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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 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Mix and hydrodynamic instabilities on NIF

Several new platforms have been developed to experimentally measure hydrodynamic instabilities in all phases of indirect-drive, inertial confinement fusion implosions on National Ignition Facility. At the ablation front, instability growth of pre-imposed modulations was measured with a face-on, x-ray radiography platform in the linear regime using the Hydrodynamic Growth Radiography (HGR) platform. Modulation growth of "native roughness" modulations and engineering features (fill tubes and capsule support membranes) were measured in conditions relevant to layered DT implosions. A new experimental platform was developed to measure instability growth at the ablator-ice interface. Here in the deceleration phase of implosions, several experimental platforms were developed to measure both low-mode asymmetries and high-mode perturbations near peak compression with x-ray and nuclear techniques. In one innovative technique, the self-emission from the hot spot was enhanced with argon dopant to "self-backlight" the shell in-flight. To stabilize instability growth, new "adiabat-shaping" techniques were developed using the HGR platform and applied in layered DT implosions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

PARTIAL REFLECTION AND TRAPPING OF A FAST-MODE WAVE IN SOLAR CORONAL ARCADE LOOPS

We report on the first direct observation of a fast-mode wave propagating along and perpendicular to cool (171 Å) arcade loops observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA). The wave was associated with an impulsive/compact flare near the edge of a sunspot. The EUV wavefront expanded radially outward from the flare center and decelerated in the corona from 1060 to 760 km s{sup −1} within ∼3–4 minutes. Part of the EUV wave propagated along a large-scale arcade of cool loops and was partially reflected back to the flare site. The phase speed of the wave was about 1450 km s{sup −1}, which is interpreted as a fast-mode wave. A second overlying loop arcade, orientated perpendicular to the cool arcade, is heated and becomes visible in the AIA hot channels. These hot loops sway in time with the EUV wave, as it propagated to and fro along the lower loop arcade. We suggest that an impulsive energy release at one of the footpoints of the arcade loops causes the onset of an EUV shock wave that propagates along and perpendicular to the magnetic field.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Helium bubble size effects on the surface morphological response of plasma-facing tungsten

Abstract We report a simulation study on the effects of helium (He) bubble size on the morphological evolution and pattern formation on the surface of tungsten used as a plasma-facing component (PFC) in nuclear fusion devices. We have carried out a systematic investigation based on self-consistent dynamical simulations of surface morphological evolution according to an atomistically-informed, 3D continuum-scale model that captures well the relevant length and time scales of surface nanostructure formation in PFC tungsten. The model accounts for PFC surface diffusion, driven by the biaxial compressive stress originating from the over-pressurized He bubbles in the near-surface region of PFC tungsten as a result of He plasma exposure, combined with the formation of self-interstitial atoms in tungsten that diffuse toward the PFC surface and the flux of surface adatoms generated as a result of surface vacancy-adatom pair formation upon He implantation; this transport of surface adatoms contributes to the anisotropic growth of surface nanostructural features due to the different rates of adatom diffusion along and across step edges of islands on the tungsten surface. Our detailed analysis reveals that varying the average He bubble size plays an important role in the PFC surface growth kinetics as well as the resulting surface topography. Specifically, we find that an increase in the He bubble size leads to a deceleration in the growth rate of the tungsten nanotendrils that emanate from the PFC surface. We also find that the separation distance between the resulting surface features increases with increasing He bubble size, as well as over time. This coarsening effect is a thermally activated process resulting in an accurate description of the temperature dependence of the average surface feature separation by an Arrhenius relation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Numerical simulations of colliding jets in an external wind: application to 3C 75

ABSTRACT The radio galaxy 3C 75 is remarkable because it contains a pair of radio-loud active galaxies, each of which produces a two-sided jet, with the jet beams appearing to collide and merge to the west of the galaxies. Motivated by 3C 75, we have conducted three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of jet collisions. We have extended previous studies by modelling the physical properties of the cluster atmosphere, including an external wind, and using realistic jet powers obtained from observational data. We are able to produce a morphology similar to that of 3C 75. The simulations imply that direct contact between the bulk jet flows on the west of the source is required to produce a morphology consistent with 3C 75. We quantify how the merging jets decelerate, how the wind deflects the jets and cocoons, the entrainment of intra-cluster material into the cocoons, the cocoon energetics, and how the jet interactions generate enstrophy. By comparing simulations of pairs of two-sided jets with those of single two-sided sources, we determine how the interaction between two bipolar jets changes their evolution. The unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution of upcoming observatories will lead to the detection of many more complex sources at high redshift, where interacting jets are expected to be more numerous. The morphology of these complex sources can provide significant insight into the conditions in their environments.

Musoke, G.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Physical effects on compact high-velocity clouds in the circumgalactic medium

ABSTRACT We numerically investigate the evolution of compact high-velocity clouds (CHVCs) passing through a hot, tenuous gas representing the highly ionized circumgalactic medium (CGM) by applying the adaptive-mesh refinement code flash. The model clouds start from both hydrostatic and thermal equilibrium and are in pressure balance with the CGM. Here, we present 14 models, divided into two mass categories and two metallicities each and different velocities. We allow for self-gravity and thermal conduction or not. All models experience mass diffusion, radiative cooling, and external heating leading to dissociation and ionization. Our main findings are (1) self-gravity stabilizes clouds against Rayleigh–Taylor instability, which is disrupted within 10 sound-crossing times without; (2) clouds can develop Jeans-instable regions internally even though they are initially below Jeans mass; (3) all clouds lose mass by ram pressure and Kelvin–Helmholtz instability; (4) thermal conduction substantially lowers mass-loss rates, by this, extending the clouds’ lifetimes, particularly, more than doubling the lifetime of low-mass clouds; (5) thermal conduction leads to continuous, filamentary stripping, while the removed gas is heated up quickly and mixes efficiently with the ambient CGM; (6) without thermal conduction the removed gas consists of dense, cool, clumpy fragments; (7) thermal conduction might prevent CHVCs from forming stars; and (8) clouds decelerated by means of drag from the ambient CGM form head-tail shapes and collapse after they reach velocities characteristic for intermediate-velocity clouds. Conclusively, only sophisticated modelling of CHVCs as non-homogeneous and non-isothermal clouds with thermal conduction and self-gravity explains observed morphologies and naturally leads to the suppression of star formation.

Sander, Bastian↗
DOE OSTI2022

Do reverberation-measured H β quasars provide a useful test of cosmology?

We use 118 Hβ quasar (QSO) observations in the redshift range 0.0023 ≤ z ≤ 0.89 to simultaneously constrain cosmological model parameters and QSO 2-parameter radius-luminosity (R–L) relation parameters in six different cosmological models. We find that the R–L relation parameters for these QSOs are independent of the assumed cosmology so these QSOs seem to be standardizable through the R–L relation (although there is a complication that might render this untrue). Cosmological constraints obtained using these QSOs are weak, more favour currently decelerated cosmological expansion, and typically are in ~2σ tension with those obtained from a joint analysis of baryon acoustic oscillation and Hubble parameter measurements. Extending the R–L relation to a 3-parameter one to try to correct for the accretion rate effect does not result in a reduction of the cosmological constraints discrepancy nor does it result in the hoped-for significant reduction of the intrinsic scatter of the R–L relation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

A phenomenological wobbling model for isolated pulsars and the braking index

ABSTRACT An isolated pulsar is a rotating neutron star possessing a very high magnetic dipole moment, thus providing a powerful radiating mechanism. These stars loose rotational energy E through various processes, including a plasma wind originating from a highly magnetized magnetosphere and the emission of magnetic dipole radiation (MDR). Such phenomena produce a time decreasing angular velocity Ω(t) of the pulsar that is usually quantified in terms of its braking index. Although these mechanisms are widely acknowledged as the primary drivers of the spin evolution of isolated pulsars, it is plausible that other contributing factors influencing this effect have yet to be comprehensively investigated. Most of young isolated pulsars present a braking index different from that given by the MDR and plasma wind processes. Working in the weak field (Newtonian) limit, we take in this work a step forward in describing the evolution of such a system by allowing the star’s shape to wobble around an ellipsoidal configuration as a backreaction effect produced by its rotational deceleration. It is assumed that an internal damping of the oscillations occurs, thus introducing another form of energy loss in the system, and this phenomenon may be related to the deviation of the braking index from the models based on $\dot{E} \sim -\Omega ^4$ predictions. Numerical calculations suggest that the average braking index for typical isolated pulsars can be thus explained by a simple phenomenological model.

Araujo, E. C. A. (ORCID:0000000213520879)↗
DOE OSTI2020

CRAGE-mediated insertion of fluorescent chromosomal markers for accurate and scalable measurement of co-culture dynamics in Escherichia coli

Monitoring population dynamics in co-culture is necessary in engineering microbial consortia involved in distributed metabolic processes or biosensing applications. However, it remains difficult to measure strain-specific growth dynamics in high-throughput formats. This is especially vexing in plate-based functional screens leveraging whole-cell biosensors to detect specific metabolic signals. Here, we develop an experimental high-throughput co-culture system to measure and model the relationship between fluorescence and cell abundance, combining chassis-independent recombinase-assisted genome engineering (CRAGE) and whole-cell biosensing with a PemrR-green fluorescent protein (GFP) monoaromatic reporter used in plate-based functional screening. CRAGE was used to construct Escherichia coli EPI300 strains constitutively expressing red fluorescent protein (RFP) and the relationship between RFP expression and optical density (OD600) was determined throughout the EPI300 growth cycle. A linear equation describing the increase of normalized RFP fluorescence during deceleration phase was derived and used to predict biosensor strain dynamics in co-culture. Measured and predicted values were compared using flow cytometric detection methods. Induction of the biosensor lead to increased GFP fluorescence normalized to biosensor cell abundance, as expected, but a significant decrease in relative abundance of the biosensor strain in co-culture and a decrease in bulk GFP fluorescence. Taken together, these results highlight sensitivity of population dynamics to variations in metabolic activity in co-culture and the potential effect of these dynamics on the performance of functional screens in plate-based formats. The engineered strains and model used to evaluate these dynamics provide a framework for optimizing growth of synthetic co-cultures used in screening, testing and pathway engineering applications.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Experimental observation of a Raman-induced temporal waveguide

The formation of a Raman-induced temporal waveguide is demonstrated by launching short pump and probe pulses inside a photonic crystal fiber. The pump pulse creates a fundamental soliton whose speed changes continuously owing to its deceleration through the Raman-induced red shift of its spectrum. The spectrum of the probe pulse is blue-shifted to ensure that the two pulses move at the same speed and follow the same trajectory over the entire length of the fiber. Furthermore, the output wavelengths of the pump and probe pulses depend on the peak power of input pump pulses and their measured values agree with the predictions based on the dispersion data. Numerical modeling also shows good agreement with the experimental results.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Quantum friction in arbitrarily directed motion

In quantum friction, the electromagnetic fluctuation-induced frictional force decelerating an atom which moves past a macroscopic dielectric body, has so far eluded experimental evidence despite more than three decades of theoretical studies. Inspired by the recent finding that dynamical corrections to such an atom's internal dynamics are enhanced by one order of magnitude for vertical motion—compared with the paradigmatic setup of parallel motion—here we generalize quantum friction calculations to arbitrary angles between the atom's direction of motion and the surface in front of which it moves. Motivated by the disagreement between quantum friction calculations based on Markovian quantum master equations and time-dependent perturbation theory, we carry out our derivations of the quantum frictional force for arbitrary angles by employing both methods and compare them.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Experimental studies of 7-cell dual axis asymmetric cavity for energy recovery linac

High average current, transportable energy recovery linacs (ERLs) can be very attractive tools for a number of applications including next generation high-luminosity, compact light sources. Conventional ERLs are based on an electron beam circulating through the same set of rf cavity cells. This leads to an accumulation of high-order modes inside the cavity cells, resulting in the development of a beam breakup (BBU) instability, unless the beam current is kept below the BBU start current. This limits the maximum current which can be transported through the ERL and hence the intensity of the photon beam generated. It has recently been proposed that splitting the accelerating and decelerating stages, tuning them separately and coupling them via a resonance coupler can increase the BBU start current. The paper presents the first experimental rf studies of a dual axis 7-cell asymmetric cavity and confirms the properties predicted by the theoretical model. The field structures of the symmetric and asymmetric modes are measured and good agreement with the numerical predictions is demonstrated. The operating mode field flatness was also measured and discussed. A novel approach based on the coupled mode (Fano-like) model has been developed for the description of the cavity eigenmode spectrum and good agreement between analytical theory, numerical predictions and experimental data is shown. Finally, numerical and experimental results observed are analyzed, discussed and a good agreement between theory and experiment is demonstrated.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Design and performance of a novel low energy multispecies beamline for an antihydrogen experiment

The ALPHA Collaboration, based at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator, has recently implemented a novel beamline for low energy (≲100 eV) positron and antiproton transport between cylindrical Penning traps that have strong axial magnetic fields. Here, we describe how a combination of semianalytical and numerical calculations was used to optimize the layout and design of this beamline. Using experimental measurements taken during the initial commissioning of the instrument, we evaluate its performance and validate the models used for its development. By combining data from a range of sources, we show that the beamline has a high transfer efficiency and estimate that the percentage of particles captured in the experiments from each bunch is (78 ± 3)% for up to 10 5 antiprotons and (71 ± 5)% for bunches of up to 10 7 positrons.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dual-energy electron storage ring

A dual-energy electron storage ring is a novel concept initially proposed to cool hadron beams at high energies. The design consists of two closed rings operating at significantly different energies: the low-energy ring and the high-energy ring. These two rings are connected by an energy recovery linac (ERL) that provides the necessary energy difference. The ERL features superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities that first accelerate the beam from the low energy E L to the high energy E H and then decelerate the beam from E H to E L in the next pass. The different SRF cavities in the ERL section can be adjusted based on the applications. In this paper, we present a possible layout of a dual-energy electron storage ring. The preliminary optics of the ring is designed to optimize chromaticity correction, dynamic aperture, momentum aperture, beam lifetime, radiation damping, and intrabeam scattering effects. The primary focus of this paper is on the stability conditions and beam dynamics studies associated with this storage ring. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Tunable Plasma Linearizer for Compensation of Nonlinear Energy Chirp

The removal of undesired nonlinear time-energy correlation (energy chirp) present in relativistic electron beams is crucial for many accelerator-based scientific applications, such as free-electron lasers, high-energy electron radiography, and MeV ultrafast electron microscopy. Here, we propose and demonstrate that a low-density plasma section can be used as a passive “linearizer” to significantly compensate for the nonlinear energy chirp imprinted on a beam by the curvature of the radio-frequency field in a conventional accelerator. Physically, the passage of the beam through the plasma excites a strong quasi-cosinoidal longitudinal decelerating wakefield that acts to mitigate the beam’s nonlinear energy chirp by superimposing a reverse chirp on the beam. Time-resolved phase-space measurements, combined with high-fidelity three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the longitudinal phase space of the beam core is almost completely linearized, leading to a fourfold reduction of the beam overall energy spread from 0.148% to 0.036% (FWHM).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Primordial black holes arise when the inflaton falls

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) have entered the forefront of theoretical cosmology, due their potential role in phenomena ranging from gravitational waves, to dark matter, to galaxy formation. While producing PBHs from inflationary fluctuations naively would seem to require a large deceleration of the inflaton from its velocity at the horizon exit of CMB scales, in this work we demonstrate that an acceleration from a relatively small downward step in the potential that is transited in much less than an e-fold amplifies fluctuations as well. Depending on the location of the step, such PBHs could explain dark matter or the black holes detected by the gravitational wave interferometers. Furthermore, the perturbation enhancement has a natural interpretation as particle production due to the non-adiabatic transition associated with the step.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Tidal disruption of solitons in self-interacting ultralight axion dark matter

We report ultralight axions (ULAs) are promising dark matter candidates that can have a distinct impact on the formation and evolution of structure on nonlinear scales relative to the cold, collisionless dark matter (CDM) paradigm. However, most studies of structure formation in ULA models do not include the effects of self-interactions, which are expected to arise generically. Here, we study how the tidal evolution of solitons is affected by ULA self-interaction strength and sign. Specifically, using the pseudospectral solver UltraDark.jl, we simulate the tidal disruption of self-interacting solitonic cores as they orbit a 10 11 M ⊙ Navarro-Frenk-White CDM host halo potential for a range of orbital parameters, assuming a fiducial ULA particle mass of 10 -22 eV . We find that repulsive (attractive) self-interactions significantly accelerate (decelerate) soliton tidal disruption. We also identify a degeneracy between the self-interaction strength and soliton mass that determines the efficiency of tidal disruption, such that disruption timescales are affected at the ~ 50 % level for variations in the dimensionless ULA self-coupling from λ = -10 -92 to λ = 10 -92 .

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dynamical friction in self-interacting ultralight dark matter

Here, we explore how dynamical friction in an ultralight dark matter (ULDM) background is affected by dark matter self-interactions. We calculate the force of dynamical friction on a point mass moving through a uniform ULDM background with self-interactions, finding that the force of dynamical friction vanishes for sufficiently strong repulsive self-interactions. Using the pseudospectral solver ultraDark.jl, we show with simulations that reasonable values of the ULDM self-interaction strength and particle mass cause $\mathcal{O}$(1) differences in the acceleration of an object like a supermassive black hole (SMBH) traveling near the center of a soliton, relative to the case with no self-interactions. For example, repulsive self-interactions with λ=10 -90 yield a deceleration due to dynamical friction ≈ 70% smaller than a model with no self-interactions. We discuss the observational implications of our results for SMBHs near soliton centers and for massive satellite galaxies falling into ultralight axion halos and show that outcomes are dependent on whether a self-interaction is present or not.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Universe without dark energy: Cosmic acceleration from dark matter-baryon interactions

Cosmic acceleration is widely believed to require either a source of negative pressure (i.e., dark energy), or a modification of gravity, which necessarily implies new degrees of freedom beyond those of Einstein gravity. Here in this paper we present a third possibility, using only dark matter (DM) and ordinary matter. The mechanism relies on the coupling between dark matter and ordinary matter through an effective metric. Dark matter couples to an Einstein-frame metric, and experiences a matter-dominated, decelerating cosmology up to the present time. Ordinary matter couples to an effective metric that depends also on the DM density, in such a way that it experiences late-time acceleration. Linear density perturbations are stable and propagate with arbitrarily small sound speed, at least in the case of “pressure” coupling. Assuming a simple parametrization of the effective metric, we show that our model can successfully match a set of basic cosmological observables, including luminosity distance, baryon acoustic oscillation measurements, angular-diameter distance to last scattering, etc. For the growth history of density perturbations, we find an intriguing connection between the growth factor and the Hubble constant. To get a growth history similar to the Λ CDM prediction, our model predicts a higher H 0 , closer to the value preferred by direct estimates. On the flip side, we tend to overpredict the growth of structures whenever H 0 is comparable to the Planck preferred value. The model also tends to predict larger redshift-space distortions at low redshift than Λ CDM.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗