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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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NASA NTRS1990

An astrophysics data program investigation of cluster evolution

A preliminary status report is given on studies using the Einstein x ray observations of distant clusters of galaxies that are also candidates for gravitational lenses. The studies will determine the location and surface brightness distribution of the x ray emission from clusters associated with selected gravitational lenses. The x ray emission comes from hot gas that traces out the total gravitational potential in the cluster, so its distribution is approximately the same as the mass distribution causing gravitational lensing. Core radii and x ray virial masses can be computed for several of the brighter Einstein sources, and preliminary results are presented on A2218. Preliminary status is also reported on a study of the optical data from 0024+16. A provisional value of 1800 to 2200 km/s for the equivalent velocity dispersion is obtained. The ultimate objective is to extract the mass of the gravitational lens, and perhaps more detailed information on the distribution of matter as warranted. A survey of the Einstein archive shows that the clusters A520, A1704, 3C295, A2397, A1722, SC5029-247, A3186 and A370 have enough x ray counts observed to warrant more detailed optical observations of arcs for comparison. Mass estimates for these clusters can therefore be obtained from three independent sources: the length scale (core radius) that characterizes the density dropoff of the x ray emitting hot gas away from its center, the velocity dispersion of the galaxies moving in the cluster potential, and gravitational bending of light by the total cluster mass. This study will allow the comparison of these three techniques and ultimately improve the knowledge of cluster masses.

Kellogg, Edwin M.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Radio emission in the directions of cD and related galaxies in poor clusters. III - VLA observations at 20 cm

VLA radio maps and optical identifications of a sample of sources in the directions of 21 Yerkes poor cluster fields are presented. The majority of the cluster radio sources are associated with the dominant D or cD galaxies (approximately 70 percent). Our analysis of dominant galaxies in rich and poor clusters indicates that these giant galaxies are much more often radio emitters (approximately 25 percent of cD's are radio active in the poor clusters), have steeper radio spectra, and have simpler radio morphologies (i.e., double or other linear structure) than other less bright ellipticals. A strong continuum of radio properties in cD galaxies is seen from rich to poor clusters. It is speculated that the location of these dominant galaxies at the cluster centers (i.e., at the bottom of a deep, isolated gravitational potential well) is the crucial factor in explaining their multifrequency activity. Galaxy cannibalism and gas infall models as fueling mechanisms for the observed radio and X-ray emission are discussed

Burns, J. O.↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Gas Distribution in the Outer Regions of Galaxy Clusters

Aims. We present our analysis of a local (z = 0.04 - 0.2) sample of 31 galaxy clusters with the aim of measuring the density of the X-ray emitting gas in cluster outskirts. We compare our results with numerical simulations to set constraints on the azimuthal symmetry and gas clumping in the outer regions of galaxy clusters. Methods. We have exploited the large field-of-view and low instrumental background of ROSAT/PSPC to trace the density of the intracluster gas out to the virial radius, We stacked the density profiles to detect a signal beyond T200 and measured the typical density and scatter in cluster outskirts. We also computed the azimuthal scatter of the profiles with respect to the mean value to look for deviations from spherical symmetry. Finally, we compared our average density and scatter profiles with the results of numerical simulations. Results. As opposed to some recent Suzaku results, and confirming previous evidence from ROSAT and Chandra, we observe a steepening of the density profiles beyond approximately r(sub 500). Comparing our density profiles with simulations, we find that non-radiative runs predict density profiles that are too steep, whereas runs including additional physics and/ or treating gas clumping agree better with the observed gas distribution. We report high-confidence detection of a systematic difference between cool-core and non cool-core clusters beyond approximately 0.3r(sub 200), which we explain by a different distribution of the gas in the two classes. Beyond approximately r(sub 500), galaxy clusters deviate significantly from spherical symmetry, with only small differences between relaxed and disturbed systems. We find good agreement between the observed and predicted scatter profiles, but only when the 1% densest clumps are filtered out in the ENZO simulations. Conclusions. Comparing our results with numerical simulations, we find that non-radiative simulations fail to reproduce the gas distribution, even well outside cluster cores. Although their general behavior agrees more closely with the observations, simulations including cooling and star formation convert a large amount of gas into stars, which results in a low gas fraction with respect to the observations. Consequently, a detailed treatment of gas cooling, star formation, AGN feedback, and consideration of gas clumping is required to construct realistic models of the outer regions of clusters.

Eckert, D.↗
NASA NTRS1995

A determination of the thick disk chemical abundance distribution: Implications for galaxy evolution

We present a determination of the thick disk iron abundance distribution obtained from an in situ sample of F/G stars. These stars are faint, 15 less than or approximately = V less than or approximately = 18, selected on the basis of color, being a subset of the larger survey of Gilmore and Wyse designed to determine the properties of the stellar populations several kiloparsecs from the Sun. The fields studied in the present paper probe the iron abundance distribution of the stellar populations of the galaxy at 500-3000 pc above the plane, at the solar Galactocentric distance. The derived chemical abundance distributions are consistent with no metallicity gradients in the thick disk over this range of vertical distance, and with an iron abundance distribution for the thick disk that has a peak at -0.7 dex. The lack of a vertical gradient argues against slow, dissipational settling as a mechanism for the formation of the thick disk. The photometric and metallicity data support a turn-off of the thick disk that is comparable in age to the metal-rich globular clusters, or greater than or approximately = 12 Gyr, and are consistent with a spread to older ages.

Gilmore, Gerard↗
NASA NTRS2017

Organic Molecules On the Surfaces of Iapetus and Phoebe

Absorption bands of both aliphatic and aromatic organic molecules are found in the reflectance spectra of Saturn satellites Iapetus, Phoebe, and Hyperion obtained with the Cassini Visible-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). The VIMS data do not fully resolve the individual bands of C-H functional groups specific to particular molecules, but instead show absorption envelopes representing blended clusters of the bands of aromatic (approximately 3.28 microns) and aliphatic (approximately 3.4 microns) hydrocarbons known in spectra of interstellar dust. In Cruikshank et al. (2014), we matched components of the unresolved hydrocarbon band envelopes with clusters of bands of a range of functional groups in specific types of organic compounds (e.g., normal and N-substituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, olefins, cycloalkanes, and molecules with lone-pair interactions of N and O with CH3+). In the work reported here, we revisit the spectra of Iapetus and Phoebe using VIMS data processed with improved radiometric and wavelength calibration (denoted RC19). The band envelopes of both aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons are now more clearly defined, corroborating the provisional assignment of specific classes of molecules in Cruikshank et al. 2014, but permitting a more reliable quantitative assessment of the relative contributions of those classes, and a revision to the earlier estimate of the ratio of the abundances of aromatic to aliphatic molecules.

Phoeb↗
NASA NTRS1992

A comparison of neural network and fuzzy clustering techniques in segmenting magnetic resonance images of the brain

Magnetic resonance (MR) brain section images are segmented and then synthetically colored to give visual representations of the original data with three approaches: the literal and approximate fuzzy c-means unsupervised clustering algorithms and a supervised computational neural network, a dynamic multilayered perception trained with the cascade correlation learning algorithm. Initial clinical results are presented on both normal volunteers and selected patients with brain tumors surrounded by edema. Supervised and unsupervised segmentation techniques provide broadly similar results. Unsupervised fuzzy algorithms were visually observed to show better segmentation when compared with raw image data for volunteer studies. However, for a more complex segmentation problem with tumor/edema or cerebrospinal fluid boundary, where the tissues have similar MR relaxation behavior, inconsistency in rating among experts was observed.

Hall, Lawrence O.↗
NASA NTRS1994

The horizontal-branch stars in globular clusters. 2: The second parameter phenomenon

Using synthetic horizontal-branch models, we have investigated the origin of the systematic variation in horizontal-branch (HB) morphology with galactocentric distance (R(sub G)) among globular clusters. The variations in He abundance, CNO abundance, and core mass required separately to explain this effect are inconsistent with either the observed properties of the RR Lyrae variables or the observed main-sequence turnoffs in the clusters. There is also no clear evidence that the trend with R(sub G) is related to the central concentrations, central densities, or absolute magnitudes of the clusters. The variations in cluster age required to explain this effect are not in conflict with any observations. A detailed comparison of our synthetic HB calculations with pairs of clusters of very different HB morphology but similar (Fe/H) reveals reasonably good agreement between the age differences inferred from HB morphology and the main-sequence turnoff. The major source of uncertainty is the need for ad hoc hypotheses in the modeling of the HB morphologies of a few peculiar clusters (e.g., NGC 6752). Nonetheless, there is firm evidence for age variations of several gigayears (as much as approximately 5 Gyr) among the halo globular clusters. Our results support the hypothesis of Searle & Zinn that the inner halo is more uniform in age and is older in the mean than the outer halo, and we estimate this difference to be approximately 2 Gyr.

Lee, Young-Wook↗
NASA NTRS1994

The onset of gravothermal oscillations in globular cluster evolution

We have carried out an extensive set of Fokker-Planck simulations of the evolution of globular clusters on very long timescales, up to 600 times the initial core collapse time t(sub cc). We consider an idealized equal mass star cluster, with a wide range of values for the total number of stars, 7000 less than N less than 2 x 10(exp 6). Our models include the heating effect of compact binaries formed in three-body encounters, which halts the initial core collapse and drives a core reexpansion. Postcollapse gravothermal oscillations of the cluster core are found to occur for all N approximately greater than or equal to 8000. For 8000 approximately less than or equal to N approximately less than or equal to 11,000, the oscillation has a simple, regular waveform with a single, well-defined period. For N approximately equals 12,000, the oscillations become nonlinear in a process resembling a period doubling. For N approximately greater than or equal to 14,000, the waveform of the oscillations becomes increasingly more irregular with increasing N, resembling chaotic behavior for N approximately greater than or equal to 15,000. During the oscillations, the core radius and core mass vary dramatically: by more than a factor of 10 for N greater than 15,000, by more than a factor of 100 for N greater than 5 x 10(exp 4), and by more than a factor of 1000 for N greater than 5 x 10(exp 5). However, even during the times of maximum expansion, the core contains only a small fraction of the cluster mass. For most N values, the maximum core mass at any time after core collapse is less than 1% of the cluster mass. The exceptions lie in the range 5 x 10(exp 4) approximately less than or equal to N approximately equal to or less than 2 x 10(exp 5), where the maximum post-collapse core mass reaches approximately 2% of the cluster mass. We discuss the observational implications of these predictions.

Breeden, Joseph L.↗
NASA NTRS1996

HRI observations of the A2384 cluster of galaxies

The cores of subclusters at redshifts approximately 0.1 were observed by the Rosat high resolution imager (HRI). The analysis of a 26 ksec observation of A 2384, a BM II-III with a cD galaxy are reported on. The cluster appears to be composed of a primary subcluster with a secondary peak. The galaxy distribution suggests a secondary peak at the approximate location of the secondary X-ray peak. The primary and the secondary peak are connected, with the X-ray emission elongated in the direction of the merger axis. The central particle density is 0.01/cu cm, but falls rapidly as a function of the radius. The accretion rate is estimated to be 4 solar mass/yr. Cooling flows must grow appreciably after a merger in order to equal the large accretion rates typical of rich clusters.

Henriksen, Mark J.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Stellar photometry in the inner bulge of M31 using the Hubble Space Telescope wide field camera

We present photometry of two fields in the M31 bulge imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide-Field Camara (WFC). The nuclear field (r less than 40 arcsecs = 150 pc) giant branch extends to I = 19.5, M(sub I) = -5 (Cousins system), a full 0.9 mag brighter than the giant-branch tips of metal-poor Galactic globular clusters and M31 halo fields. This is also approximately = 1.5 mag brighter than the giant branches of metal-rich Galactic globular clusters, but is no brighter than Mould's (1986) M31 bulge field 1 kpc from the nucleus. The data also suggest that the brighter stars may be preferentially concentrated to the center. The 648 luminous stars detected in 2 x 10(exp 9) solar luminosity is approximately = 25% that expected from a hypothetical population of evolved asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars with lifetimes approximately = 10(exp 5) yr, with the cautionary note that we are near the detection limit. The number of bright stars is also consistent with the progeny of blue stragglers, if one uses a lifetime for the thermal-pulsing AGB of 2 x 10(exp 6) yr. We strongly caution that incompleteness becomes severe below I = 19.9 mag and that future surveys are likely to find numbers of bright stars too large to accomodate the blue straggler progeny hypothesis. We have imaged an additional field 2 arcmin = 500 pc south of the nucleus. The brightest stars in this field are also I = 19.5, but bright stars appear less numerous than in the nuclear field. If the population resembles that of the Galactic bulge, then M(sub bol) = -4.5 is a lower limit to the giant-branch tip luminosity; infrared studies should reveal stars 0.5 mag or more brighter. Either high-metallicity or (more likely) age approximately = 10 Gyr may be responsible for the presence of these luminous AGB stars. These observations confirm that previous ground-based infrared studies (e.g., Rich & Mould 1991) very likely detect an extended giant branch and not spurious luminous stars caused by crowding or disk contamination. However, published integrated colors for the M31 bulge/nucleus are extremely red, making it difficult to accomodate a young or intermediate-age population.

Rich, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1975

On the nature of the globular cluster X-ray sources

It is suggested that the globular cluster X-ray sources can be interpreted in terms of mass shed by evolving postmain-sequence stars in the central regions of the globular cluster and accreting onto a massive (approximately 100-1000 solar masses) central black hole. Tentative indications that support this hypothesis include the high central escape velocities and the distribution of metallicities among the four globular clusters containing luminous X-ray sources. We argue that these X-ray sources cannot be explained as a consequence of the close capture of a nuclear burning star by a compact stellar remnant.

Silk, J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Testing higher-order Lagrangian perturbation theory against numerical simulation. 1: Pancake models

We present results showing an improvement of the accuracy of perturbation theory as applied to cosmological structure formation for a useful range of quasi-linear scales. The Lagrangian theory of gravitational instability of an Einstein-de Sitter dust cosmogony investigated and solved up to the third order is compared with numerical simulations. In this paper we study the dynamics of pancake models as a first step. In previous work the accuracy of several analytical approximations for the modeling of large-scale structure in the mildly non-linear regime was analyzed in the same way, allowing for direct comparison of the accuracy of various approximations. In particular, the Zel'dovich approximation (hereafter ZA) as a subclass of the first-order Lagrangian perturbation solutions was found to provide an excellent approximation to the density field in the mildly non-linear regime (i.e. up to a linear r.m.s. density contrast of sigma is approximately 2). The performance of ZA in hierarchical clustering models can be greatly improved by truncating the initial power spectrum (smoothing the initial data). We here explore whether this approximation can be further improved with higher-order corrections in the displacement mapping from homogeneity. We study a single pancake model (truncated power-spectrum with power-spectrum with power-index n = -1) using cross-correlation statistics employed in previous work. We found that for all statistical methods used the higher-order corrections improve the results obtained for the first-order solution up to the stage when sigma (linear theory) is approximately 1. While this improvement can be seen for all spatial scales, later stages retain this feature only above a certain scale which is increasing with time. However, third-order is not much improvement over second-order at any stage. The total breakdown of the perturbation approach is observed at the stage, where sigma (linear theory) is approximately 2, which corresponds to the onset of hierarchical clustering. This success is found at a considerable higher non-linearity than is usual for perturbation theory. Whether a truncation of the initial power-spectrum in hierarchical models retains this improvement will be analyzed in a forthcoming work.

Buchert, T.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Time-Resolved Grazing Incidence X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy for the In Situ Investigation of the Initial Stages of Sputter-Deposited Copper Thin Films

The sputter deposition and the growth of thin copper films on float glass substrates are in situ studied using grazing incidence, reflection mode X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy with subsecond time resolution. The experimental data are compared with model calculations, assuming the presence of crystalline, face-centered cubic metallic Cu nanostructures. From a detailed analysis of the measured spectra, the film thickness as well as the surface roughness is determined, leading to a detailed understanding of the films growth as a function of the sputter deposition time. In particular, different stages of film growth can clearly be distinguished from the fits of the experimental data. The results suggest the formation of isolated, approximately nm-sized copper clusters in the initial phase of the film deposition for the first few seconds, a coalescence phase with a nominal thickness of ≈1.5–2.8 nm, constant roughness of about 1.4 nm for the subsequent ≈5 s, and finally 3D growth of the Cu crystallites in the film for later stages of film growth. Further prospects of the methodology are given.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Optical properties of a diamond NV color center from capped embedded multiconfigurational correlated wavefunction theory

Diamond defects are among the most promising qubits. Modeling their properties through accurate quantum mechanical simulations can further their development into robust units of information. We use the recently developed capped density functional embedding theory (capped-DFET) with the multiconfigurational n-electron valence second-order perturbation theory to characterize the electronic excitation energies for different spin manifolds of the well-characterized negatively charged substitutional N defect adjacent to a vacancy (V C ) in diamond (N C V C − ). We successfully reproduce vertical excitation energies for both triplet and singlet states of N C V C − with errors < 0.1 eV. Unlike other embedding methods, capped-DFET exhibits robust predictions that are approximately independent of the embedded cluster size: it only requires a cluster to contain the defect atoms and their nearest neighbors (as small as a 40-atom capped cluster). Furthermore, our method is free from slowly converging Coulomb interactions between charged defects, and thus also only weakly dependent on supercell size.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2024

Nonlinear dynamics of multiple Alfvén modes driven by trapped energetic ions in tokamaks: A triplet paradigm

Non-linear dynamics of multiple infernal Alfvén eigenmodes—a subset of global Alfvén eigenmodes in tokamak plasmas with extended low-shear central core [Marchenko et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 092502 (2009)]—is studied. The analysis is carried out for a mode triplet with toroidal mode-numbers n=1, 2, 3. It was assumed that the n = 1 mode was linearly unstable due to precession resonance with trapped fast ions, whereas the other modes were linearly damped. The modes were coupled due to a non-linearity in a bounce-averaged drift kinetic equation for the distribution function of fast ions. Nonlinear equations for the mode amplitudes and phases are derived and solved numerically. It is found that the temporal evolution of the amplitudes and the phase (responsible for the frequency chirping) of the modes exhibit Hopf bifurcations to stable limit cycles. This can explain a synchronous cyclic destabilization of multiple modes in Alfvén avalanches (sudden growth of amplitudes of the mode cluster with different n and approximately equal frequency spacing) in NSTX and bursting modes in MAST—events, which resulted in enhanced loss of fast ions.

Marchenko, V. S. (ORCID:0000000261480533)↗
NASA NTRS1980

Contribution to the extragalactic X-ray background from clusters of galaxies

The contribution to the extragalactic background from clusters of galaxies in the 2-6 keV band was computed. Two different cluster luminosity functions and two different models for cluster evolution were considered and a cluster X-ray luminosity-temperature relationship of the type L alpha T sup alpha +1/2 was assumed. It is found that the overall contribution of clusters to the background is approximately 10% of the total observed X-ray extragalactic approximately 150 eV is superimposed on the observed background. This result is quite insensitive to the different set of assumptions made in the calculation.

Zolcinski, M. C. S.↗
NASA NTRS1989

A methodology for commonality analysis, with applications to selected space station systems

The application of commonality in a system represents an attempt to reduce costs by reducing the number of unique components. A formal method for conducting commonality analysis has not been established. In this dissertation, commonality analysis is characterized as a partitioning problem. The cost impacts of commonality are quantified in an objective function, and the solution is that partition which minimizes this objective function. Clustering techniques are used to approximate a solution, and sufficient conditions are developed which can be used to verify the optimality of the solution. This method for commonality analysis is general in scope. It may be applied to the various types of commonality analysis required in the conceptual, preliminary, and detail design phases of the system development cycle.

Thomas, Lawrence Dale↗
NASA NTRS1994

Temperature and iron abundance variation of the gas in the Perseus cluster

We present the first two-dimensional map of the temperature and iron abundance in the Perseus cluster. Analysis of spectra obtained using the Gas Imaging Spectrometer on ASCA shows nonaxisymmetric variations in both the temperature and iron abundance. Traveling west from the cluster center, the temperature increases to 9 keV at 20 min and then decreases rapidly to 5 keV at 40 min. There is a hot (greater than 10 keV) region to the northwest of the cluster center. The abundance is approximately constant over much of the surveyed region, but there is evidence for an increased abundance in the northwest hot area and a gradual decrease in a westerly direction.

Arnaud, K. A.↗