109204818
Performance Limiting Effects in X‐Band Accelerators
Acceleration gradient is a critical parameter for the design of future TeV‐scale linear colliders. The major obstacle to higher gradient in room‐temperature accelerators is rf breakdown, which is still a very mysterious phenomenon that depends on the geometry and material of the accelerator as well as the input power and operating frequency. Pulsed heating has been associated with breakdown for many years however there have been no experiments that clearly separate field and heating effects on the breakdown rate. Recently, such experiments have been performed at SLAC with both standing‐wave and travelling‐wave structures. These experiments have demonstrated that pulsed heating is limiting the gradient. Also, a dual‐moded cavity has been designed to better distinguish the electric field, magnetic field and pulsed heating effects on breakdown.
111217789
Breakdown Characteristics Study on an 18 Cell X-band Structure
A CLIC designed 18 cells, low group velocity (2.4% to 1.0% c), X‐band (11.4 GHz) accelerator structure (denoted T18) was designed at CERN, its cells were built at KEK, and it was assembled and tested at SLAC. An interesting feature of this structure is that the gradient in the last cell is about 50% higher than that in the first cell. This structure has been RF conditioned at SLAC NLCTA for about 1400 hours where it incurred about 2200 breakdowns. This paper presents the characteristics of these breakdowns, including 1) the breakdown rate dependence on gradient, pulse width and conditioning time, 2) the breakdown distribution along the structure, 3) relation between breakdown and pulsed heating dependence study and 4) electric field decay time for breakdown changing over the whole conditioning time. Overall, this structure performed very well, having a final breakdown rate of less than 1e‐6/pulse/m at 106 MV/m with 230 ns pulse width.
109675274
A Dual-moded Cavity for RF Breakdown Studies
The phenomenon of rf breakdown presents a technological limitation in the application of high-gradient particle acceleration in normal conducting rf structures. Attempts to understand the onset of this phenomenon and to study its limits with different materials, cell shapes, and pulse widths has been driven in recent years by linear collider development. One question of interest is the role magnetic field plays relative to electric field. A design is presented for a single, nonaccelerating, rf cavity resonant in two modes, which, driven independently, allow the rf magnetic field to be increased on the region of highest electric field without affecting the latter. The design allows for the potential reuse of the cavity with different samples in the high-field region. High power data is not yet available.
119412310
Dark current related breakdown mechanism
High power tests of an 805 MHz pillbox cavity for the Muon Collider program have shown that the breakdown related damage increases and the sustainable gradient decreases with the application of a strong external magnetic field. To try to explain these results, a model of dark current associated breakdown was formulated and simulated with the Track3P code. The results show in general how the gradient could be reduced as function of magnetic field. This paper summarizes these studies to date.
14838430
Progress in L-Band Power Distribution System R&D at SLAC
We report on the L-band RF power distribution system (PDS) developed at SLAC for Fermilab's NML superconducting test accelerator facility. The makeup of the system, which allows tailoring of the power distribution to cavities by pairs, is briefly described. Cold test measurements of the system and the results of high power processing are presented. We also investigate the feasibility of eliminating the expensive, lossy circulators from the PDS by pair-feeding cavities through custom 3-dB hybrids. A computational model is used to simulate the impact on cavity field stability due to the reduced cavity-to-cavity isolation.
14831898
Processing and Breakdown Localization Rresults For an L-Band Standing-Wave Cavity
An L-band (1.3 GHz), normal-conducting, 5-cell, standing-wave cavity that was built as a prototype capture accelerator for the ILC is being high-power processed at SLAC. The goal is to demonstrate stable operation at 15 MV/m with 1 msec, 5 Hz pulses and the cavity immersed in a 0.5 Telsa solenoidal magnetic field. This paper summarizes the performance that was ultimately achieved and describes a novel analysis of the modal content of the stored energy in the cavity after a breakdown to determine on which iris it occurred.
122814293
Constraints on generalized Chaplygin gas model including gamma-ray bursts
Generalized Chaplygin gas (whose equation of state is p GCG = − A/ρ α G CG ) was proposed as a candidate for uni fi cation of dark energy and dark matter. We investigate constraints on this model with the latest observed data. We test the model with type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy, X-ray gas mass fractions in clusters, and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We calibrate the GRB luminosity relations without assuming any cosmological models using SNe Ia. We show that GRBs can extend the Hubble diagram to higher redshifts ( z > 6 ). The GRB Hubble diagram is well behaved and delineates the shape of the Hubble diagram well. We measure A s ≡ A /ρ α +1 GCG , 0 = 0 . 68 +0 . 04 − 0 . 08 (where ρ GCG , 0 is the energy density today) and α = − 0 . 22 +0 . 15 − 0 . 13 at the 1 σ con fi dence level using all the datasets. Our results rule out the standard Chaplygin gas model ( α = 1 ) at the 3 σ con fi dence level. The Λ CDM is allowed at the 2 σ con fi dence level. We fi nd that acceleration could have started at a redshift of z ∼ 0 . 70 . The concordance of the generalized Chaplygin gas model with the age estimate of an old high redshift quasar is found. In addition, we show that GRBs can break the degeneracy between the generalized Chaplygin gas model and the XCDM model.
17589853
AMiBA Observations, Data Analysis and Results for Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effects
We present observations, analysis and results for the first-year operation of AMiBA, an interferometric experiment designed to study cosmology via the measurement of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). AMiBA is the first CMB interferometer operating at 3 mm to have reported successful results, currently with seven close-packed antennas of 60-cm diameter giving a synthesized resolution of around 6'. During 2007 AMiBA detected the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects (SZE) of six galaxy clusters at redshift 0.091 <= z <= 0.322. An observing strategy with on-off-source switching is used to minimize the effects from electronic offset and ground pickup. Planets were used to test the observational capability of AMiBA and to calibrate the conversion from correlator time-lag data to visibilities. The detailed formalism for data analysis is given. We summarize our early tests including observations of planets and quasars, and present images, visibility profiles, the estimated central coordinates, sizes, and SZE amplitudes of the galaxy clusters. Science results are summarized. We also discuss possible systematic effects in the results.
111221941
ASTROD and ASTROD I: Progress Report
Over the next decade the gravitational physics community will benefit from dramatic improvements in many technologies critical to the tests of gravity and gravitational-wave detection. The highly accurate deep space navigation, interplanetary laser ranging and communication, interferometry and metrology, high precision frequency standards, precise pointing and attitude control, together with the drag-free technologies will revolutionize the field of the experimental gravitational physics. Deep-space laser ranging will be ideal for gravitational-wave detection, and testing relativity and measuring solar-system parameter to an unprecedented accuracy. ASTROD I is such a mission with single spacecraft; it is the first step of ASTROD (Astrodynamical Space Test of Relativity using Optical Devices) with 3 spacecraft. In this paper, we will present the progress of ASTROD and ASTROD I with emphases on the acceleration noises, mission requirement, charging simulation, drag-free control and low-frequency gravitational-wave sensitivity.
119293060
Gamma-ray spectra of hexane in gas phase and liquid phase
Theoretical gamma-ray spectra of molecule hexane have been calculated and compared with the experimental results in both gas (Surko et al, 1997) and liquid (Kerr et al, 1965) phases. The present study reveals that in gas phase not all valence electrons of hexane exhibit the same probability to annihilate a positron. Only the positrophilic electrons in the valence space dominate the gamma-ray spectra, which are in good agreement with the gas phase measurement. When hexane is confined in liquid phase, however, the intermolecular interactions ultimately eliminate the free molecular orientation and selectivity for the positrophilic electrons in the gas phase. As a result, the gamma-ray spectra of hexane become an averaged contribution from all valence electrons, which is again in agreement with liquid phase measurement. The roles of the positrophilic electrons in annihilation process for gas and liquid phases of hexane have been recognized for the first time in the present study.
119254658
Deviation from the Cosmological Constant or Systematic Errors
In the work of Qi, Wang & Lu, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are used together with an earlier Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) data set to constrain the dark energy equation of state (EOS) in a nearly model-independent way. The improvements made by including GRBs show a slight shift of the dark energy EOS toward w > -1 at redshifts z greater than or similar to 0.5. It is interesting that, when we have more SNe Ia, SNe Ia themselves also show the same trend. Motivated by the fact that both SNe Ia and GRBs seem to prefer a dark energy EOS greater than -1 at redshifts z greater than or similar to 0.5, we perform a careful investigation of this situation, including more careful treatments of measurement errors of GRBs and cross-checking the results by using different ways of including GRBs. We find that the deviation of dark energy from the cosmological constant at redshifts z greater than or similar to 0.5 is large enough that we should pay close attention to it with future observational data. Such a deviation may arise from some biasing systematic errors in the handling of SNe Ia and/or GRBs, or more interestingly from the nature of the dark energy itself.