New Debris Disks Around Nearby Main Sequence Stars: Impact on The Direct Detection of Planets

Using the MIPS instrument on the Spitzer telescope, we have searched for infrared excesses around a sample of 82 stars, mostly F, G, and K main-sequence field stars, along with a small number of nearby M stars. These stars were selected for their suitability for future observations by a variety of planet-finding techniques. These observations provide information on the asteroidal and cometary material orbiting these stars - data that can be correlated with any planets that may eventually be found. We have found significant excess 70um emission toward 12 stars. Combined with an earlier study, we find an overall 70um excess detection rate of $13 \pm 3$% for mature cool stars. Unlike the trend for planets to be found preferentially toward stars with high metallicity, the incidence of debris disks is uncorrelated with metallicity. By newly identifying 4 of these stars as having weak 24um excesses (fluxes $\sim$10% above the stellar photosphere), we confirm a trend found in earlier studies wherein a weak 24um excess is associated with a strong 70um excess. Interestingly, we find no evidence for debris disks around 23 stars cooler than K1, a result that is bolstered by a lack of excess around any of the 38 K1-M6 stars in 2 companion surveys. One motivation for this study is the fact that strong zodiacal emission can make it hard or impossible to detect planets directly with future observatories like the {\it Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF)}. The observations reported here exclude a few stars with very high levels of emission, $>$1,000 times the emission of our zodiacal cloud, from direct planet searches. For the remainder of the sample, we set relatively high limits on dust emission from asteroid belt counterparts

Coherent Cherenkov radiation as an intense THz source

Diffraction and Cherenkov radiation of relativistic electrons from a dielectric target has been proposed as mechanism for production of intense terahertz (THz) radiation. The use of an extremely short high-energy electron beam of a 4th generation light source (X-ray free electron laser) appears to be very promising. A moderate power from the electron beam can be extracted and converted into THz radiation with nearly zero absorption losses. The initial experiment on THz observation will be performed at CLARA/VELA FEL test facility in the UK to demonstrate the principle to a wider community and to develop the radiator prototype. In this paper, we present our theoretical predictions (based on the approach of polarization currents), which provides the basis for interpreting the future experimental measurements. We will also present our hardware design and discuss a plan of the future experiment

On the training of specialists in the creation and maintenance of software for processing and presentation of geospatial data

Показана актуальність відкриття підготовки в вузах Білорусі програмістів геодезичного профілю.=The relevance of the opening of training in the universities of Belarus for geodetic programmers is shown

Modelling of the effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W divertor of JET

Effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W target of JET ITER-Like Wall was studied with multi-scale calculations. Plasma input parameters were taken from ELMy H-mode plasma experiment. The energetic intra-ELM fuel particles get implanted and create near-surface defects up to depths of few tens of nm, which act as the main fuel trapping sites during ELMs. Clustering of implantation-induced vacancies were found to take place. The incoming flux of inter-ELM plasma particles increases the different filling levels of trapped fuel in defects. The temperature increase of the W target during the pulse increases the fuel detrapping rate. The inter-ELM fuel particle flux refills the partially emptied trapping sites and fills new sites. This leads to a competing effect on the retention and release rates of the implanted particles. At high temperatures the main retention appeared in larger vacancy clusters due to increased clustering rate

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

GAMMA-RAY SPECTROMETRY OF HOT PLASMAS

Gamma-ray spectrometry provides diagnostics of fast ion behavior in plasmas of large tokamaks. Information acquiring with the gamma-ray diagnostics gives possibility to identify and distinguish simultaneously presence of fast alpha-particles and other ions He), to obtain its relative densities and also to perform tomographic radial profile reconstruction of the gammaemission sources

Radioluminescence properties of nanocomposite scintillators with BaF 2 fillers

In this paper, studies of the luminescence properties of nanocrystalline BaF 2 samples synthesized by laser ablation and pulse electron beam evaporation method are presented. The measurements of X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) showed the dependence between luminescence intensity and the shape of the spectrum on the morphology and particle size. Also, studies of X-ray excited luminescence, decay curves and optical transmittance for nanocomposite materials containing BaF 2 nanopowder are presented. Barium fluoride nanopowder, obtained by pulsed electron beam evaporation method is characterized by a lower intensity than the initial microcrystalline powder, but at the same time, XEL spectrum of the nanocomposite material with this nanocrystalline filler is more intense, then that for nanocomposite material with initial powder. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

DNA elongation by the human DNA polymerase lambda polymerase and terminal transferase activities are differentially coordinated by proliferating cell nuclear antigen and replication protein A.

DNA polymerase lambda contains template-dependent (DNA polymerase) and template-independent (terminal transferase) activities. In this study we enzymologically characterized the terminal transferase activity of polymerase lambda (pol lambda-tdt). Pol lambda-tdt activity was strongly influenced by the nature of the 3'-terminal sequence of the DNA substrate, and it required a single-stranded (ss) DNA 3'-overhang of about 9-12 nucleotides for optimal activity. The strong preference observed for pyrimidine versus purine nucleotide incorporation was found to be due, at least partially, to a steric block imposed by the residue Tyr-505 in the active site of pol lambda. Pol lambda-tdt was found to be able to elongate a 3'-ssDNA end by two alternative mechanisms: first, a template-independent one resulting in addition of 1 or 2 nucleotides, and second, a template-dependent one where a homopolymeric tract as short as 3 nucleotides at the 3'-end could be used as a template to direct DNA polymerization by a looping back mechanism. Furthermore repetitive cycles of DNA synthesis resulted in the expansion of such a short homopolymeric terminal sequence. Most importantly we found that the proliferating cell nuclear antigen was able to selectively block the looping back mechanism while stimulating the single terminal nucleotide addition. Finally replication protein A completely suppressed the transferase activity of pol lambda while stimulating the polymerase activity, suggesting that proliferating cell nuclear antigen and replication protein A can coordinate the polymerase and the terminal transferase activities of pol lambda