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Household materials are made of various types of plastics, since they are durable, lightweight and inexpensive. They can be easily molded and remolded into various products that are used in a plethora of applications. Plastic recycling refers to the process of recovering waste or scrap plastic and reprocessing the materials into functional and useful products. The goal of recycling plastic is to reduce high rates of plastic pollution while putting less pressure on virgin materials to produce brand new plastic products. This paper deals with a conceptual investigation and development of an automatic plastic segregation plant. In order to develop a plant which, satisfy the required technical and economic specifications, a large investigation of existing techniques was performed. Different techniques described in research, and those used in recycling industry today were studied. The results of these studies paved way to a conceptual and potential recycling device for plastics which is completely automated using Raman spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monocrystalline silicon wafers are employed in the photovoltaic industry for the manufacture of solar panels with high conversion efficiency. Micro-cracks can be induced in the thin wafer surfaces during the cutting process. High frequency guided waves are considered for the testing of the wafers and the nondestructive characterization of the micro-cracks. Experimentally selective excitation of the fundamental Lamb wave modes was achieved using a custom-made angle beam transducer and holder to achieve a controlled contact pressure. The out-of-plane component of the guided wave propagation was measured using a noncontact laser interferometer, scanned parallel to the specimen surface using a positioning system. The material anisotropy of the monocrystalline silicon leads to variations of the guided ultrasonic wave characteristics depending on the propagation direction relative to the monocrystalline silicon orientation. In non-principal directions of the crystal, wave beam skewing occurs due to material anisotropy. Artificial defects were introduced in the wafers using a micro indenter with varying force. The defects were characterized from microscopy images to measure the indent depth and combined crack lengths. The scattering of the A0 Lamb wave mode was measured experimentally. The scattered wave field showed high amplitude peaks close to the defect location and an interference pattern indicative of a scattered wave, but was found to be not symmetric to the defect and crystallographic orientations. Characteristics of the scattered wave amplitudes were correlated to the defect size and the detection sensitivity discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Octupole End Station is the third-generation design with substantial improvements that is used for soft X-ray scattering in magnetic dichroism (XMD) experiments. The system is mainly used for three applications: constant field for the duration of an x-ray absorption scan, point-by-point field reversal for an XMD photon energy scan, and hysteresis loop measurements. The ADC Octupole is based on earlier designs and work performed by Elke Arenholz and Soren O. Prestemon at Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory1. ADC improved on the ALS design by enlarging the chamber to allow for in vacuum goniometer and a significant increase in the number of ports that can be used for experimental design, such as cryogenic cooling. Eight conical electro magnets are equidistantly spaced about the surface of a sphere to create an omnidirectional field vector with a magnitude of 1 [T]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MAGIC telescopes are strongly involved in several multimessenger programs. One of them are follow-up observations of astrophysical neutrino events, to search for hadronic γ-ray emission from the neutrino direction and identify potential neutrino sources. In 2013 the IceCube collaboration reported the first detection of astrophysical neutrinos and up to now 55 events, which interact inside the IceCube detector active volume, dubbed High Energy Starting Events (HESE), have been reported. These include 13 track-like events, caused usually by muon neutrino charge current interactions. The track-like events (as opposed to cascade-like neutral current interactions) are characterised by a very good angular resolution of < 1 deg, which facilitates followup observations and potential source identification. The MAGIC telescopes performed follow-up observations of 4 HESE track-like events from the Northern hemisphere: HESE-37, HESE-38, HET (ATel #7856) and the GCN HESE alert from 27/04/2016 (GCN #19363). No signal was detected. Here we present the results of those observations and discuss the implications for the constraints on the density of the astrophysical neutrino sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this brief review is to report the techniques of functional near infrared spectroscopy for noninvasive evaluation in human study. The development of functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technologies has advanced quantification signal using multiple wavelength and detector to solve the propagation of light inside the tissues including the absorption, scattering coefficient and to define the light penetration into tissues multilayers. There are a lot of studies that demonstrate signal from fNIRS which can be used to evaluate the changes of oxygenation level and measure the limitation of muscle performance in human brain and muscle tissues. Comprehensive reviews of diffuse reflectance based on beer lambert law theory were presented in this paper. The principle and development of fNIRS instrumentation is reported in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kaon-nucleon (KN) scattering is formulated in the three-dimensional (3D) momentum space, in which the basis state is not expanded into partial waves. Based on this basis the Lippmann-Schwinger equation for the T-matrix is evaluated. We obtain as final equation for the T-matrix elements a set of two coupled integral equations in two variables, which are the momentum's magnitude and the scattering angle. Calculations for the differential cross section and some spin observables are shown, for which we employ a hadrons exchange model with the second order contributions only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kaon-nucleon (KN) scattering is formulated in the three-dimensional (3D) momentum space, in which the basis state is not expanded into partial waves. Based on this basis the Lippmann-Schwinger equation for the T-matrix is evaluated. We obtain as final equation for the T-matrix elements a set of two coupled integral equations in two variables, which are the momentum's magnitude and the scattering angle. Calculations for the differential cross section and some spin observables are shown, for which we employ a hadrons exchange model with the second order contributions only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an approximate approach to quantum dynamics based on the quantum trajectory formulation of the Schrödinger equation. The quantum-mechanical effects are incorporated through the quantum potential of the mean- field type, acting on a trajectory ensemble in addition to the classical potential. Efficiency for large systems is achieved by using the quantum corrections for selected degrees of freedom and introduction of empirical friction into the ground- state energy calculations. The classical potential, if needed, can be computed on-the-fly using the Density Functional Tight Binding method of electronic structure merged with the quantum trajectory dynamics code. The approach is practical for a few hundred atoms. Applications include a study of adsorption of quantum hydrogen colliding with the graphene model, C37H15 and a calculation of the ground state of solid 4He simulated by a cell 180-atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an approximate approach to quantum dynamics based on the quantum trajectory formulation of the Schrödinger equation. The quantum-mechanical effects are incorporated through the quantum potential of the mean- field type, acting on a trajectory ensemble in addition to the classical potential. Efficiency for large systems is achieved by using the quantum corrections for selected degrees of freedom and introduction of empirical friction into the ground- state energy calculations. The classical potential, if needed, can be computed on-the-fly using the Density Functional Tight Binding method of electronic structure merged with the quantum trajectory dynamics code. The approach is practical for a few hundred atoms. Applications include a study of adsorption of quantum hydrogen colliding with the graphene model, C37H15 and a calculation of the ground state of solid 4He simulated by a cell 180-atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cubic-Quintic Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (CQNLSE) is one of the universal mathematical models constituting many interesting problems in physics such as plasma physics, condensed matter physics, Bose-Einstein condensates, nonlinear optics, etc. This paper studies the scattering of the soliton of the CQNLSE on the localized external potential namely Gaussian potential. The approximate analytical method, also known as variational method has been applied in order to derive the equations for soliton parameters evolution during the scattering process. The validity of approximations was tested by direct numerical simulations of CQNLSE with soliton initially located far from potential. It was shown, in case of the potential in the form of Gaussian function, that depending on initial velocity of the soliton, the soliton may be reflected by potential or transmitted through it. The critical values of the velocity separating these two scenarios have been identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Final state interactions distort the shape of the differential cross section at the peak and increase the cross section at the tails of the distribution. We show that the kinematic distributions predicted by the ψ′ superscaling formalism can be well described with a modified effective spectral function (ESF). By construction, models using ESF in combination with the transverse enhancement contribution correctly predict electron QE scattering data. Our values for the binding energy parameter Δ are smaller than ε extracted within the Fermi gas model from pre 1971 data by Moniz [8], probably because these early cross sections were not corrected for coulomb effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using a Regge-pole model for vector meson production (VMP), that successfully describes the HERA data, we analyse the connection of VMP cross sections in photon-induced reactions at HERA with those in ultra-peripheral collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The role of the low-energy behaviour of VMP cross sections in γρ collisions is scrutinized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical method for solving a problem of diffraction of acoustic waves by system of solid and thin objects based on the reduction the problem to a boundary integral equation in which the integral is understood in the sense of finite Hadamard value is proposed. To solve this equation we applied piecewise constant approximations and collocation methods numerical scheme. The difference between the constructed scheme and earlier known is in obtaining approximate analytical expressions to appearing system of linear equations coefficients by separating the main part of the kernel integral operator. The proposed numerical scheme is tested on the solution of the model problem of diffraction of an acoustic wave by inelastic sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light absorption and scattering of metal nano partilces occur in very narrow range of wavelengths. This is also dependent on the geometry and shape of metal nano particles. It is also known that scattering is related to (volume)² and absorption is related to the volume of the spherical metal nano particles. In our work we show that using this principle metal nano particles enable fluorescence tuning of dyes. In our experiment we show such tuning in naturally occurring betacyanin extracted from red beetroot. We also show that such tuning is dependent on the size variation of the silver nano particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relativistic mean field calculations have been employed to study neutron rich nuclei. The Lagrange's equations have been solved in the co-ordinate space. The effect of the continuum has been effectively taken into account through the method of resonant continuum. It is found that BCS approximation performs as well as a more involved Relativistic Continuum Hartree Bogoliubov approach. Calculations reveal the possibility of modification of magic numbers in neutron rich nuclei. Calculation for low energy proton scattering cross sections shows that the present approach reproduces the density in very light neutron rich nuclei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of regular health monitoring has led to a large variety of medical products being available in the market. Motion artifact is still a limitation in portable optical devices which can provide accurate results. We will address the possibility of measuring a pulsatile flow in a noisy environment using an approach based on speckle dynamics. In specific case we measure pulsation or the heart rate in presence of motion between the illumination and the in-vitro or in-vivo sample. The main motion induced artifact in the signal being measured arises from changing the light penetration depth at various positions being illuminated. These measurements have been compared for different settings and multiple-exposure time of the camera. We compare the result for each measurement based on two techniques of speckle contrast and correlation. Under several parameters of the measurement, different analysis techniques were successful but in general correlation approach shows to be more robust for larger motion induced artifacts. Shorter exposure times provide a more detailed spectrum and more successful for extracting the signal from the induced motion artifact, in case of correlation analysis. The in-vivo measurement results agreed fairly with in-vitro case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiation of energy by large amplitude leaky Rayleigh waves is regarded as one of the key physical mechanisms regulating the actuation and manipulation of droplets in surface acoustic wave (SAW) microfluidic devices. The interaction between a SAW and a droplet is highly complex and is presently the subject of extensive research. This paper investigates the existence of an additional interaction mechanism based on the propagation of quasi-Stoneley waves inside sessile droplets deposited on a solid substrate. In contrast with the leaky Rayleigh wave, the energy of the Stoneley wave is confined within a thin fluid layer in contact with the substrate. The hypothesis is confirmed by three-dimensional finite element simulations and ultrasonic scattering experiments measuring the reflection of Rayleigh waves from droplets of different diameters. Moreover, real-time monitoring of the droplet evaporation process reveals a clear correlation between the droplet contact angle and the spectral information of the reflected Rayleigh signal, thus paving the way for ultrasonic measurements of surface tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common practice in guided wave structural health monitoring is collecting measurements from a transducer array using the pitch-catch method. Among different array configurations, the spatially distributed array provides a cost-effective solution for rapid interrogation of large, plate-like structures. Several guided wave imaging techniques have been proposed and successfully demonstrated for damage detection and localization. However, the performance of these imaging methods can be compromised by a mismatch between a particular transducer array geometry and the scattering characteristics of a defect of interest. This study proposes a method, which is based upon estimating scattering matrices, to quantify the ability of a specific array geometry to interrogate a scatterer. Several array geometries are evaluated using this method, and a Monte Carlo simulation is then performed to vary the transducer locations to find the array geometry that is best matched to a specific directional scatterer. The efficacy of the proposed method is evaluated experimentally by introducing notches of different orientations and locations on an aluminum plate specimen that is instrumented with a spatially distributed array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A guided wave based monitoring system for welded freight rail, has previously been developed. The current arrangement consists of alternating transmit and receive stations positioned roughly 1 km apart, and is designed to reliably detect complete breaks in a rail. Current research efforts are focused on extending this system to include a pulse-echo mode of operation in order to detect, locate, monitor and possibly characterize damage, before a complete break occurs. For monitoring and inspection applications, it is beneficial to be able to distinguish between scattering defects which do not represent damage (such as welds) and cracks which could result in rail breaks. In this paper we investigate the complex interaction between selected propagating modes and various weld and crack geometries in an attempt to relate scattering behaviour to defect geometry. An efficient hybrid method is employed which models the volume containing the defect with conventional solid finite elements, while the semi-infinite incoming and outgoing waveguides are accounted for using the SAFE method. Four candidate modes, suitable for long range propagation, are identified and evaluated. A weighted average reflection coefficient is used as a measure to quantify mode conversion between these four modes, and results are represented graphically in the form of reflection maps. The results show that it should be possible to distinguish between a large crack in the crown of the rail and a weld. We also show that there may be difficulties associated with reliably identifying cracks in the web as well as cracks in the crown which occur at a thermite weld. We suspect that it will be difficult to detect damage in the foot of the rail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid model to simulate the ultrasonic array response from stress corrosion cracks is presented. These cracks are branched and difficult to detect so the model is required to enable optimization of an array design. An efficient frequency-domain finite element method is described and selected to simulate the ultrasonic scattering. Experimental validation results are presented, followed by an example of the simulated ultrasonic array response from a real stress corrosion crack whose geometry is obtained from an X-ray Computed Tomography image. A simulation-assisted array design methodology, which includes the model and use of real crack geometries, is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DAEδALUS (Decay At rest Experiment for δ studies At the Laboratory for Underground Science) is a new approach to measuring CP violation in the neutrino sector using few-tens-of-MeV neutrinos from decay at rest of pions created by multiple cyclotrons, in conjunction with a large inverse-beta-decay-sensitive detector. The DAEδALUS high-intensity stopped-pion neutrino sources would also enable exploration of low-energy neutrino physics at short baseline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a brief review of some calculations of form factors and coupling constants in vertices with charm and bottom mesons in the framework of QCD sum rules. We first discuss the motivation for this work, describing possible applications of these form factors to charm and bottom decays processes. We first make a summarize of the QCD sum rules method. We give special attention to the uncertainties of the method introducing by the intrinsic variation of the parameters. Finally we conclude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feasibility for a measurement of the exclusive production of a real photon, a process although known as Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) at an eRHIC has been explored. An electron-proton/ion collider facility (eRHIC) is under consideration at BrookhavenNational Laboratory (BNL). Such a new facility will require the design and construction of a new optimized detector profiting from the experience gained from electron-proton colliders like at the experiments H1 and ZEUS at DESY-HERA. In particular, eRHIC is a machine designed to collide an electron beam with energies ranging from 5 GeV up to 20 GeV with the RHIC hadron beams (protons (100-250 GeV) and nuclei (≤ 100 GeV)), thus varying center-of-mass energies. DVCS is universally believed to be a golden measurement toward the determination of the Generalized Parton Distribution (GPDs) functions. The high luminosity of the machine, expected in the order of 1034 cm2s-1 at the highest center-of-mass energy, together with the large rapidity acceptance of a newly designed dedicated detector, will open the opportunity for measuring DVCS with an unprecedented precision, providing an important tool toward a 2+1 dimensional picture of the internal structure of the proton. The huge impact such measurements would have on the determination of GPDs will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spectrum of excited baryons serves as an excellent probe of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In particular, highly-excited baryon resonances are sensitive to the details of quark confinement which is only poorly understood within QCD. Facilities worldwide such as Jefferson Lab, ELSA, and MAMI, which study the systematics of hadron spectra in photo- and electroproduction experiments, have accumulated a large amount of data in recent years including unpolarized cross section and polarization data for a large variety of meson-production reactions. These are important steps toward complete experiments that will allow us to unambiguously determine the scattering amplitude in the underlying reactions and to identify the broad and overlapping baryon resonance contributions. Several new nucleon resonances have been proposed and changes to the baryon listing in the 2012 Review of Particle Physics reflect the progress in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use an extended version of the hadronic SU(3) non-linear realization of the sigma model that also includes quarks to study hybrid stars. Within this approach, the degrees of freedom change naturally as the temperature/density increases. Different prescriptions of charge neutrality, local and global, are tested and the influence of strong magnetic fields and the anomalous magnetic moment on the particle population is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In these lectures I present the main pillars of saturation physics: Glauber-Mueller multiple rescatterings, quasi-classical McLerran-Venugopalan model, and the nonlinear BK and JIMWLK small-x evolution equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of recent results in muon scattering measurements from the COMPASS experiment at CERN will be reviewed. These include high energy processes with longitudinally polarised proton and deuteron targets. High energy polarised measurements provide important constraints for studying the nucleon spin structure and thus permit to test the applicability of the theoretical framework of factorisation theorems and perturbative QCD. Specifically, latest results on longitudinal quark polarisation, quark helicity densities and gluon polarisation will be reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific shear viscosity (η/s)QGP of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) can be extracted from elliptic flow data in heavy-ion collisions by comparing them with the dynamical model VISHNU which couples a viscous fluid dynamic description of the QGP with a microscopic kinetic description of the late hadronic rescattering and freeze-out stage. A robust method for fixing (η/s)QGP from the collision centrality dependence of the eccentricity-scaled charged hadron elliptic flow is presented. The systematic uncertainties associated with this extraction method are discussed, with specific attention to our presently restricted knowledge of initial conditions. With the (η/s)QGP extracted in this way, VISHNU yields an excellent description of all soft-hadron data from Au+Au collisions at top RHIC energy. Extrapolations to Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC, using both a purely hydrodynamic approach and VISHNU, are presented and compared with recent experimental results from the ALICE Collaboration. The LHC data are again well described by VISHNU, with the same (η/s)QGP value as at RHIC energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elastic πN scattering and the related reactions πN→KΛ, KΣ are described simultaneously in a unitary coupled-channel approach which respects analyticity and other general properties of the S-matrix. SU(3) flavor symmetry is used to relate the t- and u- channel exchanges that dirve the meson-baryon interaction in the different channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photoproduction of pions off nucleons is investigated within a dynamical coupled-channels approach based on the Ju¨lich πN model, which has been quite successful in the description of πN→πN scattering for center-of-mass energies up to 1:9 GeV. The full pion photoproduction amplitude is constructed to satisfy the generalized Ward-Takahashi identity and thus is fully gauge invariant. The calculated differential cross sections and photon spin asymmetries up to 1.65 GeV center-of-mass energy for the reactions γp→π+n, γp→π0p and γn→π-p are in good agreement with the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results on P11 resonances obtained with Dubna-Mainz-Taipei (DMT) dynamical model for pion-nucleon scattering and pion electromagnetic production. The extracted values agree well, in general, with PDG values. One pole is found corresponding to the Roper resonance and two more resonances are definitely needed in DMT model. We further find indication for a narrow P11 resonance at around 1700 MeV with a width ~ 50 MeV in both πN and γπ reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have measured the differential cross section for the γ3He→π+t reaction. This reaction was studied using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Lab. Real photons produced with the Hall-B bremsstrahlung tagging system in the energy range from 0.5 to 1.55 GeV were incident on a cryogenic liquid 3He target. The differential cross sections for the γ3He→π+t reaction were measured as a function of photon-beam energy and pion-scattering angle. Theoretical predictions to date cannot explain the large cross sections except at backward angles, showing that additional components must be added to the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze meson-baryon scattering lengths in the framework of covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory at leading one-loop order. We compute the complete set of matching relations between the dimension-two low-energy constants in the two- and three-flavor formulations of the theory. We derive new two-flavor low-energy theorems for pion-hyperon scattering that can be tested in lattice simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutrino scattering experiments have been studying the DIS region, including high-xBj, for over 40 years. From the Gargamelle experiments in the early 70's, through the subsequent bubble chamber and electronic detector experiments neutrino scattering experiments have steadily accumulated increasing statistics and minimized their systematic errors. Recent completed studies of high-xBj with neutrinos are from the the NuTeV experiment off Fe in the TeVatron neutrino beam and both the CHORUS experiment off Pb and the NOMAD experiment off C/Al in the CERN neutrino beam. The significant factor here is that all recent high-statistics neutrino experiments have been off high-A nucleus targets. The unknown nuclear effects mask the high-xBj behavior of the bare neutrino-nucleon interaction. In order to address this problem, current on-going studies have shifted to the Main Injector based NuMI facility at Fermilab and the MINER?A experiment. This experiment is a collaboration of elementary-particle and nuclear physicists planning to measure absolute exclusive and inclusive cross-sections and nuclear effects in ν - A interactions as well as a systematic study of the resonance-DIS transition region and DIS with an emphasis on the extraction of high-xBj parton distribution functions. The MINERνA experiment also plans to propose the use of a liquid hydrogen target to go after a measurement of d/u quarks at high-xBj. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even with the important advances of the last decade, charmed meson decays are still poorly understood theoretically. It is not clear, for instance, why the kappa scalar resonance is responsible for 70% of the fit in D+→K-π+π+ decay, as observed by the E791 (2002)[5]. Usual models for D+→π+π+K- do not treat properly the weak vertex. Moreover, they also consider the final state interactions in the quasi two-body approximation, where one of the pions acts as a spectator of the Kπ interaction. As an input to treating D decay, the scattering amplitude was calculated by means of a ChPT lagrangian and the kappa was found as a dynamically generated pole. This work aims to quantify the relevance of 3-body final state interaction for the whole D+→π+π+K- decay. With this purpose in mind, we calculate three classes of diagrams in the perturbative series and discuss their relative importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some recent analyses of single-spin and azimuthal asymmetries in SIDIS and Drell-Yan processes, focusing in particular on Collins, Sivers and Boer-Mulders effects, are briefly reviewed. The perspectives for future phenomenological studies are also outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students performed Rutherford back scattering (RBS) experiments using 1.5 MeV helium ion (+1) beam from a Van de Graaff accelerator. The ion beam was incident normally on target samples located in a scattering chamber. The samples were single and multilayered thin films on substrate, prepared using a vacuum evaporator. The scattered ions were measured using a particle detector located at 150° from incident beam direction. The elastically scattered particle energies were predicted from kinematical scattering factor (derived using conservation of energy and momentum) and experimentally verified. Using samples of known elemental thicknesses, the data was normalized and thicknesses of layers in unknown samples determined. For multilayer samples, the scattered particle spectra were analyzed for particle yield per ion, energy shift in the centroid and energy at the leading edge for the elemental peak. The Rutherford scattering formula and the kinematical scattering factor together with the energy loss of the helium ion through the various layers were used to identify elemental layers, their positions and thicknesses. The multilayer films were identified as gold-tungsten-tin (Au-W-Sn). The normalization procedure allowed the thicknesses to be determined with uncertainties of a few percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pion-nucleon scattering, pion photoproduction, and nucleon Compton scattering are analyzed within a scheme based on the chiral Lagrangian. Partial-wave amplitudes are obtained by an analytic extrapolation of subthreshold reaction amplitudes computed in chiral perturbation theory, where the constraints set by electromagnetic-gauge invariance, causality and unitarity are used to stabilize the extrapolation. Experimental data are reproduced up to energies [formula] in terms of the parameters relevant at order Q3. A striking puzzle caused by an old photon asymmetry measurement close to the pion production threshold is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two novel methods in extracting the spectral information of hadrons in the QCD sum rule technique. The first one is to combine two sum rules so that the pole dominance is achieved and the resonance information is effectively obtained. This method is applied to the pentaquark Θ+ and its quantum numbers are predicted. The second method is to use the Bayesian inference theory to obtain the most probable form of the spectral function from the sum rule. We have checked the method to work in the case of the rho meson sum rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We summarize the work of ref. [1] where a theoretical study of the properties of the a1(1260) axial-vector resonance in a cold nuclear medium is carried out. We start from a vacuum model for the a1(1260) resonance where it is generated dynamically from the interactions of a pseudoscalar and vector meson (ρπ and KK*) in a coupled channel chiral unitary approach. The medium effects are implemented through the modification of the ρ and π propagators at finite nuclear density from well established microscopic many-body calculations. The resulting in-medium a1(1260) exhibits significant broadening with increasing density as reflected in the ρπ scattering amplitude. The possible relation of our results with partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear matter is discussed in terms of in-medium Weinberg sum rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review some recent works concerning the description of hadronic scattering processes using AdS/QCD models. First we consider the calculation of deep inelastic scattering strucure functions for hadrons. Then we discuss the calculation of elastic form factors for vector mesons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the scattering of heavy-light K and D mesons by nucleons at low energies. The short-distance part of the interaction is described by quark-gluon interchange and the longdistance part is described by a one-meson-exchange model that includes the contributions of vector (ρ, ω) and scalar (σ) mesons. The microscopic quark model incorporates a confining Coulomb potential extracted from lattice QCD simulations and a transverse hyperfine interaction consistent with a finite gluon propagator in the infrared. The derived effective meson-nucleon potential is used in a Lippmann-Schwinger equation to obtain s-wave phase shifts. Our final aim is to set up a theoretical framework that can be extended to finite temperatures and baryon densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a simplest case we employ dimensional regularization method in order to evaluate the contribution of two pion exchanges to the NN interaction. The method allows one to treat the infinities of scattering amplitude in a way consistent with the symmetries of the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic thin films and metallic nanoparticles give rise to peculiar optical effects in frequency regions where an external electromagnetic field can couple to charge oscillations resonantly. Plasmons localized at interfaces and closed surfaces give rise to huge local field enhancements which can be used for a great variety of applications based on linear and non-linear light-matter-interaction. Except for a few geometry-types an accurate modelling of plasmons and plasmon-related effects is feasible only by sophisticated numerics which combines reliability and efficiency, preferably. We report on FEM-based calculations for 3D metallic nanoparticles whith special emphasis on both test configurations as well as on effects in layered structures as they are typical for silicon solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution some aspects of SH wave scattering due to a single eccentric n-layered obstacle are being looked at. Herewith, the basis solution is derived analytically for an elliptic inclusion as it occurs in civil engineering practice e. g. within textile reinforced concrete. Hence, (modified) MATHIEUfunctions have to be evaluated. Later on, the degenerate case of an eccentric circular obstacle is dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A flash introductory course in the interaction of ionizing radiation with matter is presented for students starting out in nuclear physics, medical applications of radiation, materials modification, radiation damage, detectors, materials analysis, radiation protection, and other applications. Emphasis is on defining basic concepts and on a simple visualization of ideas for practical applications, rather than on completeness or rigor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two-pion production in nucleon-nucleon collisions has been studied by exclusive and kinematically complete experiments from threshold up to Tp = 1.36 GeV at CELSIUS-WASA. At near-threshold energies the total and differential distributions for the π+π- and π0π0 channels are dominated by Roper excitation and its decay into Nσs and Δπ channels. At beam energies Tp>1.1 GeV the ΔΔ excitation governs the two-pion production process. In the π+π+ channel evidence is found for the excitation of a higher-lying I =3/2 resonance, favorably the Δ(1600). The isovector fusion processes leading to the deuteron and to quasi-stable 2He, respectively, exhibit no or only a modest ABC-effect, i.e. low-mass enhancement in the ππ-invariant mass spectrum, and can be described by conventional t-channel ΔΔ excitation. On the other hand, the isoscalar fusion process to the deuteron exhibits a dramatic ABC-effect correlated with a narrow resonance-like energy dependence in the total cross section with a width of only 50 MeV and situated at a mass 90 MeV below the ΔΔ mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present X-ray scattering data obtained with the new high temperature setup based on aerodynamic levitation and laser heating. This sample environment has been designed for X-ray scattering experiments up to 3000 °C in static and dynamic regimes. X-ray scattering data with good statistics have been recorded during the glass transition of a molten oxide close to an enstatite chondrite composition (Si24AlFe5Mg22Ca16046) with a 30 ms time resolution. Static measurements on both liquid and glass phases have been also performed with high resolution in both direct and reciprocal spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a X-ray training course for students. The course covers fundamental properties of synchrotron radiation and basic techniques like scattering and absorption. We prepared ten experiments together with a tutorial. The whole course takes about a week. A first student group from the University of Copenhagen passed the course in June 2009. The experiments were performed at the optics beamline of the Swiss Light Source which can be part-time allocated for training purposes. Two experiments are described in more detail: scattering from a hanging drop of water turning into ice and measurement of the power of a pink synchrotron beam using a simple calorimeter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Localized and distributed array systems for guided ultrasonic waves offer an efficient way for the long-term monitoring of the structural integrity of large structures. However, the detection sensitivity for fatigue cracks depends on the orientation of the crack relative to the position of the transducer elements. Finite Element (FE) simulations show that for cracks and slots no energy is scattered in certain directions from the defect. Crack-like defects have a directionality pattern of the scattered field depending on the angle of the incident wave relative to the crack orientation and on the ratio of the characteristic defect size and depth to wavelength. Simulation predictions are compared to laser measurements of the scattered wave field at machined part-through and through thickness notches. Good agreement is found and the directionality pattern can be predicted accurately. These results provide the basis for the quantification of the detection sensitivity for defects in plate structures using guided wave sensors and arrays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]