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DOE OSTI2022

Building surrogate models of nuclear density functional theory with Gaussian processes and autoencoders

From the lightest Hydrogen isotopes up to the recently synthesized Oganesson (Z = 118), it is estimated that as many as about 8,000 atomic nuclei could exist in nature. Most of these nuclei are too short-lived to be occurring on Earth, but they play an essential role in astrophysical events such as supernova explosions or neutron star mergers that are presumed to be at the origin of most heavy elements in the Universe. Understanding the structure, reactions, and decays of nuclei across the entire chart of nuclides is an enormous challenge because of the experimental difficulties in measuring properties of interest in such fleeting objects and the theoretical and computational issues of simulating strongly-interacting quantum many-body systems. Nuclear density functional theory (DFT) is a fully microscopic theoretical framework which has the potential of providing such a quantitatively accurate description of nuclear properties for every nucleus in the chart of nuclides. Thanks to high-performance computing facilities, it has already been successfully applied to predict nuclear masses, global patterns of radioactive decay like β or γ decay, and several aspects of the nuclear fission process such as, e.g., spontaneous fission half-lives. Yet, predictive simulations of nuclear spectroscopy—the low-lying excited states and transitions between them—or of nuclear fission, or the quantification of theoretical uncertainties and their propagation to basic or applied nuclear science applications, would require several orders of magnitude more calculations than currently possible. However, most of this computational effort would be spent into generating a suitable basis of DFT wavefunctions. Such a task could potentially be considerably accelerated by borrowing tools from the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. In this paper, we review different approaches to applying supervised and unsupervised learning techniques to nuclear DFT.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Search for a resonance decaying into a scalar particle and a Higgs boson in the final state with two bottom quarks and two photons with 199 fb −1 of data collected at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 and 13.6 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the resonant production of a heavy scalar X decaying into a lighter scalar S and a Higgs boson, through the process X → S (→ $b\bar{b}$) H (→ γγ) , where the two photons are consistent with the Higgs boson decay, is performed. The search is conducted using integrated luminosities of 140 and 59 fb −1 of proton–proton collision data at centre-of-mass energies of 13 and 13.6 TeV, respectively, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search is performed over the mass ranges of 170 ≤ m X ≤ 1000 GeV and 15 ≤ m S ≤ 500 GeV. No significant excess over the Standard Model background predictions is observed and limits at 95% confidence level are set on the product of cross section and branching fraction for the process X → S (→ $b\bar{b}$) H (→ γγ) at 13 TeV, ranging from 9 fb to 0.06 fb.

Aad, G. (ORCID:0000000266654934)↗

DOE OSTI2025

Machine learning-powered data cleaning for LEGEND: a semi-supervised approach using affinity propagation and support vector machines

Neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) is a rare nuclear process that, if observed, will provide insight into the nature of neutrinos and help explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. The large enriched germanium experiment for neutrinoless double-beta decay (LEGEND) will operate in two phases to search for $0\nu\beta\beta$. The first (second) stage will employ 200 (1000) kg of High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) enriched in 76 Ge to achieve a half-life sensitivity of 10 27 (10 28 ) years. In this study, we present a semi-supervised data-driven approach to remove non-physical events captured by HPGe detectors powered by a novel artificial intelligence model. We utilize affinity propagation to cluster waveform signals based on their shape and a support vector machine to classify them into different categories. We train, optimize, and test our model on data taken from a natural abundance HPGe detector installed in the Full Chain Test experimental stand at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We demonstrate that our model yields a maximum sacrifice of physics events of $0.024 ^{+0.004}_{-0.003} \%$ after data cleaning. Our model is being used to accelerate data cleaning development for LEGEND-200 and will serve to improve data cleaning procedures for LEGEND-1000.

artificial intelligence↗

DOE OSTI2020

Multidimensional simulations of Mckenna-driven flow tube configuration: Investigating non-ideality in NO x formation flow tube experiments

Multidimensional simulations have been conducted to simulate atmospheric pressure, flat-flame/McKenna-burner-driven-flow tube experiments targeted to obtain NO x speciation data for predicting/analyzing syngas combustion emissions. In a prior work, we demonstrated the impacts of multidimensional transport on post flame region prediction departures from those assuming unidimensional flow/transport conditions. In this work, we develop and utilize a multidimensional laminar reacting flow solver to simulate the fully coupled flame and post flame regions to further elucidate the impacts of the earlier unidimensional modeling assumptions on interpreting post flame NO x experimental data. The model is used to simulate a lean, premixed syngas/air flame and its associated post flame regions within a cylindrical flow-tube-like arrangement. The combustion process takes place under atmospheric condition with trace amount of NO x seeding fed into the inlet gas stream. The spatial evolution of NO x species (NO and NO 2 ) in the flame and in the post-combustion zone suggests two distinct regions: 1) a region encompassing the flame structure itself; and 2) a post flame region in which the temperature decays due to both axial and radial transport processes. The predictions show that for the conditions studied, a pulsatile flow field exists due to the formation of an expanding and contracting recirculation zone in the outer periphery of the flow tube. By resolving the nature of the flow, the resulting time-averaged temperature and species concentrations show improved agreement with existing experimental measurements. The flow-field interaction results in radial inhomogeneities in the NO 2 profiles with the maximum concentration offset from the flow centerline. The location of the peak in NO 2 is coupled with radial temperature gradients from wall cooling effects and their significant influence on NO/NO 2 interconversion kinetics, producing notable NO 2 accumulation in regions near the wall. Geometrical configurations capable of suppressing/minimizing the pulsatile nature are also investigated and the results are compared. Other experimental configurations could be considered in parametric simulations to determine the optimal configuration that would minimize non-idealities in the observations. The work shows the value in performing such computations in advance of settling on a particular design for flow tube/flow reactor experiments.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2025

Impact of Newly Measured 𝛽-Delayed Neutron Emitters around 78 Ni on Light Element Nucleosynthesis in the Neutrino Wind Following a Neutron Star Merger

Neutron emission probabilities and half-lives of 37 𝛽-delayed neutron emitters from 75 Ni to 92 Br were measured at the RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan, including 11 one-neutron and 13 two-neutron emission probabilities and six half-lives for the first time that supersede theoretical estimates. These nuclei lie in the path of the weak 𝑟 process occurring in neutrino-driven winds from the accretion disk formed after the merger of two neutron stars synthesizing elements in the 𝐴∼80 abundance peak. The presence of such elements dominates the accompanying kilonova emission over the first few days and have been identified in the AT2017gfo event, associated to the gravitational wave detection GW170817. Abundance calculations based on over 17,000 simulated trajectories describing the evolution of matter properties in the merger outflows show that the new data lead to an increase of 50%–70% in the abundance of Y, Zr, Nb, and Mo. This enhancement is large compared to the scatter of relative abundances observed in old very metal poor stars and thus is significant in the comparison with other possible astrophysical processes contributing to the light-element production. These results underline the importance of including experimental decay data for very neutron-rich 𝛽 -delayed neutron emitters into 𝑟 -process models.

59 ≤ A ≤ 89↗

DOE OSTI2025

Total absorption spectroscopy for the 𝛽 + decay strength distribution of 60 Ga

𝛽-decay properties play an important role in most astrophysical processes. In the absence of experimental data, astrophysical models rely on global theoretical calculations to provide the relevant properties. It is therefore important to provide strong experimental constraints when possible. In the case of 𝛽-decay, the most sensitive probe is the 𝛽-decay strength distribution. We report here on the first measurement of the latter quantity for the 𝛽 + decay of 60 Ga using the total absorption spectroscopy technique. The experimental results are compared to theoretical calculations often used in astrophysical models, namely the shell model and the quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA), as well as an extension of QRPA that includes higher-order nucleonic calculations. Both models are in reasonable agreement with the experimental results.

59 ≤ A ≤ 89↗

DOE OSTI2023

Search for long-lived, massive particles in events with displaced vertices and multiple jets in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for long-lived particles decaying into hadrons is presented. The analysis uses 139 fb –1 of $pp$ collision data collected at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the LHC using events that contain multiple energetic jets and a displaced vertex. The search employs dedicated reconstruction techniques that significantly increase the sensitivity to longlived particles decaying in the ATLAS inner detector. Background estimates for Standard Model processes and instrumental effects are extracted from data. The observed event yields are compatible with those expected from background processes. The results are used to set limits at 95% confidence level on model-independent cross sections for processes beyond the Standard Model, and on scenarios with pair-production of supersymmetric particles with long-lived electroweakinos that decay via a small $R$-parity-violating coupling. The pair-production of electroweakinos with masses below 1.5 TeV is excluded for mean proper lifetimes in the range from 0.03 ns to 1 ns. When produced in the decay of $m$($\tilde{g}$) = 2.4 TeV gluinos, electroweakinos with $m$($\tilde{χ}_{1}^{0}$) = 1.5 TeV are excluded with lifetimes in the range of 0.02 ns to 4 ns.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Decay Curve Correction Analysis Report

The decay curve analysis that is done on the short-lived radionuclide gas samples is used to differentiate between gaseous radionuclides that have the same characteristic gamma decay energy, 511 kiloelectron-volts (keV). A sample of stack gas is isolated and the total counts in the 511 keV peak are counted repeatedly in 10-second intervals to evaluate the decay rate of the sample over time. Analysis of this decay data required a series of steps. First, a raw data report is generated by the gamma acquisition system, based on an analysis template within the acquisition software. The data report file was then loaded into Microsoft Word, and a macro was used to perform minor formatting (remove colons and insert tabs between data columns) to allow analysis within Excel. The file is then saved as a text file at this point. The text file is then uploaded into Excel and a series of macros are used to add labels, calculate radioactive decay constants, and analyze the gamma decay data using linear regression techniques. The analysis template has been used since 1998 for stack 53000303 (TA-53, building 0003, exhaust stack 03) and 2000 for stack 53000702. The overall process, including the gamma report format and the macros used in Word and Excel for processing the report, had remained unchanged until 2015. In October of 2015, staff made a change to the report template in the gamma acquisition software which resulted in an error in the calculations later performed by the Excel macro. This error was not caught until a more in-depth review of the analysis took place regarding 2020 data. This report covers a much more complete review of the issue that occurred regarding the decay curve analysis, a review of the calculations completed to correct the issue, a review of the updated decay curve analysis process, and recommendations for moving forward.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Status of the PrimEx $\eta$ experiment at Jefferson Lab

The GlueX detector in the experimental Hall D at Jefferson Lab offers a unique opportunity to perform a measurement of the decay width of eta mesons through the Primakoff effect. The experiment complements the physics program at Jefferson Lab on measuring the decay width of light pseudoscalar mesons via the Primakoff process. The goal of the experiment is to measure differential cross sections of eta mesons at forward angles using a beam of tagged photons incident on a liquid 4He target, which will be used for the extraction of the decay width. This measurement is vital for understanding fundamental properties like the ratios of the light quark masses and the eta - eta' mixing angle, and will provide an important test of chiral symmetry breaking in QCD. Our experimental results will help reduce uncertainties on partial widths of all other eta decays. The experiment collected data during three physics runs between 2019 and 2022. We will give an overview of the PrimEx eta experiment and the current status of our data analyses. We will also discuss the feasibility of conducting future Primakoff measurements in light of the recent upgrade of the GlueX forward calorimeter and the potential accelerator energy upgrade to 22 GeV.

Somov, Alexander↗

DOE OSTI2020

Search for two neutrino double electron capture of 124 Xe and 126 Xe in the full exposure of the LUX detector

Two-neutrino double electron capture is a process allowed in the Standard Model of Particle Physics. This rare decay has been observed in $^{78}$Kr, $^{130}$Ba and more recently in $^{124}$Xe. In this publication we report on the search for this process in $^{124}$Xe and $^{126}$Xe using the full exposure of the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment, in a total of of 27769.5~kg-days. No evidence of a signal was observed, allowing us to set 90\% C.L. lower limits for the half-lives of these decays of $2.0\times10^{21}$~years for $^{124}$Xe and $1.9\times10^{21}$~years for $^{126}$Xe.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2024

One-loop analysis of β decays in SMEFT

We perform a loop-level analysis of charged-current (CC) processes involving light leptons and quarks within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). This work is motivated by the high precision reached in experiment and Standard Model calculations for CC decays of mesons, neutron, and nuclei, and by a lingering tension in the Cabibbo universality test. We identify the SMEFT operators that induce the largest loop-level contributions to CC processes. These include four-quark and four-fermion semileptonic operators involving two third-generation quarks. We discuss the available constraints on the relevant effective couplings and along the way we derive new loop-level bounds from K → πν$\overline{v}$ on four-quark operators involving two top quarks. We find that low-energy CC processes are quite competitive with other probes, set constraints that do not depend on flavor-symmetry assumptions, and probe operators involving third-generation quarks up to effective scales of Λ ≃ 8 TeV. Finally, we briefly discuss single-field ultraviolet completions that could induce the relevant operators.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2024

TeV-scale lepton number violation: Connecting leptogenesis, neutrinoless double beta decay, and colliders

In the context of TeV-scale lepton number violating (LNV) interactions, we illustrate the interplay between leptogenesis, neutrinoless double beta ( 0 ν β β ) decay, and LNV searches at proton-proton colliders. Using a concrete model for illustration, we overcome the limitations of previous effective field theory analyses and are able to identify the parameter space where standard thermal leptogenesis is rendered unviable due to washout processes. Moreover, we show how 0 ν β β decay and p p collisions provide complementary probes. We find that the new particle spectrum can have a decisive impact on the relative sensitivity of these two probes. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

DOE OSTI2020

Development of Multiplexed Immuno-N-Terminomics to Reveal the Landscape of Proteolytic Processing in Early Embryogenesis of Drosophila melanogaster

Protein expression levels are regulated through both translation and degradation mechanisms. Levels of degradation intermediates, i.e., partially degraded proteins, cannot be distinguished from those of intact proteins by global proteomics analysis, which quantify total protein abundance levels. This study aimed to develop a tool for assessing the aspects of degradation regulation via proteolytic processing through a new multiplexed N-terminomics method involving selective isobaric labeling of protein N-termini and immunoaffinity capture of the labeled N-terminal peptides. Our method allows for not only identification or proteolytic cleavage sites, but also highly multiplexed quantification of proteolytic processing. In this paper, we profiled a number of potential cleavage sites by signal peptidase and provided experimental confirmation of predicted cleavage sites of signal peptide. Furthermore, the present method uniquely represents the landscape of proteomic proteolytic processing rate during early embryogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster, revealing the underlying mechanism of stringent decay regulation of zygotically expressed proteins during early stages of embryogenesis.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2024

Search for a resonance decaying into a scalar particle and a Higgs boson in the final state with two bottom quarks and two photons in proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the resonant production of a heavy scalar X decaying into a Higgs boson and a new lighter scalar S, through the process X → S(→ $b\overline{b}$)H(→γγ), where the two photons are consistent with the Higgs boson decay, is performed. The search is conducted using an integrated luminosity of 140 fb -1 of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The search is performed over the mass range 170 ≤ m X ≤ 1000 GeV and 15 ≤ m S ≤ 500 GeV. Parameterised neural networks are used to enhance the signal purity and to achieve continuous sensitivity in a domain of the (m X , m S ) plane. No significant excess above the expected background is found and 95% CL upper limits are set on the cross section times branching ratio, ranging from 39 fb to 0.09 fb. The largest deviation from the background-only expectation occurs for (m X , m S ) = (575, 200) GeV with a local (global) significance of 3.5 (2.0) standard deviations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Measurement of the branching fraction of D s + → ℓ + ν ℓ via e + e − → D s * + D s * −

Based on 10.64 fb − 1 of e + e − collision data taken at center-of-mass energies between 4.237 and 4.699 GeV with the BESIII detector, we study the leptonic D s + decays using the e + e − → D s * + D s * − process. The branching fractions of D s + → ℓ + ν ℓ ( ℓ = μ , τ ) are measured to be B D s + → μ + ν μ = ( 0.547 ± 0.02 6 stat ± 0.01 6 syst ) % and B D s + → τ + ν τ = ( 5.60 ± 0.1 6 stat ± 0.2 0 syst ) % , respectively. The product of the decay constant and Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element | V c s | is determined to be f D s + | V c s | = ( 246.5 ± 5.9 stat ± 3.6 syst ± 0.5 input ) μ ν and f D s + | V c s | = ( 252.7 ± 3.6 stat ± 4.5 syst ± 0.6 input ) τ ν MeV , respectively. Taking the value of | V c s | from a global fit in the Standard Model, we obtain f D s + = ( 253.2 ± 6.0 stat ± 3.7 syst ± 0.6 input ) μ ν and f D s + = ( 259.6 ± 3.7 stat ± 4.6 syst ± 0.6 input ) τ ν MeV , respectively. Conversely, taking the value for f D s + from the latest lattice quantum chromodynamics calculation, we obtain | V c s | = ( 0.986 ± 0.02 3 stat ± 0.01 4 syst ± 0.00 3 input ) μ ν and | V c s | = ( 1.011 ± 0.01 4 stat ± 0.01 8 syst ± 0.00 3 input ) τ ν , respectively. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

DOE OSTI2023

Search for an axion-like particle in radiative $J/ψ$ decays

We search for an axion-like particle (ALP) a through the process $\psi$(3686) → π + π – J/$\psi$, J/$\psi$ → γa, a → γγ in a data sample of (2.71 ± 0.01) x 10 9 $\psi$(3686) events collected by the BESIII detector. No significant ALP signal is observed over the expected background, and the upper limits on the branching fraction of the decay J/$\psi$ → γa and the ALP-photon coupling constant g aγγ are set at 95% confidence level in the mass range of 0.165 ≤ m a ≤ 2.84 GeV/c 2 . The limits on $\mathscr{B}$(J/$\psi$ → γa) range from 8.3 x 10 –8 to 1.8 x 10 –6 over the search region, and the constraints on the ALP-photon coupling are the most stringent to date for 0.165 ≤ m a ≤ 1.468 GeV/c 2 .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Following Fission Products in Explosive Astrophysical Environments

The astrophysical process by which the heaviest elements are formed in the universe is known as the rapid neutron capture process, or r process, of nucleosynthesis. The r process is characterized by the neutron capture and β - decay of short-lived, neutron-rich atomic nuclei; in suitably extreme environments, nuclear fission can also play a major role in determining the ensuing nucleosynthesis. In this work, we present the application of our recently developed nucleosynthesis tracing framework to precisely quantify the impact that neutron-induced and β - -delayed fission processes have in r-process environments that produce fissioning nuclei.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Inelastic Scattering of a Photon by a Quantum Phase Slip

Spontaneous decay of a single photon is a notoriously inefficient process in nature irrespective of the frequency range. We report that a quantum phase-slip fluctuation in high-impedance superconducting waveguides can split a single incident microwave photon into a large number of lower-energy photons with a near unit probability. The underlying inelastic photon-photon interaction has no analogs in non-linear optics. Instead, the measured decay rates are explained without adjustable parameters in the framework of a new model of a quantum impurity in a Luttinger liquid. Our result connects circuit quantum electrodynamics to critical phenomena in two-dimensional boundary quantum field theories, important in the physics of strongly-correlated systems. Here, the photon lifetime data represents a rare example of verified and useful quantum many-body simulation.

1-dimensional systems↗