Investigation of multicomponent fluoride optical materials in the UV spectral region: I. Single crystals of Ca1−x R xF2+x (R = Sc, Y, La, Yb, Lu) solid solutions

Crystalline materials that are transparent in the vacuum UV spectral region and currently used have been reviewed. Transmission of crystals of solid solutions with the fluorite structure Ca_1?x R _xF_2+x (R = Sc, Y, La, Yb, Lu) in the UV and vacuum UV spectral regions has been investigated. It is shown that application of different methods of purification of fluorides from some impurities can significantly improve the optical quality of fluoride multicomponent crystals in the short-wavelength spectral region.     

Coset extensions of <Emphasis Type=”Italic”>S</Emphasis>-sets

Summary Three weak variants of compactness which lie strictly between compactness and quasicompactness, are introduced. Their basic properties are studied. The interplay with mapping and their direct and inverse preservation under mappings are investigated. In the process three decompositions of compactness are observed.     

ATLAS electromagnetic calorimetry and performance of electron/photon detection

The European Physical Journal C - The design constraints and the target physics performance of the ATLAS Electromagnetic Calorimeter are reviewed, and the construction status is summarized....     

K X-ray production cross sections for 40-180 keV protons

Considering the importance of the X-ray production cross sections for the determination of the element concentrations in a given material, we have measured them experimentally for Al Si, Sc, Ti, V, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu bombarded by protons with energies ranging from 40 to 180 keV. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effect of the structure of smooth copper surfaces on the accuracy of determination of the optical constants of copper

The accuracy of determination of the optical constants of smooth copper surfaces produced by different technologies is analyzed, with particular attention paid to the consideration of the influence of scattered radiation (which is ignored by many authors) on the retrieval of the optical constants of copper surfaces from reflected radiation. The neglect of scattered radiation can lead to errors as high as 50% in determining the optical constants for bulk copper. For thin films, the errors are much lower. The influence of surface oxidation during measurements in air and surface features of studied objects on the parameters to be determined is analyzed as well. It is shown that errors in determination of the constants are maximal in the plasma resonance region of copper.

     

Index Heuristics for Multiclass M/G/1 Systems with Nonpreemptive Service and Convex Holding Costs

We consider the optimal service control of a multiclass M/G/1 queueing system in which customers are served nonpreemptively and the system cost rate is additive across classes and increasing convex in the numbers present in each class. Following Whittle's approach to a class of restless bandit problems, we develop a Langrangian relaxation of the service control problem which serves to motivate the development of a class of index heuristics. The index for a particular customer class is characterised as a fair charge for service of that class. The paper develops these indices and reports an extensive numerical investigation which exhibits strong performance of the index heuristics for both discounted and average costs.     

A novel approach to the acoustic characterisation of porous road surfaces

Porous road surfaces offer an effective means of reducing the generation and propagation of noise from road traffic. However, the porosity of these surfaces can deteriorate over time, leading to a reduction in their noise reducing properties. Efficient methods are therefore required for monitoring this performance. Existing techniques for performing in-situ measurements of acoustic absorption are unsuitable for use within the traffic stream. Static measurements using time domain Maximum Length Sequence (MLS) based techniques have been demonstrated to offer advantages over traditional techniques, presenting the opportunity for measurements under dynamic conditions. This paper describes the design of a system for carrying out dynamic MLS-based measurements. Results are presented which demonstrate that stable dynamic measurements can be carried out at speeds of up to 30 km/h.     

Partially isometric dilations of noncommuting -tuples of operators

Given a row contraction of operators on a Hilbert space and a family of projections on the space that stabilizes the operators, we show there is a unique minimal joint dilation to a row contraction of partial isometries that satisfy natural relations. For a fixed row contraction the set of all dilations forms a partially ordered set with a largest and smallest element. A key technical device in our analysis is a connection with directed graphs. We use a Wold decomposition for partial isometries to describe the models for these dilations, and we discuss how the basic properties of a dilation depend on the row contraction.