New limit on CPT violation

A search for antiproton decay has been made at the Fermilab Antiproton Accumulator. Limits are placed on fifteen antiproton decay modes. The results are used to place limits on the characteristic mass scale m(X) that could be associated with CPT violation accompanied by baryon number violation.     

Small-angle muon and bottom-quark production in p&pmacr; collisions at radicals = 1.8 TeV

This Letter describes a measurement of the muon cross section originating from b-quark decay in the forward rapidity range 2.4<| y(&mgr;)|<3.2 in p&pmacr; collisions at sqrt[s] = 1.8 TeV. The data used in this analysis were collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron. We find that next-to-leading-order QCD calculations underestimate b-quark production by a factor of 4 in the forward rapidity region.     

Static deflection measurements of cantilever arrays reveal polymer film expansion and contraction

An optical static method of detection is used to interpret surface stress induced bending related to cantilevers coated on one side with poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(vinyl butyral-co-vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate), and poly(vinyl chloride-co-vinyl acetate-co-2-hydroxypropyl acrylate), or respectively, PVA, PVB, and PVC, and exposed to various solvent vapors. Results indicate that the adsorption and surface interactions of the different solvent vapors that cause polymer swelling and shrinking lead to rearrangements, which have been shown to change the elastic properties of the polymer film, and subsequently, the spring constant of the polymer coated cantilever. Static deflection measurements allow the direction of cantilever bending to be determined, which adds a new dimension of usefulness for surface functionalized cantilevers as transducers in the development of novel microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).     

Optical characteristics of a cluster of closely-packed dielectric spheres

We employ the pseudospectral time-domain technique to simulate light scattering by a cluster of mono-disperse dielectric spheres. The total scattering cross-section (TSCS) spectrum of the cluster is obtained and analyzed. Research findings show that the TSCS spectrum exhibits characteristics of the cluster geometry as a whole, as well as characteristics of the constituent dielectric spheres. Furthermore, an optical signature indicative of the constituent sphere size is identified, suggesting the possibility to obtain microscopic geometrical information of a closely-packed geometry from multiply scattered light.     

Sensitive determination of RDX, nitroso-RDX metabolites, and other munitions in ground water by solid-phase extraction and isotope dilution liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure electro-spray [correction of chemical] ionization mass spectrometry.

Recent improvements in the LC-MS interface have increased the sensitivity and selectivity of this instrument in the analysis of polar and thermally-labile aqueous constituents. Determination of RDX, nitroso-RDX metabolites, and other munitions was enhanced using LC-MS with solid-phase extraction, 15N3-RDX internal standard, and electrospray ionization (ESI) in negative ion mode. ESI produced a five-fold increase in detector response over atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) for the nitramine compounds, while the more energetic APCI produced more than twenty times the ESI response for nitroaromatics. Method detection limits in ESI for nitramines varied from 0.03 microgram l-1 for MNX to 0.05 microgram l-1 for RDX.