• Energy Research
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• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology close

The specific problems of determining and simulating the surface energy balance (SEB) and the mixing height (MH) over urban areas are examined. The SEB and MH are critical components of algorithms and numerical models for the urban boundary layer, though the constituent parts of the SEB and the MH are not routinely measured by national weather services. Parameterisations are thus needed in applications. In this investigation, several recently developed algorithms and models for estimating the SEB and MH were applied to new datasets and assessed. Results are discussed in terms of the need for spatial resolution and the parameters needed to describe the urban atmosphere. Limitations of models are identified and recommendations for further development and observations are given. Having identified gaps in knowledge, key findings from new urban experiments and numerical modelling for the SEB and MH are given. The diurnal cycle for the SEB is significantly different from rural conditions—urban heat storage is needed in urban parameterisations. The urban MH is increased over the rural MH, as shown by several numerical schemes and careful sodar analyses. This work has been carried out within the COST-715 Action “Meteorology applied to urban air pollution problems (1998–2004). COST 715 reached a consensus proposing representatively sited measurements of meteorological parameters and turbulent fluxes above roof-tops, and recognised that such data are needed to improve numerical models of the urban surface processes.

The neutron flux of the n TOF facility at CERN was measured, after installation of the new spallation target, with four different systems based on three neutron-converting reactions, which represent accepted cross sections standards in different energy regions. A careful comparison and combination of the different measurements allowed us to reach an unprecedented accuracy on the energy dependence of the neutron flux in the very wide range (thermal to 1 GeV) that characterizes the n TOF neutron beam. This is a pre-requisite for the high accuracy of cross section measurements at n TOF. An unexpected anomaly in the neutron-induced fission cross section of 235U is observed in the energy region between 10 and 30 keV, hinting at a possible overestimation of this important cross section, well above currently assigned uncertainties.

AbstractA search is performed for long-lived neutral particles decaying into a photon and invisible particles. An example of such a signature is the decay of the lightest neutralino with nonzero lifetime into a gravitino and a photon in gauge-mediated supersymmetry, with the neutralino as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and the gravitino as the lightest. The search uses events containing photons, missing transverse energy, and jets. The impact parameter of the photon relative to the beam-beam collision point can be reconstructed using converted photons. The method is sensitive to lifetimes of the order of 0.1 to 1 ns. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.23 fb−1in pp collisions at$ \sqrt{s}=7 $TeV, recorded in the first part of 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Cross-section limits are presented on pair production for such particles, each of which decays into a photon and invisible particles. The observed 95% confidence level limits vary between 0.11 and 0.21 pb, depending on the neutral particle lifetime.