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DOE OSTI2024

Absolute decay counting of 146 Sm with 4π cryogenic microcalorimetry

We present a methodology for absolute activity counting of long-lived isotopes based on cryogenic Decay Energy Spectroscopy. A 146 Sm source was produced at the TRIUMF Laboratory and then processed and purified at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, yielding a pure sample. The source was embedded within a 4π thermal absorber coupled to a magnetic microcalorimeter achieving nearly 100% counting efficiency. Experimental uncertainties were studied and modeled, including thermal coupling of the source to the absorber, pulse pile-up, trigger, and event selection efficiencies. Here, the absolute activity of the pure 146 Sm source was measured to better than 1% uncertainty.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2025

The real-time data processing and acquisition system for Project 8 Phase II

In Phase II of the Project 8 neutrino mass experiment, electrons from the decays of tritium or 83m Kr are detected via their ≈26 GHz cyclotron radiation while contained within a circular waveguide. The signal from a given electron is characterized as a brief chirp, lasting ≲10 ms and changing in frequency by ≲1 MHz/ms. To detect these signals, the Project 8 collaboration developed a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system tailored to the signal properties. The DAQ is responsible for simultaneously selecting up to three 100 MHz-wide frequency windows to study, detect, and trigger on likely signals from different electron kinetic energies, and for writing the relevant data to disk. Finally, we describe the Phase II DAQ system in detail and address how the system was used for data-taking operations.

Data acquisition↗

DOE OSTI2025

The SHMS 11 GeV/c spectrometer in Hall C at Jefferson Lab

The Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS) has been built for Hall C at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab). With a momentum capability reaching 11 GeV/ c , the SHMS provides measurements of charged particles produced in electron-scattering experiments using the maximum available beam energy from the upgraded Jefferson Lab accelerator. The SHMS is an ion-optics magnetic spectrometer comprised of a series of new superconducting magnets which transport charged particles through an array of triggering, tracking, and particle-identification detectors that measure momentum, energy, angle and position in order to allow kinematic reconstruction of the events back to their origin at the scattering target. The detector system is protected from background radiation by a sophisticated shielding enclosure. The entire spectrometer is mounted on a rotating support structure which permits measurements to be taken with a large acceptance over laboratory scattering angles from 5.5° to 40°, thus allowing a wide range of low cross-section experiments to be conducted. Finally, these experiments complement and extend the previous Hall C research program to higher energies.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Performance assessment after long-term irradiation of ATLAS Micromegas detectors using 120 GeV muons at the Gamma Irradiation Facility at CERN

The ATLAS muon spectrometer will face an increased particle rate as a result of the increased instantaneous luminosity expected during the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade. The HL-LHC will provide a luminosity of $\mathscr{L}$ = 7.5 × 10 34 cm −2 s −1 and 3000 fb −1 of integrated luminosity in 10 years, about 9 times more data of the ones so far collected by the ATLAS experiment. Micromegas chambers are used in the New Small Wheel(s), the first forward muon spectrometer station, to provide tracking and triggering at the intense particle rates expected. The detectors are operated with a ternary gas mixture composed of Ar + 5%CO 2 + 2%iC 4 H 10 , providing good high voltage stability and a large pulse height, important for inclined track reconstruction of particles crossing the detector. To ensure the long-term stable operation of the detector during the whole HL-LHC period, and due to the hydrocarbon content in the mixture, an extensive aging campaign has been ongoing since 2021 at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility, where spare production chambers are long-term exposed to a 14 TBq 137 Cs 𝛾-source, accumulating so far, a charge equivalent to five years of HL-LHC operations under the highest expected background rate. This paper describes the results of the Micromegas chamber performance studies after two years of gamma irradiation and using the SPS/H4 120 GeV muon beams at CERN.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2026

Electron emissions and hot spots in dual-phase LXe TPCs

Persistent photon and single-electron emissions - in the form of “electron trains” and localized “hot spots” - have been observed in multiple dual-phase liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chambers (TPCs), often persisting long after ionizing events. Here, we show that these phenomena are naturally explained by photon-triggered single-electron emission from resistive mixed-oxide films on stainless-steel (SS304 or s.s.) wires, which behave as leaky capacitors with long RC time constants at LXe temperature. Positive ions landing on these oxides can further enhance local fields and drive Malter-like electron emission. We outline the materials physics (Cr 2 O 3 /Cr 2 O 3-x /Cr(OH) 3 mosaics), quantify expected time scales (∼1 s under illumination), and demonstrate how small damaged regions with enhanced QE can produce persistent hot spots.

Va'vra, J. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (↗

DOE OSTI2026

Unsupervised anomaly detection in MeV ultrafast electron diffraction

MeV ultrafast electron diffraction (MUED) is a pump-probe technique used to study the dynamic structural evolution of materials. An ultrashort laser pulse triggers structural changes, which are then probed by an ultrashort relativistic electron beam. To overcome low signal-to-noise ratios, diffraction patterns are averaged over thousands of shots. However, shot-to-shot instabilities in the electron beam can distort individual patterns, introducing uncertainty. Improving MUED accuracy requires detecting and removing these anomalous patterns from large datasets. In this work, we developed a fully unsupervised methodology for the detection of anomalous diffraction patterns. Using a convolutional autoencoder, we calculate the reconstruction mean squared error of the diffraction patterns. Based on the statistical analysis of this error, we provide the user an estimation of the probability that the pattern is normal, which also allows a posterior visual inspection of the images that are difficult to classify. This method has been trained with only 100 diffraction patterns and tested on 1521 patterns, resulting in a false positive rate between 0.2% and 0.4%, with a training time of 10 s per image and a test time of about 1 s per image. Here, the proposed methodology can also be applied to other diffraction techniques in which large datasets are collected that include faulty images due to instrumental instabilities.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Light monitoring system for the lead tungstate calorimeter in Hall D at Jefferson Lab

A new electromagnetic calorimeter composed of 1596 lead tungstate (PbWO 4 ) scintillating crystals has been constructed for the GlueX detector in Hall D at Jefferson Lab. The calorimeter is equipped with a light monitoring system that uses light-emitting diodes. The light monitoring system was fabricated, installed, and integrated into the GlueX trigger system. It was successfully operated during detector commissioning and data collection, providing monitoring of the detector response and verification of the calibration with a precision better than 1%. In conclusion, the paper describes the design, installation, and performance of the light monitoring system.

Lead tungstate calorimeter↗

DOE OSTI2026

Performance of the Pair Spectrometer in Hall D at Jefferson Lab

This article describes the performance of the pair spectrometer installed in experimental Hall D at Jefferson Lab and its successfully operation in multiple experiments with the GlueX detector. The primary purpose of the pair spectrometer is the precise determination of the flux of beam photons incident on the GlueX target, a critical input for physics analyses such as absolute cross-section measurements. The photon energy spectrum is determined by reconstructing electron–positron pairs produced in a thin converter inserted into the photon beam. The spectrometer is integrated into the GlueX trigger system, whose electronics enable continuous real-time monitoring of the photon flux and the recording of e+e- pair candidates for offline analysis. In addition, the pair spectrometer provides a versatile test facility for evaluating calorimeter prototypes using leptons with well-defined energies produced via electromagnetic pair production.

Somov, Alexander [Jefferson Lab]↗

DOE OSTI2026

The BigBite Calorimeter for the Super Bigbite Spectrometer Program at Jefferson Lab

Here, we report features of the design, construction, installation, and performance of the BigBite Calorimeter (BBCal), a lead-glass electromagnetic calorimeter constructed as part of the BigBite Spectrometer (BBS), which served as the electron arm for the Super Bigbite Spectrometer (SBS) program of high-precision neutron electromagnetic form factor measurements in Hall A at Jefferson Lab. As a total-absorption calorimeter, BBCal provided the primary electron trigger for BBS, detecting quasi-elastically scattered electrons in the 1–4 GeV energy range with an energy resolution of approximately 6.2%, position resolution of 1.2 cm, and timing resolution of 0.5 ns.

BBCal↗

DOE OSTI2026

Robustness of the smartpixels classifier for different simulated sensor geometries and non-ideal detector conditions

Pixel tracking detectors at upcoming collider experiments will see unprecedented charged-particle densities. Real-time data reduction on the detector will enable higher granularity and faster readout, possibly enabling the use of the pixel detector in high-rate online event selection, such as the ATLAS or CMS first-level trigger systems. This data reduction can be accomplished with a neural network (NN) in the readout chip bonded with the sensor that recognizes and rejects tracks with low transverse momentum (p T ) based on the geometrical shape of the charge deposition (“cluster”). To design viable detectors for deployment, the dependence of the NN as a function of the sensor geometry, external magnetic field, irradiation, and noise must be understood. In this paper, we present first studies of the efficiency and data reduction for planar pixel sensors exploring these parameters. For the CMS HL-LHC sensor geometry, we obtain a signal efficiency of (91.9 ± 0.7)% and a data reduction of (29.7 ± 1.0)%. A smaller sensor pitch in the bending direction improves the p T discrimination, but a larger pitch can be partially compensated with detector thickness. Any accumulated radiation damage also changes the cluster shape, reducing the signal efficiency compared to the baseline by approximately 30–60% in absolute terms, but nearly all of the performance can be recovered through retraining of the network and updating the weights. Finally, the impact of noise was investigated, and retraining the network on noise-injected datasets was found to maintain performance within 6% of the baseline network trained and evaluated on noiseless data. •ASIC-compatible track-momentum classifier is robust in realistic detector conditions.•About 90% signal efficiency and 30% data reduction per layer for CMS HL-LHC geometry.•Single-layer signal efficiency increases for smaller pixel pitch or thicker sensors.•Performance with noise or after radiation damage mostly recovered by retraining.

Shekar, Danush [Illinois U., Chicago] (ORCID:00000↗

DOE OSTI2024

2D analysis of tokamak divertor-plasma detachment-bifurcation with operational parameters and geometries

UEDGE simulations with density scans for various input power, transport coefficients and outer poloidal leg length are performed to study the conditions for the existence of a bifurcation-like drop of T e at the outer strike point, commonly referred to as a detachment cliff, when transitioning to a detached plasma from an attached plasma in the outer divertor as the upstream density increases (McLean et al., 2015). The simulation results show that a detachment cliff tends to occur with a higher power input regardless of diffusivities and leg length. Further analysis of change of plasma profiles at a cliff indicate that, in addition to the sharp reduction of the E x B drift fluxes in the outer divertor studied in Jaervinen et al., (2018), the substantial change of the Mach number in the outer divertor and the decrease of the outer mid-plane T e due to the radiation front moving across the separatrix into the confinement region above the X-point consistently occur for all UEDGE density scans that have a detachment cliff. UEDGE time-dependent simulation of the evolution of a detachment cliff shows that the rapid increase of radiation above the X-point occurs in a time scale of ~0.3–0.5, which could possibly be the trigger for the formation of a detachment cliff, quicker than the Mach number change in a time scale of ~1 ms and the drop of T e in a time scale of ~2–3 ms in the outer divertor.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Failure investigation and mitigation after experimental research reactor fuel plate deformation in an irradiation device

Experimental research reactor fuel testing is conducted in the Belgian Reactor 2 (BR2) of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN) in dedicated irradiation vehicles or rigs. One such vehicle allows flat full-size fuel plates to be irradiated by inserting them into slotted baskets that captures a narrow portion of the longitudinal edges of the plates. The motion of the fuel plates within the baskets is possible within the narrow slots and thus, the plate is considered to be unattached. The design intentionally omits fixing mechanisms of the fuel plates to the baskets to facilitate the inspection and repositioning of the plates between the irradiation cycles and the accommodation of thermal expansion of the plates in the lateral direction. However, loosely inserted fuel plates have weak structural boundary conditions allowing for larger out-of-plane deflections caused by hydrodynamic loads exerted by the flowing coolant, as compared to those of fixed plates. Unexpected large deformations of plates occurred in several irradiation cycles that further resulted in a loss of cladding integrity. These deformations could not be attributed to a single source. This triggered a series of thermal hydraulic, structural, and fluid-structure interaction analyses aiming at understanding the observed phenomenon. The analyses revealed that, for a certain combination of unfavorable manufacturing and assembly tolerances, fuel plate edges could escape out of the slots in the irradiation basket due to the hydrodynamic load. Subsequently, the plate could become wedged inside the basket coolant channel opening. This resulted in reduced coolant flow and accelerated temperature increase and thermal expansion of the plate while under irradiation. This unfavorable feedback loop could then lead to excessive plate surface temperatures, deformed plates and cladding failure, as was observed in the experiments. These analyses not only provided a probable cause of the fuel plate failures, but also resulted in a new and improved design of the irradiation basket to avoid these issues in the future. In conclusion, a series of recent successful irradiations confirm that the sources of failures were identified correctly, and the implemented mitigations were adequate.

BR2↗

DOE OSTI2025

Government sector activities to reduce thermal-spectrum molten salt breeder reactor investment risk

Thermal-Spectrum Molten Salt Breeder Reactors (TS-MSBRs) have long been recognized as having high potential for clean, safe, large-scale, cost-effective energy production for the foreseeable future. U.S. government support for TS-MSBR development was stopped half a century ago in the belief that they were too technically difficult. Technology progression over the past several decades as well as the pressing need for clean power on-demand provides incentives to reconsider the development program cancellation. Limited, early-stage, government sector activities have the potential to sufficiently reduce investor risk to trigger the private sector investment necessary to commercialize the reactor class. In conclusion, these activities are summarized in this article.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Exploring the hidden valley at MATHUSLA

Hidden valley models naturally predict numerous long-lived particles, the distinctive signatures of which would be compelling evidence for a hidden valley scenario. As these are typically low-energy particles, they pose a challenge in terms of passing energy triggers in traditional searches at the Large Hadron Collider. The MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles) experiment is specifically designed for the purpose of detecting long-lived particles. It also has the capability of detecting lower energy particles relative to ATLAS and CMS. In this paper, we assess MATHUSLA's potential for effectively probing hidden valley models. As a benchmark, we assume the hidden valley sector communicates with Standard Model sectors via a heavy vector propagator that couples to Standard Model quarks as well as hidden valley quarks. We model the showering and hadronization in the hidden valley sector using PYTHIA and study the detector acceptance as a function of the hidden valley meson's lifetime. We find that MATHUSLA possesses significant capabilities to explore previously uncharted parameter space within hidden valley models.

Hidden sector↗

DOE OSTI2024

Strength, plasticity, and spin transition of Fe-N compounds in planetary cores

Elastic and plastic properties of Fe-light element alloys and compounds are needed to determine the compositions and dynamics of planetary cores. Elastic strength and plastic deformation mechanisms and their relationship to electronic properties of ε-Fe 7 N 3 and γ’-Fe 4 N mixture were investigated by x-ray diffraction and x-ray emission spectroscopy in the diamond anvil cell from 1 bar up to 60 GPa. X-ray diffraction shows that ε-Fe 7 N 3 reaches a pressure of 15–20 GPa before undergoing bulk plasticity at a differential stress of 4.4–10.4 GPa. ε-Fe 7 N 3 is stronger than γ’-Fe 4 N and hcp-Fe which achieve a flow stress of 1.5–3.6 GPa at 10–15 GPa and 2–3 GPa at ~20 GPa, respectively. X-ray emission spectroscopy shows that a decrease in electronic spin moment begins before and completes after plastic flow onset for each nitride, suggesting that pressure-driven changes in electronic arrangement do not trigger a plastic response although they may modify the strength and plastic behavior of Fe-N compounds. Plastic deformation in ε-Fe 7 N 3 and hcp-Fe results in a preferred orientation of (0001) normal to maximum compression, while γ’-Fe 4 N develops a maximum in the (110). Furthermore, these observations may be combined with measurements of elasticity to model seismic properties of cores of small planetary bodies such as Mars, Mercury, and the Moon.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Search for the Higgs boson decays to a ρ 0 , ϕ, or K ⁎0 meson and a photon in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV

Three rare decay processes of the Higgs boson to a ρ(770) 0 , Φ(1020), or K ⁎ (892) 0 meson and a photon are searched for using $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Events are selected assuming the mesons decay into a pair of charged pions, a pair of charged kaons, or a charged kaon and pion, respectively. Depending on the Higgs boson production mode, different triggering and reconstruction techniques are adopted. The analyzed data sets correspond to integrated luminosities up to 138 fb -1 , depending on the reconstructed final state. After combining various data sets and categories, no significant excess above the background expectations is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on the Higgs boson branching fractions into ρ(770) 0 $γ$, Φ(1020)$γ$, and K ⁎ (892) 0 are determined to be 3.7 x 10 -4 , 3.0 x 10 -4 , and 3.0 x 10 -4 , respectively. In case of the ρ(770) 0 $γ$ and Φ(1020)$γ$ channels, these are the most stringent experimental limits to date.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Measurement of the p–$Σ^+$ correlation function in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

In this letter, the first measurement of the femtoscopic correlation of protons and $Σ^+$ hyperons is presented and used to study the p–$Σ^+$ interaction. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector in high-multiplicity triggered pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The $Σ^+$ hyperons are reconstructed using a missing-mass approach in the decay channel to p + π 0 with π 0 → $γγ$, while both $Σ^+$ and protons are identified using a machine learning approach. These techniques result in a high reconstruction efficiency and purity, which allows the measurement of the p–$Σ^+$ correlation function for the first time. Thanks to the high significance achieved in the p–$Σ^+$ correlation signal, it is possible to discriminate between the predictions of different models of the N–$Σ$ interaction and to accomplish a first determination of the p–$Σ^+$ scattering parameters.

Femtoscopy↗

DOE OSTI2025

Overview of high-density QCD studies with the CMS experiment at the LHC

We review key measurements performed by CMS in the context of its heavy ion physics program, using event samples collected in 2010-2018 with several collision systems and energies. These studies provide detailed macroscopic and microscopic probes of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created at the LHC energies, a medium characterized by the highest temperature and smallest baryon-chemical potential ever reached in the laboratory. Numerous observables related to high-density quantum chromodynamics (QCD) were studied, leading to some of the most impactful and qualitatively novel results in the 40-year history of the field. Using a dedicated high-multiplicity trigger in the first pp run, CMS discovered that small collision systems can exhibit signs of collectivity, a generic phenomenon with significant implications and presently understood to affect essentially all soft physics processes. This observation opened new paths to understand how fluidity and plasma properties emerge in QCD matter as a function of system size. Measurements of jet quenching have reached a completely new level of detail by directly assessing, for the first time, the medium modification of parton showers, as opposed to simply observing leading hadrons or di-hadrons. The first fully reconstructed beauty hadron and heavy-flavor jet nuclear modifications were also measured. The large size of the event samples, the precision of the measurements, and the extension of the probed kinematical phase space, allowed many other hard probes of the QGP medium to be explored in detail, leading to multiple groundbreaking findings. In particular, the seminal measurements of bottomonium suppression patterns answer fundamental questions that have been actively pursued, both theoretically and experimentally, by the community since the mid-1980s. We conclude by outlining the opportunities offered by the continuation of this physics program at the LHC.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗