The scientific goal of the SACY (Search for Associations Containing Young-stars) project is to identify eventual associations of stars younger than the Local Association, spread among the optical counterparts of the ROSAT X-ray bright sources. High-resolution spectra for possible optical counterpart later than G0 belonging to HIPPARCOS and/or TYCHO-2 catalogues were obtained in order to assess both the youth and the spatial motion of each target. The newly identified young stars present a patchy distribution in UVW space and in the sky as well revealing the existence of huge nearby young associations. Here we present the associations identified in the present sample.
A beam size monitor so called Shintake monitor, which uses the inverse Compton scattering between the laser interference fringe and the electron beam was designed for and installed at ATF2. The commissioning at ATF2 was started in the end of 2008 and succeeded in the measurement of the fringe pattern from the scattered gamma-rays. The present status of the Shintake monitor is described here.
The Karlsruhe Astrophysical Database of Nucleosynthesis in Stars (KADoNiS) project is an online database for experimental cross sections relevant to the $s$ process and $p$ process. It is available under http://nuclear-astrophysics.fzk.de/kadonis and consists of two parts. Part 1 is an updated sequel to the well-known Bao et al. compilations from 1987 and 2000, which is online since April 2005. An extension of this $s$-process database to $(n,p)$ and $(n,alpha)$ cross sections at $kT$= 30 keV, as in the first version of the Bao compilation, is planned. The second part of KADoNiS is a $p$-process library, which includes all available experimental data from $(p,gamma)$, $(p,n)$, $(alpha,gamma)$, $(alpha,n)$, $(alpha,alpha)$, $(n,alpha)$ and $(gamma,n)$ reactions in or close to the respective Gamow window. Despite the great number of reactions required for a $p$-process reaction network, experimental data is still scarce and up to now restricted to stable targets. Given here is a short overview about the present status of the KADoNiS database.
The present status of our knowledge of the magnitude of the quark mixing parameter Vcb is reviewed, with particular emphasis on the factors affecting experimental and theoretical errors and on prospects for a more precise determination.
We give a 1993 update of non-compact lattice QED, in particular the chiral condensate, finite size effects and meson mass ratios. We compare descriptions of the phase transition. Our previous conclusions remain valid.