Age spread in galactic star forming region W3 Main
We present near-infrared JHKs imaging as well as K-band multi-object spectroscopy of the massive stellar content of W3 Main using LUCI at the LBT. We confirm 13 OB stars by their absorption line spectra in W3 Main and spectral types between O5V and B4V have been found. Three massive Young Stellar Objects are identified by their emission line spectra and near-infrared excess. From our spectrophotometric analysis of the massive stars and the nature of their surrounding HII regions we derive the evolutionary sequence of W3 Main and we find an age spread of 2–3 Myr.

title: Crystallization in the Thin and Ultrathin Films of Poly(ethylene-vinyl acetate) and Linear Low-Density Polyethylene
abstract: The crystallization of poly(ethylene−vinyl acetate) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) films spun-cast from the polymer/toluene solutions with as-cast thickness from 460 to 10 nm was studied. The lamellar thickness was measured using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and found to increase from 14 to 21 nm for films thinner than 100 nm. The morphology of LLDPE measured by scanning probe microscopy (SPM) showed an edge-on lamellae for the films thicker than 30 nm and flat-on lamellae for the films thinner than 15 nm. A pseudo-“shish-kebab” tiny crystal structure was observed in between the larger lamellae. Crystallinity was confirmed using attenuated total reflectance−Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. The shear modulation force microscopy technique (SMFM) was used to measure the melting point, Tm, which was found to decrease for films thinner than 100 nm. The rate of decrease was a function of the annealing pr...

title: Clarification of the three-body decay of 12C (12.71 MeV).
abstract: Using beta decays of a clean source of 12N produced at the IGISOL facility, we have measured the breakup of the 12C (12.71 MeV) state into three alpha particles with a segmented particle detector setup. The high quality of the data permits solving the question of the breakup mechanism of the 12.71 MeV state, a longstanding problem in few-body nuclear physics. Among existing models, a modified sequential model fits the data best, but systematic deviations indicate that a three-body description is needed.

title: Experimental results of the betatron sum resonance
abstract: The experimental observations of motion near the betatron sum resonance, /spl nusub x/+2/spl nusub z/=13, are presented. A fast quadrupole (Panofsky-style ferrite picture-frame magnet with 8 pulsed power supplies) producing a betatron tune shift of the order of 0.03 at rise time of 1 /spl mu/s was used. This quadrupole was used to produce betatron tunes which jumped past and then crossed back through a betatron sum resonance line. The beam response as function of initial betatron amplitudes were recorded turn by turn. The correlated growth of the action variables, J/sub x/ and J/sub z/, was observed. The phase space plots in the resonance frame reveal the features of particle motion near the nonlinear sum resonance region.<<ETX>>

title: Dipole and spin-dipole resonances in charge-exchange reactions on 12C.
abstract: The [sup 12]C([ital n],[ital p])[sup 12]B reaction was studied using the white neutron source at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility/Weapon Neutron Research Center with a continuous incident neutron energy from 60 to 260 MeV. Double differential cross sections were measured in the angular range 11[degree][le][theta][sub lab][le]37[degree]. Using the neutron time-of-flight facility at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility, we also studied the [sup 12]C([ital p],[ital n])[sup 12]N reaction at [ital E][sub [ital p]]=186 MeV and the [sup 12]C([ital [rvec p]],[ital [rvec n]])[sup 12]N reaction at [ital E][sub [ital [rvec p]]]=160 and 186 MeV. Double differential cross sections were measured between [theta][sub lab]=0[degree] and [theta][sub lab]=50[degree] in 5[degree] steps. Spin observables [ital D][sub [ital N][ital N]], [ital A][sub [ital Y]], and [ital P] were measured at [theta][sub lab]=5[degree],9[degree],13[degree] with [ital E][sub [ital [rvec p]]]=160 MeV and [theta][sub lab]=15[degree],20[degree] with [ital E][sub [ital [rvec p]]]=186 MeV. Angular distributions of differential cross section and spin observables for low-lying transitions in the residual nuclei are compared with disorted-wave impulse approximation (DWIA) calculations. A multipole decomposition analysis was performed to study the giant dipole and giant spin-dipole resonances. The contributions of the quasifree reaction in the giant resonance region was subtracted. The empirical results ofmore » energy distributions for dipole ([Delta][ital L]=1) transition are compared with DWIA calculations using nuclear structure information obtained with a conventional shell model and also with a random phase approximation.« less

title: Energetic electrons associated with magnetic reconnection in the magnetic cloud boundary layer.
abstract: Here is reported in situ observation of energetic electrons (∼100-500 keV) associated with magnetic reconnection in the solar wind by the ACE and Wind spacecraft. The properties of this magnetic cloud driving reconnection and the associated energetic electron acceleration problem are discussed. Further analyses indicate that the electric field acceleration and Fermi-type mechanism are two fundamental elements in the electron acceleration processes and the trapping effect of the specific magnetic field configuration maintains the acceleration status that increases the totally gained energy.

title: Development of a high power 1.2 MW CW L-band klystron
abstract: The high power CW L-band klystron has been developed as the RF source of the PNC high power CW electron linac (10 MeV, 100 mA). CW power of 1.2 MW at 1.249135 GHz and efficiencies over 65% were the design goals. RF analysis of the windows using high-frequency simulation codes provided information about power loss distribution in the ceramic and optimizing properties of the RF structure. The prototype klystron window was replaced with a long pill-box type beryllia window as a result of the simulation and hardware tests. The klystron has reached CW power of 885 kW with efficiency above 45%. This paper describes key points of the designs and results of the high power RF tests.

title: Revised rates for the stellar triple-alpha process from measurement of 12C nuclear resonances.
abstract: In the centres of stars where the temperature is high enough, three alpha-particles (helium nuclei) are able to combine to form 12C because of a resonant reaction leading to a nuclear excited state. (Stars with masses greater than approximately 0.5 times that of the Sun will at some point in their lives have a central temperature high enough for this reaction to proceed.) Although the reaction rate is of critical significance for determining elemental abundances in the Universe, and for determining the size of the iron core of a star just before it goes supernova, it has hitherto been insufficiently determined. Here we report a measurement of the inverse process, where a 12C nucleus decays to three alpha-particles. We find a dominant resonance at an energy of approximately 11 MeV, but do not confirm the presence of a resonance at 9.1 MeV (ref. 3). We show that interference between two resonances has important effects on our measured spectrum. Using these data, we calculate the triple-alpha rate for temperatures from 10(7) K to 10(10) K and find significant deviations from the standard rates. Our rate below approximately 5 x 10(7) K is higher than the previous standard, implying that the critical amounts of carbon that catalysed hydrogen burning in the first stars are produced twice as fast as previously believed. At temperatures above 10(9) K, our rate is much less, which modifies predicted nucleosynthesis in supernovae.

title: Different Evolutionary Stages in the Massive Star-forming Region W3 Main Complex
abstract: Massive stars form in clusters, and they are often found in different evolutionary stages located close to each other. To understand evolutionary and environmental effects during the formation of high-mass stars, we observed three regions of massive star formation at different evolutionary stages that reside in the same natal molecular cloud.  The three regions S255IR, S255N and S255S were observed at 1.3 mm with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and followup short spacing information was obtained with the IRAM 30m telescope. Near infrared (NIR) H + K-band spectra and continuum observations were taken for S255IR with VLT-SINFONI to study the different stellar populations in this region.  The combination of millimeter (mm) and near infrared data allow us to characterize different stellar populations within the young forming cluster in detail. While we find multiple mm con tinuum sources toward all regions, their outflow, disk and ch emical properties vary considerably. The most evolved source S255IR exhibits a collimated bipolar outflow visible in CO and H 2 emission, the outflows from the youngest region S255S are still small an d rather confined in the regions of the mm continuum peaks. Als o the chemistry toward S255IR is most evolved exhibiting strong emission from complex molecules, while much fewer molecular lines are detected in S255N, and in S255S we detect only CO isotopologues and SO lines. Also, rotational structures are found toward S255N and S255IR. Furthermore, a comparison of the NIR SINFONI and mm data from S255IR clearly reveal two different (proto) stellar populations with an estimated age difference of approximately 1 Myr.  A multi-wavelength spectroscopy and mapping study reveals different evolutionary phases of the star formation regions. We propose the triggered outside-in collapse star formation scenario for the bigger picture and the fragmentation scenario for S255IR.

title: Testing quantum gravity effects with latest CMB observations
abstract: Inspired by quantum gravitational physics, the approach of non-commutative (NC) phase space leads to a modified dispersion relation of gravitational waves. This feature, if applied to the very early universe, gives rise to a modified power spectrum of primordial tensor perturbations with a suppression of power on large scales. We confront this phenomenon with the BICEP2 and Planck experiments, and show that inflation with the modified dispersion relation can simultaneously fit the observations better than the standard inflationary paradigm. In particular, the numerical result implies that with the latest cosmological microwave background (CMB) observations, a quantum gravity modified power spectrum of primordial tensor modes is preferred at a statistical significance of more than 3 σ compared with the minimal model. Our study indicates that the potential tension between the BICEP2 and Planck data may be resolved by quantum gravity effects.

title: Transverse-Momentum Resummation for Gauge Boson Pair Production at the Hadron Collider
abstract: We perform the transverse-momentum resummation for $W^{+}W^{-}$, $ZZ$, and $W^{\pm}Z$ pair productions at the next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy using soft-collinear effective theory for $\sqrt{S}=8 \text{TeV}$ and $\sqrt{S}=14 \text{TeV}$ at the LHC, respectively. Especially, this is the first calculation of $W^{\pm}Z$ transverse-momentum resummation. We also include the non-perturbative effects and discussions on the PDF uncertainties. Comparing with the next-to-leading logarithmic results, the next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic resummation can reduce the dependence of the transverse-momentum distribution on the factorization scales significantly. Finally, we find that our numerical results are consistent with data measured by CMS collaboration for the $ZZ$ production, which have been only reported by the LHC experiments for the unfolded transverse-momentum distribution of the gauge boson pair production so far, within theoretical and experimental uncertainties.