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by Dave Jacqué
Humanity owes its existence to a quirk of nuclear physics. Because there are no stable five- or eight-body nuclei, the sun consumes its hydrogen slowly. This gave nature enough time to produce intelligent life on earth — including the Argonne scientists who are beginning to accurately model the nuclear subtleties that make five- and eight-body nuclei unstable.
Only recently have scientists been able to model the complex forces acting on protons and neutrons (collectively called nucleons) inside every atomic nucleus. Argonne’s Robert Wiringa and Steven Pieper (both PHY), with the help of colleagues around the country and enormously powerful parallel computers, have developed accurate mathematical models of these forces and used them to study the structure of light (up to 10-body) nuclei. These models provide clues as to why there are no stable five- and eight-body nuclei.
“Unlike gravitation or electromagnetic forces, we still don’t have a good theory for the origin of the nuclear force,” Wiringa said. Physicists are working to develop a theory that matches observations, based on experiments going all the way back to Ernest Rutherford’s discovery of the nucleus in 1911.
Only in the last 10 years or so have there been mathematical models that closely match observed behaviors. One of them is “Argonne v18,” developed by Wiringa and collaborators in 1995. Argonne v18 has 18 different terms that describe the nuclear force, each having an operator that depends on some feature such as the spin or isospin (whether neutron or proton) of the particle, angular momentum or other characteristic. However, not all these 18 components have large effects, and in order to understand the effect of these terms on nuclei, Wiringa and Pieper began eliminating some of the components and adjusting the remaining operators to compensate.
“It’s a very complicated force, but all the modern models that fit the data well need to be that complex,” Wiringa said. “Calculations like this depend heavily on access to state-of-the-art computers.”
The computing power required to perform these calculations increases roughly with the cube of the number of nucleons. Calculations for up to six can be done on a modern PC. For seven, eight and nine nucleons, Wiringa and Pieper used Argonne’s “Chiba City” cluster supercomputer. The 10-body calculation was done at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Computing a single 10-body energy state required 500 processors working in parallel at 250 million operations a second for eight to 15 hours. A complete calculation includes many energy states.
The results are printed on large charts showing the “binding energies” calculated for each nucleus. Known from experiments involving nuclear collisions, binding energies are the precise energies required to break a nucleus apart.
The charts reveal that removing the “tensor force” (which makes nucleons behave like magnets placed side by side) from the calculation resulted in stable eight-body systems. Further removing the spin-isospin terms from the force made the five-body nuclei stable. The calculations show these components of the force are crucial to explaining why no stable five- or eight-body nuclei exist in nature.
Their next step, as they gain access to more powerful computers, will be to extend their work to larger nuclei, such as beryllium-11 and carbon-12.
The work was published in the Oct. 28 issue of Physical Review Letters. Contributing to the development of the force models and calculational techniques used were Vijay Pandharipande of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Joe Carlson at Los Alamos National Laboratory; Kalman Varga, now at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Rocco Schiavilla of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and Old Dominion University, and Vincent Stoks of the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. It was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Physics Divison.
A mini-symposium on the results of laboratory-directed research and development (LDRD) projects will be held from 2-4 p.m., Monday, Jan. 20 in Building 402, Conference Room E1100.
Presentations will include:
“Commodity Costs Versus Autonomous and Passively-Safe Operating
Characteristics in Metal-Cooled Generation-IV Reactors” by Richard
Vilim (RAE)
“A Calorimeter for the Linear Collider Detector” by Lei Xia
(HEP)
“Nanostructured Materials by Self-Assembly” by Millicent
Firestone (MSD)
“Ratchet Effect for Manipulating Trapped Flux” by Wai-Kwong
Kwok (MSD)
“High Brightness Electron Beam Preservation” by Nicholas
Sereno (AOD)
“Theoretical Investigation of Coherent Synchrotron
Radiation” by Kwang-Je Kim (ASD)
“Inherent Process Observability for Safeguards Transparency of
Nuclear Power Systems” by Humberto Garcia (NT-AW), via videoconference
by Katie Williams
Analyzing the billions and billions of pieces of data collected from clusters of stars has been an overwhelming task for scientists, but researchers in Argonne’s Mathematics and Computer Science (MCS) Division are conquering it.
The researchers are employing a virtual data system to store, generate and analyze the origins of data collected from clusters of stars.
Argonne’s Ian Foster and Michael Wilde, along with their collaborators James Annis and Steve Kent from Fermilab and Yong Zhao and Jens Voeckler from the University of Chicago, are using a virtual data system called Chimera to track relationships between data and the computations that generate the data from clusters of stars mapped by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
The survey is a digital imaging project that will, by the end of 2005, have mapped a quarter of the sky in five colors with a sensitivity two orders of magnitude greater than previous sky surveys. The project is expected to generate more than 10 trillion bytes (terabytes) of digital information.
To tackle this massive amount of data, Argonne researchers are employing Chimera, a primary product of the GriPhyN (Grid Physics Network) project, a computational data Grid funded by the National Science Foundation to help scientists harness large, distributed data collections.
Chimera consists of a searchable virtual data catalog, a language interpreter that translates data definition and query operations, and a scheduling tool that automatically runs computations to generate data and to maintain its audit trail. The system lets researchers automate once-manual processes, speeding up data generation and analysis.
“If you look at what scientists do,” said Foster, “a lot of their time is spent generating data, analyzing data and then generating new data to build up collections of data sets of various forms. By automating the generation and tracking of data, we are giving researchers a powerful new tool to help them work faster, which is essential with the larger sets of data that are becoming the norm.”
This is the first application for Chimera, but Foster is confident the virtual data system will be used in multiple disciplines.
“Chimera is the first system that allows scientists in any discipline to use an off-the-shelf toolkit to track their data and harness large-scale Grid resources,” Foster said. “Our experience so far suggests Chimera can enhance the accuracy and productivity of scientific data gathering.”
The Howard T. Ricketts Center, a laboratory to be proposed by the University of Chicago for construction at Argonne-East, would house research about a range of common infectious disease agents, emerging diseases and agents with the potential to be used by terrorists. It would encompass 50,000 square feet and cost about $20 million.
Harvey Drucker, Argonne's national security coordinator, said the center would be built and operated with the safety of its researchers, others who work at the Argonne site and the community as a top priority.
"Researchers would be working with agents with which we are all familiar," Drucker said. These could include E. coli, influenza virus, staphylococcus, and streptococcus as well as organisms that cause such emerging diseases as AIDS, West Nile fever and Lyme disease. Even the agents that have the potential to be used as weapons "like those that cause anthrax, Dengue fever, and tularemia" naturally grow in the U.S., he said.
"All of the diseases that might be studied already have vaccines or antibiotics available, but they can evolve and become resistant. There has been a lag in funding research to learn how to overcome these changes," Drucker said.
The university's proposal is one of several that are being submitted to the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health, in response to its call for proposals to build four to six regional and two national biodefense laboratories. Its proposal is for a regional laboratory, which will not be certified for work with the most hazardous biological agents.
Argonne is an excellent site for many reasons, Drucker said.
"We have a record of more than 50 years of safe operations doing research with hazardous materials," said Drucker. "We have unique facilities to support infectious disease research -- the Advanced Photon Source, the Structural Genomics Center, the Biosciences Division with its robotics and proteomics, the Mathematics and Computer Science Division, and the Center for Nanoscale Materials, which is in development. Beyond this, we have a broad range of research programs and advanced computing technologies that are synergistic to the proposed Center.
"Argonne has expertise in efficiently and effectively managing user facilities, the infrastructure to support visiting scientists, and controlled site access."
The regional laboratories are half of the NIAID initiative. The second part is establishing regional centers for excellence -- collaborations of researchers from a range of institutions to train researchers; develop and text vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics; and to work together using diverse approaches and techniques. The laboratories will be where the research would be done. While much of the coordinated research will be done at the individual institutions, specialized work will use the Ricketts Center.
"The regional center for excellence headed by the University of Chicago, Argonne, and Northwestern University reads like a Who's Who of medical research institutions in the Upper Midwest," said Drucker, "from the Mayo Clinic and the Medical College of Wisconsin to Notre Dame and the Battelle Memorial Institute." There are 14 institutions involved.
A conceptual design for the Ricketts Center has been prepared by Flad and Associates, an architectural firm that has designed infectious disease laboratories for corporate, academic, non-profit and government agencies across the country. The University of Chicago will draw on the substantial experience of other members of its regional center for excellence to customize and implement stringent federally mandated safety protocols.
"The agents we will be working with don't require'moon suits,'" said Drucker. "Highly trained researchers will use proven, rigorous, standardized, enforced protective procedures. Specialized building and work space systems will provide protection in the form of controlled air flow and filtration, door controls, and decontamination practices that will ensure that all materials that leave the Center will be sterile. Plus the facility and personnel will be federally certified, and the center will be regularly inspected by several agencies."
He adds that materials will be brought to the center in small quantities, in vials as small as a pinky finger and following well-established and regulated precautions. Research materials transported to and from Biosciences or the APS will be noninfectious fragments of proteins and DNA.
The center, Drucker said, will be safe for Argonne workers and the community. The center will be a focal point for discovery leading to improved prevention, diagnostics, treatment and detection of both common infectious diseases and agents that might be used by terrorists, a training resource for microbiologists and physicians, a training and information resource for first responders, a research resource for regional institutions, and an attraction to biotechnology and pharmaceutical businesses.
It will not include production facilities or conduct any research related to weapons development.
"I"m fully committed to this facility," Drucker said. "In the aftermath of Sept. 11, in talking with people who had suffered losses, I wondered at great length what I could do to help in this battle. I knew the Army would never take me. Many colleagues shared similar feelings about wanting to help.
"I happily accepted when Dr. (Hermann) Grunder asked me to coordinate Argonne's national security efforts. And when I saw NIAID's call for proposal, I saw this as a way I and all these other scientists, engineers and senior academic and research people could contribute. They all agreed this is an important and valuable effort for us to pursue."
Employees enrolled in a CIGNA medical plan have had their prescription drug provider changed from AdvancePCS to Walgreens Health Initiatives (WHI).
Employees who had an existing mail order prescription with multiple refills on file with AdvancePCS have had their mail-order prescriptions transferred to WHI. To order a refill after this transfer, employees must first register with WHI. To register, visit WHI’s Web site and complete the WHI Registration and Prescription Order Form.
Those without Web access can fill out a paper form included in the implementation packet sent with new identification cards and mail it to WHI. Everyone included in this transfer will receive an explanation letter with instructions, including an additional Registration and Prescription Order paper form, at their homes.
Employees who experience a problem refilling a prescription should call Wanda Woods (HR) at ext. 2-2991.
Flutist Eugenia Zukerman will join the Thibaud String Trio to perform works by Mozart, Bach and Stamitz at an Arts at Argonne concert at Argonne-East Sunday, Feb. 2.
The concert will begin at 3 p.m. in the Advanced Photon Source Conference Center, Building 402.
Tickets are $20 and are on sale now; call (630) 252-3751 to order. VISA and MasterCard are accepted.
Remaining tickets will be sold in the lobby of the Building 213 Cafeteria the week of Jan. 27 from noon to 1 p.m. The Auditorium Box Office will be open on the day of the performance at 2:30 p.m.
A special dinner prepared by Chef Chris Kaminsky will be served in the Argonne Guest House after the concert. Dinner hours will be 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The cost is $23.45 per person. Reservations are requested; call (630) 739-6000.
Arts at Argonne will feature the Trio Fontenay on Saturday, March 15, and Camerata Sweden, chamber orchestra on Saturday, April 5. Details appear on the Arts at Argonne Web site.
Dawn Janney’s (ENT) research was recently recognized at the fall meeting of the Materials Research Society. Her poster, “Host Phases for Actinide Elements in the Metallic Waste Form,” was one of two posters nominated for best poster among the 75 presented at a symposium on the scientific basis for nuclear waste management.
The poster is on display in Argonne-West’s Building 752.
Janney’s research involves studying waste produced after pyroprocessing spent fuel from Experimental Breeder Reactor II.
by Adam Cohen,
Director, ESH/QA Oversight
Last summer, a laborer working on an environmental management project at a U.S. Department of Energy facility put crystalline sodium thiosulfate into a five-gallon bucket containing about three gallons of concentrated sodium permanganate solution. The resulting violent chemical reaction sprayed solution 15 feet into the air and onto the worker, causing serious burns.
One of the lessons learned from the investigation: Current and correct Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) need to be readily available whenever employees are working with potentially hazardous chemicals. Had the worker seen the MSDS for sodium permanganate, he might have noticed this warning: “contact with easily oxidizable, organic or other combustible materials may result in ignition, violent combustion or explosion.”
At Argonne, more than 37,000 MSDSs are ready to be printed out 24 hours a day via the Chemical Management System (CMS), which also keeps track of more than 100,000 chemical containers at the laboratory. CMS is free, available on desktop computers and easy to use.
CMS is a single site-wide resource for chemical management. CMS makes it simple to track chemicals through the cycle of procurement, receiving, storage, use, transfer and disposal.
CMS is integrated with receiving and procurement through AMOS or PARIS. (Purchase requests faxed to Procurement are not covered and are discouraged). Bar codes are attached to individual laboratory containers, gas cylinders and bulk chemicals, making periodic inventory much simpler. CMS is a useful management tool, providing information for emergency planning, surplus chemical transfer and regulatory reporting. The MSDS module provides information for safe handling of chemicals and potential health effects.
Web-based training shows new CMS users how to obtain a CMS account, download and install the program to track chemicals. MSDS information is ready to view, even without a CMS account, on the Intranet.
For more information, visit the CMS Web site, or contact Jeanne Elkins at ext. 2-9857 or Jim Woodring at ext. 2-5641.
The Argonne 8-Ball Pool League is recruiting players for the current session, which meets Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. through April at Q Billiards in Darien.
The handicap-based league welcomes players of all skill levels, including friends and family members of employees. Enrollment is open through Tuesday, Feb. 4. For more information, call Ron Shepard (CHM) at ext. 2-3584, Vic Maroni (CMT) at ext. 2-4547 or Bob Finch (CMT) at ext. 2-9829.
Classes offered by Electronics and Computing Technologies are held in Argonne-East’s Building 201, Room 167. Unless otherwise specified, class sizes are limited to eight participants and cost $215. Detailed class descriptions appear on the ECT Web site.
“Intermediate Word 2000” (ECT 374) — Tuesday, Feb. 4,
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
“Intermediate Excel 2000” (ECT 375) — Wednesday, Feb.
5, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
“Intermediate Access 2000” (ECT 376) — Thursday, Feb.
6, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
“Excel: Working with Large Worksheets” (ECT 385) —
Friday, Feb. 7, 8:30 a.m. - noon. $140.
“Excel 2000 Organizational Tools” (ECT 384) — Friday,
Feb. 7, 1 - 4:30 p.m. $140.
Complete class descriptions, schedules and enrollment forms are available online. For enrollment information, contact Diane Cavazos (ECT) at ext. 2-7153 or dkcavazos@anl.gov.
40 Years
Edward F. Bielick (TD), Merlyn M. Faber (IPNS).
30 Years
Hanchung Tsai (ET).
35 Years
Francis R. Bradbury (PFS), Daniel A. Hill (HEP), Thomas J. Kotek (EA), Judith A. Reedy (OTD).
30 Years
David G. Rockwood (FAC).
25 Years
Francine A. Carnaghi (ECT), Sharon K. Foreman (CHM), Dennis A. Horvath (RPS), D. Gary Jenks (RPS), Marie C. Larson (AOD), Lawrence J. McCure (OCF), Fred Moszur (ECT), Gregory M. Teske (ENT).
20 Years
Barbara A. Weller (PHY).
15 Years
Scott A. Borkowski (ECT), Dawn Lisa Davidson (FAC), Thomas F. Ewing (TD), Kim S. Gilgen (FAC), Robert N. Hill (RAE), Mary R. Moniger (IPD), Istvan Naday (ECT), Norman D. Peterson (OTD), Dale E. Richards (PFS).
10 Years
Joel L. Adams (TD), Janet M. Anderson (IPD), Christa A. Benson (XFD), Dominick Bruno (PFS), Alan D. Croft (NT), Larry W. Duncan (FAC), Fredric C. Fisher (PFS), Gary W. Frey (EA), James M. Hogan (PFS), Keith T. Johnson (PFS), Donald J. Koefoed (PFS), Scott T. Lockwood (ES), Gail E. MacMillan (PFS), Mark Martens (ASD), Judy Martinet (ER), Stephen Ross (ASD).
5 Years
Margaret M. Goldberg (CMT), Michael W. Hahne (AOD), Michael North (DIS).