In the recent plasma wakefield accelerator experiments at SLAC, the energy of the particles in the tail of the 42 GeV electron beam were doubled in less than one meter [1]. Simulations suggest that the acceleration length was limited by a new phenomenon--beam head erosion in self-ionized plasmas. In vacuum, a particle beam expands transversely in a distance given by {beta}*. In the blowout regime of a plasma wakefield [2], the majority of the beam is focused by the ion channel, while the beam head slowly spreads since it takes a finite time for the ion channel to form. It is observed that in self-ionized plasmas, the head spreading is exacerbated compared to that in pre-ionized plasmas, causing the ionization front to move backward (erode). A simple theoretical model is used to estimate the upper limit of the erosion rate for a bi-gaussian beam by assuming free expansion of the beam head before the ionization front. Comparison with simulations suggests that half this maximum value can serve as an estimate for the erosion rate. Critical parameters to the erosion rate are discussed.

An ab-initio calculation of the optical potential for neutron-nucleus scattering has been performed by explicitly coupling the elastic channel to all the particle-hole (p-h) excitation states in the target. These p-h states may be regarded as doorway states through which the flux flows to more complicated configurations, and (in the end) to long-lived compound nucleus resonances. The random-phase approximation (RPA) provides the linear combinations of p-h states that include the residual interactions within the target, and we show preliminary results for elastic flux loss using both p-h and RPA descriptions of target excitations.

The E163 laser acceleration experiments conducted at SLAC have stringent requirements on the temporal properties of two regeneratively amplified, 800nm, Spitfire laser systems. To determine the magnitude and cause of timing instabilities between the two Ti:Sapphire amplifiers, we pass the two beams through a cross-correlator and focus the combined beam onto a Hamamatsu G1117 photodiode. The photodiode has a bandgap such that single photon processes are suppressed and only the second order, two-photon process produces an observable response. The response is proportional to the square of the intensity. The diode is also useful as a diagnostic to determine the optimal configuration of the compression cavity.

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Electron bunches with the unparalleled combination of high charge, low emittances, and short time duration, as first produced at the SLAC Final Focus Test Beam (FFTB), are foreseen to be produced at the SABER facility. These types of bunches have enabled wakefield driven accelerating schemes of multi-GV/m in plasmas. In the context of the Dielectric Wakefield Accelerators (DWA) such beams, having rms bunch length as short as 20 um, have been used to drive 100 um and 200 um ID hollow tubes above 20 GV/m surface fields. These FFTB tests enabled the measurement of a breakdown threshold in fused silica (with full data analysis still ongoing) [1]. With the construction and commissioning of the SABER facility at SLAC, new experiments would be made possible to test further aspects of DWAs including materials, tube geometrical variations, direct measurements of the Cerenkov fields, and proof of acceleration in tubes >10 cm in length. This collaboration will investigate breakdown thresholds and accelerating fields in new materials including CVD diamond. Here we describe the experimental plans, beam parameters, simulations, and progress to date as well as future prospects for machines based of DWA structures.

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly infectious and contagious viral disease affecting bovidae (cattle, zebus, domestic buffaloes, yaks), sheep, goats, swine, all wild ruminants and suidae. Camelidae (camels, dromedaries, llamas, vicunas) have low susceptibility. Foot and mouth disease is caused by a RNS virus of the family Picornaviridae, genus Aphthovirus. There are seven immunologically distinct serotypes: A, O, C, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3, Asia 1. Foot and mouth disease causes significant economic loss both to countries who manage it as an endemic disease (with or without vaccination), as well as those FMD free countries which may become infected. The mortality rate is low in adult animals, but often higher in young due to myocarditis. Foot and mouth disease is endemic in parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America (sporadic outbreaks in free areas). The Office of International Epizootics (OIE), also referred to the World Organization for Animal Health maintains an official list of free countries and zones.1 The OIE Terrestrial Code (Chapter 2.2.10) provides detailed information on the categories of freedom that can be allocated to a country as well as guidelines for the surveillance for foot and mouth disease (Appendix 3.8.7). In short, countries may …

A new approach for positron acceleration in non-linear plasma wakefields driven by electron beams is presented. Positrons can be produced by colliding an electron beam with a thin foil target embedded in the plasma. Integration of positron production and acceleration in one stage is realized by a single relativistic, intense electron beam. Simulations with the parameters of the proposed SABER facility [1] at SLAC suggest that this concept could be tested there.

We have recently demonstrating the doubling of the energy of particles of the ultra-short, ultra-relativistic electron bunches of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center [1]. This energy doubling occurred in a plasma only 85 cm-long with a density of {approx} 2.6 x 10{sup 17} e{sup -}/cm{sup -3}. This milestone is the result of systematic measurements that show the scaling of the energy gain with plasma length and density, and show the reproducibility and the stability of the acceleration process. We show that the energy gain increases linearly with plasma length from 13 to 31 cm. These are key steps toward the application of beam-driven plasma accelerators or plasma wakefield accelerators (PWFA) to doubling the energy of a future linear collider without doubling its length.

We report on the development and prototyping efforts undertaken with the goal of producing a micro-vertex detector for the STAR experiment at the RHIC accelerator at BNL. We present the basic detector requirements and show a sensor development path, conceptual mechanical design candidates and readout architecture. Prototyping and beam test results with current generation MimoSTAR-2 sensors and a readout system featuring FPGA based on-the-fly hit finding and data sparsification are also presented.

Modular structure is ubiquitous in real-world complex networks, and its detection is important because it gives insights in the structure-functionality relationship. The standard approach is based on the optimization of a quality function, modularity, which is a relative quality measure for a partition of a network into modules. Recently some authors have pointed out that the optimization of modularity has a fundamental drawback: the existence of a resolution limit beyond which no modular structure can be detected even though these modules might have own entity. The reason is that several topological descriptions of the network coexist at different scales, which is, in general, a fingerprint of complex systems. Here we propose a method that allows for multiple resolution screening of the modular structure. The method has been validated using synthetic networks, discovering the predefined structures at all scales. Its application to two real social networks allows to find the exact splits reported in the literature, as well as the substructure beyond the actual split.

Determining the printability of substrate defects beneath the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) reflecting multilayer stack is an important issue in EUVL lithography. Several simulation studies have been performed in the past to determine the tolerable defect size on EUV mask blank substrates but the industry still has no exact specification based on real printability tests. Therefore, it is imperative to experimentally determine the printability of small defects on a mask blanks that are caused by substrate defects using direct printing of programmed substrate defect in an EUV exposure tool. SEMATECH fabricated bump type program defect masks using standard electron beam lithography and performed printing tests with the masks using an EUV exposure tool. Defect images were also captured using SEMATECH's Berkeley Actinic Imaging Tool in order to compare aerial defect images with secondary electron microscope images from exposed wafers. In this paper, a comprehensive understanding of substrate defect printability will be presented and printability specifications of EUV mask substrate defects will be discussed.

We present results from field studies in California (USA) where tritium-helium age dating is used in conjunction with major gases (N{sub 2}, O{sub 2}, CH{sub 4}, CO{sub 2}), noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe), and stable isotopes ({sup 15}N/{sup 14}N, {sup 18}O/{sup 16}O) in order to document nitrate loading and denitrification associated with confined animal agricultural operations and septic systems. Preliminary results show that in-field extraction of the full suite of dissolved gases will be possible using a new Gas Extraction System under development to augment the current Noble Gas Mass Spectrometry and Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry techniques. Ascribing observed groundwater nitrate levels to specific current and past land use practices is often complicated by uncertainty in groundwater age and the degree and locus of dentrification. Groundwater age dating at dairy field sites using the {sup 3}H-{sup 3}He method indicates that the highest nitrate concentrations (150-260 mg/L-NO3) occur in waters with apparent ages of <5 yrs, whereas older waters contain excess N{sub 2} from saturated zone denitrification [1]. At a residential septic system site in Livermore, CA, waters with young apparent ages (<1 yr) proximal to leach line drainage have lower nitrate concentrations and elevated nitrate {delta}{sup 15}N and …

The United States Department of Energy has embarked on a campaign to conduct credible fusion ignition experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2010. The target assembly specified for this campaign requires the formation of a deuterium/tritium (DT) fuel ice layer on the inside of a 2 millimeter diameter capsule positioned at the center of a 9 millimeter long by 5 millimeter diameter cylinder, called a hohlraum. The ice layer requires micrometer level accuracy and must be formed and maintained at temperatures below 19 K. At NIF shot time, the target must be positioned at the center of the NIF 10 meter diameter target chamber, aligned to the laser beam lines and held stable to less than 7 micrometers rms. We have completed the final design and are integrating the systems necessary to create, characterize and field the cryogenic target for ignition experiments. These designs, with emphasis on the challenges of fielding a precision cryogenic positioning system will be presented.

Analysis of seismograms from a magnitude 3.9 seismic event on August 6, 2007 in central Utah reveals an anomalous radiation pattern that is contrary to that expected for a tectonic earthquake, and which is dominated by an implosive component. The results show the seismic event is best modeled as a shallow underground collapse. Interestingly, large transverse surface waves require a smaller additional non-collapse source component that represents either faulting in the rocks above the mine workings or deformation of the medium surrounding the mine.

We analyze the mean rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) spectrum of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe) and its dispersion using high signal-to-noise ratio Keck-I/LRIS-B spectroscopy for a sample of 36 events at intermediate redshift (z=0.5) discovered by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS). We introduce a new method for removing host galaxy contamination in our spectra, exploiting the comprehensive photometric coverage of the SNLS SNe and their host galaxies, thereby providing the first quantitative view of the UV spectral properties of a large sample of distant SNe Ia. Although the mean SN Ia spectrum has not evolved significantly over the past 40percent of cosmic history, precise evolutionary constraints are limited by the absence of a comparable sample of high-quality local spectra. The mean UV spectrum of our z~;;=0.5 SNe Ia and its dispersion is tabulated for use in future applications. Within the high-redshift sample, we discover significant UV spectral variations and exclude dust extinction as the primary cause by examining trends with the optical SN color. Although progenitor metallicity may drive some of these trends, the variations we see are much larger than predicted in recent models and do not follow expected patterns. An interesting new result is a variation seen in …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) influences the market for plumbing fixtures and fittings by encouraging consumers to purchase products that carry the WaterSense label, which certifies those products as performing at low flow rates compared to unlabeled fixtures and fittings. As consumers decide to purchase water-efficient products, water consumption will decline nationwide. Decreased water consumption should prolong the operating life of water and wastewater treatment facilities.This report describes the method used to calculate national water savings attributable to EPA?s WaterSense program. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet model, the National Water Savings (NWS) analysis model, accompanies this methodology report. Version 1.0 of the NWS model evaluates indoor residential water consumption. Two additional documents, a Users? Guide to the spreadsheet model and an Impacts Report, accompany the NWS model and this methodology document. Altogether, these four documents represent Phase One of this project. The Users? Guide leads policy makers through the spreadsheet options available for projecting the water savings that result from various policy scenarios. The Impacts Report shows national water savings that will result from differing degrees of market saturation of high-efficiency water-using products.This detailed methodology report describes the NWS analysis model, which examines the effects of WaterSense by tracking the …

This article discusses the enhancement of localization in one-dimensional random potentials with long-range correlations.

The effect of hydrogen on the fracture toughness properties of Types 304L, 316L and 21-6-9 forged stainless steels was investigated. Fracture toughness samples were fabricated from forward-extruded forgings. Samples were uniformly saturated with hydrogen after exposure to hydrogen gas at 34 MPa or 69 and 623 K prior to testing. The fracture toughness properties were characterized by measuring the J-R behavior at ambient temperature in air. The results show that the hydrogen-charged steels have fracture toughness values that were about 50-60% of the values measured for the unexposed steels. The reduction in fracture toughness was accompanied by a change in fracture appearance. Both uncharged and hydrogen-charged samples failed by microvoid nucleation and coalescence, but the fracture surfaces of the hydrogen-charged steels had smaller microvoids. Type 316L stainless steel had the highest fracture toughness properties and the greatest resistance to hydrogen degradation.

Relatively large values of objective-lens defocus must normally be used to produce detectable levels of image contrast for unstained biological specimens, which are generally weak phase objects. As a result, a subsequent restoration operation must be used to correct for oscillations in the contrast transfer function (CTF) at higher resolution. Currently used methods of CTF-correction assume the ideal case in which Friedel mates in the scattered wave have contributed pairs of Fourier components that overlap with one another in the image plane. This"ideal" situation may be only poorly satisfied, or not satisfied at all, as the particle size gets smaller, the defocus value gets larger, and the resolution gets higher. We have therefore investigated whether currently used methods of CTF correction are also effective in restoring the single-sideband image information that becomes displaced (delocalized) by half (or more) the diameter of a particle of finite size. Computer simulations are used to show that restoration either by"phase flipping" or by multiplying by the CTF recovers only about half of the delocalized information. The other half of the delocalized information goes into a doubly defocused"twin" image of the type produced during optical reconstruction of an in-line hologram. Restoration with a Wiener filter …

Edible oils have emerged as an effective treatment amendment for a variety of contaminants. When applied to chlorinated volatile organic compounds (cVOCs) in the saturated zone, edible oils have been shown to enhance anaerobic bioremediation and sequester the contaminants. However, edible oils have not been applied to the vadose zone for contaminant treatment. Soybean oil was injected into the vadose zone in M-Area at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) as a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of edible oils for solvent sequestration and the ability to change a vadose system from aerobic to anaerobic to initiate reductive dechlorination. The proposed use of this technique would be an enhanced attenuation/transition step after active remediation. The goals of the research were to evaluate oil emplacement methods and monitoring techniques to measure oil placement, partitioning and degradation. Gas sampling was the cornerstone for this evaluation. Analyses for cVOCs and biotransformation products were performed. Overall, the cVOC concentration/flux reduction was 75-85% in this vadose zone setting. Destruction of the cVOCs by biotic or abiotic process has not yet been verified at this site. No reductive dechlorination products have been measured. The deployment has resulted in a substantial generation of …

Article discussing work function changes induced by charged adsorbates and the origin of the polarity asymmetry.

The Static X-ray Imager (SXI) is a diagnostic used at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to measure the position of the X-rays produced by lasers hitting a gold foil target. The intensity distribution taken by the SXI camera during a NIF shot is used to determine how accurately NIF can aim laser beams. This is critical to proper NIF operation. Imagers are located at the top and the bottom of the NIF target chamber. The CCD chip is an X-ray sensitive silicon sensor, with a large format array (2k x 2k), 24 {micro}m square pixels, and 15 {micro}m thick. A multi-anode Manson X-ray source, operating up to 10kV and 10W, was used to characterize and calibrate the imagers. The output beam is heavily filtered to narrow the spectral beam width, giving a typical resolution E/{Delta}E {approx} 10. The X-ray beam intensity was measured using an absolute photodiode that has accuracy better than 1% up to the Si K edge and better than 5% at higher energies. The X-ray beam provides full CCD illumination and is flat, within {+-}1% maximum to minimum. The spectral efficiency was measured at 10 energy bands ranging from 930 eV to 8470 eV. We observed an …

We study the origin of subleading soft and collinear poles of form factors and amplitudes in dimensionally-regulated massless gauge theories. In the case of form factors of fundamental fields, these poles originate from a single function of the coupling, denoted G({alpha}{sub s}), depending on both the spin and gauge quantum numbers of the field. We relate G({alpha}{sub s}) to gauge-theory matrix elements involving the gluon field strength. We then show that G({alpha}{sub s}) is the sum of three terms: a universal eikonal anomalous dimension, a universal non-eikonal contribution, given by the coefficient B{sub {delta}}({alpha}{sub s}) of {delta}(1-z) in the collinear evolution kernel, and a process-dependent short-distance coefficient function, which does not contribute to infrared poles. Using general results on the factorization of soft and collinear singularities in fixed-angle massless gauge theory amplitudes, we conclude that all such singularities are captured by the eikonal approximation, supplemented only by the knowledge of B{sub {delta}}({alpha}{sub s}). We explore the consequences of our results for conformal gauge theories, where in particular we find a simple exact relation between the form factor and the cusp anomalous dimension.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods have been used to estimate the flow patterns mainly driven by temperature gradients inside vapor space in a large-scaled Saltstone vault facility at Savannah River site (SRS). The purpose of this work is to examine the gas motions inside the vapor space under the current vault configurations by taking a three-dimensional transient momentum-energy coupled approach for the vapor space domain of the vault. The modeling calculations were based on prototypic vault geometry and expected normal operating conditions as defined by Waste Solidification Engineering. The modeling analysis was focused on the air flow patterns near the ventilated corner zones of the vapor space inside the Saltstone vault. The turbulence behavior and natural convection mechanism used in the present model were benchmarked against the literature information and theoretical results. The verified model was applied to the Saltstone vault geometry for the transient assessment of the air flow patterns inside the vapor space of the vault region using the potential operating conditions. The baseline model considered two cases for the estimations of the flow patterns within the vapor space. One is the reference nominal case. The other is for the negative temperature gradient between the roof inner and …