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At least 271 records · Page 15

Roadmap on basic research needs for laser technology

Motivated by the profound impact of laser technology on science, arising from an increase in focused light intensity by seven orders of magnitude and flashes so short electron motion is visible, this roadmap outlines the paths forward in laser technology to enable the next generation of science and applications. Despite remarkable progress, the field confronts challenges in developing compact, high-power sources, enhancing scalability and efficiency, and ensuring safety standards. Future research endeavors aim to revolutionize laser power, energy, repetition rate and precision control; to transform mid-infrared sources; to revolutionize approaches to field control and frequency conversion. These require reinvention of materials and optics to enable intense laser science and interdisciplinary collaboration. The roadmap underscores the dynamic nature of laser technology and its potential to address global challenges, propelling progress and fostering sustainable development. Ultimately, advancements in laser technology hold promise to revolutionize myriad applications, heralding a future defined by innovation, efficiency, and sustainability.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Mechanical Characterization of Fe-Co-2V (Hiperco): Fatigue/Monotonic Testing Hardness Testing and Fractography

Fe-Co-2V is a popular metallic alloy used in electromagnetic applications. However, there is a lack of mechanical fatigue characterization of this alloy in the literature. In this work, Fe-Co-2V specimens with rectangular cross-sections were carefully prepared in accordance with standards. They were measured for surface roughness and then subjected to quasi-static monotonic testing, as well as fatigue testing at both 0.5 Hz and 1 Hz frequencies. Both Rockwell hardness and Vickers micro- hardness testing were performed. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy imaging of the fractured surfaces was done. The quasi-static testing revealed a flat yield region characteristic of Laders bands. Here, the fatigue results did not show significant differences or sensitivity to change in frequency, although the fatigue life was higher on average for the 0.5 Hz. However, the fatigue results differed from published work at 0.33 Hz. The fractography revealed purely brittle fracture, with clear chevron marks and fracture initiation always starting at the surface. Lastly, it was identified that the C, D, and F Rockwell hardness scales were appropriate for testing this material and that the grain size necessitated the use of the upper end of indentation force for Vickers micro-hardness testing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Measurement of the anomalous spin precession frequency $\omega_a$ in the Muon g - 2 experiment at Fermilab

The muon magnetic anomaly aµ = (gµ - 2)/2 is a low-energy observable,which can be both measured and computed to high precision, making ita sensitive test of the Standard Model (SM). In April 2021, the E989 Collaborationat Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) published the first resultbased on the first year of data taking (Run-1), and in August 2023 a new resultwas published based on two more years of data taking (Run-2 and Run-3). Thenew result was in agreement with the first one and with the previous experimentat Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), and the combination of these resultsbrought the uncertainty on the experimental measurement of aµ to the unprecedentedvalue of 0.19 parts per million (ppm). This paper will present details aboutthe improvements and upgrades since the 2021 result, and it will describe the finalstatistical and systematic sources of uncertainty on .a in the 2023 result.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DeepSZ: identification of Sunyaev–Zel’dovich galaxy clusters using deep learning

Galaxy clusters identified via the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) effect are a key ingredient in multiwavelength cluster cosmology. In this paper, we present and compare three methods of cluster identification: the standard matched filter (MF) method in SZ cluster finding, a convolutional neural networks (CNN), and a ‘combined’ identifier. We apply the methods to simulated millimeter maps for several observing frequencies for a survey similar to SPT-3G, the third-generation camera for the South Pole Telescope. The MF requires image pre-processing to remove point sources and a model for the noise, while the CNN requires very little pre-processing of images. Additionally, the CNN requires tuning of hyperparameters in the model and takes cut-out images of the sky as input, identifying the cut-out as cluster-containing or not. We compare differences in purity and completeness. The MF signal-to-noise ratio depends on both mass and redshift. Our CNN, trained for a given mass threshold, captures a different set of clusters than the MF, some with signal-to-noise-ratio below the MF detection threshold. However, the CNN tends to mis-classify cut-out whose clusters are located near the edge of the cut-out, which can be mitigated with staggered cut-out. We leverage the complementarity of the two methods, combining the scores from each method for identification. The purity and completeness are both 0.61 for MF, and 0.59 and 0.61 for CNN. The combined method yields 0.60 and 0.77, a significant increase for completeness with a modest decrease in purity. We advocate for combined methods that increase the confidence of many low signal-to-noise clusters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Machine Learning Enabled Position Detection for 6.78 MHz UAV Wireless Power Transfer System

This paper presents a novel supervised machine learning (SML) approach for accurate position detection of the receiver coil in wireless power transfer (WPT) systems using only secondary-side electrical measurements, with applications in autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) charging. The proposed method trains a supervised learning model to map measured secondary-side voltage and current features to the receiver’s spatial position with high precision. This enables an autonomous UAV to determine its location relative to the primary coil center, the optimal position for maximizing wireless charging efficiency. The sensing method is fully integrated into a standard WPT system, utilizing the same primary and secondary coils for both power transfer and position detection, thereby eliminating additional sensing hardware. The use of a 6.78 MHz operating frequency enhances positional sensitivity, as high-frequency near-field electromagnetic fields respond strongly to small spatial variations. Experimental validation is performed on a 30 W scaled prototype featuring a 210 mm × 140 mm primary coil, a 50 mm × 80 mm receiver coil, and a 15 mm air gap. Results demonstrate reliable position estimation and a strong correlation between predicted position and optimal coil alignment. This integrated framework unifying position detection and wireless charging offers a promising foundation for future autonomous electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) systems, enabling compact, hardware-efficient, and high-accuracy charging solutions.

Colak, Kerim [New York University]↗

PySolate : A Python‐Based Thresholding Tool to Denoise or Designal Seismic Waveforms Based on the Continuous Wavelet Transform

PySolate is a Python‐based toolset that implements the continuous wavelet transform and nonlinear thresholding operations to denoise or designal seismic data, following Langston and Mousavi (2019). This filtering approach can remove microseismic noise to isolate intermediate‐period seismic signals that are key to enabling full‐waveform modeling and analysis of smaller‐magnitude regional events. This approach is best for the application to signals with frequency or time separation of signal and noise, in contrast to Fourier analysis, which is effective when signal and noise are separated in frequency. We demonstrate the Python toolset using the six announced Democratic People’s Republic of Korea declared nuclear tests, showing the effectiveness of isolating the seismic signal compared to standard bandpass filtering. In conclusion, we also demonstrate the ease of using the toolset with any Python processing tools.

Asia↗

Subfield crop yields and temporal stability in thousands of US Midwest fields

Understanding subfield crop yields and temporal stability is critical to better manage crops. Several algorithms have proposed to study within-field temporal variability but they were mostly limited to few fields. In this study, a large dataset composed of 5520 yield maps from 768 fields provided by farmers was used to investigate the influence of subfield yield distribution skewness on temporal variability. The data are used to test two intuitive algorithms for mapping stability: one based on standard deviation and the second based on pixel ranking and percentiles. The analysis of yield monitor data indicates that yield distribution is asymmetric, and it tends to be negatively skewed (p < 0.05) for all of the four crops analyzed, meaning that low yielding areas are lower in frequency but cover a larger range of low values. The mean yield difference between the pixels classified as high-and-stable and the pixels classified as low-and-stable was 1.04 Mg ha –1 for maize, 0.39 Mg ha –1 for cotton, 0.34 Mg ha –1 for soybean, and 0.59 Mg ha —1 for wheat. The yield of the unstable zones was similar to the pixels classified as low-and-stable by the standard deviation algorithm, whereas the two-way outlier algorithm did not exhibit this bias. Furthermore, the increase in the number years of yield maps available induced a modest but significant increase in the certainty of stability classifications, and the proportion of unstable pixels increased with the precipitation heterogeneity between the years comprising the yield maps.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

EXPRES. I. HD 3651 as an Ideal RV Benchmark

The next generation of exoplanet-hunting spectrographs should deliver up to an order of magnitude improvement in radial velocity (RV) precision over the standard 1 m s{sup −1} state-of-the-art spectrographs. This advance is critical for enabling the detection of Earth-mass planets around Sun-like stars. New calibration techniques such as laser frequency combs and stabilized etalons ensure that the instrumental stability is well characterized. However, additional sources of error include stellar noise, undetected short-period planets, and telluric contamination. To understand and ultimately mitigate error sources, the contributing terms in the error budget must be isolated to the greatest extent possible. Here, we introduce a new high-cadence RV program, the Extreme Precision Spectrograph (EXPRES) 100 Earths Survey, which aims to identify rocky planets around bright, nearby G and K dwarfs. We also present a benchmark case: the 62 day orbit of a Saturn-mass planet orbiting the chromospherically quiet star, HD 3651. The combination of high eccentricity (0.6) and a moderately long orbital period ensures significant dynamical clearing of any inner planets. Our Keplerian model for this planetary orbit has a residual rms of 58 cm s{sup −1} over a ∼6 month time baseline. By eliminating significant contributors to the RV error budget, HD 3651 serves as a standard for evaluating the long-term precision of extreme precision RV programs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Improved laser-plasma accelerator stability via high-bandwidth longitudinal focal position stabilization of a 100 TW-class laser system

Laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) offer an attractive alternative to conventional accelerators for the development of compact electron sources and next-generation light sources. Due to orders-of-magnitude larger accelerating gradients, LPAs enable the acceleration of high-brightness electron beams to ultrarelativistic energies in millimeter- to centimeter-scale distances. However, LPA stability is limited by shot-to-shot fluctuations of the driving laser system. Specifically, fluctuations in the final-focus longitudinal position result in correlated instability in LPA electron beam qualities, including total beam charge, average beam energy, and energy spread. We demonstrate active stabilization of the longitudinal focal position for a 100 TW-class laser system. This repetition-rate scalable stabilization system leverages noninvasive wave front monitoring of a copropagating, unamplified kHz pulse train to guide corrective adjustments to the focal position of a 1 Hz amplified drive laser via an upstream telescope on millisecond timescales. In this demonstration, the approach limits standard deviation fluctuations of the amplified drive beam’s longitudinal focal position to ±0.22⁢ mm (representing at least a 53% reduction), achieved with a correction bandwidth that reaches the Nyquist frequency limit. Consequently, we observe marked improvements in both long-term and shot-to-shot LPA stability in terms of charge and spectrum.

Beam control↗

Bulk viscosity from Urca processes: n p e μ matter in the neutrino-transparent regime

We study the bulk viscosity of moderately hot and dense, neutrino-transparent relativistic npeμ matter arising from weak-interaction direct Urca processes. This work parallels our recent study of the bulk viscosity of npeμ matter with a trapped neutrino component. The nuclear matter is modeled in a relativistic density functional approach with two different parametrizations—DDME2 (which does not allow for the low-temperature direct-Urca process at any density) and NL3 (which allows for low-temperature direct-Urca process above a low-density threshold). Here, we compute the equilibration rates of Urca processes of neutron decay and lepton capture, as well as the rate of the muon decay, and find that the muon decay process is subdominant to the Urca processes at temperatures T ≥ 3 MeV in the case of DDME2 model and T ≥ 1 MeV in the case of NL3 model. Thus, the Urca-process-driven bulk viscosity is computed with the assumption that pure leptonic reactions are frozen. As a result the electronic and muonic Urca channels contribute to the bulk viscosity independently and at certain densities the bulk viscosity of npeμ matter shows a double-peak structure as a function of temperature instead of the standard one-peak (resonant) form. In the final step, we estimate the damping timescales of density oscillations by the bulk viscosity. We find that, e.g., at a typical oscillation frequency f = 1~kHz, the damping of oscillation is most efficient at temperatures 3 ≤ T ≤ 5~MeV and densities n B ≤ 2n 0 where they can affect the evolution of the post-merger object.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Distributed Fiber Sensors With High Spatial Resolution in Extreme Radiation Environments in Nuclear Reactor Cores

This paper is a comprehensive experimental report on the neutron radiation effects of distributed optical fiber sensors with enhanced Rayleigh scattering profiles in an in-pile environment. Femtosecond laser direct writing was used to inscribe Type-II modifications in standard telecom fibers and radiation-hardened fibers with fluorine-doped cores. Rayleigh backscattering signals were enhanced for continuous 1.5 m. In-pile lead-out sensors tests were carried out at the MIT Research Reactor for two months, which was operated at a nominal power of 5.7 MW with fast neutron (>0.1 MeV) flux of 1.29 × 1014 n/cm2/s and an in-core temperature of up to 560°C. Using the Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry technique, the backscattering profiles of fiber sensors were interrogated with a 3-cm spatial resolution to monitor the temperature profile of the reactor. Results show that laser inscribed Type-II modifications in the form of nanogratings are highly stable against extreme temperature and ionizing radiation. Both standard telecom fibers and radiation-hardened fibers with laser-enhanced Rayleigh profiles can continuously perform distributed temperature measurements over the entire duration of the in-pile testing. Temperature coefficients of sensors and spectral shift quality were studied as functions of total radiation fluence. To the best of our knowledge, we present for the first time, the temperature profile of an operating nuclear reactor core with 3-cm spatial resolution, enabled by distributed fiber sensors with laser-enhanced Rayleigh scattering profiles. The high spatial resolution measurements can provide valuable data for the design and validation of digital twin and virtual reality of nuclear energy systems.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Collisional effects on resonant particles in quasilinear theory

A careful examination of the effects of collisions on resonant wave-particle interactions leads to an alternate interpretation and deeper understanding of the quasilinear operator originally formulated by Kennel and Engelmann (Phys. Fluids vol. 9, 1966, pp. 2377- 2388) for collisionless, magnetized plasmas, and widely used to model radio frequency heating and current drive. The resonant and nearly resonant particles are particularly sensitive to collisions that pitch angle scatter them out of and into resonance. As a result, the resonant particle-wave interactions occur in the center of a narrow collisional boundary when the collision frequency nu is very small compared to the wave frequency omega. The diffusive nature of the pitch angle scattering combined with the wave-particle resonance condition enhances the collision frequency by (omega/nu)2/3 >>1, resulting in an effective resonant particle collision time of tau_int ~ (nu /omega)2/3 nu <<1/ nu . A rigorous collisional boundary layer analysis generalizes the standard quasilinear operator to a form that is fully consistent with Kennel-Englemann, but allows replacing the delta function appearing in the diffusivity with a simple integral (having the appropriate delta function limit) retaining the new physics associated with the narrow boundary layer, while preserving the entropy production principle. The limitations of the collisional boundary layer treatment are also estimated, and indicate that substantial departures from Maxwellian are not permitted.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Spectrally reconfigurable quantum emitters enabled by optimized fast modulation

The ability to shape photon emission facilitates strong photon-mediated interactions between disparate physical systems, thereby enabling applications in quantum information processing, simulation and communication. Spectral control in solid state platforms such as color centers, rare earth ions, and quantum dots is particularly attractive for realizing such applications on-chip. Here we propose the use of frequency-modulated optical transitions for spectral engineering of single photon emission. Using a scattering-matrix formalism, we find that a two-level system, when modulated faster than its optical lifetime, can be treated as a single-photon source with a widely reconfigurable photon spectrum that is amenable to standard numerical optimization techniques. To enable the experimental demonstration of this spectral control scheme, we investigate the Stark tuning properties of the silicon vacancy in silicon carbide, a color center with promise for optical quantum information processing technologies. We find that the silicon vacancy possesses excellent spectral stability and tuning characteristics, allowing us to probe its fast modulation regime, observe the theoretically-predicted two-photon correlations, and demonstrate spectral engineering. Our results suggest that frequency modulation is a powerful technique for the generation of new light states with unprecedented control over the spectral and temporal properties of single photons.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Non-stationary precipitation design standards for stormwater infrastructure modernization at USAF installations

The resilience of defense infrastructure systems to a changing climate is critical for national security. Climate induced recurrent flooding is already impacting over 20 U.S. Air Force installations, underscoring the urgency of revisiting precipitation standards and stormwater infrastructure design. Despite growing scientific knowledge and an expanding set of tools for updating outdated precipitation standards based on the assumption of climate stationarity, the adoption of climate informed analyses remain limited in practice. This study utilizes an existing framework to update Intensity (or Depth)-Duration-Frequency (DDF) curves using an ensemble of future climate projections. Change factors in precipitation estimates are derived and applied to six USAF installations across the U.S. The analysis is further extended to evaluate the implications of climate-informed DDFs on stormwater infrastructure performance and flood analysis at Tyndall AFB. Results indicate that the current design precipitation estimates are likely to become obsolete in all six USAF bases by the end of the century. The wide range of change factors across 32 GCM ensembles highlights the need to integrate uncertainty and evolving scientific data into infrastructure planning. The study also finds that the impacts of a changing climate vary spatially and temporally, emphasizing the value of localized analysis for infrastructure decision-making. The work advances ongoing DoD and societal efforts to implement adaptation strategies aimed at enhancing infrastructure resilience.

Intensity-duration-frequency curves↗

Physics-Informed Gaussian Process Regression for States Estimation and Forecasting in Power Grids

Real-time state estimation and forecasting are critical for the efficient operation of power grids. In this paper, a physics-informed Gaussian process regression (PhI-GPR) method is presented and used for forecasting and estimating the phase angle, angular speed, and wind mechanical power of a three-generator power grid system using sparse measurements. In standard data-driven Gaussian process regression (GPR), parameterized models for the prior statistics are fit by maximizing the marginal likelihood of observed data. In the PhI-GPR method, we propose to compute the prior statistics offline by solving stochastic differential equations (SDEs) governing the power grid dynamics. The short-term forecast of a power grid system dominated by wind generation is complicated by the stochastic nature of the wind and the resulting uncertainty in wind mechanical power. Here, we assume that the power grid dynamics are governed by swing equations, with the wind mechanical power fluctuating randomly in time. We solve these equations for the mean and covariances of the power grid states using the Monte Carlo simulation method. We demonstrate that the proposed PhI-GPR method can accurately forecast and estimate observed and unobserved states. For the considered problem, PhI-GPR has computational advantages over the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) method: In PhI-GPR, ensembles are computed offline and independently of the data acquisition process, whereas for EnFK, ensembles are computed online with data acquisition, rendering real-time forecast more challenging. We also demonstrate that the PhI-GPR forecast is more accurate than the EnKF forecast when the random mechanical wind power is non-Markovian. In contrast, the two methods produce similar forecasts for the Markovian mechanical wind power. For observed states, we show that PhI-GPR provides a forecast comparable to the standard data-driven GPR; both forecasts are significantly more accurate than the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecast. We also show that the ARIMA forecast is more sensitive to observation frequency and measurement errors than the PhI-GPR forecast.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Machine learning surrogates for ion energy–angle distributions in thermal and RF plasma sheaths

Ion energy–angle distributions (IEADs) at material surfaces are a critical input for plasma–material interaction (PMI) studies in fusion devices, yet they are computationally expensive to obtain using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. In this work, we develop a machine learning surrogate based on a deep deconvolutional neural network (DDeCNN) trained on large databases generated with the hPIC2 code. The surrogate is capable of reconstructing IEADs from sheath parameters for both thermal and radio-frequency (RF) plasmas, including cases with multiple ion species. Across thousands of test cases, the model achieves high accuracy, with over 97 % of predictions classified as good or average based on standard error metrics (MAE, MSE, L2). Even in the more challenging RF and multi-species regimes, the surrogate reliably captures the multi-peak structure of PIC results. Once trained, the surrogate produces IEADs in milliseconds on a common workstation, yielding speedups of six to seven orders of magnitude compared with running a full PIC simulation. This computational gain enables dense parameter scans and direct coupling of IEAD predictions with PMI and erosion models on whole-device scales in fusion-relevant conditions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Fabrication and Preliminary Demonstration of Microwave Resonant Cavity Transducer Performance

We are investigating a microwave cavity-based transducer for in-core high-temperature fluid flow sensing in molten salt cooled reactors (MSCR) and sodium fast reactors (SFR). This sensor is a hollow metallic cylindrical cavity, which can be fabricated from stainless steel, and as such is expected to be resilient to radiation, high temperature and corrosive environment of MSCR and SFR. The principle of sensing consists of making one wall of the cylindrical cavity flexible enough so that dynamic pressure, which is proportional to fluid velocity, will cause membrane deflection. Membrane deflection causes cavity volume change, which leads to a shift in the resonant frequency. We have developed an initial design for proof-of-principle testing of the flow sensor performance in microwave K-band. A cylindrical resonator prototype was fabricated from brass for initial tests in water. The cavity size is matched to the flange of a standard WR-42 waveguide. Microwave field is coupled into the resonant cavity through a subwavelength-size aperture. A test article was developed, consisting of a piping Tee with bulkhead WR-42 microwave waveguide installed in leak-proof design. In the test article, the cylindrical cavity is positioned in the center of the pipe. A microwave waveguide circulator was installed in the setup to suppress microwave reflections at the cavity entrance. Preliminary spectral characterization of cavity spectral response was performed with microwave VNA. Applying mechanical pressure to cavity membrane showed a measurable shift in the microwave resonant frequency. We also investigate mechanical integrity of the flowmeter’s membrane through computer simulations. By calculating the stress on the plate due to deflection and, comparing the stress to the material ultimate tensile strength and yield strength, it can be estimated if the plate will fail. The stress on the plate was calculated with an analytic closed form solution model, and with COMSOL Structural Mechanics Module which does not involve any approximations. Both the analytic model and COMSOL model showed that maximum stresses on the plate, which are at the radial boundary of the plate, are three orders of magnitude smaller than the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength. This indicates that the sensor is at a low risk of mechanical failure.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

A-B Transition in Superfluid $^3$He and Cosmological Phase Transitions

First-order phase transitions in the very early universe are a prediction of many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics and could provide the departure from equilibrium needed for a dynamical explanation of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. They could also produce gravitational waves of a frequency observable by future space-based detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. All calculations of the gravitational wave power spectrum rely on a relativistic version of the classical nucleation theory of Cahn-Hilliard and Langer, due to Coleman and Linde. The high purity and precise control of pressure and temperature achievable in the laboratory made the first-order A to B transition of superfluid $^3$He ideal for test of classical nucleation theory. As Leggett and others have noted, the theory fails dramatically. The lifetime of the metastable A phase is measurable, typically of order minutes to hours, far faster than classical nucleation theory predicts. If the nucleation of B phase from the supercooled A phase is due to a new, rapid intrinsic mechanism that would have implications for first-order cosmological phase transitions as well as predictions for gravitational wave production in the early universe. Here we discuss studies of the A-B phase transition dynamics in $^3$He, both experimental and theoretical, and show how the computational technology for cosmological phase transition can be used to simulate the dynamics of the A-B transition, support the experimental investigations of the A-B transition in the QUEST-DMC collaboration with the goal of identifying and quantifying the mechanism(s) responsible for nucleation of stable phases in ultra-pure metastable quantum phases.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗