The superconductor Nb3Sn is known to have a superheating field, Hsh, of approximately 400 mT. This critical field represents the ultimate achievable gradient in a superconducting cavity, and is equivalent to an accelerating gradient of 90 MV/m in an ILC single-cell cavity for this value of Hsh. However, the currently best performing Nb3Sn single-cell cavities remain limited to accelerating gradients of 17-18 MV/m, translating to a peak surface magnetic field of approx. 70 mT.

In order to minimize the emittance at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), we measure and correct the orbit, dispersion, and transverse coupling of the beam. However, this method is limited by finite measurement resolution of the dispersion, and so a new procedure must be used to further reduce the emittance due to dispersion. In order to achieve this, we use a method based upon the theory of sloppy models. We use a model of the accelerator to create the Hessian matrix which encodes the effects of various corrector magnets on the vertical emittance.

A technique for measuring interdiffusion in multilayer materials during rapid heating using X-ray reflectivity is described. In this technique the sample is bent to achieve a range of incident angles simultaneously, and the scattered intensity is recorded on a fast high-dynamic-range mixed-mode pixel array detector. Heating of the multilayer is achieved by electrical resistive heating of the silicon substrate, monitored by an infrared pyrometer. As an example, reflectivity data from Al/Ni heated at rates up to 200Ks-1 are presented.

CdTe is increasingly being used as the x-ray sensing material in imaging pixel array detectors for x-rays, generally above 20 keV, where silicon sensors become unacceptably transparent. Unfortunately CdTe suffers from polarization, which can alter the response of the material over time and with accumulated dose. Most prior studies used long integration times or CdTe that was not of the hole-collecting Schottky type. We investigated the temporal response of hole-collecting Schottky type CdTe sensors on timescales ranging from tens of nanoseconds to several seconds.

We characterize the collective modes of a soliton train in a quasi-one-dimensional Fermi superfluid, using a mean-field formalism. In addition to the expected Goldstone and Higgs modes, we find novel long-lived gapped modes associated with oscillations of the soliton cores. The soliton train has an instability that depends strongly on the interaction strength and the spacing of solitons. It can be stabilized by filling each soliton with an unpaired fermion, thus forming a commensurate Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase.

We demonstrate a method for determining the vitreous phase cryogenic temperature densities of aqueous mixtures, and other samples that require rapid cooling, to prepare the desired cryogenic temperature phase. Microliter to picoliter size drops are cooled by projection into a liquid nitrogen-argon (N2-Ar) mixture. The cryogenic temperature phase of the drop is evaluated using a visual assay that correlates with X-ray diffraction measurements. The density of the liquid N2-Ar mixture is adjusted by adding N2 or Ar until the drop becomes neutrally buoyant.

This article reviews static and dynamic interfacial effects in magnetism, focusing on interfacially driven magnetic effects and phenomena associated with spin-orbit coupling and intrinsic symmetry breaking at interfaces. It provides a historical background and literature survey, but focuses on recent progress, identifying the most exciting new scientific results and pointing to promising future research directions.

The decomposition of a matrix, as a product of factors with particular properties, is a much used tool in numerical analysis. Here we develop methods for decomposing a matrix C into a product XY, where the factors X and Y are required to minimize their distance from an arbitrary pair X0 and Y0. This type of decomposition, a projection to a matrix product constraint, in combination with projections that impose structural properties on X and Y, forms the basis of a general method of decomposing a matrix into factors with specified properties.

Instructional labs are widely seen as a unique, albeit expensive, way to teach scientific content. We measured the effectiveness of introductory lab courses at achieving this educational goal across nine different lab courses at three very different institutions. These institutions and courses encompassed a broad range of student populations and instructional styles. The nine courses studied had two key things in common: the labs aimed to reinforce the content presented in lectures, and the labs were optional.

We use the time-dependent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations to study dark solitons in three-dimensional spin-imbalanced superfluid Fermi gases. We explore how the shape and dynamics of dark solitons are altered by the presence of excess unpaired spins which fill their low-density core. The unpaired particles broaden the solitons and suppress the transverse snake instability. We discuss ways of observing these phenomena in cold-atom experiments. © 2017 American Physical Society.