A large diameter precision air bearing rotary table with a 16.0 inch diameter through-hole was designed, fabricated and tested in the course of this research. The rotary table will be used in conjunction with a specialized, computer controlled precision inspection machine being designed for the Department of Energy`s (DOE) Nuclear Weapons Complex (NWC). The design process included a complete engineering analysis to predict the final performance of the rotary table, and to ensure that the rotary table meets the required accuracy of 4.0 microinches of total radial (3.5 microinches average radial) and 4.0 microinches total axial (3.5 microinches average axial) errors. The engineering analysis included structural deformation, thermal sensitivity and dynamic analyses using finite element methods in some cases, as well as other analytic solutions. Comparisons are made between predicted and tested values, which are listed in the rotary table error budget. The rotary table performed as predicted with measured axial and radial stiffnesses of 1.1E06 lbf/inch and 2.9E06 lbf/inch, respectively, as well as average radial, axial and tilt errors of 2.5 microinches, 1.5 microinches, and less than 0.05 arcseconds, respectively.

The FOCUS experiment is designed to investigate charm particle decays. These charm particles are produced by the interaction of a photon beam with an average energy of 175 GeV on a BeO target and travel an average of few millimeters before decaying in the spectrometer. By reconstructing the daughters from the decay, we can infer properties of the charm particles. Semileptonic decays have been used to measure many CKM matrix elements. These decays are interesting due to the simplicity of their theoretical description but they are experimentally challenging due to the fact that a neutrino is not detected. Analysis of semileptonic decays in the charm sector are of great interest because they provide an excellent environment to test and to calibrate theoretical calculation that can be implemented in the determination of poorly known matrix elements such as V{sub ub}. In this thesis we report an analysis of the decays D{sup 0} {yields} {pi}{sup -}{mu}{sup +}{nu} and D{sup 0} {yields} K{sup -} {mu}{sup +}{nu}. We measure the relative branching ratio as well as the ratio of the form factors f{sub +}{sup {pi}}(0)/f{sub +}{sup K}(0). Using a weighting technique, we further report a parametric analysis of the q{sup 2} dependence for both …

The discovery that ultra-intense laser pulses (I > 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}) can produce short pulse, high energy proton beams has renewed interest in the fundamental mechanisms that govern particle acceleration from laser-solid interactions. Experiments have shown that protons present as hydrocarbon contaminants on laser targets can be accelerated up to energies > 50 MeV. Different theoretical models that explain the observed results have been proposed. One model describes a front-surface acceleration mechanism based on the ponderomotive potential of the laser pulse. At high intensities (I > 10{sup 18} W/cm{sup 2}), the quiver energy of an electron oscillating in the electric field of the laser pulse exceeds the electron rest mass, requiring the consideration of relativistic effects. The relativistically correct ponderomotive potential is given by U{sub p} = ([1 + I{lambda}{sup 2}/1.3 x 10{sup 18}]{sup 1/2} - 1) m{sub o}c{sup 2}, where I{lambda}{sup 2} is the irradiance in W {micro}m{sup 2}/cm{sup 2} and m{sub o}c{sup 2} is the electron rest mass. At laser irradiance of I{lambda}{sup 2} {approx} 10{sup 20} W {micro}m{sup 2}/cm{sup 2}, the ponderomotive potential can be of order several MeV. A few recent experiments--discussed in Chapter 3 of this thesis--consider this ponderomotive potential sufficiently strong to accelerate …

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This thesis details the measurement of the p{bar p} {yields} W{gamma} + X {yields} {mu}{nu}{gamma} + X cross section at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using the D0 detector at Fermilab, in 134.5 pb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity. From the photon E{sub T} spectrum limits on anomalous couplings of the photon to the W are obtained. At 95% confidence level, limits of -1.05 < {Delta}{kappa} < 1.04 for {lambda} = 0 and -0.28 < {lambda} < 0.27 for {Delta}{kappa} = 0 are obtained on the anomalous coupling parameters. The charge signed rapidity difference from the data is displayed, and its significance discussed.

This thesis presents a search for physics beyond the standard model of elementary particles in events containing three or more charged leptons in the final state. The search is based on an R-parity violating supersymmetric model that assumes supersymmetric particles are pair produced at hadron colliders and the R-parity violating coupling is small enough so that these particles ''cascade'' decay into the lightest supersymmetric particle. The lightest supersymmetric particle may only decay into two charged leptons (electrons or muons) plus a neutrino through a lepton number violating interaction. Proton-antiproton collision events produced with {radical} s= 1.96 TeV are collected between March 2002 and August 2004 with an integrated luminosity of 346 pb{sup -1}. R-parity violating supersymmetry is sought for in two data samples, one with exactly three leptons and one with four or more leptons. The trilepton sample has a modest background primarily from Drell-Yan events where an additional lepton is a result of photon conversions or jet misidentification while the four or more lepton sample has an extremely low background. In the three lepton samples 6 events are observed while in the four or more lepton sample zero events are observed. These results are consistent with the standard model …

Rigorous calculations of cross sections and rate constants for elementary gas phase chemical reactions are performed for comparison with experiment, to ensure that our picture of the chemical reaction is complete. We focus on the H/D+H{sub 2} {yields} H{sub 2}/DH + H reaction, and use the time independent integral equation technique in quantum reactive scattering theory. We examine the sensitivity of H+H{sub 2} state resolved integral cross sections {sigma}{sub v{prime}j{prime},vj}(E) for the transitions (v = 0,j = 0) to (v{prime} = 1,j{prime} = 1,3), to the difference between the Liu-Siegbahn-Truhlar-Horowitz (LSTH) and double many body expansion (DMBE) ab initio potential energy surfaces (PES). This sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the origin of a large discrepancy between experimental cross sections with sharply peaked energy dependence and theoretical ones with smooth energy dependence. We find that the LSTH and DMBE PESs give virtually identical cross sections, which lends credence to the theoretical energy dependence.

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This thesis is an investigation of methods for processing multidimensional signals acquired using modern tomography systems that have an anisotropic or spatially variant response function. The main result of this research is the discovery of a new method to obtain better estimators of an unknown spatial intensity distribution by incorporating detailed knowledge about the tomograph system response function and statistical properties of the acquired signal into a mathematical model.

The electron microscope was used to study the biological processes involved in hydrocarbon production. The little desert shrub Guayule (Parthenium argentatum) was selected for study. This shrub can produce hydrocarbons (rubber) in concentrations up to 1/4 of its dry weight. It grows on semi-arid land and has been extensively studied. The potential of Guayule is described in detail. Results of an investigation into the morphology of Guayule at the electron microscope level are given. Experiments, which would allow the biosynthesis of hydrocarbon in Guayule to be followed, were designed. In order to do this, knowledge of the biochemistry of rubber formation was used to select a tracer, mevalonic acid. Mevalonic acid is the precursor of all the terpenoids, a large class of hydrocarbons which includes rubber. It was found that when high enough concentrations of mevalonic acid are administered to seedling Guayule plants, build-ups of metabolized products are found within the chloroplasts of the seedlings. Also, tritium labeled mevalonic acid was used as a precursor, and its metabolic progress was followed by using the technique of electron microscope autoradiography. The results of these experiments also implicated chloroplasts of the Guayule plant in hydrocarbon production. The final task was the development …

Designing an adaptive optics (AO) system for extremely large telescopes (ELT's) will present new optical engineering challenges. Several of these challenges are addressed in this work, including first-order design of multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) systems, pyramid wavefront sensors (PWFS's), and laser guide star (LGS) spot elongation. MCAO systems need to be designed in consideration of various constraints, including deformable mirror size and correction height. The y,{bar y} method of first-order optical design is a graphical technique that uses a plot with marginal and chief ray heights as coordinates; the optical system is represented as a segmented line. This method is shown to be a powerful tool in designing MCAO systems. From these analyses, important conclusions about configurations are derived. PWFS's, which offer an alternative to Shack-Hartmann (SH) wavefront sensors (WFS's), are envisioned as the workhorse of layer-oriented adaptive optics. Current approaches use a 4-faceted glass pyramid to create a WFS analogous to a quad-cell SH WFS. PWFS's and SH WFS's are compared and some newly-considered similarities and PWFS advantages are presented. Techniques to extend PWFS's are offered: First, PWFS's can be extended to more pixels in the image by tiling pyramids contiguously. Second, pyramids, which are difficult to manufacture, can …

The design of a crossed molecular beam ''supermachine'' for neutral-- neutral collisions is discussed. The universal electron bombardment ionizer, mass filter, and ion detection system of the detector, the supersonic nozzle sources, the differential pumping arrangement for the sources and detector, the time-of-flight detection of scattered products, and the overall configuration of the apparatus are described. The elastic scattering of two systems, CH$sub 4$ + Ar and NH$sub 3$ + Ar, has been measured using the supermachine with two supersonic nozzle sources. The rainbow structure and the interference oscillations are seen in each system. The best fit to the data was found using a Morse--Spline--Van der Waals (MSV) potential. The three potential parameters epsilon, r/sub m/, and $beta$ were found to be 2.20(+-0.04) x 10$sup -14$ ergs, 3.82(+-0.04)A, and 7.05 +- 0.20 for CH$sub 4$ + Ar, and 2.21(+-0.04) x 10$sup - 14$ ergs 3.93 (+-0.05)A, and 8.45 +- 0.30 for NH$sub 3$ + Ar. A new phenomenon in crossed molecular beams of condensation of a molecule on a cluster to form a complex was observed. A bromine molecule condensed on clusters of chlorine (Cl$sub 2$)/sub chi/ and ammonia (NH$sub 3$)/sub chi/. The value of chi for measurements in these …

The production cross section times decay branching ratio for W{sub +{gamma}} in the electron decay channel in {radical}s = 1.8 TeV {bar p}-p collisions has been measured using W {yields} e{gamma} data sample obtained from the CDF 1988--1989 Tevatron collider run. For photons in the central region ({vert_bar}{eta}{sub {gamma}}{vert_bar} < 1.1) of the CDF detector with transverse energies E{sub T}{sup {gamma}} 5.0 GeV and lepton-photon angular separation {Delta}R{sub {ell}}{gamma} > 0.7, eight electron W{sub {gamma}} candidates were observed. From these events, the production cross section times decay branching ratio for the electron sample was measured to be a {sigma} {center_dot} B(W{sub {gamma}}){sub exp} = 17.0{sub {minus}13.4}{sup +13.6}(stat. + syst.)pb. The W{sub {gamma}} cross section is sensitive to the anomalous couplings of the W boson. Using the W{sub {gamma}} cross section measurement, the absence of an excess of large E{sub T} photons accompanying the production of a W boson enables one to obtain direct limits on anomalous WW{sub {gamma}} couplings. The experimental limits on the anomalous couplings was measured to be {minus}7.2 < {Delta}{kappa} < +7.7 ({lambda} = 0) and {minus}3.5 < {lambda} < +3.4 ({Delta}{kappa} = 0) at 95% CL. These experimental limits impose contraints on possible internal structure of …

A radiofrequency-gain total power radiometer measured the intensity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at a frequency of 1.47 GHz (20.4 cm wavelength) from White Mountain, California, in September 1988 and from the South Pole, Antarctica, in December 1989. The CMB thermodynamic temperature, TCMB, is 2.27 {plus_minus} 0.25 K (68% C.L.) measured from White Mountain and 2.26 {plus_minus} 0.21 K from the South Pole site. The combined result is 2.27 {plus_minus} 0.19 K. The correction for galactic emission has been derived from scaled low-frequency maps and constitutes the main source, of error. The atmospheric signal is found by extrapolation from zenith scan measurements at higher frequencies. The result is consistent with previous low-frequency measurements, including a measurement at 1.41 GHz (Levin et al. 1988) made with an earlier version of this instrument. The result is {approximately}2.5 {sigma} ({approximately}l% probability) from the 2.74 {plus_minus} 0.02,K global average CMB temperature.

Reliable group ordered delivery of multicast messages in a distributed system is a useful service that simplifies the programming of distributed applications. Such a service helps to maintain the consistency of replicated information and to coordinate the activities of the various processes. With the increasing popularity of the Internet, there is an increasing interest in scaling the protocols that provide this service to the environment of the Internet. The InterGroup protocol suite, described in this dissertation, provides such a service, and is intended for the environment of the Internet with scalability to large numbers of nodes and high latency links. The InterGroup protocols approach the scalability problem from various directions. They redefine the meaning of group membership, allow voluntary membership changes, add a receiver-oriented selection of delivery guarantees that permits heterogeneity of the receiver set, and provide a scalable reliability service. The InterGroup system comprises several components, executing at various sites within the system. Each component provides part of the services necessary to implement a group communication system for the wide-area. The components can be categorized as: (1) control hierarchy, (2) reliable multicast, (3) message distribution and delivery, and (4) process group membership. We have implemented a prototype of the …

Direct detection of {sup 14}C by accelerator mass spectrometry has proved to be a much more sensitive method for radiocarbon dating than the decay counting method invented earlier by Libby. A small cyclotron (the cyclotrino'') was proposed for direct detection of radiocarbon in 1980. This combined the suppression of background through the use of negative ions, which had been used effectively in tandem accelerators, with the high intrinsic mass resolution of a cyclotron. Development of a small electrostatically-focused cyclotron for use as a mass spectrometer was previously reported but the sensitivity needed for detection of {sup 14}C at natural abundance was not achieved. The major contributions of this work are the integration of a high current external ion source with a small flat-field, electrostatically-focused cyclotron to comprise a system capable of measuring {sup 14}C at natural levels, and the analysis of ion motion in such a cyclotron, including a detailed analysis of phase bunching and its effect on mass resolution. A high current cesium sputter negative ion source generates a beam of carbon ions which is pre-separated with a Wien filter and is transported to the cyclotron via a series of electrostatic lenses. Beam is injected radially into the cyclotron …

High content of excess As is incorporated in GaAs grown by low-temperature molecular-beam-epitaxy (LTMBE). The excess As exists primarily as As antisite defects AsGa and a lesser extent of gallium vacancies V{sub Ga}. The neutral AsGa-related defects were measured by infrared absorption at 1{mu}m. Gallium vacancies, V{sub Ga}, was investigated by slow positron annihilation. Dependence of defect contents on doping was studied by Si and Be dopants. No free carriers are generated by n-type or p-type doping up to 10{sup 19} cm{sup {minus}3} Si or Be. Raman data indicate Be occupies Ga substitutional sites but Si atom is not substitutional. Si induces more As{sub Ga} in the layer. As As{sub Ga} increases, photoquenchable As{sub Ga} decreases. Fraction of photoquenchable defects correlates to defects within 3 nearest neighbor separations disrupting the metastability. Annealing reduces neutral As{sub Ga} content around 500C, similar to irradiation damaged and plastically deformed Ga{sub As}, as opposed to bulk grown GaAs in which As{sub Ga}-related defects are stable up to 1100C. The lower temperature defect removal is due to V{sub Ga} enhanced diffusion of As{sub Ga} to As precipitates. The supersaturated V{sub GA} and also decreases during annealing. Annealing kinetics for As{sub Ga}-related defects gives 2.0 {plus_minus} …

The goal of this work is to investigate the potential for and limitations of in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for quantitation of glucose flux through the pentose phosphate pathway (shunt). Interest in the shunt is motivated by the possibility that its activity may be greatly increased in cancer and in the pathological states of cardiac and cerebral ischemia. The ability to dynamically monitor flux through the pentose shunt can give new knowledge about metabolism in pathological states. {sup 13}C NMR spectroscopy was used to monitor shunt activity by determination of the ratios of [{sup 13}C-4] to [{sup 13}C-5]-glutamate, [{sup 13}C-3] to [{sup 13}C-2]-alanine or [{sup 13}C-3] to [{sup 13}C-2]-lactate produced when [{sup 13}C-2]-glucose is infused. These methods provide measures of the effect of oxidative stresses on shunt activity in systems ranging from cell free enzyme-substrate preparations to cell suspensions and whole animals. In anaerobic cell free preparations, the fraction of glucose flux through the shunt was monitored with a time resolution of 3 minutes. This work predicts the potential for in vivo human studies of pentose phosphate pathway activity based on the mathematical simulation of the {sup 13}C fractional enrichments of C4 and C5-glutamate as a function of …

The transition state region of a neutral bimolecular reaction may be experimentally investigated by photoelectron spectroscopy of an appropriate negative ion. The photoelectron spectrum provides information on the spectroscopy and dynamics of the short lived transition state and may be used to develop model potential energy surfaces that are semi-quantitative in this important region. The principles of bound {yields} bound negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy are illustrated by way of an example: a full analysis of the photoelectron bands of CN{sup {minus}}, NCO{sup {minus}} and NCS{sup {minus}}. Transition state photoelectron spectra are presented for the following systems Br + HI, Cl + HI, F + HI, F + CH{sub 3}0H,F + C{sub 2}H{sub 5}OH,F + OH and F + H{sub 2}. A time dependent framework for the simulation and interpretation of the bound {yields} free transition state photoelectron spectra is subsequently developed and applied to the hydrogen transfer reactions Br + HI, F + OH {yields} O({sup 3}P, {sup 1}D) + HF and F + H{sub 2}. The theoretical approach for the simulations is a fully quantum-mechanical wave packet propagation on a collinear model reaction potential surface. The connection between the wavepacket time evolution and the photoelectron spectrum is given by …

The electrochemistry of the heterobimetallic complexes (fulvalene)WFe(CO){sub 5} (30) and (fulvalene)WRu(CO){sub 5} (31) has been investigated. Compound 30 is reduced in two one-electron processes, and this behavior was exploited synthetically to prepare a tetranuclear dimer by selective metal reduction. Complex 31 displayed a distinction between the metals upon reoxidation of the dianion, allowing the formation of a dimer by selective metal anion oxidation. The redox behavior of 30 led to an investigation of the use of electrocatalysis to effect metal-specific ligand substitution. It was found that reduction of 30 with a catalytic amount of CpFe(C{sub 6}Me{sub 6}) (97) in the presence of excess P(OMe){sub 3} or PMe{sub 3} led to the formation of the zwitterions (fulvalene)[W(CO){sub 3}{sup {minus}}][Fe(CO)PR{sub 3}{sup +}] (107, R = P(OMe){sub 3}; 108, R = PMe{sub 3}). Compound 31 also displayed unique behavior with different reducing agents, as the monosubstituted zwitterion (fulvalene)[W(CO){sub 3}{sup {minus}}][Ru(CO){sub 2}(PMe{sub 3}){sup +}] was obtained when 97 was used while the disubstituted complex (fulvalene) [W(CO){sub 3}{sup {minus}}] [Ru(CO)(PMe{sub 3}){sub 2}{sup +}] was produced when Cp*Fe(C{sub 6}Me{sub 6}) was the catalyst. Potential synthetic routes to quatercyclopentadienyl complexes were also explored. Various attempts to couple heterobimetallic fulvalene compounds proved to be unsuccessful. 138 refs.

Stands of Ryegrass (Lolium perenne L. cv. Bastion) were grown in the field at ambient or elevated (600{mu}mol/mol) CO{sub 2} concentration, high (560Kg/ha) or low (140Kg/ha) nitrogen addition and with a frequent (every 4 weeks) or infrequent (every 8 weeks) cutting regime. Plants were in the second year of a 3 year experiment. Exposure to elevated CO{sub 2} was carried out with a Free-Air CO{sub 2} Enrichment (FACE) system which provides the most {open_quote}realistic{close_quote} system of CO{sub 2} fumigation currently available. Elevated CO{sub 2} increased diurnal CO{sub 2} assimilation by between 34 and 88% whilst reducing rates of stomatal conductance by between 1 and 42%. However, analysis of the A vs. Ci response showed considerable acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus in response to elevated CO{sub 2} - Vc{sub max} as an in vivo measure of RubisCO activity, decreased by between 29 and 35% in high CO{sub 2}, whilst J{sub max}, as a measure of the RubP regeneration capacity, showed no significant change. Two out of three additional perennial grassland species studied showed similar acclamatory behavior to Ryegrass. Diurnal assimilation rate, J{sub max} and, in most cases, Vc{sub max}, increased significantly directly after cutting of Ryegrass stands, but nitrogen treatment had …

We have carried out a search for a charmed baryon {Omega}{sup *}{sub c} decaying to {Omega}{sup 0}{sub c} and a {gamma} where {Omega}{sub c} candidates are reconstructed using decay modes {Omega}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}(c1), {Omega}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup 0}(c2), {Omega}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}(c3) and {Xi}{sup -}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +}(c4). This search is performed by analyzing integrated luminosity of 230.7 fb{sup -1} data collected by the BABAR detector at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In decay channel {Omega}{sup *}{sub c} {yields} {Omega}{sup 0}{sub c}({Omega}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}){gamma} (C1), we observe a signal yield of 39.2{sup +9.8}{sub -9.1}(stat){+-}6.0(syst) events with a significance of 4.2 standard deviations. In decay channels {Omega}{sup *}{sub c} {yields} {Omega}{sup 0}{sub c}({Omega}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup 0}){gamma} (C2) and {Omega}{sup *}{sub c} {yields} {Omega}{sup 0}{sub c}({Xi}{sup -}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +}){gamma} (C4), we observe signal yields of 55.2{sup 16.1}{sub -15.2} {+-} 5.6 and 20.2{sup +9.3}{sub -8.5} {+-} 3.1 with significances of 3.4 and 2.0 {sigma}, respectively. As for the {Omega}{sup *}{sub c} {yields} {Omega}{sup 0}{sub c}({Omega}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}){gamma} (C3) decay channel, we observe signal yields of -5.1{sup +5.3.8}{sub -4.7}{+-}1.0 without a positive significance. We assume the same production mechanism for the four decay channels of {Omega}{sup *}{sub c} studied. By combining …

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Organic semiconductors have evolved rapidly over the last decades and currently are considered as the next-generation technology for many applications, such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in flat-panel displays (FPDs) and solid state lighting (SSL), and organic solar cells (OSCs) in clean renewable energy. This dissertation focuses mainly on OLEDs. Although the commercialization of the OLED technology in FPDs is growing and appears to be just around the corner for SSL, there are still several key issues that need to be addressed: (1) the cost of OLEDs is very high, largely due to the costly current manufacturing process; (2) the efficiency of OLEDs needs to be improved. This is vital to the success of OLEDs in the FPD and SSL industries; (3) the lifetime of OLEDs, especially blue OLEDs, is the biggest technical challenge. All these issues raise the demand for new organic materials, new device structures, and continued lower-cost fabrication methods. In an attempt to address these issues, we used solution-processing methods to fabricate highly efficient small molecule OLEDs (SMOLEDs); this approach is costeffective in comparison to the more common thermal vacuum evaporation. We also successfully made efficient indium tin oxide (ITO)-free SMOLEDs to further improve the efficiency of …