Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource

The standard model of hot big-bang cosmology requires initial conditions which are problematic in two ways: (1) The early universe is assumed to be highly homogeneous, in spite of the fact that separated regions were causally disconnected (horizon problem); and (2) the initial value of the Hubble constant must be fine tuned to extraordinary accuracy to produce a universe as flat (i.e., near critical mass density) as the one we see today (flatness problem). These problems would disappear if, in its early history, the universe supercooled to temperatures 28 or more orders of magnitude below the critical temperature for some phase transition. A huge expansion factor would then result from a period of exponential growth, and the entropy of the universe would be multiplied by a huge factor when the latent heat is released. Such a scenario is completely natural in the context of grand unified models of elementary-particle interactions. In such models, the supercooling is also relevant to the problem of monopole suppression. Unfortunately, the scenario seems to lead to some unacceptable consequences, so modifications must be sought.

Author(s): Collaboration, The ATLAS; Aad, G; Abat, E; Abdallah, J; Abdelalim, AA; Abdesselam, A; Abdinov, O; Abi, BA; Abolins, M; Abramowicz, H; Acerbi, E; Acharya, BS; Achenbach, R; Ackers, M; Adams, DL; Adamyan, F; Addy, TN; Aderholz, M; Adorisio, C; Adragna, P; Aharrouche, M; Ahlen, SP; Ahles, F; Ahmad, A; Ahmed, H; Aielli, G; Åkesson, PF; Åkesson, TPA; Akimov, AV; Alam, SM; Albert, J; Albrand, S; Aleksa, M; Aleksandrov, IN; Aleppo, M; Alessandria, F; Alexa, C; Alexander, G; Alexopoulos, T; Alimonti, G; Aliyev, M; Allport, PP; Allwood-Spiers, SE; Aloisio, A; Alonso, J; Alves, R; Alviggi, MG; Amako, K; Amaral, P; Amaral, SP; Ambrosini, G; Ambrosio, G; Amelung, C; Ammosov, VV; Amorim, A; Amram, N; Anastopoulos, C; Anderson, B; Anderson, KJ; Anderssen, EC; Andreazza, A; Andrei, V; Andricek, L; Andrieux, M-L; Anduaga, XS; Anghinolfi, F; Antonaki, A; Antonelli, M; Antonelli, S; Apsimon, R; Arabidze, G; Aracena, I; Arai, Y; Arce, ATH; Archambault, JP; Arguin, J-F; Arik, E; Arik, M; Arms, KE; Armstrong, SR; Arnaud, M; Arnault, C; Artamonov, A; Asai, S; Ask, S

The last decade witnessed significant progress in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and its applications. Today, ARPES experiments with 2-meV energy resolution and $0.2\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ angular resolution are a reality even for photoemission on solids. These technological advances and the improved sample quality have enabled ARPES to emerge as a leading tool in the investigation of the high-${T}_{c}$ superconductors. This paper reviews the most recent ARPES results on the cuprate superconductors and their insulating parent and sister compounds, with the purpose of providing an updated summary of the extensive literature. The low-energy excitations are discussed with emphasis on some of the most relevant issues, such as the Fermi surface and remnant Fermi surface, the superconducting gap, the pseudogap and $d$-wave-like dispersion, evidence of electronic inhomogeneity and nanoscale phase separation, the emergence of coherent quasiparticles through the superconducting transition, and many-body effects in the one-particle spectral function due to the interaction of the charge with magnetic and/or lattice degrees of freedom. Given the dynamic nature of the field, we chose to focus mainly on reviewing the experimental data, as on the experimental side a general consensus has been reached, whereas interpretations and related theoretical models can vary significantly. The first part of the paper introduces photoemission spectroscopy in the context of strongly interacting systems, along with an update on the state-of-the-art instrumentation. The second part provides an overview of the scientific issues relevant to the investigation of the low-energy electronic structure by ARPES. The rest of the paper is devoted to the experimental results from the cuprates, and the discussion is organized along conceptual lines: normal-state electronic structure, interlayer interaction, superconducting gap, coherent superconducting peak, pseudogap, electron self-energy, and collective modes. Within each topic, ARPES data from the various copper oxides are presented.

This biennial Review summarizes much of Particle Physics. Using data from previous editions, plus 2205 new measurements from 667 papers, we list, evaluate, and average measured properties of gauge bosons, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We also summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as Higgs bosons, heavy neutrinos, and supersymmetric particles. All the particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. We also give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as the Standard Model, particle detectors, probability, and statistics. This edition features expanded coverage of CP violation in B mesons and of neutrino oscillations. For the first time we cover searches for evidence of extra dimensions (both in the particle listings and in a new review). Another new review is on Grand Unified Theories. A booklet is available containing the Summary Tables and abbreviated versions of some of the other sections of this full Review. All tables, listings, and reviews (and errata) are also available on the Particle Data Group website: http://pdg.lbl.gov.

We present a systematic analysis in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD) of large-momentum-transfer exclusive processes. Predictions are given for the scaling behavior, angular dependence, helicity structure, and normalization of elastic and inelastic form factors and large-angle exclusive scattering amplitudes for hadrons and photons. We prove that these reactions are dominated by quark and gluon subprocesses at short distances, and thus that the dimensional-counting rules for the power-law falloff of these amplitudes with momentum transfer are rigorous predictions of QCD, modulo calculable logarithmic corrections from the behavior of the hadronic wave functions at short distances. These anomalous-dimension corrections are determined by evolution equations for process-independent meson and baryon "distribution amplitudes" $\ensuremath{\varphi}({x}_{i}, Q)$ which control the valence-quark distributions in high-momentum-transfer exclusive reactions. The analysis can be carried out systematically in powers of ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}({Q}^{2})$, the QCD running coupling constant. Although the calculations are most conveniently carried out using light-cone perturbation theory and the light-cone gauge, we also present a gauge-independent analysis and relate the distribution amplitude to a gauge-invariant Bethe-Salpeter amplitude.

The demonstrations of von Neumann and others, that quantum mechanics does not permit a hidden variable interpretation, are reconsidered. It is shown that their essential axioms are unreasonable. It is urged that in further examination of this problem an interesting axiom would be that mutually distant systems are independent of one another.

An algorithm and data structure are presented for searching a file containing N records, each described by k real valued keys, for the m closest matches or nearest neighbors to a given query record. The computation required to organize the file is proportional to kNlogN. The expected number of records examined in each search is independent of the file size. The expected computation to perform each search is proportional-to 1ogN. Empirical evidence suggests that except for very small files, this algorithm is considerably faster than other methods.

Highly active catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are required for the development of photoelectrochemical devices that generate hydrogen efficiently from water using solar energy. Here, we identify the origin of a 500-fold OER activity enhancement that can be achieved with mixed (Ni,Fe)oxyhydroxides (Ni1–xFexOOH) over their pure Ni and Fe parent compounds, resulting in one of the most active currently known OER catalysts in alkaline electrolyte. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) using high energy resolution fluorescence detection (HERFD) reveals that Fe3+ in Ni1–xFexOOH occupies octahedral sites with unusually short Fe–O bond distances, induced by edge-sharing with surrounding [NiO6] octahedra. Using computational methods, we establish that this structural motif results in near optimal adsorption energies of OER intermediates and low overpotentials at Fe sites. By contrast, Ni sites in Ni1–xFexOOH are not active sites for the oxidation of water.

This report describes the 2005 version of the Fluka particle transport code. The first part introduces the basic notions, describes the modular structure of the system, and contains an installation and beginner's guide. The second part complements this initial information with details about the various components of Fluka and how to use them. It concludes with a detailed history and bibliography.

Abstract Linear and quadratic discriminant analysis are considered in the small-sample, high-dimensional setting. Alternatives to the usual maximum likelihood (plug-in) estimates for the covariance matrices are proposed. These alternatives are characterized by two parameters, the values of which are customized to individual situations by jointly minimizing a sample-based estimate of future misclassification risk. Computationally fast implementations are presented, and the efficacy of the approach is examined through simulation studies and application to data. These studies indicate that in many circumstances dramatic gains in classification accuracy can be achieved.

Chemometrics is a field of chemistry that studies the application of statistical methods to chemical data analysis. In addition to borrowing many techniques from the statistics and engineering literatures, chemometrics itself has given rise to several new data-analytical methods. This article examines two methods commonly used in chemometrics for predictive modeling—partial least squares and principal components regression—from a statistical perspective. The goal is to try to understand their apparent successes and in what situations they can be expected to work well and to compare them with other statistical methods intended for those situations. These methods include ordinary least squares, variable subset selection, and ridge regression.

Abstract A new method for nonparametric multiple regression is presented. The procedure models the regression surface as a sum of general smooth functions of linear combinations of the predictor variables in an iterative manner. It is more general than standard stepwise and stagewise regression procedures, does not require the definition of a metric in the predictor space, and lends itself to graphical interpretation.

We review the general analysis of the contributions of electroweak vacuum-polarization diagrams to precision experiments. We first review the representation of these contributions by three parameters $S$, $T$, and $U$ and discuss the assumptions involved in this reduction. We then discuss the contributions to these parameters from various models of new physics. We show that $S$ can be computed by a dispersion relation, and we use this technique to estimate $S$ in technicolor models of the Higgs sector. We discuss the reliability and the gauge invariance of this estimate. Finally, we present the limits on $S$ and $T$ imposed by current experimental results.

We show that an integral S over the spectral function of spin-1 states of the Higgs sector is constrained by precision weak-interaction measurements. Current data exclude large technicolor models; asymmetry measurements at the CERN ${\mathit{e}}^{+}$${\mathit{e}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ collider LEP and the SLAC Linear Collider will soon provide more stringent limits on Higgs-boson strong interactions.

A family of graph-theoretical algorithms based on the minimal spanning tree are capable of detecting several kinds of cluster structure in arbitrary point sets; description of the detected clusters is possible in some cases by extensions of the method. Development of these clustering algorithms was based on examples from two-dimensional space because we wanted to copy the human perception of gestalts or point groupings. On the other hand, all the methods considered apply to higher dimensional spaces and even to general metric spaces. Advantages of these methods include determinacy, easy interpretation of the resulting clusters, conformity to gestalt principles of perceptual organization, and invariance of results under monotone transformations of interpoint distance. Brief discussion is made of the application of cluster detection to taxonomy and the selection of good feature spaces for pattern recognition. Detailed analyses of several planar cluster detection problems are illustrated by text and figures. The well-known Fisher iris data, in four-dimensional space, have been analyzed by these methods also. PL/1 programs to implement the minimal spanning tree methods have been fully debugged.

An algorithm for the analysis of multivariate data is presented and is discussed in terms of specific examples. The algorithm seeks to find one-and two-dimensional linear projections of multivariate data that are relatively highly revealing.

We argue that the existence of fundamental scalar fields constitutes a serious flaw of the Weinberg-Salam theory. A possible scheme without such fields is described. The symmetry breaking is induced by a new strongly interacting sector whose natural scale is of the order of a few TeV.

Abstract In regression analysis the response variable Y and the predictor variables X 1 …, Xp are often replaced by functions θ(Y) and Ø1(X 1), …, Ø p (Xp ). We discuss a procedure for estimating those functions θ and Ø1, …, Ø p that minimize e 2 = E{[θ(Y) — Σ Ø j (Xj )]2}/var[θ(Y)], given only a sample {(yk , xk1 , …, xkp ), 1 ⩽ k ⩽ N} and making minimal assumptions concerning the data distribution or the form of the solution functions. For the bivariate case, p = 1, θ and Ø satisfy ρ = p(θ, Ø) = maxθ,Øρ[θ(Y), Ø(X)], where ρ is the product moment correlation coefficient and ρ is the maximal correlation between X and Y. Our procedure thus also provides a method for estimating the maximal correlation between two variables.

It is possible for a classical field theory to have two stable homogeneous ground states, only one of which is an absolute energy minimum. In the quantum version of the theory, the ground state of higher energy is a false vacuum, rendered unstable by barrier penetration. There exists a well-established semiclassical theory of the decay of such false vacuums. In this paper, we extend this theory to include the effects of gravitation. Contrary to naive expectation, these are not always negligible, and may sometimes be of critical importance, especially in the late stages of the decay process.

Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) readily transform in the environment, which modifies their properties and alters their transport, fate, and toxicity. It is essential to consider such transformations when assessing the potential environmental impact of Ag-NPs. This review discusses the major transformation processes of Ag-NPs in various aqueous environments, particularly transformations of the metallic Ag cores caused by reactions with (in)organic ligands, and the effects of such transformations on physical and chemical stability and toxicity. Thermodynamic arguments are used to predict what forms of oxidized silver will predominate in various environmental scenarios. Silver binds strongly to sulfur (both organic and inorganic) in natural systems (fresh and sea waters) as well as in wastewater treatment plants, where most Ag-NPs are expected to be concentrated and then released. Sulfidation of Ag-NPs results in a significant decrease in their toxicity due to the lower solubility of silver sulfide, potentially limiting their short-term environmental impact. This review also discusses some of the major unanswered questions about Ag-NPs, which, when answered, will improve predictions about their potential environmental impacts. Research needed to address these questions includes fundamental molecular-level studies of Ag-NPs and their transformation products, particularly Ag(2)S-NPs, in simplified model systems containing common (in)organic ligands, as well as under more realistic environmental conditions using microcosm/mesocosm-type experiments. Toxicology studies of Ag-NP transformation products, including different states of aggregation and sulfidation, are also required. In addition, there is the need to characterize the surface structures, compositions, and morphologies of Ag-NPs and Ag(2)S-NPs to the extent possible because they control properties such as solubility and reactivity.