Other Physics Commons^™

Question 1: "Up" — A Fermi Question About Buoyancy; Question 2: Traffic Jams, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

Is it possible for a house to fly by the uplift of balloons, like in the movie "Up"? (written by R. Allart, A. Cazenave, and A. Müller, University of Geneva)

How much total time do Americans spend waiting in traffic each year? What is the total cost of this time?

Question 1: Kill The K-Cup; Question 2: Water Cooling, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

According to KillTheKCup.org, single-use non-recyclable Keurig K-cups “are killing our planet.” How large is the environmental impact of K-Cups?

How much more cooling do you get from drinking cold rather than room-temperature water on a hot day? How much do you sweat per day when the ambient temperature is about 35 °C (95 °F)?

Question 1: Shaving Time; Question 2: Half-Filling The Gas Tank, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

How much total time does a typical American spend shaving during his or her life? How much total time per year do Americans spend shaving?

How much money can you save by only half-filling your car's gas tank to reduce weight?

Sustainability Research Through The Lens Of Environmental Ethics, Daniel Clifford Fouke, Sukh Sidhu, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

Two core courses in the curriculum of the University of Dayton’s Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment minor, Sustainability Research I and II, were developed out of the frustration one author, Daniel Fouke, experienced while teaching a traditional course on environmental ethics for the Department of Philosophy. The often-overwhelming nature of environmental problems tended to demoralize both the instructor and the students. Seeking a way to integrate ethical analysis of complex problems with the search for solutions, two courses were proposed that would be team-taught by a philosopher and a scientist or an engineer.

Development of the courses was initially funded …

Global Fossil Energy Markets And Climate Change Mitigation: An Analysis With Remind, Nico Bauer, Ioanna Mouratiadou, Gunnar Luderer, Lavinia Baumstark, Robert J. Brecha, Ottmar Edenhofer, Elmar Kriegler

Physics Faculty Publications

We analyze the dynamics of global fossil resource markets under different assumptions for the supply of fossil fuel resources, development pathways for energy demand, and climate policy settings. Resource markets, in particular the oil market, are characterized by a large discrepancy between costs of resource extraction and commodity prices on international markets. We explain this observation in terms of (a) the intertemporal scarcity rent, (b) regional price differentials arising from trade and transport costs, (c) heterogeneity and inertia in the extraction sector. These effects are captured by the REMIND model. We use the model to explore economic effects of changes …

The Carbon Rent Economics Of Climate Policy, Matthias Kalkuhl, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

By reducing the demand for fossil fuels, climate policy can reduce scarcity rents for fossil resource owners. As mitigation policies ultimately aim to limit emissions, a new scarcity for “space” in the atmosphere to deposit emissions is created. The associated scarcity rent, or climate rent (that is, for example, directly visible in permit prices under an emission trading scheme) can be higher or lower than the original fossil resource rent. In this paper, we analyze analytically and numerically the impact of mitigation targets, resource availability, backstop costs, discount rates and demand parameters on fossil resource rents and the climate rent. …

Development Without Energy? Assessing Future Scenarios Of Energy Consumption In Developing Countries, Jan Christof Steckel, Robert J. Brecha, Michael Jakob, Jessica Strefler, Gunnar Luderer

Physics Faculty Publications

We analyze the relationship between economic development and energy consumption in the context of greenhouse gas mitigation. The main contribution of this work is to compare estimates of energy thresholds in the form of minimum energy requirements to reach high levels of development with output projections of per capita final energy supply from a group of integrated assessment models (IAMs). Scenarios project that reductions of carbon emissions in developing countries will be achieved not only by means of decreasing the carbon intensity, but also by making a significant break with the historically observed relationship between energy use and economic growth. …

Rose: Roadmaps Towards Sustainable Energy Futures And Climate Protection: A Synthesis Of Results From The Rose Project, Elmar Kriegler, Ioanna Mouratiadou, Gunnar Luderer, Nico Bauer, Katherine Calvin, Enrica Decian, Robert J. Brecha, Wenying Chen, Aleh Cherp, Jae Edmonds, Kejun Jiang, Shonali Pachauri, Fabio Sferra, Massimo Tavoni, Ottmar Edenhofer

Physics Faculty Publications

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Exploring energy demand and supply uncertainty: An exploration of uncertainty on drivers of energy demand and supply is indispensable for better understanding the prospects of long-tern climate stabilization. The RoSE study is the first of its kind to systematically explore the impact of economic growth, population and fossil fuel scarcity, in scenarios with and without climate policy, using a model ensemble. A feature of RoSE is the participation of five established integrated assessment modelling teams from three important regions in international climate policy negotiations: the EU, the USA and China.

Economic growth: Neither slow nor rapid economic growth …

Logistic Curves, Extraction Costs And Peak Oil, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

Debates about the possibility of a near-term maximum in world oil production have become increasingly prominent over the past decade, with the focus often being on the quantification of geologically available and technologically recoverable amounts of oil in the ground. Economically, the important parameter is not a physical limit to resources in the ground, but whether market price signals and costs of extraction will indicate the efficiency of extracting conventional or nonconventional resources as opposed to making substitutions over time for other fuels and technologies. We present a hybrid approach to the peak-oil question with two models in which the …

Economics Of Nuclear Power And Climate Change Mitigation Policies, Nico Bauer, Robert J. Brecha, Gunnar Luderer

Physics Faculty Publications

The events of March 2011 at the nuclear power complex in Fukushima, Japan, raised questions about the safe operation of nuclear power plants, with early retirement of existing nuclear power plants being debated in the policy arena and considered by regulators. Also, the future of building new nuclear power plants is highly uncertain. Should nuclear power policies become more restrictive, one potential option for climate change mitigation will be less available. However, a systematic analysis of nuclear power policies, including early retirement, has been missing in the climate change mitigation literature. We apply an energy economy model framework to derive …

Question 1: Google And Pac-Man; Question 2: Magnetic Levitation, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

On the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the video game Pac-Man, Google created a miniature version of the game and placed it as its logo on its home page. How much total time was wasted in the United States playing this game?

(Thanks to Daniel Drill of Old Dominion University for suggesting the question.)

Animal tissue is diamagnetic. How large a magnetic field gradient is needed to levitate frogs or people?

Variable Renewable Energy In Modeling Climate Change Mitigation Scenarios, Falko Ueckerdt, Robert J. Brecha, Gunnar Luderer, Patrick Sullivan, Eva Schmid, Nico Bauer, Diana Böttger

Physics Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the issue of how to account for short‐term temporal variability of renewable energy sources and power demand in long‐term climate change mitigation scenarios in energy‐economic models. An approach that captures in a stylized way the major challenges to the integration of variable renewable energy sources into power systems has been developed. As a first application this approach has been introduced to REMIND‐D, a hybrid energy‐economy model of Germany. An approximation of the residual load duration curve is implemented. The approximating function endogenously changes depending on the penetration and mix of variable renewable power. The approach can thus …

Logistic Curves, Extraction Costs And The Effective Size Of Oil Resources, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

The size of potential fossil fuel resources is an issue of perennial interest and controversy. Fundamentally, there appears to be a conflict in interpretation of available data for both past and future extraction histories. As fossil-fuel prices rose dramatically over the past several years, the question of resources once again became acute. In this paper we concentrate on conventional and non-conventional oil resources and make four main points, with the overarching theme that one can determine an effective oil resource that represents significantly less availability for consumption than usually posited by tallying resources in place.

First, looking at oil production …

Prioritizing Investment In Residential Energy Efficiency And Renewable Energy: A Case Study For The U.S. Midwest, Robert J. Brecha, Austin Mitchell, Kevin P. Hallinan, J. Kelly Kissock

Physics Faculty Publications

Residential building energy use is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and in the United States represents about 20% of total energy consumption. A number of previous macro-scale studies of residential energy consumption and energy-efficiency improvements are mainly concerned with national or international aggregate potential savings. In this paper we look into the details of how a collection of specific homes in one region might reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, with particular attention given to some practical limits to what can be achieved by upgrading the existing residential building stock. Using a simple model of residential, single-family home …

Establishing Building Recommissioning Priorities And Potential Energy Savings From Utility Energy Data, Kevin P. Hallinan, Philip Brodrick, Jessica Northridge, J. Kelly Kissock, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

An energy reduction program for commercial buildings is implemented for a SW Ohio natural gas utility. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that historical utility data for individual building customers, along with knowledge of pertinent building information (square footage, year built, number of floors, height of floors, wall construction type, and use type) available in county auditor databases, could be used to identify the best candidate buildings for recommissioning in terms of energy savings and simple payback. A study is completed for all natural gas customers of a utility in Montgomery and Clinton counties in Ohio. A total …

Targeting Residential Energy Reduction For City Utilities Using Historical Electrical Utility Data And Readily Available Building Data, Kevin P. Hallinan, J. Kelly Kissock, Robert J. Brecha, Austin Mitchell

Physics Faculty Publications

Energy use data for the eight-year period 2003–2010 was analyzed for over 1200 single family residences in Village of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Electricity, natural gas, residential building, and weather databases are merged to permit determination of the energy intensity of each home in the village. The energy use intensity for each home is disaggregated into weather independent and weather dependent electric and natural gas use. This use is compared to typical baseline, cooling, and heating energy use for the region. From this comparison, priority homes are identified for energy reduction investment. Collective potential low cost energy reduction is estimated for …

Short-Distance Structure Of Nuclei, D. W. Higinbotham, E. Piasetzky, L. Weinstein, S. A. Wood

Physics Faculty Publications

One of Jefferson Lab's original missions was to further our understanding of the short-distance structure of nuclei, in particular, to understand what happens when two or more nucleons within a nucleus have strongly overlapping wave-functions – a phenomena commonly referred to as short-range correlations. Herein, we review the results of the (e, e'), (e, e'p) and (e, e'pN) reactions that have been used at Jefferson Lab to probe this short-distance structure as well as provide an outlook for future experiments.

Question 1: A Million Monkeys, Er, Humans; Question 2: Deicing New York City, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

Question 1: A Million Monkeys, er, Humans: Americans now seem to communicate more by typing than by speaking. Many of us are also chained to our computers. How many characters (letters, numbers, symbols) do all Americans type or text every year?

Question 2: Deicing New York City: How much deicing compound does New York City use during and after a major snowstorm?

Question 1: Lhc Magnets; Question 2: Lhc Projectile Energy, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

What is the strength of the magnetic field used to keep the protons in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) moving in a circle?

What is the kinetic energy of one lead ion in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)? How does that compare to the kinetic energy of a ping-pong (table tennis) ball?

Emissions Scenarios In The Face Of Fossil-Fuel Peaking, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

Emissions scenarios used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are based on detailed energy system models in which demographics, technology and economics are used to generate projections of future world energy consumption, and therefore, of greenhouse gas emissions. We propose in this paper that it is useful to look at a qualitative model of the energy system, backed by data from short- and medium-term trends, to gain a sense of carbon emission bounds. Here we look at what may be considered a lower bound for 21st century emissions given two assumptions: first, that extractable fossil-fuel resources follow the …

Revisiting Hafemeister’S ‘Science And Society’ Tests, Robert J. Brecha, Rex L. Berney, Bruce A. Craver

Physics Faculty Publications

We revisit a series of papers on science and society issues by David Hafemeister in the 1970s and 1980s. The emphasis in the present work is on world oil production limits and some consequences of various possible scenarios for the near future. Some of the data and scenarios used by Hafemeister are updated for U.S. oil production in the past two decades and extended to an analysis of a peak in world oil production in the future. We discuss some simple scenarios for future energy use patterns and look at the consequence of these scenarios as world oil production begins …

Erratum: Cross Sections For The 𝛾p -> K*⁰ Σ⁺ Reaction At E𝛾 = 1.7-3.0 Gev (Physical Review C. 75, 042201), M. Amarian, H. Bagdasaryan, S. Bültmann, G. E. Dodge, G. Gavalian, C. E. Hyde-Wright, A. Klein, S. E. Kuhn, F. Sabatié, L. B. Weinstein, Et. Al., The Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Erratum: Η' Photoproduction On The Proton For Photon Energies From 1.527 To 2.227 Gev (Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, Pg 062001, 2006), H. Bagdasaryan, M. Bektasoglu, S. L. Careccia, K. V. Dharmawardane, G. E. Dodge, C. E. Hyde-Wright, A. Klein, S. E. Kuhn, L. M. Qin, F. Sabatié, L. B. Weinstein, Et Al., Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cooling Atoms In An Optical Trap By Selective Parametric Excitation, Nicola Poli, Robert J. Brecha, Giacomo Roati, Giovanni Modugno

Physics Faculty Publications

We demonstrate the possibility of energy-selective removal of cold atoms from a tight optical trap by means of parametric excitation of the trap vibrational modes. Taking advantage of the anharmonicity of the trap potential, we either selectively remove the most energetic trapped atoms or excite those at the bottom of the trap by tuning the parametric modulation frequency. This process, which had been previously identified as a possible source of heating, also appears to be a robust way for forcing evaporative cooling in anharmonic traps.

Publisher's Note: Η Photoproduction On The Proton For Photon Energies From 0.75 To 1.95 Gev [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 222002 (2002)], M. Bektasoglu, K. V. Dharmawardane, G. E. Dodge, C. E. Hyde-Wright, A. Klein, S. E. Kuhn, R. A. Niyazov, S. Stepanyan, L. B. Weinstein, Et Al., Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Corrected Article: Exclusive Electroproduction Of ᵠ Mesons At 4.2 Gev [Physical. Rev. C 63, 065205, (2001)], M. Bektasoglu, L. Ciciani, G. E. Dodge, T. A. Forest, C. E. Hyde-Wright, S. E. Kuhn, L. M. Qin, F. Sabatié, L. B. Weinstein, Et Al., The Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

We studied the exclusive reaction ep → e' p' ᵠ using the ᵠ →K⁺K^- decay mode. The data were collected using a 4.2 GeV incident electron beam and the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Our experiment covers the range in Q² from 0.7 to 2.2 GeV²and W from 2.0 to 2.6 GeV. Taken together with all previous data, we find a consistent picture of ᵠ production on the proton. Our measurement shows the expected decrease of the t slope with the vector-meson formation time c Δ t …

Two-Level Atom In An Optical Parametric Oscillator: Spectra Of Transmitted And Fluorescent Fields In The Weak Driving Field Limit, James P. Clemens, Perry R. Rice, Pranaw Kumar Rungta, Robert J. Brecha

Physics Faculty Publications

We consider the interaction of a two-level atom inside an optical parametric oscillator. In the weak-driving-field limit, we essentially have an atom-cavity system driven by the occasional pair of correlated photons, or weakly squeezed light. We find that we may have holes, or dips, in the spectrum of the fluorescent and transmitted light. This occurs even in the strong-coupling limit when we find holes in the vacuum-Rabi doublet. Also, spectra with a subnatural linewidth may occur. These effects disappear for larger driving fields, unlike the spectral narrowing obtained in resonance fluorescence in a squeezed vacuum; here it is important that …