Mixed, (P)HEV & Ethanol, and H2 Success) when assuming vehicle prices developed through literature review; (2) The three scenarios with vehicle prices that …

Minimizing the scatter between cluster mass and accessible observables is an important goal for cluster cosmology. In this work, we introduce a new matched filter richness estimator, and test its performance using the maxBCG cluster catalog. Our new estimator significantly reduces the variance in the L{sub X}-richness relation, from {sigma}{sub lnL{sub X}}{sup 2} = (0.86 {+-} 0.02){sup 2} to {sigma}{sub lnL{sub X}}{sup 2} = (0.69 {+-} 0.02){sup 2}. Relative to the maxBCG richness estimate, it also removes the strong redshift dependence of the richness scaling relations, and is significantly more robust to photometric and redshift errors. These improvements are largely due to our more sophisticated treatment of galaxy color data. We also demonstrate the scatter in the L{sub X}-richness relation depends on the aperture used to estimate cluster richness, and introduce a novel approach for optimizing said aperture which can be easily generalized to other mass tracers.

Should this be said again? No cell is an island and in tissue-specificity and cancer, context is supreme. Decades ago, seminal recombination experiments illustrated the dominant role of mammary mesenchyme in directing epithelial development, and strongly suggested that the microenvironment plays a significant role also in the manifestation of carcinoma. More direct evidence for such functions came from a study demonstrating that an unadulterated microenvironment can suppress the malignant phenotype and re-direct tumor cells to give rise to normally functioning tissues and indeed healthy mice. One may wonder why such a stunning finding did not convince the scientific community to pay more attention to the role of context. The answers are complex, not the least of which is that concomitantly with this finding, the roles of oncogenes and mutations were being discovered. That excitement carried the day, specially because no one subsequently determined whether or not these mice generated from malignant cells contained tumorigenic mutations, and no new group reproduced the work. The following decade saw the discovery that even potent oncogenes could be ruled by context, and another couple of decades later it was shown that similar reprogramming of metastatic melanoma by an embryonic microenvironment was possible. There are …

Let x = (x{sub 1}, x{sub 2} {hor_ellipsis}, x{sub n}) be a vector of real or complex numbers. x is said to possess an integer relation if there exist integers a{sub i}, not all zero, such that a{sub 1}x{sub 1} + a{sub 2}x{sub 2} + {hor_ellipsis} + a{sub n}x{sub n} = 0. By an integer relation algorithm, we mean a practical computational scheme that can recover the vector of integers ai, if it exists, or can produce bounds within which no integer relation exists. As we will see in the examples below, an integer relation algorithm can be used to recognize a computed constant in terms of a formula involving known constants, or to discover an underlying relation between quantities that can be computed to high precision. At the present time, the most effective algorithm for integer relation detection is the 'PSLQ' algorithm of mathematician-sculptor Helaman Ferguson [10, 4]. Some efficient 'multi-level' implementations of PSLQ, as well as a variant of PSLQ that is well-suited for highly parallel computer systems, are given in [4]. PSLQ constructs a sequence of integer-valued matrices B{sub n} that reduces the vector y = xB{sub n}, until either the relation is found (as one of …

An L-band (1.3 GHz), normal-conducting, 5-cell, standing-wave cavity that was built as a prototype capture accelerator for the ILC is being high-power processed at SLAC. The goal is to demonstrate stable operation at 15 MV/m with 1 msec, 5 Hz pulses and the cavity immersed in a 0.5 Telsa solenoidal magnetic field. This paper summarizes the performance that was ultimately achieved and describes a novel analysis of the modal content of the stored energy in the cavity after a breakdown to determine on which iris it occurred.

In the traditional non-relativistic bound state calculation, the two-photon decay amplitudes of the P-wave {chi}{sub c0,2} and {chi}{sub b0,2} states depend on the derivative of the wave function at the origin which can only be obtained from potential models. However by neglecting the relative quark momenta, the decay amplitude can be written as the matrix element of a local heavy quark field operator which could be obtained from other processes or computed with QCD sum rules technique or lattice simulation. Following the same line as in recent work for the two-photon decays of the S-wave {eta}{sub c} and {eta}{sub b} quarkonia, we show that the effective Lagrangian for the two-photon decays of the P-wave {chi}{sub c0,2} and {chi}{sub b0,2} is given by the heavy quark energy-momentum tensor local operator or its trace, the {anti Q}Q scalar density and that the expression for {chi}{sub c0} two-photon and two-gluon decay rate is given by the f{sub {chi}{sub c0}} decay constant and is similar to that of {eta}{sub c} which is given by f{sub {eta}{sub c}}. From the existing QCD sum rules value for f{sub {chi}{sub c0}}, we get 5 keV for the {chi}{sub c0} two-photon width, somewhat larger than measurement, but possibly …

We argue that deeply virtual Compton scattering will display Regge behavior {nu}{sub R}{sup {alpha}}(t) at high energy at fixed-t, even at high photon virtuality, not necessarily conventional scaling. A way to see this is to track the Reggeon contributions to quark-nucleon scattering and notice that the resulting Generalized Parton Distributions would have divergent behavior at the break-points. In addition, we show that the direct two-photon to quark coupling will be accessible at large t where it dominates the DVCS amplitude for large energies. This contribution, the J = 0 fixed-pole, should be part of the future DVCS experimental programs at Jlab or LHeC.

The design, assembly and characterization of the latest generation of a small, ruggedized laser-optical firing system will be discussed. This work builds upon earlier results in an effort to continue the development of robust fiber-coupled laseroptical firing systems.[1][2] This newest prototype strives to improve on earlier designs, while continuing to utilize many of the environmentally proven opto-mechanical sub-assemblies.[2][3] One area of improvement involves the implementation of a second optical safing and arming component. Several additional design improvements were also incorporated to address shortcomings uncovered during environmental testing.[4][5] These tests and the subsequent failure analysis were performed at the laser sub-system level. Four identical prototypes were assembled and characterized. The performance of the units were evaluated by comparing a number of parameters including laser output energy, slope efficiency, beam divergence, spatial intensity profile, fiber injection and splitter-coupler transmission efficiency. Other factors evaluated were the ease of alignment, repeatability of the alignment process and the fabrication of the fiberoptical cables. The experimentally obtained results will be compared and contrasted to the performance of earlier prototypes.