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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 OSTI2025

Competing and Anisotropic Exchange Interactions in the Kagome Lattice Ferromagnet Co 3 Sn 2 S 2

The kagome lattice ferromagnet, Co 3 Sn 2 S 2 , serves as template for a host of materials that exhibit exotic topological states, as well as a giant anomalous Hall state—a momentous realization in condensed matter physics. The anisotropic exchange interactions are probed by applying external magnetic fields in various directions along major crystal axes and the magneto-optical response is recorded. When magnetic fields are applied along the a–b plane, long-range magnetism forms and grows with increasing temperature. This counterintuitive behavior does not take place when the magnetic field is applied at a slight angle off the a–b plane. In fact, the opposite effect is observed for this exact configuration, as well as for other fields arrangements. Ab initio theoretical calculations reveal that anisotropic exchange interactions are the underlying mechanism leading to this peculiar behavior. Furthermore, the long-range ferromagnetic order along the c-axis is thought to coexist with an antiferromagnetic, or spin glass, state in the a–b plane, before becoming paramagnetic above the Curie temperature (T c ). These two coexisting magnetic states are thought to compete as the temperature approaches T c , with the antiferromagnetic state gaining strength compared to the ferromagnetic order.

Barua, Arup [University of South Florida, Tampa, F↗
DOE OSTI2021

Interferometric 4D-STEM for Lattice Distortion and Interlayer Spacing Measurements of Bilayer and Trilayer 2D Materials

Van der Waals materials composed of stacks of individual atomic layers have attracted considerable attention due to their exotic electronic properties that can be altered by, e.g., manipulating the twist angle of bilayer materials or the stacking sequence of trilayer materials. To fully understand and control the unique properties of these few-layer materials, a technique that can provide information about their local in-plane structural deformations, twist direction, and out-of-plane structure is needed. In principle, interference in overlap regions of Bragg disks originating from separate layers of a material encodes 3D information about the relative positions of atoms in the corresponding layers. Here, an interferometric 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy technique is described that utilizes this phenomenon to extract precise structural information from few-layer materials with nm-scale resolution. It is demonstrated how this technique enables measurement of local pm-scale in-plane lattice distortions as well as twist direction and average interlayer spacings in bilayer and trilayer graphene, and therefore provides a means to better understand the interplay between electronic properties and precise structural arrangements of few-layer 2D materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sculpting the Plasmonic Responses of Nanoparticles by Directed Electron Beam Irradiation

Spatial confinement of matter in functional nanostructures has propelled these systems to the forefront of nanoscience, both as a playground for exotic physics and quantum phenomena and in multiple applications including plasmonics, optoelectronics, and sensing. In parallel, the emergence of monochromated electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) has enabled exploration of local nanoplasmonic functionalities within single nanoparticles and the collective response of nanoparticle assemblies, providing deep insight into associated mechanisms. However, modern synthesis processes for plasmonic nanostructures are often limited in the types of accessible geometry, and materials and are limited to spatial precisions on the order of tens of nm, precluding the direct exploration of critical aspects of the structure-property relationships. Here, the atomic-sized probe of the scanning transmission electron microscope is used to perform precise sculpting and design nanoparticle configurations. Using low-loss EELS, dynamic analyses of the evolution of the plasmonic response are provided. It is shown that within self-assembled systems of nanoparticles, individual nanoparticles can be selectively removed, reshaped, or patterned with nanometer-level resolution, effectively modifying the plasmonic response in both space and energy. This process significantly increases the scope for design possibilities and presents opportunities for unique structure development, which are ultimately the key for nanophotonic design.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Strongly Chiral Liquid Crystals in Nanoemulsions

We report Liquid crystal (LC) emulsions represent a class of confined soft matter that exhibit exotic internal organizations and size-dependent properties, including responses to chemical and physical stimuli. Past studies have explored micrometer-scale LC emulsion droplets but little is known about LC ordering within submicrometer-sized droplets. This paper reports experiments and simulations that unmask the consequences of confinement in nanoemulsions on strongly chiral LCs that form bulk cholesteric and blue phases (BPs). A method based on light scattering is developed to characterize phase transitions of LCs within the nanodroplets. For droplets with a radius to the pitch ratio (R v /p 0 ) as small as 2/3, the BP-to-cholesteric transition is substantially suppressed, leading to a threefold increase of the BP temperature interval relative to bulk behavior. Complementary simulations align with experimental findings and reveal the dominant role of chiral elastic energy. For R v /p 0 ≈ to 1/3, a single LC phase forms below the clearing point, with simulations revealing the new configuration to contain a τ -1/2 disclination that extends across the nanodroplet. These findings are discussed in the context of mechanisms by which polymer networks stabilize BPs and, more broadly, for the design of nanoconfined soft matter.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Emergent Epitaxial Configuration of Pr 3 IrO 7 Domains via YSZ (111) Substrate

The 5d rare Earth iridate is an intriguing material with exhibiting exotic electronic and magnetic phases due to spin-orbit coupled states. Ternary iridium oxides Ln 3 IrO 7 contain an unusual Ir 5+ (5d 4 ) system, which remain a subject of active research. Fabricating epitaxial Ln 3 IrO 7 films is challenging due to substrate compatibility, but it offers a valuable platform to explore electronic and magnetic behaviors under reduced dimensionality and substrate interactions, revealing novel phenomena based on Ir 5+ (5d 4 ). In this regard, this demonstrates that Pr 3 IrO 7 with its highly anisotropic orthorhombic structure can be epitaxially grown on a cubic (111)-oriented yttrium-stabilized ZrO 2 (YSZ) substrate. Pr 3 IrO 7 film exhibits six epitaxial domains, where the (220) and (202) planes aligning epitaxially to YSZ (111) with the threefold symmetry. This diverse domain configuration in Pr 3 IrO 7 film leads to unique magnetic properties, exhibiting spin-glass-like behavior. Pr 3 IrO 7 thin film offers a platform for exploring unconventional magnetic states, and their successful heteroepitaxy on YSZ substrates opens new avenues for discovering novel physical phenomena.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Advances and Challenges of SCAN and r 2 SCAN Density Functionals in Transition‐Metal Compounds

ABSTRACT Transition‐metal compounds (TMCs) with open‐shell d ‐electrons are characterized by a complex interplay of lattice, charge, orbital, and spin degrees of freedom, giving rise to various fascinating applications. Often exhibiting exotic properties, these compounds are commonly classified as correlated systems due to strong inter‐electronic interactions called Hubbard U . This inherent complexity presents significant challenges to Kohn‐Sham density functional theory (KS‐DFT), the most widely used electronic structure method in condensed matter physics and materials science. While KS‐DFT is, in principle, exact for the ground‐state total energy, its exchange‐correlation energy must be approximated in practice. The mean‐field nature of KS implementations, combined with the limitations of current exchange‐correlation density functional approximations, has led to the perception that DFT is inadequate for correlated systems, particularly TMCs. Consequently, a common workaround involves augmenting DFT with an on‐site Hubbard‐like U correction. In recent years, the strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) density functional, along with its refined variant r 2 SCAN, has achieved remarkable progress in accurately describing the structural, energetic, electronic, magnetic, and vibrational properties of TMCs, challenging the traditional perception of DFT's limitations. This review explores the design principles of SCAN and r 2 SCAN, highlights their key advancements in studying TMCs, explains the mechanisms driving these improvements, and addresses the remaining challenges in this evolving field.

Zhang, Yubo [Minjiang Collaborative Center for The↗
DOE OSTI2022

Dark freeze-out cogenesis

We propose a new mechanism where a multi-component dark sector generates the observed dark matter abundance and baryon asymmetry and thus addresses the coincidence between the two. The thermal freeze-out of dark matter annihilating into meta-stable dark partners sets the dark matter relic abundance while providing the out-of-equilibrium condition for baryogenesis. The meta-stable state triggers baryon asymmetry production by its decay well after the freeze-out and potentially induces a period of early matter domination before its decay. The dark matter and baryon abundances are related through number conservation within the dark sector (cogenesis). The “coincidence” is a natural outcome with GeV- to TeV-scale symmetric dark matter and the dark sector’s interactions with the Standard Model quarks. We present a UV-complete model and explore its phenomenological predictions, including dark matter direct detection signals, LHC signatures of new massive particles with color charges and long-lived particles with displaced vertices, dark matter-induced nucleon conversions, (exotic) dark matter indirect detection signals, and effects on the cosmological matter power spectrum. As a side result, we provide a novel analytical treatment for dark sector freeze-out, which may prove useful in the study of related scenarios.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Search for long-lived particles produced in association with a Z boson in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

A search for long-lived particles (LLPs) produced in association with a Z boson is presented. The study is performed using data from proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the CMS experiment during 2016–2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 117 fb -1 . The LLPs are assumed to decay to a pair of standard model quarks that are identified as displaced jets within the CMS tracker system. Triggers and selections based on Z boson decays to electron or muon pairs improve the sensitivity to light LLPs (down to 15 GeV). This search provides sensitivity to beyond the standard model scenarios which predict LLPs produced in association with a Z boson. In particular, the results are interpreted in the context of exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of scalar LLPs (H → SS). The Higgs boson decay branching fraction is constrained to values less than 6% for proper decay lengths of 10–100 mm and for LLP masses between 40 and 55 GeV. In the case of low-mass (≈ 15 GeV) scalar particles that subsequently decay to a pair of b quarks, the search is sensitive to branching fractions B(H → SS) < 20% for proper decay lengths of 10–50 mm. The use of associated production with a Z boson increases the sensitivity to low-mass LLPs of this analysis with respect to gluon fusion searches. In the case of 15 GeV scalar LLPs, the improvement corresponds to a factor of 2 at a proper decay length of 30 mm.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Performance of the NA62 trigger system

The NA62 experiment at CERN targets the measurement of the ultra-rare $K^{+}→π^{+}ν\bar{ν}$ decay, and carries out a broad physics programme that includes probes for symmetry violations and searches for exotic particles. Data were collected in 2016–2018 using a multi-level trigger system, which is described highlighting performance studies based on 2018 data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for Higgs boson decays into a pair of pseudoscalar particles in the γγτhadτhad final state using pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for exotic decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson into a pair of new spin-0 particles, H → aa, where one decays into a photon pair and the other into a τ-lepton pair, is presented. Hadronic decays of the τ-leptons are considered and reconstructed using a dedicated tagger for collimated τ-lepton pairs. The search uses 140 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of s$$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV recorded between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The search is performed in the mass range of the a boson between 10 GeV and 60 GeV. No significant excess of events is observed above the Standard Model background expectation. Model-independent upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to the γγττ final state, B$$ \mathcal{B} $$(H → aa → γγττ), ranging from 0.2% to 2%, depending on the a-boson mass hypothesis.

Aad, G↗
DOE OSTI2026

New avenues for |∆ B | = 2 processes beyond neutron-antineutron oscillations

We explore baryon-number-violating (|∆ B | = 2) processes beyond the well-known neutron-antineutron ($n - \bar{n}$) oscillations, focusing on the $Λ - \bar{Λ}$ system. The presence of a strange quark in the Λ baryon introduces a new set of six-quark operators roughly of the form (uds) 2 , which are different from the (udd) 2 operators responsible for oscillations. Using the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), we classify all dimension-9 operators that cause |∆ B | = 2 transitions and study their UV completions mediated by exotic scalar fields with trilinear interactions. We demonstrate that in these models, oscillations can occur at tree level, with $n - \bar{n}$ mixing potentially appearing at higher loop levels. We employ a chiral effective theory to constrain the effective mass mixing δm Λ , deriving bounds from current experimental limits on $n - \bar{n}$ oscillations and dinucleon decays such as pp → K + K + . These bounds indicate that $Λ - \bar{Λ}$ oscillations probe a complementary parameter space, sensitive to baryon-number violation at scales up to 10 2 − 10 3 TeV. We show that the existing indirect bounds make it challenging to provide a competitive bound on δm Λ at BESIII.

Baryon/Lepton Number Violation↗
DOE OSTI2020

Baryogenesis from a dark first-order phase transition

We present a very minimal model for baryogenesis by a dark first-order phase transition. It employs a new dark SU(2) D gauge group with two doublet Higgs bosons, two lepton doublets, and two singlets. The singlets act as a neutrino portal that transfer the generated asymmetry to the Standard Model. The model predicts ΔN eff = 0.09–0.13 detectable by future experiments as well as possible signals from exotic decays of the Higgs and Z bosons and stochastic gravitational waves.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Hidden-charm and bottom tetra- and pentaquarks with strangeness in the hadro-quarkonium and compact tetraquark models

In two recent papers, we used the hadro-quarkonium model to study the properties of hiddencharm and bottom tetraquarks and pentaquarks. Here, we extend the previous results and calculate the masses of heavy-quarkonium-kaon/hyperon systems. We also compute the spectrum of hiddencharm and bottom tetraquarks with strangeness in the compact tetraquark (diquark-antidiquark) model. If heavy-light exotic systems with non-null strangeness content were to be observed experimentally, it might be possible to distinguish among the large variety of available theoretical pictures for tetra- and pentaquark states and, possibly, rule out those which are not compatible with the data.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Geometric soft theorems

We derive a universal soft theorem for every scattering amplitude with at least one massless particle in an arbitrary theory of scalars. Our results follow from the geometry of field space and are valid for any choice of mass spectrum, potential terms, and higher-derivative interactions. For a vanishing potential, the soft limit of every amplitude is equal to the field-space covariant derivative of an amplitude with one fewer particle. Furthermore, the Adler zero and the dilaton soft theorem are special cases of our results. We also discuss more exotic scenarios in which the soft limit is non-trivial but still universal. Last but not least, we derive new theorems for multiple-soft limits which directly probe the field-space curvature, as well as on-shell recursion relations applicable to two-derivative scalar field theories exhibiting no symmetries whatsoever.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

ALP-assisted strong first-order electroweak phase transition and baryogenesis

Axion-like particles (ALPs) can be naturally lighter than the electroweak scale. We consider an ALP that couples to the Standard Model Higgs to achieve the strong first-order electroweak phase transition. We discuss the two-field dynamics of the phase transition and the associated computation in detail and identify the viable parameter space. The ALP mass can be from the MeV to GeV scale. Baryon asymmetry can be explained by local baryogenesis without violating the current electron and atom electric dipole moment bound in most of the viable parameter space. The viable parameter space can be probed through Higgs exotic decay, rare kaon decay, the electron and atomic electric dipole moment, and the effective number of neutrinos in the cosmic microwave background in the future. The gravitational-wave signal is too weak to be detected.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tetraquarks in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation

The conventional loosely bound molecule interpretation of the X(3872) is not compatible with the recent LHCb experimental measurement of the ratio of branching fractions $\mathcal{R}$ = Br(X → ψ′γ)/Br(X → ψγ). We systematically determine the entire tetraquark spectrum for J = 0, 1, 2 and refine the calculation of $\mathcal{R}$ in an improved Born-Oppenheimer description of the X(3872) compact tetraquark. This refinement yields a significantly better agreement with experimental data on $\mathcal{R}$ and on the spectroscopy of the states themselves. Extending the diquark-antidiquark paradigm to encompass tetraquarks that are linear super-positions of open charm singlets and color octets, we discover that these exotic resonances manifest as compact shallow bound states of quarks in color force potentials.

Effective Field Theories of QCD↗
DOE OSTI2024

Search for long-lived particles decaying to final states with a pair of muons in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13.6 TeV

An inclusive search for long-lived exotic particles (LLPs) decaying to final states with a pair of muons is presented. The search uses data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.6 fb$^{−1}$ collected by the CMS experiment from the proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13.6 TeV in 2022, the first year of Run 3 of the CERN LHC. The experimental signature is a pair of oppositely charged muons originating from a secondary vertex spatially separated from the proton-proton interaction point by distances ranging from several hundred μm to several meters. The sensitivity of the search benefits from new triggers for displaced dimuons developed for Run 3. The results are interpreted in the framework of the hidden Abelian Higgs model, in which the Higgs boson decays to a pair of long-lived dark photons, and of an R-parity violating supersymmetry model, in which long-lived neutralinos decay to a pair of muons and a neutrino. The limits set on these models are the most stringent to date in wide regions of lifetimes for LLPs with masses larger than 10 GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Charged Higgs search in 2HDM

In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of the collider search limits on the charged Higgses in the four types of Two Higgs Double Models (2HDM). In addition to constraints from flavor physics measurements, we include both the LEP charged Higgs search channels, as well as the LHC search results on the light and heavy charged Higgses. We consider both the conventional charged Higgs search channels of H ± → τν, cs, cb, tb, and the latest search results on the exotic decay channels H ± → AW ± /HW ± . We find that H ± → AW ± /HW ± are complementary to the conventional fermionic channels for m H ± < m t . For heavy H ± , H ± → AW ± /HW ± extend the reach of tan β beyond that of H ± → tb in the Type-L 2HDM. We also present the combined reach of all the neutral and charged Higgs searches.

2HDM↗