Report describing the angular distributions of several groups of charged particles resulting from the bombardment of carbon with 31-Mev protons.

We describe studies of the decays of B mesons to final states {eta}K{sup *}(892), {eta}K{sup *}{sub 0}(S-wave), {eta}K{sup *}{sub 2}(1430), and {eta}'K based on data collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} collier at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. We measure branching fractions and charge asymmetries for the decays B {yields} {eta}K{sup *}, where K{sup *} indicates a spin 0, 1, or 2 K{pi} system, making first observations of decays to final states {eta}K{sup *0}{sub 0}(S-wave), {eta}K{sup *+}{sub 0} (S-wave), and {eta}K{sup *0}{sub 2}(1430). We measure the time-dependent CP-violation parameters S and C for the decays B{sup 0} {yields} {eta}'K{sup 0}, observing CP violation in a charmless B decay with 5{sigma} significance considering both statistical and systematic uncertainties..

The He/sup 3/(n,p)T reaction can be utilized in a proportional counter for neutron-energy determination in the region 100 kev to 1 Mev. This has already been demonstrated and the reaction cross section in this energy region has been measured with a counter. For practical application of the counter as a spectrometer, such as in health physics work, it is desirable to increase the counter efficiency. A proportional counter utilizing an anticoincidence ring to reduce wall effect has been constructed for this purpose. Some preliminary tests of the proposed system are described. (auth)

The reentrant cone approach to Fast Ignition, an advanced Inertial Confinement Fusion scheme, remains one of the most attractive because of the potential to efficiently collect and guide the laser light into the cone tip and direct energetic electrons into the high density core of the fuel. However, in the presence of a preformed plasma, the laser energy is largely absorbed before it can reach the cone tip. Full scale fast ignition laser systems are envisioned to have prepulses ranging between 100 mJ to 1 J. A few of the imperative issues facing fast ignition, then, are the conversion efficiency with which the laser light is converted to hot electrons, the subsequent transport characteristics of those electrons, and requirements for maximum allowable prepulse this may put on the laser system. This dissertation examines the laser-to-fast electron conversion efficiency scaling with prepulse for cone-guided fast ignition. Work in developing an extreme ultraviolet imager diagnostic for the temperature measurements of electron-heated targets, as well as the validation of the use of a thin wire for simultaneous determination of electron number density and electron temperature will be discussed.