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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

Microwave Imaging of Edge Conductivity in Graphene at Charge Neutrality and Quantum Hall States

Here, we report local conductivity imaging of edge states in monolayer graphene by millikelvin microwave impedance microscopy. At the charge-neutrality point, as the magnetic field increases, the local conductivity at the edge drops to zero more slowly than in the bulk. This behavior is consistent with the calculated spatial profile of the charge gap in the canted antiferromagnetic phase. For comparison, we also perform microwave imaging of integer quantum Hall states away from neutrality, which host dissipationless chiral edge channels. The evolution of the edge signal as a function of the bulk gap is fundamentally different between the Landau level filling factor 𝜈 = 0 and |𝜈| ≥ 1 integer quantum Hall states, which can be qualitatively explained by numerical simulations and theoretical analysis. Our results provide a comprehensive microscopic picture of the edge and bulk states as the Fermi level moves across the unique Landau-level spectrum of graphene.

Hall effect↗

Medium and Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicle Infrastructure - Load Operations and Deployment (HEVI-LOAD) v1.0

In order to support the California state goals to reduce the carbon and pollution emissions (AB2127), The goal of this project (HEVI-Pro) is to project the charging infrastructure needs by future medium- and heavy- duty electric vehicles, and assess optimal deployment the infrastructure in California and provide grid impacts analysis. The MHDV projections will also consider transportation system and electric system interaction with light duty vehicles. The project consists of 2 approaches in general: top-down approach that takes aggregated MHDV adoptions as the inputs and provide the county-level projections of charging load profile and infrastructure need, and the bottom-up approach that that incorporates more granular (temporal, spatial and duty-cycle-specific) behaviors of a variety of MHDVs into activity simulations/optimizations for further analysis.

Wang, Bin↗

Optically anisotropic porous silicon microlenses with tunable refractive indexes and birefringence profiles

The effect of spatially varying birefringence on the focusing behavior of porous silicon (PSi) and porous silicon dioxide (PSiO 2 ) gradient refractive index (GRIN) lenses is investigated. Both materials attain broad, tunable refractive indexes and birefringence profiles, with PSi having a maximum birefringence of ~0.26 and PSiO 2 a reduced maximum birefringence of ~0.03 at 633 nm. These GRIN lenses exhibit polarization-dependent split focusing behavior, wherein the divergence angle between the twin foci increases with the birefringence gradient. PSi’s large birefringence allows the divergence angle to be tuned such that light focuses away from the center of the lens. These GRIN elements demonstrate how tunable birefringent materials can be used to engineer polarization-selective optical responses.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Weak Transitions in Light Nuclei

Nuclei are used for high-precision tests of the Standard Model and for studies of physics beyond the Standard Model. Without a thorough understanding of nuclei, we will not be able to meaningfully interpret the growing body of experimental data nor will we be able to disentangle new physics signals from underlying nuclear effects. This calls for accurate calculations of nuclear structure and reactions. In this work, we focus on electroweak decays in nuclei with mass number A ≤ 10 and report on ab initio Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of reduced matrix elements entering beta decays and electron captures in nuclei with mass number A ≤ 10. The many-body wave functions are calculated using selected Norfolk two- and three-nucleon potential models and associated one- and two-body axial currents at tree-level obtained from a chiral effective field theory with pions, nucleons, and Δ. The agreement with the experimental data is satisfactory except for transitions in A = 8 nuclei. In this specific case, the theory significantly underpredicts the experimental data, which indicates the need of further improvements in the corresponding nuclear wave functions. In this study, emphasis is placed on the contributions of two-body axial currents that are carefully analyzed using two-body transition densities. This allow us to study the spatial distribution and short-range behavior of two-body dynamics. In particular, the transition densities when scaled to peak at 1.0 exhibit universal short-range behavior across the considered nuclei, while they differ in the long-range tails.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Light-inducible protein degradation in E. coli with the LOVdeg tag

Molecular tools for optogenetic control allow for spatial and temporal regulation of cell behavior. In particular, light-controlled protein degradation is a valuable mechanism of regulation because it can be highly modular, used in tandem with other control mechanisms, and maintain functionality throughout growth phases. Here, we engineered LOVdeg, a tag that can be appended to a protein of interest for inducible degradation in Escherichia coli using blue light. We demonstrate the modularity of LOVdeg by using it to tag a range of proteins, including the LacI repressor, CRISPRa activator, and the AcrB efflux pump. Additionally, we demonstrate the utility of pairing the LOVdeg tag with existing optogenetic tools to enhance performance by developing a combined EL222 and LOVdeg system. Finally, we use the LOVdeg tag in a metabolic engineering application to demonstrate post-translational control of metabolism. Together, our results highlight the modularity and functionality of the LOVdeg tag system and introduce a powerful new tool for bacterial optogenetics.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Light-inducible protein degradation in E. coli with the LOVdeg tag

Molecular tools for optogenetic control allow for spatial and temporal regulation of cell behavior. In particular, light-controlled protein degradation is a valuable mechanism of regulation because it can be highly modular, used in tandem with other control mechanisms, and maintain functionality throughout growth phases. Here, we engineered LOVdeg, a tag that can be appended to a protein of interest for inducible degradation in Escherichia coli using blue light. We demonstrate the modularity of LOVdeg by using it to tag a range of proteins, including the LacI repressor, CRISPRa activator, and the AcrB efflux pump. Additionally, we demonstrate the utility of pairing the LOVdeg tag with existing optogenetic tools to enhance performance by developing a combined EL222 and LOVdeg system. Finally, we use the LOVdeg tag in a metabolic engineering application to demonstrate post-translational control of metabolism. Together, our results highlight the modularity and functionality of the LOVdeg tag system and introduce a powerful new tool for bacterial optogenetics.

Tague, Nathan (ORCID:0000000281146700)↗

The structure, stability and flaring of solar coronal loops

A review is given of recent progress in the theory of the magnetohydrodynamic behavior of coronal loops, beginning with a brief characterization of thy observations. The equilibrium magnetic field is described, along with the consequences of the empirical requirement for short-term, or infinite-conductivity, stability which is shown to be dominated by the end-effect influence of thy quasi-rigid photosphere. A new loop-flare model is then developed, which takes account of the finite loop length. The primary resistive-sausage-mode instability exhibits the necessary threshold behavior, and produces a number of spatially and energetically distinct flare-release manifestations.

Van Hoven, G.↗

A unified N-body and statistical treatment of stellar dynamics. I - The hybrid code. II - Applications to globular cluster cores

A unified N-body and statistical treatment of stellar dynamics is developed and applied to the late stages of core collapse and early stages of post collapse evolution in globular clusters. A 'hybrid' computer code is joined to a direct N-body code which is used to calculate exactly the behavior of particles in the inner spatial region, and the combination is used to follow particles statistically in the outer spatial region. A transition zone allows the exchange of particles and energy between the two regions. The main application results include: formation of a hard central binary system, reversal of core collapse and expansion due to the heat input from this binary, ejection of the binary from the core, and recollapse of the core; density profiles that form a one-parameter sequence during the core oscillations; and indications that these oscillations will eventually cease.

Mcmillan, S. L. W.↗

Spatiotemporal dynamics and optical vortices in a photorefractive phase-conjugate resonator

A truncated modal expansion approach is used to study the spatiotemporal dynamics of a phase-conjugate resonator as a function of Bragg detuning. The numerical results reveal a rich variety of behaviors. Emphasis is given to the spatial distribution of optical vortices, their trajectories and their relationship to the beam's spatial coherence. The limitations of the model are discussed and experimental results are presented for comparison with the model's predictions and assessment of its soundness.

Liu, Siuying Raymond↗

Departure solutions of the unsteady thin-layer and full Navier-Stokes equations solved using streamline curvature based iteration techniques

The development of a thorough understanding of the mechanisms for vortex eruptions from viscous layers, which are believed to be associated with phenomena such as dynamic stall onset and transition, is crucial if accurate models of such phenomena are to be formulated. The development of such models may, in turn, allow for the possibility that such effects could be accounted for during the design of various aerodynamic devices such as wings, helicopter rotors, and turbomachinery blading and thus lead to designs which are stall free or stall resistant and which have better stall-recovery properties. The present investigation is being conducted as part of an effort to develop analytical and numerical tools which can be used to help improve our understanding of the vortex-eruption mechanism at high Reynolds numbers. The addition of the normal-momentum equation to the classical unsteady boundary-layer equations is crucial according to recent asymptotic analyses of the vortex-eruption problem and is a key feature of the analyses being developed by the present authors. The purpose of this paper is as follows: to describe departure solution behavior observed when using unsteady, streamline-curvature based solution procedures in which nontrivial transverse pressure gradient effects are included; and to show that special treatment of the time-derivative of the normal velocity is needed to eliminate the ill-posed solution behavior, which is observed when small spatial and temporal step sizes are used.

Barnett, M.↗

Particle Acceleration at the Sun and in the Heliosphere

Energetic particles are accelerated in rich profusion at sites throughout the heliosphere. They come from solar flares in the low corona, from shock waves driven outward by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), from planetary magnetospheres and bow shocks. They come from corotating interaction regions (CIRs) produced by high-speed streams in the solar wind, and from the heliospheric termination shock at the outer edge of the heliospheric cavity. We sample all these populations near Earth, but can distinguish them readily by their element and isotope abundances, ionization states, energy spectra, angular distributions and time behavior. Remote spacecraft have probed the spatial distributions of the particles and examined new sources in situ. Most acceleration sources can be "seen" only by direct observation of the particles; few photons are produced at these sites. Wave-particle interactions are an essential feature in acceleration sources and, for shock acceleration, new evidence of energetic-proton-generated waves has come from abundance variations and from local cross-field scattering. Element abundances often tell us the physics the source plasma itself, prior to acceleration. By comparing different populations, we learn more about the sources, and about the physics of acceleration and transport, than we can possibly learn from one source alone.

Reames, Donald V.↗

Three-Dimensional Aerodynamic Instabilities In Multi-Stage Axial Compressors

This thesis presents the conceptualization and development of a computational model for describing three-dimensional non-linear disturbances associated with instability and inlet distortion in multistage compressors. Specifically, the model is aimed at simulating the non-linear aspects of short wavelength stall inception, part span stall cells, and compressor response to three-dimensional inlet distortions. The computed results demonstrated the first-of-a-kind capability for simulating short wavelength stall inception in multistage compressors. The adequacy of the model is demonstrated by its application to reproduce the following phenomena: (1) response of a compressor to a square-wave total pressure inlet distortion; (2) behavior of long wavelength small amplitude disturbances in compressors; (3) short wavelength stall inception in a multistage compressor and the occurrence of rotating stall inception on the negatively sloped portion of the compressor characteristic; (4) progressive stalling behavior in the first stage in a mismatched multistage compressor; (5) change of stall inception type (from modal to spike and vice versa) due to IGV stagger angle variation, and "unique rotor tip incidence" at these points where the compressor stalls through short wavelength disturbances. The model has been applied to determine the parametric dependence of instability inception behavior in terms of amplitude and spatial distribution of initial disturbance, and intra-blade-row gaps. It is found that reducing the inter-blade row gaps suppresses the growth of short wavelength disturbances. It is also concluded from these parametric investigations that each local component group (rotor and its two adjacent stators) has its own instability point (i.e. conditions at which disturbances are sustained) for short wavelength disturbances, with the instability point for the compressor set by the most unstable component group. For completeness, the methodology has been extended to describe finite amplitude disturbances in high-speed compressors. Results are presented for the response of a transonic compressor subjected to inlet distortions.

Tan, Choon S.↗

Development of algorithms for understanding the temporal and spatial variability of the earth's radiation balance

A brief description is given of how temporal and spatial variability in the earth's radiative behavior influences the goals of satellite radiation monitoring systems and how some previous systems have addressed the existing problems. Then, results of some simulations of radiation budget monitoring missions are presented. These studies led to the design of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). A description is given of the temporal and spatial averaging algorithms developed for the ERBE data analysis. These algorithms are intended primarily to produce monthly averages of the net radiant exitance on regional, zonal, and global scales and to provide insight into the regional diurnal variability of radiative parameters such as albedo and long-wave radiant exitance. The algorithms are applied to scanner and nonscanner data for up to three satellites. Modeling of dialy shortwave albedo and radiant exitance with satellite samling that is insufficient to fully account for changing meteorology is discussed in detail. Studies performed during the ERBE mission and software design are reviewed. These studies provide quantitative estimates of the effects of temporally sparse and biased sampling on inferred diurnal and regional radiative parameters. Other topics covered include long-wave diurnal modeling, extraction of a regional monthly net clear-sky radiation budget, the statistical significance of observed diurnal variability, quality control of the analysis, and proposals for validating the results of ERBE time and space averaging.

Brooks, D. R.↗

Reversible long-range domain wall motion in an improper ferroelectric

Reversible ferroelectric domain wall movements beyond the 10 nm range associated with Rayleigh behavior are usually restricted to specific defect-engineered systems. Here, we demonstrate that such long-range movements naturally occur in the improper ferroelectric ErMnO 3 during electric-field-cycling. We study the electric-field-driven motion of domain walls, showing that they readily return to their initial position after having traveled distances exceeding 250 nm. By applying switching spectroscopy band-excitation piezoresponse force microscopy, we track the domain wall movement with nanometric spatial precision and analyze the local switching behavior. Phase field simulations show that the reversible long-range motion is intrinsic to the hexagonal manganites, linking it to their improper ferroelectricity and topologically protected structural vortex lines, which serve as anchor point for the ferroelectric domain walls. Our results give new insight into the local dynamics of domain walls in improper ferroelectrics and demonstrate the possibility to reversibly displace domain walls over much larger distances than commonly expected for ferroelectric systems in their pristine state, ensuring predictable device behavior for applications such as tunable capacitors or sensors.

Zahn, Manuel [Norwegian Univ. of Science and Techn↗

Modeling spatial patterns of longleaf pine needle dispersal using long-term data

Abstract Background Predicting patterns of fire behavior and effects in frequent fire forests relies on an understanding of fine-scale spatial patterns of available fuels. Leaf litter is a significant canopy-derived fine fuel in fire-maintained forests. Litter dispersal is dependent on foliage production, stand structure, and wind direction, but the relative importance of these factors is unknown. Results Using a 10-year litterfall dataset collected within eighteen 4-ha longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris Mill.) plots varying in canopy spatial pattern, we compared four spatially explicit models of annual needle litter dispersal: a model based only on basal area, an overstory abundance index (OAI) model, both isotropic and anisotropic litter kernel models, and a null model that assumed no spatial relationship. The best model was the anisotropic model (R 2 = 0.656) that incorporated tree size, location, and prevailing wind direction, followed by the isotropic model (R 2 = 0.612), basal area model (R 2 = 0.488), OAI model (R 2 = 0.416), and the null model (R 2 = 0.08). Conclusions As with previous studies, the predictive capability of the litter models was robust when internally validated with a subset of the original dataset (R 2 = 0.196–0.549); however, the models were less robust when challenged with an independent dataset (R 2 = 0.122–0.319) from novel forest stands. Our model validation underscores the need for rigorous tests with independent, external datasets to confirm the validity of litter dispersal models. These models can be used in the application of prescribed fire to estimate fuel distribution and loading, as well as aid in the fine tuning of fire behavior models to better understand fire outcomes across a range of forest canopy structures.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Comparison of spatial dynamics and point kinetics approaches in multiphysics modeling of the molten salt reactor experiment

In this work, we present validation test results of fully coupled neutronics and thermal-hydraulics models of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) against experimental data of the zero power pump transients and the natural circulation tests at low power. To capture the strong coupling between neutronics and thermal-hydraulics due to fuel circulation, and to account for the delayed neutron precursor (DNP) distribution, the porous media thermal-hydraulics solver Pronghorn was fully coupled to the spatial neutron dynamics code Griffin, which solves the neutron diffusion equation, and to the 0-D point kinetics solver Squirrel, using a 2-D homogenized representation of the MSRE. The validation test results show very good agreement with experimental data for both point kinetics and spatial dynamics simulations, capturing the strong feedback effect and DNP losses in the MSRE. The 0-D code Squirrel accurately predicted the time-dependent behavior in the MSRE given the steady-state spatial dynamics solution of Griffin.

42 - ENGINEERING↗

Atmospheric X-ray Emission Experiment for Shuttle

The Atmospheric X-ray Emission Experiment (AXEE) for Shuttle is designed to measure the spatial, temporal, and energy distribution of X-ray aurorae produced by precipitating electrons. It will provide vital data on solar-terrestrial relationships that may lead to defining the transfer mechanism that causes certain terrestrial weather events and climatological behavior. The instrument concept is based on a spatially sensitive multiwire proportional counter, combined with collimators to produce X-ray images of the aurorae. It will be mounted on an instrument pointing system to provide the required attitude control and is operated by the Spacelab payload specialist who has full control over its observing and data taking modes.

Goldberg, R. A.↗

A Behavioral Model of Landscape Change in the Amazon Basin: The Colonist Case

This paper presents the prototype of a predictive model capable of describing both magnitudes of deforestation and its spatial articulation into patterns of forest fragmentation. In a departure from other landscape models, it establishes an explicit behavioral foundation for algorithm development, predicated on notions of the peasant economy and on household production theory. It takes a 'bottom-up' approach, generating the process of land-cover change occurring at lot level together with the geography of a transportation system to describe regional landscape change. In other words, it translates the decentralized decisions of individual households into a collective, spatial impact. In so doing, the model unites the richness of survey research on farm households with the analytical rigor of spatial analysis enabled by geographic information systems (GIs). The paper describes earlier efforts at spatial modeling, provides a critique of the so-called spatially explicit model, and elaborates a behavioral foundation by considering farm practices of colonists in the Amazon basin. It then uses, insight from the behavioral statement to motivate a GIs-based model architecture. The model is implemented for a long-standing colonization frontier in the eastern sector of the basin, along the Trans-Amazon Highway in the State of Para, Brazil. Results are subjected to both sensitivity analysis and error assessment, and suggestions are made about how the model could be improved.

Walker, R. A.↗