Characterization of Alaskan Hot-Mix Asphalt containing Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement Material

In order to properly characterize Alaskan HMA materials containing RAP, this study evaluated properties of 3 asphalt binders typically used in Alaska, PG 52-28, PG 52-40, and PG 58-34, and 11 HMA mixtures containing up to 35% RAP that were either produced in the lab or collected from existing paving projects in Alaska. Various binder and mixture engineering properties were determined, including true high binder grades, complex modulus (|G*|), and phase angle (δ) at high performance temperatures, MSCR recovery rate and compliance, BBR stiffness and m-value, DTT failure stress and strain for binders, and dynamic modulus, flow number, IDT creep stiffness and strength for mixtures. Binder cracking temperatures were determined through Thermal Stress Analysis Routine (TSAR) software along with BBR and DTT data. Mixture cracking temperatures were determined with IDT creep stiffness and strength data. It was found that rutting may not be a concern with Alaskan RAP mix, while low-temperature cracking concerns may still exist in RAP mix in Alaska. A savings of $13.3/ton was estimated for a 25% RAP mix, with consideration of Alaskan situations. Many recommendations for future RAP practice and research are recommended based on testing results and cost analysis.Alaska Department of Transportation Statewide Research Offic

Performance of TenCate Paving Interlayers in Asphalt Concrete Pavements

As a continued effort of a previously completed project entitled “Performance of TenCate Mirafi PGM-G4 Interlayer-Reinforced Asphalt Pavements in Alaska,” this project evaluated two newly modified paving interlayers (TruPave and Mirapave) through overlay, dynamic modulus tests and low-temperature performance tests. A field survey was conducted to further evaluate the performance of three paving interlayers (G4, G50/50, and G100/100) applied to field sections constructed in May 2013 at Milepost 148–156 Richardson Highway in Alaska. Overlay test results indicate that asphalt concrete (AC) with paving interlayers (TruPave and Mirapave) shows lower reduction in peak load, suggesting better cracking resistance. The dynamic modulus measurement of AC with paving interlayers reveals more rational results from the IDT mode test than the AMPT method due to similar stress conditions in the paving interlayer. With paving interlayers, the temperature sensitivity and cracking potential of AC material were reduced according to the results from the IDT creep test. Field survey results confirm that all sections reinforced with paving interlayers (G4, G50/50, and G100/100) had better cracking resistance than the control section.TenCate Geosynthetics North Americ

Soft Gluon Resummation Effects in Single Graviton Production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in the Randall-Sundrum Model

We study QCD effects in single graviton production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the Randall-Sundrum (RS) Model. We present in detail the complete next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to the inclusive total cross sections. The NLO QCD corrections enhance significantly the total cross sections and decrease efficiently the dependence of the total cross sections on the factorization and renormalization scales. We also examine the uncertainty of the total cross sections due to the parton distribution function (PDF) uncertainties. For the differential cross sections on the transverse momentum ($q_T$) of the graviton, within the CSS resummation formalism, we resum the logarithmically-enhanced terms at small $q_T$ to all orders up to NLO logatithmic accuracy. Combined with the fixed order calculations, we give consistent predictions for both small $q_T$ and large $q_T$.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures; minor changes and misprints corrected; version to appear in PR

Multi-color light curves and orbital period research of eclipsing binary V1073 Cyg

New Multi-color $B$ $V$ $R_c$ $I_c$ photometric observation are presented for W UMa type eclipsing binary V1073 Cyg. The multi-color light curves analysis with the Wilson-Devinney(W-D) procedure acquired the absolute parameters of this system, showing that V1073Cyg is a shallow contact binary system with fill-out factor $f=0.124(\pm0.011)$. We collected all available times of light minima spanning 119 years including CCD data to construct the O-C curve and made detailed O-C analysis. The O-C diagram shows that the period change is complex. There exist a long-term continuous decrease and a cyclic variation. The period is decreasing at a rate of $\dot P=-1.04(\pm0.18)\times 10^{-10}$ $days\cdot{cycle}^{-1}$, and with the period decrease, V1073 Cyg will evolve to deep contact stage. The cyclic variation with a period of $P_3=82.7(\pm3.6) years$ and an amplitude of $A=0.028(\pm0.002) day$ may be explained by the magnetic activity of one or both components or the light travel time effect (LTTE) caused by a distant third companion with $M_3({i'}=90^{\circ})=0.511M_\odot$.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Search for anomalous top quark production at the early LHC

We present a detailed study of the anomalous top quark production with subsequent decay at the LHC induced by model-independent flavor-changing neutral-current couplings, incorporating the complete next-to-leading order QCD effects. Our results show that, taking into account the current limits from the Tevatron, the LHC with $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV may discover the anomalous coupling at 5$\sigma$ level for a very low integrated luminosity of 61 pb$^{-1}$. The discovery potentials for the anomalous couplings at the LHC are examined in detail. We also discuss the possibility of using the charge ratio to distinguish the $tug$ and $tcg$ couplings.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, version appears in Phys. Rev. Let

Threshold Resummation Effects in Direct Top Quark Production at Hadron Colliders

We investigate the threshold-enhanced QCD corrections to the cross sections for direct top quark productions induced by model-independent flavor changing neutral current couplings at hadron colliders. We use the soft-collinear effective theory to describe the incoming massless partons and use the heavy quark effective theory to treat the top quark. Then we construct the flavor changing operator based on the above effective theories, and resum the large logarithms near threshold arising from soft gluon emission. Our results show that the resummed QCD corrections further enhance the next-to-leading order cross sections significantly. Moreover, the resummation effects vastly reduce the dependence of the cross sections on the renormalization and factorization scales, especially in cases where the next-to-leading order results behave worse than the leading order results. Our results are more sensitive to the new physics effects. If signals of direct top quark production are found in future experiments, it is more appropriate to use our results as the theoretical inputs for extracting the anomalous couplings.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, use revtex4 and amsmath; version to appear in Phys. Rev.