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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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

Influence of Scattering on Ballistic Nanotransistor Design

Importance of this work: (1) This is the first work to model electron-phonon scattering within a quantum mechanical approach to nanotransistors. The simulations use the non equilibrium Green's function method. (2) A simple equation which captures the importance of scattering as a function of the spatial location from source to drain is presented. This equation helps interpret the numerical simulations. (3) We show that the resistance per unit length in the source side is much larger than in the drain side. Thus making scattering in the source side of the device much more important than scattering in the drain side. Numerical estimates of ballisticity for 10nm channel length devices in the presence of of electron-phonon scattering are given. Based on these calculations, we propose that to achieve a larger on-current in nanotransistors, it is crucial to keep the highly doped source extension region extremely small, even if this is at the cost of making the highly doped drain extension region longer.

Anantram, M. P.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Revisions to Photochemical Data for Use in Atmospheric Modeling

Solar and stellar flux incident on an atmosphere can cause molecules to dissociate into highly reactive species and allows for photochemical processes to play a fundamental role in atmospheric chemistry. While models have tried to simulate such processes, they are extremely sensitive to photoabsorption cross-sections and quantum yields: two parameters that are important in determining the photodissociation rate, and hence the lifetime, of atmospheric compounds. Obtaining high-resolution and current data for these parameters is therefore highly desirable. Due to this, database and literature searches for high-quality cross-sections and quantum yields were performed and compiled for KINETICS, a Caltech/JPL Chemical Transport Model that can be used in modeling planetary atmospheres. Furthermore, photodissociation rates determined by running a Titan 1-D model were used to verify the completeness of these latest revisions.

Chemical Transport Model (CTM)↗
NASA NTRS2012

Kuang's Semi-Classical Formalism for Electron Capture Cross-Sections in Ion-Ion Collisions at Approximately to MeV/amu: Application to ENA Modeling

Recent discovery by STEREO A/B of energetic neutral hydrogen is spurring an interest and need for reliable estimates of electron capture cross sections at few MeVs per nucleon as well as for multi-electron ions. Required accuracy in such estimates necessitates detailed and involved quantum-mechanical calculations or expensive numerical simulations. For ENA modeling and similar purposes, a semi-classical approach offers a middle-ground approach. Kuang's semiclassical formalism to calculate electron-capture cross sections for single and multi-electron ions is an elegant and efficient method, but has so far been applied to limited and specific laboratory measurements and at somewhat lower energies. Our goals are to test and extend Kuang s method to all ion-atom and ion-ion collisions relevant to ENA modeling, including multi-electron ions and for K-shell to K-shell transitions.

Barghouty, A. F.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Capella: Structure and Abundances

This grant covers the analysis of EUVE spectra of the cool star binary system Capella. This project has also required the analysis of simultaneous Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) data. The ASCA spectrum of Capella could not be fit with standard models; by imposing models based on strong lines observed with EUVE, a problem wavelength region was identified. Correcting the problem required calculations of atomic collision strengths of higher principal quantum number than had ever been calculated. With these new models applied to the ASCA spectrum, better fits were obtained. Findings are that: (1) ASCA and EUVE spectra are both dominated by a region at 6 x 10(exp 6) K. (2) The high energy cut-off of the ASCA spectrum is consistent with emission from the highest ionization stages of EUVE, namely Fe XXIV. (3) EUVE requires a continuous emission measure distribution with more than two temperatures. (4) The ASCA spectra are of such high statistical significance that systematic uncertainties dominate, including atomic physics issues and calibration issues. (5) While the ASCA spectral fits achieve lower Chi(exp 2 with two-temperature fits, the EUVE-derived emission measure distribution models are also consistent with the spectra. (6) The Fe/H ratio obtained from the ASCA fit is within 20 % of the Fe/H abundance obtained from the summed spectra of Capella over 5 EUVE pointings, as well as the 1996 EUVE data. This result confirms our claims that quasi-continua composed of weak emission lines in the short wavelength spectrometer of EUVE are not major contributors to the measured Capella continuum. Other abundance ratios are also determined from the ASCA data, using models derived with EUVE. Si, Si, and Mg appear to be close to solar photospheric values, while the ratio of Ne/Fe is three to four times lower than solar photospheric values. Whether there is a general First Ionization Potential (FIP) effect or a specific neon anomaly cannot be determined from these data. (8) EUVE line ratios indicating low optical depth place limits on the extent to which the X-ray lines are optically, thick. While the brightest lines may be marginally thick, the ASCA spectrum is not of sufficient resolution to determine the optical depth in these lines.

Brickhouse, Nancy S.↗
NASA NTRS2007

Testing Special Relativity at High Energies with Astrophysical Sources

Since the group of Lorentz boosts is unbounded, there is a question as to whether Lorentz invariance (LI) holds to infinitely short distances. However, special and general relativity may break down at the Planck scale. Various quantum gravity scenarios such as loop quantum gravity, as well as some forms of string theory and extra dimension models may imply Lorentz violation (LV) at ultrahigh energies. The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), to be launched in mid-December, will measure the spectra of distant extragalactic sources of high energy gamma-rays, particularly active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts. GLAST can look for energy-dependent gamma-ray propagation effects from such sources as a signal of Lorentz invariance violation. These sources may also exhibit the high energy cutoffs predicted to be the result of intergalactic annihilation interactions with low energy photons having a flux level as determined by various astronomical observations. With LV the threshold for such interactions can be significantly raised, changing the predicted absorption turnover in the observed spectrum of the sources. Stecker and Glashow have shown that the existence such absorption features in the spectra of extragalactic sources puts constraints on LV. Such constraints have important implications for some quantum gravity and large extra dimension models. Future spaceborne detectors dedicated to measuring gamma-ray polarization can look for birefringence effects as a possible signal of loop quantum gravity. A very small LV may also result in the modification or elimination of the GZK effect, thus modifying the spectrum of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. This possibility can be explored with ground-based arrays such as Auger or with a space based detector system such as the proposed OWL satellite mission.

Stecker, F. W.↗
NASA NTRS2023

Improved Fermion Hamiltonians for Quantum Simulation

The Symanzik improvement program has been quite successful in classical simulations of quantum chromodynamics allowing calculations to be performed at coarser lattice spacings and with reduced computational resource costs. It is expected that improved Hamiltonians will be essential to simulate lattice field theories using quantum computers. In this work I will discuss the formulation of an ASQTAD and HISQ Hamiltonian amenable for quantum simulations. I will also show preliminary results that demonstrate significant tree-level contributions are removed in the spectrum of the 1 flavor Schwinger model.

quantum computing↗
NASA NTRS2001

Virtual Antiparticle Pairs, the Unit of Charge Epsilon and the QCD Coupling Alpha(sub s)

New semi-classical models of virtual antiparticle pairs are used to compute the pair lifetimes, and good agreement with the Heisenberg lifetimes from quantum field theory (QFT) is found. When the results of the new models and QFT are combined, formulae for e and alpha(sub s)(q) are derived in terms of only h and c. The modeling method applies to both the electromagnetic and color forces. Evaluation of the action integral of potential field fluctuation for each interaction potential yields approx. = h/2 for both electromagnetic and color fluctuations, in agreement with QFT. Thus each model is a quantized semiclassical representation for such virtual antiparticle pairs, to good approximation. This work reduces the number of arbitrary parameters of the Standard Model by two from 18 to 16. These are remarkable, unexpected results from a basically classical method.

Batchelor, David↗
NASA NTRS1997

The rate of the reaction between CN and C2H2 at interstellar temperatures

The rate coefficient for the important interstellar reaction between CN and C2H2 has been calculated as a function of temperature between 10 and 300 K. The potential surface for this reaction has been determined through ab initio quantum chemical techniques; the potential exhibits no barrier in the entrance channel but does show a small exit channel barrier, which lies below the energy of reactants. Phase-space calculations for the reaction dynamics, which take the exit channel barrier into account, show the same unusual temperature dependence as determined by experiment, in which the rate coefficient at first increases as the temperature is reduced below room temperature and then starts to decrease as the temperature drops below 50-100 K. The agreement between theory and experiment provides strong confirmation that the reaction occurs appreciably at cool interstellar temperatures.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗
NASA NTRS1972

Excitation of Na D-line radiation in collisions of sodium atoms with internally excited H2, D2, and N2

Excitation of D-line radiation in collisions of Na atoms with vibrationally excited N2, H2 and D2 was studied in two modulated crossed beam experiments. In both experiments, the vibrational excitation of the molecules was provided by heating the molecular beam source to temperatures in the range of 2000 to 3000 K, which was assumed to give populations according to the Boltzmann expression. In the first experiment, a total rate coefficient was measured as a function of molecular beam temperature, with absolute calibration of the photon detector being made using the black body radiation from the heated molecular beam source. Since heating affects both the internal energy and the collisional kinetic energy, the first experiment could not determine the relative contributions of internal energy transfer versus collisional excitation. The second experiment achieved partial separation of internal versus kinetic energy transfer effects by using a velocity-selected molecular beam. Using two simple models for the kinetic energy dependence of the transfer cross section for a given change in vibrational quantum number, the data from both experiments were used to determine parameters in the models.

Krause, H. F.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Model Sensitivity Studies of the Decrease in Atmospheric Carbon Tetrachloride

Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is an ozone-depleting substance, which is controlled by the Montreal Protocol and for which the atmospheric abundance is decreasing. However, the current observed rate of this decrease is known to be slower than expected based on reported CCl4 emissions and its estimated overall atmospheric lifetime. Here we use a three-dimensional (3-D) chemical transport model to investigate the impact on its predicted decay of uncertainties in the rates at which CCl4 is removed from the atmosphere by photolysis, by ocean uptake and by degradation in soils. The largest sink is atmospheric photolysis (74% of total), but a reported 10% uncertainty in its combined photolysis cross section and quantum yield has only a modest impact on the modelled rate of CCl4 decay. This is partly due to the limiting effect of the rate of transport of CCl4 from the main tropospheric reservoir to the stratosphere, where photolytic loss occurs. The model suggests large interannual variability in the magnitude of this stratospheric photolysis sink caused by variations in transport. The impact of uncertainty in the minor soil sink (9%of total) is also relatively small. In contrast, the model shows that uncertainty in ocean loss (17%of total) has the largest impact on modelled CCl4 decay due to its sizeable contribution to CCl4 loss and large lifetime uncertainty range (147 to 241 years). With an assumed CCl4 emission rate of 39 Gg year(exp -1), the reference simulation with the best estimate of loss processes still underestimates the observed CCl4 (overestimates the decay) over the past 2 decades but to a smaller extent than previous studies. Changes to the rate of CCl4 loss processes, in line with known uncertainties, could bring the model into agreement with in situ surface and remote-sensing measurements, as could an increase in emissions to around 47 Gg year(exp -1). Further progress in constraining the CCl4 budget is partly limited by systematic biases between observational datasets. For example, surface observations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) network are larger than from the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) network but have shown a steeper decreasing trend over the past 2 decades. These differences imply a difference in emissions which is significant relative to uncertainties in the magnitudes of the CCl4 sinks.

Carbon Trechloride↗
NASA NTRS1986

Generation of fluctuations in cosmological models

The initial production of classical matter fluctuations in a scalar quantum field theory in curved spacetime is discussed. It is shown how quantum fluctuations generate classical matter inhomogeneities, and that the resulting spectrum is scale invariant. The relevant events that occur before the scale leaves the Hubble radius are studied.

Brandenberger, Robert H.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Quantum-Compatible Variational Segmentation for Image-to-Image Wildfire Detection Using Satellite Data

Wildfire occurrences have been increasing for the past decade, leaving devastating traces across the world. In the recent efforts, remote sensing and airborne missions have been utilized to better understand and manage wildfires. This has resulted in an exponential increase in volume of remote sensing data, which has pushed the need for intelligent automation of data extraction for wildfire studies. Machine learning offers accurate automation in detecting such natural anomalies and enable decision-makers to take actions in a timely manner. Recent advances in machine learning algorithms, namely probabilistic generative methods, allow researchers and decisionmakers to step beyond detection and study “what-if” scenarios for wildfire occurrences. Additionally, they offer better imitations to the stochastic behavior of nature, and wildfire events. However, optimizing the performance of these probabilistic generative models is a computationally expensive process, specially using digital computers. On the other hand, quantum computers have recently shown a promise to reduce computationally costly training of such models and provide performance improvements. There is a body of research investigating the potential for improved machine learning methods in which key operations are performed on a quantum computer. In this study, we propose a probabilistic image-toimage segmentation approach combining a very well-known segmentation method, U-NET, with a Conditional Variational Auto-Encoder (CVAE) to not only detect wildfires but also describe the stochasticity of the phenomenon and be capable of running “what-if” scenarios. Our proposed model is compatible with training on quantum computers, which results in a quantum-assisted image-to-image segmentation approach and can be used to benchmark the potential benefit of quantum computing over the classical one.

quantum↗
NASA NTRS1993

Comparison of cross sections from the quasi-classical trajectory method and the j(z)-conserving centrifugal sudden approximation with accurate quantum results for an atom-rigid nonlinear polyatomic collision

We report the results of a series of calculations of state-to-state integral cross sections for collisions between O and nonvibrating H2O in the gas phase on a model nonreactive potential energy surface. The dynamical methods used include converged quantum mechanical scattering calculations, the j(z) conserving centrifugal sudden (j(z)-CCS) approximation, and quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) calculations. We consider three total energies 0.001, 0.002, and 0.005 E(h) and the nine initial states with rotational angular momentum less than or equal to 2 (h/2 pi). The j(z)-CCS approximation gives good results, while the QCT method can be quite unreliable for transitions to specific rotational sublevels. However, the QCT cross sections summed over final sublevels and averaged over initial sublevels are in better agreement with the quantum results.

Schwenke, David W.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Theoretical Study of the Transverse Dielectric Constant of Superlattices and Their Alloys

The optical properties of III to V binary and ternary compounds and GaAs-Al(x)Ga(1-x)As superlattices are determined by calculating the real and imaginary parts of the transverse dielectric constant. Emphasis is given to determining the influence of different material and superlattice parameters on the values of the index of refraction and absorption coefficient. In order to calculate the optical properties of a material, it is necessary to compute its electronic band structure. This was accomplished by introducing a partition band structure approach based on a combination of the vector k x vector p and nonlocal pseudopotential techniques. The advantages of this approach are that it is accurate, computationally fast, analytical, and flexible. These last two properties enable incorporation of additional effects into the model, such as disorder scattering, which occurs for alloy materials and excitons. Furthermore, the model is easily extended to more complex structures, for example multiple quantum wells and superlattices. The results for the transverse dielectric constant and absorption coefficient of bulk III to V compounds compare well with other one-electron band structure models and the calculations show that for small frequencies, the index of refraction is determined mainly by the contibution of the outer regions of the Brillouin zone.

Kahen, K. B.↗
NASA NTRS2023

Quantum Image Denoising: A Framework via Boltzmann Machines, QUBO, and Quantum Annealing

We investigate a framework for binary image denoising via restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) that introduces a denoising objective in quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) form and is well-suited for quantum annealing. The denoising objective is attained by balancing the distribution learned by a trained RBM with a penalty term for derivations from the noisy image. We derive the statistically optimal choice of the penalty parameter assuming the target distribution has been well-approximated, and further suggest an empirically supported modification to make the method robust to that idealistic assumption. We also show under additional assumptions that the denoised images attained by our method are, in expectation, strictly closer to the noise-free images than the noisy images are. While we frame the model as an image denoising model, it can be applied to any binary data. As the QUBO formulation is well-suited for implementation on quantum annealers, we test the model on a D-Wave Advantage machine, and also test on data too large for current quantum annealers by approximating QUBO solutions through classical heuristics.

restricted Boltzmann machine↗
NASA NTRS1975

Asymptotic form of the charge exchange cross section in the three body rearrangement collisions

A three body general rearrangement collision is considered where the initial and final bound states are described by the hydrogen-like wave functions. Mathematical models are developed to establish the relationships of quantum number, the reduced mass, and the nuclear charge of the final state. It is shown that for the low lying levels, the reciprocal of n cubed scaling law at all incident energies is only approximately satisfied. The case of the symmetric collisions is considered and it is shown that for high n and high incident energy, E, the cross section behaves as the reciprocal of E cubed. Zeros and minima in the differential cross sections in the limit of high n for protons on atomic hydrogen and positrons on atomic hydrogen are given.

Omidvar, K.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The attenuation of gamma-ray emission in strongly-magnetized pulsars

Gamma rays from pulsars can be efficiently attenuated in their magnetospheres via the mechanism of single photon pair production and the exotic quantum electrodynamics (QED) process of photon splitting. The modeling of strongly magnetized gamma ray pulsars focusing on the escape or attenuation of photons emitted near the pole at the neutron star surface in dipole fields in a Schwarzschild metric is considered. It was found that pair production and splitting totally inhibit emission above a value of between 10 and 30 MeV in PSR 1509-58 whose surface field is inferred as being high. The principle predictions of the attenuation analysis are reviewed and the observational diagnostic capabilities of the model are considered. The diagnostics include the energy of the gamma ray turnover and the spectral polarization, which constrain the estimated polar cap size and field strength and can determine the relative strength of splitting and pair creation.

Baring, Matthew G.↗