The NAIAD experiment for WIMP searches at Boulby mine and recent results     

B. Ahmed  G. J. Alner  H. Araujo  J. C. Barton  A. Bewick  M. J. Carson  D. Davidge  J. V. Dawson  T. Gamble  S. P. Hart  R. Hollingworth  A. S. Howard  W. G. Jones  M. K. Joshi  V. A. Kudryavtsev  T. B. Lawson  V. Lebedenko  M. J. Lehner  J. D. Lewin  P. K. Lightfoot  I. Liubarsky  R. Lüscher  J. E. McMillan  B. Morgan  G. Nicklin  S. M. Paling  R. M. Preece  J. J. Quenby  J. W. Roberts  M. Robinson  N. J. T. Smith  P. F. Smith  N. J. C. Spooner  T. J. Sumner  D. R. Tovey 《Astroparticle Physics》2003,19(6):691-702

The NAIAD experiment (NaI Advanced Detector) for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter searches at Boulby mine (UK) is described. The detector consists of an array of encapsulated and unencapsulated NaI(Tl) crystals with high light yield. Six crystals are collecting data at present. Data accumulated by four of them (10.6 kg × year exposure) have been used to set upper limits on the WIMP–nucleon spin-independent and WIMP–proton spin-dependent cross-sections. Pulse shape analysis has been applied to discriminate between nuclear recoils, as may be caused by WIMP interactions, and electron recoils due to gamma background. Various calibrations of crystals are presented.  相似文献   

Finding KBO Flyby Targets for New Horizons     

Spencer  John  Buie  Marc  Young  Leslie  Guo  Yanping  Stern  Alan 《Earth, Moon, and Planets》2003,92(1-4):483-491

Development of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is now fully funded by NASA (Stern and Spencer, this volume). If all goes well, New Horizons will be launched in January 2006, followed by a Jupiter gravity assist in 2007, with Pluto arrival expected in either 2015 or 2016, depending on the launch vehicle chosen. A backup launch date of early 2007, without a Jupiter flyby, would give a Pluto arrival in 2019 or 2020. In either case, a flyby of at least one Kuiper Belt object (KBO) is planned following the Pluto encounter, sometime before the spacecraft reaches a heliocentric distance of 50 AU, in 2021 or 2023 for the 2006 launch, and 2027 or 2029 for the 2007 launch. However, none of the almost 1000 currently-known KBOs will pass close enough to the spacecraft trajectory to be targeted by New Horizons, so the KBO flyby depends on finding a suitable target among the estimated 500,000 KBOs larger than 40 km in diameter. This paper discusses the issues involved in finding one or more KBO targets for New Horizons. The New Horizons team plans its own searches for mission KBOs but will welcome other U.S, or international team who wish to become involved in exchange for mission participation at the KBO.  相似文献   

Fire and ice: unravelling the climatic and volcanic history of James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula     

John Smellie  Anna Nelson  Mark Williams 《Geology Today》2006,22(6):220-226

Back in the mid-nineteenth century British explorer James Clark Ross took his ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus , farther south than anyone else had been. He now lends his name to James Ross Island, a part-volcanic edifice that rises out of the sea off the north-east tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The island records a geological history dating back to the Cretaceous, though its great peaks are volcanic. The most recent rocks of the island record a monumental struggle between fire and ice, the volcanoes, and the ice sheets that cover them. The glacigenic sediments that are interspersed with the volcanic rocks contain rich fossil assemblages which suggest that at times, the climate was warmer, with the ice retreating. Their study may help us to delimit the patterns of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula region as Earth's global climate warms.  相似文献   

QUEST on DASI: a South Pole CMB polarization experiment     

Sarah Church  Peter Ade  James Bock  Melanie Bowden  John Carlstrom  Ken Ganga  Walter Gear  James Hinderks  Wayne Hu  Brian Keating  John Kovac  Andrew Lange  Eric Leitch  Olivier Mallie  Simon Melhuish  Anthony Murphy  Ben Rusholme  Creidhe O&#x;Sullivan  Lucio Piccirillo  Clem Pryke  Andy Taylor  Keith Thompson 《New Astronomy Reviews》2003,47(11-12):1083

QUEST on DASI is a ground-based, high-sensitivity, high-resolution (ℓ_max2500) experiment designed to map CMB polarization at 100 and 150 GHz and to measure the power spectra from E-modes, B-modes from lensing of the CMB, and B-modes from primordial gravitational waves. The experiment comprises a 2.6 m Cassegrain optical system, equipped with an array of 62 polarization-sensitive bolometers (PSBs), located at the South Pole. The instrument is designed to minimize systematic effects; features include differencing of pairs of orthogonal PSBs within a single feed, a rotatable achromatic waveplate, and axisymmetric rotatable optics. In addition the South Pole location allows both repeatable and highly controlled observations. QUEST on DASI will commence operation in early 2005.  相似文献   

Detailed comparison of the structures and kinematics of simulated and observed barred galaxies     

J. K. O'Neill  John Dubinski 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2003,346(1):251-264

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Laboratory studies of the interaction of carbon monoxide with water ice     

M.P. Collings  J.W. Dever  H.J. Fraser  M.R.S. McCoustra 《Astrophysics and Space Science》2003,285(3-4):633-659

The interaction of carbon monoxide (CO) with vapour-deposited water(H₂O) ices has been studied using temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and Fourier transform reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy (FT-RAIRS) over a range of astrophysically relevant temperatures. Such measurements have shown that CO desorption from amorphous H₂Oices is a much more complex process than current astrochemical models suggest. Re-visiting previously reported laboratory experiments (Collings et al., 2003), a rate model has been constructed to explain, in a phenomenological manner, the desorption of CO over astronomically relevant time scales. The model presented here can be widely applied to a range of astronomical environments where depletion of CO from the gas phase is relevant. The model accounts for the two competing processes of CO desorption and migration, and also enables the entrapment of some of the CO in the ice matrix and its subsequent release as the water ice crystallises and then desorbs. The astronomical implications of this model are discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

A lower limit to the field strength in magnetic reconnection sites in solar flares inferred from hard X-ray bursts     

Jon M. Loran  John C. Brown 《Astrophysics and Space Science》1985,117(1):173-177

It is shown how the hard X-ray burst count rate and itse-folding ime can be used to estimate the minimum magnetic fieldB _min required in a flare magnetic reconnection site for the burst to be interpreted in terms of a thick target model. Application of the method to data from the Solar Maximum Mission (HXRBS) indicates absolute minimum fields well in excess of 100 G, and impossibly high values for some reconnection geometries.  相似文献   

The effect of particle size and porosity on spectral contrast in the mid-infrared     

John W. Salisbury  John W. Eastes 《Icarus》1985,64(3):586-588

Contrary to previous work, we find that the decreasing intensity of fundamental molecular vibration bands with decreasing particle size is due primarily to increasing porosity of the finer particle size ranges, rather than to particle size per se. This implies that laser reflectance measurements from orbiting spacecraft should avoid loss of spectral contrast for fine particulate surfaces, because such measurements near zero phase angle will benefit from the opposition effect.  相似文献   

The chronology of a large ice-dammed lake and the Barents–Kara Ice Sheet advances, Northern Russia     

Jan Mangerud  Valery I. Astakhov  Andrew Murray  John Inge Svendsen   《Global and Planetary Change》2001,31(1-4)

Beach and shoreface sediments deposited in the more than 800-km long ice-dammed Lake Komi in northern European Russia have been investigated and dated. The lake flooded the lowland areas between the Barents–Kara Ice Sheet in the north and the continental drainage divide in the south. Shoreline facies have been dated by 18 optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates, most of which are closely grouped in the range 80–100 ka, with a mean of 88±3 ka. This implies that that the Barents–Kara Ice Sheet had its Late Pleistocene maximum extension during the Early Weichselian, probably in the cold interval (Rederstall) between the Brørup and Odderade interstadials of western Europe, correlated with marine isotope stage 5b. This is in strong contrast to the Scandinavian and North American ice sheets, which had their maxima in isotope stage 2, about 20 ka. Field and air photo interpretations suggest that Lake Komi was dammed by the ice advance, which formed the Harbei–Harmon–Sopkay Moraines. These has earlier been correlated with the Markhida moraine across the Pechora River Valley and its western extension. However, OSL dates on fluvial sediments below the Markhida moraine have yielded ages as young as 60 ka. This suggests that the Russian mainland was inundated by two major ice sheet advances from the Barents–Kara seas after the last interglacial: one during the Early Weichselian (about 90 ka) that dammed Lake Komi and one during the Middle Weichselian (about 60 ka). Normal fluvial drainage prevailed during the Late Weichselian, when the ice front was located offshore.  相似文献   

Coulometric TCO2 analyses for marine studies; an introduction     

Kenneth M Johnson  Arthur E King  John McN Sieburth 《Marine Chemistry》1985,16(1):61-82

Progress in the introduction of coulometry for the analysis of total carbon dioxide (TCO₂) in marine waters is described. An extractor—stripper removes CO₂ that is measured coulometrically by the quantity of electricity (coulombs) used to electrogenerate OH^? ions for the titration of the acid formed by the reaction of CO₂ and ethanolamine. The equivalence point is detected photometrically with thymolphthalein as the indicator, and Faraday's Law relates coulombs to equivalents of titrant generated and CO₂ determined so that there are no standard curves needed or titrants to standardize or store. Accuracy was determined by adding gelatin capsules containing 100–1500 μg C of pure CaCO₃ into the stripper, and accuracies of better than ± 1 μg C were achieved. The best precision for natural seawater (± 1 standard error) of ± 0.5 μmol l^?1 was found for 17 samples of Bermuda coastal waters having a mean TCO₂ of 2007.2 μmol l^?1 (0.05% CV). Sources of error and precautions are discussed. This method, which has been used successfully at sea, can be used to study a variety of marine phenomena involving TCO₂.  相似文献