Extremely large laser power might be obtained by compressing laser pulses through backward Raman amplification (BRA) in plasmas. Premature Raman backscattering of a laser pump by plasma noise might be suppressed by an appropriate detuning of the Raman resonance, even as the desired amplification of the seed persists with a high efficiency. In this paper, we analyze side-scattering of laser pumps by plasma noise in backward Raman amplifiers. Though its growth rate is smaller than that of backscattering, the side-scattering can nevertheless be dangerous, because of a longer path of side-scattered pulses in plasmas and because of an angular dependence of the Raman resonance detuning. We show that side-scattering of laser pumps by plasma noise in BRA might be suppressed to a tolerable level at all angles by an appropriate combination of two detuning mechanisms associated with plasma density gradient and pump chirp.

X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy is a widely used method for determining the electronic configuration and local structure of dilute species with high sensitivity. In the dilute limit, and for thin films, the X-ray fluorescence signal is directly proportional to the atomic sub-shell absorption coefficient. However, for concentrated samples, the well-documented self-absorption effect often leads to the severe suppression of XANES (X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure) and EXAFS (Extended X-ray Absorption Fine-Structure) amplitudes. Thus to recover the real value of the sub-shell absorption coefficient, it is important to apply correction procedures to the measured fluorescence spectra. In this paper, we describe a new straightforward method to correct for self-absorption effects (the difference in the measured fluorescence signal compared to that of the true sub-shell photoabsorption coefficient) in XANES and EXAFS fluorescence measurements. Using a variety of sample and detector configurations, this method is used to extract the sub-shell absorption coefficient on elemental nickel and thick single-crystals of Gd{sub 3}Ga{sub 5}O{sub 12} and LaAlO{sub 3}.

Transverse energy (E{sub T}) distributions have been measured for Au+Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV by the STAR collaboration at RHIC. E{sub T} is constructed from its hadronic and electromagnetic components, which have been measured separately. E{sub T} production for the most central collisions is well described by several theoretical models whose common feature is large energy density achieved early in the fireball evolution. The magnitude and centrality dependence of E{sub T} per charged particle agrees well with measurements at lower collision energy, indicating that the growth in E{sub T} for larger collision energy results from the growth in particle production. The electromagnetic fraction of the total E{sub T} is consistent with a final state dominated by mesons and independent of centrality.

A systematic investigation of candidate hydrogen permeation materials applied to a substrate using Pulsed Laser Deposition has been performed. The investigation focused on application of leading permeation-resistant materials types (oxide, carbides, and metals) on a stainless steel substrate. and evaluation of the stability of the applied coatings. Type 304L stainless steel substrates were coated with aluminum oxide, chromium oxide, and aluminum. Characterization of the coating-substrate system adhesion was performed using scratch adhesion testing and microindentation. Coating stability and environmental susceptibility were evaluated for two conditions-air at 350 degrees Celsius and Ar-H2 at 350 degrees Celsius for up to 100 hours. Results from this study have shown the pulsed laser deposition process to be an extremely versatile technology that is capable of producing a sound coating/substrate system for a wide variety of coating materials.

Advanced coal and biomass-based gas turbine power generation technologies (IGCC, PFBC, PCFBC, and Hipps) are currently under development and demonstration. Efforts at the Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation (SWPC) have been focused on the development and demonstration of hot gas filter systems as an enabling technology for power generation. As part of the demonstration effort, SWPC has been actively involved in the development of advanced filter materials and component configuration, has participated in numerous surveillance programs characterizing the material properties and microstructure of field-tested filter elements, and has undertaken extended, accelerated filter life testing programs. This report reviews SWPC's material and component assessment efforts, identifying the performance, stability, and life of porous commercial metal, advanced alloy, and intermetallic filters under simulated, pressurized fluidized-bed combustion (PFBC) conditions.

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In the 1990's supercritical light-water reactors were considered in conceptual designs. A nuclear reactor cooled by supercritical waster would have a much higher thermal efficiency with a once-through direct power cycle, and could be based on standardized water reactor components (light water or heavy water). The theoretical efficiency could be improved by more than 33% over that of other water reactors and could be simplified with higher reliability; e.g., a boiling water reactor without steam separators or dryers.

The objective of this research project was to improve the basis for estimating environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposures in a variety of indoor environments. The research utilized experiments conducted in both laboratory and ''real-world'' buildings to (1) study the transport of ETS species from room to room, (2) examine the viability of using various chemical markers as tracers for ETS, and (3) to evaluate to what extent re-emission of ETS components from indoor surfaces might add to the ETS exposure estimates. A three-room environmental chamber was used to examine multi-zone transport and behavior of ETS and its tracers. One room (simulating a smoker's living room) was extensively conditioned with ETS, while a corridor and a second room (simulating a child's bedroom) remained smoking-free. A series of 5 sets of replicate experiments were conducted under different door opening and flow configurations: sealed, leaky, slightly ajar, wide open, and under forced air-flow conditions. When the doors between the rooms were slightly ajar the particles dispersed into the other rooms, eventually reaching the same concentration. The particle size distribution took the same form in each room, although the total numbers of particles in each room depended on the door configurations. The particle number …

In this paper, we study traffic grooming in SONET/WDM BLSR networks under the uniform all-to-all traffic model with an objective to reduce total network costs (wavelength and electronic multiplexing costs), in particular, to minimize the number of ADMs while using the optimal number of wavelengths. We derive a new tighter lower bound for the number of wavelengths when the number of nodes is a multiple of 4. We show that this lower bound is achievable. All previous ADM lower bounds except perhaps that in were derived under the assumption that the magnitude of the traffic streams (r) is one unit (r = 1) with respect to the wavelength capacity granularity g. We then derive new, more general and tighter lower bounds for the number of ADMs subject to that the optimal number of wavelengths is used, and propose heuristic algorithms (circle construction algorithm and circle grooming algorithm) that try to minimize the number of ADMs while using the optimal number of wavelengths in BLSR networks. Both the bounds and algorithms are applicable to any value of r and for different wavelength granularity g. Performance evaluation shows that wherever applicable, our lower bounds are at least as good as existing bounds …

We discuss possible searches for the new particles predicted by Little Higgs Models at the LHC. By using a simulation of the ATLAS detector, we demonstrate how the predicted quark, gauge bosons and additional Higgs bosons can be found and estimate the mass range over which their properties can be constrained.

Understanding how water and solutes move through the vadose zone is necessary to make effective remedial action decisions where contaminants were spilled or leaked at the ground surface or were buried in shallow land-disposal sites. In layered, heterogeneous systems, high contrasts in hydraulic conductivity can lead to formation of perched water zones, and enhanced lateral spread of contamination. Two conceptual models are considered solute for migration through the vadose zone. In the diffuse flow conceptual model, perched water zones accumulate until the head over the perching layer becomes sufficient to drive the infiltration through the perching layer. In the preferential flow conceptual model, perched water moves laterally until a path around the perching layer is encountered. Preferential flow paths can enhance contaminant migration because greater moisture saturation leads to higher advective velocities, and the preferential flow paths bypass low permeability layers with higher sorption capacity. Monitoring wells and instrumented boreholes were installed around a newly constructed industrial-waste percolation pond and an ephemeral river that lie over a 150-m-thick layered vadose zone. Background data gathered before discharge to the pond began show the presence of at least one, and possibly two, deep perched zones. The shallower zone, at approximately 45-m below …

The icosahedral symmetry is one of the most intriguing symmetries, as it not only presents challenge but it appears in many fullerenes and high energetic materials such as the dodecahedral N{sub 20}. We have considered the combinatorics of all irreducible representations of the icosahedral symmetry for a number of multinomial partitions for vertex, face and edge colorings in this work. We have constructed the combinatorial tables for all irreducible representations for various multinomial partitions of colorings for the vertices, edge and faces of the icosahedron. These techniques should have important applications to enumerations and spectroscopy of fullerenes and high-energy materials such as N{sub 20}.

The character table of the fully non-rigid water pentamer, (H{sub 2}O){sub 5} is derived for the first time. The group of all feasible permutations is the wreath product group S{sub 5}[S{sub 2}] and it consists of 3840 operations divided into 36 conjugacy classes and irreducible representations. We have shown that the full character table can be constructed using elegant matrix type generator algebra. The character table has been applied to the water pentamer by obtaining the nuclear spin statistical weights of the rovibronic levels and tunneling splittings of the fully non-rigid pentamer. We have also obtained the statistical weights and tunneling splittings of a semi-rigid deuterated pentamer that exhibits pseudo rotation with an averaged C{sub 5h}(G{sub 10}) symmetry used in the assignment of vibration-rotation-tunneling spectra . The correlation tables have been constructed for the semirigid (G{sub 10}) to non-rigid (G{sub 3840}) groups for the rotational levels and tunneling levels. The nuclear spin statistical weights have also been derived for both the limits.

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This report contains the results of the Workshop on the CKM Unitarity Triangle that was held at CERN on 13-16 February 2002. There had been several Workshops on B physics that concentrated on studies at e{sup +}e{sup -} machines, at the Tevatron, or at LHC separately. Here we brought together experts of different fields, both theorists and experimentalists, to study the determination of the CKM matrix from all the available data of K, D, and B physics. The analysis of LEP data for B physics is reaching its end, and one of the goals of the Workshop was to underline the results that have been achieved at LEP, SLC, and CESR. Another goal was to prepare for the transfer of responsibility for averaging B physics properties, that has developed within the LEP community, to the present main actors of these studies, from the B factory and the Tevatron experiments. The optimal way to combine the various experimental and theoretical inputs and to fit for the apex of the Unitarity Triangle has been a contentious issue. A further goal of the Workshop was to bring together the proponents of different fitting strategies, and to compare their approaches when applied to the …

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on the state of Delaware.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on the District of Columbia.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on American Samoa.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on the Northern Mariana Islands.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on the state of Connecticut.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on the state of Georgia.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on Guam.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and three territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Each profile identifies the more significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. This report focuses on the state of Wisconsin.