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Following up on our earlier work and the work of N. Karpenko and A. Merkurjev, we study the essential p-dimension of linear algebraic groups G whose connected component G^0 is a torus., Comment: 23 pages, no figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0910.5574

The essential dimension is a numerical invariant of an algebraic group G which may be thought of as a measure of complexity of G-torsors over fields. A recent theorem of N. Karpenko and A. Merkurjev gives a simple formula for the essential dimension of a finite p-group. We obtain similar formulas for the essential p-dimension of a broader class of groups, which includes all algebraic tori., Comment: 30 pages, no figures

We will consider an explicit birational map between a quadric and the projective variety X(J) of traceless rank one elements in a simple reduced Jordan algebra J. X(J) is a homogeneous G-variety for the automorphism group G=Aut(J). We will show that the birational map is a blow up followed by a blow down. This will allow us to use the blow up formula for motives together with Vishik's work on the motives of quadrics to give a motivic decomposition of X(J)., Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure

In this paper we determine all possible cohomological invariants of Aut(J)-torsors in Galois cohomology with mod 2 coefficients (characteristic of the base field not 2), for J a split central simple Jordan algebra of odd degree n>=3. This has already been done for J of orthogonal and exceptional type, and we extend these results to unitary and symplectic type. We will use our results to compute the essential dimensions of some groups, for example we show that ed(PSp(2n))=n+1 for n odd., Comment: 12 pages, to appear in Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

NASA has been investigating potential translunar excursion concepts to take place in the 2020s that would be used to test and demonstrate long duration life support and other systems needed for eventual Mars missions in the 2030s. These potential trajectory concepts could be conducted in the proving ground, a region of cislunar and near-Earth interplanetary space where international space agencies could cooperate to develop the technologies needed for interplanetary spaceflight. Enabled by high power Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) technologies, the excursion trajectory concepts studied are grouped into three classes of increasing distance from the Earth and increasing technical difficulty: the first class of excursion trajectory concepts would represent a 90-120 day round trip trajectory with abort to Earth options throughout the entire length, the second class would be a 180-210 day round trip trajectory with periods in which aborts would not be available, and the third would be a 300-400 day round trip trajectory without aborts for most of the length of the trip. This paper provides a top-level summary of the trajectory and mission design of representative example missions of these three classes of excursion trajectory concepts.