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The heat capacity of high purity electrotransport refined lutetium was measured between 1 and 20/sup 0/K. Results for theta/sub D/ were in excellent agreement with theta values determined from elastic constant measurements. The heat capacity of a series of lutetium-hydrogen solid solution alloys was determined and results showed an increase in ..gamma.. from 8.2 to about 11.3 mJ/g-atom-K/sup 2/ for hydrogen content increasing from zero to about one atomic percent. Above one percent hydrogen ..gamma.. decreased with increasing hydrogen contents. The C/T data showed an increase with temperature decreasing below about 2.5/sup 0/K for samples with 0.1 to 1.5 atomic percent hydrogen. This accounts for a large amount of scatter in theta/sub D/ versus hydrogen content in this range. The heat capacity of a bulk sample of lutetium dihydride was measured between 1 and 20/sup 0/K and showed a large increase in theta/sub D/ and a large decrease in ..gamma.. compared to pure lutetium.

The experimental verification of the two-step nature of energy dissipation of photon energy by a crystal is the subject of this dissertation. The ..cap alpha..(O,O) Davydov component of the lowest energy singlet transition in pure strain-free napthalene single crystals is shown to exhibit an increase in absorption with increasing temperature, due to an increase in polariton damping via polariton-phonon scattering processes. (GHT)

A chelating ion-exchange resin with N-(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylene-diaminetriacetic acid (HEDTA) used as the ligand chemically bonded to XAD-4 by an ester linkage, HEDTA-4, was synthesized. It is stable under normal experimental conditions with the liquid chromatograph. The structure of the resin was confirmed by an infrared spectrum, and by potentiometric titrations. The capacity of the resin was also obtained by potentiometric titration and by a nitrogen analysis. The resin was used to pack a column of 5 mm internal diameter and 5 cm long. The effect of pH on the retention of different metal ions on the resin was studied. It was found that the resin was most selective for chromium(III), copper(II), lead(II), mercury(II), uranium(VI), zirconium(IV) and zinc(II) at a pH of less than 3. Furthermore, the resin proves to be functioning with a chelating mechanism rather than ion-exchange, and it can concentrate trace metal ions in the presence of a large excess of calcium and magnesium. This makes the resin potentially useful for purifying and analyzing drinking water.

The critical stress for the reorientation of vanadium hydride was determined for the temperature range 180/sup 0/ to 280/sup 0/K using flat tensile samples containing 50 to 500 ppM hydrogen by weight. The critical stress was observed to vary from a half to a third of the macroscopic yield stress of pure vanadium over the temperature range. The vanadium hydride could not be stress induced to precipitate above its stress-free precipitation temperature by uniaxial tensile stresses or triaxial tensile stresses induced by a notch.

The electric mobility and effective valence of hydrogen and deuterium in vanadium, niobium, tantalum and three niobium-tantalum alloys were measured. A resistance technique was used to directly determine the electric mobility of hydrogen and deuterium at 30/sup 0/C while a steady-state method was used to measure the effective valence. The use of mass spectrographic techniques on a single specimen which contained both hydrogen and deuterium greatly increased the precision with which the isotope effect in the effective valence could be measured.

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Off-line experiments indicated that fluorides of As, Se, Br, Kr, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Sb, Te, I and Xe could be volatilized, but except for Br, Kr, I and Xe, none of these elements were observed after mass separation in the on-line experiments. The results of the on-line experiments indicated a very low level of hydride contamination at ambient temperature and consequently, uranium tetrafluoride replaced uranyl stearate as the primary gaseous fission product target. Possible reasons for the failure of the heated target system to yield non-rare gas activities are discussed and suggestions for designing a new heated target system are presented.

Solid-state electrochemical techniques are applied to the Ga-In-Sb-O system to measure some thermodynamic properties important for the analysis of solid-liquid phase equilibria in these important semiconductor materials. The standard Gibbs energies of formation of the most stable oxides of gallium and of indium are determined with a high-temperature solid-state electrochemical cell utilizing calcia-stabilized zirconia as the solid electrolyte and a (CO + CO/sub 2/) gaseous mixture as the reference electrode.

The feasibility of calculating Wagner self-interaction parameters from binary phase diagrams was examined. The self-interaction parameters of 22 non-ferrous liquid solutions were calculated utilizing an equation based on the equality of the chemical potentials of a component in two equilibrium phases. Utilization of the equation requires the evaluation of the first and second derivatives of various liquidus and solidus data at infinite dilution of the solute component. Several numerical methods for evaluating the derivatives of tabular data were examined. A method involving power series curve fitting and subsequent differentiation of the power series was found to be the most suitable for the interaction parameter calculations. Comparison of the calculated self-interaction parameters with values obtained from thermodynamic measurements indicates that the Wagner self-interaction parameter can be successfully calculated from binary phase diagrams.

Feasibility of using a low pressure glow discharge as an ion source for the mass spectrometric determination of trace elements in aqueous media was investigated. A cryogenically cooled hollow cathode ion source was developed to analyze aqueous samples without external preconcentration. Aqueous solutions containing seventy elements were analyzed and the detection limits, sensitivity factors, and linear regression correlation coefficients were determined. A standard test solution of trace elements in water was analyzed and the concentrations of trace elements were calculated using the sensitivity factors determined previously. The results compared favorably within the error limits predicted by the semiquantitative survey methods used. Tap water and natural lake water samples were examined and minimal interference effects due to organic compounds and biological compounds were noted. A research ion optical system (RIOS) was developed as a flexible mass analyzer for the development of new ion sources. The RIOS is a double focussing mass analyzer designed utilizing the Mattauch-Herzog geometry with externally adjustable slit assemblies.

This dissertation describes a search for Z/{gamma}* boson pair production decaying into {mu}{mu}{mu}{mu}, {mu}{mu}ee, and eeee final states with approximately 1 fb{sup -1} of data at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. The small cross section times branching ratio for each channel mandated a thorough study of the acceptance and efficiencies. After optimization, 1.7 {+-} 0.1 events are expected for Standard Model production with a background of 0.13 {+-} 0.03 events. One event was found in the {mu}{mu}ee channel. A cross section limit of 4.4 pb is determined at a 95% confidence level for Standard Model production. Additionally, one parameter and two parameter 95% C.L. limits are found for the anomalous neutral trilinear gauge couplings ZZZ* and ZZ{gamma}*. The one parameter 95% C.L. coupling limits with a form factor scale of 1.2 TeV are: -0.28 < f{sub 40}{sup Z} < 0.28, -0.31 < f{sub 50}{sup Z} < 0.29, -0.26 < f{sub 40}{gamma} < 0.26, and -0.30 < f{sub 50}{sup {gamma}} < 0.28.

The Standard Model gives a satisfying description of subatomic processes at low energy (< 1 TeV). Beyond this energy scale, other models must be considered. Supersymmetry is one of them. It gives in an elegant way, solutions to several Standard Model short comings. This document reports the search for a supersymmetric signal characterized by the production of two stops decaying into two b-jets, one electron, one muon and missing energy. This study has been performed at the D0 experiment, located on the ring of Tevatron collider at FermiLab, (Chicago, USA), whose energy in the center of mass reaches {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. The data used for this analysis have been collected during Run IIa of D0 detector; from april 2003 to march 2006 ({approx} 1fb{sup -1}). The objects handled for this analysis require a good understanding of both calorimeters, muon detectors and trackers. As Tevatron is an hadronic collider and the number of Standard Model processes with the same signature as the signal is low, the background is thus dominated by QCD processes. After the selection cuts, no excess of data has been observed with respect to the Standard Model expectation. D0 experiment sensibility has been improved and the 95% …

We present a search for high-mass resonances decaying into two leptons of different flavor: e{mu}, e{tau}, and {mu}{tau}. These resonances are predicted by several models beyond the standard model, such as the R-parity-violating MSSM. The search is based on 1 fb{sup -1} of data collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF II) in proton anti-proton collisions. Our observations are consistent with the standard model expectations. The results are interpreted to set 95% C.L. upper limits on {sigma} x BR of {tilde {nu}}{sub {tau}} {yields} e{mu}, e{tau}, {mu}{tau}.

I present a measurement of the t{bar t} differential cross section, d{sigma}/dM{sub t{bar t}}, in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using 2.7 fb{sup -1} of CDF II data. I find that d{sigma}/dM{sub t{bar t}} is consistent with the Standard Model expectation, as modeled by PYTHIA with CTEQ5L parton distribution functions. I set limits on the ratio {kappa}/M{sub Pl} in the Randall-Sundrum model by looking for Kaluza Klein gravitons which decay to top quarks. I find {kappa}/M{sub Pl} > 0.16 at the 95% confidence level.

This thesis centers on the use of spectral modeling techniques on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to gain new insights into current questions in galaxy evolution. The SDSS provides a large, uniform, high quality data set which can be exploited in a number of ways. One avenue pursued here is to use the large sample size to measure precisely the mean properties of galaxies of increasingly narrow parameter ranges. The other route taken is to look for rare objects which open up for exploration new areas in galaxy parameter space. The crux of this thesis is revisiting the classical Kennicutt method for inferring the stellar initial mass function (IMF) from the integrated light properties of galaxies. A large data set ({approx} 10{sup 5} galaxies) from the SDSS DR4 is combined with more in-depth modeling and quantitative statistical analysis to search for systematic IMF variations as a function of galaxy luminosity. Galaxy H{alpha} equivalent widths are compared to a broadband color index to constrain the IMF. It is found that for the sample as a whole the best fitting IMF power law slope above 0.5 M{sub {circle_dot}} is {Lambda} = 1.5 {+-} 0.1 with the error dominated by …

The first search for exclusive diffractive dijet production with invariant mass {approx}> 100 GeV in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider is performed. The set of data used is the Run IIa, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 30 pb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV taken with the D0 detector. At 95% CL, an upper limit for the ratio between the number of diffractive exclusive events and the number of non diffractive events is set to be 7.5 x 10{sup -6}, excluding two of the three models proposed to explain this production.

Supersymmetry is one of the most natural extensions of the Standard Model. At low energy it may consist in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model which is the framework chosen to perform the search of the stop with 350 pb{sup -1} of data collected by D0 during the RunIIa period of the TeVatron. They selected the events with an electron, a muon, missing transverse energy and non-isolated tracks, signature for the stop decay in 3-body ({bar t} {yields} bl{bar {nu}}). Since no significant excess of signal is seen, the results are interpreted in terms of limit on the stop production cross-sections, in such a way that they extend the existing exclusion region in the parameter space (m{sub {bar t}},m{sub {bar {nu}}}) up to stop masses of 168 (140) GeV for sneutrino masses of 50 (94) GeV. Finally because of the crucial role of the electromagnetic calorimeter, a fine calibration was performed using Z {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -} events, which improved significantly the energy resolution.

This dissertation describes a search for the associated production of the supersymmetric particles, the chargino and the neutralino, through their R-parity conserving decays to three leptons and missing energy. This search is carried out using the data collected at the CDF experiment at the Tevatron {radical}s = 1.96 TeV p{bar p} collider at Fermilab. The results are obtained by combining five independent channels with varying signal to background ratio. Overall, a total of 6.4 {+-} 1.1 background events from standard model processes and 11.4 {+-} 1.1 signal events for a particular choice of mSUGRA model parameters are expected. The observation of 7 events in data is consistent with the standard model background expectation, and the mSUGRA model is constrained. Limits are set on the cross section of Chargino-Neutralino pair production, and a limit on the mass of the chargino is extracted. A method of obtaining model-independent results is also discussed.

In 1995 the last missing member of the known families of quarks, the top quark, was discovered by the CDF and D0 experiments at the Tevatron, a proton-antiproton collider at Fermilab near Chicago. Until today, the Tevatron is the only place where top quarks can be produced. The determination of top quark production and properties is crucial to understand the Standard Model of particle physics and beyond. The most striking property of the top quark is its mass--of the order of the mass of a gold atom and close to the electroweak scale--making the top quark not only interesting in itself but also as a window to new physics. Due to the high mass, much higher than of any other known fermion, it is expected that the top quark plays an important role in electroweak symmetry breaking, which is the most prominent candidate to explain the mass of particles. In the Standard Model, electroweak symmetry breaking is induced by one Higgs field, producing one additional physical particle, the Higgs boson. Although various searches have been performed, for example at the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP), no evidence for the Higgs boson could yet be found in any experiment. At the …

Performance-driven interface contract enforcement research aims to improve the quality of programs built from plug-and-play scientific components. Interface contracts make the obligations on the caller and all implementations of the specified methods explicit. Runtime contract enforcement is a well-known technique for enhancing testing and debugging. However, checking all of the associated constraints during deployment is generally considered too costly from a performance stand point. Previous solutions enforced subsets of constraints without explicit consideration of their performance implications. Hence, this research measures the impacts of different interface contract sampling strategies and compares results with new techniques driven by execution time estimates. Results from three studies indicate automatically adjusting the level of checking based on performance constraints improves the likelihood of detecting contract violations under certain circumstances. Specifically, performance-driven enforcement is better suited to programs exercising constraints whose costs are at most moderately expensive relative to normal program execution.

A deterministic analysis of the computational cost associated with geometric splitting/Russian roulette in Monte Carlo radiation transport calculations is presented. Appropriate integro-differential equations are developed for the first and second moments of the Monte Carlo tally as well as time per particle history, given that splitting with Russian roulette takes place at one (or several) internal surfaces of the geometry. The equations are solved using a standard S/sub n/ (discrete ordinates) solution technique, allowing for the prediction of computer cost (formulated as the product of sample variance and time per particle history, sigma/sup 2//sub s/tau p) associated with a given set of splitting parameters. Optimum splitting surface locations and splitting ratios are determined. Benefits of such an analysis are particularly noteworthy for transport problems in which splitting is apt to be extensively employed (e.g., deep penetration calculations).