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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 415 records · Page 23

AN ELECTRON-TRACKING COMPTON TELESCOPE FOR A SURVEY OF THE DEEP UNIVERSE BY MeV GAMMA-RAYS

Photon imaging for MeV gammas has serious difficulties due to huge backgrounds and unclearness in images, which originate from incompleteness in determining the physical parameters of Compton scattering in detection, e.g., lack of the directional information of the recoil electrons. The recent major mission/instrument in the MeV band, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory/COMPTEL, which was Compton Camera (CC), detected a mere ∼30 persistent sources. It is in stark contrast with the ∼2000 sources in the GeV band. Here we report the performance of an Electron-Tracking Compton Camera (ETCC), and prove that it has a good potential to break through this stagnation in MeV gamma-ray astronomy. The ETCC provides all the parameters of Compton-scattering by measuring 3D recoil electron tracks; then the Scatter Plane Deviation (SPD) lost in CCs is recovered. The energy loss rate (dE/dx), which CCs cannot measure, is also obtained, and is found to be helpful to reduce the background under conditions similar to those in space. Accordingly, the significance in gamma detection is improved severalfold. On the other hand, SPD is essential to determine the point-spread function (PSF) quantitatively. The SPD resolution is improved close to the theoretical limit for multiple scattering of recoil electrons. With such a well-determined PSF, we demonstrate for the first time that it is possible to provide reliable sensitivity in Compton imaging without utilizing an optimization algorithm. As such, this study highlights the fundamental weak-points of CCs. In contrast we demonstrate the possibility of ETCC reaching the sensitivity below 1 × 10{sup −12} erg cm{sup −2} s{sup −1} at 1 MeV.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A LOW FREQUENCY SURVEY OF GIANT PULSES FROM THE CRAB PULSAR

We present a large survey of giant pulses from the Crab Pulsar as observed with the first station of the Long Wavelength Array. Automated methods for detecting giant pulses at low frequencies where scattering becomes prevalent are also explored. More than 1400 pulses were detected across four frequency bands between 20 and 84 MHz over a seven-month period beginning in 2013, with additional followup observations in late 2014 and early 2015. A handful of these pulses were detected simultaneously across all four frequency bands. We examine pulse characteristics, including pulse broadening and power law indices for amplitude distributions. We find that the flux density increases toward shorter wavelengths, consistent with a spectral turnover at 100 MHz. Our observations uniquely span multiple scattering epochs, manifesting as a notable trend in the number of detections per observation. These results are characteristic of the variable interface between the synchrotron nebula and the surrounding interstellar medium.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Real-space Green’s function approach to photoelectron diffraction

We discuss the real-space Green’s function (RSGF) approach for core-level photoelectron diffraction (PD) and its comparison to x-ray absorption spectra (XAS). We focus especially on the separable Green’s function formalism for efficient calculations of high-order multiple scattering. Computational details such as scattering potentials, self-energy effects, Debye–Waller factors, and inelastic losses are discussed. Finally, we consider prospects for improving ab initio PD calculations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Manipulating bubbles with secondary Bjerknes forces

Gas bubbles in a sound field are submitted to a radiative force, known as the secondary Bjerknes force. We propose an original experimental setup that allows us to investigate in detail this force between two bubbles, as a function of the sonication frequency, as well as the bubbles radii and distance. We report the observation of both attractive and, more interestingly, repulsive Bjerknes force, when the two bubbles are driven in antiphase. Our experiments show the importance of taking multiple scatterings into account, which leads to a strong acoustic coupling of the bubbles when their radii are similar. Our setup demonstrates the accuracy of secondary Bjerknes forces for attracting or repealing a bubble, and could lead to new acoustic tools for noncontact manipulation in microfluidic devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

SU-E-T-499: Initial Developments of An OpenCL-Based Cross-Platform Monte Carlo Dose Engine for Carbon Ion Therapy

Purpose Dose calculation is of critical importance for carbon ion therapy. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is considered to be the most accurate method for calculation of absorbed dose and of all the more fundamental physical quantities related to biological effects. The long computation time, however, limits its routine clinical applications. We have recently started developing a fast MC package, gCMC for carbon therapy on a parallel processing platform, e.g. GPU, aiming at achieving sufficient efficiency to enable MC in clinically important tasks. This abstract reports our progress. Methods gCMC was developed in OpenCL environment. Our initial developments focused on water material. gCMC supported carbon ion transport in the energy range of 1–450 MeV/u. A Class II condensed history algorithm was implemented for charged particle transport simulations with stopping power computed via Bethe-Bloch equation. Energy straggling and multiple scattering were modeled. Total cross section of nuclear interaction was extracted from Geant4. At present, nuclear interaction events were sampled but transports of secondary particles were not included. Results We tested cases with a homogeneous water phantom and a pencil carbon ion beam with energy of 200–400 MeV/u. When only electro-magnetic channel was included, dose/fluence difference between gCMC and Geant4 results averaged within 10% isodose line was <0.5% of the maximum dose/fluence. After enabling nuclear interactions without transporting secondary particles, dose and fluence agreed with the corresponding results computed by Geant4 with <1% difference. Due to the support for multiple platforms of OpenCL, gCMC was executable on NVidia and AMD GPUs, and Intel CPUs. It took ∼50 sec to transport 107 200MeV/u source carbon ions on an NVidia Titan GPU card. Conclusion Preliminary studies have demonstrated the accuracy and efficiency of gCMC. With further developments in near future, gCMC will potentially achieve clinically acceptable fast and accurate MC simulations for carbon ion therapy.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

X-Ray Natural Circular Dichroism in Langasite Crystal at the Ga and La Edges

X-ray natural circular dichroism (XNCD) and its structural nature have been investigated in a langasite (La{sub 3}Ga{sub 5}SiO{sub 14}) crystal at an incident radiation energy close to the Ga K-absorption edge and the La L{sub 2,3}-absorption edges. An XNCD signal was observed mainly beyond the absorption edge, which confirmed the existence of delocalized mixed p–d electronic states in Ga and d–f and d–p electronic states in La. Calculations with application of the multiple scattering method have made it possible to separate the contributions from three crystallographically nonequivalent Ga sites to the absorption spectrum and the XNCD signal and explain adequately the largest contribution of the Ga atom occupying the 1a site to the XNCD signal.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Temperature-dependent spin injection dynamics in InGaAs/GaAs quantum well-dot tunnel-coupled nanostructures

Time-resolved optical spin orientation spectroscopy was employed to investigate the temperature-dependent electron spin injection in In{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}As quantum well (QW) and In{sub 0.5}Ga{sub 0.5}As quantum dots (QDs) tunnel-coupled nanostructures with 4, 6, and 8 nm-thick GaAs barriers. The fast picosecond-ranged spin injection from QW to QD excited states (ES) was observed to speed up with temperature, as induced by pronounced longitudinal-optical (LO)-phonon-involved multiple scattering process, which contributes to a thermally stable and almost fully spin-conserving injection within 5–180 K. The LO-phonon coupling was also found to cause accelerated electron spin relaxation of QD ES at elevated temperature, mainly via hyperfine interaction with random nuclear field.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Local Noncentrosymmetric Structure of Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8+y} by X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism at Cu K-Edge XANES

The two-dimensional Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8+y} (Bi2212), the most studied prototype cuprate superconductor, is a lamellar system made of a stack of two-dimensional corrugated CuO{sub 2} bilayers separated by Bi{sub 2}O{sub 2+y}Sr{sub 2} O{sub 2} layers. While the large majority of theories, proposed to interpret unconventional high T{sub c} superconductivity in Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8+y}, assume a centrosymmetric tetragonal CuO{sub 2} lattice for the [CuO{sub 2}]Ca[CuO{sub 2}] bilayer, here, we report new compelling results providing evidence for local noncentrosymmetric symmetry at the Cu atom. We have measured polarized Cu K-edge XANES (X-ray absorption near-edge structure) and the K-edge X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) of a Bi2212 single-crystal near-optimum doping. The Cu K-edge XMCD signal was measured at ID12 beamline of ESRF with the k-vector of X-ray beam parallel to c-axis, i.e., with the electric field of X-ray beam E//ab, using a 17-T magnetic field parallel to the c-axis of a Bi2212 single crystal. Numerical simulations of the XMCD signal of Bi2212 by multiple scattering theory have shown agreement with the experimental XMCD signal only for the local structure with noncentrosymmetric Bb2b space group of Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8+y}.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Radiative Transfer in a Translucent Cloud Illuminated by an Extended Background Source

We discuss the radiative transfer theory for translucent clouds illuminated by an extended background source. First, we derive a rigorous solution based on the assumption that multiple scatterings produce an isotropic flux. Then we derive a more manageable analytic approximation showing that it nicely matches the results of the rigorous approach. To validate our model, we compare our predictions with accurate laboratory measurements for various types of well-characterized grains, including purely dielectric and strongly absorbing materials representative of astronomical icy and metallic grains, respectively, finding excellent agreement without the need to add free parameters. We use our model to explore the behavior of an astrophysical cloud illuminated by a diffuse source with dust grains having parameters typical of the classic ISM grains of Draine and Lee and protoplanetary disks, with an application to the dark silhouette disk 114–426 in Orion Nebula. We find that the scattering term modifies the transmitted radiation, both in terms of intensity (extinction) and shape (reddening) of the spectral distribution. In particular, for small optical thickness, our results show that scattering makes reddening almost negligible at visible wavelengths. Once the optical thickness increases enough and the probability of scattering events becomes close to or larger than 1, reddening becomes present but is appreciably modified with respect to the standard expression for line-of-sight absorption. Moreover, variations of the grain refractive index, in particular the amount of absorption, also play an important role in changing the shape of the spectral transmission curve, with dielectric grains showing the minimum amount of reddening.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Proposed Muon Radiography Method for Spent Fuel Cask Interrogation

Multiple scattering muon radiography is a technique that was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to detect high Z material using cosmic ray muons as a radiation source. As a result,there has been considerable interest in using the technique to radiograph nuclear waste inside of storage casks. Recently,the technique has been used to interrogate the inside of a MC-10 dry fuel cask at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).This is the only technique that has been successful in imaging the interior of a spent fuel cask.The measurement was performed with the LANL Mini Muon Tracker (MMT), composed of two super-modules of drift tubes and readout electronics placed on each side of the fuel cask. The final result was a one dimensional histogram (projection) that showed areal scattering density within the cask binned according to horizontal position within the cask. While successful, the MMT is not designed for an optimal measurement of a fuel cask. The MMT only covers a limited solid angle around the cask and needs to be orientated so as to be aligned with the grid of stored fuel bundles. Even when properly aligned, the resulting areal scattering density projection indicates that a fuel bundle within a column is missing, but is ambiguous as to which row is lacking the fuel bundle. This paper discusses a potential new detector and analytical technique that may be used to better radiograph the nuclear material inside of a storage cask. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

A high fraction of Lyα emitters among galaxies with extreme emission line ratios at z ∼ 2

Star-forming galaxies form a sequence in the [O iii] λ5007/Hβ versus [N ii] λ6584/Hα diagnostic diagram, with low-metallicity, highly ionized galaxies falling in the upper left corner. Drawing from a large sample of UV-selected star-forming galaxies at z∼2 with rest-frame optical nebular emission line measurements from Keck-MOSFIRE, we select the extreme ∼5% of the galaxies lying in this upper left corner, requiring log([N ii]/Hα) ⩽−1.1 and log([O iii]/Hβ) ⩾ 0.75. These cuts identify galaxies with 12+log(O/H)≲8.0, when oxygen abundances are measured via the O3N2 diagnostic. We study the Lyα properties of the resulting sample of 14 galaxies. The mean (median) rest-frame Lyα equivalent width is 39 (36) Å, and 11 of the 14 objects (79%) are Lyα emitters (LAEs) with W{sub Lyα} >20 A-ring . We compare the equivalent width distribution of a sample of 522 UV-selected galaxies at 2.0<z<2.6 identified without regard to their optical line ratios; this sample has mean (median) Lyα equivalent width −1 (−4) Å, and only 9% of these galaxies qualify as LAEs. The extreme galaxies typically have lower attenuation at Lyα than those in the comparison sample and have ∼50% lower median oxygen abundances. Both factors are likely to facilitate the escape of Lyα: in less dusty galaxies Lyα photons are less likely to be absorbed during multiple scatterings, while the harder ionizing spectrum and higher ionization parameter associated with strong, low-metallicity star formation may reduce the covering fraction or column density of neutral hydrogen, further easing Lyα escape. The use of nebular emission line ratios may prove useful in the identification of galaxies with low opacity to Lyα photons across a range of redshifts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

An investigation of high entropy alloy conductivity using first-principles calculations

The Kubo–Greenwood equation, in combination with the first-principles Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker coherent potential approximation (KKR-CPA) can be used to calculate the DC residual resistivity of random alloys at T = 0 K. We implemented this method in a multiple scattering theory based ab initio package, MuST, and applied it to the ab initio study of the residual resistivity of the high entropy alloy Al x CoCrFeNi as a function of x. The calculated resistivities are compared with experimental data. We also predict the residual resistivity of refractory high entropy alloy MoNbTaV x W. Furthermore, the calculated resistivity trends are also explained using theoretical arguments.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Nonlocal Structure of the Leading Order ab initio Effective Potentials for Proton Elastic Scattering from Light Nuclei

Based on the spectator expansion of the multiple scattering series we employ a chiral next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) nucleon-nucleon interaction on the same footing in the structure as well as in the reaction calculation to obtain an in leading-order consistent effective potential for nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering, which includes the spin of the struck target nucleon. Here, as an example we present proton scattering off $^{12}$C.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Intermediate energy nucleon-deuteron scattering theory.

Sloan's conclusion (1969) that terms of the multiple-scattering series beyond single scattering contribute only to S- and P-wave amplitudes in an S-wave separable model is examined. A comparison of experiments with the calculation at 146 MeV shows that the conclusion is valid in nucleon-deuteron scattering applications.

Wilson, J. W.↗

Kaon-nucleus scattering

The derivations of the Lippmann-Schwinger equation and Watson multiple scattering are given. A simple optical potential is found to be the first term of that series. The number density distribution models of the nucleus, harmonic well, and Woods-Saxon are used without t-matrix taken from the scattering experiments. The parameterized two-body inputs, which are kaon-nucleon total cross sections, elastic slope parameters, and the ratio of the real to the imaginary part of the forward elastic scattering amplitude, are presented. The eikonal approximation was chosen as our solution method to estimate the total and absorptive cross sections for the kaon-nucleus scattering.

Hong, Byungsik↗

Determining the band gap and mean kinetic energy of atoms from reflection electron energy loss spectra

Reflection electron energy loss spectra from some insulating materials (CaCO{sub 3}, Li{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, and SiO{sub 2}) taken at relatively high incoming electron energies (5–40 keV) are analyzed. Here, one is bulk sensitive and a well-defined onset of inelastic excitations is observed from which one can infer the value of the band gap. An estimate of the band gap was obtained by fitting the spectra with a procedure that includes the recoil shift and recoil broadening affecting these measurements. The width of the elastic peak is directly connected to the mean kinetic energy of the atom in the material (Doppler broadening). The experimentally obtained mean kinetic energies of the O, C, Li, Ca, and Si atoms are compared with the calculated ones, and good agreement is found, especially if the effect of multiple scattering is taken into account. It is demonstrated experimentally that the onset of the inelastic excitation is also affected by Doppler broadening. Aided by this understanding, we can obtain a good fit of the elastic peak and the onset of inelastic excitations. For SiO{sub 2}, good agreement is obtained with the well-established value of the band gap (8.9 eV) only if it is assumed that the intensity near the edge scales as (E − E{sub gap}){sup 1.5}. For CaCO{sub 3}, the band gap obtained here (7 eV) is about 1 eV larger than the previous experimental value, whereas the value for Li{sub 2}CO{sub 3} (7.5 eV) is the first experimental estimate.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The FEFF code

FEFF is a real-space multiple-scattering Green’s function code for simulating a variety of X-ray spectroscopies as well as ground-state and excited-state electronic structure. It is perhaps best known for its use in extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) calculations, particularly within various analysis codes such as DEMETER and LARCH. In addition to EXAFS, FEFF can also be used to calculate X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES), X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), electron energy loss spectra (EELS) and many other spectroscopic quantities. Here, the basic approach used for the calculations is described, focusing on the most important approximations and aspects of the simulations. Here, the capabilities of the FEFF code, including those of the Java-based graphical user interface JFEFF, are also briefly described.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Imaging the inside of thick structures using cosmic rays

The authors present here a new method to image reinforcement elements inside thick structures and the results of a demonstration measurement performed on a mock-up wall built at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The method, referred to as “multiple scattering muon radiography”, relies on the use of cosmic-ray muons as probes. The work described in this article was performed to prove the viability of the technique as a means to image the interior of the dome of Florence Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites and among the highest profile buildings in existence. Its result shows the effectiveness of the technique as a tool to radiograph thick structures and image denser object inside them.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗