The top quark, when it was finally discovered at Fermilab in 1995 completed the three-generation structure of the Standard Model (SM) and opened up the new field of top quark physics. Viewed as just another SM quark, the top quark appears to be a rather uninteresting species. Produced predominantly, in hadron-hadron collisions, through strong interactions, it decays rapidly without forming hadrons, and almost exclusively through the single mode t {r_arrow} Wb. The relevant CKM coupling V{sub tb} is already determined by the (three-generation) unitarity of the CKM matrix. Rare decays and CP violation are unmeasurable small in the SM. Yet the top quark is distinguished by its large mass, about 35 times larger than the mass of the next heavy quark, and intriguingly close to the scale of electroweak (EW) symmetry breaking. This unique property raises a number of interesting questions. Is the top quark mass generated by the Higgs mechanism as the SM predicts and is its mass related to the top-Higgs-Yukawa coupling? Or does it play an even more fundamental role in the EW symmetry breaking mechanism? If there are new particles lighter than the top quark, does the top quark decay into them? Could non-SM physics first …

We show that the Born-Infeld theory with n complex abelian gauge fields written in an auxiliary field formulation has a U(n, n) duality group. We conjecture the form of the Lagrangian obtained by eliminating the auxiliary fields and then introduce a new reality structure leading to a Born-Infeld theory with n real gauge fields and an Sp(2n, IR) duality symmetry. The real and complex constructions are extended to arbitrary even dimensions. The maximal noncompact duality group is U(n, n) for complex fields. For real fields the duality group is Sp(2n, IR) if half of the dimension of space-time is even and O(n, n) if it is odd. We also discuss duality under the maximal compact subgroup, which is the self-duality group of the theory obtained by fixing the expectation value of a scalar field. Supersymmetric versions of self-dual theories in four dimensions are also discussed.

Monthly newsletter discussing news and activities related to the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, articles about weather and atmospheric phenomena, and other related topics.

This document has been updated during the definitive design portion of the first phase of the W-314 Project to capture additional software requirements and is planned to be updated during the second phase of the W-314 Project to cover the second phase of the Project's scope. The objective is to provide requirement traceability by recording the analysis/basis for the functional descriptions of the master pump shutdown system. This document identifies the sources of the requirements and/or how these were derived. Each requirement is validated either by quoting the source or an analysis process involving the required functionality, performance characteristics, operations input or engineering judgment.

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The Waste Receiving and Processing (WRAP) facility, located on the Hanford Site in southeast Washington, is a key link in the certification of transuranic (TRU) waste for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Waste characterization is one of the vital functions performed at WRAP, and nondestructive assay (NDA) measurements of TRU waste containers is one of two required methods used for waste characterization. The Waste Acceptance Criteria for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, DOEMPP-069 (WIPP-WAC) delineates the quality assurance objectives which have been established for NDA measurement systems. Sites must demonstrate that the quality assurance objectives can be achieved for each radioassay system over the applicable ranges of measurement. This report summarizes the validation of the WRAP NDA systems against the radioassay quality assurance objectives or QAOs. A brief description of the each test and significant conclusions are included. Variables that may have affected test outcomes and system response are also addressed.

CHAD (Computational Hydrodynamics for Advanced Design) is a computer program that has been developed to analyze flows in automotive and defense applications. Extensive performance analysis of the CHAD computer program indicated a need to address cache memory use to increase computational performance. Several strategies have been adopted to achieve this goal: simultaneous solution of the coupled Navier-Stokes equations, data clustering, and data ordering. A coupled Newton-Krylov solver has been incorporated into a version of the CHAD program, resulting in consistent improvement in run times that varies from 50% to 200%. Further work will be required to tune the solver for optimal performance. In addition, experiments with data cluster and reordering indicate a potential for performance improvement.

Gammasphere is the pre-eminent detector for gamma-ray spectroscopy studies in the United States. The device consists of up to 110 Compton-Suppressed Ge detectors, and offers excellent energy resolution (2.3 keV at 1 MeV) and an order of magnitude increase in photopeak efficiency over previous Ge-arrays (10% at 1 MeV). Since early January 1998, Gammasphere has begun a cycle of experiments at the ATLAS accelerator at Argonne National Laboratory. As of this writing, 100 experiments have been carried out. A subset of these experiments have utilized Gammasphere coupled to the Fragment Mass Analyzer (FMA), a high resolution mass spectrometer which transports reaction products produced at the target position and disperses them by their mass/charge ratio at the focal plane. This presentation will highlight some of the physics issues being addressed by the utilization of these two devices in tandem. More specifically, experiments directed at studying; (1) N-Z nuclei at the edges of stability, (2) the properties of excited states in proton emitters, and (3) the stability and shapes of very heavy nuclei will be presented.

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The static properties of the hyperons include masses, lifetimes, magnetic moments and CPT test from the asymmetries of these quantities for hyperon and anti-hyperon. The author reviews the present status of these measurements with an eye toward identifying places where new or improved measurements can have a significant physics impact. Most of these measurements are from the PDG where there have been only two new measurements quoted since 1995. He also reports two new measurements not yet published.

The authors discuss the origin of focus points in the scalar mass RGEs of the MSSM and their implications for collider searches. The authors present a new exact analytic solution to the homogeneous system of scalar mass TGEs in the MSSM for general tan {beta}. This is then used to prove that the focus point for m{sup 2}{sub H{sub u}} depends only on the value of the top Yukawa coupling at the weak scale (not its value at the GUT scale) and is independent of the bottom Yukawa coupling.

CLHEP is a broadly based collaboration, including developers at CERN, Cornell, FNAL, SLAC and elsewhere, to provide core C++ class libraries for the use of the HENP community. Recently, the collaboration aspect of CLHEP has been rejuvenated and expanded. To provide structure for the expanded collaboration, the developers have agreed to a consensus based organization centered around an editors list. An overview of the new structure, including the mechanism for ensuring CLHEP remains responsive to the needs of HENP users and other developers, will be presented. To guide directions of development, the nature of CLHEP has been clarified: The core CLHEP is structured as a set of packages which must have freely available sources and must be independent of external packages. These must work on at least a large fraction of the platforms in general use. The selection of these packages is driven by those needs and timetables of the High Energy and Nuclear Physics community which would not likely be met by code emerging from the general computing community. Coordination of CLHEP with other packages developed in HENP will be discussed, and recent and planned extensions to CLHEP will be presented.

The Forest Service (FS) returns 25% of the revenues from each national forest to the states for use on roads and schools in counties where the forests are located; the Bureau of Land Management shares 50% of its revenues with counties containing the Oregon & California grant lands. This report discusses the legislative concerns that have arisen because declining timber sales have reduced revenues.

The use of aluminum in automotive applications is expanding. Aluminum offers a lower-weight alternative to steel, potentially increasing the efficiency of vehicles. However, the application of aluminum has been only in select areas of use, most notably cast aluminum in the engine, transmission, and wheels. Other areas offer the potential for growth that could significantly expand the amount of aluminum used in vehicles. Cost is the main barrier to increased aluminum use. Related to cost are aluminum production technologies that are not yet advanced enough to produce aluminum components at low enough price points for aluminum to compete with traditional automotive materials. Today's technologies require higher-priced alloys to be used for the components (e.g., closure panels), or have higher costs for needed processes (e.g., welding). In addition, new designs (e.g., spaceframes) are not well established for widespread use. R&D efforts are continuing to close these gaps. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is helping to fund certain R&D projects that could provide breakthroughs in lowering costs for aluminum. This paper describes the current state of aluminum applications in vehicles, including its market penetration and opportunities. It also examines the cost structure of aluminum--from mining to final component use. By examining …

Durability testing of a variety of candidate solar reflector materials at outdoor test sites and in laboratory accelerated weathering chambers is the main activity within the Advanced Materials task of the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Program. Outdoor exposure testing (OET) at up to eight outdoor, worldwide exposure sites has been underway for several years. This includes collaboration under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems (SolarPACES) agreement. Outdoor sites are fully instrumented in terms of monitoring meteorological conditions and solar irradiance. Candidate materials are optically characterized prior to being subjected to exposure in real and simulated weathering environments. Optical durability is quantified by periodically re-measuring hemispherical and specular reflectance as a function of exposure time. By closely monitoring the site- and time-dependent environmental stress conditions experienced by the material samples, site-dependent loss of performance may be quantified. In addition, accelerated exposure testing (AET) of these materials in parallel under laboratory-controlled conditions may permit correlating the outdoor results with AET, and subsequently predicting service lifetimes. Test results to date for a large number of candidate solar reflector materials are presented in this report. Acronyms are defined. Based upon OET and AET results to date, …

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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The 244-AR Vault Facility, constructed between 1966 and 1968, was designed to provide lag storage and treatment for the Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Facility (PUREX) tank farm sludges. Tank farm personnel transferred the waste from the 244-AR Vault Facility to B Plant for recovery of cesium and strontium. B Plant personnel then transferred the treatment residuals back to the tank farms for storage of the sludge and liquids. The last process operations, which transferred waste supporting the cesium/strontium recovery mission, occurred in April 1978. After the final transfer in 1978, the 244-AR facility underwent a cleanout. However, 2,271 L (600 gal) of sludge were left in Tank 004AR from an earlier transfer from Tank 241-AX-104. When the cleanout was completed, the facility was placed in a standby status. The sludge had been transferred to Tank 004AR to support Pacific Northwest National Laboratory [PNNL] vitrification work. Documentation of waste transfers suggests that a portion of the sludge may have been moved from Tank 004AR to Tank 002AR in preparation for transfer back to the AX Tank Farm; however, quantities of the sludge that were moved to Tank 002AR from that transfer must be estimated.

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A weekly student newspaper from the Rice University in Houston, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.