<p>This thesis presents two measurements of the top quark pair production cross section at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV using data from the DØ experiment. Both measurements are performed in the dilepton final state and make use of secondary vertex b-tagging. With 158 pb^-1 of data in the electron-muon final state, the measured cross section is:</p><p>σ(top-antitop) = 11.1 +5.8 -4.3 (stat) +- 1.4 (syst) +- 0.7 (lumi) pb.</p><p>With 425 pb^-1 of data in the electron+track and muon+track final states, the measured cross section is:</p><p>sigma(top-antitop) = 6.3 +2.1 -1.8 (stat) +- 1.1 (syst) +- 0.4 (lumi) pb.</p><p>Both measurements are in agreement with the prediction from perturbative QCD calculations. In addition, an estimate of the DØ silicon detector lifetime is presented. The radiation damage is determined by studying the depletion voltage of the silicon sensors as a function of time. Based on this data the silicon detector is estimated to remain operational up to delivered luminosities of 6-8 fb^-1.</p>

<p>Light-ions (protons, deuterons, tritons, ³He and α articles) production in the interaction of 175 MeV neutrons with iron and bismuth has been measured using the Medley setup at the The Svedberg Laboratory (TSL) in Uppsala. These measurements have been conducted in the frame of an international collaboration whose aim is to provide the scientific community with new nuclear data of interest for the development of Accelerator Driven Systems, in the range of 20 to 200 MeV. In this Licentiate Thesis I will present the background for the present experiment, the choice of the measured materials (iron and bismuth) and of the energy range. I will then give a short theoretical description of the involved nuclear reactions and of the model used to compare the experimental results. A description of the neutron facility at TSL and of Medley setup will follow. Monte Carlo simulations of the experimental setup have been performed and some results are here reported and discussed. I will present data reduction procedure and finally I will report preliminary double differential cross sections for production of hydrogen isotopes from iron and bismuth at several emission angles. Experimental data will be compared with model calculations with TALYS-1.0; these show better agreement for the production of protons, while seems to overestimate the experimental production of deuterons and tritons.</p>

Ce travail tire partie de deux aspects de la diffusion elastique: retrodiffusion Rutherford ou non de particules alpha pour l'etude de la stoechiometre de couches minces complexes et production de noyaux de recul sous bombardement d'ions argon energetiques (16-20 MeV) pour l'analyse de surface d'elements legers comme oxygene azote et carbone. La premiere partie traite des conditions d'analyse de couches Ti$_(n-x)$Nb$_x$O$_2$ et Ti$_(l-x)$V$_x$O_$2$ dont la composition depend des parametres du depot par pulverisation cathodique H.F. de melange de poudres d'oxydes. On a determine en premier lieu les conditions d'analyse de ces couches avec la meilleure precision possible: dans les cas les plus favorables la concentration d'oxygene et le rapport des metaux sont connus a mieux de 5%. En ce qui concerne les resultats proprement dits nous montrons que pour les meilleures conditions de depot (vide residuel prepulverisation) le rapport O/(M+Ti) peut etre ajuste a 2 $\pm$ 0.1 sur toute la gamme de concentration cible. L'evolution des rapports Nb/(Nb+Ti) et V/(V+Ti) n'est pas identique a ceux des cilbes avec des ecarts dont nous tentons d'interpreter la signification. Dans la seconde partie traitant de la detection en temps de vol des noyaux de recule nous justifions le choix de nos parametres experimentaux par une etude detaillee de leur influence sur les performances analytiques. Malgre la serieuse limitation de la dispersion angulaire, la resolution en profondeur varie typiquement de 2 a 5 nm pour oxygene et carbone suivant qu'on s'adresse a une matrice de Z moyen (Si) ou eleve (Ta). L'apport d'une discrimination en energie a pour effet d'optimaliser les profondeurs analysables et d'eviter les interferences (C, N et O analysables sur 70 nm). Cette discrimination permet aussi d'abaisser les limites de detection (jusqu'a 10${13}$ at/cm$2$) par reduction du bruit de fond. Les limitations actuelles et les ameliorations possibles sont presentees a partir d'exemples d'analyse de surface.

Light-ions (protons, deuterons, tritons, 3He and α articles) production in the interaction of 175 MeV neutrons with iron and bismuth has been measured using the Medley setup at the The Svedberg Laboratory (TSL) in Uppsala. These measurements have been conducted in the frame of an international collaboration whose aim is to provide the scientific community with new nuclear data of interest for the development of Accelerator Driven Systems, in the range of 20 to 200 MeV. In this Licentiate Thesis I will present the background for the present experiment, the choice of the measured materials (iron and bismuth) and of the energy range. I will then give a short theoretical description of the involved nuclear reactions and of the model used to compare the experimental results. A description of the neutron facility at TSL and of Medley setup will follow. Monte Carlo simulations of the experimental setup have been performed and some results are here reported and discussed. I will present data reduction procedure and finally I will report preliminary double differential cross sections for production of hydrogen isotopes from iron and bismuth at several emission angles. Experimental data will be compared with model calculations with TALYS-1.0; these show better agreement for the production of protons, while seems to overestimate the experimental production of deuterons and tritons.

This thesis is devoted to the investigation of passivesafety and inherent features of subcritical nucleartransmutation systems - accelerator-driven systems. The generalobjective of this research has been to improve the safetyperformance and avoid elevated coolant temperatures inworst-case scenarios like unprotected loss-of-ow accidents,loss-of-heat-sink accidents, and a combination of both theseaccident initiators. The specific topics covered are emergencydecay heat removal by reactor vessel auxiliary cooling systems,beam shut-off by a melt-rupture disc, safety aspects fromlocating heat-exchangers in the riser of a pool-type reactorsystem, and reduction of pressure resistance in the primarycircuit by employing bypass routes. The initial part of the research was focused on reactorvessel auxiliary cooling systems. It was shown that an 80 MWthPb/Bi-cooled accelerator-driven system of 8 m height and 6 mdiameter vessel can be well cooled in the case of loss-of-owaccidents in which the accelerator proton beam is not switchedoff. After a loss-of-heat-sink accident the proton beam has tobe interrupted within 40 minutes in order to avoid fast creepof the vessel. If a melt-rupture disc is included in the wallof the beam pipe, which breaks at 150 K above the normal coreoutlet temperature, the grace period until the beam has to beshut off is increased to 6 hours. For the same vessel geometry,but an operating power of 250 MWth the structural materials canstill avoid fast creep in case the proton beam is shut offimmediately. If beam shut-off is delayed, additional coolingmethods are needed to increase the heat removal. Investigationswere made on the filling of the gap between the guard and thereactor vessel with liquid metal coolant and using water spraycooling on the guard vessel surface. The second part of the thesis presents examinationsregarding an accelerator-driven system also cooled with Pb/Bibut with heat-exchangers located in the risers of the reactorvessel. For a pool type design, this approach has advantages inthe case of heat-exchanger tube failures, particularly if wateris used as the secondary uid. This is because a leakage ofwater from the secondary circuit into the Pb/Bi-cooled primarycircuit leads to upward sweeping of steam bubbles, which wouldcollect in the gas plenum. In the case of heatexchangers in thedowncomer steam bubbles may be dragged into the ADS core andadd reactivity. Bypass routes are employed to increase the owspeed in loss-of-ow events for this design. It is shown thatthe 200 MWth accelerator-driven system with heat-exchangers inthe riser copes reasonably well with both a loss-of-ow accidentwith the beam on and an unprotected loss-of-heat-sink accident.For a total-loss-of-power (station blackout) and an immediatebeam-stop the core outlet temperature peaks at 680 K. After acombined loss-of-ow and loss-of-heat-sink accident the beamshould be shut off within 4 minutes to avoid exceeding the ASMElevel D of 977 K, and within 8 minutes to avoid fast creep.Assuming the same core inlet temperature, both the reactordesign with heat-exchanger in the risers and the downcomershave similar temperature evolutions after a total-loss-ofpoweraccident. A large accelerator-driven system of 800 MWth with a 17 mtall vessel may eventually become a standard size. For thishigher power ADS, the location of the heat-exchangers hasgreater impact on the natural convection capability. This isdue to that larger heatexchangers have more inuence on thedistance between the thermal centers during a lossof- owaccident. The design with heat-exchangers in the downcomers,the long-term vessel temperature peaks at 996 K during aloss-of-ow accident with the beam on. This does not pose athreat of creep rupture for the vessel. However, the locationof the heat-exchangers in the downcomers will probably requiresecondary coolant other than water, like for example oil (fortemperatures not higher than 673 K) or Pb/Bi coolant.

This thesis presents two measurements of the top quark pair production cross section at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV using data from the DØ experiment. Both measurements are performed in the dilepton final state and make use of secondary vertex b-tagging. With 158 pb-1 of data in the electron-muon final state, the measured cross section is: σ(top-antitop) = 11.1 +5.8 -4.3 (stat) +- 1.4 (syst) +- 0.7 (lumi) pb. With 425 pb-1 of data in the electron+track and muon+track final states, the measured cross section is: sigma(top-antitop) = 6.3 +2.1 -1.8 (stat) +- 1.1 (syst) +- 0.4 (lumi) pb. Both measurements are in agreement with the prediction from perturbative QCD calculations. In addition, an estimate of the DØ silicon detector lifetime is presented. The radiation damage is determined by studying the depletion voltage of the silicon sensors as a function of time. Based on this data the silicon detector is estimated to remain operational up to delivered luminosities of 6-8 fb-1.

Since the beginning of the nuclear era, starting during the 1940s, large amount of radioactivity has been released into the environment. This thesis deals with the temporal and spatial distribution of the anthropogenic radioisotope 129I (T1/2= 15.7 Myr) in northern Europe. A routine sample preparation procedure for extraction of iodine from milligram amounts of solid materials has been developed and aimed for measuring the 129I concentration by the ultra-sensitive accelerator mass spectrometry method. The technique was further used for the analysis of 129I in sediments collected from two lakes in Sweden and one lake in Finland as well as sediments from two sites in the Baltic Sea. In addition, 129I concentrations in aerosol samples from northern and southern Sweden covering the period 1983 to 2000 have been measured. The results reveal a gradual increase in the anthropogenic 129I fluxes since the 1950s that are linked to emissions from the nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities in Sellafield (UK) and La Hague (France). A sharp increase coinciding with the Chernobyl accident is identified from the Swedish lakes located in areas characterised by relatively high Chernobyl fallout. Numerical modeling of the 129I deposition predicts that &gt;50% of the flux to the lake sediments is related to the liquid emissions from the reprocessing facilities. The modeling also reasonably simulates the contribution of the Chernobyl event to the total 129I flux. The novel time series from northern Europe on 129I in aerosols show about one order of magnitude higher concentration in northern compared to southern Sweden. Estimate of 129I dry fallout based on the aerosol data suggests &lt;25% contribution to the total fallout. The distribution of 129I in the sediment archives demonstrates the potential of the isotope as a new time marker for chronological and environmental investigations.

While the dark matter has so far only revealed itself through the gravitational influence it exerts on its surroundings, there are good reasons to believe it is made up by WIMPs – a hypothetical class of heavy elementary particles not encompassed by the Standard Model of particle physics. The Inert Doublet Model constitutes a simple extension of the Standard Model Higgs sector. The model provides a new set of scalar particles, denoted inert scalars because of their lack of direct coupling to matter, of which the lightest is a WIMP dark matter candidate. Another popular Standard Model extension is that of supersymmetry. In the most minimal scenario the particle content is roughly doubled, and the lightest of the new supersymmetric particles, which typically is a neutralino, is a WIMP dark matter candidate. In this thesis the phenomenology of inert scalar and supersymmetric dark matter is studied. Relic density calculations are performed, and experimental signatures in indirect detection experiments and accelerator searches are derived. The Inert Doublet Model shows promising prospects for indirect detection of dark matter annihilations into monochromatic photons. It is also constrained by the old LEP II accelerator data. Some phenomenological differences between the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and a slight extension, the Beyond the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, can be found. Also, supersymmetric dark matter models can be detected already within the early LHC accelerator data.

The explosive growth of ‘accelerators’ in the United States has given entrepreneurs and their startups the opportunity to pursue seed-stage financing. While the specific economic role of accelerators remains unclear, a study comparing the selection of portfolio companies between accelerators and venture capitalists was performed. A difference of means was performed on the responses per question between the collected 19 accelerators’ response and the 100 venture capitalists’ response, recorded from a prior study. It is found that venture capitalists place significantly more weight, than accelerators, on the potential of the startup’s product or service to be proprietary, to enter a high-growth market with little threat of competition within the first 3 years, and to deliver a high financial return within 5 to 10 years. The results also indicate that both accelerators and venture capitalists emphasize different attributes of the entrepreneur and venture team when considering selection.

Today’s computer systems develop towards less energy consumption while keeping high performance. These are contradictory requirement and pose a great challenge. A good example of an application were this is used is the smartphone. The constraints are on long battery time while getting high performance required by future 2D/3D applications. A solution to this is heterogeneous systems that have components that are specialized in different tasks and can execute them fast with low energy consumption. These could be specialized i.e. encoding/decoding, encryption/decryption, image processing or communication. At the apartment of Computer Architecture and Parallel Processing Laboratory (CAPPL) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) a vector co-processor has been developed. The Vector co-processor has the unusual feature of being able to receive instructions from multiple hosts (scalar cores). In addition to this a test system with a couple of scalar processors using the vector processor has been developed. This thesis describes this processor and its test system. It also shows the development of math applications involving matrix operations. This results in the conclusions of the vector co-processing saving substantial amount of energy while speeding up the execution of the applications. In addition to this the thesis will describe an extension of the vector co-processor design that makes it possible to monitor the throughput of instructions and data in the processor.