First-principles calculation of self-diffusion coefficients.
We demonstrate a first-principles method to compute all factors entering the vacancy-mediated self-diffusion coefficient. Using density functional theory calculations of fcc Al as an illustrative case, we determine the energetic and entropic contributions to vacancy formation and atomic migration. These results yield a quantitative description of the migration energy and vibrational prefactor via transition state theory. The calculated diffusion parameters and coefficients show remarkably good agreement with experiments. We provide a simple physical picture for the positive entropic contributions.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Model-Independent Distance Measurements from Gamma-Ray Bursts and Constraints on Dark Energy
abstract: Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are the most energetic events in the Universe and provide a complementary probe of dark energy by allowing the measurement of cosmic expansion history that extends to redshifts greater than 6. Unlike type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), GRBs must be calibrated for each cosmological model considered, because of the lack of a nearby sample of GRBs for model-independent calibration. For a flat universe with a cosmological constant, we find {omega}{sub m}=0.25{sub -0.11}{sup +0.12} from 69 GRBs alone. We show that the current GRB data can be summarized by a set of model-independent distance measurements, with negligible loss of information. We constrain a dark energy equation of state linear in the cosmic scale factor using these distance measurements from GRBs, together with the ''Union'' compilation of SNe Ia, WMAP five-year observations, and the SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) baryon acoustic oscillation scale measurement. We find that a cosmological constant is consistent with current data at 68% confidence level for a flat universe. Our results provide a simple and robust method to incorporate GRB data in a joint analysis of cosmological data to constrain dark energy.

title: Finite Temperature Schrödinger Equation
abstract: We know Schrödinger equation describes the dynamics of quantum systems, which don’t include temperature. In this paper, we propose finite temperature Schrödinger equation, which can describe the quantum systems in an arbitrary temperature. When the temperature T=0, it become Shrödinger equation.

title: Uncorrelated measurements of the cosmic expansion history and dark energy from supernovae
abstract: We present a method for measuring the cosmic expansion history $H(z)$ in uncorrelated redshift bins, and apply it to current and simulated type Ia supernova data assuming spatial flatness. If the matter density parameter ${\ensuremath{\Omega}}_{m}$ can be accurately measured from other data, then the dark-energy density history $X(z)={\ensuremath{\rho}}_{X}(z)/{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{X}(0)$ can trivially be derived from this expansion history $H(z)$. In contrast to customary ``black box'' parameter fitting, our method is transparent and easy to interpret: the measurement of $H(z{)}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ in a redshift bin is simply a linear combination of the measured comoving distances for supernovae in that bin, making it obvious how systematic errors propagate from input to output. We find the Riess et al. (2004) gold sample to be consistent with the vanilla concordance model where the dark energy is a cosmological constant. We compare two mission concepts for the NASA/DOE Joint Dark-Energy Mission (JDEM), the Joint Efficient Dark-energy Investigation (JEDI), and the Supernova Accelaration Probe (SNAP), using simulated data including the effect of weak lensing (based on numerical simulations) and a systematic bias from K corrections. Estimating $H(z)$ in seven uncorrelated redshift bins, we find that both provide dramatic improvements over current data: JEDI can measure $H(z)$ to about 10% accuracy and SNAP to 30%--40% accuracy.

title: Results from the daya bay reactor neutrino experiment
abstract: The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment was designed to achieve a sensitivity on the value of sin^2 2θ_(13) to better than 0.01 at 90% CL. The experiment consists of eight antineutrino detectors installed underground at different baselines from six nuclear reactors. With data collected with six antineutrino detectors for 55 days, Daya Bay announced the discovery of a non-zero value for sin^2 2θ_(13) with a significance of 5.2 standard deviations in March 2012. The most recent analysis with 139 days of data acquired in a six-detector configuration yields sin^2 2θ_(13) = 0.089 ± 0.010 (stat.) ± 0.005 (syst.), which is the most precise measurement of sin^2 2θ_(13) to date.

title: Predicting neutron production from cosmic-ray muons
abstract: Fast neutrons from cosmic-ray muons are an important background to underground low-energy experiments. The estimate of such a background is often hampered by the difficulty of measuring and calculating neutron production with sufficient accuracy. Indeed substantial disagreement exists between the different analytical calculations performed so far, while data reported by different experiments are not always consistent. We discuss a new unified approach to estimate the neutron yield, the energy spectrum, the multiplicity, and the angular distribution from cosmic muons using the Monte Carlo simulation package FLUKA and show that it gives a good description of most of the existing measurements once the appropriate corrections have been applied.