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DOE OSTI2026

Quantum kinetic modeling of KEEN waves in a warm-dense regime

We report the first fully kinetic, quantum study of kinetic electrostatic electron nonlinear (KEEN) waves, showing that quantum diffraction systematically erodes the classical trapping mechanism, narrows harmonic locking to the fundamental, and hastens post-drive decay. Electrons are evolved with a second-order Strang-split 1D1V Wigner–Poisson solver that couples conservative semi-Lagrangian WENO advection to an analytic Fourier space update for the non-local Wigner term, while ions remain classical. We focus on collisionless dynamics in a weakly coupled regime, providing a controlled baseline before collisional extensions. Short, frequency-tuned ponderomotive pulses drive KEEN formation in a uniform Maxwellian plasma; as the dimensionless quantum parameter H rises from the classical limit to values relevant to warm-dense matter, doped semiconductors, and 2D electron systems, the drive threshold increases, higher harmonics are damped, trapped electron vortices diffuse, and the subplasma electrostatic energy relaxes to a lower stationary level, as confirmed by continuous wavelet analysis. These microscopic changes carry macroscopic weight. Ignition-scale capsules now compress matter to regimes where the electron de Broglie wavelength rivals the Debye length, making classical kinetic descriptions insufficient. By extending KEEN physics into this quantum domain, our results offer a potential diagnostic of non-equilibrium electron dynamics for next-generation inertial-confinement designs and high-energy-density platforms, indicating that predictive fusion modeling may benefit from the integration of kinetic fidelity with quantum effects.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2011

SIMULATIONS OF TURBULENT DYNAMOS DRIVEN BY THE MAGNETIC HELICITY FLUX

We present results of numerical simulations of driven magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in a periodic box with an imposed large-scale sinusoidal shear. We produce strong large-scale magnetic fields through dynamo action. This dynamo action is highly dependent on the spectral properties of the forcing function. In particular, we can produce either dynamo or antidynamo action by choosing particular forcing functions for the small-scale turbulence. Our results show that the large-scale electromotive force is well correlated with the local accumulation of eddy-scale magnetic helicity. Conversely, the electromotive force is very weakly correlated with the large-scale magnetic field strength or its product with kinetic helicity. We argue that in these simulations large-scale dynamo action is driven by an inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, ultimately caused by the tendency of anisotropic turbulence to create a magnetic helicity flux.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei with tidal disruption of stars. II. Axisymmetric nuclei

The tidal disruption (TD) of stars by supermassive central black holes from dense rotating star clusters is modeled by high-accuracy direct N-body simulations. As in a previous paper on spherical star clusters, we study the time evolution of the stellar tidal disruption rate and the origin of tidally disrupted stars, which are now accorded to several classes of orbits that only occur in axisymmetric systems (short-axis tube and saucer orbits). Compared with that in spherical systems, we found a higher TD rate in axisymmetric systems. The enhancement can be explained by an enlarged loss cone in phase space that stems from the fact that the total angular momentum J is not conserved. As in the case of spherical systems, the distribution of the last apocenter distance of tidally accreted stars peaks at the classical critical radius. However, the angular distribution of the origin of the accreted stars reveals interesting features. Inside the influence radius of the supermassive black hole the angular distribution of disrupted stars has a conspicuous bimodal structure with a local minimum near the equatorial plane. Outside of the influence radius this dependence is weak. We show that the bimodal structure of orbital parameters can be explained by the presence of two families of regular orbits, namely short-axis tube and saucer orbits. Also, we present the consequences of our results for the loss cone in axisymmetric galactic nuclei.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Noise from undetected sources in Dark Energy Survey images

ABSTRACT For ground-based optical imaging with current CCD technology, the Poisson fluctuations in source and sky background photon arrivals dominate the noise budget and are readily estimated. Another component of noise, however, is the signal from the undetected population of stars and galaxies. Using injection of artifical galaxies into images, we demonstrate that the measured variance of galaxy moments (used for weak gravitational lensing measurements) in Dark Energy Survey (DES) images is significantly in excess of the Poisson predictions, by up to 30 per cent, and that the background sky levels are overestimated by current software. By cross-correlating distinct images of ‘empty’ sky regions, we establish that there is a significant image noise contribution from undetected static sources (US), which, on average, are mildly resolved at DES resolution. Treating these US as a stationary noise source, we compute a correction to the moment covariance matrix expected from Poisson noise. The corrected covariance matrix matches the moment variances measured on the injected DES images to within 5 per cent. Thus, we have an empirical method to statistically account for US in weak lensing measurements, rather than requiring extremely deep sky simulations. We also find that local sky determinations can remove most of the bias in flux measurements, at a small penalty in additional, but quantifiable, noise.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2019

Magnetic properties of the low-dimensional Ba M 2 Si 2 O 7 system ( M = Cu , Co , Mn )

Here, we explored the magnetic properties of the low-dimensional Ba M 2 Si 2 O 7 (M = Cu, Co, and Mn) system using both experimental measurements and theoretical calculations. Magnetization, specific heat, and single crystal neutron diffraction measurements have been performed on single crystal Ba M 2 Si 2 O 7 . The spin structure was determined and a magnetic phase diagram with applied field along the b axis was constructed, which contains a spin flop transition around 6 T. Magnetization and specific heat measurements confirmed the presence of weak ferromagnetism in Ba M 2 Si 2 O 7 . Furthermore, we performed local-spin density approximation with on-site Coulomb energy (LSDA+U) calculations for the Ba M 2 Si 2 O 7 (M = Cu, Co, and Mn) system. Due to the first-principles calculations, the origin of the magnetic differences of the three materials is discussed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2023

Decay rates of almost strong modes in Floquet spin chains beyond Fermi's Golden Rule

The stability and dynamics of almost strong zero and π modes in weakly nonintegrable Floquet spin chains are investigated. Such modes can also be viewed as localized Majorana modes at the edge of a topological superconductor. Perturbation theory in the strength of integrability breaking interaction J z is employed to estimate the decay rates of these modes, and compared to decay rates obtained from exact diagonalization. Here, the structure of the perturbation theory and thus the lifetime of the modes is governed by the conservation of quasienergy modulo 2π/T, where T is the period of the Floquet system. If there are 4n – 1 bulk excitations whose quasienergies add up to zero (or π/T for a π mode), one obtains a decay channel of the Majorana mode with a decay rate proportional to $J$$^{2n}_{z}$. Thus the lifetime is sensitively controlled by the width of the single-particle Floquet bands. For regimes where the decay rates are quadratic in J z , an analytic expression for the decay rate in terms of an infinite temperature autocorrelation function of the integrable model is derived, and shown to agree well with exact diagonalization.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2020

First Results on Dark Matter Substructure from Astrometric Weak Lensing

Low-mass structures of dark matter (DM) are expected to be entirely devoid of light-emitting regions and baryons. Precisely because of this lack of baryonic feedback, small-scale substructures of the Milky Way are a relatively pristine testing ground for discovering aspects of DM microphysics and primordial fluctuations on subgalactic scales. In this work, we report results from the first search for Galactic DM subhalos with time-domain astrometric weak gravitational lensing. The analysis is based on a matched-filter template of local lensing corrections to the proper motion of stars in the Magellanic Clouds. We describe a data analysis pipeline detailing sample selection, background subtraction, and handling outliers and other systematics. For tentative candidate lenses, we identify a signature based on an anomalous parallax template that can unequivocally confirm the presence of a DM lens, opening up prospects for robust discovery potential with full time-series data. We present our constraints on substructure fraction f l ≲5 at 90% CL (and f l ≲2 at 50% CL) for compact lenses with radii r l <1pc, with best sensitivity reached for lens masses M l around 10 7 -10 8 M ⊙ . Parametric improvements are expected with future astrometric data sets; by end of mission, Gaia could reach f l ≲10 -3 for these massive point-like objects, and be sensitive to lighter and/or more extended subhalos for O(1) substructure fractions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Application of transient CHI plasma startup to future ST and AT devices

Employment of non-inductive plasma start-up techniques would considerably simplify the design of a spherical tokamak fusion reactor. Transient coaxial helicity injection (CHI) is a promising method, expected to scale favorably to next-step reactors. However, the implications of reactor-relevant parameters on the initial breakdown phase for CHI have not yet been considered. Here, we evaluate CHI breakdown in reactor-like configurations using an extension of the Townsend avalanche theory. We find that a CHI electrode concept in which the outer vessel wall is biased to achieve breakdown, while previously successful on NSTX and HIT-II, may exhibit a severe weakness when scaled up to a reactor. On the other hand, concepts which employ localized biasing electrodes such as those used in QUEST would avoid this issue. Assuming that breakdown can be successfully attained, we then apply scaling relationships to predict plasma parameters attainable in the transient CHI discharge. Assuming the use of 1 Wb of injector flux, we find that plasma currents of 1 MA should be achievable. Furthermore, these plasmas are expected to Ohmically self-heat with more than 1 MW of power as they decay, facilitating efficient hand-off to steady-state heating sources. These optimistic scalings are supported by TSC simulations.

Avalanche↗

DOE OSTI2013

PV output smoothing using a battery and natural gas engine-generator.

In some situations involving weak grids or high penetration scenarios, the variability of photovoltaic systems can affect the local electrical grid. In order to mitigate destabilizing effects of power fluctuations, an energy storage device or other controllable generation or load can be used. This paper describes the development of a controller for coordinated operation of a small gas engine-generator set (genset) and a battery for smoothing PV plant output. There are a number of benefits derived from using a traditional generation resource in combination with the battery; the variability of the photovoltaic system can be reduced to a specific level with a smaller battery and Power Conditioning System (PCS) and the lifetime of the battery can be extended. The controller was designed specifically for a PV/energy storage project (Prosperity) and a gas engine-generator (Mesa Del Sol) currently operating on the same feeder in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A number of smoothing simulations of the Prosperity PV were conducted using power data collected from the site. By adjusting the control parameters, tradeoffs between battery use and ramp rates could be tuned. A cost function was created to optimize the control in order to balance, in this example, the need to have low ramp rates with reducing battery size and operation. Simulations were performed for cases with only a genset or battery, and with and without coordinated control between the genset and battery, e.g., without the communication link between sites or during a communication failure. The degree of smoothing without coordinated control did not change significantly because the battery dominated the smoothing response. It is anticipated that this work will be followed by a field demonstration in the near future.

Johnson, Jay Dean↗

DOE OSTI2019

Blue crab larval dispersal highlights population connectivity and implications for fishery management

In the Western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (GOM), the blue crab Callinectes sapidus fishery is managed at regional scale and its assessment does not consider the population structure of the species. To understand connectivity of the blue crab population, we simulated larval dispersal using a biophysical model driven by high-resolution ocean currents and including early life-history traits of the species. Simulations were conducted during 2015 and 2016, and larvae were released from locations along Florida’s GOM and Atlantic coasts. A high degree of local larval retention was observed in Florida’s GOM waters, mainly during summer when weak southeastern winds tend to yield a shoreward net flow. Results demonstrated clear evidence of connectivity between the Gulf coast of Florida population and those of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, suggesting that the blue crab populations in the GOM are intermixed and the hypothesized boundary (in Florida) of two stocks needs further consideration. Outputs of the model also indicated connectivity between the blue crab populations of Florida’s Gulf coast and the South-Atlantic Bight (SAB). Larval trajectories show inter-annual variability driven by the interaction of winds, Loop Current (LC) intrusions in the northern GOM, LC eddies and their cyclonic counterparts, and the Mississippi River plume. The latter provides a conduit for larval transport from the GOM to the SAB. These findings provide evidence of the physical oceanographic processes that sustain the homogenous genetic population structure for blue crabs between SAB and GOM populations, highlighting the need for collaborative management in US waters.

Criales, Maria M.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Light Confinement in Twisted Single-Layer 2D+ Moiré Photonic Crystals and Bilayer Moiré Photonic Crystals

Twisted photonic crystals are photonic analogs of twisted monolayer materials such as graphene and their optical property studies are still in their infancy. This paper reports optical properties of twisted single-layer 2D+ moiré photonic crystals where there is a weak modulation in z direction, and bilayer moiré-overlapping-moiré photonic crystals. In weak-coupling bilayer moiré-overlapping-moiré photonic crystals, the light source is less localized with an increasing twist angle, similar to the results reported by the Harvard research group in References 37 and 38 on twisted bilayer photonic crystals, although there is a gradient pattern in the former case. In a strong-coupling case, however, the light source is tightly localized in AA-stacked region in bilayer PhCs with a large twist angle. For single-layer 2D+ moiré photonic crystals, the light source in Ex polarization can be localized and forms resonance modes when the single-layer 2D+ moiré photonic crystal is integrated on a glass substrate. This study leads to a potential application of 2D+ moiré photonic crystal in future on-chip optoelectronic integration.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2026

Magnetohydrodynamic Wave Mode Conversion in a Pseudostreamer Structure

The interaction of a fast magnetoacoustic wave with a magnetic null point in a pseudostreamer magnetic configuration is modeled. The incident fast wave is excited by an impulsive velocity driver located in the corona outside the Alfvén-acoustic equipartition layer. The fast wave front experiences refraction and wraps around the null point, while the front segment approaching the null point along the magnetic bisector passes through it. In the equipartition layer surrounding the null point, part of the fast wave energy is converted into slow magnetoacoustic waves. Slow waves propagate outward from the null point along the magnetic separatrices. The fronts of slow waves exhibit a characteristic chevron shape. The fast-to-slow mode conversion efficiency increases with the width of the initial perturbation, following a power-law dependence with an index of approximately 1.06. For initial wave amplitudes below about 10% of the local Alfvén speed, the dependence of the conversion efficiency on the initial amplitude is weak. After interacting with the null point, the amplitudes of the fast waves decrease significantly owing to energy conversion and the spreading of wave energy over a broad spatial domain. In contrast, the energy of slow waves remains concentrated in the vicinity of the magnetic separatrices, resulting in less pronounced geometric attenuation of these waves. These findings are consistent with observational reports of the interaction of a coronal fast wave with a pseudostreamer.

Zhong, Yu [Univ. of Warwick, Coventry (United King↗

NASA NTRS1983

A theory of rotating stall of multistage axial compressors

A theoretical analysis was made of rotating stall in axial compressors of many stages, finding conditions for a permanent, straight-through traveling disturbance, with the steady compressor characteristic assumed known, and with simple lag processes ascribed to the flows in the inlet, blade passages, and exit regions. For weak disturbances, predicted stall propagation speeds agree well with experimental results. For a locally-parabolic compressor characteristic, an exact nonlinear solution is found and discussed. For deep stall, the stall-zone boundary is most abrupt at the trailing edge, as expected. When a complete characteristic having unstalling and reverse-flow features is adopted, limit cycles governed by a Lienard's equation are found. Analysis of these cycles yields predictions of recovery from rotating stall; a relaxation oscillation is found at some limiting flow coefficient, above which no solution exists. Recovery is apparently independent of lag processes in the blade passages, but instead depends on the lags originating in the inlet and exit flows, and also on the shape of the given characteristic diagram. Small external lags and tall diagrams favor early recovery. Implications for future research are discussed.

Moore, F. K.↗

NASA NTRS1988

The velocity pattern of weak solar magnetic fields

The proper motion of magnetic elements on the quiet sun has been measured by means of local correlation tracking. The existence of a pattern in the intranetwork (IN) flow is confirmed. This velocity field is consistent with the direct Doppler measurement of the horizontal component of the supergranular velocity field. The IN elements generally move toward the network boundaries. By tracking test points, it is confirmed that the magnetic elements converge in areas corresponding to the magnetic network. But because the IN elements are of random polarity, they cannot contribute to the growth or maintenance of the magnetic network. By calculating the cross correlation between the magnetogram and Dopplergram, it is confirmed that the supergranule boundaries and the magnetic network are roughly correlated.

Wang, H.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Equilibrium wave spectrum and sea state bias in satellite altimetry

For a well-developed sea at equilibrium with a constant wind, the energy-containing range of the wavenumber spectrum for wind-generated gravity waves is approximated by a generalized power law involving the angular spread function and mu, interpreted as a fractal codimension of a small surface patch. Dependence of mu on the wave age is estimated, and the 'Phillips constant', beta, along with the low-wavenumber boundary, k0, of the inertial subrange are analyzed on the basis of the wave action and energy conservation principles. The resulting expressions are employed to evaluate various non-Gaussian statistics of a weakly nonlinear sea surface, which determine the sea state bias in satellite altimetry. The locally accelerated decay of the spectral density function in a high-wavenumber dissipation subrange is pointed out as an important factor of wave dynamics and the geometrical optics treatment of the sea state bias. The analysis is carried out in the approximation of a unidirectional wave field and confined to the case of a well-developed sea.

Glazman, Roman E.↗

NASA NTRS2007

The Evolution of Modulated Wavetrains Into Turbulent Spots

Experiment are being carried out to study the process by which th almost periodic disturbance waves generated naturally by the freestream evolve into turbulence. The boundary layer on a flat plate has been used for this study. The novelty of the approach is in the form of artificial excitation that is used. In this work the flow is excited artificially by deterministic white noise. The weak T-S wave created develops down stream, becomes nonlinear and blows up locally onto a highly distorted flow. These large local distortions of the mean flow allow very high frequency disturbances to grow and form into small turbulent spots. The spots arise from the excitation, and if the same noise sequence is repeated a spot will form at the same position and time instant relative to the excitation.

Gaster, M.↗

NASA NTRS2014

A Measurement of the Millimeter Emission and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Associated with Low-Frequency Radio Sources

We present a statistical analysis of the millimeter-wavelength properties of 1.4 GHz-selected sources and a detection of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect associated with the halos that host them. We stack data at 148, 218 and 277 GHz from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope at the positions of a large sample of radio AGN selected at 1.4 GHz. The thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect associated with the halos that host the AGN is detected at the 5 sigma level through its spectral signature, representing a statistical detection of the SZ effect in some of the lowest mass halos (average M(sub 200) approximately equals 10(sup 13) solar mass h(sub 70)(exp −1) ) studied to date. The relation between the SZ effect and mass (based on weak lensing measurements of radio galaxies) is consistent with that measured by Planck for local bright galaxies. In the context of galaxy evolution models, this study confirms that galaxies with radio AGN also typically support hot gaseous halos. Adding Herschel observations allows us to show that the SZ signal is not significantly contaminated by dust emission. Finally, we analyze the contribution of radio sources to the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background.

radio continuum↗

NASA NTRS2015

High-Energy Solar Particle Events in Cycle 24

The Sun is already in the declining phase of cycle 24, but the paucity of high-energy solar energetic particle (SEP) events continues with only two ground level enhancement (GLE) events as of March 31, 2015. In an attempt to understand this, we considered all the large SEP events of cycle 24 that occurred until the end of 2014. We compared the properties of the associated CMEs with those in cycle 23. We found that the CME speeds in the sky plane were similar, but almost all those cycle-24 CMEs were halos. A significant fraction of (16%) of the frontside SEP events were associated with eruptive prominence events. CMEs associated with filament eruption events accelerate slowly and attain peak speeds beyond the typical GLE release heights. When we considered only western hemispheric events that had good connectivity to the CME nose, there were only 8 events that could be considered as GLE candidates. One turned out to be the first GLE event of cycle 24 (2012 May 17). In two events, the CMEs were very fast (>2000 km/s) but they were launched into a tenuous medium (high Alfven speed). In the remaining five events, the speeds were well below the typical GLE CME speed (~2000 km/s). Furthermore, the CMEs attained their peak speeds beyond the typical heights where GLE particles are released. We conclude that several factors contribute to the low rate of high-energy SEP events in cycle 24: (i) reduced efficiency of shock acceleration (weak heliospheric magnetic field), (ii) poor latitudinal and longitudinal connectivity), and (iii) variation in local ambient conditions (e.g., high Alfven speed).

Solar Cycle 24↗