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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 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

MEOP based 3 He polarization and injection system for experiments below 1 K

Metastability exchange optical pumping (MEOP) is a widely used technique for producing polarized 3 He. In connection with an experiment to search for the electric dipole moment of the neutron (nEDM) we have built a MEOP based 3 He polarization and injection system to prepare 80 % polarized 3 He at room temperature which will be injected into a ∼ 400 mK measurement cell filled with superfluid 4 He. We describe the polarization and injection system, which is designed to allow for final concentrations of 10 -8 –10 -10 of 80% polarized 3 He in the superfluid filled measurement cell. Only ≈ 0.72% polarization loss due to gradients is expected during injection.

Gas systems and purification↗
DOE OSTI2025

First-ever deployment of a SiPM-on-tile calorimeter in a collider: a parasitic test with 200 GeV p p collisions at RHIC.

We describe the testing of a prototype SiPM-on-tile iron-scintillator calorimeter at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) during its 200 GeV p p run in 2024. The prototype, measuring 20 × 20 cm 2 and 24 radiation lengths in depth, was positioned in the STAR experimental hall, approximately 8 m from the interaction point and 65 cm from the beam line, covering a pseudorapidity range of about 3.1 < η < 3.4. By using the dark current of a reference SiPM as a radiation monitor, we estimate that the prototype was exposed to a fluence of about 10 10 1-MeV n eq /cm 2 . Channel-by-channel calibration was performed in a data-driven way with the signature from minimum-ionizing particles during beam-on conditions. AGeant4 detector simulation, with inputs from thePythia8 event generator, describes measurements of energy spectra and hit multiplicities reasonably well. These results mark the first deployment, commissioning, calibration, and long-term operation of a SiPM-on-tile calorimeter in a collider environment. This experimental campaign will guide detector designs and operational strategies for the ePIC detector at the future EIC, as well as other applications.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Prototype acoustic positioning system for the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment

We present the design and initial performance characterization of the prototype acoustic positioning system intended for the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment. It comprises novel piezo-acoustic receivers with dedicated filtering- and amplification electronics installed in P-ONE instruments and is complemented by a commercial system comprised of cabled and autonomous acoustic pingers for sub-sea installation manufactured by Sonardyne Ltd. We performed an in-depth characterization of the acoustic receiver electronics and their acoustic sensitivity when integrated into P-ONE pressure housings. These show absolute sensitivities of up to -125 dB re V2/μPa2 in a frequency range of 10–40 kHz. We furthermore conducted a positioning measurement campaign in the ocean by deploying three autonomous acoustic pingers on the seafloor, as well as a cabled acoustic interrogator and a P-ONE prototype module deployed from a ship. Using a simple peak-finding detection algorithm, we observe high accuracy in the tracking of relative ranging times at approximately 230–280 μs at distances of up to 1600 m, which is sufficient for positioning detectors in a cubic-kilometer detector and which can be further improved with more involved detection algorithms. The tracking accuracy is further confirmed by independent ranging of the Sonardyne system and closely follows the ship's drift in the wind measured by GPS. The absolute positioning shows the same tracking accuracy with its absolute precision only limited by the large uncertainties of the deployed pinger positions on the seafloor.

Data analysis↗
DOE OSTI2012

A study of the material in the ATLAS inner detector using secondary hadronic interactions

The ATLAS inner detector is used to reconstruct secondary vertices due to hadronic interactions of primary collision products, so probing the location and amount of material in the inner region of ATLAS. Data collected in 7 TeV pp collisions at the LHC, with a minimum bias trigger, are used for comparisons with simulated events. The reconstructed secondary vertices have spatial resolutions ranging from ~ 200μm to 1 mm. The overall material description in the simulation is validated to within an experimental uncertainty of about 7%. This will lead to a better understanding of the reconstruction of various objects such as tracks, leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Turbulence-level dependence of cosmic ray parallel diffusion

ABSTRACT Understanding the transport of energetic cosmic rays belongs to the most challenging topics in astrophysics. Diffusion due to scattering by electromagnetic fluctuations is a key process in cosmic ray transport. The transition from a ballistic to a diffusive-propagation regime is presented in direct numerical calculations of diffusion coefficients for homogeneous magnetic field lines subject to turbulent perturbations. Simulation results are compared with theoretical derivations of the parallel diffusion coefficient’s dependences on the energy and the fluctuation amplitudes in the limit of weak turbulence. The present study shows that the widely used extrapolation of the energy scaling for the parallel diffusion coefficient to high turbulence levels predicted by quasi-linear theory does not provide a universally accurate description in the resonant-scattering regime. It is highlighted here that the numerically calculated diffusion coefficients can be polluted for low energies due to missing resonant interaction possibilities of the particles with the turbulence. Five reduced-rigidity regimes are established, which are separated by analytical boundaries derived in this work. Consequently, a proper description of cosmic ray propagation can only be achieved by using a turbulence-level-dependent diffusion coefficient and can contribute to solving the Galactic cosmic ray gradient problem.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Stability and pulsation of the first dark stars

ABSTRACT The first bright objects to form in the Universe might not have been ‘ordinary’ fusion-powered stars, but ‘dark stars’ (DSs) powered by the annihilation of dark matter (DM) in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). If discovered, DSs can provide a unique laboratory to test DM models. DSs are born with a mass of the order of M⊙ and may grow to a few million solar masses; in this work we investigate the properties of early DSs with masses up to $\sim \! 1000 \, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$, fueled by WIMPS weighing 100 GeV. We improve the previous implementation of the DM energy source into the stellar evolution code mesa. We show that the growth of DSs is not limited by astrophysical effects: DSs up to $\sim \!1000 \, \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }$ exhibit no dynamical instabilities; DSs are not subject to mass-loss driven by super-Eddington winds. We test the assumption of previous work that the injected energy per WIMP annihilation is constant throughout the star; relaxing this assumption does not change the properties of the DSs. Furthermore, we study DS pulsations, for the first time investigating non-adiabatic pulsation modes, using the linear pulsation code gyre. We find that acoustic modes in DSs of masses smaller than $\sim \! 200 \, \mathrm{ M}_\odot$ are excited by the κ − γ and γ mechanism in layers where hydrogen or helium is (partially) ionized. Moreover, we show that the mass-loss rates potentially induced by pulsations are negligible compared to the accretion rates.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Extending Fermi -LAT and H.E.S.S. limits on gamma-ray lines from dark matter annihilation

Gamma-ray lines from dark matter annihilation (χχ → γX, where X = γ, h, Z) are always accompanied, at lower energies, by a continuum gamma-ray spectrum stemming both from radiative corrections (X = γ) and from the decay debris of the second particle possibly present in the final state (X = h, Z). This model-independent gamma-ray emission can be exploited to derive novel limits on gamma-ray lines that do not rely on the line feature. Although such limits are not expected to be as stringent as those based on the line feature, they can be used to probe the existence of gamma-ray lines for dark matter masses beyond the largest energies accessible to current telescopes. In this report we use continuous gamma-ray searches from Fermi-LAT observations of Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies and from H.E.S.S. observations of the Galactic halo to extend the limits on the annihilation cross-sections into monochromatic photons to dark matter masses well beyond 500 GeV (Fermi-LAT) and 20 TeV (H.E.S.S.). In this large-mass regime, our results provide the first constraints on gamma-ray lines from dark matter annihilation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

MAGIC and Fermi -LAT gamma-ray results on unassociated HAWC sources

The HAWC Collaboration released the 2HWC catalogue of TeV sources, in which 19 show no association with any known high-energy (HE; E ≳ 10 GeV) or very-high-energy (VHE; E ≳ 300 GeV) sources. This catalogue motivated follow-up studies by both the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) and Fermi-LAT (Large Area Telescope) observatories with the aim of investigating gamma-ray emission over a broad energy band. In this paper, we report the results from the first joint work between High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC), MAGIC, and Fermi-LAT on three unassociated HAWC sources: 2HWC J2006+341, 2HWC J1907+084*, and 2HWC J1852+013*. Although no significant detection was found in the HE and VHE regimes, this investigation shows that a minimum 1° extension (at 95 percent confidence level) and harder spectrum in the GeV than the one extrapolated from HAWC results are required in the case of 2HWC J1852+013*, whilst a simply minimum extension of 0.16° (at 95 percent confidence level) can already explain the scenario proposed by HAWC for the remaining sources. Furthermore, the hypothesis that these sources are pulsar wind nebulae is also investigated in detail.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Antenna arrays for neutrino mass measurements with cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy

Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) is a technique for precision measurements of kinetic energies of charged particles, pioneered by the Project 8 experiment to measure the neutrino mass using the tritium end-point method. It was recently employed for the first time to measure the molecular tritium spectrum and place a limit on the neutrino mass using a cubic-centimeter-scale detector. Future direct neutrino mass experiments are developing the technique to overcome the systematic and statistical limitations of current detectors. Here, this paper describes one such approach, namely the use of antenna arrays for CRES in free space. Phenomenology, detector design, simulation, and performance estimates are discussed, culminating with an example design with a projected sensitivity of 𝑚 𝛽 < ⁢0.04 eV/𝑐 2 . Prototype antenna array measurements are also shown for a demonstrator-scale setup as a benchmark for the simulation. By consolidating these results, this paper serves as a comprehensive reference for the development and performance of antenna arrays for CRES.

Physics - Nuclear physics and radiation physics↗
DOE OSTI2025

First Limits on Light Dark Matter Interactions in a Low Threshold Two-Channel Athermal Phonon Detector from the TESSERACT Collaboration

We present results of a search for spin-independent dark matter-nucleus interactions in a 1 cm 2 by 1 mm thick (0.233 g) high-resolution silicon athermal phonon detector operated above ground. For interactions in the substrate, this detector achieves an rms baseline energy resolution of 361.5⁢(4) m⁢ eV (statistical error), the best for any athermal phonon detector to date. With an exposure of 0.233 g ×12 hours, we place the most stringent constraints on dark matter masses between 44 and 87 M⁢ eV/c 2 , with the lowest unexplored cross section of 4⁢ × 10 −32 c⁢m 2 at 87 M⁢ eV/c 2 . We employ a conservative salting technique to reach the lowest dark matter mass ever probed via direct detection experiment. This constraint is enabled by two-channel rejection of low energy backgrounds that are coupled to individual sensors.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Cosmogenic activation of silicon

In the production of 3 H, 7 Be, and 22 Na by interactions of cosmic-ray particles with silicon can produce radioactive backgrounds in detectors used to search for rare events. Through controlled irradiation of silicon CCDs and wafers with a neutron beam that mimics the cosmic-ray neutron spectrum, followed by direct counting, we determined that the production rate from cosmic-ray neutrons at sea level is (112 ± 24) atoms/( kg day ) for 3 H, (8.1 ± 1.9) atoms/( kg day ) for 7 Be, and (43.0 ± 7.2) atoms/( kg day ) for 22 Na . Complementing these results with the current best estimates of activation cross sections for cosmic-ray particles other than neutrons, we obtain a total sea-level cosmic-ray production rate of (124 ± 25) atoms/(kg day) for 3 H, (9.4 ± 2.0) atoms/( kg day ) for 7 Be, and (49.6 ± 7.4) atoms/( kg day ) for 22 Na. These measurements will help constrain background estimates and determine the maximum time that silicon-based detectors can remain unshielded during detector fabrication before cosmogenic backgrounds impact the sensitivity of next-generation rare-event searches.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Discrimination of electronic recoils from nuclear recoils in two-phase xenon time projection chambers

We present a comprehensive analysis of electronic recoil vs. nuclear recoil discrimination in liquid/gas xenon time projection chambers, using calibration data from the 2013 and 2014-16 runs of the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment. We observe strong charge-to-light discrimination enhancement with increased event energy. For events with S1 = 120 detected photons, i.e. equivalent to a nuclear recoil energy of ~100 keV, we observe an electronic recoil background acceptance of <10 –5 at a nuclear recoil signal acceptance of 50%. We also observe modest electric field dependence of the discrimination power, which peaks at a field of around 300 V/cm over the range of fields explored in this study (50-500 V/cm). In the WIMP search region of S1 = 1-80 phd, the minimum electronic recoil leakage we observe is (7.3 ± 0.6) 10 –4 , which is obtained for a drift field of 240-290 V/cm. Pulse shape discrimination is utilized to improve our results, and we find that, at low energies and low fields, there is an additional reduction in background leakage by a factor of up to 3. We develop an empirical model for recombination fluctuations which, when used alongside the Noble Element Scintillation Technique (NEST) simulation package, correctly reproduces the skewness of the electronic recoil data. We use this updated simulation to study the width of the electronic recoil band, finding that its dominant contribution comes from electron-ion recombination fluctuations, followed in magnitude of contribution by fluctuations in the S1 signal, fluctuations in the S2 signal, and fluctuations in the total number of quanta produced for a given energy deposition.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Upper limits on the cosmic neutrino background from cosmic rays

Extragalactic and galactic cosmic rays scatter with the cosmic neutrino background during propagation to Earth, yielding a flux of relic neutrinos boosted to larger energies. If an overdensity of relic neutrinos is present in galaxies, and neutrinos are massive enough, this flux might be detectable by high-energy neutrino experiments. For a lightest neutrino of mass 𝑚 𝜈 ∼0.1 eV, we find an upper limit on the local relic neutrino overdensity of ∼10 13 and an upper limit on the relic neutrino overdensity at TXS 0506 + 056 of ∼10 10 . Future experiments like GRAND or IceCube-Gen2 could improve these bounds by orders of magnitude.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2025

Diffuse boosted cosmic neutrino background

Energetic cosmic rays scatter off the cosmic neutrino background throughout the history of the Universe, yielding a diffuse flux of cosmic relic neutrinos boosted to high energies. We calculate this flux under different assumptions of the cosmic-ray flux spectral slope and redshift evolution. The nonobservation of the diffuse flux of boosted relic neutrinos with current high-energy neutrino experiments already excludes an average cosmic neutrino background overdensity larger than ∼10 4 over cosmological distances. We discuss the future detectability of the diffuse flux of boosted relic neutrinos in light of neutrino overdensity estimates and cosmogenic neutrino backgrounds.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Ground calibration plan for the Athena/X-IFU microcalorimeter spectrometer

The X-ray Integral Field Unit is the X-ray imaging spectrometer on board one of ESA’s next large missions, Athena. Athena is set to investigate the theme of the Hot and Energetic Universe, with a launch planned in the late-2030s. Based on a high-sensitivity transition edge sensor (TES) detector array operated at very low temperature (50 mK), X-IFU will provide spatially resolved high-resolution spectroscopy of the X-ray sky in the 0.2 to 12 keV energy band, with an energy resolution goal of 4 eV up to 7 keV [3 eV design goal]. This work presents the current calibration plan of the X-IFU. It provides the requirements applicable to the X-IFU calibration, describes the overall calibration strategy, and details the procedure and sources needed for the ground calibration of each parameter or characteristics of the X-IFU.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Can the Solar Atmosphere Generate Very-High-Energy Cosmic Rays?

The origin and acceleration of high-energy particles, constituting cosmic rays, is likely to remain an important topic in modern astrophysics. Among the two categories galactic and solar cosmic rays, the latter are much less investigated. The primary source of solar cosmic ray particles are impulsive explosions of the magnetized plasma, known as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These particles, however, are characterized by relatively low energies compared to their galactic counterparts. In this work, we explore the resonance wave–wave (RWW) interaction between the polarized electromagnetic radiation emitted by the solar active regions and the quantum waves associated with high-energy, relativistic electrons generated during solar flares. Mathematically, the RWW interaction problem boils down to analyzing a Klein–Gordon Equation (spinless electrons) embedded in the electromagnetic field. We find that RWW could accelerate the relativistic electrons to enormous energies even comparable to energies in the galactic cosmic rays.

acceleration of particles↗
DOE OSTI2016

Revealing W51C as a cosmic ray source using Fermi-LAT data

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are commonly believed to be the primary sources of Galactic cosmic rays. Despite intensive study of the non-thermal emission of many SNRs the identification of the accelerated particle type relies heavily on assumptions of ambient-medium parameters that are only loosely constrained. Compelling evidence of hadronic acceleration can be provided by detecting a strong roll-off in the secondary γ-ray spectrum below the π{sup 0} production threshold energy of about 135 MeV, the so called “pion bump.” Here we use five years of Fermi-Large Area Telescope data to study the spectrum above 60 MeV of the middle-aged SNR W51C. A clear break in the power-law γ-ray spectrum at E{sub break}=290±20 MeV is detected with 9σ significance and we show that this break is most likely associated with the energy production threshold of π{sup 0}mesons. A high-energy break in the γ-ray spectrum at about 2.7 GeV is found with 7.5σ significance. The spectral index at energies beyond this second break is Γ{sub 2}=2.52{sub −0.07}{sup +0.06} and closely matches the spectral index derived by the MAGIC Collaboration above 75 GeV. Therefore our analysis provides strong evidence to explain the γ-ray spectrum of W51C by a single particle population of protons with a momentum spectrum best described by a broken power law with break momentum p{sub break}∼80 GeV/c. W51C is the third middle-aged SNR that displays compelling evidence for cosmic-ray acceleration and thus strengthens the case of SNRs as the main source of Galactic cosmic rays.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗