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During the past few years, substantial progress has been made in developing experimental techniques capable of investigating the response of materials to dynamic loading on nanosecond time scales and shorter, with multiple diagnostics probing different aspects of the behavior. these relatively short time scales are scientifically interesting because plastic flow and phase changes in common materials with simple crystal structures--such as iron--may be suppressed, allowing unusual states to be induced and the dynamics of plasticity and polymorphism to be explored. Loading by laser ablation can be particularly convenient. The TRIDENT laser has been used to impart shocks and isentropic compression waves from {approx}1 to 200GPa in a range of elements and alloys, with diagnostics including surface velocimetry (line-imaging VISAR), surface displacement (framed area imaging), x-ray diffraction (single crystal and polycrystal), ellipsometry, and Raman spectroscopy. A major motivation has been the study of the properties of beryllium under conditions relevant to the fuel capsule in inertial confinement fusion: magnetically-driven shock and isentropic compression shots at Z were used to investigate the equation of state and shock melting characteristics, complemented by laser ablation experiments to investigate plasticity and heterogeneous response. These results will help to constrain acceptable tolerances on manufacturing, and possible …

Nanometer sized diamond has been found in meteorites, proto-planetary nebulae and interstellar dusts, as well as in residues of detonation and in diamond films. Remarkably, the size distribution of diamond nanoparticles appears to be peaked around 2-5 nm, and to be largely independent of preparation conditions. Using ab-initio calculations, we have shown that in this size range nanodiamond has a fullerene-like surface and, unlike silicon and germanium, exhibit very weak quantum confinement effects. We called these carbon nanoparticles bucky-diamonds: their atomic structure, predicted by simulations, is consistent with many experimental findings. In addition, we carried out calculations of the stability of nanodiamond which provided a unifying explanation of its size distribution in extra-terrestrial samples, and in ultra-crystalline diamond films. Here we present a summary of our theoretical results and we briefly outline work in progress on doping of nanodiamond with nitrogen.

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Under the sponsorship of the U.S. DOE and DHS, we have developed a CFD model for simulating flow and dispersion of chemical and biological agents released in the urban environment. Our model, FEM3MP (Chan and Stevens, 2000), is based on solving the three-dimensional, time-dependent, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on massively parallel computer platforms. The model uses the finite element method for accurate representation of complex building shapes and variable terrain, together with a semi-implicit projection method and modern iterative solvers for efficient time integration (Gresho and Chan, 1998). Physical processes treated include turbulence modeling via the RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) and LES (Large Eddy Simulation) approaches, atmospheric stability, aerosols, UV radiation decay, surface energy budget, and vegetative canopies, etc. Predictions from our model are continuously being verified and validated against data from wind tunnel (Chan and Stevens, 2000; Chan, et al., 2001) and field experiments (Chan, et al., 2002, 2003; Lee, et al., 2002; Humphreys, et al., 2003; and Calhoun, et al., 2004). Discussed below are several examples to illustrate the use of FEM3MP in simulating flow and dispersion in urban areas and forest canopies, with model results compared against available field measurements.

Isopiestic vapor-pressure measurements were made at 298.15 K for aqueous NaCl + SrCl{sub 2} solutions, using NaCl(aq) as the reference standard. The measurements for these ternary solutions were made at NaCl ionic strength fractions of y{sub 1} = 0.17066, 0.47366, and 0.82682 for the water activity range 0.9835 {ge} a{sub w} {ge} 0.8710. Our results, and those from two previous isopiestic studies, were combined and used with previously determined parameters for NaCl(aq) and those for SrCl{sub 2}(aq) determined here to evaluate the mixing parameters{sup S}{Theta}{sub Na,Sr} = (0.0562 {+-} 0.0007) kg {center_dot} mol{sup -1} and {Psi}{sub Na,Sr,Cl} = -(0.00705 {+-} 0.00017) kg{sup 2} {center_dot} mol{sup -2} for an extended form of Pitzer's ion-interaction model. These model parameters are valid for ionic strengths of I {le} 7.0 mol {center_dot} kg{sup -1}, where higher-order electrostatic effects have been included in the mixture model. If the fitting range is extended to the saturated solution molalities, then {sup S}{Theta}{sub Na,Sr} = (0.07885 {+-} 0.00195) kg {center_dot} mol{sup -1} and {Psi}{sub Na,Sr,Cl} = -(0.01230 {+-} 0.00033) kg{sup 2} {center_dot} mol{sup -2}. The extended ion-interaction model parameters obtained from available isopiestic data for SrCl{sub 2}(aq) at 298.15 K yield recommended values of the water activities and …

Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine environmental variables that affect the affinities and persistence of the nerve agent O-ethyl S-(2-diisopropylaminoethyl) methylphosphonothiolate (VX) at dilute concentrations in environmental matrices. Quantitative analyses of VX and its degradation products were performed using LC-MS. Batch hydrolysis experiments demonstrated an increasing hydrolysis rate as pH increased, as shown in previous studies, but also indicated that dissolved aqueous constituents can cause significant differences in the absolute hydrolysis rate. Adsorption isotherms from batch aqueous experiments revealed that VX has a high affinity for hydrophobic organics, a moderate affinity for montmorillonite clay, and a very low affinity for an iron-oxyhydroxide soil mineral, goethite. The adsorption on goethite was increased with the presence of dissolved organic matter in solution. VX degraded rapidly when dried onto goethite, when an inner-sphere complex was forced. No enhanced degradation occurred with goethite in small amounts water. These results suggest that aqueous conditions have important controls on VX adsorption and degradation in the environment and a more mechanistic understanding of these controls is needed in order to enable accurate predictions of its long-term fate and persistence.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a stadium-sized facility containing a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, ultraviolet laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for nearly 100 experimental diagnostics. NIF will be the world's largest and most energetic laser experimental system, providing a scientific center to study inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and matter at extreme energy densities and pressures. NIF's energetic laser beams will compress fusion targets to conditions required for thermonuclear burn, liberating more energy than required to initiate the fusion reactions. Other NIF experiments will study physical processes at temperatures approaching 108 K and 1011 bar, conditions that exist naturally only in the interior of stars, planets and in nuclear weapons. NIF has successfully activated, commissioned, and utilized the first four beams of the laser system to conduct over 300 shots between November 2002 and August 2004. NIF laser scientists have established that the laser meets nearly all performance requirements on a per beam basis for energy, uniformity, timing, and pulse shape. Using these four beams, ICF and high-energy-density physics researchers have conducted a number of experimental campaigns resulting in high quality data that could not be reached on any …

We show that a simple plane wave analysis can be used even under tight focusing conditions to predict the dependence of third-harmonic generation on the polarization state of the incident beam. Exploiting this fact, we then show that circularly polarized beams may be used to spatially characterize the beam focus and temporally characterize ultrashort pulses in high numerical aperture systems by experimentally demonstrating, for the first time, novel collinear, background-free, third-harmonic intensity autocorrelations in time and space in a high numerical aperture microscope. We also discuss the possibility of using third harmonic generation with circularly polarized beams for background-free collinear frequency resolved optical gating.

A fundamental challenge in applying texture features to statistical object modeling is recognizing differently oriented spatial patterns. Rows of moored boats in remote sensed images of harbors should be consistently labeled regardless of the orientation of the harbors, or of the boats within the harbors. This is not straightforward to do, however, when using anisotropic texture features to characterize the spatial patterns. We here propose an elegant solution, termed normalized texture motifs, that uses a parametric statistical model to characterize the patterns regardless of their orientation. The models are learned in an unsupervised fashion from arbitrarily orientated training samples. The proposed approach is general enough to be used with a large category of orientation-selective texture features.

The Warp code, developed for heavy-ion driven inertial fusion energy studies, is used to model high intensity ion (and electron) beams. Significant capability has been incorporated in Warp, allowing nearly all sections of an accelerator to be modeled, beginning with the source. Warp has as its core an explicit, three-dimensional, particle-in-cell model. Alongside this is a rich set of tools for describing the applied fields of the accelerator lattice, and embedded conducting surfaces (which are captured at sub-grid resolution). Also incorporated are models with reduced dimensionality: an axisymmetric model and a transverse ''slice'' model. The code takes advantage of modern programming techniques, including object orientation, parallelism, and scripting (via Python). It is at the forefront in the use of the computational technique of adaptive mesh refinement, which has been particularly successful in the area of diode and injector modeling, both steady-state and time-dependent. In the presentation, some of the major aspects of Warp will be overviewed, especially those that could be useful in modeling ECR sources. Warp has been benchmarked against both theory and experiment. Recent results will be presented showing good agreement of Warp with experimental results from the STS500 injector test stand. Additional information can be found on …

The line ratios of the 2p-3d transitions in the B-like spectra Ar XIV and Fe XXII have been measured using the electron beam ion traps at Livermore. Radiative-collisional model calculations show these line ratios to be sensitive to the electron density in the ranges ne = 10{sup 10} to 10{sup 12} cm{sup -3} and ne = 10{sup 13} to 10{sup 15} cm{sup -3}, respectively. In our experiment, the electron beam density of about 10{sup 11} cm{sup -3} was varied by about a factor of 5. Our data show a density effect for the line doublet in Ar XIV, and good agreement with theory is found. The relative intensity of the Fe XXII doublet shows good agreement with our predicted low density limit. The N VI K-shell spectrum was used to infer the actual electron density in the overlap region of ion cloud and electron beam, and systematic measurements and calculations of this spectrum are presented as well. The Ar XIV and Fe XXII spectra promise to be reliable density diagnostics for stellar coronae, complementing the K-shell diagnostics of helium-like ions.

We have observed that the residual vectors at the end of each restart cycle of restarted GMRES often alternate direction in a cyclic fashion, thereby slowing convergence. We present a new technique for accelerating the convergence of restarted GMRES by disrupting this alternating pattern. The new algorithm resembles a full conjugate gradient method with polynomial preconditioning, and its implementation requires minimal changes to the standard restarted GMRES algorithm.

We analyze results of 15 global climate simulations contributed to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Focusing on the western U.S., we consider both present climate simulations and predicted responses to increasing atmospheric CO{sub 2}. The models vary in their ability to predict the present climate. Over the western U.S., a few models produce a seasonal cycle for spatially-averaged temperature and/or precipitation in good agreement with observational data. Other models tend to overpredict precipitation in the winter or exaggerate the amplitude of the seasonal cycle of temperature. The models also differ in their ability to reproduce the spatial patterns of temperature and precipitation in the U.S. Considering the monthly mean precipitation responses to doubled atmospheric CO{sub 2}, averaged over the western U.S., we find some models predict increases while others predict decreases. The predicted temperature response, on the other hand, is invariably positive over this region; however, for each month, the range of values given by the different models is large compared to the mean model response. We look for possible relationships between the models' temperature and precipitation responses to doubled CO{sub 2} concentration and their ability to simulate some aspects of the present climate. We find that these relationships …

Eleven dimensional supergravity compactified on $T^10$ admits classical solutions describing what is known as billiard cosmology - a dynamics expressible as an abstract (billiard) ball moving in the 10-dimensional root space of the infinite dimensional Lie algebra E10, occasionally bouncing off walls in that space. Unlike finite dimensional Lie algebras, E10 has negative and zero norm roots, in addition to the positive norm roots. The walls above are related to physical fluxes that, in turn, are related to positive norm roots (called real roots) of E10. We propose that zero and negative norm roots, called imaginary roots, are related to physical branes. Adding 'matter' to the billiard cosmology corresponds to adding potential terms associated to imaginary roots. The, as yet, mysterious relation between E10 and M-theory on $T^10$ can now be expanded as follows: real roots correspond to fluxes or instantons, and imaginary roots correspond to particles and branes (in the cases we checked). Interactions between fluxes and branes and between branes and branes are classified according to the inner product of the corresponding roots (again in the cases we checked). We conclude with a discussion of an effective Hamiltonian description that captures some features of M-theory on $T^10.$

One significant source of annual temperature and precipitation data arises from the regular annual secondary growth rings of trees. Several tropical tree species are observed to form regular growth bands that may or may not form annually. Such growth was observed in one stem disk of the tropical legume Hymenaea courbaril near the area of David, Panama. In comparison to annual reference {Delta}{sup 14}C values from wood and air, the {Delta}{sup 14}C values from the secondary growth rings formed by H. courbaril were determined to be annual in nature in this one stem disk specimen. During this study, H. courbaril was also observed to translocate recently produced photosynthate into older growth rings as sapwood is converted to heartwood. This process alters the overall {Delta}{sup 14}C values of these transitional growth rings as cellulose with a higher {Delta}{sup 14}C content is translocated into growth rings with a relatively lower {Delta}{sup 14}C content. Once the annual nature of these growth rings is established, further stable isotope analyses on H. courbaril material in other studies may help to complete gaps in the understanding of short and of long term global climate patterns.

Infrared and Raman spectra of Fe(OH){sub 2}, ''white rust'', were measured between 7 GPa and 21 GPa at ambient temperature. The frequency of the infrared-active A{sub 2u} and of the Raman-active A1g stretching modes of the O-H group decrease linearly with pressure with slopes of -1.3 {+-} 0.1 cm{sup -1}/GPa and -4.9 {+-} 0.2 cm{sup -1}/GPa, respectively. The peak widths of both the infrared-active and Raman-active modes increase non-linearly with pressure, with a discontinuous increase of in broadening between 10 and 12.5 GPa. The overall broadening of the A{sub 2u} and of the A{sub 1g} stretching modes is approximately four-fold in the examined pressure range. The results of this spectroscopic study are compatible with the trends observed in recent neutron diffraction studies in the isostructural Co(OH){sub 2}. Progressive pressure-induced H disordering could be a viable model to interpret both the broadening of the OH stretching mode and the changes in oxidation state of Fe recently observed by Moessbauer spectroscopy.

Many applications of scientific computing rely on computations on sparse matrices, thus the design of efficient implementations of sparse matrix kernels is crucial for the overall efficiency of these applications. Due to the high compute-to-memory ratio and irregular memory access patterns, the performance of sparse matrix kernels is often far away from the peak performance on a modern processor. Alternative data structures have been proposed, which split the original matrix A into A{sub d} and A{sub s}, so that A{sub d} contains all dense blocks of a specified size in the matrix, and A{sub s} contains the remaining entries. This enables the use of dense matrix kernels on the entries of A{sub d} producing better memory performance. In this work, we study the problem of finding a maximum number of non overlapping rectangular dense blocks in a sparse matrix, which has not been studied in the sparse matrix community. We show that the maximum non overlapping dense blocks problem is NP-complete by using a reduction from the maximum independent set problem on cubic planar graphs. We also propose a 2/3-approximation algorithm for 2 times 2 blocks that runs in linear time in the number of nonzeros in the matrix. We …

In this paper we present a method for the spatial analysis of complex cellular systems based on a multiscale study of neighborhood relationships. A function to measure those relationships, M, is introduced. The refined Relative Neighborhood Graph is then presented as a method to establish vicinity relationships within layered cellular structures, and particularized to epithelial cell nuclei in the mammary gland. Finally, the method is illustrated with two examples that show interactions within one population of epithelial cells and between two different populations.

A conceptual model of CO2 injection in bedded sandstone-shale sequences has been developed using hydrogeologic properties and mineral compositions commonly encountered in Gulf Coast sediments. Numerical simulations were performed with the reactive fluid flow and geochemical transport code TOUGHREACT to analyze mass transfer between sandstone and shale layers and CO2 immobilization through carbonate precipitation. Results indicate that most CO2 sequestration occurs in the sandstone. The major CO2 trapping minerals are dawsonite and ankerite. The CO2 mineral-trapping capacity after 100,000 years reaches about 90 kg per cubic meter of the medium. The CO2 trapping capacity depends on primary mineral composition. Precipitation of siderite and ankerite requires Fe+2 supplied mainly by chlorite and some by hematite dissolution and reduction. Precipitation of dawsonite requires Na+ provided by oligoclase dissolution. The initial abundance of chlorite and oligoclase therefore affects the CO2 mineral trapping capacity. The sequestration time required depends on the kinetic rate of mineral dissolution and precipitation. Dawsonite reaction kinetics is not well understood, and sensitivity regarding the precipitation rate was examined. The addition of CO2 as secondary carbonates results in decreased porosity. The leaching of chemical constituents from the interior of the shale causes slightly increased porosity. The limited information currently available …

Spectral control is a key technology for thermophotovoltaic (TPV) direct energy conversion systems because only a fraction (typically less than 25%) of the incident thermal radiation has energy exceeding the diode bandgap energy, E{sub g}, and can thus be converted to electricity. The goal for TPV spectral control in most applications is twofold: (1) Maximize TPV efficiency by minimizing transfer of low energy, below bandgap photons from the radiator to the TPV diode. (2) Maximize TPV surface power density by maximizing transfer of high energy, above bandgap photons from the radiator to the TPV diode. TPV spectral control options include: front surface filters (e.g. interference filters, plasma filters, interference/plasma tandem filters, and frequency selective surfaces), back surface reflectors, and wavelength selective radiators. System analysis shows that spectral performance dominates diode performance in any practical TPV system, and that low bandgap diodes enable both higher efficiency and power density when spectral control limitations are considered. Lockheed Martin has focused its efforts on front surface tandem filters which have achieved spectral efficiencies of {approx}83% for E{sub g} = 0.52 eV and {approx}76% for E{sub g} = 0.60 eV for a 950 C radiator temperature.

A novel method for beam manipulation, compression, and stacking using a broad band RF system in circular accelerators is described. The method uses a series of linear voltage ramps in combination with moving barrier pulses to azimuthally compress, expand, or cog the beam. Beam manipulations can be accomplished rapidly and, in principle, without emittance growth. The general principle of the method is discussed using beam dynamics simulations. Beam experiments in the Fermilab Recycler Ring convincingly validate the concept. Preliminary experiments in the Fermilab Main Injector to investigate its potential for merging two ''booster batches'' to produce high intensity proton beams for neutrino and antiproton production are described.

Using a large sample of quasar spectra from the SDSS, we examine the composite spectral trends of quasars as functions of both redshift and luminosity, independently of one another. Aside from the well known Baldwin effect (BE)--the decrease of line equivalent width with luminosity--the average spectral properties are remarkably similar. Host galaxy contamination and the BE are the primary causes for apparent changes in the average spectral slope of the quasars. The BE is detected for most emission lines, including the Balmer lines, but with several exceptions including NV1240A. Emission line shifts of several lines are associated with the BE. The BE is mainly a function of luminosity, but also partly a function of redshift in that line equivalent widths become stronger with redshift. Some of the complex iron features change with redshift, particularly near the small blue bump region.

Among the many physics processes at TeV hadron colliders, we look most eagerly for those that display signs of the Higgs boson or of new physics. We do so however amid an abundance of processes that proceed via Standard Model (SM) and in particular Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) interactions, and that are interesting in their own right. Good knowledge of these processes is required to help us distinguish the new from the known. Their theoretical and experimental study teaches us at the same time more about QCD/SM dynamics, and thereby enables us to further improve such distinctions. This is important because it is becoming increasingly clear that the success of finding and exploring Higgs boson physics or other New Physics at the Tevatron and LHC will depend significantly on precise understanding of QCD/SM effects for many observables. To improve predictions and deepen the study of QCD/SM signals and backgrounds was therefore the ambition for our QCD/SM working group at this Les Houches workshop. Members of the working group made significant progress towards this on a number of fronts. A variety of tools were further developed, from methods to perform higher order perturbative calculations or various types of resummation, to improvements in …