Within the composition space of glasses, a distinct threshold appears to exist that separates "good" glasses, i.e., those which are sufficiently durable, from "bad" glasses of a low durability. The objective of our research is to clarify the origin of this threshold by exploring the relationship between glass composition, glass structure and chemical durability around the threshold region.

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Density Functional Theory is used to investigate a weakly coordinating room-temperature ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetracyanoborate ([Emim]{sup +}[TCB]{sup -}). Four locally stable conformers of the ion pair were located. Atoms-in-molecules (AIM) and electron density analysis indicated the existence of several hydrogen bonds. Further investigation through the Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) and Natural Energy Decomposition Analysis (NEDA) calculations provided insight into the origin of interactions in the [Emim]{sup +}[TCB]{sup -} ion pair. Strength of molecular interactions in the ionic liquid was correlated with frequency shifts of the characteristic vibrations of the ion pair. Harmonic vibrations of the ion pair were also compared with the experimental Raman and Infrared spectra. Vibrational frequencies were assigned by visualizing displacements of atoms around their equilibrium positions and through Potential Energy Distribution (PED) analysis.

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This article introduces a new class of searches for physics beyond the Standard Model that improves the sensitivity to signals with high jet multiplicity. The proposed searches gain access to high multiplicity signals by reclustering events into large-radius, or 'fat', jets and by requiring that each event has multiple massive jets. This technique is applied to supersymmetric scenarios in which gluinos are pair-produced and then subsequently decay to final states with either moderate quantities of missing energy or final states without missing energy. In each of these scenarios, the use of jet mass improves the estimated reach in gluino mass by 20% to 50% over current LHC searches.

PEP-II/BABAR are presently in their second physics run. With machine and detector performance and reliability at an all-time high, almost 51 fb{sup -1} have been integrated by BABAR up to mid-October 2001. PEP-II luminosity has reached 4.4 x 10{sup 33} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} and our highest monthly delivered luminosity has been above 6 pb{sup -1}, exceeding the performance parameters given in the PEP-II CDR by almost 50%. The increase compared to the first run in 2000 has been achieved by a combination of beam-current increase and beam-size decrease. In this paper we will summarize the PEP-II performance and the present limitations as well as our plans to further increase machine performance.

Using Fresnel zone plates made with our robust nanofabrication processes, we have successfully achieved 10 nm spatial resolution with soft x-ray microscopy. The result, obtained with both a conventional full-field and scanning soft x-ray microscope, marks a significant step forward in extending the microscopy to truly nanoscale studies.

Active neutron interrogation has been demonstrated to be an effective method of detecting shielded fissile material. A fast fall-time/fast pulsing neutron generator is needed primarily for differential die-away technique (DDA) interrogation systems. A compact neutron generator, currently being developed in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, employs an array of 0.6-mm-dia apertures (instead of one 6-mm-dia aperture) such that gating the beamlets can be done with low voltage and a small gap to achieve sub-microsecond ion beam fall time and low background neutrons. Arrays of 16 apertures (4x4) and 100 apertures (10x10) have been designed and fabricated for a beam extraction experiment. The preliminary results showed that, using a gating voltage of 1200 V and a gap distance of 1 mm, the fall time of extracted ion beam pulses is approximately 0.15 mu s at beam energies of 1000 eV.

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide, ZnO:Al or AZO, is a well-known n-type transparent conducting oxide with great potential in a number of applications currently dominated by indium tin oxide (ITO). In this study, the optical and electrical properties of AZO thin films deposited on glass and silicon by pulsed filtered cathodic arc deposition are systematically studied. In contrast to magnetron sputtering, this technique does not produce energetic negative ions, and therefore ion damage can be minimized. The quality of the AZO films strongly depends on the growth temperature while only marginal improvements are obtained with post-deposition annealing. The best films, grown at a temperature of about 200?C, have resistivities in the low to mid 10-4 Omega cm range with a transmittance better than 85percent in the visible part of the spectrum. It is remarkable that relatively good films of small thickness (60 nm) can be fabricated using this method.

We report time-resolved studies of hydrogen bonding in liquid H2O, in response to direct excitation of the O-H stretch mode at 3 mu m, probed via soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy at the oxygen K-edge. This approach employs a newly developed nanofluidic cell for transient soft x-ray spectroscopy in liquid phase. Distinct changes in the near-edge spectral region (XANES) are observed, and are indicative of a transient temperature rise of 10K following transient laser excitation and rapid thermalization of vibrational energy. The rapid heating occurs at constant volume and the associated increase in internal pressure, estimated to be 8MPa, is manifest by distinct spectral changes that differ from those induced by temperature alone. We conclude that the near-edge spectral shape of the oxygen K-edge is a sensitive probe of internal pressure, opening new possibilities for testing the validity of water models and providing new insight into the nature of hydrogen bonding in water.

We evaluate the accuracy of density functional theory quantum calculations of biomolecular subsystems using a simple electrostatic embedding scheme. Our scheme is based on dividing the system of interest into a primary and secondary subsystem. A finite difference discretization of the Kohn-Sham equations is used for the primary subsystem, while its electrostatic environment is modeled with a simple one-electron potential. Force-field atomic partial charges are used to generate smeared Gaussian charge densities and to model the secondary subsystem. We illustrate the utility of this approach with calculations of truncated dipeptide chains. We analyze quantitatively the accuracy of this approach by calculating atomic forces and comparing results with fullQMcalculations. The impact of the choice made in terminating dangling bonds at the frontier of the QM region is also investigated.

The atomic-scale restructuring of hex-Pt(100) induced by carbon monoxide with a wide pressure range was studied with a newly designed chamber-in-chamber high-pressure STM and theoretical calculations. Both experimental and DFT calculation results show that CO molecules are bound to Pt nanoclusters through a tilted on-top configuration with a separation of {approx}3.7-4.1 {angstrom}. The phenomenon of restructuring of metal catalyst surfaces induced by adsorption, and in particular the formation of small metallic clusters suggests the importance of studying structures of catalyst surfaces under high pressure conditions for understanding catalytic mechanisms.

The ignition kinetics and deflagration rates of PBXN-9 were measured using specially designed instruments at LLNL and compared with previous work on similar HMX based materials. Ignition kinetics were measured based on the One Dimensional Time-to-Explosion combined with ALE3D modeling. Results of these experiments indicate that PBXN-9 behaves much like other HMX based materials (i.e. LX-04, LX-07, LX-10 and PBX-9501) and the dominant factor in these experiments is the type of explosive, not the type of binder/plasticizer. In contrast, the deflagration behavior of PBXN-9 is quite different from similar high weight percent HMX based materials (i.e LX-10, LX-07 and PBX-9501). PBXN-9 burns in a laminar manner over the full pressure range studied (0-310 MPa) unlike LX-10, LX-07, and PBX-9501. The difference in deflagration behavior is attributed to the nature of the binder/plasticizer alone or in conjunction with the volume of binder present in PBXN-9.

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In this work, we report on the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization of small methanol and methanol-water clusters. Clusters of methanol with water are generated via co-expansion of the gas phase constituents in a continuous supersonic jet expansion of methanol and water seeded in Ar. The resulting clusters are investigated by single photon ionization with tunable vacuum-ultraviolet synchrotron radiation and mass analyzed using reflectron mass spectrometry. Protonated methanol clusters of the form (CH3OH)nH+(n = 1-12) dominate the mass spectrum below the ionization energy of the methanol monomer. With an increase in water concentration, small amounts of mixed clusters of the form (CH3OH n(H2O)H+ (n = 2-11) are detected. The only unprotonated species observed in this work are the methanol monomer and dimer. Appearance energies are obtained from the photoionization efficiency (PIE) curves for CH3OH+, (CH3OH)2+, (CH3OH)nH+ (n = 1-9), and (CH3OH)n(H2O)H+ (n = 2-9) as a function of photon energy. With an increasein the water content in the molecular beam, there is an enhancement of photoionization intensity for the methanol dimer and protonated methanol monomer at threshold. These results are compared and contrasted to previous experimental observations.

Clear evidence for symplectic symmetry in low-lying states of {sup 12}C and {sup 16}O is reported. Eigenstates of {sup 12}C and {sup 16}O, determined within the framework of the no-core shell model using the JISP16 NN realistic interaction, typically project at the 85-90% level onto a few of the most deformed symplectic basis states that span only a small fraction of the full model space. The results are nearly independent of whether the bare or renormalized effective interactions are used in the analysis. The outcome confirms Elliott's SU(3) model which underpins the symplectic scheme, and above all, points to the relevance of a symplectic no-core shell model that can reproduce experimental B(E2) values without effective charges as well as deformed spatial modes associated with clustering phenomena in nuclei.

Computer-aided materials research is now an integral part of science and technology. It becomes particularly valuable when comprehensive experimental investigations and materials testing are too costly, hazardous, or of excessive duration; then, theoretical and computational studies can supplement and enhance the information gained from limited experimental data. Such is the case for improving our fundamental understanding of the properties of aging plutonium in the nuclear weapons stockpile. The question of the effects of plutonium aging on the safety, security, and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile emerged after the United States closed its plutonium manufacturing facility in 1989 and decided to suspend any further underground testing of nuclear weapons in 1992. To address this, the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) initiated a research program to investigate plutonium aging, i.e., the changes with time of properties of Pu-Ga alloys employed in the nuclear weapons and to develop models describing these changes sufficiently reliable to forecast them for several decades. The November 26, 2006 press release by the NNSA summarizes the conclusions of the investigation, '...there appear to be no serious or sudden changes occurring, or expected to occur, in plutonium that would affect performance of pits beyond the …

International Linear Collider (ILC) interaction region beam sizes and component position stability requirements will be as small as a few nanometers. It is important to the ILC design effort to demonstrate that these tolerances can be achieved ideally using beam-based stability measurements. It has been estimated that RF cavity beam position monitors (BPMs) could provide position measurement resolutions of less than one nanometer and could form the basis of the desired beam-based stability measurement. We have developed a high resolution RF cavity BPM system. A triplet of these BPMs has been installed in the extraction line of the KEK Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) for testing with its ultra-low emittance beam. The three BPMs are rigidly mounted inside an alignment frame on variable-length struts which allow movement in position and angle. We have developed novel methods for extracting the position and tilt information from the BPM signals including a calibration algorithm which is immune to beam jitter. To date, we have been able to demonstrate a resolution of approximately 20 nm over a dynamic range of +/- 20 microns. We report on the progress of these ongoing tests.

Calculations are presented for two shots in the W7AS stellarator which differ only in the magnitude of the current in the divertor control coil, but have very different values of experimentally attainable β (<β> ≈ 2.7% versus <β> ≈ 1.8%). Equilibrium calculations find that a region of chaotic magnetic field line trajectories fills approximately the outer 1/3 of the cross-section in each of these configurations. The field lines in the stochastic region are calculated to behave as if the flux surfaces are broken only locally near the outer midplane and are preserved elsewhere. The calculated magnetic field line diffusion coefficients in the stochastic regions for the two shots are consistent with the observed differences in the attainable β, and are also consistent with the differences in the reconstructed pressure profiles.

We present a selection of recent results from studies of rare hadronic B decays based on a sample of 232 million B{bar B} pairs, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 211 fb{sup -1}, which were recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} storage ring.

A 3{omega} transmitted beam diagnostic has been commissioned on the Omega Laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester [Soures et.al., Laser Part. Beams 11 (1993)]. Transmitted light from one beam is collected by a large focusing mirror and directed onto a diagnostic platform. The near field of the transmitted light is imaged; the system collects information from twice the original f-cone of the beam. Two gated optical cameras capture the near field image of the transmitted light. Thirteen spatial positions around the measurement region are temporally resolved using fast photodiodes to allow a measure of the beam spray evolution. The Forward stimulated Raman scattering and forward simulated Brillion scattering are spectrally and temporally resolved at 5 independent locations within twice the original f-cone. The total transmitted energy is measured in two spectral bands ({delta}{lambda} &lt; 400 nm and {delta}{lambda} &gt; 400 nm).