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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

Void statistics, scaling, and the origins of large-scale structure

The probability that a volume of the universe of given size and shape spaced at random will be void of galaxies is used here to study various models of the origin of cosmological structures. Numerical simulations are conducted on hot-particle and cold-particle-modulated inflationary models with and without biasing, on isothermal or initially Poisson models, and on models where structure is seeded by loops of cosmic string. For the Pisces-Perseus redshift compilation of Giovanelli and Haynes (1985), it is found that hierarchical scaling is obeyed for subsamples constructed with different limiting magnitudes and subsamples taken at random. This result confirms that the hierarchical ansatz holds valid to high order and supports the idea that structure in the observed universe evolves by a regular process from an almost Gaussian primordial state. Neutrino models without biasing show the effect of a strong feature in the initial power spectrum. Cosmic string models do not agree well with the galaxy data.

Fry, J. N.↗

Parsec-Scale Obscuring Accretion Disk with Large-Scale Magnetic Field in AGNs

A magnetic field dragged from the galactic disk, along with inflowing gas, can provide vertical support to the geometrically and optically thick pc (parsec) -scale torus in AGNs (Active Galactic Nuclei). Using the Soloviev solution initially developed for Tokamaks, we derive an analytical model for a rotating torus that is supported and confined by a magnetic field. We further perform three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of X-ray irradiated, pc-scale, magnetized tori. We follow the time evolution and compare models that adopt initial conditions derived from our analytic model with simulations in which the initial magnetic flux is entirely contained within the gas torus. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the initial conditions based on the analytic solution produce a longer-lived torus that produces obscuration that is generally consistent with observed constraints.

galaxies↗

Symposium on Parallel Computational Methods for Large-scale Structural Analysis and Design, 2nd, Norfolk, VA, US

Computing speed is leaping forward by several orders of magnitude each decade. Engineers and scientists gathered at a NASA Langley symposium to discuss these exciting trends as they apply to parallel computational methods for large-scale structural analysis and design. Among the topics discussed were: large-scale static analysis; dynamic, transient, and thermal analysis; domain decomposition (substructuring); and nonlinear and numerical methods.

Storaasli, Olaf O.↗

Large-scale Advanced Propfan (LAP) program

The propfan is an advanced propeller concept which maintains the high efficiencies traditionally associated with conventional propellers at the higher aircraft cruise speeds associated with jet transports. The large-scale advanced propfan (LAP) program extends the research done on 2 ft diameter propfan models to a 9 ft diameter article. The program includes design, fabrication, and testing of both an eight bladed, 9 ft diameter propfan, designated SR-7L, and a 2 ft diameter aeroelastically scaled model, SR-7A. The LAP program is complemented by the propfan test assessment (PTA) program, which takes the large-scale propfan and mates it with a gas generator and gearbox to form a propfan propulsion system and then flight tests this system on the wing of a Gulfstream 2 testbed aircraft.

Sagerser, D. A.↗

Correlated particle and magnetic field observations of a large-scale magnetic loop structure behind an interplanetary shock

From a survey of observations on ISEE-3, an example of correlated particle and magnetic field observations of a large-scale magnetic loop structure is presented. Bidirectional proton fluxes were observed for a period of 40 hours in the energy range 35-1600 keV approximately 12 hours after the passage of the interplanetary shock of December 11, 1980, and directly after the passage of a discontinuity. For each of the eight logarithmically spaced energy channels, a three-dimensional anisotropy analysis reveals streaming along both directions of the magnetic field. The magnetic field rotated slowly but steadily through approximately 180 deg during this same 40-hour period; this is consistent with the existence of a large-scale loop with extent greater than 0.5 AU. The observations suggest that the particles are being injected into the loop sunward of the spacecraft; they appear as bidirectional fluxes in the outermost regions of the loop arising from a combination of focusing and near scatter-free transport.

Sanderson, T. R.↗

Large-scale advanced propfan (LAP) program progress report

The propfan is an advanced propeller concept which maintains the high efficiencies traditionally associated with conventional propellers at the higher aircraft cruise speeds associated with jet transports. The large-scale advanced propfan (LAP) program extends the research done on 2 ft diameter propfan models to a 9 ft diameter article. The program includes design, fabrication, and testing of both an eight bladed, 9 ft diameter propfan, designated SR-7L, and a 2 ft diameter aeroelastically scaled model, SR-7A. The LAP program is complemented by the propfan test assessment (PTA) program, which takes the large-scale propfan and mates it with a gas generator and gearbox to form a propfan propulsion system and then flight tests this system on the wing of a Gulfstream 2 testbed aircraft.

Sagerser, D. A.↗

Sparse Linear Solvers for Large-scale Electromagnetic Transient Simulations

Linear solvers form the basis for electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulations. There is a need to speed up EMT simulations as larger regions are analyzed using EMT simulations. For the same, the performance of linear solvers plays an important role. Exploiting the sparsity of the matrices generated in EMT simulations could assist with speed-up. Scalability is also crucial as power grids expand, demanding solutions capable of accommodating the increasing system size. Recent studies from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) increasingly emphasize that EMT simulation models of the power grid will grow larger with the inclusion of power electronics components. Parallelisms in sparsity patterns exploit modern central processing units (CPUs), multi-core CPUs, and graphics processing units (GPUs) architectures in sparse solver designs. Therefore, this paper explores publicly available existing linear solvers and investigates their efficiency in large-scale power grid simulations. A large-scale power grid is developed by increasing the size of the IEEE 39 bus test system to up to 39000 bus systems.

Hsu, Kuan-Chieh↗

Manifestations of dynamo driven large-scale magnetic field in accretion disks of compact objects

A turbulent dynamo nonlinear theory of turbulence was developed that shows that in the compact objects of accretion disks, the generated large-scale magnetic field (when the generation takes place) has a practically toroidal configuration. Its energy density can be much higher than turbulent pulsations energy density, and it becomes comparable with the thermal energy density of the medium. On this basis, the manifestations to which the large-scale magnetic field can lead at the accretion onto black holes and gravimagnetic rotators, respectively, are presented.

Chagelishvili, G. D.↗

Measuring Cosmic Expansion and Large Scale Structure with Destiny

Destiny is a simple, direct, low cost mission to determine the properties of dark energy by obtaining a cosmologically deep supernova (SN) type Ia Hubble diagram and by measuring the large-scale mass power spectrum over time. Its science instrument is a 1.65m space telescope, featuring a near-infrared survey camera/spectrometer with a large field of view. During its first two years, Destiny will detect, observe, and characterize 23000 SN Ia events over the redshift interval 0.4 lo00 square degrees to measure the large-scale mass power spectrum. The combination of surveys is much more powerful than either technique on its own, and will have over an order of magnitude greater sensitivity than will be provided by ongoing ground-based projects.

Benford, Dominic J.↗

Partitioning of Large-Scale Power Electronics-Based Power Systems for Small-Signal Stability Analysis

The nodal admittance matrix (NAM)-based approach is suitable for analyzing the small-signal stability of large-scale power electronics-based power systems (PEPSs) as it preserves the system structure by utilizing the admittance matrix. Previously, NAM-based area partition has been proposed, which divides the system into various subareas and interconnections for easier analysis of the low-dimension matrix compared to the entire system-based high-dimension matrix. However, no partition algorithm has been presented for the NAM-based area partition method. This paper focuses on implementing the spectral partitioning algorithm for partitioning large-scale PEPSs into a low-dimension matrix to reduce the computation complexity of the analysis. These spectral components facilitate data transformation into a new space, enabling the application of traditional clustering methods like k-means. To evaluate the performance of the partitioning method, the subareas and interconnections obtained from the spectral clustering algorithm are incorporated into the NAM-based area partition method for a large system with 140 buses. The computational times of the original method, where the NAM-based criterion is directly applied to the entire system, are compared with those of the NAM-based partition method in MATLAB. PSCAD simulations of the whole system and the obtained subareas are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Nupur, Nupur↗

Large-Scale Wind Turbine Testing in the NASA 24.4m (80) by 36.6m(120) Wind Tunnel

The 80- by 120-Foot Wind Tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center in California provides a unique capability to test large-scale wind turbines under controlled conditions. This special capability is now available for domestic and foreign entities wishing to test large-scale wind turbines. The presentation will focus on facility capabilities to perform wind turbine tests and typical research objectives for this type of testing.

Zell, Peter T.↗

The large-scale distribution of galaxies

The spatial distribution of galaxies in the universe is characterized on the basis of the six completed strips of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics redshift-survey extension. The design of the survey is briefly reviewed, and the results are presented graphically. Vast low-density voids similar to the void in Bootes are found, almost completely surrounded by thin sheets of galaxies. Also discussed are the implications of the results for the survey sampling problem, the two-point correlation function of the galaxy distribution, the possibility of detecting large-scale coherent flows, theoretical models of large-scale structure, and the identification of groups and clusters of galaxies.

Geller, Margaret J.↗

Development of Large-Scale Magnetic Calorimeter Arrays

We describe performance of large-scale arrays of metallic magnetic calorimeters (MMCs) we are developing to meet requirements of the Lynx X-ray Microcalorimeter (LXM) instrument in the astrophysics mission concept Lynx. We have fabricated prototypes with 55,800 x-ray pixels thermally connected to 5,688 MMC sensors. Subarrays demonstrate three types of pixels, which have different energy and spatial resolution goals in LXM. Pixel pitch is 50 or 25 µm. For two subarrays, use of position sensitive detectors, in a "hydra" configuration with 25 x-ray absorbers per sensor, helps achieve a large focal plane by increasing pixel count relative to readout channels. Since each absorber has a different thermal link to its sensor, it generates a different pulse shape and enables discrimination of pixel position. Superconducting wiring from all sensors was brought out to the perimeter of the overall array using multiple buried metal layers planarized by Chemical Mechanical Planarization to achieve high critical current, low inductance, and high fabrication yield. An automated, algorithmic approach was used to layout the complex wiring pattern. For readout with existing small arrays of Superconducting Quantum Interference (SQUID) amplifiers, 112 selected pixels were connected to wire bond pads. In hydras, we successfully identified 25 pulse shapes using rise-time and pulse height. Pulse shapes were similar to simulations. We measured noise and responsivity to substrate temperature and applied x-ray pulses. While we designed sensors to have high inductance to relative to stray inductance of wiring, we had only mismatched (lower input inductance) SQUIDs available in our current apparatus, giving non-optimized resolution. We compared measured and calculated energy resolutions. We have the required sensitivity to reach < 3 eV FWHM resolution for 6 keV x-rays, required for the LXM Main Array, and the ability to discriminate the 25 different absorber pixels down to energies < 300 eV.

microcalorimeters↗

Superclustering with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and Dark Energy Survey. II. Anisotropic Large-scale Coherence in Hot Gas, Galaxies, and Dark Matter

Statistics that capture the directional dependence of the baryon distribution in the cosmic web enable unique tests of cosmology and astrophysical feedback. We use constrained oriented stacking of thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (tSZ) maps to measure the anisotropic distribution of hot gas 2.5–40 Mpc away from galaxy clusters embedded in massive filaments and superclusters. The cluster selection and orientation (at a scale of ∼15 Mpc) use Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 3 data, while expanded tSZ maps from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope Data Release 6 enable a ∼3× more significant measurement of the extended gas compared to the technique’s proof-of-concept. Decomposing stacks into cosine multipoles of order m , we detect a dipole ( m = 1) and quadrupole ( m = 2) at 8σ–10σ, as well as evidence for m = 4 signal at up to 6σ, indicating sensitivity to late-time non-Gaussianity. We compare to Cardinal simulations with spherical gas models pasted onto dark matter halos. The fiducial tSZ data can discriminate between two models that deplete pressure differently in low-mass halos (mimicking astrophysical feedback), preferring higher average pressure in extended structures. However, uncertainty in the amount of cosmic infrared background contamination reduces the constraining power. Additionally, we apply the technique to DES galaxy density and weak lensing to study for the first time their oriented relationships with tSZ. In the tSZ-to-lensing relation, averaged on 7.5 Mpc (transverse) scales, we observe dependence on redshift but not shape or radial distance. Thus, on large scales, the superclustering of gas pressure, galaxies, and total matter is coherent in shape and extent.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Measuring the topology of large-scale structure in the universe

An algorithm for quantitatively measuring the topology of large-scale structure has now been applied to a large number of observational data sets. The present paper summarizes and provides an overview of some of these observational results. On scales significantly larger than the correlation length, larger than about 1200 km/s, the cluster and galaxy data are fully consistent with a sponge-like random phase topology. At a smoothing length of about 600 km/s, however, the observed genus curves show a small shift in the direction of a meatball topology. Cold dark matter (CDM) models show similar shifts at these scales but not generally as large as those seen in the data. Bubble models, with voids completely surrounded on all sides by wall of galaxies, show shifts in the opposite direction. The CDM model is overall the most successful in explaining the data.

Gott, J. Richard, III↗

Large Scale Deformation of the Western US Cordillera

Destructive earthquakes occur throughout the western US Cordillera (WUSC), not just within the San Andreas fault zone. But because we do not understand the present-day large-scale deformations of the crust throughout the WUSC, our ability to assess the potential for seismic hazards in this region remains severely limited. To address this problem, we are using a large collection of Global Positioning System (GPS) networks which spans the WUSC to precisely quantify present-day large-scale crustal deformations in a single uniform reference frame. Our work can roughly be divided into an analysis of the GPS observations to infer the deformation field across and within the entire plate boundary zone and an investigation of the implications of this deformation field regarding plate boundary dynamics.

Bennett, Richard A.↗

How the Galaxy–Halo Connection Depends on Large-scale Environment

We investigate the connection between galaxies, dark matter halos, and their large-scale environments at z = 0 with Illustris TNG300 hydrodynamic simulation data. We predict stellar masses from subhalo properties to test two types of machine learning (ML) models: explainable boosting machines (EBMs) with simple galaxy environment features and E(3)-invariant graph neural networks (GNNs). The best-performing EBM models leverage spherically averaged overdensity features on 3 Mpc scales. Interpretations via SHapley Additive exPlanations also suggest that in the context of the TNG300 galaxy–halo connection, simple spherical overdensity on ∼3 Mpc scales is more important than cosmic web distance features measured using the DisPerSE algorithm. Meanwhile, a GNN with connectivity defined by a fixed linking length, L, outperforms the EBM models by a significant margin. As we increase the linking length scale, GNNs learn important environmental contributions up to the largest scales we probe (L = 10 Mpc). We conclude that 3 Mpc distance scales are most critical for describing the TNG galaxy–halo connection using the spherical overdensity parameterization, but that information on larger scales, which is not captured by simple environmental parameters or cosmic web features, can further augment these models. Our study highlights the benefits of using interpretable ML algorithms to explain models of astrophysical phenomena, and the power of using GNNs to flexibly learn complex relationships directly from data while imposing constraints from physical symmetries.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Large-scale short-period sea ice atmosphere interaction

Changes in the microwave brightness temperature measured by the Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) flown on board the Nimbus V satellite reveal large-scale sea ice fluctuations in the Antarctic marginal ice zone. These ice margin fluctuations arre predominantly wave numbers 1-4, with phase speeds of about 3 m/s independent of wave number. The spatial pattern and eastward advection of the sea ice anomalies match those of the atmospheric sea level pressure, and are consistent with sea ice displacement due to surface wind stress. Examination of the outgoing longwave radiation indicates that suppression of high clouds in regions of increased sea ice inc reases the radiative cooling which contributes to maintaining the ice. Data from three winter seasons indicate about a one-third probability of occurence of this large scale high frequency sea ice atmosphere interaction during any given 2-week period in winter.

Cahalan, Robert F.↗