The winner of UCL's annual HEP thesis prize, this work describes an analysis of the data from the second flight of the Antarctica Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA). ANITA is a balloon-borne experiment that searches for radio signals originating from ultra-high energy neutrinos and cosmic rays interacting with the Antarctic ice or air. The search for ultrahigh energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin is one of the outstanding experimental challenges of the 21st century. The ANITA experiment was designed to be the most sensitive instrument to ultra-high energy neutrinos that originate from the interactions of cosmic rays with the cosmic microwave background. The methodology and results of the neutrino and cosmic ray searches are presented in the thesis.

This book lays out a new, general theory of light propagation and imaging through Earth's turbulent atmosphere. Current theory is based on the - now widely doubted - assumption of Kolmogorov turbulence. The new theory is based on a generalized atmosphere, the turbulence characteristics of which can be established, as needed, from readily measurable properties of point-object, or star, images. The pessimistic resolution predictions of Kolmogorov theory led to lax optical tolerance prescriptions for large ground-based astronomical telescopes which were widely adhered to in the 1970s and 1980s. Around 1990, however, it became clear that much better resolution was actually possible, and Kolmogorov tolerance prescriptions were promptly abandoned. Most large telescopes built before 1990 have had their optics upgraded (e.g., the UKIRT instrument) and now achieve, without adaptive optics (AO), almost an order of magnitude better resolution than before. As well as providing a more comprehensive and precise understanding of imaging through the atmosphere with large telescopes (both with and without AO), the new general theory also finds applications in the areas of laser communications and high-energy laser beam propagation.

This book presents the theory of quantum effects used in metrology and results of the author’s own research in the field of quantum electronics. The book provides also quantum measurement standards used in many branches of metrology for electrical quantities, mass, length, time and frequency. This book represents the first comprehensive survey of quantum metrology problems. As a scientific survey, it propagates a new approach to metrology with more emphasis on its connection with physics. This is of importance for the constantly developing technologies and nanotechnologies in particular. Providing a presentation of practical applications of the effects used in quantum metrology for the construction of quantum standards and sensitive electronic components, the book is useful for a wide audience of physicists and metrologists in the broad sense of both terms. In 2014 a new system of units, the so called Quantum SI, is introduced. This book helps to understand and approve the new system to both technology and academic community.

This book is devoted to the analysis of measurement signals which requires specific mathematical operations like Convolution, Deconvolution, Laplace, Fourier, Hilbert, Wavelet or Z transform which are all presented in the present book. The different problems refer to the modulation of signals, filtration of disturbance as well as to the orthogonal signals and their use in digital form for the measurement of current, voltage, power and frequency are also widely discussed. All the topics covered in this book are presented in detail and illustrated by means of examples in MathCad and LabVIEW. This book provides a useful source for researchers, scientists and engineers who in their daily work are required to deal with problems of measurement and signal processing and can also be helpful to undergraduate students of electrical engineering.

Chemical reactions and growth processes on surfaces depend on the diffusion and re-orientation of the adsorbate molecules. A fundamental understanding of the forces guiding surface motion is thus of utmost importance for the advancement of many fields of science and technology. To date, our understanding of the principles underlying surface dynamics remains extremely limited, due to the difficulties involved in measuring these processes experimentally. The helium-3 spin-echo (HeSE) technique is uniquely capable of probing such surface dynamical phenomena. The present thesis extends the field of application of HeSE from atomic and small molecular systems to more complex systems. Improvements to the supersonic helium beam source, a key component of the spectrometer, as well as a detailed investigation of a range of five-membered aromatic adsorbate species are presented. The thesis provides a comprehensive description of many aspects of the HeSE method - instrumentation, measurement and data analysis - and as such offers a valuable introduction for newcomers to the field.

This book focuses on the state of the art in worldwide research on applying optimization approaches to intelligently control charging and discharging of batteries of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) in smart grids. Network constraints, cost considerations, the number and penetration level of PEVs, utilization of PEVs by their owners, ancillary services, load forecasting, risk analysis, etc. are all different criteria considered by the researchers in developing mathematical based equations which represent the presence of PEVs in electric networks. Different objective functions can be defined and different optimization methods can be utilized to coordinate the performance of PEVs in smart grids. This book will be an excellent resource for anyone interested in grasping the current state of applying different optimization techniques and approaches that can manage the presence of PEVs in smart grids.

The book offers a thorough introduction to machine vision. It is organized in two parts. The first part covers the image acquisition, which is the crucial component of most automated visual inspection systems. All important methods are described in great detail and are presented with a reasoned structure. The second part deals with the modeling and processing of image signals and pays particular regard to methods, which are relevant for automated visual inspection.

For the first time, the authors provide a comprehensive and consistent presentation of all techniques available in this field. They rigorously analyze the behavior of different electrochemical single and multipotential step techniques for electrodes of different geometries and sizes under transient and stationary conditions. The effects of these electrode features in studies of various electrochemical systems (solution systems, electroactive monolayers, and liquid-liquid interfaces) are discussed. Explicit analytical expressions for the current-potential responses are given for all available cases. Applications of each technique are outlined for the elucidation of reaction mechanisms. Coverage is comprehensive: normal pulse voltammetry, double differential pulse voltammetry, reverse pulse voltammetry and other triple and multipulse techniques, such as staircase voltammetry, differential staircase voltammetry, differential staircase voltcoulommetry, cyclic voltammetry, square wave voltammetry and square wave voltcoulommetry.

This thesis addresses in a very new and elegant way several measurements and the extraction of so-called double parton scattering. The new and elegant way lies in the combination of measurements and a very smart extraction of double parton scattering results, which is easy to apply and overcomes many of the technical difficulties of older methods. Many new phenomena in particle physics can be observed when particles are collided at the highest energies; one of the highlights in recent years was the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Understanding the production mechanism of the Higgs boson at the LHC requires detailed knowledge of the physics of proton-proton collisions. When the density of partons in the protons becomes large, there is a non-negligible probability that more than one parton participates in the interaction and the so-called double parton scattering becomes important. In some cases very particular final state signatures can be observed, which can be regarded as an indication of such double partonic scattering and where the different interactions can be separated. Such multiple partonic interactions play an important role when precise predictions from known processes are required.

This book presents the basics and advanced topics of research of gamma ray physics. It describes measuring of Fermi surfaces with gamma resonance spectroscopy and the theory of angular distributions of resonantly scattered gamma rays. The dependence of excited-nuclei average lifetime on the shape of the exciting-radiation spectrum and electron binding energies in the spectra of scattered gamma rays is described. Resonant excitation by gamma rays of nuclear isomeric states with long lifetime leads to the emission and absorption lines. In the book, a new gamma spectroscopic method, gravitational gamma spectrometry, is developed. It has a resolution hundred million times higher than the usual Moessbauer spectrometer. Another important topic of this book is resonant scattering of annihilation quanta by nuclei with excited states in connection with positron annihilation. The application of the methods described is to explain the phenomenon of Coulomb fragmentation of gamma-source molecules and resonant scattering of annihilation quanta to study the shape of Fermi surfaces of metals.

This book examines the meso- and nanoscopic aspects of fluid adsorption in porous solids using a non-invasive method of small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). Starting with a brief summary of the basic assumptions and results of the theory of small-angle scattering from porous media, the author focuses on the practical aspects and methodology of the ambient and high pressure SANS and SAXS experiments and corresponding data analysis. It is illustrated with results of studies of the vapor and supercritical fluid adsorption in porous materials published during the last decade, obtained both for man-made materials (e.g. porous fractal silica, Vycor glass, activated carbon) and geological samples (e.g. sandstones, shales and coal). In order to serve the needs of broad readership, the results are presented in the relevant context (e.g. petroleum exploration, anthropogenic carbon capture and sequestration, ion adsorption in supercapacitors, hydrogen storage, etc.).

Micro-X-ray fluorescence offers the possibility for a position- sensitive and non-destructive analysis that can be used for the analysis of non-homogeneous materials and layer systems. This analytical technique has shown a dynamic development in the last 15 years and is used for the analysis of small particles, inclusions, of elemental distributions for a wide range of different applications both in research and quality control. The first experiments were performed on synchrotrons but there is a requirement for laboratory instruments which offers a fast and immediate access for analytical results. The book discuss the main components of a µ-XRF instrument and the different measurement modes, it gives an overview about the various instruments types, considers the special requirements for quantification of non-homogeneous materials and presents a wide range of application for single point and multi-point analysis as well as for distribution analysis in one, two and three dimensions.

This book presents and introduces ellipsometry in nanoscience and nanotechnology making a bridge between the classical and nanoscale optical behaviour of materials. It delineates the role of the non-destructive and non-invasive optical diagnostics of ellipsometry in improving science and technology of nanomaterials and related processes by illustrating its exploitation, ranging from fundamental studies of the physics and chemistry of nanostructures to the ultimate goal of turnkey manufacturing control. This book is written for a broad readership: materials scientists, researchers, engineers, as well as students and nanotechnology operators who want to deepen their knowledge about both basics and applications of ellipsometry to nanoscale phenomena. It starts as a general introduction for people curious to enter the fields of ellipsometry and polarimetry applied to nanomaterials and progresses to articles by experts on specific fields that span from plasmonics, optics, to semiconductors and flexible electronics. The core belief reflected in this book is that ellipsometry applied at the nanoscale offers new ways of addressing many current needs. The book also explores forward-looking potential applications.

This book is based on the author's work in the T2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, in which neutrinos are generated by a proton beam and are detected by near and far neutrino detectors. In order to achieve the precise measurement of the neutrino oscillation, an accurate understanding of the neutrino beam and the neutrino interaction is essential. Thus, the author measured the neutrino beam properties and the neutrino interaction cross sections using a near neutrino detector called INGRID and promoted a better understanding of them. Then, the author performed a neutrino oscillation analysis using the neutrino beam and neutrino interaction models verified by the INGRID measurements. As a result, some values of the neutrino CP phase are disfavored at the 90% confidence level. If the measurement precision is further improved, we may be able to discover the finite CP phase which involves the CP violation. Thus, this result is an important step towards the discovery of CP violation in the lepton sector, which may be the key to understanding the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe.

In this book the applicability and the utility of two statistical approaches for understanding dark energy and dark matter with gravitational lensing measurement are introduced. For cosmological constraints on the nature of dark energy, morphological statistics called Minkowski functionals (MFs) to extract the non-Gaussian information of gravitational lensing are studied. Measuring lensing MFs from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing survey (CFHTLenS), the author clearly shows that MFs can be powerful statistics beyond the conventional approach with the two-point correlation function. Combined with the two-point correlation function, MFs can constrain the equation of state of dark energy with a precision level of approximately 3-4 % in upcoming surveys with sky coverage of 20,000 square degrees. On the topic of dark matter, the author studied the cross-correlation of gravitational lensing and the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). Dark matter annihilation is among the potential contributors to the EGB. The cross-correlation is a powerful probe of signatures of dark matter annihilation, because both cosmic shear and gamma-ray emission originate directly from the same dark matter distribution in the universe. The first measurement of the cross-correlation using a real data set obtained from CFHTLenS and the Fermi Large Area Telescope was performed. Comparing the result with theoretical predictions, an independent constraint was placed on dark matter annihilation. Future lensing surveys will be useful to constrain on the canonical value of annihilation cross section for a wide range of mass of dark matter annihilation. Future lensing surveys will be useful to constrain on the canonical value of annihilation cross section for a wide range of mass of dark matter.

Large mass bolometers are used in particle physics experiments to search for rare processes, like neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter interactions. In the next years the CUORE experiment (a 1 Ton detector composed by 1000 crystals of TeO2 operated as bolometers in a large cryostat at 10mK) will be the particle physics experiment with the highest chance of discovering the Majorana neutrino, a long standing and yet fundamental question of particle physics. The study presented in this book was performed on the bolometers of the CUORE experiment. The response function of these detectors is not linear in the energy range of interest, and it changes with the operating temperature, worsening the performances. The nonlinearity appeared to be dominated by the thermistor and the biasing circuit used to read the bolometer, and was modeled using few measurable parameters. A method to obtain a linear response is the result of this work. It allows a great improvement of the detector operation and data analysis. With a foreword by Fernando Ferroni.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the operating principles and technology of electron lenses in supercolliders. Electron lenses are a novel instrument for high energy particle accelerators, particularly for the energy-frontier superconducting hadron colliders, including the Tevatron, RHIC, LHC and future very large hadron colliders. After reviewing the issues surrounding beam dynamics in supercolliders, the book offers an introduction to the electron lens method and its application. Further chapters describe the technology behind the electron lenses which have recently been proposed, built and employed for compensation of beam-beam effects and for collimation of high-energy high-intensity beams, for compensation of space-charge effects and several other applications in accelerators. The book will be an invaluable resource for those involved in the design, construction and operation of the next generation of hadron colliders.

The theoretical foundations of the Standard Model of elementary particles relies on the existence of the Higgs boson, a particle which has been revealed for the first time by the experiments run at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012. As the Higgs boson is an unstable particle, its search strategies were based on its decay products. In this thesis, Francesco Pandolfi conducted a search for the Higgs boson in the H ZZ l + l - qq Decay Channel with 4.6 fb -1 of 7 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. The presence of jets in the final state poses a series of challenges to the experimenter: both from a technical point of view, as jets are complex objects and necessitate of ad-hoc reconstruction techniques, and from an analytical one, as backgrounds with jets are copious at hadron colliders, therefore analyses must obtain high degrees of background rejection in order to achieve competitive sensitivity. This is accomplished by following two directives: the use of an angular likelihood discriminant, capable of discriminating events likely to originate from the decay of a scalar boson from non-resonant backgrounds, and by using jet parton flavor tagging, selecting jets compatible with quark hadronization and discarding jets more likely to be initiated by gluons. The events passing the selection requirements in 4.6 fb -1 of data collected by the CMS detector are examined, in the search of a possible signal compatible with the decay of a heavy Higgs boson. The thesis describes the statistical tools and the results of this analysis. This work is a paradigm for studies of the Higgs boson with final states with jets. The non-expert physicists will enjoy a complete and eminently readable description of a proton-proton collider analysis. At the same time, the expert reader will learn the details of the searches done with jets at CMS.

This book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the theory (physical principles), design, and practical implementations of various sensors for scientific, industrial, and consumer applications. This latest edition focuses on the sensing technologies driven by the expanding use of sensors in mobile devices. These new miniature sensors will be described, with an emphasis on smart sensors which have embedded processing systems. The chapter on chemical sensors has also been expanded to present the latest developments. Digital systems, however complex and intelligent they may be, must receive information from the outside world that is generally analog and not electrical. Sensors are interface devices between various physical values and the electronic circuits that "understand" only a language of moving electrical charges. In other words, sensors are the eyes, ears, and noses of silicon chips. Unlike other books on sensors, the Handbook of Modern Sensors is organized according to the measured variables (temperature, pressure, position, etc.). This book is a reference text for students, researchers interested in modern instrumentation (applied physicists and engineers), sensor designers, application engineers and technicians whose job it is to understand, select and/or design sensors for practical systems.

The book provides the broad knowledge on electromigration techniques including: theory of CE, description of instrumentation, theory and practice in micellar electrokinetic chromatography, isotachophoresis, capillary isoelectric focusing, capillary and planar electrochromatography (including description of instrumentation and packed and monolithic column preparation), 2D-gel electrophoresis (including sample preparation) and lab-on-a-chip systems. The book also provides the most recent examples of applications including food, environmental, pharmaceutical analysis as well as proteomics.

The measurement and characterisation of surface topography is crucial to modern manufacturing industry. The control of areal surface structure allows a manufacturer to radically alter the functionality of a part. Examples include structuring to effect fluidics, optics, tribology, aerodynamics and biology. To control such manu facturing methods requires measurement strategies. There is now a large range of new optical techniques on the market, or being developed in academia, that can measure areal surface topography. Each method has its strong points and limitations. The book starts with introductory chapters on optical instruments, their common language, generic features and limitations, and their calibration. Each type of modern optical instrument is described (in a common format) by an expert in the field. The book is intended for both industrial and academic scientists and engineers, and will be useful for undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

Researchers and professionals will find a hands-on guide to successful experiments and applications of modern electroanalytical techniques here. The new edition has been completely revised and extended by a chapter on quartz-crystal microbalances. The book is written for chemists, biochemists, environmental and materials scientists, and physicists. A basic knowledge of chemistry and physics is sufficient for understanding the described methods. Electroanalytical techniques are particularly useful for qualitative and quantitative analysis of chemical, biochemical, and physical systems. Experienced experts provide the necessary theoretical background of electrochemistry and thoroughly describe frequently used measuring techniques. Special attention is given to experimental details and data evaluation.

Conceived as a reference manual for practicing engineers, instrument designers, service technicians and engineering students. The related fields of physics, mechanics and mathematics are frequently incorporated to enhance the understanding of the subject matter. Historical anecdotes as far back as Hellenistic times to modern scientists help illustrate in an entertaining manner ideas ranging from impractical inventions in history to those that have changed our lives.

Since publication of the previous, the 3rd edition of this book, the sensor tech- logies have made a remarkable leap ahead. The sensitivity of the sensors became higher, the dimensions - smaller, the selectivity - better, and the prices - lower. What have not changed, are the fundamental principles of the sensor design. They still are governed by the laws of Nature. Arguably one of the greatest geniuses ever lived, Leonardo Da Vinci had his own peculiar way of praying. It went like this, "Oh Lord, thanks for Thou don't violate Thy own laws. " It is comforting indeed that the laws of Nature do not change with time, it is just that our appreciation of them becomes re?ned. Thus, this new edition examines the same good old laws of Nature that form the foundation for designs of various sensors. This has not changed much since the previous editions. Yet, the sections that describe practical designs are revised substantially. Recent ideas and developments have been added, while obsolete and less important designs were dropped. This book is about devices commonly called sensors. The invention of a microprocessor has brought highly sophisticated instruments into our everyday life. Numerous computerized appliances, of which microprocessors are integral parts, wash clothes and prepare coffee, play music, guard homes, and control room temperature. Sensors are essential components in any device that uses a digital signal processor.

Complete compendium on the physics and applications of telescope optics, underlying the original and oldest of astronomical instruments. Thoroughly scholarly work that provides both the historical perspective and the state-of-the-art technology, such as the 4-lens corrector of Delabre and the LADS corrector. Newly updated edition brings this authoritative work completely up to date.. From the reviews "... an unequalled reference for those who have interest in the field ... a unique reference in a superb presentation." ESO Messenger