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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Redshift-space distortions in simulations of the 21-cm signal from the cosmic dawn

ABSTRACT The 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn (CD) is likely to contain large fluctuations, with the most extreme astrophysical models on the verge of being ruled out by observations from radio interferometers. It is therefore vital that we understand not only the astrophysical processes governing this signal, but also other inherent processes impacting the signal itself, and in particular line-of-sight effects. Using our suite of fully numerical radiative transfer simulations, we investigate the impact on the redshifted 21-cm from the CD from one of these processes, namely the redshift-space distortions (RSDs). When RSDs are added, the resulting boost to the power spectra makes the signal more or equally detectable for our models for all redshifts, further strengthening hopes that a power spectra measurement of the CD will be possible. RSDs lead to anisotropy in the signal at the beginning and end of the CD, but not while X-ray heating is underway. The inclusion of RSDs, however, decreases detectability of the non-Gaussianity of fluctuations from inhomogeneous X-ray heating as measured by the skewness and kurtosis. On the other hand, mock observations created from all our simulations that include telescope noise corresponding to 1000 h of observation with the Square Kilometre Array telescope show that we may be able to image the CD for all heating models considered and suggest RSDs dramatically boost fluctuations coming from the inhomogeneous Ly α background.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The DESI Early Data Release white dwarf catalogue

The Early Data Release (EDR) of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) comprises spectroscopy obtained from 2020 December 14 to 2021 June 10. White dwarfs were targeted by DESI both as calibration sources and as science targets and were selected based on Gaia photometry and astrometry. Here, we present the DESI EDR white dwarf catalogue, which includes 2706 spectroscopically confirmed white dwarfs of which approximately 60 per cent have been spectroscopically observed for the first time, as well as 66 white dwarf binary systems. We provide spectral classifications for all white dwarfs, and discuss their distribution within the Gaia Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. We provide atmospheric parameters derived from spectroscopic and photometric fits for white dwarfs with pure hydrogen or helium photospheres, a mixture of those two, and white dwarfs displaying carbon features in their spectra. We also discuss the less abundant systems in the sample, such as those with magnetic fields, and cataclysmic variables. The DESI EDR white dwarf sample is significantly less biased than the sample observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which is skewed to bluer and therefore hotter white dwarfs, making DESI more complete and suitable for performing statistical studies of white dwarfs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The distribution of neutral hydrogen in the colour–magnitude plane of galaxies

ABSTRACT We present the conditional H i (neutral hydrogen) mass function (HIMF) conditioned on observed optical properties, Mr (r-band absolute magnitude), and Cur (u − r colour), for a sample of 7709 galaxies from Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (40 per cent data release – α.40) which overlaps with a common volume in SDSS DR7. Based on the conditional HIMF, we find that the luminous red, luminous blue, and faint blue populations dominate the total HIMF at the high-mass end, knee, and the low-mass end, respectively. We use the conditional HIMF to derive the underlying distribution function of ΩH i (H i density parameter), p(ΩH i), in the colour–magnitude plane of galaxies. The distribution, p(ΩH i), peaks in the blue cloud at $\mathit{ M_{{r}}}^{\text{max}}=-19.25, \mathit{ C_{{ur}}}^{\text{max}}=1.44$ but is skewed. It has a long tail towards faint blue galaxies, and luminous red galaxies. We argue that p(ΩH i) can be used to reveal the underlying relation between cold gas, stellar mass, and the star formation rate in an unbiased way, that is, the derived relation does not suffer from survey or sample selection.

Dutta, Saili (ORCID:0000000288585845)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Developing an Evolutionary Baseline Model for Humans: Jointly Inferring Purifying Selection with Population History

Building evolutionarily appropriate baseline models for natural populations is not only important for answering fundamental questions in population genetics—including quantifying the relative contributions of adaptive versus nonadaptive processes—but also essential for identifying candidate loci experiencing relatively rare and episodic forms of selection (e.g., positive or balancing selection). Here, a baseline model was developed for a human population of West African ancestry, the Yoruba, comprising processes constantly operating on the genome (i.e., purifying and background selection, population size changes, recombination rate heterogeneity, and gene conversion). Specifically, to perform joint inference of selective effects with demography, an approximate Bayesian approach was employed that utilizes the decay of background selection effects around functional elements, taking into account genomic architecture. This approach inferred a recent 6-fold population growth together with a distribution of fitness effects that is skewed towards effectively neutral mutations. Importantly, these results further suggest that, although strong and/or frequent recurrent positive selection is inconsistent with observed data, weak to moderate positive selection is consistent but unidentifiable if rare.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Phosphate Limitation Responses in Marine Green Algae Are Linked to Reprogramming of the tRNA Epitranscriptome and Codon Usage Bias

Marine algae are central to global carbon fixation, and their productivity is dictated largely by resource availability. Reduced nutrient availability is predicted for vast oceanic regions as an outcome of climate change; however, there is much to learn regarding response mechanisms of the tiny picoplankton that thrive in these environments, especially eukaryotic phytoplankton. Here, we investigate responses of the picoeukaryote Micromonas commoda, a green alga found throughout subtropical and tropical oceans. Under shifting phosphate availability scenarios, transcriptomic analyses revealed altered expression of transfer RNA modification enzymes and biased codon usage of transcripts more abundant during phosphate-limiting versus phosphate-replete conditions, consistent with the role of transfer RNA modifications in regulating codon recognition. To associate the observed shift in the expression of the transfer RNA modification enzyme complement with the transfer RNAs encoded by M. commoda, we also determined the transfer RNA repertoire of this alga revealing potential targets of the modification enzymes. Codon usage bias was particularly pronounced in transcripts encoding proteins with direct roles in managing phosphate limitation and photosystem-associated proteins that have ill-characterized putative functions in “light stress.” The observed codon usage bias corresponds to a proposed stress response mechanism in which the interplay between stress-induced changes in transfer RNA modifications and skewed codon usage in certain essential response genes drives preferential translation of the encoded proteins. Collectively, we expose a potential underlying mechanism for achieving growth under enhanced nutrient limitation that extends beyond the catalog of up- or downregulated protein-encoding genes to the cell biological controls that underpin acclimation to changing environmental conditions.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Information-theoretic astrophysical uncertainties in the effective theory of dark matter direct detection

The impact of astrophysical uncertainties in direct detection searches can vary significantly across particle dark matter models and detector targets, due to the different velocity and momentum dependencies of the scattering cross section. We address these uncertainties for all operators of the nonrelativistic effective field theory of dark-matter/nucleon interactions, making use of the Kullback-Leibler (KL) information divergence to measure the deviation of the true dark matter velocity distribution from the Maxwell-Boltzmann form. This approach quantifies how astrophysical uncertainties affect each operator in the effective theory, without assuming any specific functional form for the velocity distribution. While for some operators the uncertainties are smaller than 1 order of magnitude for entropically motivated deviations from the Maxwell-Boltzmann form, for other operators, these uncertainties can be as large as three orders of magnitude near threshold. Furthermore, we identify the dependence of the scattering rate for various operators of the effective theory with different velocity-weighted moments of the velocity distribution, functionally analogous to the mean, variance, or skewness. This provides new analytic insight into which features of the velocity distribution are most relevant to detect a given particle dark matter model. Our technique is general and could be applied to a broader class of physics problems where a physical observable depends on the statistical moments of an uncertain theoretical distribution.

Herrera, Gonzalo [MIT, MKI; Harvard U.; Virginia T↗
DOE OSTI2026

Rapidity-dependent spin decomposition of the nucleon

We revisit the two-dimensional Fourier transform of generalized parton distributions (GPDs) at nonzero skewness. At 𝜂 = 0 it reduces to the standard impact-parameter density, while at 𝜂 ≠ 0 it is an off-forward amplitude that we interpret as a genuine parton–nucleon correlation. Its overall strength (the transverse-plane integral of the density) is fixed by the GPD at the kinematic point 𝑡 =−𝑐 𝜂 =−4⁢𝜂 2 ⁢𝑚$^{2}_{𝑁}$/(1 − 𝜂 2 ) and decreases monotonically with the rapidity gap Δ⁢𝑦 = ln⁡[(1+𝜂)/(1−𝜂)] = 2 artanh⁡(𝜂). This rapidity dependence implies rapidity-modified Ji identities that connect helicity, orbital, and total angular momenta of the correlation in closed form. To quantify these effects, we construct leading-twist quark and gluon GPDs in a string-based conformal framework: conformal moments are parametrized by linear open- and closed-string Regge trajectories with slopes constrained by parton distribution functions (PDFs), hadron/glueball spectroscopy, and form-factor data, and GPDs are reconstructed over the full (𝑥,𝜂,𝑡) domain by Mellin-Barnes inversion with next-to-leading order evolution. We find qualitative agreement (and fair quantitative agreement within quoted uncertainties) for several moments and selected nonsinglet 𝑥-space channels at 𝜇 = 2 GeV when compared with lattice QCD, while we also identify channels with visible tension and discuss likely sources (PDF priors and 𝑡-slope systematics).

Gauge-gravity dualities↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tomography of the rho meson in the QCD instanton vacuum: Transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions

We analyze the rho meson unpolarized and polarized transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDPDFs) in the instanton liquid model (ILM). The corresponding TMDs in ILM are approximated by a constituent quark beam function in the leading Fock state multiplied by a rapidity-dependent factor resulting from the staple-shaped Wilson lines, for fixed longitudinal momentum, transverse separation, and rapidity. At the resolution of the ILM, all of the rho meson TMDs are symmetric in parton 𝑥 for fixed transverse momentum, and Gaussian-like in the transverse momentum for fixed parton 𝑥. The latter is a direct consequence of the profiling of the quark zero modes in the ILM. The evolved TMDs at higher rapidity using the Collins-Soper kernel, and higher resolution using the renormalization group, show substantial skewness towards low parton 𝑥.

Gluons↗
DOE OSTI2025

String-based axial and helicity-flip GPDs: A comparison to lattice QCD

We construct an analytic, string-based representation of the nucleon’s axial and helicity-flip conformal moments of generalized parton distributions (GPDs) that holds for skewness and for both the quark and gluon channels. The starting point is the Mellin-Barnes resummation of the conformal partial-wave expansion, where the moments are parametrized by open- (Reggeon) and closed-string (Pomeron) trajectories with slopes determined by experimental form factors and meson/glueball spectroscopy. The forward limits are fixed by the empirical unpolarized and polarized parton distributions. Polynomiality, crossing symmetry, and support are satisfied by construction. After next-to-leading order Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi/Efremov-Radyushkin-Brodsky-Lepage evolution to μ = 2 GeV our analytic framework (i) reproduces some of the currently available lattice moments of E and H˜ in the nonsinglet sector, (ii) predicts sea-quark and gluon polarized moments that will be testable by forthcoming simulations and experiments at Jefferson Lab and the future Electron-Ion Collider, and (iii) yields axial and helicity-flip GPDs in x-space in reasonable agreement with lattice QCD.

Gauge-gravity dualities↗
DOE OSTI2025

Off forward non- s -channel helicity conserving contributions to exclusive vector quarkonium production from the spin dependent BFKL Pomeron

A novel contribution to off forward, exclusive vector quarkonium production, γ(*)+p → V+p, at high energy is derived which corresponds to a t-channel exchange of a Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) hard Pomeron, with a helicity flip of the proton. This “spin-dependent BFKL Pomeron” is required in a consistent expansion in powers of the momentum transfer t ≈−Δ$^{2}_{⊥}$ beyond first order. The spin-dependent Pomeron violates s-channel helicity conservation at O(Δ$^{2}_{⊥}$), and beyond. Expanding to leading twist only, it corresponds to generalized parton distributions E g (x,t) for vanishing skewness. We derive explicit expressions for the eikonal BFKL amplitudes, to all orders in dipole size times momentum transfer, for all helicity configurations of the particles in the initial and final states. We also provide numerical estimates of the helicity flip two gluon exchange amplitude at moderate x from a light cone quark model of the proton. The spin dependent BFKL Pomeron could, in principle, be discovered via double spin asymmetries in e+p → e+p+J/ψ with a transversely polarized proton and longitudinally polarized electron in the initial state.

Deep inelastic scattering↗
DOE OSTI2025

Rosenbluth-like separation of the $J/ψ$ near-threshold photoproduction: An access to the gluon gravitational form factors at high t

Here, we perform analysis of the near-threshold $J/\psi $ photoproduction data off the proton based on two theoretical approaches, GPD \cite{Guo3} and holographic \cite{Zahed2}, that represent the differential cross sections as powers of the skewness parameter with coefficients that depend only on the momentum transfer $t$. This allows to separate kinematically the corresponding coefficient functions, in much the same way as this is done for the electric and magnetic form factors using the Rosenbluth separation. We examine the independence of the extracted functions with the photon beam energy. These functions, under additional assumptions, are related to the proton's gluon Gravitational Form Factors (gGFFs). We compare the extracted functions with lattice calculations of the gGFFs in the region of $0.5<|t|<2$~GeV$^{2}$, where they overlap. Such analysis demonstrates the possibility of extracting some combinations of the gGFFs from the data at high $t$, complementary to the lattice calculations available in the low $t$ region. However, higher statistics are needed to more accurately check the predicted scaling behavior of the data and compare with the lattice results, thus testing and comparing the theoretical assumptions used in the GPD and holographic models.

Pentchev, Lubomir [Thomas Jefferson National Accel↗
DOE OSTI2025

Generalized geometric speed limits for quantum observables

Leveraging quantum information geometry, we derive generalized quantum speed limits on the rate of change of the expectation values of observables. These bounds subsume and, for Hilbert space dimension ≥3, tighten existing bounds—in some cases by an arbitrarily large multiplicative constant. Our theoretical results are supported by illustrative examples and an experimental demonstration using a superconducting qutrit. We also derive two upper bounds on the generalized quantum Fisher information in terms of the condition number of the density matrix. One of these bounds applies only to coherent dynamics and depends also on the variance of the Hamiltonian. The other bound depends also on the so-called Wigner-Yanase skew information. These bounds generalize well-known bounds on the symmetric logarithmic derivative quantum Fisher information and are tighter than the existing bounds for sufficiently mixed states (e.g., for sufficiently high temperature thermal states).

open quantum systems & decoherence↗
DOE OSTI2023

Unraveling Fano noise and the partial-charge-collection effect in x-ray spectra below 1 keV

Fano noise, readout noise, and the partial-charge-collection (PCC) effect collectively contribute to the degradation of energy spectra in charge-coupled device (CCD) measurements, especially at low energies. Here, in this work, the x rays produced by the fluorescence of fluorine (677 eV) and aluminum (1486 eV) were recorded using a Skipper-CCD, which enabled the readout noise to be reduced to 0.2 e - . Based on an analytical description of photopeak shapes resulting from the convolution of the PCC effect and Fano noise, we achieved a precise characterization of the energy spectra. This description enabled us to disentangle and quantify the contributions from both Fano noise and the PCC effect. As a result, we determined the Fano factor and the electron-hole pair creation energy. Additionally, we estimated the PCC region of the sensor and, for the first time, experimentally observed the expected skewness of photopeaks at low energies.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nonlinear Hall effect in Weyl semimetals induced by chiral anomaly

In this work, we predict a nonlinear Hall effect in certain Weyl semimetals with broken inversion symmetry. When the energy dispersions about pairs of Weyl nodes are skewed-the Weyl cones are "tilted"-the concerted actions of the anomalous velocity and the chiral anomaly give rise to the nonlinear Hall effect. This Hall conductivity is linear in both electric and magnetic fields and depends critically on the tilting of the Weyl cones. We also show that this effect does not rely on a finite Berry curvature dipole, in contrast with the intrinsic quantum nonlinear Hall effect that was recently observed in type-II Weyl semimetals.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Anomalous Hall effect in the weak-itinerant ferrimagnet FeCr 2 Te 4

In this study, we carried out a comprehensive study of electronic transport, thermal, and thermodynamic properties in Fe Cr 2 Te 4 single crystals. It exhibits bad-metallic behavior and anomalous Hall effect (AHE) below a weak-itinerant paramagnetic-to-ferrimagnetic transition T c ~ 123 K. The linear scaling between the anomalous Hall resistivity ρ x y and the longitudinal resistivity ρ x x implies that the AHE in Fe Cr 2 Te 4 is most likely dominated by an extrinsic skew-scattering mechanism rather than an intrinsic KL or an extrinsic side-jump mechanism, which is supported by our Berry phase calculations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Enhanced anomalous Nernst effect in disordered Dirac and Weyl materials

Here, we analyze the thermoelectric response of Dirac and Weyl semimetals using the semiclassical approach, focusing on the extrinsic contributions due to skew-scattering and side jump. Our results apply to the linear response Nernst effect in ferromagnetic Dirac materials such as Fe 3 Sn 2 and Weyl semimetals like Co 3 Sn 2 S 2 . In the case of Fe 3 Sn 2 we obtain a very good agreement with known experimental anomalous Hall effect measurements, and based on that we predict a large Nernst effect in this material.We also extend the investigation to second-order response, focusing on monolayer graphene on hBN with trigonal warping as an example. Our analysis indicates that the extrinsic contributions can be a significant component of anomalous Nernst response and may be used to explain an enhanced thermoelectric response.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Microscopic formulas for thermoelectric transport coefficients in lattice systems

Here, a macroscopic description of thermoelectric phenomena involves several tensorial transport coefficients. Textbook microscopic Kubo formulas for them are plagued with ambiguities in the definitions of the current operators and the magnetization. We derive a version of these formulas for lattice systems that is free from ambiguities but contains additional terms compared to the textbook results. For symmetric components of thermoelectric tensors, we identify a large class of lattice systems for which the additional terms vanish with a natural choice of the energy current. To eliminate ambiguities in the skew-symmetric components, one needs to interpret them as relative quantities: only their differences for pairs of materials are well-defined.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Thermal Hall conductivity of electron-doped cuprates

Measurements of the thermal Hall conductivity in hole-doped cuprates have shown that phonons acquire chirality in a magnetic field both in the pseudogap phase and in the Mott insulator state. The microscopic mechanism at play is still unclear. A number of theoretical proposals are being considered including skew scattering of phonons by various defects, the coupling of phonons to spins, and a state of loop-current order with the appropriate symmetries, but more experimental information is required to constrain theoretical scenarios. Here we present our study of the thermal Hall conductivity κ xy in the electron-doped cuprates Nd 2–x Ce x CuO 4 and Pr 2–x Ce x CuO 4 for dopings across the phase diagram, from x = 0 in the insulating antiferromagnetic phase up to x = 0.17 in the metallic phase above optimal doping. We observe a large negative thermal Hall conductivity at all dopings in both materials. Since heat conduction perpendicular to the CuO 2 planes is dominated by phonons, the large thermal Hall conductivity we observe in electron-doped cuprates for a heat current in that direction must also be due to phonons, as in hole-doped cuprates. However, the degree of chirality, measured as the ratio |κ xy /κ xx | where κ xx is the longitudinal thermal conductivity, is much larger in the electron-doped cuprates. Here, we discuss various factors that may be involved in the mechanism that confers chirality to phonons in cuprates, including short-range spin correlations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗