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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Development of a plant carbon–nitrogen interface coupling framework in a coupled biophysical-ecosystem–biogeochemical model (SSiB5/TRIFFID/DayCent-SOM v1.0)

Plant and microbial nitrogen (N) dynamics and N availability regulate the photosynthetic capacity and capture, allocation, and turnover of carbon (C) in terrestrial ecosystems. Studies have shown that a wide divergence in representations of N dynamics in land surface models leads to large uncertainties in the biogeochemical cycle of terrestrial ecosystems and then in climate simulations as well as the projections of future trajectories. In this study, a plant C–N interface coupling framework is developed and implemented in a coupled biophysical-ecosystem–biogeochemical model (SSiB5/TRIFFID/DayCent-SOM v1.0). The main concept and structure of this plant C–N framework and its coupling strategy are presented in this study. This framework takes more plant N-related processes into account. The dynamic ratio (CNR) for each plant functional type (PFT) is introduced to consider plant resistance and adaptation to N availability to better evaluate the plant response to N limitation. Furthermore, when available N is less than plant N demand, plant growth is restricted by a lower maximum carboxylation capacity of RuBisCO (V c,max ), reducing gross primary productivity (GPP). In addition, a module for plant respiration rates is introduced by adjusting the respiration with different rates for different plant components at the same N concentration. Since insufficient N can potentially give rise to lags in plant phenology, the phenological scheme is also adjusted in response to N availability. All these considerations ensure a more comprehensive incorporation of N regulations to plant growth and C cycling. This new approach has been tested systematically to assess the effects of this coupling framework and N limitation on the terrestrial carbon cycle. Long-term measurements from flux tower sites with different PFTs and global satellite-derived products are employed as references to assess these effects. The results show a general improvement with the new plant C–N coupling framework, with more consistent emergent properties, such as GPP and leaf area index (LAI), compared to the observations. The main improvements occur in tropical Africa and boreal regions, accompanied by a decrease in the bias in global GPP and LAI by 16.3 % and 27.1 %, respectively.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Searching for Clues for a Matter Dominated Universe in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers

Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPCs) represent one of the most widely utilized neutrino detection techniques in neutrino experiments, for instance, in the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program and the future large-scale LArTPC: Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). The high-end technique, facilitating excellent spatial and calorimetric reconstruction resolution, also enables testing exotic Beyond Standard Model (BSM) theories, such as baryon number violation (BNV) processes (e.g., proton-decay, neutron-antineutron oscillation). At the same time, Machine Learning (ML) techniques have demonstrated their ubiquitous use in recent decades; ML techniques have also become some of the most powerful tools in high-energy physics (HEP) analyses. Furthermore, the development of algorithms to cater to the needs of problems in HEP (i.e., triggering, reconstruction, improving sensitivity, etc.) has also become an active area of research. By developing a combined approach using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Boosted Decision Tree (BDT) techniques, the sensitivity of neutron-antineutron oscillation in DUNE is evaluated for a projected exposure of 400kton·years. Additionally, to meet the triggering requirement to select such rare events in DUNE, such a search is only supported with highly efficient self-triggering algorithms. An ML-based self-triggering scheme for large-scale LArTPCs, such as DUNE, is also developed with the intention of implementation on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The ML-based approach for searching for neutron-antineutron oscillation can be demonstrated and validated on the current LArTPC MicroBooNE. The analysis in MicroBooNE represents the first-ever search for neutron-antineutron oscillation in a LArTPC. DUNE's projected 90% C.L. sensitivity to the neutron antineutron oscillation lifetime is 6.45×10³² years, assuming 1.327×10³⁵ neutron·years, equivalent to 10 years of DUNE far detector exposure (400kton·years). For MicroBooNE, assuming 372 seconds of exposure (equivalent to 3.13×10³⁶ neutron·years), the 90% C.L. lifetime sensitivity is found at 3.07×10²⁵ yrs, after accounting for Monte-Carlo statistical uncertainty and systematic uncertainty from detector effects.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dwarf galaxy halo masses from spectroscopic and photometric lensing in DESI and DES

We present the most precise and lowest-mass weak lensing measurements of dwarf galaxies to date, enabled by spectroscopic lenses from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and photometric lenses from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) calibrated with DESI redshifts. Using DESI spectroscopy from the first data release, we construct clean samples of galaxies with median stellar masses $\log_{10}(M_*/M_{\odot})=8.3-10.1$ and measure their weak lensing signals with sources from DES, KiDS, and SDSS, achieving detections with $S/N$ up to 14 for dwarf galaxies ($\log_{10}(M_*/M_{\odot})<$9.25) -- opening up a new regime for lensing measurements of low-mass systems. Leveraging DES photometry calibrated with DESI, we extend to a photometric dwarf sample of over 700,000 galaxies, enabling robust lensing detections of dwarf galaxies with combined $S/N=38$ and a significant measurement down to $\log_{10}(M_*/M_{\odot})=8.0$. We show that the one-halo regime (scales $\lesssim 0.15h^{-1}\rm Mpc$) is insensitive to various systematic and sample selection effects, providing robust halo mass estimates, while the signal in the two-halo regime depends on galaxy color and environment. These results demonstrate that DESI already enables precise dwarf lensing measurements, and that calibrated photometric samples extend this capability. Together, they pave the way for novel constraints on dwarf galaxy formation and dark matter physics with upcoming surveys like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's LSST.

Treiber, Helena [Princeton U., Astrophys. Sci. Dep↗
DOE OSTI2025

DESI 2024 III: baryon acoustic oscillations from galaxies and quasars

We present the DESI 2024 galaxy and quasar baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) measurements using over 5.7 million unique galaxy and quasar redshifts in the range 0.1 < z < 2.1. Divided by tracer type, we utilize 300,017 galaxies from the magnitude-limited Bright Galaxy Survey with 0.1 < z < 0.4, 2,138,600 Luminous Red Galaxies with 0.4 < z < 1.1, 2,432,022 Emission Line Galaxies with 0.8 < z < 1.6, and 856,652 quasars with 0.8 < z < 2.1, over a ∼ 7,500 square degree footprint. The analysis was blinded at the catalog-level to avoid confirmation bias. All fiducial choices of the BAO fitting and reconstruction methodology, as well as the size of the systematic errors, were determined on the basis of the tests with mock catalogs and the blinded data catalogs. We present several improvements to the BAO analysis pipeline, including enhancing the BAO fitting and reconstruction methods in a more physically-motivated direction, and also present results using combinations of tracers. We employ a unified BAO analysis method across all tracers. We present a re-analysis of SDSS BOSS and eBOSS results applying the improved DESI methodology and find scatter consistent with the level of the quoted SDSS theoretical systematic uncertainties. With the total effective survey volume of ∼ 18 Gpc3, the combined precision of the BAO measurements across the six different redshift bins is ∼0.52%, marking a 1.2-fold improvement over the previous state-of-the-art results using only first-year data. We detect the BAO in all of these six redshift bins. The highest significance of BAO detection is 9.1σ at the effective redshift of 0.93, with a constraint of 0.86% placed on the BAO scale. We find that our observed BAO scales are systematically larger than the prediction of the Planck 2018-ΛCDM at z < 0.8. We translate the results into transverse comoving distance and radial Hubble distance measurements, which are used to constrain cosmological models in our companion paper.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

First-Principles Framework for the Prediction of Intersystem Crossing Rates in Spin Defects: The Role of Electron Correlation

Optically active spin defects in solids are promising platforms for quantum technologies. In this work, we present a first-principles framework to investigate intersystem crossing processes, which represent crucial steps in the optical spin-polarization cycle used to address spin defects. Considering the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond as a case study, we demonstrate that our framework effectively captures electron correlation effects in the calculation of many-body electronic states and their spin-orbit coupling and electron-phonon interactions, while systematically addressing finite-size effects. We validate our predictions by carrying out measurements of fluorescence lifetimes, finding excellent agreement between theory and experiments. The framework presented here provides a versatile and robust tool for exploring the optical cycle of varied spin defects entirely from first principles.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Simons Observatory: impact of bandpass, polarization angle and calibration uncertainties on small-scale power spectrum analysis

We study the effects due to mismatches in passbands, polarization angles, and temperature and polarization calibrations in the context of the upcoming cosmic microwave background experiment Simons Observatory (SO). Using the SO multi-frequency likelihood, we estimate the bias and the degradation of constraining power in cosmological and astrophysical foreground parameters assuming different levels of knowledge of the instrumental effects. We find that incorrect but reasonable assumptions about the values ofall the systematics examined here can have significant effects on cosmologicalanalyses, hence requiring marginalization approaches at the likelihood level.When doing so, we find that the most relevant effect is due to bandpass shifts. When marginalizing over them, the posteriors of parameters describing astrophysical microwave foregrounds (such as radio point sources or dust) get degraded, while cosmological parameters constraints are not significantly affected.Marginalization over polarization angles with up to 0.25$^{°}$ uncertainty causes an irrelevant bias ≲ 0.05 σ in all parameters.Marginalization over calibration factors in polarization broadens the constraints on the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom N$_{eff}$ by a factor 1.2, interpreted here as a proxy parameter for non standard model physics targeted by high-resolution CMB measurements.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2026

Schwinger-Keldysh effective action for hydrodynamics with approximate symmetries

We study hydrodynamic theories with approximate symmetries in the recently developed effective action approach on the Schwinger-Keldysh contour. We employ the method of spurious symmetry transformation for small explicit symmetry-breaking parameters to systematically constrain symmetry-breaking effects in the nonequilibrium effective action for hydrodynamics. We apply our method to the hydrodynamic theory of chiral symmetry in quantum chromodynamics at finite temperature and density and its explicit breaking by quark masses. We show that the spurious symmetry and the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger relation dictate that the Ward-Takahashi identity for the axial symmetry, i.e., the partial conservation of axial vector current (PCAC) relation, contains a relaxational term proportional to the axial chemical potential, whose kinetic coefficient is at least of the second order in the quark mass. In the phase where the chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken, and the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone pions appear as hydrodynamic variables, this relaxation effect is subleading compared to the conventional pion mass term in the PCAC relation, which is of the first order in the quark mass. On the other hand, in the chiral symmetry restored phase, we show that our relaxation term, which is of the second order in the quark mass, becomes the leading contribution to the axial charge relaxation. Therefore, the leading axial charge relaxation mechanism is parametrically different in the quark mass across a chiral phase transition.

Goldstone bosons↗
DOE OSTI2023

Chiral uncertainties in ab initio elastic nucleon-nucleus scattering

The effective interaction between a nucleon and a nucleus is one of the most important ingredients for reaction theories. Theoretical formulations were introduced early by Feshbach and Watson, and efforts of deriving and computing those ‘optical potentials’ in a microscopic fashion have a long tradition. However, only recently the leading order term in the Watson multiple scattering approach could be calculated fully ab initio, meaning that the same nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction enters both the structure as well as the reaction pieces on equal footing. This allows the uncertainties from the underlying chiral effective NN interaction to be systematically explored in nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering observables. In this contribution the main ingredients for arriving at the ab initio leading order of the effective nucleon-nucleus interaction in the Watson approach will be reviewed. Concentrating on one specific chiral NN interaction from the LENPIC collaboration and light nuclei with a 0 + ground state, the leading order nucleon-nucleus interaction is calculated using up to the third chiral order (N2LO) in the nucleon-nucleon potential, and elastic scattering observables are extracted. Then pointwise as well as correlated uncertainty quantification is used for the estimation of the chiral truncation error. Elastic scattering observables for 4 He, 12 C, and 16 O for between 65 and 200 MeV projectile energy will be analyzed.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Evidence of a $J/ψΛ$ structure and observaton of excited $Ξ_{b}^{-}$ → $J/ψΛΚ^{-}$ decay

First evidence of a structure in the $J/ψΛ$ invariant mass distribution is obtained from an amplitude analysis of $Ξ_{b}^{-}$ → $J/ψΛΚ^{-}$ decays. The observed structure is consistent with being due to a charmonium pentaquark with strangeness with a significance of 3.1σ including systematic uncertainties and look elsewhere effect. Its mass and width are determined to be 4458.8 ± $2.9_{-1.1}^{+4.7}$ MeV and 17.3 ± $6.5_{-5.7}^{+8.0}$ MeV respectively, where the quoted uncertainties are statistical and systematic. The structure is also consistent with being due to two resonances. In addition, the narrow excited $Ξ^{-}$ states, $Ξ(1690)^{-}$ and $Ξ(1820)^{-}$, are seen for the first time in a $Ξ_{b}^{-}$ decay, and their masses and widths are measured with improved precision. The analysis is performed using $pp$ collision data corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 9 fb -1 , collected with the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Substituent Effects on the Electronic Spectroscopy of Four-Carbon Criegee Intermediates

Atmospheric ozonolysis of biogenic and anthropogenic alkenes generates zwitterionic carbonyl oxide intermediates (R 1 R 2 C=O + O – ), known as Criegee intermediates, with different structural motifs and conformations. This study reports a systematic laboratory study of substituent effects on the electronic spectroscopy of four-carbon Criegee intermediates (CIs) with methyl–ethyl (MECI) and isopropyl (IPCI) groups, which are isomers produced in ozonolysis of asymmetric branched alkenes. The four-carbon CIs are separately generated by an alternative synthetic route, and spectroscopically characterized on the strong π* ← π transition associated with the carbonyl oxide group in a pulsed supersonic expansion with VUV photoionization at 118 nm and UV-induced depletion of the m/z 88 signal. The resultant broad and unstructured UV spectral features for MECI and IPCI are peaked at ca. 320 and 330 nm, respectively, with large absorption cross-sections of ca. 10 –17 cm 2 . Comparisons are made with the four-carbon CIs formed in isoprene ozonolysis, methyl vinyl ketone oxide (MVK-oxide) and methacrolein oxide (MACR-oxide), which have the same backbone connectivity as MECI and IPCI but have extended conjugation across the vinyl and carbonyl groups. A remarkable 50 nm shift of the peak absorption to longer wavelength is observed for MVK-oxide and MACR-oxide compared to MECI and IPCI, respectively. Furthermore, vertical excitation energies computed theoretically agree well with the experimental findings, confirming that the spectral shifts are caused by the extended π conjugation in the isoprene-derived Criegee intermediates.

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

Effects of NBI-induced energetic ions on internal kink stability in HL-2M

A systematic investigation is carried out, studying the effect of the neutral beam injection induced energetic particles (EPs) on the n = 1 (n is the toroidal mode number) internal kink (IK) instability in the HL-2M tokamak, utilizing the MARS-F/K code [Liu et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 3681 (2000) and 15, 112503 (2008)]. A high-beta sawteething HL-2M scenario, simulated by the TRANSP code [Breslau et al. Computer Software (2018)], is chosen for this study. Compared to the fluid model, non-perturbative magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)-kinetic hybrid computations with MARS-K show a generally stabilization effect on the IK, due to drift kinetic resonances associated with EPs. Further, the bounce resonance of trapped EPs has minor influence on the mode stability. In the absence of the plasma equilibrium flow and with the assumed particle pitch distribution, the transit resonance of co-current (countercurrent) passing EPs destabilizes (stabilizes) the IK. With plasma flow, both co- and countercurrent passing EPs tend to stabilize the mode, but the effect is stronger with the countercurrent particles. These modeling results provide useful guidance for interpreting MHD instabilities in the future high-performance experiments in HL-2M.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Systematic Mapping of Bacterial CRISPRa Systems for Synergistic Gene Activation Reveals Antagonistic Effects

CRISPR gene activation (CRISPRa) tools have shown great promise for bacterial strain engineering but often require customization for each intended application. Our goal is to create generalizable CRISPRa tools that can overcome previous limitations of gene activation in bacteria. In eukaryotic cells, multiple activators can be combined for synergistic gene activation. To identify potential effectors for synergistic activation in bacteria, we systematically characterized bacterial activator proteins with a set of engineered synthetic promoters. We found that optimal target sites for different activators could vary by up to 200 bases in the region upstream of the transcription start site (TSS). These optimal target sites qualitatively matched previous reports for each activator, but the precise targeting rules varied between different promoters. By characterizing targeting rules in the same promoter context, we were able to test activator combinations with each effector positioned at its optimal target site. We did not find any activator combinations that produced synergistic activation, and we found that many combinations were antagonistic. Furthermore, this systematic investigation highlights fundamental mechanistic differences between bacterial and eukaryotic transcriptional activation systems and suggests that alternative strategies will be necessary for strong bacterial gene activation at arbitrary endogenous targets.

CRISPR activation↗
DOE OSTI2024

Enhancing risk and crisis communication with computational methods: A systematic literature review

Abstract Recent developments in risk and crisis communication (RCC) research combine social science theory and data science tools to construct effective risk messages efficiently. However, current systematic literature reviews (SLRs) on RCC primarily focus on computationally assessing message efficacy as opposed to message efficiency. We conduct an SLR to highlight any current computational methods that improve message construction efficacy and efficiency. We found that most RCC research focuses on using theoretical frameworks and computational methods to analyze or classify message elements that improve efficacy. For improving message efficiency, computational and manual methods are only used in message classification. Specifying the computational methods used in message construction is sparse. We recommend that future RCC research apply computational methods toward improving efficacy and efficiency in message construction. By improving message construction efficacy and efficiency, RCC messaging would quickly warn and better inform affected communities impacted by current hazards. Such messaging has the potential to save as many lives as possible.

Mathematical Methods In Social Sciences↗
DOE OSTI2020

Moving beyond the Solvent-Tip Approximation to Determine Site-Specific Variations of Interfacial Water Structure through 3D Force Microscopy

Although interfacial solution structure impacts environmental, biological, and technological phenomena, including colloidal stability, protein assembly, heterogeneous nucleation, and water desalination, its molecular details remain poorly understood. Here, we visualize the three-dimensional (3D) hydration structure at the boehmite(010)-water interface using fast force mapping (FFM). Using a self-consistent scheme to decouple long-range tip-sample interactions from short-range solvation forces, we obtain the solution structure with lattice resolution. The results are benchmarked against molecular dynamics simulations that explicitly include the effects of the tip with different levels of approximation and systematically account for tip size, chemistry, and confinement effects. We find four laterally structured water layers within 1 nm of the surface, with the highest water densities at sites adjacent to hydroxyl groups. The key features beyond the first two layers can only be predicted using a full-scale simulation of the boehmite-water-silica system. Our findings further reveal a complex relationship between site-specific chemistry, water density, and long-range particle interactions; and present important advances toward quantitative data interpretation in 3D FFM.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

PISCES two-detector covariance matrix fit for the NOvA Experiment

NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment with two functionally identical detectors: a Near Detector (ND) at Fermilab, placed 1 km from the neutrino source, and a Far Detector (FD) located 810 km away from the ND in Minnesota. NOvA's primary physics goals are the precise measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters $\theta_{23}$ and $\Delta m^2_{32}$ , determine the neutrino mass ordering, and constrain the value of $\delta_{CP}$, via the study of muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillation. In the standard NOvA three-flavor analysis, oscillation parameters are extracted using an extrapolation technique in which the ND data constrain the FD prediction through a ratio method. While this allows for systematic uncertainties sharing the same effects in both detectors to cancel, it remains an FD-only fit and does not fully leverage the constraining power of the high-statistics ND. This analysis proposes a simultaneous ND+FD fit using the PISCES method. PISCES (Parameter Inference with Systematic Covariance and Exact Statistics) is a framework designed to support complex configurations such as a joint ND+FD fit. This allows PISCES to take full advantage of the ND data to directly constrain systematic uncertainties across all samples. In PISCES, systematic uncertainties are encoded in a fractional covariance matrix, and statistical uncertainties are handled with a Poisson likelihood, making the approach well suited for low-statistics samples. For interpretability, we further use a Newton–Raphson + PCA method to recover per-systematic pulls from the covariance formulation. This poster presents the full PISCES joint ND+FD fit for the NOvA three-flavor analysis, describes its implementation and evaluates its performance through extensive robustness tests and fake data studies. It also provides a comparison between the PISCES joint ND+FD results and the standard NOvA extrapolation method.

Rajaoalisoa, Miriama [Cincinnati U.] (ORCID:000000↗
DOE OSTI2021

Primordial non-Gaussianity from the completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey – I: Catalogue preparation and systematic mitigation

ABSTRACT We investigate the large-scale clustering of the final spectroscopic sample of quasars from the recently completed extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). The sample contains 343 708 objects in the redshift range 0.8 < z < 2.2 and 72 667 objects with redshifts 2.2 < z < 3.5, covering an effective area of $4699\, {\rm deg}^{2}$. We develop a neural network-based approach to mitigate spurious fluctuations in the density field caused by spatial variations in the quality of the imaging data used to select targets for follow-up spectroscopy. Simulations are used with the same angular and radial distributions as the real data to estimate covariance matrices, perform error analyses, and assess residual systematic uncertainties. We measure the mean density contrast and cross-correlations of the eBOSS quasars against maps of potential sources of imaging systematics to address algorithm effectiveness, finding that the neural network-based approach outperforms standard linear regression. Stellar density is one of the most important sources of spurious fluctuations, and a new template constructed using data from the Gaia spacecraft provides the best match to the observed quasar clustering. The end-product from this work is a new value-added quasar catalogue with the improved weights to correct for non-linear imaging systematic effects, which will be made public. Our quasar catalogue is used to measure the local-type primordial non-Gaussianity in a companion paper.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Shaping the Infrared luminescence of Colloidal Nanocrystals Using a Dielectric Microcavity

As they have gained maturity, colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) have also expand the spectral range over of which they could be used for photonic and optoelectronic applications. In particular, the infrared use of NCs has become of utmost interest to develop cost-effective alternatives to current technologies. It is then critical not to let the material dictate the light–matter interaction, which is why the coupling of NCs to photonic cavities has been proposed. For infrared NCs, this approach has first been devoted to the control of absorption with in mind the increase of the signal magnitude for detectors. A Lot of efforts have been focused on the use of metallic metasurfaces. However, these generate significant optical losses and yield low quality factor. Here, this study rather focus on the coupling of infrared NCs to a dielectric mirror cavity. HgTe/CdS core-shell NCs are used and integrated into a cavity made of aperiodic dielectric mirrors. The effect of the substrate is systematically study on spectral linewidth, carrier dynamic, and emission directivity. The cavity is shown to narrow the PL by a factor 10, while focusing the emission over a 12° angle. Monitoring the power dependence of the emission, this study shows that the cavity leads to 250 K increase in the effective electronic temperature.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗