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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Packing and flow particle simulations

Granular material is present across natural and industrial processes on Earth and other planets. Granular particles show up in space exploration (lunar regolith), avalanches (boulders), food (coffee), construction (concrete powder) and manufacturing (additive manufacturing powder, battery slurries). Important phenomena emerge from large collections of granular particles. The size scales of the particles in granular material, 10 μm diameter or larger, makes particle-based simulations a tractable computational method. This seminar will present the packing and flow of granular matter using particle-based discrete element modeling simulations. Particles modeled with rotational friction only require as few as 2.6 contacts for mechanical stability, as opposed to 6 contacts for frictionless particles. Optimal parameters for in-space manufacturing particulate material are identified. Specifically, the maximum density and contacts occurs for a large-to-small particle volume ratio of 0.265. Stress and contact fabric fluctuations of flowing dry granular matter have power-law scaling with strain rate, and a kink. The pressure-dependent slope change kink could identify the transition between slower, quasistatic and faster, inertial flows.

granular↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Packing and flow particle simulations

granular↗

DOE OSTI2016

Dark Higgs channel for Fermi GeV γ-ray excess

Dark Higgs is very generic in dark matter models where DM is stabilized by some spontaneously broken dark gauge symmetries. Motivated by tentative GeV scale γ-ray excess from the galactic center (GC), we investigate a scenario where a pair of dark matter X annihilates into a pair of dark Higgs H{sub 2}, which subsequently decays into standard model particles through its mixing with SM Higgs boson. Besides the two-body decay of H{sub 2}, we also include multibody decay channels of the dark Higgs. We find that the best-fit point is around M{sub X} ≅ 95.0 GeV, M{sub H{sub 2}} ≅ 86.7 GeV, (σ v) ≅ 4.0 × 10{sup −26}cm{sup 3}/s and gives a p-value ≅ 0.40. Implication of this result is described in the context of dark matter models with dark gauge symmetries. Since such a dark Higgs boson is very difficult to produce at colliders, indirect DM detections of cosmic γ-rays could be an important probe of dark sectors, complementary to collider searches.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2012

Mesoscale Benchmark Demonstration, Problem 1: Mesoscale Simulations of Intra-granular Fission Gas Bubbles in UO 2 under Post-irradiation Thermal Annealing

A study was conducted to evaluate the capabilities of different numerical methods used to represent microstructure behavior at the mesoscale for irradiated material using an idealized benchmark problem. The purpose of the mesoscale benchmark problem was to provide a common basis to assess several mesoscale methods with the objective of identifying the strengths and areas of improvement in the predictive modeling of microstructure evolution. In this work, mesoscale models (phase-field, Potts, and kinetic Monte Carlo) developed by PNNL, INL, SNL, and ORNL were used to calculate the evolution kinetics of intra-granular fission gas bubbles in UO 2 fuel under post-irradiation thermal annealing conditions. The benchmark problem was constructed to include important microstructural evolution mechanisms on the kinetics of intra-granular fission gas bubble behavior such as the atomic diffusion of Xe atoms, U vacancies, and O vacancies, the effect of vacancy capture and emission from defects, and the elastic interaction of non-equilibrium gas bubbles. An idealized set of assumptions was imposed on the benchmark problem to simplify the mechanisms considered. The capability and numerical efficiency of different models are compared against selected experimental and simulation results. These comparisons find that the phase-field methods, by the nature of the free energy formulation, are able to represent a larger subset of the mechanisms influencing the intra-granular bubble growth and coarsening mechanisms in the idealized benchmark problem as compared to the Potts and kinetic Monte Carlo methods. It is recognized that the mesoscale benchmark problem as formulated does not specifically highlight the strengths of the discrete particle modeling used in the Potts and kinetic Monte Carlo methods. Future efforts are recommended to construct increasingly more complex mesoscale benchmark problems to further verify and validate the predictive capabilities of the mesoscale modeling methods used in this study.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

NASA NTRS1993

Particle orbits in model current sheet with a nonzero B(y) component

The problem of charged particle motions in magnetotaillike model current sheets is revisited with the inclusion of a nonzero dawn-dusk magnetic field component. Three cases are examined considering both trapped and escaped orbits. The results show that a nonzero B(y) component disturbs the particle orbits by destroying orbit symmetry in the phase space about the z = 0 plane. It also changes the bounce frequency of particle orbits. The presence of B(y) thus modifies the Speiser orbits, particularly near the ejection phase. The process of ejected particle such as ejection direction, ejection velocity, and pitch angles are shown to depend on the sign of the charge.

Zhu, Zhongwei↗

DOE OSTI2017

A preferred mass range for primordial black hole formation and black holes as dark matter revisited

Bird et al. [1] and Sasaki et al. [2] have recently proposed the intriguing possibility that the black holes detected by LIGO could be all or part of the cosmological dark matter. This offers an alternative to WIMPs and axions, where dark matter could be comprised solely of Standard Model particles. The mass range lies within an observationally viable window and the predicted merger rate can be tested by future LIGO observations. In this paper, we argue that non-thermal histories favor production of black holes near this mass range — with heavier ones unlikely to form in the early universe and lighter black holes being diluted through late-time entropy production. We discuss how this prediction depends on the primordial power spectrum, the likelihood of black hole formation, and the underlying model parameters. We find the prediction for the preferred mass range to be rather robust assuming a blue spectral index less than two. Here, we consider the resulting relic density in black holes, and using recent observational constraints, establish whether they could account for all of the dark matter today.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1973

Mass motion in solar flares

Mass motions in solar flares are here considered in terms of a previously proposed model. Particle acceleration occurs during reconnection of a current sheet located at coronal heights. The downward component of the particle flux produces an impulsive hard X-ray burst and heats the upper layers of the chromosphere sufficiently to lead to explosive evaporation. Some of the evaporated gas remains trapped in newly closed magnetic field lines and is responsible for the soft thermal component of X-ray emission. Gas which flows along open magnetic field lines subsequently forms a plasmoid which is ejected by magnetic stresses into interplanetary space and may subsequently cause a geomagnetic storm. Analysis of a highly simplified model leads to formulas for the density, temperature, and other parameters of the flare-produced plasma in terms of a length scale and mean magnetic field strength for the flare.

Sturrock, P. A.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Light scattering by an arbitrary particle - The scattering-order formulation of the coupled-dipole method

The field scattered by an arbitrary particle modeled as an array of coupled dipoles can be expressed as an infinite series in terms of scattering orders. The fields of a given scattering order can be calculated from those of the previous order. When the series converge, the approximate method agrees well with the exact theory for a sphere. The maximum size of the dipolar array that can be used with the method as well as the number of terms required for convergence depends on the relative refractive index and the shape of the particle.

Singham, Shermila Brito↗

DOE OSTI2017

On the dark radiation problem in the axiverse

String scenarios generically predict that we live in a so called axiverse: the Universe with about a hundred of light axion species which are decoupled from the Standard Model particles. However, the axions can couple to the inflaton which leads to their production after inflation. Then, these axions remain in the expanding Universe contributing to the dark radiation component, which is severely bounded from present cosmological data. We place a general constraint on the axion production rate and apply it to several variants of reasonable inflaton-to-axion couplings. The limit merely constrains the number of ultralight axions and the relative strength of inflaton-to-axion coupling. It is valid in both large and small field inflationary models irrespectively of the axion energy scales and masses. Thus, the limit is complementary to those associated with the Universe overclosure and axion isocurvature fluctuations. In particular, a hundred of axions is forbidden if inflaton universally couples to all the fields at reheating. In the case of gravitational sector being responsible for the reheating of the Universe (which is a natural option in all inflationary models with modified gravity), the axion production can be efficient. We find that in the Starobinsky R {sup 2}-inflation even a single axion (e.g. the standard QCD-axion) is in tension with the Planck data, making the model inconsistent with the axiverse. The general conclusion is that an inflation with inefficient reheating mechanism and low reheating temperature may be in tension with the presence of light scalars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Dispersion in the Presence of Strong Transverse Wakefields

To minimize emittance growth in a long linac, it is necessary to control the wakefields by correcting the beam orbit excursions. In addition, the particle energy is made to vary along the length of the bunch to introduce a damping, known as the BNS damping, to the beam break-up effect. In this paper, we use a two-particle model to examine the relative magnitudes of the various orbit and dispersion functions involved. The results are applied to calculate the effect of a closed orbit bump and a misaligned structure. It is shown that wake-induced dispersion is an important contribution to the beam dynamics in long linacs with strong wakefields like SLC.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Ice formation on nitric acid coated dust particles: Laboratory and modeling studies

Changes in the ice nucleation characteristics of atmospherically relevant mineral dust particles due to nitric acid coating are not well understood. Further, the atmospheric implications of dust coating on ice-cloud properties under different assumptions of primary ice nucleation mechanisms are unknown. We investigated ice nucleation ability of Arizona test dust, illite, K-feldspar and quartz as a function of temperature (-25 to -30°C) and relative humidity with respect to water (75 to 110%). Particles were size selected at 250 nm and transported (bare or coated) to the ice nucleation chamber to determine the fraction of particles nucleating ice at various temperature and water saturation conditions. All dust nucleated ice at water-subsaturated conditions, but the coated particles showed a reduction in their ice nucleation ability compared to bare particles. However, at water-supersaturated conditions, we observed that bare and coated particles had nearly similar ice nucleation characteristics. X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that structural properties of bare dust particles modified after acid treatment. We found that lattice parameters were slightly different, but crystallite sizes of the coated particles were reduced compared to bare particles. Next, single-column model results show that simulated ice crystal number concentrations mostly depends upon fraction of particles that are coated, primary ice nucleation mechanisms, and the competition between ice nucleation mechanisms to nucleate ice. In general, we observed that coating modify the ice-cloud properties and the picture of ice and mixed-phase cloud evolution is complex when different primary ice nucleation mechanisms are competing for fixed water vapor mass.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory↗

DOE OSTI2018

Minimally extended left-right symmetric model for dark matter with U(1) portal

A minimal extension of the left-right symmetric model for neutrino masses that includes a vector-like singlet fermion dark matter (DM) is presented with the DM connected to the visible sector via a gauged U(1) portal. We discuss the symmetry breaking in this model and calculate the mass and mixings of the extra heavy neutral gauge boson at the TeV scale. The extra gauge boson can decay to both standard model particles as well to dark matter. We calculate the relic density of the singlet fermion dark matter and its direct detection cross section and use these constraints to obtain the allowed parameter range for the new gauge coupling and the dark matter mass.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Galactic cosmic-ray modulation near the heliopause

We investigate the modulation of galactic cosmic rays in the inner and outer heliosheaths using three-dimensional numerical simulations. The model is based on the Parker transport equation integrated using a stochastic phase-space trajectory method. Integration is performed on a plasma background obtained from a global three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Our results predict a negligible amount of modulation in the outer heliosheath because of weak scattering of cosmic ray ions owing to very low levels of magnetic fluctuation power at wavenumbers relevant to the transport of cosmic rays with MeV to GeV energies. This means that the heliopause may be treated as a Dirichlet-type boundary for the purpose of energetic particle modeling. We present models with and without drift velocity to facilitate comparison with papers published earlier. We also attempt to reproduce the sudden step-like increases of cosmic-ray intensity observed by Voyager 1 before its encounter with the heliopause. Our results indicate that very slow cross-field diffusion in the outer heliosheath could produce a large gradient of cosmic rays inside the heliospheric boundary. The resulting large gradient in cosmic-ray intensity near the heliopause qualitatively agrees with recent Voyager 1 observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Astrophysical Tests of Dark Matter with Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer

We discuss how astrophysical observations with the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE), a high-multiplexity (about 4300 fibers), wide field-of-view (1.5 square degree), large telescope aperture (11.25 m) facility, can probe the particle nature of dark matter. MSE will conduct a suite of surveys that will provide critical input for determinations of the mass function, phase-space distribution, and internal density profiles of dark matter halos across all mass scales. N-body and hydrodynamical simulations of cold, warm, fuzzy and self-interacting dark matter suggest that non-trivial dynamics in the dark sector could have left an imprint on structure formation. Analysed within these frameworks, the extensive and unprecedented datasets produced by MSE will be used to search for deviations away from cold and collisionless dark matter model. MSE will provide an improved estimate of the local density of dark matter, critical for direct detection experiments, and will improve estimates of the J-factor for indirect searches through self-annihilation or decay into Standard Model particles. MSE will determine the impact of low mass substructures on the dynamics of Milky Way stellar streams in velocity space, and will allow for estimates of the density profiles of the dark matter halos of Milky Way dwarf galaxies using more than an order of magnitude more tracers. In the low redshift Universe, MSE will provide critical redshifts to pin down the luminosity functions of vast numbers of satellite systems, and MSE will be an essential component of future strong lensing measurements to constrain the halo mass function. Across nearly all mass scales, the improvements offered by MSE, in comparison to other facilities, are such that the relevant analyses are limited by systematics rather than statistics.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2026

Quark-universal U(1) breaking scalar at the LHC

If the quarks or leptons are charged under a new U(1) gauge symmetry, then besides a Z′ boson there must exist at least one new boson whose decay products include Standard Model particles. In the case of a minimal symmetry breaking sector, that new boson is a scalar ϕ that couples to the Z′ boson as well as to the new fermions required to cancel the U(1) gauge anomalies. The scalar may be produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in association with a Z′ boson, or through Z′ boson fusion, while its decays are typically into four jets or two photons. We analyze in detail the case where the Z′ boson is leptophobic, and all the quarks have the same charge under the new U(1). If ϕ mixes with the Standard Model Higgs boson, then the new scalar can also be produced via gluon fusion, and the discovery mode is likely to be a diphoton resonance.

Armbruster, Lorin [Mainz U., Inst. Phys.; U. Mainz↗

DOE OSTI2012

The four basic ways of creating dark matter through a portal

We consider the possibility that along the thermal history of the Universe, dark matter (DM) would have been created from Standard Model particles, either through a kinetic mixing portal to an extra U(1) gauge field, or through the Higgs portal. Depending solely on the DM particle mass, on the portal and on the DM hidden sector interaction, we show how the observed DM relic density can be obtained. There are four possible freeze-in/reannihilation/freeze-out regimes, which together result in a simple characteristic relic density phase diagram, with the shape of a ''Mesa''. In the case of the kinetic mixing portal, we show that, unlike other freeze-in scenarios discussed in the literature, the freeze-in regime can be probed by forthcoming DM direct detection experiments. These results are well representative of any scenario where a DM hidden sector would be created out of the Standard Model (sector)

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Correlation between dark matter and dark radiation in string compactifications

Reheating in string compactifications is generically driven by the decay of the lightest modulus which produces Standard Model particles, dark matter and light hidden sector degrees of freedom that behave as dark radiation. This common origin allows us to find an interesting correlation between dark matter and dark radiation. By combining present upper bounds on the effective number of neutrino species N{sub eff} with lower bounds on the reheating temperature as a function of the dark matter mass m{sub DM} from Fermi data, we obtain strong constraints on the (N{sub eff}, m{sub DM})-plane. Most of the allowed region in this plane corresponds to non-thermal scenarios with Higgsino-like dark matter. Thermal dark matter can be allowed only if N{sub eff} tends to its Standard Model value. We show that the above situation is realised in models with perturbative moduli stabilisation where the production of dark radiation is unavoidable since bulk closed string axions remain light and do not get eaten up by anomalous U(1)s.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Search for low-mass hidden-valley dark showers with non-prompt muon pairs in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV

A search for signatures of a dark analog to quantum chromodynamics is performed. The analysis targets long-lived dark mesons that decay into standard-model particles, with a high branching fraction of the dark mesons decaying into muons. The dark mesons are formed by the hadronisation of dark partons, which are produced by a decay of the Higgs boson. The search is performed using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.6 fb −1 , which was collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2018 using non-prompt muon triggers. The search is based on resonant muon pair signatures. Machine-learning techniques are employed in the analysis, utilising boosted decision trees to discriminate between signal and background. No significant excess is observed above the standard model expectation. Upper limits on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson decaying to dark partons are determined to be as low as 10−4 at 95% confidence level, surpassing and extending the existing limits on models with dark $\tilde{ω}$ mesons for mean proper decay lengths of less than 500 mm and for $\tilde{ω}$ masses down to 0.3 GeV. First limits are set for extended dark-shower models with two dark flavours that contain dark photons, probing their masses down to 0.33 GeV.

Beyond Standard Model↗