In order to study the molecular structure and dynamics of liquid water with soft x-ray probes, samples with nanoscale dimensions are needed. This paper describes a simple method for preparing nanofluidic water cells. The idea is to confine a thin layer of water between two silicon nitride windows. The windows are 1 mm x 1 mm and 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm in size and have a thickness of 150 nm. The thickness of the water layer was measured experimentally by probing the infrared spectrum of water in the cells with a Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) apparatus and from soft x-ray static measurements at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Water layers ranging from 10 nm to more than 2 {micro}m were observed. Evidence for changes in the water structure compared to bulk water is observed in the ultrathin cells.

Large format (1k x 1k and 2k x 2k) near infrared detectors manufactured by Rockwell Scientific Center and Raytheon Vision Systems are characterized as part of the near infrared R&D effort for SNAP (the Super-Nova/Acceleration Probe). These are hybridized HgCdTe focal plane arrays with a sharp high wavelength cut-off at 1.7 um. This cut-off provides a sufficiently deep reach in redshift while it allows at the same time low dark current operation of the passively cooled detectors at 140 K. Here the baseline SNAP near infrared system is briefly described and the science driven requirements for the near infrared detectors are summarized. A few results obtained during the testing of engineering grade near infrared devices procured for the SNAP project are highlighted. In particular some recent measurements that target correlated noise between adjacent detector pixels due to capacitive coupling and the response uniformity within individual detector pixels are discussed.

Several technological options have been proposed to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of CO{sub 2}. One proposed remedy is to separate and capture CO{sub 2} from fossil-fuel power plants and other stationary industrial sources and to inject the CO{sub 2} into deep subsurface formations for long-term storage and sequestration. Characterization of geologic formations for sequestration of large quantities of CO{sub 2} needs to be carefully considered to ensure that sites are suitable for long-term storage and that there will be no adverse impacts to human health or the environment. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (Final Draft, October 2005) states that ''Site characterization, selection and performance prediction are crucial for successful geological storage. Before selecting a site, the geological setting must be characterized to determine if the overlying cap rock will provide an effective seal, if there is a sufficiently voluminous and permeable storage formation, and whether any abandoned or active wells will compromise the integrity of the seal. Moreover, the availability of good site characterization data is critical for the reliability of models''. This International Symposium on Site Characterization for CO{sub 2} Geological Storage (CO2SC) addresses the particular issue of site characterization …

We discuss nuclear data resources of the National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) of relevance to nuclear astrophysics applications. These resources include databases, tools and powerful web service at www.nndc.bnl.gov. Our objective is to provide an overview of nuclear databases, related products and demonstrate nuclear astrophysics potential of the ENDF/B-VII beta2 library. A detailed discussion on the Maxwellian neutron capture cross sections obtained from the ENDF/B-VII beta2 library is presented.

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology (http://bioontology.org) is a consortium that comprises leading informaticians, biologists, clinicians, and ontologists funded by the NIH Roadmap to develop innovative technology and methods that allow scientists to record, manage, and disseminate biomedical information and knowledge in machine-processable form. The goals of the Center are: (1) to help unify the divergent and isolated efforts in ontology development by promoting high quality open-source, standards-based tools to create, manage, and use ontologies, (2) to create new software tools so that scientists can use ontologies to annotate and analyze biomedical data, (3) to provide a national resource for the ongoing evaluation, integration, and evolution of biomedical ontologies and associated tools and theories in the context of driving biomedical projects (DBPs), and (4) to disseminate the tools and resources of the Center and to identify, evaluate, and communicate best practices of ontology development to the biomedical community. The Center is working toward these objectives by providing tools to develop ontologies and to annotate experimental data, and by developing resources to integrate and relate existing ontologies as well as by creating repositories of biomedical data that are annotated using those ontologies. The Center is providing training workshops in ontology design, …

We present the results of a study of the performance of InGaAs detectors conducted for the SuperNova Acceleration Probe (SNAP) dark energy mission concept. Low temperature data from a nominal 1.7um cut-off wavelength 1kx1k InGaAs photodiode array, hybridized to a Rockwell H1RG multiplexer suggest that InGaAs detector performance is comparable to those of existing 1.7um cut-off HgCdTe arrays. Advances in 1.7um HgCdTe dark current and noise initiated by the SNAP detector research and development program makes it the baseline detector technology for SNAP. However, the results presented herein suggest that existing InGaAs technology is a suitable alternative for other future astronomy applications.

In the beam pipe of the positron damping ring of the International Linear Collider (ILC), an electron cloud may be first produced by photoelectrons and ionization of residual gases and then increased by the secondary emission process. This paper reports the assessment of electron cloud effects in a number of configuration options for the ILC baseline configuration. Careful estimates were made of the secondary electron yield threshold for electron cloud build-up, and the related single- and coupled-bunch instabilities, as a function of beam current and surface properties for a variety of optics designs. When the configuration for the ILC damping rings was chosen at the end of 2005, the results from these studies were important considerations. On the basis of the theoretical and experimental work, the baseline configuration currently specifies a pair of 6 km damping rings for the positron beam, to mitigate the effects of the electron cloud that could present difficulties in a single 6 km ring.

We report a measurement of the B {yields} {pi}{ell}{nu} branching fraction based on 211 fb{sup -1} of data collected with the BABAR detector. We use samples of B{sup 0} and B{sup +} mesons tagged by a second B meson reconstructed in a semileptonic or hadronic decay, and combine the results assuming isospin symmetry to obtain {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup -}{ell}{sup +}{nu}) = (1.33 {+-} 0.17{sub stat} {+-} 0.11{sub syst}) x 10{sup -4}. We determine the magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |V{sub ub}| by combining the partial branching fractions measured in ranges of the momentum transfer squared and theoretical calculations of the form factor. Using a recent lattice QCD calculation, we find |{sub ub}| = (4.5 {+-} 0.5{sub stat} {+-} 0.3{sub syst} {sub -0.5}{sup +0.7}FF) x 10{sup -3}, where the last error is due to the normalization of the form factor.

The ASTM standard B 265 provides the requirements for the chemical composition of titanium (Ti) alloys. It is planned to use corrosion resistant and high strength titanium alloys to fabricate the drip shield at the proposed Yucca Mountain Repository. Titanium grade (Gr) 7 (R52400) and other Ti alloys are currently being characterized for this application. Ti Gr 7 contains 0.15% Palladium (Pd) to increase its corrosion performance. In this article we report results on the comparative short term corrosion behavior of Ti Gr 7 and a Ruthenium (Ru) containing alloy (Ti Gr 33). Ti Gr 33 also contains a small amount of Pd. Limited electrochemical testing such as polarization resistance and cyclic potentiodynamic curves showed that both alloys have a similar corrosion behavior in the tested environments.

It is important to have symplectic maps for the various electromagnetic elements in an accelerator ring. For some tracking problems we must consider elements which evolve during a ramp. Rather than performing a computationally intensive numerical integration for every turn, it should be possible to integrate the trajectory for a few sets of parameters, and then interpolate the transport map as a function of one or more parameters, such as energy. We present two methods for interpolation of symplectic matrices as a function of parameters: one method is based on the calculation of a representation in terms of a basis of group generators [2, 3] and the other is based on the related but simpler symplectification method of Healy [1]. Both algorithms guarantee a symplectic result.

The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at BNL was commissioned in October 2002 and the facility became operational in July 2003. NSRL was constructed in collaboration with NASA for the purpose of performing radiation effect studies for the NASA space program. NSRL can accept a wide variety of ions from BNL's AGS Booster; these are slow extracted with kinetic energies ranging from 0.3 to 3 GeV/n. Fast extraction from Booster to NSRL has also been developed and used. Many different beam conditions have been produced for experiments at NSRL, including very low intensity. In this report we will describe the facility and its performance over the eight experimental run periods that have taken place since it became operational. We will also describe the current and future capabilities of the NSRL.

Advantages afforded by the development of new directional neutron detectors and imagers are discussed. Thermal neutrons have mean free paths in air of about 20 meters, and can be effectively imaged using coded apertures. Fission spectrum neutrons have ranges greater than 100 meters, and carry enough energy to scatter at least twice in multilayer detectors which can yield both directional and spectral information. Such strategies allow better discrimination between a localized spontaneous fission source and the low, but fluctuating, level of background neutrons generated by cosmic rays. A coded aperture thermal neutron imager will be discussed as well as a proton-recoil double-scatter fast-neutron directional detector with time-of-flight energy discrimination.

Since 2000 RHIC has collided, at 8 energies, 4 combinations of ion species, ranging from gold ions to polarized protons, and including the collisions of deuterons with gold ions. During that time the heavy ion and polarized proton peak luminosities increased by two orders and one order of magnitude respectively. The average proton polarization in store reached 65%. Planned upgrades include the evolution to the Enhanced Design parameters by about 2008, the construction of an Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) by 2009, the installation of electron cooling for RHIC II, and the implementation of the electron-ion collider eRHIC. We review the current performance, and the expected performance with these upgrades.

Electron cooling [1] entered a new era with the July 2005 cooling of the Tevatron recycler ring [2] at Fermilab, using {gamma} = 9.5. Considering that the cooling rate decreases as faster than {gamma}{sup 2} and the electron energy forces higher electron currents, new acceleration techniques, high-energy electron cooling presents special challenges to the accelerator scientists and engineers. For example, electron cooling of RHIC at collisions requires electron beam energy up to about 54 MeV at an average current of between 50 to 100 mA and a particularly bright electron beam. The accelerator chosen to generate this electron beam is a superconducting Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) with a superconducting RF gun with a laser-photocathode.

Recent beam experiments at BNL's AGS Booster have enabled us to study in more detail the effects of eddy currents on the lattice structure and our control over the betatron tune. The Booster is capable of operating at ramp rates as high as 9 T/sec. At these ramp rates eddy currents in the vacuum chambers significantly alter the fields and gradients seen by the beam as it is accelerated. The Booster was designed with these effects in mind and to help control the field uniformity and linearity in the Booster Dipoles special vacuum chambers were designed with current windings to negate the affect of the induced eddy currents. In this report results from betatron tune measurements and eddy current simulations will be presented. We will then present results from modeling the accelerator using the results of the magnetic field simulations and compare these to the measurements.

We describe the design, fabrication, analysis and preliminary testing of the prototype 201 MHz copper cavity for a muon ionization cooling channel. Cavity applications include the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) as well as cooling channels for a neutrino factory or a muon collider. This cavity was developed by the US muon cooling (MUCOOL) collaboration and is being tested in the MUCOOL Test Area (MTA) at Fermilab. To achieve a high accelerating gradient, the cavity beam irises are terminated by a pair of curved, thin beryllium windows. Several fabrication methods developed for the cavity and windows are novel and offer significant cost savings as compared to conventional construction methods. The cavity's thermal and structural performances are simulated with an FEA model. Preliminary high power RF commissioning results will be presented.

We discuss criteria for designing an optimal ''green field'' proton driver for a neutrino factory. The driver parameters are determined by considerations of space charge, power capabilities of the target, beam loading and available RF peak power.

Precision near infrared (NIR) measurements are essential for the next generation of ground and space based instruments. The SuperNova Acceleration Probe (SNAP) will measure thousands of type Ia supernovae upto a redshift of 1.7. The highest redshift supernovae provide the most leverage for determining cosmological parameters, in particular the dark energy equation of state and its possible time evolution. Accurate NIR observations are needed to utilize the full potential of the highest redshift supernovae. Technological improvements in NIR detector fabrication have lead to high quantum efficiency, low noise detectors using a HgCdTe diode with a band-gap that is tuned to cutoff at 1:7 1m. The effects of detector quantum efficiency, read noise, and dark current on lightcurve signal to noise, lightcurve parameter errors, and distance modulus ?ts are simulated in the SNAP sim framework. Results show that improving quantum efficiency leads to the largest gains in photometric accuracy for type Ia supernovae. High quantum efficiency in the NIR reduces statistical errors and helps control systematic uncertainties at the levels necessary to achieve the primary SNAP science goals.

At large distances the electromagnetic field of a wire is the same as the field produced by a bunch. Such a long-range beam-beam wire compensator was proposed for the LHC, and single beam tests with wire compensators were successfully done in the SPS. RHIC offers the possibility to test the compensation scheme with colliding beams. We report on measurements of beam losses as a function of transverse separation in RHIC at 100 GeV, and comparisons with simulations. We present a design for a long-range wire compensator in RHIC.

The authors present a measurement of the branching fraction and time-dependent CP asymmetry of B{sup 0} {yields} {rho}{sup 0}K{sup 0}. The results are obtained from a data sample of 227 x 10{sup 6} {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. From a time-dependent maximum likelihood fit yielding 111 {+-} 19 signal events they find {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {rho}{sup 0}K{sup 0}) = (4.9 {+-} 0.8 {+-} 0.9) x 10{sup -6}, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. They report the measurement of the CP parameters S{sub {rho}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0}} = 0.20 {+-} 0.52 {+-} 0.24 and C{sub {rho}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0}} = 0.64 {+-} 0.41 {+-} 0.20.

The River Protection Project (RPP), which is managed by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection (ORP), is highly complex from technical, regulatory, legal, political, and logistical perspectives and is the largest ongoing environmental cleanup project in the world. Over the past three years, ORP has made significant advances in its planning and execution of the cleanup of the Hartford tank wastes. The 149 single-shell tanks (SSTs), 28 double-shell tanks (DSTs), and 60 miscellaneous underground storage tanks (MUSTs) at Hanford contain approximately 200,000 m{sup 3} (53 million gallons) of mixed radioactive wastes, some of which dates back to the first days of the Manhattan Project. The plan for treating and disposing of the waste stored in large underground tanks is to: (1) retrieve the waste, (2) treat the waste to separate it into high-level (sludge) and low-activity (supernatant) fractions, (3) remove key radionuclides (e.g., Cs-137, Sr-90, actinides) from the low-activity fraction to the maximum extent technically and economically practical, (4) immobilize both the high-level and low-activity waste fractions by vitrification, (5) interim store the high-level waste fraction for ultimate disposal off-site at the federal HLW repository, (6) dispose the low-activity fraction on-site in the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF), …

Heavy nonspherical ions such as uranium have been proposed for collisions in RHIC[1]. When two such ions collide with their long axes aligned parallel to the beams (large helicities), then the plasma density might be as much as 60% higher. Since the collisions might have any orientation of the two nuclei, the alignment of the nuclei must be inferred from a complicated unfolding of multiplicity distributions. Instead, if it would be possible to polarize the ions and control the orientation in RHIC, then a much better sensitivity might be obtained. This paper investigates the manipulation of such polarized ions with highly distorted shapes in RHIC. A number of ion species are considered as possibilities with either full or partial Siberian snakes in RHIC.

The Sivers mechanism for the single-spin asymmetry in unpolarized lepton scattering from a transversely polarized nucleon is driven by the orbital angular momentum carried by its quark and gluon constituents, combined with QCD final-state interactions. Both quark and gluon mechanisms can generate such a single-spin asymmetry, though only the quark mechanism can explain the small single-spin asymmetry measured by the COMPASS collaboration on the deuteron, suggesting the gluon mechanism is small relative to the quark mechanism. We detail empirical studies through which the gluon and quark orbital angular momentum contributions, quark-flavor by quark-flavor, can be elucidated.

Low emittance of not-fully-stripped gold (Z=79) Au{sup +77} Helium-like ion beams from the AGS (Alternating Gradient Synchrotron) injector to the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) could be attributed to the cooling phenomenon due to inelastic intrabeam scattering [1,2] or due to electron de-excitations from collisions with the residual gas [3]. The low emittance gold beams have always been observed at injection in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). There have been previous attempts to attribute the low emittance to a cooling due to the exchange of energy between ions during the inelastic intrabeam scattering. The Fano-Lichten theory [4] of electron promotion might be applied during inelastic collisions between helium like gold ions in the AGS. The two K-shell electrons in gold Au{sup +77} could get promoted if the ions reach the critical distance of the closest approach during intra-beam scattering or collisions with the residual gas. During collisions if the ion energy is large enough, a quasi-molecule could be formed, and electron excitation could occur. During de-excitations of electrons, photons are emitted and a loss of total bunch energy could occur. This would lead to smaller beam size. We propose to inject gold ions with two missing electrons into RHIC, …