We report on the first simultaneous observations that cover the optical, X-ray, and high-energy gamma-ray bands of the BL Lac object PKS 2155-304. The gamma-ray bands were observed for 11 days, between 2008 August 25 and 2008 September 6 (MJD 54704-54715), jointly with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the HESS atmospheric Cherenkov array, providing the first simultaneous MeV-TeV spectral energy distribution (SED) with the new generation of {gamma}-ray telescopes. The ATOM telescope and the RXTE and Swift observatories provided optical and X-ray coverage of the low-energy component over the same time period. The object was close to the lowest archival X-ray and very high energy (VHE; >100 GeV) state, whereas the optical flux was much higher. The light curves show relatively little ({approx}30%) variability overall when compared to past flaring episodes, but we find a clear optical/VHE correlation and evidence for a correlation of the X-rays with the high-energy spectral index. Contrary to previous observations in the flaring state, we do not find any correlation between the X-ray and VHE components. Although synchrotron self-Compton models are often invoked to explain the SEDs of BL Lac objects, the most common versions of these models are at odds with the correlated …

The results of the environmental surveillance program conducted at Site A/Plot M in the Palos Forest Preserve area for Calendar Year 2008 are presented. Based on the results of the 1976-1978 radiological characterization of the site, a determination was made that a surveillance program be established. The characterization study determined that very low levels of hydrogen-3 (as tritiated water) had migrated from the burial ground and were present in two nearby hand pumped picnic wells. The current surveillance program began in 1980 and consists of sample collection and analysis of surface and subsurface water. The results of the analyses are used to (1) monitor the migration pathway of hydrogen-3 contaminated water from the burial ground (Plot M) to the hand-pumped picnic wells, (2) establish if other buried radionuclides have migrated, and (3) monitor for the presence of radioactive materials in the environment of the area. Hydrogen-3 in the Red Gate Woods picnic wells was still detected this year, but the average and maximum concentrations were significantly less than found earlier. Hydrogen-3 continues to be detected in a number of wells, boreholes, dolomite holes, and a surface stream. Analyses since 1984 have indicated the presence of low levels of strontium-90 in …

We report measurements of the CKM angles {beta}/{phi}{sub 1} and {alpha}/{phi}{sub 2} done by the BABAR and Belle experiments. Both experiments have collected large data samples, corresponding to a total of more than 1 billion of B{bar B} pairs, at the e{sup +}e{sup -} asymmetric-energy colliders PEP-II (SLAC) and KEK-B (KEK), respectively.

The 1-MW High Voltage Converter Modulators [1] have operated in excess of 250,000 hours at the Spallation Neutron Source. Increased demands on the accelerator performance require increased modulator reliability. An effort is underway at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to redesign the modulator H-bridge switch plate with the goals of increasing reliability and performance [2]. The major difference between the SLAC design and the existing design is the use of press-pack IGBTs. Compared to other packaging options, these IGBTs have been shown to have increased performance in pulsed-power applications, have increased cooling capability, and do not fragment and disassemble during a fault event. An overview of the SLAC switch plate redesign is presented. Design steps including electrical modeling of the modulator and H-bridge, development of an integrated IGBT clamping mechanism, and fault tests are discussed. Experimental results will be presented comparing electrical performance of the SLAC switch plate to the existing switchplate under normal and fault conditions.

Pacific lamprey Lampetra tridentata have received little attention in fishery science until recently, even though abundance has declined significantly along with other anadromous fish species in Idaho. Pacific lamprey in Idaho have to navigate over eight lower Snake River and Columbia River hydroelectric facilities for migration downstream as juveniles to the Pacific Ocean and again as adults migrating upstream to their freshwater spawning grounds in Idaho. The number of adult Pacific lamprey annually entering the Snake River basin at Ice Harbor Dam has declined from an average of over 18,000 during 1962-1969 to fewer than 600 during 1998-2006. Based on potential accessible streams and adult escapement over Lower Granite Dam on the lower Snake River, we estimate that no more than 200 Pacific lamprey adult spawners annually utilize the Clearwater River drainage in Idaho for spawning. We utilized electrofishing in 2000-2006 to capture, enumerate, and obtain biological information regarding rearing Pacific lamprey ammocoetes and macropthalmia to determine the distribution and status of the species in the Clearwater River drainage, Idaho. Present distribution in the Clearwater River drainage is limited to the lower sections of the Lochsa and Selway rivers, the Middle Fork Clearwater River, the mainstem Clearwater River, the South …

Bunch compressors, designed to increase the peak current, can lead to a microbunching instability with detrimental effects on the beam quality. This is a major concern for free electron lasers (FELs) where very bright electron beams are required, i.e. beams with low emittance and energy spread. In this paper, we apply our self-consistent, parallel solver to study the microbunching instability in the first bunch compressor system of FERMI{at}Elettra. Our basic model is a 2D Vlasov-Maxwell system. We treat the beam evolution through a bunch compressor using our Monte Carlo mean field approximation. We randomly generate N points from an initial phase space density. We then calculate the charge density using a smooth density estimation procedure, from statistics, based on Fourier series. The electric and magnetic fields are calculated from the smooth charge/current density using a novel field formula that avoids singularities by using the retarded time as a variable of integration. The points are then moved forward in small time steps using the beam frame equations of motion, with the fields frozen during a time step, and a new charge density is determined using our density estimation procedure. We try to choose N large enough so that the charge density …

This is the first report of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope observations of the quasar 3C 454.3, which has been undergoing pronounced long-term outbursts since 2000. The data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT), covering 2008 July 7-October 6, indicate strong, highly variable {gamma}-ray emission with an average flux of {approx} 3 x 10{sup -6} photons cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}, for energies > 100 MeV. The {gamma}-ray flux is variable, with strong, distinct, symmetrically-shaped flares for which the flux increases by a factor of several on a time scale of about three days. This variability indicates a compact emission region, and the requirement that the source is optically thin to pair-production implies relativistic beaming with Doppler factor {delta} > 8, consistent with the values inferred from VLBI observations of superluminal expansion ({delta} {approx} 25). The observed {gamma}-ray spectrum is not consistent with a simple power-law, but instead steepens strongly above {approx} 2 GeV, and is well described by a broken power-law with photon indices of {approx} 2.3 and {approx} 3.5 below and above the break, respectively. This is the first direct observation of a break in the spectrum of a high luminosity blazar above 100 MeV, and it is likely direct …

The Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model is used to estimate the value an Oakland nursing home, a Riverside high school, and a Sunnyvale data center would need to put on higher electricity service reliability for them to adopt a Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions Microgrid (CM) based on economics alone. A fraction of each building's load is deemed critical based on its mission, and the added cost of CM capability to meet it added to on-site generation options. The three sites are analyzed with various resources available as microgrid components. Results show that the value placed on higher reliability often does not have to be significant for CM to appear attractive, about 25 $/kWcdota and up, but the carbon footprint consequences are mixed because storage is often used to shift cheaper off-peak electricity to use during afternoon hours in competition with the solar sources.

In this report, the PI summarizes the results and achievements obtained in the sponsored project. Overall, the project has been very successful and produced both research results in massive data-intensive computing and data management for large scale supercomputers today, and in open-source software products. During the project period, 14 conference/journal publications, as well as two PhD students, have been produced due to exclusive or shared support from this award. In addition, the PI has recently been granted tenure from NC State University.

A package sent to the Bureau of Land Management containing a property description, a notice of intent to relinquish, aerial photos, and engineering drawings

Cell-based fluorescence imaging assays have the potential to generate massive amount of data, which requires detailed quantitative analysis. Often, as a result of fixation, labeled nuclei overlap and create a clump of cells. However, it is important to quantify phenotypic read out on a cell-by-cell basis. In this paper, we propose a novel method for decomposing clumps of nuclei using high-level geometric constraints that are derived from low-level features of maximum curvature computed along the contour of each clump. Points of maximum curvature are used as vertices for Delaunay triangulation (DT), which provides a setof edge hypotheses for decomposing a clump of nuclei. Each hypothesis is subsequently tested against a constraint satisfaction network for a near optimum decomposition. The proposed method is compared with other traditional techniques such as the watershed method with/without markers. The experimental results show that our approach can overcome the deficiencies of the traditional methods and is very effective in separating severely touching nuclei.

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Tunneling electrons in a scanning tunneling microscope were used to excite specific vibrational quantum states of adsorbed water and hydroxyl molecules on a Ru(0 0 0 1) surface. The excited molecules relaxed by transfer of energy to lower energy modes, resulting in diffusion, dissociation, desorption, and surface-tip transfer processes. Diffusion of H{sub 2}O molecules could be induced by excitation of the O-H stretch vibration mode at 445 meV. Isolated molecules required excitation of one single quantum while molecules bonded to a C atom required at least two quanta. Dissociation of single H{sub 2}O molecules into H and OH required electron energies of 1 eV or higher while dissociation of OH required at least 2 eV electrons. In contrast, water molecules forming part of a cluster could be dissociated with electron energies of 0.5 eV.

Using a streak camera, we measured the longitudinal profiles of a positron bunch in the Low Energy Ring (LER) of KEKB at various currents. The measured charge densities were used to construct a simple Q=1 broadband impedance model. The model, with three parameters, not only gave an excellent description of longitudinal dynamics for positive momentum compaction factor but also for the negative ones, including bunch shortening below a threshold and bursting modes above the threshold. Furthermore, our study indicated that the threshold of microwave instability was about 0.5 mA in bunch current in the LER. At the nominal operating current 1.0 mA, there was a 20% increase of the energy spread. The results of measurement, analysis, and simulations will be presented in this paper.

We show that the ability to probe primordial non-Gaussianity with cluster counts is drastically improved by adding the excess variance of counts which contains information on the clustering. The conflicting dependences of changing the mass threshold and including primordial non-Gaussianity on the mass function and biasing indicate that the self-calibrated cluster counts well break the degeneracy between primordial non-Gaussianity and the observable-mass relation. Based on the Fisher matrix analysis, we show that the count variance improves constraints on f{sub NL} by more than an order of magnitude. It exhibits little degeneracy with dark energy equation of state. We forecast that upcoming Hyper Suprime-cam cluster surveys and Dark Energy Survey will constrain primordial non-Gaussianity at the level {sigma}(f{sub NL}) {approx} 8, which is competitive with forecasted constraints from next-generation cosmic microwave background experiments.

SLAC is developing a 10 MW, 5 Hz, 1.6 ms, L-band (1.3 GHz) Sheet-Beam Klystron as a less expensive and more compact alternative to the ILC baseline Multiple-Beam Klystron. The Klystron is intended as a plug-compatible device of the same beam current and operating voltage as existing Multiple-Beam Klystrons. At this time, a beam tester has been constructed and currently is in test. The beam tester includes an intercepting cup for making beam quality measurements of the 130 A, 40-to-1 aspect ratio beam. Measurements will be made of the electrostatic beam and of the beam after transporting through a drift tube and magnetic focusing system. General theory of operation, design trade-offs, and manufacturing considerations of both the beam tester and klystron will be discussed.

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following five sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) field campaigns, (3) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (4) proposed future instrumentation, and (5) Small Business Innovation Research instrument development.

FACET is a proposed facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It will provide high energy, tightly focused and compressed electron and positron bunches for beam driven plasma wakefield acceleration research and other experiments. FACET will be built in the SLAC linac sector 20, where it will be separated from the LCLS located immediately downstream and will take advantage of the upstream 2 km linac for up to 23 GeV beam acceleration. FACET will also include an upgrade to linac sector 10, where a new e+ compressor chicane will be installed. The sector 20 will contain a new optics consisting of two chicanes for e+ and ebunch length compression, a final focus and an experimental line with a dump. The e+ and e- chicanes will allow the transport of e+ and ebunches together, their compression and proper positioning of e+ witness bunch behind the e- drive bunch at the plasma Interaction Point. The new optics will mostly use the existing SLAC magnets to minimize the project cost. Details of the FACET optics design and results of particle tracking simulations are presented.

We study the dynamics of a chiral SU(2) gauge theory with a Weyl fermion in the I = 3/2 representation and of its supersymmetric generalization. In the former, we find a new and exotic mechanism of confinement, induced by topological excitations that we refer to as magnetic quintets. The supersymmetric version was examined earlier in the context of dynamical supersymmetry breaking by Intriligator, Seiberg, and Shenker, who showed that if this gauge theory confines at the origin of moduli space, one may break supersymmetry by adding a tree level superpotential. We examine the dynamics by deforming the theory on S{sup 1} x R{sup 3}, and show that the infrared behavior of this theory is an interacting CFT at small S{sup 1}. We argue that this continues to hold at large S{sup 1}, and if so, that supersymmetry must remain unbroken. Our methods also provide the microscopic origin of various superpotentials in SQCD on S{sup 1} x R{sup 3}--which were previously obtained by using symmetry and holomorphy--and resolve a long standing interpretational puzzle concerning a flux operator discovered by Affleck, Harvey, and Witten. It is generated by a topological excitation, a 'magnetic bion', whose stability is due to fermion pair exchange …

This paper will report on the test results of a prototype 1320 watt power module for a high availability power supply. The module will allow parallel operation for N+1 redundancy with hot swap capability. The two quadrant output of each module allows pairs of modules to provide a 4 quadrant (bipolar) operation. Each module employs a novel 4 FET buck regulator arranged in a bridge configuration. Each side of the bridge alternately conducts through a small saturable ferrite that limits the reverse current in the FET body diode during turn off. This allows hard switching of the FETs with low switching losses. The module is designed with over-rated components to provide high reliability and better then 97% efficiency at full load. The modules use a Microchip DSP for control, monitoring, and fault detection. The switching FETS are driven by PWM modules in the DSP at 60 KHz. A Dual CAN bus interface provides for low cost redundant control paths. The DSP will also provide current sharing between modules, synchronized switching, and soft start up for hot swapping. The input and output of each module have low resistance FETs to allow hot swapping and isolation of faulted units.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is developing a next generation H-bridge switch plate [1], a critical component of the SNS High Voltage Converter Modulator [2]. As part of that effort, a new IGBT gate driver has been developed. The drivers are an integral part of the switch plate, which are essential to ensuring fault-tolerant, high-performance operation of the modulator. The redesigned driver improves upon the existing gate drive in several ways. The new gate driver has improved fault detection and suppression capabilities; suppression of shoot-through and over-voltage conditions, monitoring of dI/dt and Vce(sat) for fast over-current detection and suppression, and redundant power isolation are some of the added features. In addition, triggering insertion delay is reduced by a factor of four compared to the existing driver. This paper details the design and performance of the new IGBT gate driver. A simplified schematic and description of the construction are included. The operation of the fast over-current detection circuits, active IGBT over-voltage protection circuit, shoot-through prevention circuitry, and control power isolation breakdown detection circuit are discussed.