arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C. Crawford.
Precision measurements in neutron beta decay serve to determine the coupling constants of beta decay and allow for several stringent tests of the standard model. This paper discusses the design and the expected performance of the Nab spectrometer.
The roles played by mesons in the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon are explored using as a basis a model containing vector mesons with coupling to the continuum together with the asymptotic $Q^2$ behavior of perturbative QCD. Specifically, the vector dominance model (GKex) developed by Lomon is employed, as it is known to be very successful in representing the existing high-quality data published to date. An analysis is made of the experimental uncertainties present when the differences between the GKex model and the data are expanded in orthonormal basis functions. A main motivation for the present study is to provide insight into how the various ingredients in this model yield the measured behavior, including discussions of when dipole form factors are to be expected or not, of which mesons are the major contributors, for instance, at low-$Q^2$ or large distances, and of what effects are predicted from coupling to the continuum. Such insights are first discussed in momentum space, followed by an analysis of how different and potentially useful information emerges when both the experimental and theoretical electric form factors are Fourier transformed to coordinate space. While these Fourier transforms should not be interpreted as "charge distributions", nevertheless the roles played by the various mesons, especially which are dominant at large or small distance scales, can be explored via such experiment--theory comparisons.
The Nab collaboration will perform a precise measurement of 'a', the electron-neutrino correlation parameter, and 'b', the Fierz interference term in neutron beta decay, in the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the SNS, using a novel electric/magnetic field spectrometer and detector design. The experiment is aiming at the 10^{-3} accuracy level in (Delta a)/a, and will provide an independent measurement of lambda = G_A/G_V, the ratio of axial-vector to vector coupling constants of the nucleon. Nab also plans to perform the first ever measurement of 'b' in neutron decay, which will provide an independent limit on the tensor weak coupling.
We have developed a radio-frequency resonant spin rotator to reverse the neutron polarization in a 9.5 cm x 9.5 cm pulsed cold neutron beam with high efficiency over a broad cold neutron energy range. The effect of the spin reversal by the rotator on the neutron beam phase space is compared qualitatively to RF neutron spin flippers based on adiabatic fast passage. The spin rotator does not change the kinetic energy of the neutrons and leaves the neutron beam phase space unchanged to high precision. We discuss the design of the spin rotator and describe two types of transmission-based neutron spin-flip efficiency measurements where the neutron beam was both polarized and analyzed by optically-polarized 3He neutron spin filters. The efficiency of the spin rotator was measured to be 98.0+/-0.8% on resonance for neutron energies from 3.3 to 18.4 meV over the full phase space of the beam. As an example of the application of this device to an experiment we describe the integration of the RF spin rotator into an apparatus to search for the small parity-violating asymmetry A_gamma in polarized cold neutron capture on para-hydrogen by the NPDGamma collaboration at LANSCE.
We present Spitzer high-resolution spectra of off-nuclear regions in the central cluster galaxies NGC 1275 and NGC 4696 in the Perseus and Centaurus clusters, respectively. Both objects are surrounded by extensive optical emission-line filamentary nebulae, bright outer parts of which are the targets of our observations. The 10-37um spectra show strong pure rotational lines from molecular hydrogen revealing a molecular component to the filaments which has an excitation temperature of ~300-400K. The flux in the 0-0S(1) molecular hydrogen line correlates well with the strength of the optical lines, having about 3 per cent of the Halpha+[NII] emission. The 11.3um PAH feature is seen in some spectra. Emission is also seen from both low and high ionization fine structure lines. Molecular hydrogen cooler than ~400K dominates the mass of the outer filaments; the nebulae are predominantly molecular.
We present high resolution images of the Faraday Rotation Measure (RM) structure of the radio galaxy PKS 1246-410, at the center of the Centaurus cluster. Comparison with Halpha-line and soft X-ray emission reveals a correspondence between the line-emitting gas, the soft X-ray emitting gas, regions with an excess in the RM images, and signs of depolarization. Magnetic field strengths of 25 microG, organized on scales of ~1 kpc, and intermixed with gas at a temperature of 5 x 10^6 K with a density of ~0.1 cm^-3 can reproduce the observed RM excess, the depolarization, and the observed X-ray surface brightness. This hot gas may be in pressure equilibrium with the optical line-emitting gas, but the magnetic field strength of 25 microG associated with the hot gas provides only 10% of the thermal pressure and is therefore insufficient to account for the stability of the line-emitting filaments.
Cold molecular gas has been recently detected in several cooling flow clusters of galaxies where huge optical nebulosities often stand. These optical filaments are tightly linked to the cooling flow and to the related phenomena, like the rising bubbles of relativistic plasma, fed by the radio jets. We present here a map in the CO(2-1) rotational line of the cold molecular gas associated with some Halpha filaments surrounding the central galaxy of the Perseus cluster: NGC 1275. The map, extending to about 50 kpc (135 arcsec) from the center of the galaxy, has been made with the 18-receiver array HERA, at the focus of the IRAM 30m telescope. Although most of the cold gas is concentrated to the center of the galaxy, the CO emission is also clearly associated to the extended filaments conspicuous in ionised gas and could trace a possible reservoir fueling the star formation there. Some of the CO emission is also found where the X-ray gas could cool down more efficiently: at the rims of the central X-ray cavity (where the hot gas is thought to have been pushed out and compressed by the central AGN expanding radio lobes). The CO global kinematics does not show any rotation in NGC 1275. The cold gas is probably a mixture of gas falling down on the central galaxy and of uplifted gas dragged out by a rising bubble in the intracluster medium. As recenlty suggested in other cluster cores, the cold gas peculiar morphology and kinematics argue for the picture of an intermittent cooling flow scenario where the central AGN plays an important role.
We report the best figure-of-merit achieved for an internal nuclear polarized hydrogen gas target and a Monte Carlo simulation of spin-exchange optical pumping. The dimensions of the apparatus were optimized using the simulation and the experimental results were in good agreement with the simulation. The best result achieved for this target was 50.5% polarization with 58.2% degree of dissociation of the sample beam exiting the storage cell at a hydrogen flow rate of $1.1\times 10^{18}$ atoms/s.
The observation of plasma focusing of a 28.5 GeV positron beam is reported. The plasma was formed by ionizing a nitrogen jet only 3 mm thick. Simultaneous focusing in both transverse dimensions was observed with effective focusing strengths of order Tesla per micron. The minimum area of the beam spot was reduced by a factor of 2.0 +/- 0.3 by the plasma. The longitudinal beam envelope was measured and compared with numerical calculations.
We present results from the SLAC E-150 experiment on plasma focusing of high energy density electron and, for the first time, positron beams. We also discuss measurements on plasma lens-induced synchrotron radiation, longitudinal dynamics of plasma focusing, and laser- and beam-plasma interactions.