Klaus Halbach,Undulator Pioneer

I am indebted to Karl Brown for suggesting that I invite Klaus, who I did not know at the time, to a workshop on wiggler magnets in March 1977. I recall Karl saying to me something like, “Herman, if you want someone who knows about magnets, you should invite Klaus Halbach.” Klaus came and even made a contribution about some aspects of the design of electromagnet wigglers, the only type of wigglers that had been considered to that time. However, it was at that workshop that Klaus got his introduction to synchrotron radiation, mostly by listening to talks by Albert Hofmann and Andy Sesler, who explained the marvelous properties of undulator magnets as radiation sources. Klaus filed this information in his long-term memory banks while working on other topics, particularly the design of permanent magnet quadrupoles for proton linacs.     

One-dimensional non-nearest-neighbor random walks in the presence of traps

A one-dimensional lattice random walk in the presence ofm equally spaced traps is considered. The step length distribution is a symmetric exponential. An explicit analytic expression is obtained for the probability that the random walk will be trapped at thejth trapping site.     

Observation of sharp resistance anomalies near Tc in granular superconductors

Granular films prepared from well-defined In clusters embedded in Kr (? 10-40 at % Kr) show sharp resistance anomalies very close to the superconducting transition temperature. The observed resistance peak(s), which go(es) above the normal state resistance R_N and which can be as high as ? 1.5 R_N, can be explained by a “mesoscopic” effect: Superconducting percolation aggregates of size ξ_ρ, larger than the superconducting coherence length ξ_S, but smaller than the quasiparticle relaxation length λ_Q*, have a superconducting gap, but are not yet able to carry a supercurrent.     

Optimization for pattern classification using biased random search techniques

We demonstrate how optimization problems arise in the field of pattern classification, in particular in using piecewise-linear classification and classification based on an optimal linear separator. We motivate the need in this area for a general purpose optimization approach. We discuss ALOPEX, a biased random search approach, from the point of view of this need. While ALOPEX itself failed to fulfil our need, a newly-introduced generalization of it (iterated ALOPEX) was found to be appropriate for the optimization problems of our particular concern. We conclude the paper with a brief critical evaluation of this approach as compared to our original aims.     

The potential role of ultrasound in differentiating solid and cystic swellings of the true vocal fold

This study was designed to investigate the potential role of ultrasound in the diagnosis of cysts of the true vocal fold. Materials and Methods: Grayscale ultrasound of the larynx was carried out in 29 patients with a swelling of the true vocal fold and dysphonia. The findings were then compared with those at subsequent microlaryngoscopy, in the majority of cases. Results and Conclusions: Whereas preoperative laryngeal ultrasound correctly predicted the surgical findings of a cystic lesion in only 5 of 11 cases, it correctly identified that no cyst was present in 15 of 16 instances when this had been queried. This study suggests that ultrasound may have some role in investigation of unilateral vocal fold pathology, but that further fine-tuning of the technique may be necessary.     

C=1 conformal field theories on Riemann surfaces

We study the theory ofc=1 torus and ₂-orbifold models on general Riemann surfaces. The operator content and occurrence of multi-critical points in this class of theories is discussed. The partition functions and correlation functions of vertex operators and twist fields are calculated using the theory of double covered Riemann surfaces. It is shown that orbifold partition functions are sensitive to the Torelli group. We give an algebraic construction of the operator formulation of these nonchiral theories on higher genus surfaces. Modular transformations are naturally incorporated as canonical transformations in the Hilbert space.