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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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Probing anisotropies of the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with LISA

Here, we investigate the sensitivity of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) to the anisotropies of the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB). We first discuss the main astrophysical and cosmological sources of SGWB which are characterized by anisotropies in the GW energy density, and we build a Signal-to-Noise estimator to quantify the sensitivity of LISA to different multipoles. We then perform a Fisher matrix analysis of the prospects of detectability of anisotropic features with LISA for individual multipoles, focusing on a SGWB with a power-law frequency profile. We compute the noise angular spectrum taking into account the specific scan strategy of the LISA detector. We analyze the case of the kinematic dipole and quadrupole generated by Doppler boosting an isotropic SGWB. We find that β Ω GW ~ 2 × 10 -11 is required to observe a dipolar signal with LISA. The detector response to the quadrupole has a factor ~ 10 3 β relative to that of the dipole. The characterization of the anisotropies, both from a theoretical perspective and from a map-making point of view, allows us to extract information that can be used to understand the origin of the SGWB, and to discriminate among distinct superimposed SGWB sources.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Real-time mixed reality display of dual particle radiation detector data

Radiation source localization and characterization are challenging tasks that currently require complex analyses for interpretation. Mixed reality (MR) technologies are at the verge of wide scale adoption and can assist in the visualization of complex data. Herein, we demonstrate real-time visualization of gamma ray and neutron radiation detector data in MR using the Microsoft HoloLens 2 smart glasses, significantly reducing user interpretation burden. Radiation imaging systems typically use double-scatter events of gamma rays or fast neutrons to reconstruct the incidence directional information, thus enabling source localization. The calculated images and estimated ’hot spots’ are then often displayed in 2D angular space projections on screens. By combining a state-of-the-art dual particle imaging system with HoloLens 2, we propose to display the data directly to the user via the head-mounted MR smart glasses, presenting the directional information as an overlay to the user’s 3D visual experience. We describe an open source implementation using efficient data transfer, image calculation, and 3D engine. We thereby demonstrate for the first time a real-time user experience to display fast neutron or gamma ray images from various radioactive sources set around the detector. We also introduce an alternative source search mode for situations of low event rates using a neural network and simulation based training data to provide a fast estimation of the source’s angular direction. Using MR for radiation detection provides a more intuitive perception of radioactivity and can be applied in routine radiation monitoring, education & training, emergency scenarios, or inspections.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Pre- and post-launch operation of the Resolve soft X-ray spectrometer onboard the XRISM satellite

Resolve is a high-resolution X-ray spectrometer onboard the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), launched on September 6 (UT), 2023. The Resolve has performed better than its required spectral resolution (7 eV at full width at half maximum at 6 keV), both on the ground and in orbit, and has been confirmed to have comparable performance to the soft X-ray spectrometer onboard the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) satellite. The focal plane is composed of an array of microcalorimeter detectors operated at 50 mK to achieve the required energy resolution, and the cooling system is designed to satisfy the lifetime requirement of over 3 years. The focal plane and cooling system are contained in a vacuum-insulated dewar. The cooling system is equipped with a two-stage adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR) that uses superfluid liquid helium (LHe) as its heat sink. The system includes a third ADR stage that can be used to provide the heat sink when the helium is exhausted. A Joule–Thomson cooler and several two-stage Stirling coolers are used to reduce the heat load on the LHe. During pre-launch operations, we carried out a superfluid LHe top-off operation. The resultant amount of LHe onboard Resolve was over 35 L before launch, which is sufficient to meet the lifetime requirement. During post-launch operation, the LHe vent valve was opened 5 min after launch during rocket acceleration, and the cryocoolers were turned on after several orbits, as planned, which established stable cooling within the dewar. Pre- and post-launch operations for the Resolve instrument were planned around multiple constraints from launch vehicle operations; all were successfully completed, and the launch requirements were fully met.

X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission↗
DOE OSTI2024

Long-term temporal stability of the DarkSide-50 dark matter detector

The stability of a dark matter detector on the timescale of a few years is a key requirement due to the large exposure needed to achieve a competitive sensitivity. It is especially crucial to enable the detector to potentially detect any annual event rate modulation, an expected dark matter signature. Here, in this work, we present the performance history of the DarkSide-50 dual-phase argon time projection chamber over its almost three-year low-radioactivity argon run. In particular, we focus on the electroluminescence signal that enables sensitivity to sub-keV energy depositions. The stability of the electroluminescence yield is found to be better than 0.5%. Finally, we show the temporal evolution of the observed event rate around the sub-keV region being consistent to the background prediction.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Calibrations and backgrounds for dark matter direct detection

Future dark matter direct detection experiments will reach unprecedented levels of sensitivity. Achieving this sensitivity will require more precise models of signal and background rates in future detectors. Improving the precision of signal and background modeling goes hand-in-hand with novel calibration techniques that can probe rare processes and lower threshold detector response. The goal of this white paper is to outline community needs to meet the background and calibration requirements of next-generation dark matter direct detection experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Axion detection via superfluid 3 He ferromagnetic phase and quantum measurement techniques

We propose to use the nuclear spin excitation in the ferromagnetic A 1 phase of the superfluid 3 He for the axion dark matter detection. This approach is striking in that it is sensitive to the axion-nucleon coupling, one of the most important features of the QCD axion introduced to solve the strong CP problem. We review a quantum mechanical description of the nuclear spin excitation and apply it to the estimation of the axion-induced spin excitation rate. We also describe a possible detection method of the spin excitation in detail and show that the combination of the squeezing of the final state with the Josephson parametric amplifier and the homodyne measurement can enhance the sensitivity. It turns out that this approach gives good sensitivity to the axion dark matter with the mass of $\mathcal{O}$(1) μeV depending on the size of the external magnetic field. We estimate the parameters of experimental setups, e.g., the detector volume and the amplitude of squeezing, required to reach the QCD axion parameter space.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Characterization of the polysilicon resistor in silicon strip sensors for ATLAS inner tracker as a function of temperature, pre- and post-irradiation

The high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, foreseen for 2029, requires the replacement of the ATLAS Inner Detector with a new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). The expected ultimate total integrated luminosity of 4000 fb –1 means that the strip part of the ITk detector will be exposed to the total particle fluences and ionizing doses reaching the values of 1.6 · 10 15 1 MeV n eq /cm 2 and 0.66 MGy, respectively, including a safety factor of 1.5. Radiation hard n + -in-p micro-strip sensors were developed by the ATLAS ITk strip collaboration and are produced by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. The active area of each ITk strip sensor is delimited by the n-implant bias ring, which is connected to each individual n + implant strip by a polysilicon bias resistor. The total resistance of the polysilicon bias resistor should be within a specified range to keep all the strips at the same potential, prevent the signal discharge through the grounded bias ring and avoid the readout noise increase. While the polysilicon is a ubiquitous semiconductor material, the fluence and temperature dependence of its resistance is not easily predictable, especially for the tracking detector with the operational temperature significantly below the values typical for commercial microelectronics. Dependence of the resistance of polysilicon bias resistor on the temperature, as well as on the total delivered fluence and ionizing dose, was studied on the specially-designed test structures called ATLAS Testchips, both before and after their irradiation by protons, neutrons, and gammas to the maximal expected fluence and ionizing dose. The resistance has an atypical negative temperature dependence. It is different from silicon, which shows that the grain boundary has a significant contribution to the resistance. Finally, we discuss the contributions by parameterizing the activation energy of the polysilicon resistance as a function of the temperature for unirradiated and irradiated ATLAS Testchips.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

LaBr 3 : Ce self-activation analysis for measuring fast neutron fields

Measurement of the fast neutron production rate in deuterium–tritium (D–T) fusion reactions is important for applications such as active interrogation, fusion diagnostics, and borehole logging. Such measurements are typically performed by neutron activation analysis of metal foils, especially copper. Copper foil activation analysis requires efficiency and energy calibrations of the detector used to measure the foil, and it relies on the detection of 511 keV gamma rays, which are prominent in the active background when neutrons are being produced. Alternatives, such as 79m Br produced by inelastic neutron scattering on 79 Br, are limited by short half-life, low-energy gamma emission, and inability to selectively measure D–T neutrons. This work describes a novel alternative approach to measure ≳10 MeV neutron fields based on self-activation analysis of a LaBr 3 :Ce detector. The activity of 78 Br, the activation product of the 79 Br(n,2n) 78 Br reaction, is used to determine the neutron flux and infer the neutron production rate. We experimentally demonstrate the method with a cylindrical LaBr 3 :Ce crystal with a diameter and height of 3.81 cm that was placed at an ~18 cm distance from the neutron production point, at a 90° angle with respect to the deuteron beam in a D–T neutron generator. Operating voltage and current of the generator were adjusted to evaluate the technique’s performance over a nominal generator output range of approximately (1 - 9) x 10 7 n/s. The neutron output obtained from LaBr 3 :Ce activation agrees to within three standard deviations of the output obtained using copper activation. The self-activation technique can be conveniently employed in a variety of applications to simplify measurements of fast neutrons produced in D–T fusion reactions.

Active interrogationLaBr3↗
DOE OSTI2022

Imaging atomic-scale chemistry from fused multi-modal electron microscopy

Efforts to map atomic-scale chemistry at low doses with minimal noise using electron microscopes are fundamentally limited by inelastic interactions. Here, fused multi-modal electron microscopy offers high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) recovery of material chemistry at nano- and atomic-resolution by coupling correlated information encoded within both elastic scattering (high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF)) and inelastic spectroscopic signals (electron energy loss (EELS) or energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX)). By linking these simultaneously acquired signals, or modalities, the chemical distribution within nanomaterials can be imaged at significantly lower doses with existing detector hardware. In many cases, the dose requirements can be reduced by over one order of magnitude. This high SNR recovery of chemistry is tested against simulated and experimental atomic resolution data of heterogeneous nanomaterials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Fiber optic computing using distributed feedback

Abstract The widespread adoption of machine learning and other matrix intensive computing algorithms has renewed interest in analog optical computing, which has the potential to perform large-scale matrix multiplications with superior energy scaling and lower latency than digital electronics. However, most optical techniques rely on spatial multiplexing, requiring a large number of modulators and detectors, and are typically restricted to performing a single kernel convolution operation per layer. Here, we introduce a fiber-optic computing architecture based on temporal multiplexing and distributed feedback that performs multiple convolutions on the input data in a single layer. Using Rayleigh backscattering in standard single mode fiber, we show that this technique can efficiently apply a series of random nonlinear projections to the input data, facilitating a variety of computing tasks. The approach enables efficient energy scaling with orders of magnitude lower power consumption than GPUs, while maintaining low latency and high data-throughput.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

ATLAS ITk strip sensor quality control procedures and testing site qualification

Abstract The high-luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, scheduled to become operational in 2029, requires the replacement of the ATLAS Inner Detector with a new all-silicon Inner Tracker. Radiation hard n + -in-p micro-strip silicon sensors were developed by the ATLAS Inner Tracker strip collaboration and are produced by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. Production of the total amount of 22000 strip sensors has started in 2020 and will continue until 2025. The ATLAS strip sensor collaboration has the responsibility to monitor the quality of the fabricated devices by performing detailed measurements of individual sensor characteristics and by comparing the obtained results with the tests done by the manufacturer. Dedicated Quality Control procedures were developed to check whether the delivered large-format sensors adhere to the ATLAS specifications. The institutes performing the Quality Control testing of the pre-production and production ATLAS ITk strip sensors had to initially be qualified for multiple high-throughput tests by successfully completing the Site Qualification process. The Quality Control procedures and the qualification process are described in this paper.

Instruments & Instrumentation↗
DOE OSTI2026

Particle trajectory representation learning with masked point modeling

Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) offer millimeter-scale 3D images of particle trajectories, enabling precision studies of neutrino oscillation, detection of supernova and solar neutrinos, searches for exotic dark matter, and proton decay. Current approaches utilize supervised machine learning models, requiring extensive simulations of particle physics and detector response that can introduce bias. Self-supervised learning (SSL), a machine learning approach that learns useful representations of unlabeled data from the data itself, has significantly advanced how large datasets are utilized for representation learning; however, its potential for applications to sensory data in high precision particle physics experiments remains largely unexplored. We introduce the Point-based liquid argon masked autoencoder (PoLAr-MAE), a self-supervised framework that learns physically meaningful representations directly from unlabeled LArTPC images. PoLAr-MAE achieves remarkable data efficiency for a point-level segmentation task, outperforming fully supervised methods in low data regimes. Linear classifiers on model outputs demonstrate robust performance across multiple downstream tasks. Our results position sensor-level SSL as a practical foundation model strategy for LArTPCs.

Young, Samuel [Stanford Univ., CA (United States)]↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measurement of the free neutron lifetime in a magneto-gravitational trap with in situ detection

Here, in this study, we publish three years of data from the UCNτ experiment performed at the Los Alamos Ultracold Neutron Facility at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. These data are in addition to our previously published data. Our goals in this paper are to better understand and quantify systematic uncertainties and to improve the lifetime statistical precision. We previously reported a value from our 2017–2018 data for the neutron lifetime of 877.75 ± 0.28 (statistical) +0.22–0.16 (systematic) s. We have collected an additional three years of data reported here for the first time. When all the data from UCNτ are averaged for 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022, we report an updated value for the lifetime of 877.83 ± 0.22 (statistical)+0.20–0.17 (systematic) s. We utilized improved monitor detectors, reduced our correction due to UCN upscattering on residual gas, and employed four different UCN detector geometries both to reduce the correction required for rate dependence and to explore potential contributions due to phase space evolution.

Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix↗
DOE OSTI2021

Separating $${^{39}\hbox {Ar}}$$ from $${^{40}\hbox {Ar}}$$ by cryogenic distillation with Aria for dark-matter searches

Abstract Aria is a plant hosting a $${350}\,\hbox {m}$$ 350 m cryogenic isotopic distillation column, the tallest ever built, which is being installed in a mine shaft at Carbosulcis S.p.A., Nuraxi-Figus (SU), Italy. Aria is one of the pillars of the argon dark-matter search experimental program, lead by the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration. It was designed to reduce the isotopic abundance of $${^{39}\hbox {Ar}}$$ 39 Ar in argon extracted from underground sources, called Underground Argon (UAr), which is used for dark-matter searches. Indeed, $${^{39}\hbox {Ar}}$$ 39 Ar is a $$\beta $$ β -emitter of cosmogenic origin, whose activity poses background and pile-up concerns in the detectors. In this paper, we discuss the requirements, design, construction, tests, and projected performance of the plant for the isotopic cryogenic distillation of argon. We also present the successful results of the isotopic cryogenic distillation of nitrogen with a prototype plant.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Neutron Induced Nuclear Reaction Cross Sections for Radiochemistry in the Region of Thallium, Lead, and Bismuth

We have developed a set of modeled nuclear reaction cross sections for use in radiochemical detector diagnostics. Systematics for the input parameters required by the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model developed in the TALYS code system are used to calculate neutron induced nuclear reaction cross sections for targets ranging from Thallium (Z = 81) to Bismuth (Z = 83).

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2021

Report to NCSP on FY21 DANCE and NEUANCE measurements of 233 U(n, γ)

In order to complete the statistics needed above 10 keV after the experiment performed in December 2020, a production measurement of the 233 U capture cross section, using the thick target (~20 mg) was proposed for the CY21 runcycle. Through collaboration with the DANCE experimental team, we arranged for the NEUANCE array to stay in place in the CY21 run cycle until the 233 U measurement was complete in June-July 2021, further reducing systematic uncertainties in the measurement. The measurement was performed over 10 days with the 20 mg sample, and the 10 mg sample was placed in the beam for 1 day. The rest of the beam time was used to measure radioactive γ sources for energy calibration, and background measurements and tests to define the 233 U windows required during the data taking. The NEUANCE detector placed inside the DANCE cavity is shown.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Study of charge trapping in CZT detectors

A semiconductor detection material, Cadmium Zinc Telluride, was investigated for potential use as a particle detector for space flight applications. Our set of detectors was determined to be flawed for particle detection methods, likely due to charge transport mechanisms within the detector material, or due to reduced voltage required to avoid dielectric breakdown. It was observed that the method of crystal growth may play a role in the performance, but performance may also vary between manufacturers using the same growth method. It is recommended to perform further study at a larger proton beam facility.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗