54041161
An optical readout TPC (O-TPC) for studies in nuclear astrophysics with gamma-ray beams at HIγS1
We report on the construction, tests, calibrations and commissioning of an Optical Readout Time Projection Chamber (O-TPC) detector operating with a CO2(80%) + N2(20%) gas mixture at 100 and 150 Torr. It was designed to measure the cross sections of several key nuclear reactions involved in stellar evolution. In particular, a study of the rate of formation of oxygen and carbon during the process of helium burning will be performed by exposing the chamber gas to intense nearly mono-energetic gamma-ray beams at the High Intensity Gamma Source (HI?S) facility. The O-TPC has a sensitive target-drift volume of 30x30x21 cm3. Ionization electrons drift towards a double parallel-grid avalanche multiplier, yielding charge multiplication and light emission. Avalanche-induced photons from N2 emission are collected, intensified and recorded with a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera, providing two-dimensional track images. The event's time projection (third coordinate) and the deposited energy are recorded by photomultipliers and by the TPC charge-signal, respectively. A dedicated VME-based data acquisition system and associated data analysis tools were developed to record and analyze these data. The O-TPC has been tested and calibrated with 3.183 MeV alpha-particles emitted by a 148Gd source placed within its volume with a measured energy resolution of 3.0%. Tracks of alpha and 12C particles from the dissociation of 16O and of three alpha-particles from the dissociation of 12C have been measured during initial in-beam test experiments performed at the HI?S facility at Duke University. The full detection system and its performance are described and the results of the preliminary in-beam test experiments are reported.
117580235
A precision measurement of the lithium-7(d, p) lithium-8 reaction cross section
120732499
Effects of non-minimal gauge kinetic terms in supergravity models
We analyse numerically the effects on sin2θw and the unification scale of the presence of non-minimal gauge kinetic terms in supergravity models, and we comment on their implications for direct gaugino masses.
1977978
Flat direction condensate instabilities in the MSSM
Coherently oscillating scalar condensates formed along flat directions of the MSSM scalar potential are unstable with respect to spatial perturbations if the potential is flatter than φ2, resulting in the formation of non-topological solitons such as Q-balls. Using the renormalization group we calculate the corrections to the φ2 potential for a range of flat directions and show that unstable condensates are a generic feature of the MSSM. Exceptions arise for an experimentally testable range of stop and gluino masses when there are large admixtures of stops in the flat direction scalar.
124354849
Dynamics of nuclear fluid. III. General considerations on the kinetic theory of quantum fluids
From the quantum kinetic equation of Bogoliubov, Gurov, Born, and Green, the equations of motion for macroscopic variables are examined in many different ways. First, in the configuration space a hierarchy of generalized fluid-dynamical equations can be obtained by taking the appropriate limits of the quantum kinetic equation. The resultant equations of continuity, of momentum, and of energy are similar in form to those one encounters in classical fluid dynamics with the exception of additional terms proportional to h/sup 2/. Secondly, the quantum kinetic equation is examined in phase space. The same set of equations of continuity, of momentum, and of energy can be derived by taking the first three moments of the quantum kinetic equation. The exact results we obtained are utilized to form the starting point for many simplifying approximations for the investigation of the dynamics of quantum many-body systems such as the elastic response limit, the hydrodynamical limit, Landau's Fermi-liquid theory, and finally the time-dependent Hartree-Fock and the multideterminant time-dependent Hartree-Fock approximations. The fact that all these different dynamical descriptions can be traced to a common origin provides a unifying viewpoint to the present approach with the quantum kinetic equation.
118737108
Search for single top production with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider
We attempt to identify a single top signal in the muon + jets data collected using the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron at a center-of-mass energy of {radical}s = 1.8 TeV from 1992-96. The data corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 103.7 pb{sup -1}. While resolving a signal has proved impossible, we are able to place an upper limit on the production cross section for single top events using these data. The cross section for production of single top via 95% p{bar p} {yields} tb and p{bar p} {yields} qtb is less than 78 pb at the 95% confidence level based on muon + jets data only.
15812806
Unparticles: Interpretation and Cosmology.
We discuss the physical interpretation of unparticles and review the constraints from cosmology. Unparticles may be understood in terms of confined states of a strongly-coupled scale-invariant theory, where scale-invariance implies that the confined states have continuous masses. This picture is consistent with the observation that unparticle operators can be represented in terms of continuous mass fields. Finite results in scattering processes are obtained by compensating the infinite number of unparticle final states with an infinitesimal coupling per unparticle. As a result, unparticles are stable with respect to decay or annihilation to Standard Model particles, implying a one-way flow of energy from the Standard Model sector to the unparticle sector. The qualitative properties of unparticles, which result from their continuous mass nature, are unchanged in the case where scale-invariance is broken by a mass gap. Unparticles with a mass gap can evade constraints from astrophysical and 5th force considerations, in which case cosmology provides the strongest constraints.