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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2

Evaluation of Production Cross Sections of Li, Be, B in CR

Accurate evaluation of the production cross section of light elements is important for models of cosmic ray (CR) propagation, galactic chemical evolution, and cosmological studies. However, the experimental spallation cross section data are scarce and often unavailable to CR community while semi-empirical systematics are frequently wrong by a significant factor. Running sophisticated nuclear codes is not an option of choice for everyone either. We use the Los Alamos versions of the Quark-Gluon String Model code LAQGSM and the improved Cascade-Exciton Model code CEM2k together with all available data from Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory (LANL) nuclear database to produce evaluated production cross sections of isotopes of Li, Be, and B suitable for astrophysical applications. The LAQGSM and CEM2k models have been shown to reproduce well nuclear reactions and hadronic data in the range 0.01-800 GeV/nucleon.

Moskalenko, I. V.↗

On the determination of the depth of EAS development maximum using the lateral distribution of Cerenkov light at distances 150 m from EAS axis

The Samarkand extensive air showers (EAS) array was used to measure the mean and individual lateral distribution functions (LDF) of EAS Cerenkov light. The analysis of the individual parameters b showed that the mean depth of EAS maximum and the variance of the depth distribution of maxima of EAS with energies of approx. 2x10 to the 15th power eV can properly be described in terms of Kaidalov-Martirosyan quark-gluon string model (QGSM).

Aliev, N.↗

Calculation of intensity of high energy muon groups observed deep underground

The intensity of narrow muon groups observed in Kolar Gold Field (KGF) at the depth of 3375 m.w.e. was calculated in terms of quark-gluon strings model for high energy hadron - air nuclei interactions by the method of direct modeling of nuclear cascade in the air and muon propagation in the ground for normal primary cosmic ray composition. The calculated intensity has been found to be approx. 10 to the 4 times less than one observed experimentally.

Vavilov, Y. N.↗

Ponderable soliton stars

The theory of Lee and Pang (1987), who obtained solutions for soliton stars composed of zero-temperature fermions and bosons, is applied here to quark soliton stars. Model soliton stars based on a simple physical model of the proton are computed, and the properties of the solitons are discussed, including the important problem of the existence of a limiting mass and thus the possible formation of black holes of primordial origin. It is shown that there is a definite mass limit for ponderable soliton stars, so that during cooling a soliton star might reach a stage beyond which no equilibrium configuration exists and the soliton star probably will collapse to become a black hole. The radiation of ponderable soliton stars may alter the short-wavelength character of the cosmic background radiation, and may be observed as highly redshifted objects at z of about 100,000.

Chiu, Hong-Yee↗

Production of Pions in pA-collisions

Accurate knowledge of pion production cross section in PA-collisions is of interest for astrophysics, CR physics, and space radiation studies. Meanwhile, pion production in pA-reactions is often accounted for by simple scaling of that for pp-collisions, which is not enough for many real applications. We evaluate the quality of existing parameterizations using the data and simulations with the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model code LAQGSM and the improved Cascade-Exciton Model code CEM2k. The LAQGSM and CEM2k models have been shown to reproduce well nuclear reactions and hadronic data in the range 0.01-800 GeV/nucleon.

Moskalenko, I. V.↗

Dynamical axion misalignment with small instantons

We present a new mechanism to relax the initial misalignment angle of the QCD axion and raise the cosmological bound on the axion decay constant. The QCD axion receives a contribution from small UV instantons during inflation, which raises its mass to the inflationary Hubble scale. This makes the axion start rolling down its potential early on. In the scenario, the standard model Yukawa couplings of quarks are dynamical, being of order one during the inflationary era and reducing to their standard model values once it ends. This means that after inflation the contribution of the small instantons is suppressed, and the axion potential reduces to the standard one from the usual IR instantons. As a result, when the axion starts to oscillate again after inflation, the initial misalignment angle is suppressed due to the dynamics during inflation. While the general idea of dynamical axion misalignment has been discussed in the literature before, we present in detail the major bottleneck on the mismatching between the minima of the axion potentials during and after inflation, and how it is circumvented in our scenario via the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism. Taking into account of all the constraints, we find that the axion decay constant could be raised to the GUT scale, 1015 GeV, in our scenario.

Manuel A. Buen-Abad↗

Astrophysical tests for radiative decay of neutrinos and fundamental physics implications

The radiative lifetime tau for the decay of massious neutrinos was calculated using various physical models for neutrino decay. The results were then related to the astrophysical problem of the detectability of the decay photons from cosmic neutrinos. Conversely, the astrophysical data were used to place lower limits on tau. These limits are all well below predicted values. However, an observed feature at approximately 1700 A in the ultraviolet background radiation at high galactic latitudes may be from the decay of neutrinos with mass approximately 14 eV. This would require a decay rate much larger than the predictions of standard models but could be indicative of a decay rate possible in composite models or other new physics. Thus an important test for substructure in leptons and quarks or other physics beyond the standard electroweak model may have been found.

Stecker, F. W.↗

Astrophysical bags - A new paradigm for active galactic nuclei?

Active galaxies are believed to consist of a compact nucleus, the standard model for which is a massive black hole or a cluster of black holes. A different paradigm is considered here, deriving from quark confinement theory in QCD. It is an 'astrophysical bag', modelled after the 'hadron bags' of particle physics which have already been studied in astrophysics as quark stars. Another interpretation of the cosmological constant in general relativity, and possibly a new quasar redshift formula, are introduced. As a highly-energetic object, this model may resolve the baryonic matter problem for fuelling AGN accretion processes which black hole paradigms cannot account for. Here, baryons, cosmic rays, and neutrinos are free.

Wilson, Thomas L.↗

RX J1856.5-3754: A Strange Star with Solid Quark Surface?

The featureless spectra of isolated 'neutron stars' may indicate that they are actually bare strange stars but a definitive conclusion on the nature of the compact objects cannot be reached until accurate and theoretically calculated spectra of the bare quark surface are known. However due to the complex nonlinearity of quantum chromodynamics it is almost impossible to present a definitive and accurate calculation of the density-dominated quark-gluon plasma from the first principles. Nevertheless it was suggested that cold quark matter with extremely high baryon density could be in a solid state. Within the realms of this possibility we have fitted the 500ks Chandra LETG/HRC data for the brightest isolated neutron star RX 51856.5-3754 with a phenomenological spectral model and found that electric conductivity of quark matter on the stellar surface is about 1.5 x 10(exp 16)/s.

Zhang, Xiaoling↗

Strange Quark Matter Status and Prospects

The existence of quark states with more than three quarks is allowed in QCD. The stability of such quark matter states has been studied with lattice QCD and phenomenological bag models, but is not well constrained by theory. The addition of strange quarks to the system allows the quarks to be in lower energy states despite the additional mass penalty. There is additional stability from reduced Coulomb repulsion. SQM is expected to have a low Z/A. Stable or metastable massive multiquark states contain u, d, and s quarks.

Sandweiss, J.↗

Neutron star models

The current state of neutron star structure calculations is reviewed. Uncertainties in the equation of state for matter at and above nuclear density remain. The role of the delta resonance, pion condensates, and quark matter is reviewed. It is found that recent models yield stable neutron star masses which are consistent with observational estimates.

Canuto, V.↗

Big bang nucleosynthesis - The standard model and alternatives

The standard homogeneous-isotropic calculation of the big bang cosmological model is reviewed, and alternate models are discussed. The standard model is shown to agree with the light element abundances for He-4, H-2, He-3, and Li-7 that are available. Improved observational data from recent LEP collider and SLC results are discussed. The data agree with the standard model in terms of the number of neutrinos, and provide improved information regarding neutron lifetimes. Alternate models are reviewed which describe different scenarios for decaying matter or quark-hadron induced inhomogeneities. The baryonic density relative to the critical density in the alternate models is similar to that of the standard model when they are made to fit the abundances. This reinforces the conclusion that the baryonic density relative to critical density is about 0.06, and also reinforces the need for both nonbaryonic dark matter and dark baryonic matter.

Schramm, David N.↗

A Semiclassical Derivation of the QCD Coupling

The measured value of the QCD coupling alpha(sub s) at the energy M(sub Zo), the variation of alpha(sub s) as a function of energy in QCD, and classical relativistic dynamics are used to investigate virtual pairs of quarks and antiquarks in vacuum fluctuations. For virtual pairs of bottom quarks and antiquarks, the pair lifetime in the classical model agrees with the lifetime from quantum mechanics to good approximation, and the action integral in the classical model agrees as well with the action that follows from the Uncertainty Principle. This suggests that the particles might have small de Broglie wavelengths and behave with well-localized pointlike dynamics. It also permits alpha(sub s) at the mass energy twice the bottom quark mass to be expressed as a simple fraction: 3/16. This is accurate to approximately 10%. The model in this paper predicts the measured value of alpha(sub s)(M(sub Zo)) to be 0.121, which is in agreement with recent measurements within statistical uncertainties.

Batchelor, David↗

Global analysis of fermion mixing with exotics

The limits are analyzed on deviation of the lepton and quark weak-couplings from their standard model values in a general class of models where the known fermions are allowed to mix with new heavy particles with exotic SU(2) x U(1) quantum number assignments (left-handed singlets or right-handed doublets). These mixings appear in many extensions of the electroweak theory such as models with mirror fermions, E(sub 6) models, etc. The results update previous analyses and improve considerably the existing bounds.

Nardi, Enrico↗

Primordial nucleosynthesis and the abundances of beryllium and boron

The recently attained ability to make measurements of Be and B as well as to put constraints on Li-6 abundances in metal-poor stars has led to a detailed reexamination of big bang nucleosynthesis in the A is greater than about 6 regime. The nuclear reaction network has been significantly expanded, with many new rates added. It is demonstrated that although a number of A is greater than 7 reaction rates are poorly determined, even with extreme values chosen, the standard homogeneous model is unable to produce significant yields above A = 7, and the (Li-7)/(Li-6) ratio always exceeds 500. We also preliminarily explore inhomogeneous models, such as those inspired by a first-order quark-hadron phase transition, where regions with high neutron/proton ratios can allow some leakage up to A is greater than 7. However, models that fit the A is not greater than 7 abundances still seem to have difficulty in obtaining significant A is greater than 7 yields.

Thomas, David↗

Semi-Classical Models for Virtual Antiparticle Pairs

Virtual particle-antiparticle pairs of massive elementary particle& are predicted in Quantum Field Theory (QFT) to appear from the vacuum and annihilate each other again within their Heisenberg lifetimes h/4mc(exp 2). In this work, semiclassical models of this process - for the cases of massive leptons, quarks, and the massive weak bosons W and Z - are constructed. It is shown that the dynamical lifetime of the particle- antiparticle system in each case equals the Heisenberg lifetime to good approximation, and obeys appropriate quantization conditions on the field fluctuation action. In other words, the dynamical lifetime of the semiclassical model agrees with QED and QCD to good approximation. But the formula for the dynamical lifetime in each model includes the force strength coupling constant (e in the lepton case, alpha(sup s) (q(exp 2)) in the quark cases), while the Heisenberg lifetime formula does not. Observing the agreement of the Heisenberg and dynamical lifetimes, we may derive the QED and QCD coupling constants in terms of h, c, and numerical factors only.

Batchelor, David↗

An experiment to measure the energy spectrum of cosmic ray antiprotons from 100 to 1000 MeV

Production models were developed and the confirmation of each one had significant astrophysical impact. These include radical modifications of propagation models, cosmic ray antiprotons injection from neighboring domains of antimatter, p production by evaporating primordial black holes, and cosmic ray p's as annihilation products of supersymmetry particles that might make up the dark dynamical mass of the Galaxy. It is that p's originating from supersymmetric parents might have distinct spectral features that would survive solar modulation; in one model, higgsino annihilation proceeds through the bb quark-antiquark channel, producing a spectral bump at approx. 0.3 GeV in the p spectrum.

Salamon, M. H.↗