Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Space charge”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 415 records · Page 23
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Wire-cell 3D pattern recognition techniques for neutrino event reconstruction in large LArTPCs: algorithm description and quantitative evaluation with MicroBooNE simulation

Wire-Cell is a 3D event reconstruction package for liquid argon time projection chambers. Through geometry, time, and drifted charge from multiple readout wire planes, 3D space points with associated charge are reconstructed prior to the pattern recognition stage. Pattern recognition techniques, including track trajectory and dQ/dx (ionization charge per unit length) fitting, 3D neutrino vertex fitting, track and shower separation, particle-level clustering, and particle identification are then applied on these 3D space points as well as the original 2D projection measurements. A deep neural network is developed to enhance the reconstruction of the neutrino interaction vertex. Compared to traditional algorithms, the deep neural network boosts the vertex efficiency by a relative 30% for charged-current ν e interactions. Therefore, this pattern recognition achieves 80–90% reconstruction efficiencies for primary leptons, after a 65.8% (72.9%) vertex efficiency for charged-current ν e (ν μ ) interactions. Based on the resulting reconstructed particles and their kinematics, we also achieve 15-20% energy reconstruction resolutions for charged-current neutrino interactions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Modeling Assessment of Residential Air-to-Water Heat Pumps Coupled with Cooling Thermal Storage

This study explored the performance and operating cost viability of air-to-water heat pumps (AWHPs) coupled with thermal energy storage (TES) in efficient new residential construction. AWHPs are an emerging technology in this country, but offer promise in terms of high efficiency, fully contained and factory charged outdoor refrigeration system, and hydronic delivery capabilities, which facilitates zoning, ducts in conditioned space, and TES integration for summer load-shifting. Although this AWHP+TES strategy is not yet mainstream, the authors feel that in ten years as decarbonization efforts proceed and TOU rates become more common, strategies such as this will be more accessible. Validated EnergyPlus simulation models were developed based on detailed monitoring data collected over several years at Pacific Gas and Electric's CVRH laboratory test homes located in Stockton, California. One of the CVRH test homes (1,962 ft 2 two-story) had been testing various AWHP systems and configurations over the past six years. The validated model was then updated with high efficiency IECC ZERH envelope and component requirements for climate zones 1-5, including ducts in conditioned space thermal distribution. Simulations were completed for the 1,962 ft 2 home in each climate zone for a minimum efficiency ASHP, an AWHP coupled with a fan coil, and an AWHP coupled with TES sized to eliminate summer on-peak compressor operation. To maintain consistency in reporting energy use estimates, all cases were run with a similar indoor thermostat control strategy to pre-cool the house below the nominal 76 degrees Fahrenheit set point prior to the on-peak period and float slightly above the set point during the peak period. The AWHP+TES configuration was controlled to alternately condition the indoor space or to charge the TES tanks prior to the beginning of the on-peak. Three composite TOU rates were developed based on existing TOU rates across the U.S. to provide differing economic scenarios to evaluate customer bill impacts throughout the summer. Two of the TOU rates had short three-hour peak periods, while the third rate had a longer seven-hour duration peak period. AWHP modeling projections were based on the observed field performance of the Chiltrix CX34 variable speed unit. Other products on the market or entering the market in the near term would likely perform differently.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Control of the Structural Charge Distribution and Hydration State upon Intercalation of CO 2 into Expansive Clay Interlayers

Numerous experimental investigations indicated that expansive clays such as montmorillonite can intercalate CO 2 preferentially into their interlayers and therefore potentially act as a material for CO 2 separation, capture, and storage. However, an understanding of the energy–structure relationship during the intercalation of CO 2 into clay interlayers remains elusive. Here, in this study, we use metadynamics molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate the energy landscape associated with CO 2 intercalation. Our free energy calculations indicate that CO 2 favorably partitions into nanoconfined water in clay interlayers from a gas phase, leading to an increase in the CO 2 /H 2 O ratio in clay interlayers as compared to that in bulk water. CO 2 molecules prefer to be located at the centers of charge-neutral hydrophobic siloxane rings, whereas interlayer spaces close to structural charges tend to avoid CO 2 intercalation. The structural charge distribution significantly affects the amount of CO 2 intercalated in the interlayers. These results provide a mechanistic understanding of CO 2 intercalation in clays for CO 2 separation, capture, and storage.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Adaptive autoencoder latent space tuning for more robust machine learning beyond the training set for six-dimensional phase space diagnostics of a time-varying ultrafast electron-diffraction compact accelerator

In this work, we present a general adaptive latent space tuning approach for improving the robustness of machine learning tools with respect to time variation and distribution shift. We demonstrate our approach by developing an encoder-decoder convolutional neural network-based virtual 6D phase space diagnostic of charged particle beams in the HiRES ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) compact particle accelerator with uncertainty quantification. Our method utilizes model-independent adaptive feedback to tune a low dimensional 2D latent space representation of ~1 million dimensional objects which are the 15 unique 2D projections (x, y),...,(z, p z ) of the 6D phase space (x, y, z, p x , p y , p z ) of the charged particle beams. We demonstrate our method with numerical studies of short electron bunches utilizing experimentally measured UED input beam distributions.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Physics-constrained superresolution diffusion for six-dimensional phase space diagnostics

Adaptive physics-constrained superresolution diffusion is developed for noninvasive virtual diagnostics of the six-dimensional (6D) phase space density of charged particle beams. An adaptive variational autoencoder embeds initial beam condition images and scalar measurements to a low-dimensional latent space from which a 32 6 pixel 6D tensor representation of the beam's 6D phase space density is generated. Projecting from a 6D tensor generates physically consistent two-dimensional projections. Physics-guided superresolution diffusion transforms low-resolution images of the 6D density to high resolution 256 × 256 pixel images. Unsupervised adaptive latent space tuning enables tracking of time-varying beams without knowledge of time-varying initial conditions. The method is demonstrated with experimental data and multiparticle simulations at the HiRES UED. The general approach is applicable to a wide range of complex dynamic systems evolving in high-dimensional phase space. The method is shown to be robust to distribution shift without retraining. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Emergence of competing electronic states from non-integer nuclear charges

Understanding many-electron phenomena with competing near-degenerate electronic states is of fundamental importance to chemistry and condensed matter physics. One of the most significant challenges for exploring such many-electron phenomena is the necessity for large system sizes in order to realize competing states, far beyond those practical for first-principles methods. Here, we show how allowing non-integer nuclear charges expands the space of computationally tractable electron systems that host competing electronic states. The emergence of competing electronic states from non-integer nuclear charges is exemplified in the simple 2-electron H 2 molecule and used to examine the microscopic structure of doped quasi-1D cuprate chains, showing how non-integer nuclear charges can open a window for first-principles calculations of difficult many-electron phenomena.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electrostatic limits on charge selectivity in ultrahigh charge density polymer membranes

Ion-exchange membranes (IEMs) with ultrahigh charge densities offer the promise of enhanced ion transport for electrochemical technologies, yet the fundamental limits of this membrane design strategy are not yet understood. In this work, we present a systematic study of bis(1-vinyl-3-imidazolium) cross-linked polymer membranes with fixed charge contents ranging from 6 to 9 mol/L[dry polymer], synthesized to isolate the effects of charge density at constant membrane water content. While ionic conductivity increases monotonically with increasing charge density, a sharp decline in charge selectivity is observed for the most densely charged membranes, defying conventional expectations. Structural, thermal, and mechanical analyses reveal a critical onset of network disruption and anomalous ion partitioning behavior in these densely charged membranes. With proper consideration of cross-linker geometry, these results are interpreted using Manning's counter-ion condensation theory, which suggests that closely packed charged cross-linkers amplify inter-chain electrostatic interactions and trigger excess counter-ion condensation. Our findings suggest that, beyond a threshold spacing between fixed charges, increased functionalization may harm rather than help charge selectivity of IEMs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Real-space visualization of a defect-mediated charge density wave transition

Here, we study the coupled charge density wave (CDW) and insulator-to-metal transitions in the 2D quantum material 1T-TaS 2 . By applying in situ cryogenic 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy with in situ electrical resistance measurements, we directly visualize the CDW transition and establish that the transition is mediated by basal dislocations (stacking solitons). We find that dislocations can both nucleate and pin the transition and locally alter the transition temperature T c by nearly ~75 K. This finding was enabled by the application of unsupervised machine learning to cluster five-dimensional, terabyte scale datasets, which demonstrate a one-to-one correlation between resistance—a global property—and local CDW domain-dislocation dynamics, thereby linking the material microstructure to device properties. This work represents a major step toward defect-engineering of quantum materials, which will become increasingly important as we aim to utilize such materials in real devices.

4D-STEM↗
DOE OSTI2022

Generalized symmetries of the graviton

We find the set of generalized symmetries associated with the free graviton theory in four dimensions. These are generated by gauge invariant topological operators that violate Haag duality in ring-like regions. As expected from general QFT grounds, we find a set of “electric” and a dual set of “magnetic” topological operators and compute their algebra. To do so, we describe the theory using phase space gauge-invariant electric and magnetic dual variables constructed out of the curvature tensor. Electric and magnetic fields satisfy a set of constraints equivalent to the ones of a stress tensor of a 3d CFT. The constraints give place to a group $\mathbb{R}^{20}$ of topological operators that are charged under space-time symmetries. Finally, we discuss similarities and differences between linearized gravity and tensor gauge theories that have been introduced recently in the context of fractonic systems in condensed matter physics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Real-space visualization of atomic displacements in a long-wavelength charge density wave using cryogenic 4D-STEM

EuA⁢l 4 , a known skyrmion magnet, represents a class of materials that show complex electronic behaviors involving long-wavelength charge density wave (CDW). Here we realize direct real-space imaging of the concomitant periodic lattice distortion (PLD) with picometer precision in EuA⁢l 4 . Simultaneous imaging of microstructure, polarization, and interatomic distance is made possible using cryogenic four-dimensional scanning transmitting electron microscopy (cryo-4DSTEM). With this approach, we determined that the PLD in EuA⁢l 4 incorporates two out-of-phase atomic displacement modes on the Eu and Al sublattices. The PLD introduces periodic local symmetry fluctuations from the average symmetry of the bulk EuA⁢l 4 crystal. This critical local structural insight helps understanding of charge-spin-lattice couplings behind the intertwined quantum order in EuA⁢l 4 . Furthermore, our results also demonstrate cryo-4DSTEM as an indispensable approach for probing CDW and related quantum materials at low temperatures.

Ni, Haoyang↗
DOE OSTI2024

Exotic particles at the DUNE near detector from charged pion scattering

Fixed-target proton-beam experiments produce a multitude of charged pions that rescatter in the beam dump. These charged pion scattering events can be an additional irreducible source of exotic particles which couple to photons or hadrons. We analyze the sensitivity of the DUNE near detector complex to millicharged particles (MCPs) and heavy axionlike particles (ALPs) with low-energy couplings to gluons. Using the framework of chiral perturbation theory, we demonstrate regimes of parameter space where the charged pion production channel dominates over previously considered production mechanisms for both MCPs and ALPs, thereby improving the sensitivity of DUNE to these new particles compared to previous studies. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Comparing Zwitterionic and PEG Exteriors of Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles

A series of model polyelectrolyte complex micelles (PCMs) was prepared to investigate the consequences of neutral and zwitterionic chemistries and distinct charged cores on the size and stability of nanocarriers. Using aqueous reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, we synthesized a well-defined diblock polyelectrolyte system, poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine methacrylate)-block-poly((vinylbenzyl) trimethylammonium) (PMPC-PVBTMA), at various neutral and charged block lengths to compare directly against PCM structure–property relationships centered on poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly((vinylbenzyl) trimethylammonium) (PEG-PVBTMA) and poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(l-lysine) (PEG-PLK). After complexation with a common polyanion, poly(sodium acrylate), the resulting PCMs were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). We observed uniform assemblies of spherical micelles with a diameter ~1.5–2× larger when PMPC-PVBTMA was used compared to PEG-PLK and PEG-PVBTMA via SAXS and DLS. In addition, PEG-PLK PCMs proved most resistant to dissolution by both monovalent and divalent salt, followed by PEG-PVBTMA then PMPC-PVBTMA. All micelle systems were serum stable in 100% fetal bovine serum over the course of 8 h by time-resolved DLS, demonstrating minimal interactions with serum proteins and potential as in vivo drug delivery vehicles. This thorough study of the synthesis, assembly, and characterization of zwitterionic polymers in PCMs advances the design space for charge-driven micelle assemblies.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Earth Mover’s Distance as a Metric to Evaluate the Extent of Charge Transfer in Excitations Using Discretized Real-Space Densities

This paper presents a novel theoretical measure, μ EMD , based on the earth mover's distance (EMD), for quantifying the density shift caused by electronic excitations in molecules. As input, the EMD metric uses only the discretized ground- and excited-state electron densities in real space, rendering it compatible with almost all electronic structure methods used to calculate excited states. The EMD metric is compared against other popular theoretical metrics for describing the extent of electron-hole separation in a wide range of excited states (valence, Rydberg, charge transfer, etc.). Further, the results showcase the EMD metric's effectiveness across all excitation types and suggest that it is useful as an additional tool to characterize electronic excitations. The study also reveals that μ EMD can function as a promising diagnostic tool for predicting the failure of pure exchange-correlation functionals. Specifically, we show statistical relationships among the functional-driven errors, the exact exchange content within the functional, and the magnitude of μ EMD values.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

DFT-guided flux synthesis of a family of layered titanates crystallizing in the lepidocrocite structure type

K 0.72 Fe 0.72 Ti 1.28 O 4 , a layered mixed-metal oxide belonging to the lepidocrocite structure type, was grown out of a molten KCl-KF mixture at 800 °C. The compound crystallizes in orthorhombic space group Cmcm and exhibits two-dimensional layers, composed of mixed Fe/Ti octahedra, separated by K ions that occupy the interlayer layer space and maintain charge balance. The targeted flux synthesis of the Ni, Cu, and Zn analogs was carried out after density functional theory (DFT) calculations predicted their formation to be energetically favorable, yielding K 0.77 Ni 0.38 Ti 1.62 O 4 , K 0.77 Cu 0.38 Ti 1.62 O 4 , and K 0.73 Zn 0.36 Ti 1.64 O 4 . Finally, all four compositions can be prepared via conventional solid-state technique by mixing and heating stoichiometric amounts of KNO 3 , appropriate transition metal oxide precursors, and TiO 2 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Signatures of an energetic charged body streaming in a plasma

A charged body moving in a plasma can excite a variety of linear and nonlinear waves in the form of trailing wakes, fore-wake shocks, and precursor solitons. These structures can further interact with the background plasma to create secondary effects that can serve as signatures of the passage of the charged body. Using particle-in-cell simulations, we carry out a basic investigation of the dynamics of a plasma system that is being traversed by an energetic charged body. Using two different shapes of this charged source, namely, an idealized infinite length planar source and a two-dimensional thin rectangular source, we examine the differences in the nature of the excited wave structures and their consequent impact on the background plasma. Our simulations reveal interesting features such as the dependence of the precursor speeds on the total charge on the driving source, local particle trapping, and energization of the trapped particles in various regions along the traversal path leading to the formation of energetic charged beamlets. So our basic findings could find practical applications such as in analyzing the trajectories of charged objects like space debris orbiting in the ionosphere.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

High-throughput identification of spin-photon interfaces in silicon

Color centers in host semiconductors are prime candidates as spin-photon interfaces for quantum applications. Finding an optimal spin-photon interface in silicon would move quantum information technologies toward a mature semiconducting host. However, the space of possible charged defects is vast, making the identification of candidates from experiments alone extremely challenging. Here, we use high-throughput first-principles computational screening to identify spin-photon interfaces among more than 1000 charged defects in silicon. The use of a single-shot hybrid functional approach is critical in enabling the screening of many quantum defects with a reasonable accuracy. We identify three promising spin-photon interfaces as potential bright emitters in the telecom band: Ti$^+_i$, Fe$^0_i$, and Ru$^0_i$. These candidates are excited through defect-bound excitons, stressing the importance of such defects in silicon for telecom band operations. Our work paves the way to further large-scale computational screening for quantum defects in semiconductors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Boson Fermion Nucleus Dimensions: Monograph #10

Assuming a spherical nucleus, scattering experiments measuring nuclear radii will give values roughly two orders of magnitude less than the radius of a boson fermion nucleus (BFN). This occurs because of the extended structure of the BFN, with nucleons and positive charge distributed in space gives the appearance of a smaller nucleus in scattering experiments. The scattering data from a BFN indicates a spherical nucleus with dimensions comparable to detailed structural features in the BFN.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Jefferson Lab High Precision Proton Radius Measurement Experiment: PRad

Proton is not a point-like particle; it has a finite size and an internal structure. The proton charge radius is usually measured through two different methods: using spectroscopy of hydrogen atoms, or through electron-proton (e - p) elastic scattering at low momentum transfer. In 2010, Phol et al [1] published a new measurement for proton charge radius obtained using the spectroscopy method from muonic hydrogen atoms. An ordinary hydrogen (H) atom is a bound state of an electron orbiting a proton. Likewise, a muonic hydrogen atom has a muon orbiting a proton. Since a muon has 200 times more mass than an electron, resulting in a much smaller orbiting radius, its orbit is much more sensitive to the proton charge distribution in space than the electron’s of an ordinary H-atom. Thus, the measurement from muonic hydrogen provides a 10 times more precise result than the previous methods. The radius from the muonic hydrogen measurement reported in [1] was significantly smaller than all the p

Bai, Xinzhan↗