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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 217 records · Page 12
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DOE OSTI2025

Particle Dark Matter Across Scales (Final Technical Report)

The research supported by this DOE grant investigated the nature of dark matter, particularly its particle properties and astrophysical manifestations, over the period of 2018 to 2024. The proposal focused on leveraging astrophysical probes, cosmological models, and high-resolution simulations to further our understanding of dark matter, its possible interactions, and the theoretical models that could explain its properties. This research directly contributes to the DOE's mission of exploring the fundamental constituents of the universe, advancing particle physics, and using cosmological and astrophysical observations to detect dark matter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Testing new physics in oscillations at a neutrino factory

A neutrino factory is a potential successor to the upcoming generation of neutrino oscillation experiments and a possible precursor to next-generation muon colliders. Such a machine would provide a well characterized beam of , , , and neutrinos with comparable statistics. Here we show the sensitivity of a neutrino factory to new oscillation physics scenarios such as vector neutrino non-standard interactions and CPT violation. We study two different potential setups for a neutrino factory with different assumptions on charge identification in the far detector. We find that a neutrino factory can improve over most of the current constraints on these scenarios and over forecasted constraints by DUNE, even when doubling DUNE's statistics. Additionally, we find that a neutrino factory can break degeneracies between the standard oscillation parameters and neutrino non-standard interaction parameters present at DUNE.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Probing scalar non-standard interaction of supernova neutrinos in next-generation neutrino experiments

A new neutrino-matter interaction can potentially affect neutrino propagation through matter. In this work, we explore the impact of a flavor-conserving scalar-mediated non-standard neutrino interaction in the supernova neutrino flux. We observe that the presence of a scalar interaction involving muon and tau neutrinos (parameterized as η μμ and η ττ , respectively) can invert the neutrino mass eigenstate in which three neutrino flavor states are produced inside the supernova core, resulting in a significant modification of the electron neutrino flux from the supernova reaching the Earth. In the context of the DUNE experiment, we estimate the number of supernova neutrino events in the presence of scalar non-standard neutrino interaction η μμ or η ττ and contrast with the case without scalar-mediated non-standard interactions. Our results indicate that such scalar interactions introduce a new degeneracy in the measurement of neutrino mass ordering from supernova neutrinos. We show how the ν̅e event distribution in Hyper-Kamiokande experiment may help resolve the degeneracy between a model with new scalar interactions for normal ordered neutrino masses and the standard model with inverted mass ordering for a galactic supernova.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Why Do Nuclei Stick Together?

Although quantum chromodynamics (QCD) has long been accepted as the underlying theory of the strong nuclear force, connecting the structure and interactions of nuclei to the fundamental parameters of QCD remains challenging. In this talk, I will present new results from lattice QCD and effective field theory that explore how nuclear interactions look in a world where the quarks are much heavier than they are in nature, and discuss lessons that can be learned for nuclear physics as well as searches for physics beyond the Standard Model.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fast, differentiable, and extensible big bang nucleosynthesis package

Here, we introduce light isotope nucleosynthesis with JAX (LINX), a new differentiable public big bang nucleosynthesis code designed for fast parameter estimation. By leveraging JAX, LINX achieves both speed and differentiability, enabling the use of Bayesian inference, including gradient-based methods. We discuss the formalism used in LINX for rapid primordial elemental abundance predictions and give examples of how LINX can be used. When combined with differentiable cosmic microwave background power spectrum emulators, LINX can be used for joint cosmic microwave background and big bang nucleosynthesis analyses without requiring extensive computational resources, including on personal hardware.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Constraints on long-ranged interactions between dark matter and the Standard Model

Dark matter's existence is known thanks to its gravitational interaction with Standard Model particles, but it remains unknown whether this is the only force present between them. While many searches for such new interactions with dark matter focus on short-range, contact-like interactions, it is also possible that there exist weak, long-ranged forces between dark matter and the Standard Model. In this work, we present two types of constraints on such new interactions. First, we consider constraints arising from the fact that such a force would also induce long range interactions between Standard Model particles themselves, as well as between dark matter particles themselves. Combining the constraints on these individual forces generally sets the strongest constraints available on new Standard Model-dark matter interactions. Second, we consider the possibility of constraining new long-ranged interactions between dark matter and the Standard Model using the effects of dynamical friction in ultrafaint dwarf galaxies, especially Segue I. Such new interactions would accelerate the transfer of kinetic energy from stars to their surrounding dark matter, slowly reducing their orbits; the present-day stellar half-light radius of Segue I therefore allows us to exclude new forces which would have reduced stars' orbital radii below this scale by now.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tropical amplitudes for colored Lagrangians

Recently a new formulation for scattering amplitudes in Tr(Φ 3 ) theory has been given based on simple combinatorial ideas in the space of kinematic data. This allows all-loop integrated amplitudes to be expressed as “curve integrals” defined using tropical building blocks — the “headlight functions”. This paper shows how the formulation extends to the amplitudes of more general Lagrangians. We will present a number of different ways of introducing tropical “numerator functions” that allow us to describe general Lagrangian interactions. The simplest family of these “tropical numerators” computes the amplitudes of interesting Lagrangians with infinitely many interactions. We also describe methods for tropically formulating the amplitudes for general Lagrangians. One uses a variant of “Wick contraction” to glue together numerator factors for general interaction vertices. Another uses a natural characterization of polygons on surfaces to give a novel combinatorial description of all possible diagrams associated with arbitrary valence interactions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Status of ICARUS NUMI Interaction Cross-Section Analysis

The ICARUS experiment, utilizing Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr TPC) technology, has been installed at Fermilab in Chicago, Illinois, following its initial operation in Italy and subsequent refurbishment at CERN. ICARUS completed commissioning in June 2022. Currently, the experiment is in the phase of analyzing data from its two runs of physics data acquisition and gearing up for the third run. While its primary objective is to function as the far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino program (SBN), seeking sterile neutrino signatures, ICARUS also offers diverse physics capabilities, including searches beyond the standard model and measurements of cross-sections. In addition to being exposed to the common Booster Neutrino (BNB) beamline, ICARUS also receives off-axis neutrinos from the Main Injector (NuMI) beam. Due to the off-axis angle between NuMI and ICARUS, coupled with contributions from both pion and kaon decays to neutrino fluxes, interactions of NuMI neutrinos within ICARUS can be detected over a range of several GeV in energy. These interactions present opportunities for crucial cross-section measurements and model tests within an energy range that overlaps both the SBN oscillation search and a portion of the DUNE spectrum. This poster presentation will delve into our efforts to conduct a muon-neutrino cross-section measurement, where the signal is defined by events with no pions produced in the final state of the interaction, along with some preliminary muon-neutrino inclusive measurements. Additionally, it will provide updates on the current status and future plans, including reconstruction, selection, and analysis procedures.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Study of the Neutrino Magnetic Moment with the NOvA Near Detector

Predicted by the Standard Model as theoretical, massless particles, neutrinos have been the subject of many experiments since their first detection. It is now experimentally confirmed that neutrinos do have mass necessitating an extension to the Standard Model. Such an extension allows for other surprising neutrino properties, such as a neutrino magnetic moment, nuMM. While neutrinos are observed to be neutral and do not couple to photons at leading order, higher order expansion of the interaction allows for coupling to the photon to occur and gives rise to a nuMM through quantum loop effects. This is a useful property for studying the Dirac or Majorana nature of neutrinos, as the predicted value of the magnetic moment would differ. This talk focuses on an introduction to the nuMM as well as discusses the current status of work being done on NOvA utilizing the Near Detector to obtain an upper limit on the nuMM value.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Data reduction for low energy nuclear physics experiments using data frames

Low energy nuclear physics experiments are transitioning towards fully digital data acquisition systems. Realizing the gains in flexibility afforded by these systems relies on equally flexible data reduction techniques. In this paper, methods utilizing data frames and in-memory techniques to work with data, including data from self-triggering, digital data acquisition systems, are discussed within the context of a Python package, sauce. It is shown that data frame operations can encompass common analysis needs and allow interactive data analysis. Two event building techniques, dubbed referenced and referenceless event building, are shown to provide a means to transform raw list mode data into correlated multi-detector events. These techniques are demonstrated in the analysis of two example data sets.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Measuring Light Yield with Isolated Protons in MicroBooNE

Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPCs) are precision detectors used extensively in neutrino physics. The MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab is one of the experiments employing this technique and has collected 5 years of data from 2015-2021. The primary signal in LArTPCs is ionisation, but argon also emits large quantities of scintillation light, which can be used for calorimetry, timing and background rejection. Prompt scintillation light in MicroBooNE is recorded with an array of 32 PhotoMultiplier Tubes (PMTs). To enable the full use of scintillation light in the experiment, it is important to characterize the efficiency of light collection in the detector, i.e. the light yield. We present a new method of measuring the light yield using isolated proton interactions, which enables a position-dependent light yield measurement to map the response of the detector across its volume. This method can be used to calibrate the light response in large-scale LArTPC detectors as well as to test assumptions used in simulating scintillation light.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

New RES and DIS Uncertainties for NOvA Cross-Section Model

NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino experiment at Fermilab that studies neutrino oscillations via electron neutrino appearance and muon neutrino disappearance. The oscillation measurements compare the Far Detector data to an oscillated prediction informed by the Near Detector (ND) data. This ND-informed prediction is produced from the neutrino generator GENIE, which provides NOvA with a set of interaction uncertainties. However, this coverage does not account for all interaction uncertainties relevant for NOvA, in particular for resonance production (RES) and deep inelastic scattering (DIS) processes, which comprise a substantial portion of NOvA's interactions. Here we introduce six new cross section uncertainties that affect RES and DIS interactions, which represent degrees of freedom not available in the previous NOvA model. After careful studying of their impact, we incorporate them to the NOvA cross-section model. We show the impact of these new uncertainties on various reconstructed quantities.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cosmological parameter estimation with a joint-likelihood analysis of the cosmic microwave background and big bang nucleosynthesis

Here, we present a joint-likelihood analysis of big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, consistently combining likelihoods and taking into account uncertainties in nuclear reaction rates for the first time. Bayesian inference is performed on the baryon abundance and the effective number of neutrino species, 𝑁 eff , using a CMB Boltzmann solver in combination with LINX , a new flexible and efficient BBN code. We marginalize over Planck nuisance parameters and nuclear rates to find 𝑁 eff =3.0⁢8$^{+0.15}_{−0.14}$, 2.9⁢4$^{+0.16}_{−0.15}$, or 2.96$^{+0.13}_{−0.14}$, for three separate reaction networks. This framework enables robust testing of the lambda cold dark matter paradigm and its variants with CMB and BBN data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons at the MINER$\nu$A detector

Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNL) are particles hypothesised to provide a mass generation mechanism for the active (observed) neutrino species, which are known to have nonzero mass from the definitive observation of neutrino oscillations. HNL are eigenstates of mass of the order $\mathcal{O}(0.1 − 1\,\,\mathrm{GeV}/c^{2})$, which mix into the active flavour eigenstates through the extended leptonic mixing matrix. Apart from neutrino mass, they could provide a natural dark matter candidate and a mechanism for matter-antimatter asymmetry in the early Universe, giving rise to today’s matter-dominated cosmos. Searches for HNL typically attempt to either confirm the existence of HNL through an excess in data that is most compatible with an HNL hypothesis, or by setting limits on the HNL parameter space $\left(M_{N4}, \left|U_{\alpha 4}\right|^{2}\right)$ in the case of statistically insignificant excess. Such searches are intensifying as part of a global research programme at both colliders and accelerator / atmospheric neutrino experiments. One such setting is the MINER$\nu$A experiment, located in the NuMI beamline at Fermilab. MINER$\nu$A has collected a large amount of data over seven years of operation to measure the cross-sections of neutrino-nucleus interactions necessary to drive systematic uncertainties down, in order for neutrino oscillation experiments to achieve sensitivity to CP violation in the neutrino sector. With the high-energy, high-intensity NuMI beam, and with good timing, position, and angular resolution leading to sensitivity to HNL decays, MINER$\nu$A is fertile ground for an HNL search, which is performed in this thesis. Specifically, a novel, experiment-agnostic and general simulation of HNL production and decay is presented and deployed; this simulation has been incorporated in the ubiquitous GENIE neutrino event generator for use with neutrino experiments in the future. The event selection and background characterisation is discussed in detail, including the primary background coming from charged-current coherent and diffractive pion production from neutrino-nucleus interactions, and constraints on the background using control regions from MINER$\nu$A data are derived. Finally, by means of a fake-data study given a background of $\mathcal{O}(500)$ events, the discovery potential and limit-setting capacity of MINER$\nu$A is demonstrated, and ways to improve this capacity are expounded upon.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

BigPanDA monitoring system evolution in the ATLAS Experiment

Monitoring services play a crucial role in the day-to-day operation of distributed computing systems. The ATLAS Experiment at LHC uses the Production and Distributed Analysis workload management system (PanDA WMS), which allows a million computational jobs to run daily at over 170 computing centers of the WLCG and opportunistic resources, utilizing 600k cores simultaneously on average. The BigPanDA monitor is an essential part of the monitoring infrastructure for the ATLAS Experiment that provides a wide range of views, from top-level summaries to a single computational job and its logs. Over the past few years of the PanDA WMS advancement in the ATLAS Experiment, several new components were developed, such as Harvester, iDDS, Data Carousel, and Global Shares. Due to its modular architecture, the BigPanDA monitor naturally grew into a platform where the relevant data from all PanDA WMS components and accompanying services are accumulated and displayed in the form of interactive charts and tables. Moreover the system has been adopted by other experiments beyond HEP. In this paper we describe the evolution of the BigPanDA monitor system, the development of new modules, and the integration process into other experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Probing Top-Quark–Electron Interactions at Future Colliders

Top quark interactions offer a window into possible new high scale physics and many models of new physics predict that the top quark interactions will deviate significantly from those predicted by the standard model. We present an analysis of the experimental restrictions on anomalous 4-fermion 𝑒 + ⁢𝑒 − $⁢𝑡\bar{⁢𝑡}$ operators that is accurate to next-to-leading order (NLO) in both the electroweak and QCD interactions within the standard model effective field theory framework. At NLO, there is sensitivity to an extended set of anomalous interactions beyond those probed at leading order. A comparison of current limits from electroweak precision observables, along with expected future limits from Drell-Yan and $⁢𝑡\bar{⁢𝑡}$𝑒 +⁢ 𝑒 − production at the high luminosity LHC, from deep inelastic scattering at the EIC, and from projected sensitivities at the future FCC-ee and CEPC machines demonstrates that each of these programs extends the precision understanding of the interactions of top quarks.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Constraining Cross Section and Beam Systematics for Future NOvA Sterile Neutrino Search

he NOvA (NuMI Off-axis $\nu_e$ Appearance) experiment measures neutrino oscillations in a nearly pure muon (anti)neutrino beam over a 810 km baseline. We search for sterile neutrino driven oscillations in both neutral current (NC) and charged current (CC) muon neutrino samples. A deficit of NC interactions at the Far Detector could occur since sterile neutrinos do not couple to the Z boson. A modulation of the muon neutrino disappearance probability is possible due to a new mass splitting. The NuMI beam line is capable of running in forward or reverse horn current modes, which creates a neutrino or antineutrino beam, respectively. Samples collected in forward horn current (FHC) or reverse horn current (RHC) modes are subject to beam optics uncertainties, in addition to cross section and hadron production uncertainties. We explore the ategories. To tackle reduction of cross section uncertainties, we study how splitting the neutral current (NC) samples can impact the systematic reduction and its implications on oscillation parameters, leveraging results from Monte Carlo simulations. Additionally, we look at the possibility of using a $\nu$-on-e scattering sample. The $\nu$-on-e scattering process has minimal cross section uncertainties compared to that of neutrino-nucleus interactions, which can help constrain the overall flux normalizations. Using both the ZHC sample, NC split sample, and $\nu$-on-e scattering sample jointly with FHC samples would reduce the focusing uncertainties and the hadron production uncertainties in the future sterile analysis.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗