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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Reconstruction of the Density Power Spectrum from Quasar Spectra using Machine Learning

We describe a novel end-to-end approach using Machine Learning to reconstruct the power spectrum of cosmological density perturbations at high redshift from observed quasar spectra. State-of-the-art cosmological simulations of structure formation are used to generate a large synthetic dataset of line-of-sight absorption spectra paired with 1-dimensional fluid quantities along the same line-of-sight, such as the total density of matter and the density of neutral atomic hydrogen. With this dataset, we build a series of data-driven models to predict the power spectrum of total matter density. We are able to produce models which yield reconstruction to accuracy of about 1% for wavelengths $k \leq 2 h Mpc^{-1}$, while the error increases at larger $k$. We show the size of data sample required to reach a particular error rate, giving a sense of how much data is necessary to reach a desired accuracy. This work provides a foundation for developing methods to analyse very large upcoming datasets with the next-generation observational facilities.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Chemical Interface Damping Revealed by Single-Particle Absorption Spectroscopy

Plasmon-induced interfacial charge separation is a promising way to efficiently extract energetic carriers through direct plasmon decay. This mechanism of charge transfer has been investigated by single-particle scattering spectroscopy, which measures the homogeneous plasmon line width. The line width is broadened by charge transfer, generally known as chemical interface damping. However, conflicting reports exist regarding the effect of chemical interface damping on the corresponding single-particle absorption spectrum, which is needed to accurately determine absolute light conversion efficiencies. This work aims to resolve this question by directly correlating absorption and scattering spectra of individual gold nanorods in the presence and absence of a charge-accepting interface. We find that for TiO 2 coated nanorods, the absorption line width is indeed broadened due to chemical interface damping but is overall narrower than the scattering line width. Here, chemical interface damping is furthermore found to increase with larger resonance energies. The observed differences in line widths between absorption and scattering are elucidated within the context of an analytically tractable model describing the lowest energy optically bright and higher-order optically dark plasmon modes of the nanorod, including bulk, radiative, and chemical interface damping effects. Taken together, these results establish that single-particle absorption spectroscopy is capable of revealing interfacial charge injection by direct plasmon decay.

absorption↗
DOE OSTI2021

Atmospheric Transmission Spectroscopy of Hot Jupiter KELT-10b using Synthetic Telluric Correction Software

High-resolution spectroscopic visible data were obtained with the Ultraviolet and Visible Echelle Spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope. Our goal was to analyze the data in an effort to detect the presence of sodium in the atmosphere of hot Jupiter exoplanet KELT-10b, as well as characterize the orbit of the planet via the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. Eighty spectra were collected during a single transit of KELT-10b. After standard spectroscopic calibration using ESO-Reflex, the synthetic telluric modeling software molecfit was applied to remove terrestrial atmospheric effects, and to refine the wavelength calibration. Sodium is recognized by its characteristic absorption doublet located at 5895.924 and 5889.951 Å, which can be seen in the planet atmosphere transmission spectrum and through excess absorption during the transit. The radial velocity of the host star was analyzed by measuring the average shift of absorption features from spectrum to spectrum. Our results indicate a sodium detection in the planet transmission spectrum with a line contrast of 0.66% and 0.43% ± 0.09% for the sodium DII and DI lines, respectively. Excess absorption measurements agree to within one half combined standard deviation between the planet transmission spectrum (0.143% ± 0.020%, a 7σ detection) and during the time series (0.124% ± 0.034%, a 3.6σ detection) in a band 1.25 Å wide. The wavelength grid corrections provided by molecfit were insufficient to determine radial velocities and measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Connection between Emission and Absorption Outflows through the Study of Quasars with Extremely High Velocity Outflows

A recently discovered class of outflows, extremely high velocity outflows (EHVOs), may be key to understanding feedback processes, as it is likely the most powerful in terms of mass energy. These EHVOs have been observed at redshifts 1.052 < z em < 7.641, but the potential connection with outflows in emission has not been studied. We find that EHVOs, albeit their small numbers at the moment, appear to show distinct C IV and He II properties. In particular, EHVOs are more predominant in quasars with large blueshifts of the C IV emission line, suggesting a connection between emission and absorption outflowing signatures for these extreme outflows. We also find incipient trends with the maximum velocity of the outflows, which is similar to what has been previously found in BALQSOs but now extending previous studies to speeds up to ~0.2c. We find that the bolometric luminosities, Eddington ratios, and black hole masses of our sample are overall very similar to the general quasar population upon considering their C IV emission properties. This is close to the case for He II EW, as we observe a tentative upper limit to the He II strength for a quasar to host an EHVO. This study shows that extreme outflows such as EHVOs appear in quasars that are clearly a distinct class from the overall BALQSO population and solidify the relation between outflows observed in emission and absorption.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Turbulence-induced bias in time-averaged laser absorption tomography of correlated concentration and temperature fields with a first-order correction

The influence of correlated scalar fluctuations on time-averaged laser absorption tomography measurements of temperature and species in a piloted turbulent premixed flame was examined using a coupled spectroscopic and fluid-dynamic analysis. To understand bias associated with turbulence, spatio-temporally resolved temperature and species mole fraction profiles predicted by large eddy simulations (LES) were used to synthetically generate time-resolved line-of-sight absorption measurements at short time scales (microsecond) to reflect the unsteady nature of a canonical jet burner across various transverse measurement planes. Inversion methods were employed on the time-averaged line-of-sight data to produce radially-resolved temperature and mole fraction profiles, analogous to those produced by laser absorption tomography performed on a time-averaged axisymmetric flowfield. It is shown that bias in the measurements compared to true time-averaged scalar fields is a function primarily of temperature dependence in absorptivity and non-zero correlation between temperature and species concentration scalars. Finally, a first-order correction to tomography measurements is proposed to account for the bias based on estimated correlations and the known spectroscopic parameters of the probed absorption transitions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Emergence of a Low-Energy Peak in the Smoothed Absolute Value Circular Dichroism Spectra of Small Helical Gold Nanorods

We calculate, using time-dependent density functional theory, absorption and circular dichroism (CD) spectra for a series of small helical gold nanorod structures with a width of 0.6 nm and length increasing from 0.7 nm for Au 24 to 1.9 nm for Au 56 . For a low-energy window, ranging from 1.7 to 4.1 eV, broadening the lines in the absorption spectra results in a low energy peak which previous studies have identified as the (localized) plasmon resonance. As expected, the absorption peak position of the plasmon resonance systematically redshifts as the length of the nanorod increases. However, trends in the CD and straightforwardly broadened CD spectra are more difficult to discern. We introduce the idea of an absolute value CD spectrum and show that broadening the lines results in a low energy peak that has not previously been reported. The peak position systematically redshifts as the length of the nanorod increases but over a significantly smaller range than that for the absorption spectrum.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2026

XRISM Finds the Changing-look Active Galactic Nucleus NGC 1365 in an Extended Low State: A Dense, Highly Ionized Outflow Obscures the Central Source

We present the first XRISM/Resolve observations of the active galactic nucleus NGC 1365, obtained in 2024 February and July. NGC 1365 is known for rapid transitions between Compton-thick and Compton-thin states, along with strong absorption from a highly ionized wind. During our observations, the source was found in a persistent low-flux state, characterized by a decrease in hard-X-ray luminosity and significant line-of-sight obscuration. In this state, XRISM/Resolve reveals clear Fe XXV and Fe XXVI absorption lines together with, for the first time in this source, corresponding emission lines. These features may arise either from reemission from a photoionized wind (P Cygni profile) or from collisionally ionized gas associated with outflow-driven shocks in the interstellar medium. We estimate the wind launch radius to be approximately 10 16 cm (∼10 4 R g ), consistent with the location of the X-ray broadline region. We also resolve a broadened Fe Kα line by σ ∼ 1300 km s −1 , placing it at similar scales to the wind, consistent with radii inferred from disk-broadening models and the variability of the Fe Kα broad line. The similarity of the Fe Kα profile to the Hβ wing and broad Paα width indicates that the X-ray-emitting region is likely cospatial with the optical/infrared broadline region and originates from the same gas.

Astronomy and AstroPhysics↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hyperfine structure and isotope shifts of xenon measured for near-infrared transitions with Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy

Hyperfine structure and isotope shifts of Xe were investigated with Doppler-free saturated absorption spectroscopy for all transitions in the 820-841 nm spectral interval. The Xe samples were commercial gases of natural isotopic abundances. The measurements were performed by employing a widely tunable narrow line Ti:sapphire laser. The hyperfine structures for 129 Xe and 131 Xe were well resolved. For the transitions with the wavelengths in vacuum near 820.860 nm and 841.150 nm also isotope shifts of the even isotopes were clearly observed. The modeling of the shapes of the observed absorption lines qualitatively reproduces experimental spectral profiles. The measured absorption peaks of the hyperfine structure and isotope shifts of Xe isotopes present characteristic spectral fingerprints for their identification. Eventually, quantitative spectral analysis will provide isotopic abundances of natural, as well as radioactive Xe gas samples.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

An experimental platform for investigation of the Zeeman effect in strong magnetic fields

An experimental platform is developed for the investigation of the Zeeman effect in strong magnetic fields. Mega-Gauss magnetic fields are generated by a 1 MA Zebra pulsed power machine using metal rod loads. A gas jet or CH oil on the load is the source of hydrogen. Excited hydrogen atoms are backlit by black body radiation from the rod load. Hydrogen absorption spectra are recorded with a grating spectrometer and intensified gated CCD camera. Furthermore, the experimental platform enables the observation of the quadratic Zeeman effect in hydrogen gas jets using the spectral shift of the central line in the Zeeman triplet. Other gases can be studied using the gas jet method.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements of radiatively ionized argon gas

X-ray absorption spectroscopy is a diagnostic tool that can characterize the temperature and ionization state of a plasma. This technique requires experiments to characterize the platform, careful data calibration, and comparison with atomic models to understand the plasma parameters. We performed ionizing radiation wave experiments at the OMEGA Laser Facility that used an ∼ 80 eV X-ray source to heat an Argon (Ar) gas cell at fill pressures of 3 atm. To diagnose the Ar plasma, we used a capsule backlighter offset 10 mm from the gas cell, to produce X-rays that were absorbed by the ionized Ar gas. The absorption analysis was calibrated using the significant line structure in the backlighter spectrum, which served as independent energy fiducials enabling definitive measurements of a 50-eV shift in the energy of the Ar K-edge due to ionization. We compare the measured absorption spectra to two independent atomic models, PrismSPECT and SCRAM, and show that the observed K-edge shift in the heated gas is consistent with ionization up to Ar 4+ and temperatures of 10 eV.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

White-line evolution in shocked solid Ta evidenced by synchrotron x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Time-resolved x-ray absorption experiments have been performed on shocked tantalum. Using a single 100 ps synchrotron x-ray pulse, nanosecond-lived equilibrium states of shocked solid Ta have been measured by L 3 -edge absorption spectroscopy. The energy shift and intensity change of the white line were measured up to 130 GPa and 2000 K. The experimental results are discussed in light of density functional theory calculations and FEFF simulations. Lastly, the absence of occurrence of the hcp-ω phase is suggested from the analysis of the shape of the white line.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reconstructing Quasar Spectra and Measuring the Lyα Forest with SpenderQ

Quasar spectra carry the imprint of foreground intergalactic medium (IGM) through absorption features. In particular, absorption caused by neutral hydrogen gas, the "Lyα forest," is a key spectroscopic tracer for cosmological analyses used to measure cosmic expansion and test physics beyond the standard model. Despite their importance, current methods for measuring Lyα absorption cannot directly derive the intrinsic quasar continuum and make strong assumptions on its shape, thus distorting the measured Lyα clustering. We present SpenderQ , a ML-based approach for directly reconstructing the intrinsic quasar spectra and measuring the Lyα forest from observations. SpenderQ uses the Spender spectrum autoencoder to learn a compact and redshift-invariant latent encoding of quasar spectra, combined with an iterative procedure to identify and mask absorption regions. To demonstrate its performance, we apply SpenderQ to 400,000 synthetic quasar spectra created to validate the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Year 1 Lyα cosmological analyses. SpenderQ accurately reconstructs the true intrinsic quasar spectra, including the broad Lyβ, Lyα, SiIV, CIV, and CIII emission lines. Redward of Lyα, SpenderQ provides percent-level reconstructions of the true quasar spectra. Blueward of Lyα, SpenderQ reconstructs the true spectra to < 5%. SpenderQ reproduces the shapes of individual quasar spectra more robustly than the current state-of-the-art. We, thus, expect it will significantly reduce biases in Lyα clustering measurements and enable studies of quasars and their physical properties. SpenderQ also provides informative latent variable encodings that can be used to, e.g., classify quasars with Broad Absorption Lines. Overall, SpenderQ provides a new data-driven approach for unbiased Lyα forest measurements in cosmological, quasar, and IGM studies.

Hahn, ChangHoon [Arizona U., Astron. Dept. - Stewa↗
DOE OSTI2024

Semi-Dirac Fermions in a Topological Metal

Topological semimetals with massless Dirac and Weyl fermions represent the forefront of quantum materials research. In two dimensions, a peculiar class of fermions that are massless in one direction and massive in the perpendicular direction was predicted 16 years ago. These highly exotic quasiparticles—the semi-Dirac fermions—ignited intense theoretical and experimental interest but remain undetected. Using magneto-optical spectroscopy, we demonstrate the defining feature of semi-Dirac fermions— B 2 / 3 scaling of Landau levels—in a prototypical nodal-line metal ZrSiS. In topological metals, including ZrSiS, nodal lines extend the band degeneracies from isolated points to lines, loops, or even chains in the momentum space. With calculations and theoretical modeling, we pinpoint the observed semi-Dirac spectrum to the crossing points of nodal lines in ZrSiS. Crossing nodal lines exhibit a continuum absorption spectrum but with singularities that scale as B 2 / 3 at the crossing. Our work sheds light on the hidden quasiparticles emerging from the intricate topology of crossing nodal lines and highlights the potential to explore quantum geometry with linear optical responses. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Shao, Yinming (ORCID:0000000228910028)↗
DOE OSTI2026

Errors in reconstruction of dichroic X-ray orientation tomography due to polarization rotation of the incident beam

Dichroic X-ray tomography is a technique in which the crystal orientation or magnetization of a sample is resolved in three dimensions. The best-known uses of this technique are for observation of magnetic moments via circular dichroism, using left- and right-handed circularly polarized X-ray beams. Another variant uses linear dichroism to resolve the crystal orientation. In both these techniques, it is assumed that the absorption of X-rays along a path inside a material can be computed as a line integral of a local absorption coefficient along the ray path. For linear dichroism, this assumption is inaccurate because the polarization of the beam changes along the propagation direction when the optic axis of the material is not aligned along the polarization. In this work, a finite-element Maxwell solver is used to simulate tomography and reconstructions. The propagation effect can lead to significant errors in the reconstructed orientations. These errors may be mitigated by taking data at additional angles or by operating at energies at which the dichroism is weak. An iterative approach is proposed which may allow accurate reconstruction with fewer data than would otherwise be required.

X-ray linear dichroism↗
DOE OSTI2021

DIISC-II: Unveiling the Connections between Star Formation and Interstellar Medium in the Extended Ultraviolet Disk of NGC 3344

We present our investigation of the extended ultraviolet (XUV) disk galaxy, NGC 3344, conducted as part of Deciphering the Interplay between the Interstellar medium, Stars, and the Circumgalactic medium survey. We use surface and aperture photometry of individual young stellar complexes to study star formation and its effect on the physical properties of the interstellar medium. We measure the specific star formation rate (sSFR) and find it to increase from 10 –10 yr –1 in the inner disk to >10 –8 yr –1 in the extended disk. This provides evidence for inside-out disk growth. If these sSFRs are maintained, the XUV disk stellar mass can double in ~0.5 Gyr, suggesting a burst of star formation. The XUV disk will continue forming stars for a long time due to the high gas depletion times (τ dep ). The stellar complexes in the XUV disk have high-Σ H I and low-Σ SFR with τ dep ~ 10 Gyr, marking the onset of a deviation from the traditional Kennicutt–Schmidt law. We find that both far-ultraviolet (FUV) and a combination of FUV and 24 μm effectively trace star formation in the XUV disk. Hα is weaker in general and prone to stochasticities in the formation of massive stars. Investigation of the circumgalactic medium at 29.5 kpc resulted in the detection of two absorbing systems with metal-line species: the stronger absorption component is consistent with gas flows around the disk, most likely tracing inflow, while the weaker component is likely tracing corotating circumgalactic gas.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Argon metastable density and temperature of a 43 GHz microplasma

Argon (1s 5 ) metastable density and translational gas temperature are experimentally measured using laser diode absorption spectroscopy within a 43 GHz microplasma. The plasma is initiated and sustained within a photonic crystal constructed from a rectangular array of alumina rods, each 1 mm in diameter. This configuration generates stable microplasma from 10 to 600 Torr using millimeter wave power from 100 to 1200 mW. The metastable density is in the order of 10 18 m –3 at low pressure. However, Ar(1s 5 ) density decreases to undetectable levels with increasing pressure and wave power. The gas temperature is extracted from the Lorentzian line shape of the absorption profile at 811.53 nm. The gas temperature increases from approximately 400 K at low pressure to 2000 K at 320 Torr (427 mbar, 4.27 × 10 4 Pa). Furthermore, these data are compared with previous results and suggest that the microplasma has a dense core of electrons that depletes the metastable density at high gas pressure and wave power.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dust and gas absorption in the high mass X-ray binary IGR J16318-4848

With an absorption column density on the order of 10 24 cm -2 , IGR J16318-4848 is one of the most extreme cases of a highly obscured high mass X-ray binary. In addition to the overall continuum absorption, the source spectrum exhibits a strong iron and nickel fluorescence line complex at 6.4 keV. Previous empirical modeling of these features and comparison with radiative transfer simulations raised questions about the structure and covering fraction of the absorber and the profile of the fluorescence lines. We aim at a self-consistent description of the continuum absorption, the absorption edges, and the fluorescence lines to constrain the properties of the absorbing material, such as ionization structure and geometry. We further investigate the effects of dust absorption on the observed spectra and the possibility of fluorescence emission from dust grains. We used XMM-Newton and NuSTAR spectra to first empirically constrain the incident continuum and fluorescence lines. Next we used XSTAR to construct a customized photoionization model where we vary the ionization parameter, column density, and covering fraction. In the third step we modeled the absorption and fluorescence in a dusty olivine absorber and employed both a simple analytical model for the fluorescence line emission and a Monte Carlo simulation of radiative transfer that generates line fluxes, which are very close to the observational data. Our empirical spectral modeling is in agreement with previous works. Our second model, the single gas absorber does not describe the observational data. In particular, irrespective of the ionization state or column density of the absorber, a much higher covering fraction than previously estimated is needed to produce the strong fluorescence lines and the large continuum absorption. A dusty, spherical absorber (modeled as consisting of olivine dust, although the nature of dust cannot be constrained) is able to produce the observed continuum absorption and edges. A dense, dusty absorber in the direct vicinity of the source consisting of dust offers a consistent description of both the strong continuum absorption and the strong emission features in the X-ray spectrum of IGR J16318-4848. In particular, for low optical depth of individual grains, which is the case for typical volume densities and grain size distribution models, the dust will contribute significantly to the fluorescence emission.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗