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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Tensor-polarized parton density in the 𝑁 → Δ transition from the large-𝑁 𝑐 light-cone wave function

The tensor-polarized parton density is defined by the forward matrix element of a partonic operator in the 𝑁 → Δ transition. In this work, we investigate it by employing the large-𝑁 𝑐 light-cone wave function derived from the mean-field approach. The mean-field picture is based on low-energy effective dynamics in the large-𝑁 𝑐 limit, where the baryon wave function is formulated in the rest frame. By exploiting the covariance of the mean-field solution, we derive the corresponding large-𝑁 𝑐 light-cone wave function—decomposed unambiguously into 3⁢𝑄 , 5⁢𝑄 , 7⁢𝑄 , and higher Fock components—in the infinite momentum frame. Evaluating the overlap of these wave functions, we derive an overlap representation of the tensor-polarized parton density in the 𝑁 → Δ transition and find that the leading contribution arises from the 5⁢𝑄 Fock sector. This indicates that the tensor-polarized parton density directly probes the genuine 5⁢𝑄 component and is governed by chiral dynamics. Our numerical analysis shows that the 𝑁 → Δ tensor-polarized parton density is suppressed, consistent with standard large-𝑁 𝑐 expectations. Finally, we establish connections among the tensor-polarized parton density, the generalized parton distribution 𝐻 𝑋 , and the energy-momentum tensor form factor 𝐹 4 .

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

New state of matter between the hadronic phase and the quark-gluon plasma?

Lattice-quantum chromodynamics (QCD) simulations and theoretical arguments hint at the existence of an intermediate phase of strongly interacting matter between a confined hadron gas and a deconfined quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We qualitatively and semiquantitatively explore and differentiate the phase structures in the temperature window from the QCD pseudocritical temperature 𝑇 c ≃ 160 MeV to the pure gluonic deconfinement temperature 𝑇 d ≃ 285 MeV. We propose a three-regime picture using a hadron resonance gas description augmented with the exponential spectrum of strings, corresponding to highly excited mesons and glueballs, based on the analysis of a large number 𝑁 c of colors. We estimate the entropy density from our model to confirm that the lattice-QCD data are bracketed with three regimes, i.e., a hadron gas, a QGP, and a new phase for 𝑇 c ≲ 𝑇 ≲ 𝑇 d . In this new phase, which we name a spaghetti of quarks with glueballs (SQGBs), thermal degrees of freedom of quarks are liberated, yet gluons remain confined in glueballs. Since the Hagedorn temperature 𝑇 H ∼ 285 MeV is universal in the meson and the glueball sectors, in the infinite-𝑁 c limit, the phase diagram in the plane of the baryon chemical potential and the temperature is reduced to one with the confined and deconfined phases and quarkyonic matter at high density. At large but finite 𝑁 c , an SQGB window may open between these phases. We point out that the SQGB has interesting similarities with quarkyonic matter and that this matter in the large-𝑁 c limit is confined as measured by the interaction between heavy quarks, but behaves in other respects like a quasifree gas of quarks. As a result of the extrapolation to 𝑁 c = 3, we present a revised phase diagram with the SQGB phase bounded by thermal crossovers. Finally, we give a quantitative analysis of chiral-symmetry restoration in the SQGB phase.

Color confinement↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nucleon tensor form factors at large N c

We investigate nucleon tensor form factors in the large- N c limit. In this picture, the nucleon emerges as a state of the N c valence quarks, which were bound by pion mean fields that were created by the presence of the valence quarks self-consistently. We find that the tensor charge ( g T u − d = 0.99 ) and the anomalous tensor magnetic moment ( κ T u + d = 7.61 ) are dominated by valence quarks, while the tensor quadrupole moment ( Q T u − d = − 7.02 ) shows significant sea quark effects. We examine how these quantities vary as the average size of the pion mean field is changed, showing interpolation between nonrelativistic quark and Skyrme limits. We also observe that g T u − d and κ T u + d depend weakly on the pion mass. In contrast, Q T u − d exhibits strong enhancement near the chiral limit. The numerical results are in good agreement with available lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) data and provide predictions for unmeasured quantities. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Role of Equilibrium Fluctuations in Light-Induced Order

Engineering novel states of matter with light is at the forefront of materials research. An intensely studied direction is to realize broken-symmetry phases that are “hidden” under equilibrium conditions but can be unleashed by an ultrashort laser pulse. Despite a plethora of experimental discoveries, the nature of these orders and how they transiently appear remain unclear. To this end, we investigate a nonequilibrium charge density wave (CDW) in rare-earth tritellurides, which is suppressed in equilibrium but emerges after photoexcitation. Using a pump-pump-probe protocol implemented in ultrafast electron diffraction, we demonstrate that the light-induced CDW consists solely of order parameter fluctuations, which bear striking similarities to critical fluctuations in equilibrium despite differences in the length scale. By calculating the dynamics of CDW fluctuations in a nonperturbative model, we further show that the strength of the light-induced order is governed by the amplitude of equilibrium fluctuations. Overall, these findings highlight photoinduced fluctuations as an important ingredient for the emergence of transient orders out of equilibrium. Our results further suggest that materials with strong fluctuations in equilibrium are promising platforms to host hidden orders after laser excitation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Pair Density Wave Order from Electron Repulsion

A pair density wave (PDW) is a superconductor whose order parameter is a periodic function of space, without an accompanying spatially uniform component. Since PDWs are not the outcome of a weak-coupling instability of a Fermi liquid, a generic pairing mechanism for PDW order has remained elusive. Here, we describe and solve models having robust PDW phases. To access the intermediate coupling limit, we invoke large-$N$ limits of Fermi liquids with repulsive BCS interactions that admit saddle point solutions. We show that the requirements for long-range PDW order are that the repulsive BCS couplings must be nonmonotonic in space and that their strength must exceed a threshold value. We obtain a phase diagram with both finite temperature transitions to PDW order and a $T = 0$ quantum critical point, where non-Fermi liquid behavior occurs.

2-dimensional systems↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multichannel Topological Kondo Effect

A Coulomb blockaded M-Majorana island coupled to normal metal leads realizes a novel type of Kondo effect where the effective impurity “spin” transforms under the orthogonal group SO⁡(M). The impurity spin stems from the nonlocal topological ground state degeneracy of the island and thus the effect is known as the topological Kondo effect. We introduce a physically motivated N-channel generalization of the topological Kondo model. Starting from the simplest case N =2, we conjecture a stable intermediate coupling fixed point and evaluate the resulting low-temperature impurity entropy. The impurity entropy indicates that an emergent Fibonacci anyon can be realized in the N =2 model. We also map the case N =2, M =4 to the conventional four-channel Kondo model and find the conductance at the intermediate fixed point. By using the perturbative renormalization group, we also analyze the large-N limit, where the fixed point moves to weak coupling. In the isotropic limit, we find an intermediate stable fixed point, which is stable to “exchange” coupling anisotropies, but unstable to channel anisotropy. We evaluate the fixed point impurity entropy and conductance to obtain experimentally observable signatures of our results. Here, in the large-N limit, we evaluate the full crossover function describing the temperature-dependent conductance.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

A 3d disordered superconformal fixed point

We initiate the study of a three dimensional disordered supersymmetric field theory. Specifically, we consider a $\mathcal{N}$= 2 large N Wess-Zumino like model with cubic superpotential involving couplings drawn from a Gaussian random ensemble. Taking inspiration from analyses of lower dimensional SYK like models we demonstrate that the theory flows to a strongly coupled superconformal fixed point in the infra-red. In particular, we obtain leading large N spectral data and operator product coefficients at the critical point. Moreover, the analytic control accorded by the model allows us to compare our results against those derived in the conformal bootstrap program and demonstrate consistency with general expectations.

1/N expansion↗
DOE OSTI2020

Precision microstate counting for the entropy of wrapped M5-branes

We study the large N expansion of twisted partition functions of 3d N = 2 superconformal field theories arising from N M5-branes wrapped on a hyperbolic 3- manifold, M 3 . Via the 3d-3d correspondence, the partition functions of these 3d N = 2 superconformal field theories are related to simple topological invariants on the 3-manifold. The partition functions can be expressed using only classical and one-loop perturbative invariants of PSL(N, C) Chern-Simons theory around irreducible flat connections on M 3 . Using mathematical results on the asymptotics of the invariants, we compute the twisted partition functions in the large N limit including perturbative corrections to all orders in 1/N . Surprisingly, the perturbative expansion terminates at finite order. The leading part of the partition function is of order N 3 and agrees with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the dual black holes. The subleading part, in particular the log N -terms in the field theory partition function is found to precisely match the one-loop quantum corrections in the dual eleven dimensional supergravity. The field theory results of other terms in 1/N provide a stringent prediction for higher order corrections in the holographic dual, which is M-theory.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The hitchhiker's guide to 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal field theories

Superconformal field theory with \mathcal{N}=2 𝒩 = 2 supersymmetry in four dimensional spacetime provides a prime playground to study strongly coupled phenomena in quantum field theory. Its rigid structure ensures valuable analytic control over non-perturbative effects, yet the theory is still flexible enough to incorporate a large landscape of quantum systems. Here we aim to offer a guidebook to fundamental features of the 4d \mathcal{N}=2 𝒩 = 2 superconformal field theories and basic tools to construct them in string/M-/F-theory. The content is based on a series of lectures at the Quantum Field Theories and Geometry School in July 2020.

Akhond, Mohammad↗
DOE OSTI2020

Classification of all $\mathcal{N}\geq 3$ moduli space orbifold geometries at rank 2

We classify orbifold geometries which can be interpreted as moduli spaces of four-dimensional \mathcal{N}\geq 3 𝒩 ≥ 3 superconformal field theories up to rank 2 (complex dimension 6). The large majority of the geometries we find correspond to moduli spaces of known theories or discretely gauged version of them. Remarkably, we find 6 geometries which are not realized by any known theory, of which 3 have an \mathcal{N}=2 𝒩 = 2 Coulomb branch slice with a non-freely generated coordinate ring, suggesting the existence of new, exotic \mathcal{N}=3 𝒩 = 3 theories.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗