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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 OSTI2023

Improving the Mechanical Properties of Cast Aluminum Via Ultrasonication-Induced Microstructural Refinement

One barrier to the broader use of cast aluminum alloys in automotive applications is their poor mechanical properties, especially compared to wrought materials. This study investigates the use of ultrasound to refine the microstructure of cast aluminum alloys during solidification and thus improve their mechanical properties. An A356 aluminum alloy (Al-Si-Mg) with added Fe (to mimic a recycle-grade alloy) was cast in a graphite mold with the simultaneous application of ultrasound. Tensile specimens were extracted from the castings and heat treated to a T6 temper. Ultrasonication during casting transformed the morphology of primary aluminum grains from dendritic (~140 microns in size) to globular (~36 microns in size), increased the ultimate tensile strength by 10 %, and tripled the ductility compared to casting without ultrasound. This improvement in strength and ductility demonstrates the potential for ultrasonic processing to improve the performance of cast aluminum alloys without altering their chemistry or additional post-processing.

Aluminum, Solidification, Ultrasound, Grain refinm↗
DOE OSTI2024

Soil Organic Matter Dynamics in the Critical Zone

Soil is the thin, vital layer of Earth’s surface that forms the foundation of the Critical Zone and sustains life. This chapter explores the intricate dynamics of soil organic matter within the critical zone, focusing on three key thematic areas: deep soil organic matter, wildfire organic matter interactions, and organic matter erosion. Soil organic matter, although a small fraction of soil mass, plays a crucial role in soil function and ecosystem stability. The complexity of soil organic matter arises from its diverse chemical composition and interactions with minerals, which influence its persistence in the environment. This chapter begins by examining deep soil organic matter, which constitutes a significant portion of global carbon storage. We discuss how deep soil organic matter, typically isolated from surface processes, may become vulnerable to decomposition and carbon release due to disturbances. Next, we explore the impacts of fire on soil organic matter, particularly the formation and stability of pyrolyzed organic matter. The decomposition of pyrolyzer organic matter is influenced by its chemical composition and the surrounding environmental conditions, with implications for carbon cycling and soil fertility in post-fire ecosystems. Finally, the chapter addresses the role of erosion in soil organic matter dynamics. Erosion, accelerated by human activities, redistributes soil organic matter across landscapes, affecting its turnover and the broader biogeochemical cycles. We consider how micro-topographic features and erosion processes interact to influence soil OM stability and carbon sequestration. By synthesizing recent advances in these areas, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the complex and dynamic nature of soil organic matter in the critical zone, highlighting its importance in understanding the critical zone in the face of environmental change.

Moreland, Kimber↗
DOE OSTI2026

Visual Systems Mapping to Define and Compare Woody Biomass LCAs for Sustainable Systems

The challenge addressed in this research centres on the need to choose between several biomass sources and energy production processes, while supporting rural economies and resilience of forest systems. A key barrier to effective decision-making for strategies using biomass is the lack of standardized and transparent life cycle assessment (LCA) baselines. These baselines are critical for assessing the impacts of biomass strategies but often vary due to regional factors and chosen simplifying assumptions of the LCAs. However, omitting key variables can mean the LCA omits key feedback and balancing loops relevant to fully assessing impacts of the change or test scenario. To address these complexities, this project employs a systems engineering approach: visual systems mapping. This technique is used to define the boundaries and dynamic behaviours of LCA baselines, enhancing transparency. By examining five literature sources and their documented baseline scenarios, the systems mapping case-studies demonstrates an approach to documenting and archiving these baselines. Recommendations are that visual systems mapping should be used to document key assumptions, such as baselines, of LCAs. Further, where possible open data repositories should hold key information about LCA baselines and reproducible workflows (e.g., using open-source tools) should be used to improve transparency and comparability in LCAs. Given the consensus within the broader scientific community on the importance of replicable data practices, this research reinforces the need for standardized frameworks and systems engineering tools in LCAs. This research demonstrates a pathway to more transparent, standardized, and comparable LCAs, that may bolster decisions for biomass systems.

Davis, Maggie [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000181319328)↗
DOE OSTI2021

2, 12, 117, 1959, 45171, 1170086, …: a Hilbert series for the QCD chiral Lagrangian

We apply Hilbert series techniques to the enumeration of operators in the mesonic QCD chiral Lagrangian. Existing Hilbert series technologies for non-linear realizations are extended to incorporate the external fields. The action of charge conjugation is addressed by folding the $\mathfrak{su}(n)$ Dynkin diagrams, which we detail in an appendix that can be read separately as it has potential broader applications. New results include the enumeration of anomalous operators appearing in the chiral Lagrangian at order p 8 , as well as enumeration of CP -even, CP -odd, C -odd, and P -odd terms beginning from order p 6 . The method is extendable to very high orders, and we present results up to order p 16 . (The title sequence is the number of independent C -even and P -even operators in the mesonic QCD chiral Lagrangian with three light flavors of quarks, at chiral dimensions p 2 , p 4 , p 6 , …)

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A formalism for extracting track functions from jet measurements

The continued success of the jet substructure program will require widespread use of tracking information to enable increasingly precise measurements of a broader class of observables. The recent reformulation of jet substructure in terms of energy correlators has simplified the incorporation of universal non-perturbative matrix elements, so called “track functions”, in jet substructure calculations. These advances make it timely to understand how these universal non-perturbative functions can be extracted from hadron collider data, which is complicated by the use jet algorithms. In this paper we introduce a new class of jet functions, which we call (semi-inclusive) track jet functions, which describe measurements of the track energy fraction in identified jets. These track jet functions can be matched onto the universal track functions, with perturbatively calculable matching coefficients that incorporate the jet algorithm dependence. We perform this matching, and present phenomenological results for the charged energy fraction in jets at the LHC and EIC/HERA at collinear next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. We show that higher moments of the charged energy fraction directly exhibit non-linear Lorentzian renormalization group flows, allowing the study of these flows with collider data. Our factorization theorem enables the extraction of universal track functions from jet measurements, opening the door to their use for a precision jet substructure program.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Is SMEFT enough?

There are two canonical approaches to treating the Standard Model as an Effective Field Theory (EFT): Standard Model EFT (SMEFT), expressed in the electroweak symmetric phase utilizing the Higgs doublet, and Higgs EFT (HEFT), expressed in the broken phase utilizing the physical Higgs boson and an independent set of Goldstone bosons. HEFT encompasses SMEFT, so understanding whether SMEFT is sufficient motivates identifying UV theories that require HEFT as their low energy limit. This distinction is complicated by field redefinitions that obscure the naive differences between the two EFTs. By reformulating the question in a geometric language, we derive concrete criteria that can be used to distinguish SMEFT from HEFT independent of the chosen field basis. We highlight two cases where perturbative new physics must be matched onto HEFT: ( i ) the new particles derive all of their mass from electroweak symmetry breaking, and ( ii ) there are additional sources of electroweak symmetry breaking. Additionally, HEFT has a broader practical application: it can provide a more convergent parametrization when new physics lies near the weak scale. The ubiquity of models requiring HEFT suggests that SMEFT is not enough.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Trigonometric continuous-variable gates and hybrid quantum simulations of the sine-Gordon model

Hybrid qubit-qumode quantum computing platforms provide a natural setting for simulating interacting bosonic quantum field theories. However, existing continuous-variable gate constructions rely predominantly on polynomial functions of canonical quadratures. In this work, we introduce a complementary universality paradigm based on trigonometric continuous-variable gates, which enable a Fourier-like representation of bosonic operators and are particularly well suited for periodic and non-perturbative interactions. We present an ancilla-based framework for implementing trigonometric gates with arguments given by arbitrary Hermitian functions of qumode quadratures. The protocol yields unitary gates deterministically, and non-unitary gates through probabilistic post-selection. As a concrete application, we develop a hybrid qubit-qumode quantum simulation of the lattice sine-Gordon model. Using these gates, we prepare ground states via quantum imaginary-time evolution, simulate real-time dynamics, compute time-dependent vertex two-point correlation functions, and extract quantum kink profiles under topological boundary conditions. Our results demonstrate that trigonometric continuous-variable gates provide a physically natural framework for simulating interacting field theories on near-term hybrid quantum hardware, while establishing a parallel route to universality beyond polynomial gate constructions. We expect that the trigonometric gates introduced here to find broader applications, including quantum simulations of condensed matter systems, quantum chemistry, and biological models.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

The price of a large electron Yukawa modification

The theoretical implications of an electron Yukawa modification are considered in the context of a possible Higgs pole run at FCC-ee, aimed at bounding this coupling. We start from an effective field theory viewpoint, considering the impact of renormalisation group effects on related observables and also examining assumptions on the broader UV flavour structure. We then give an overview of the landscape of simplified models, investigating phenomenological constraints arising at higher orders. A short discussion of fine-tuning is also included.

Anomalous Higgs Couplings↗
DOE OSTI2025

Axion interactions with domain and bubble walls

We show that interactions between axion-like particles (ALPs) and co-dimension one defects, such as phase-transition bubble walls and solitonic domain walls, can lead to important changes in the evolution of both walls and ALPs. The leading effect arises from the change in the ALP decay constant across the interface, which naturally follows from shift-symmetric interactions with the corresponding order parameter. Specifically, we show that for thin walls moving relativistically, an ALP background — such as e.g. axion dark matter — gives rise to a frictional force on the interface that is proportional to γ 2 , with γ the Lorentz factor of the wall, and that this effect is present in both the oscillating and frozen axion regimes. We explore the broader consequences of this effect for bubble and domain walls in the early universe, and show that this source of friction can be present even in the absent of a conventional medium such as radiation or matter. Possible implications include modifications to the dynamics of bubble and domain walls and their corresponding gravitational wave signatures, as well as the generation of a dark radiation component of ALPs in the form of ultra-relativistic ‘axion shells’ with Lorentz factor γ shell ≃ 2γ 2 ≫ 1 that may remain relativistic until the present day.

Axions and ALPs↗
DOE OSTI2021

Higgs flavor phenomenology in a supersymmetric left-right model with parity

In this paper, we focus on the supersymmetric model with left-right (LR) symmetry, that is especially proposed in our previous work [ 1 ]. In this model, there are four Higgs doublets in order to realize the Standard Model (SM) fermion masses and the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. The heavy Higgs doublets unavoidably have flavor changing couplings to the SM fermions and induce flavor-changing neutral currents at tree level. We study broader parameter space than the previous work with including the renormalization group corrections to the Yukawa couplings between the LR breaking scale, \( \mathcal{O} \) (10 13 ) GeV, and the supersymmetry breaking scales, \( \mathcal{O} \) (100) TeV. The CP violating observable in K – \( \overline{K} \) mixing, ϵ K , strongly constrains the model, so that heavy Higgs mass should be heavier than \( \mathcal{O} \) (100) TeV. We study the lepton flavor violating (LFV) processes setting heavy Higgs masses to be 170 TeV. The branching ratios of μ → 3 e and the μ – e conversion can be larger than 10 - 16 that could be covered by the future experiments. We also study the degree of fine-tuning in the parameter region that predicts testable LFV processes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measurement of charged hadron multiplicity in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV with the sPHENIX detector

The pseudorapidity distribution of charged hadrons produced in Au + Au collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV is measured using data collected by the sPHENIX detector. Charged hadron yields are extracted by counting cluster pairs in the inner and outer layers of the Intermediate Silicon Tracker, with corrections applied for detector acceptance, reconstruction efficiency, combinatorial pairs, and contributions from secondary decays. The measured distributions cover |η| < 1.1 across various centralities, and the average pseudorapidity density of charged hadrons at mid-rapidity is compared to predictions from Monte Carlo heavy-ion event generators. This result, featuring full azimuthal coverage at mid-rapidity, is consistent with previous experimental measurements at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, thereby supporting the broader sPHENIX physics program.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Sleptonic SUSY: from UV framework to IR phenomenology

We study an attractive scenario, “Sleptonic SUSY”, which reconciles the 125 GeV Higgs scalar and the non-observation of superpartners thus far with potentially pivotal roles for slepton phenomenology: providing viable ongoing targets for LHC discovery, incorporating a co-annihilation partner for detectable thermal relic dark matter, and capable of mediating the potential muon g – 2 anomaly. This is accomplished by a modestly hierarchical spectrum, with sub-TeV sleptons and electroweakinos and with multi-TeV masses for the other new states. We study new elements in the UV MSSM realization of Sleptonic SUSY based on higher-dimensional sequestering and the synergy between the resulting gaugino-mediation, hypercharge D-term mediation and Higgs-mediation of SUSY-breaking, so as to more fully capture the range of possibilities. This framework stands out by harmoniously solving the flavor, CP and μ – Bμ problems of the supersymmetric paradigm. We discuss its extension to orbifold GUTs, including gauge-coupling and b-tau unification. We also develop a non-minimal model with extra Higgs fields, in which the electroweak vacuum is more readily cosmologically stable against decay to a charge-breaking vacuum, allowing a broader range of sleptonic spectra than in the MSSM alone. We survey the rich set of signals possible at the LHC and future colliders, covering both R-parity conservation and violation, as well as for dark matter detection. While the multi-TeV squarks imply a Little Hierarchy Problem, intriguingly, small changes in parameter space to improve naturalness result in dramatic phase transitions to either electroweak-preservation or charge-breaking. In a Multiverse setting, the modest unnaturalness may then be explained by the “principle of living dangerously”.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Differential equations for cosmological correlators

Cosmological fluctuations retain a memory of the physics that generated them in their spatial correlations. The strength of correlations varies smoothly as a function of external kinematics, which is encoded in differential equations satisfied by cosmological correlation functions. In this work, we provide a broader perspective on the origin and structure of these differential equations. As a concrete example, we study conformally coupled scalar fields in a power-law cosmology. The wavefunction coefficients in this model have integral representations, with the integrands being the product of the corresponding flat-space results and “twist factors” that depend on the cosmological evolution. Similar twisted integrals arise for loop amplitudes in dimensional regularization, and their recent study has led to the discovery of rich mathematical structures and powerful new tools for computing multi-loop Feynman integrals in quantum field theory. The integrals of interest in cosmology are also part of a finite-dimensional basis of master integrals, which satisfy a system of first-order differential equations. We develop a formalism to derive these differential equations for arbitrary tree graphs. The results can be represented in graphical form by associating the singularities of the differential equations with a set of graph tubings. Upon differentiation, these tubings grow in a local and predictive fashion. In fact, a few remarkably simple rules allow us to predict — by hand — the equations for all tree graphs. While the rules of this “kinematic flow” are defined purely in terms of data on the boundary of the spacetime, they reflect the physics of bulk time evolution. We also study the analogous structures in tr ϕ 3 theory, and see some glimpses of hidden structure in the sum over planar graphs. This suggests that there is an autonomous combinatorial or geometric construction from which cosmological correlations, and the associated spacetime, emerge.

Cosmological models↗
DOE OSTI2023

Double Kerr-Schild spacetimes and the Newman-Penrose map

The Newman-Penrose map, which is closely related to the classical double copy, associates certain exact solutions of Einstein’s equations with self-dual solutions of the vacuum Maxwell equations. Here we initiate an extension of the Newman-Penrose map to a broader class of spacetimes. As an example, we apply principles from the Newman-Penrose map to associate a self-dual gauge field to the Kerr-Taub-NUT-(A)dS spacetime and we show that the result agrees with previously studied examples of classical double copies. The corresponding field strength exhibits a discrete electric-magnetic duality that is distinct from its (Hodge star) self-dual property.

scattering amplitudes↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Baker-Coon-Romans N -point amplitude and an exact field theory limit of the Coon amplitude

We study the N-point Coon amplitude discovered first by Baker and Coon in the 1970s and then again independently by Romans in the 1980s. This Baker-Coon-Romans (BCR) amplitude retains several properties of tree-level string amplitudes, namely duality and factorization, with a q-deformed version of the string spectrum. Although the formula for the N-point BCR amplitude is only valid for q > 1, the four-point case admits a straightforward extension to all q ≥ 0 which reproduces the usual expression for the four-point Coon amplitude. At five points, there are inconsistencies with factorization when pushing q < 1. Despite these issues, we find a new relation between the five-point BCR amplitude and Cheung and Remmen’s four-point basic hypergeometric amplitude, placing the latter within the broader family of Coon amplitudes. Finally, we compute the q → ∞ limit of the N-point BCR amplitudes and discover an exact correspondence between these amplitudes and the field theory amplitudes of a scalar transforming in the adjoint representation of a global symmetry group with an infinite set of non-derivative single-trace interaction terms. This correspondence at q = ∞ is the first definitive realization of the Coon amplitude (in any limit) from a field theory described by an explicit Lagrangian.

1/N Expansion↗
DOE OSTI2024

Froggatt-Nielsen meets the SMEFT

We study the matching of Froggatt-Nielsen theories of flavour onto the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), upon integrating out a heavy Beyond-the-Standard-Model (BSM) scalar ‘flavon’ whose vacuum expectation value breaks an Abelian flavour symmetry at energies Λ FN well above the electroweak scale, Λ FN > Λ SM . We include matching contributions to the infrared d SM = 6 (Warsaw basis) SMEFT sourced from ultraviolet contact terms suppressed up to order 1/${\Lambda}_{\textrm{UV}}^2$ in the Froggatt-Nielsen Lagrangian, where Λ UV > Λ FN is an arbitrary ultraviolet scale where further unspecified BSM particles are dynamical. This includes tree-level (one-loop) ultraviolet diagrams with d FN = 6 (5) effective vertices. We first do so with a toy model, but then generalize our findings to arbitrary Frogatt-Nielsen charges. Our results indicate a rich and non-trivial signature of Froggatt-Nielsen theories on the (otherwise) model-independent operators of the SMEFT, and we briefly speculate on extending our analysis to broader classes of BSM flavour models, e.g. non-Abelian and/or gauged theories. We thus take an important step towards determining how to use rapidly developing theoretical and experimental SMEFT technologies to gain unambiguous insight into the SM’s longstanding fermion flavour puzzle.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Discrete Superconvergence Analysis for Quantum Magnus Algorithms of Unbounded Hamiltonian Simulation

Motivated by various applications, unbounded Hamiltonian simulation has recently garnered great attention. Quantum Magnus algorithms, designed to achieve commutator scaling for time-dependent Hamiltonian simulation, have been found to be particularly efficient for such applications. When applied to unbounded Hamiltonian simulation in the interaction picture, they exhibit an unexpected superconvergence phenomenon. However, existing proofs are limited to the spatially continuous setting and do not extend to discrete spatial discretizations. Here, in this work, we provide the first superconvergence estimate in the fully discrete setting with a finite number of spatial discretization points N, and show that it holds with an error constant uniform in N. The proof is based on the two-parameter symbol class, which, to our knowledge, is applied for the first time in algorithm analysis. The key idea is to establish a semiclassical framework by identifying two parameters through the discretization number and the time step size rescaled by the operator norm, such that the semiclassical uniformity guarantees the uniformity of both. This approach may have broader applications in numerical analysis beyond the specific context of this work.

Borns-Weil, Yonah [University of California, Berke↗
DOE OSTI2023

Amino mapping: possibility to visualize amino-N compounds in the rhizosphere of Zea Mays L.

Abstract Understanding N uptake by plants, the N cycle, and their relationship to soil heterogeneity has generated a great deal of interest in the distribution of amino-N compounds in soil. Visualization of the spatial distribution of amino-N in soil can provide insights into the role of labile N in plant-microbial mechanisms of N acquisition and plant N uptake, but until now, it has remained technically challenging. Here, we describe a novel technique to visualize the amino-N distribution at the root-soil interface. The technique is based on time-lapse amino mapping (TLAM) using membranes saturated with the fluorogenic OPAME reagent (O-phthalaldehyde and β-mercaptoethanol). OPAME in the membrane reacts with organic compounds containing a NH 2 functional group at the membrane-soil interface, generating a fluorescent product visible under UV light and detectable by a digital camera. The TLAM amino-mapping technique was applied to visualize and quantify the concentration of amino-N compounds in the rhizosphere of maize (Zea MaysL.). A ten times greater amino-N concentration was detected in the rhizosphere compared to non-rhizosphere soil. The high content of amino-N was mainly associated with the root tips and was 3 times larger than the average amino-N content at seminal roots. The amino-N rhizosphere was 2 times broader around the root tips than around other parts of the roots. We concluded that TLAM is a promising approach for monitoring the fate of labile N in soils. However, the technique needs to be standardized for different soil types, plant species, and climate conditions to allow wider application.

Agriculture↗