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At least 379 records · Page 21

The effects of low- Z shielding on uranium isotope discrimination using the time-emission profiles of long-lived delayed neutrons

Characteristic radiation signals can often be obscured or distorted by relatively small amounts of shielding, as is the case for highly-enriched uranium (HEU). Methods that can detect and identify special nuclear material (SNM) even in the presence of shielding are therefore of high value in many nuclear security and nonproliferation applications. It has been previously shown that the buildup and decay time profiles of long-lived delayed neutron emission from induced fission are unique and can be used to successfully discriminate between uranium isotopes and infer enrichment without the need for a calibration standard. Because the long-lived delayed neutron precursors exhibit decay times on the order of tens of seconds, their time profiles are not sensitive to the delays associated with scattering or diffusion in shielding materials, which occur on much shorter time scales. The use of capture-based neutron detectors can also mitigate the effects of shielding, because unlike recoil-based detectors, they do not have a low-energy detection threshold, so that neutrons that lose their energy in the shielding are still detectable. In this work, the effects of low-Z shielding on the discrimination of uranium isotopes using delayed neutron time profile measurements are investigated for the first time. Furthermore, the delayed neutron buildup and decay time profiles of polyethylene-shielded HEU and depleted uranium objects are measured using two different capture-gated detector designs. The recorded profiles show good agreement with the shapes predicted from six-group delayed neutron models even with the shielding in place, and the enrichment of the HEU and DU objects was estimated accurately to within 5%. While this method shows potential for discriminating and characterizing extreme cases of enrichment when a moderate amount of shielding is present, simulation results suggest that significant limitations exist for intermediate enrichment levels due to distortions to the delayed neutron time profile caused by neutron reflection in the shielding.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Optimal charging profiles for mechanically constrained lithium-ion batteries

The cost and safety related issues of lithium-ion batteries require intelligent charging profiles that can efficiently utilize the battery. This paper illustrates the application of dynamic optimization in obtaining the optimal current profile for charging a lithium-ion battery using a single-particle model while incorporating intercalation-induced stress generation. In this paper, we focus on the problem of maximizing the charge stored in a given time while restricting the development of stresses inside the particle. Conventional charging profiles for lithium-ion batteries (e.g., constant current followed by constant voltage) were not derived by considering capacity fade mechanisms. These charging profiles are not only inefficient in terms of lifetime usage of the batteries but are also slower since they do not exploit the changing dynamics of the system. Dynamic optimization based approaches have been used to derive optimal charging and discharging profiles with different objective functions. The progress made in understanding the capacity fade mechanisms has paved the way for inclusion of that knowledge in deriving optimal controls. While past efforts included thermal constraints, this paper for the first time presents strategies for optimally charging batteries by guaranteeing minimal mechanical damage to the electrode particles during intercalation. In addition, an executable form of the code has been developed and provided. This code can be used to identify optimal charging profiles for any material and design parameters.

Suthar, B↗

The ellipticity parameterization for an NFW profile: An overlooked angular structure in strong lens modeling

Galaxy-scale gravitational lenses are often modeled with two-component mass profiles where one component represents the stellar mass and the second is a Navarro Frenk White (NFW) profile representing the dark matter. Outside of the spherical case, the NFW profile is costly to implement, and so it is approximated via two different methods; ellipticity can be introduced via the lensing potential (NFWp) or via the mass by approximating the NFW profile as a sum of analytical profiles (NFWm). While the NFWp method has been the default for lensing applications, it gives a different prescription of the azimuthal structure, which we show introduces ubiquitous gradients in ellipticity and boxiness in the mass distribution rather than having a constant elliptical shape. Because an unmodeled azimuthal structure has been shown to be able to bias lens model results, we explored the degree to which this azimuthal structure that was introduced can affect the model accuracy. We constructed input profiles using composite models using both the NFWp and NFWm methods and fit these mocks with a power-law elliptical mass distribution (PEMD) model with external shear. As a measure of the accuracy of the recovered lensing potential, we calculated the value of the Hubble parameter H 0 one would determine from the lensing fit. We found that the fits to the NFWp input return H 0 values that are systematically biased by about 3% lower than the NFWm counterparts. We explored whether such an effect is attributable to the mass sheet transformation (MST) by using an MST-independent quantity, ξ 2 . We show that, as expected, the NFWm mocks are degenerate with PEMD through an MST. For the NFWp, an additional bias was found beyond the MST due to the azimuthal structure exterior to the Einstein radius. We recommend modelers use an NFWm prescription in the future, such that the azimuthal structure can be introduced explicitly rather than implicitly.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Modeling of feature profile evolution for ion etching

A kinetic model is presented to investigate the profile evolution during ion etching. The effects of ion sputtering, redeposition, and diffusion processes are all taken into consideration in the formation mechanism of surface profile. The dominant factors accounting for the surface smoothening and roughening during ion etching are well explained in this study. Under high ion flux or ion energy, the sputtering effect plays a controlling role in roughening the surface profile with a high etching rate. While decreasing ion flux or ion energy, the surface profile is smoothened by the diffusion mechanism with a long time ion irradiation. For a low temperature, the characteristic length of nanostructures decreases with a sputtered feature profile due to the low mobility. Our simulation results are consistent well with many experimental observations. This theoretical model provides an efficient numerical approach to fully understand the mechanism for the formation of surface profile allowing for designing of appropriate experiments to form specific nanostructures through ion-beam technology.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Fabricating functionally graded films with designed gradient profiles using pulsed laser deposition

A novel picosecond-laser pulsed laser deposition method has been developed for fabricating functionally graded films with pre-designed gradient profiles. Theoretically, the developed method is capable of precisely fabricating films with any thicknesses and any gradient profiles by controlling the laser beam powers for the two different targets based on the film composition profiles. As an implementation example, we have successfully constructed functionally graded diamond-like carbon films with six different gradient profiles: linear, quadratic, cubic, square root, cubic root, and sinusoidal. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy is employed for investigating the chemical composition along the thickness of the film, and the deposition profile and thickness errors are found to be less than 3% and 1.04%, respectively. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first method for fabricating films with designed gradient profiles and has huge potential in many areas of coatings and films, including multifunctional optical films. We believe that this method is not only limited to the example considered in this study, but also can be applied to all material combinations as long as they can be deposited using the pulsed laser deposition technique.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Effect of resistivity profile on current decay time of initial phase of current quench in neon-gas-puff inducing disruptions of JT-60U

According to an early work [Y. Shibata et al., Nucl. Fusion 50, 025015 (2010)] on the behavior of the plasma current decay in the JT-60U disruptive discharges caused by the radiative collapse with a massive neon-gas-puff, the increase of the internal inductance mainly determined the current decay time of plasma current during the initial phase of current quench. To investigate what determines the increase of the internal inductance, we focus attention on the relationship between the electron temperature (or the resistivity) profile and the time evolution of the current density profile and carry out numerical calculations. As a result, we find the reason of the increase of the internal inductance: The current density profile at the start of the current quench is broader than an expected current density profile in the steady state, which is determined by the temperature (or resistivity) profile. The current density profile evolves into peaked one and the internal inductance is increasing.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Gyrokinetic modelling of stationary electron and impurity profiles in tokamaks

Particle transport due to Ion Temperature Gradient (ITG)/Trapped Electron Mode (TEM) turbulence is investigated using the gyrokinetic code GENE. Both a reduced quasilinear treatment and nonlinear simulations are performed for typical tokamak parameters corresponding to ITG dominated turbulence. The gyrokinetic results are compared and contrasted with results from a computationally efficient fluid model. A selfconsistent treatment is used, where the stationary local profiles are calculated corresponding to zero particle flux simultaneously for electrons and trace impurities. The scaling of the stationary profiles with magnetic shear, safety factor, electron-to-ion temperature ratio, collisionality, toroidal sheared rotation, plasma β, triangularity, and elongation is investigated. In addition, the effect of different main ion mass on the zero flux condition is discussed. The electron density gradient can significantly affect the stationary impurity profile scaling. It is therefore expected that a selfconsistent treatment will yield results more comparable to experimental results for parameter scans where the stationary background density profile is sensitive. This is shown to be the case in scans over magnetic shear, collisionality, elongation, and temperature ratio, for which the simultaneous zero flux electron and impurity profiles are calculated. A slight asymmetry between hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium with respect to profile peaking is obtained, in particular, for scans in collisionality and temperature ratio.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Compact and high-particle-flux thermal-lithium-beam probe system for measurement of two-dimensional electron density profile

A compact and high-particle-flux thermal-lithium-beam source for two-dimensional measurement of electron density profiles has been developed. The thermal-lithium-beam oven is heated by a carbon heater. In this system, the maximum particle flux of the thermal lithium beam was ∼4 × 10{sup 19} m{sup −2} s{sup −1} when the temperature of the thermal-lithium-beam oven was 900 K. The electron density profile was evaluated in the small tokamak device HYBTOK-II. The electron density profile was reconstructed using the thermal-lithium-beam probe data and this profile was consistent with the electron density profile measured with a Langmuir electrostatic probe. We confirm that the developed thermal-lithium-beam probe can be used to measure the two-dimensional electron density profile with high time and spatial resolutions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Accurate small and wide angle x-ray scattering profiles from atomic models of proteins and nucleic acids

A new method is introduced to compute X-ray solution scattering profiles from atomic models of macromolecules. The three-dimensional version of the Reference Interaction Site Model (RISM) from liquid-state statistical mechanics is employed to compute the solvent distribution around the solute, including both water and ions. X-ray scattering profiles are computed from this distribution together with the solute geometry. We describe an efficient procedure for performing this calculation employing a Lebedev grid for the angular averaging. The intensity profiles (which involve no adjustable parameters) match experiment and molecular dynamics simulations up to wide angle for two proteins (lysozyme and myoglobin) in water, as well as the small-angle profiles for a dozen biomolecules taken from the BioIsis.net database. The RISM model is especially well-suited for studies of nucleic acids in salt solution. Use of fiber-diffraction models for the structure of duplex DNA in solution yields close agreement with the observed scattering profiles in both the small and wide angle scattering (SAXS and WAXS) regimes. In addition, computed profiles of anomalous SAXS signals (for Rb{sup +} and Sr{sup 2+}) emphasize the ionic contribution to scattering and are in reasonable agreement with experiment. In cases where an absolute calibration of the experimental data at q = 0 is available, one can extract a count of the excess number of waters and ions; computed values depend on the closure that is assumed in the solution of the Ornstein–Zernike equations, with results from the Kovalenko–Hirata closure being closest to experiment for the cases studied here.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Molecular dynamic simulation of Ar-Kr mixture across a rough walled nanochannel: Velocity and temperature profiles

This paper presents the results from a molecular dynamics simulation of mixture of argon and krypton in the Poiseuille flow across a rough walled nanochannel. The roughness effect on liquid nanoflows has recently drawn attention The computational software used for carrying out the molecular dynamics simulations is LAMMPS. The fluid flow takes place between two parallel plates and is bounded by horizontal rough walls in one direction and periodic boundary conditions are imposed in the other two directions. Each fluid atom interacts with other fluid atoms and wall atoms through Leenard-Jones (LJ) potential with a cut off distance of 5.0. To derive the flow a constant force is applied whose value is varied from 0.1 to 0.3 and velocity profiles and temperature profiles are noted for these values of forces. The velocity profile and temperature profiles are also looked at different channel widths of nanochannel and at different densities of mixture. The velocity profile and temperature profile of rough walled nanochannel are compared with that of smooth walled nanochannel and it is concluded that mean velocity increases with increase in channel width, force applied and decrease in density also with introduction of roughness in the walls of nanochannel mean velocity again increases and results also agree with the analytical solution of a Poiseuille flow.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Extension of the flux fit method for estimating power deposition profiles

The flux fit method is used to self-consistently estimate the power deposition profile and heat transport profiles from temperature measurements originating from perturbative experiments with a modulated source. Furthermore, this letter improves on this method by addressing the limitations and assumptions. The most crucial improvement is the additional freedom in the source deposition profile. Allowing for a variable central deposition location and height and including a skewness parameter produces deposition profiles more consistent with the measurement data, but still wider than equilibrium ray tracing in two different DIII-D discharges. Moreover, we show that the quality of the estimated deposition profile is key to the accuracy of diffusivity and connectivity estimates, but inversely, the estimated transport parameters hardly affect the quality of the power deposition estimate. Using this method, we show that the power deposition profile estimate is broadened with respect to ray-tracing by about 1.7-1.8 times in two DIII-D discharges.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Stochastic machine learning via sigma profiles to build a digital chemical space

This work establishes a different paradigm on digital molecular spaces and their efficient navigation by exploiting sigma profiles. To do so, the remarkable capability of Gaussian processes (GPs), a type of stochastic machine learning model, to correlate and predict physicochemical properties from sigma profiles is demonstrated, outperforming state-of-the-art neural networks previously published. The amount of chemical information encoded in sigma profiles eases the learning burden of machine learning models, permitting the training of GPs on small datasets which, due to their negligible computational cost and ease of implementation, are ideal models to be combined with optimization tools such as gradient search or Bayesian optimization (BO). Gradient search is used to efficiently navigate the sigma profile digital space, quickly converging to local extrema of target physicochemical properties. While this requires the availability of pretrained GP models on existing datasets, such limitations are eliminated with the implementation of BO, which can find global extrema with a limited number of iterations. A remarkable example of this is that of BO toward boiling temperature optimization. Holding no knowledge of chemistry except for the sigma profile and boiling temperature of carbon monoxide (the worst possible initial guess), BO finds the global maximum of the available boiling temperature dataset (over 1,000 molecules encompassing more than 40 families of organic and inorganic compounds) in just 15 iterations (i.e., 15 property measurements), cementing sigma profiles as a powerful digital chemical space for molecular optimization and discovery, particularly when little to no experimental data is initially available.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

ON THE DENSITY PROFILE OF THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER M92

We present new number density and surface brightness profiles for the globular cluster M92 (NGC 6341). These profiles are calculated from optical images collected with the CCD mosaic camera MegaCam at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. The ground-based data were supplemented with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometric catalog. Special care was taken to discriminate candidate cluster stars from field stars and to subtract the background contamination from both profiles. By examining the contour levels of the number density, we found that the stellar distribution becomes clumpy at radial distances larger than {approx}13', and there is no preferred orientation of contours in space. We performed detailed fits of King and Wilson models to the observed profiles. The best-fit models underestimate the number density inside the core radius. Wilson models better represent the observations, in particular in the outermost cluster regions: the good global agreement of these models with the observations suggests that there is no need to introduce an extra-tidal halo to explain the radial distribution of stars at large radial distances. The best-fit models for the number density and the surface brightness profiles are different, even though they are based on the same observations. Additional tests support the evidence that this fact reflects the difference in the radial distribution of the stellar tracers that determine the observed profiles (main-sequence stars for the number density, bright evolved stars for the surface brightness).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

X-RAY EMISSION LINE PROFILES FROM WIND CLUMP BOW SHOCKS IN MASSIVE STARS

The consequences of structured flows continue to be a pressing topic in relating spectral data to physical processes occurring in massive star winds. In a preceding paper, our group reported on hydrodynamic simulations of hypersonic flow past a rigid spherical clump to explore the structure of bow shocks that can form around wind clumps. Here we report on profiles of emission lines that arise from such bow shock morphologies. To compute emission line profiles, we adopt a two-component flow structure of wind and clumps using two 'beta' velocity laws. While individual bow shocks tend to generate double-horned emission line profiles, a group of bow shocks can lead to line profiles with a range of shapes with blueshifted peak emission that depends on the degree of X-ray photoabsorption by the interclump wind medium, the number of clump structures in the flow, and the radial distribution of the clumps. Using the two beta law prescription, the theoretical emission measure and temperature distribution throughout the wind can be derived. The emission measure tends to be power law, and the temperature distribution is broad in terms of wind velocity. Although restricted to the case of adiabatic cooling, our models highlight the influence of bow shock effects for hot plasma temperature and emission measure distributions in stellar winds and their impact on X-ray line profile shapes. Previous models have focused on geometrical considerations of the clumps and their distribution in the wind. Our results represent the first time that the temperature distribution of wind clump structures are explicitly and self-consistently accounted for in modeling X-ray line profile shapes for massive stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

LINE PROFILES OF CORES WITHIN CLUSTERS. I. THE ANATOMY OF A FILAMENT

Observations are revealing the ubiquity of filamentary structures in molecular clouds. As cores are often embedded in filaments, it is important to understand how line profiles from such systems differ from those of isolated cores. We perform radiative transfer calculations on a hydrodynamic simulation of a molecular cloud in order to model line emission from collapsing cores embedded in filaments. We model two optically thick lines, CS(2-1) and HCN(1-0), and one optically thin line, N{sub 2}H{sup +}(1-0), from three embedded cores. In the hydrodynamic simulation, gas self-gravity, turbulence, and bulk flows create filamentary regions within which cores form. Though the filaments have large dispersions, the N{sub 2}H{sup +}(1-0) lines indicate subsonic velocities within the cores. We find that the observed optically thick line profiles of CS(2-1) and HCN(1-0) vary drastically with viewing angle. In over 50% of viewing angles, there is no sign of a blue asymmetry, an idealized signature of infall motions in an isolated spherical collapsing core. Profiles that primarily trace the cores, with little contribution from the surrounding filament, are characterized by a systematically higher HCN(1-0) peak intensity. The N{sub 2}H{sup +}(1-0) lines do not follow this trend. We demonstrate that red asymmetric profiles are also feasible in the optically thick lines, due to emission from the filament or one-sided accretion flows onto the core. We conclude that embedded cores may frequently undergo collapse without showing a blue asymmetric profile, and that observational surveys including filamentary regions may underestimate the number of collapsing cores if based solely on profile shapes of optically thick lines.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

ANALYTICAL CALCULATION OF STOKES PROFILES OF ROTATING STELLAR MAGNETIC DIPOLE

The observation of the polarization emerging from a rotating star at different phases opens up the possibility to map the magnetic field in the stellar surface thanks to the well-known Zeeman-Doppler imaging. When the magnetic field is sufficiently weak, the circular and linear polarization profiles locally in each point of the star are proportional to the first and second derivatives of the unperturbed intensity profile, respectively. We show that the weak-field approximation (for weak lines in the case of linear polarization) can be generalized to the case of a rotating star including the Doppler effect and taking into account the integration on the stellar surface. The Stokes profiles are written as a linear combination of wavelength-dependent terms expressed as series expansions in terms of Hermite polynomials. These terms contain the surface-integrated magnetic field and velocity components. The direct numerical evaluation of these quantities is limited to rotation velocities not larger than eight times the Doppler width of the local absorption profiles. Additionally, we demonstrate that in a rotating star, the circular polarization flux depends on the derivative of the intensity flux with respect to the wavelength and also on the profile itself. Likewise, the linear polarization depends on the profile and on its first and second derivatives with respect to the wavelength. We particularize the general expressions to a rotating dipole.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

STELLAR SURFACE MAGNETO-CONVECTION AS A SOURCE OF ASTROPHYSICAL NOISE. I. MULTI-COMPONENT PARAMETERIZATION OF ABSORPTION LINE PROFILES

We outline our techniques to characterize photospheric granulation as an astrophysical noise source. A four-component parameterization of granulation is developed that can be used to reconstruct stellar line asymmetries and radial velocity shifts due to photospheric convective motions. The four components are made up of absorption line profiles calculated for granules, magnetic intergranular lanes, non-magnetic intergranular lanes, and magnetic bright points at disk center. These components are constructed by averaging Fe I 6302 A magnetically sensitive absorption line profiles output from detailed radiative transport calculations of the solar photosphere. Each of the four categories adopted is based on magnetic field and continuum intensity limits determined from examining three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations with an average magnetic flux of 200 G. Using these four-component line profiles we accurately reconstruct granulation profiles, produced from modeling 12 Multiplication-Sign 12 Mm{sup 2} areas on the solar surface, to within {approx} {+-}20 cm s{sup -1} on a {approx}100 m s{sup -1} granulation signal. We have also successfully reconstructed granulation profiles from a 50 G simulation using the parameterized line profiles from the 200 G average magnetic field simulation. This test demonstrates applicability of the characterization to a range of magnetic stellar activity levels.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

THE DENSITY PROFILES OF MASSIVE, RELAXED GALAXY CLUSTERS. I. THE TOTAL DENSITY OVER THREE DECADES IN RADIUS

Clusters of galaxies are excellent locations to probe the distribution of baryons and dark matter (DM) over a wide range of scales. We study a sample of seven massive (M {sub 200} = 0.4-2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 15} M {sub Sun }), relaxed galaxy clusters with centrally located brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at z = 0.2-0.3. Using the observational tools of strong and weak gravitational lensing, combined with resolved stellar kinematics within the BCG, we measure the total radial density profile, comprising both dark and baryonic matter, over scales of {approx_equal} 3-3000 kpc. We present Keck spectroscopy yielding seven new spectroscopic redshifts of multiply imaged sources and extended stellar velocity dispersion profiles of the BCGs. Lensing-derived mass profiles typically agree with independent X-ray estimates within {approx_equal} 15%, suggesting that departures from hydrostatic equilibrium are small and that the clusters in our sample (except A383) are not strongly elongated or compressed along the line of sight. The inner logarithmic slope {gamma}{sub tot} of the total density profile measured over r/r {sub 200} = 0.003-0.03, where {rho}{sub tot}{proportional_to}r{sup -{gamma}{sub t}{sub o}{sub t}}, is found to be nearly universal, with a mean ({gamma}{sub tot}) = 1.16 {+-} 0.05(random){sup +0.05} {sub -0.07} (systematic) and an intrinsic scatter {sigma}{sub {gamma}} < 0.13 (68% confidence). This is further supported by the very homogeneous shape of the observed velocity dispersion profiles, which are mutually consistent after a simple scaling. Remarkably, this slope agrees closely with high-resolution numerical simulations that contain only DM, despite the significant contribution of stellar mass on the scales we probe. The Navarro-Frenk-White profile characteristic of collisionless cold DM is a better description of the total mass density at radii {approx}> 5-10 kpc than that of DM alone. Hydrodynamical simulations that include baryons, cooling, and feedback currently provide a poorer match. We discuss the significance of our findings for understanding the physical processes governing the assembly of BCGs and cluster cores, particularly the influence of baryons on the inner DM halo.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗