The DSI small satellite launcher

A new launcher has been developed by DSI, that is compatible with the GAS canisters. It has the proven capability to deploy a satellite from an orbiting Shuttle that is 18 inches in diameter, 31 inches long, and weighing 190 pounds. These DSI Launchers were used aboard the Discovery (STS-39) in May 1991 as part of the Infrared Background Signature Survey (IBSS) to deploy three small satellites known as Chemical Release Observation (CRO) satellites A, B, and C. Because the satellites contained hazardous liquids (MMH, UDMH, and MON-10) and were launched from GAS Cylinders without motorized doors, the launchers were required to pass NASA Shuttle Payload safety and verification requirements. Some of the more interesting components of the design were the V-band retention and separation mechanism, the separation springs, and the launcher electronics which provided a properly inhibited release sequence operated through the Small Payload Accommodations Switch Panel (SPASP) on board the Orbiter. The original plan for this launcher was to use a motorized door. The launcher electronics, therefore has the capability to be modified to accommodate the door, if desired

Production of superconductor/carbon bicomponent fibers

Certain materials are unable to be drawn or spun into fiber form due to their improper melting characteristics or brittleness. However, fibrous samples of such materials are often necessary for the fabrication of intricate shapes and composites. In response to this problem, a unique process, referred to as the piggyback process, was developed to prepare fibrous samples of a variety of nonspinnable ceramics. In this technique, specially produced C shaped carbon fibers serve as micromolds to hold the desired materials prior to sintering. Depending on the sintering atmosphere used, bicomponent or single component fibers result. While much has been shown worldwide concerning the YBa2Cu3O(7-x) superconductor, fabrication into unique forms has proven quite difficult. However, a variety of intricate shapes are necessary for rapid commercialization of the superconducting materials. The potential for producing fibrous samples of the YBa2Cu3O(7-x) compound by the piggyback process is being studied. Various organic and acrylic materials were studied to determine suspending ability, reactivity with the YBa2Cu3O(7-x) compound during long term storage, and burn out characteristics. While many questions were answered with respect to the interfacial reactions between YBa2Cu3O(7-x) and carbon, much work is still necessary to improve the quality of the sintered material if the fibers produced are to be incorporated into useful composite or cables

Statistical Properties of Interacting Bose Gases in Quasi-2D Harmonic Traps

The analytical probability distribution of the quasi-2D (and purely 2D) ideal and interacting Bose gas are investigated by using a canonical ensemble approach. Using the analytical probability distribution of the condensate, the statistical properties such as the mean occupation number and particle number fluctuations of the condensate are calculated. Researches show that there is a continuous crossover of the statistical properties from a quasi-2D to a purely 2D ideal or interacting gases. Different from the case of a 3D Bose gas, the interaction between atoms changes in a deep way the nature of the particle number fluctuations.Comment: RevTex, 10pages, 4 figures, E-mail: [email protected]

Comparison of CFD and DSMC Using Calibrated Transport Parameters

Hypersonic re-entry flows span a wide range of length scales where regions of both rarefied and continuum flow exist. Traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques do not provide an accurate solution for the rarefied regions of such mixed flow fields. Although direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) can be used to accurately capture both the continuum and rarefied features of mixed flow fields, they are computationally expensive when employed to simulate the low Knudsen number continuum regimes. Thus, a hybrid framework for seamlessly combining the two methodologies, CFD and DSMC, continues to be a topic of significant research effort. Ensuring consistency in the reaction kinetics and transport models employed within CFD and DSMC is a crucial requirement for obtaining a reliable solution from a hybrid framework for combined continuum/rarefied high speed flows. This paper represents one of the first studies to utilize the calibrated transport parameters developed to ensure consistency between CFD and DSMC solvers. The new variable soft sphere (VSS) parameters are compared to both previous standard variable hard sphere (VHS) parameters and also to solutions from the CFD transport properties that the new parameters were developed to reproduce

The geometric role of symmetry breaking in gravity

In gravity, breaking symmetry from a group G to a group H plays the role of describing geometry in relation to the geometry the homogeneous space G/H. The deep reason for this is Cartan's "method of equivalence," giving, in particular, an exact correspondence between metrics and Cartan connections. I argue that broken symmetry is thus implicit in any gravity theory, for purely geometric reasons. As an application, I explain how this kind of thinking gives a new approach to Hamiltonian gravity in which an observer field spontaneously breaks Lorentz symmetry and gives a Cartan connection on space.Comment: 4 pages. Contribution written for proceedings of the conference "Loops 11" (Madrid, May 2011

The Immirzi Parameter as an Instanton Angle

The Barbero-Immirzi parameter is a one parameter quantization ambiguity underpinning the loop approach to quantum gravity that bears tantalizing similarities to the theta parameter of gauge theories such as Yang-Mills and QCD. Despite the apparent semblance, the Barbero-Immirzi field has resisted a direct topological interpretation along the same lines as the theta-parameter. Here we offer such an interpretation. Our approach begins from the perspective of Einstein-Cartan gravity as the symmetry broken phase of a de Sitter gauge theory. From this angle, just as in ordinary gauge theories, a theta-term emerges from the requirement that the vacuum is stable against quantum mechanical tunneling. The Immirzi parameter is then identified as a combination of Newton's constant, the cosmological constant, and the theta-parameter.Comment: 24 page

Production of superconductor/carbon bicomponent fibers

Certain materials are unable to be drawn or spun into fiber form due to their improper melting characteristics or brittleness. However, fibrous samples of such materials are often necessary for the fabrication of intricate shapes and composites. In response to this problem, a unique process, referred to as the piggyback process, was developed to prepare fibrous samples of a variety of nonspinnable ceramics. In this technique, specially produced C-shaped carbon fibers serve as micromolds to hold the desired materials prior to sintering. Depending on the sintering atmosphere used, bicomponent or single component fibers result. While much has been demonstrated worldwide concerning the YBa2Cu3O(7-x) superconductor, fabrication into unique forms has proven quite difficult. However, a variety of intricate shapes are necessary for rapid commercialization of the superconducting materials. The potential for producing fibrous samples of the YBa2Cu3O(7-x) compound by the piggyback process is being investigated. Various organic and acrylic materials were investigated to determine suspending ability, reactivity with the YBa2Cu3O(7-x) compound during long term storage, and burn out characteristics. While many questions were answered with respect to the interfacial reactions between YBa2Cu3O(7-x) and carbon, much work is still necessary to improve the quality of the sintered material if the fibers produced are to be incorporated into useful composites or cables. Additional research is necessary to evaluate quality of the barrier layer during long soakings at the peak temperature; adjust the firing schedule to avoid microcracking and improve densification; and increase the solids loading in the superconductive suspension to decrease porosity

A new chiral electro-optic effect: Sum-frequency generation from optically active liquids in the presence of a dc electric field

We report the observation of sum-frequency signals that depend linearly on an applied electrostatic field and that change sign with the handedness of an optically active solution. This recently predicted chiral electro-optic effect exists in the electric-dipole approximation. The static electric field gives rise to an electric-field-induced sum-frequency signal (an achiral third-order process) that interferes with the chirality-specific sum-frequency at second-order. The cross-terms linear in the electrostatic field constitute the effect and may be used to determine the absolute sign of second- and third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities in isotropic media.Comment: Submitted to Physical Revie

Towards a High Energy Theory for the Higgs Phase of Gravity

Spontaneous Lorentz violation due to a time-dependent expectation value for a massless scalar has been suggested as a method for dynamically generating dark energy. A natural candidate for the scalar is a Goldstone boson arising from the spontaneous breaking of a U(1) symmetry. We investigate the low-energy effective action for such a Goldstone boson in a general class of models involving only scalars, proving that if the scalars have standard kinetic terms then at the {\em classical} level the effective action does not have the required features for spontaneous Lorentz violation to occur asymptotically $(t \to \infty)$ in an expanding FRW universe. Then we study the large $N$ limit of a renormalizable field theory with a complex scalar coupled to massive fermions. In this model an effective action for the Goldstone boson with the properties required for spontaneous Lorentz violation can be generated. Although the model has shortcomings, we feel it represents progress towards finding a high energy completion for the Higgs phase of gravity.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures;fixed typos and added reference