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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 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Multidimensional low-Mach number time-implicit hydrodynamic simulations of convective helium shell burning in a massive star

A realistic parametrization of convection and convective boundary mixing in conventional stellar evolution codes is still the subject of ongoing research. Furthermore, to improve the current situation, multidimensional hydrodynamic simulations are used to study convection in stellar interiors. Such simulations are numerically challenging, especially for flows at low Mach numbers which are typical for convection during early evolutionary stages. We explore the benefits of using a low-Mach hydrodynamic flux solver and demonstrate its usability for simulations in the astrophysical context. Simulations of convection for a realistic stellar profile are analyzed regarding the properties of convective boundary mixing. The time-implicit Seven-League Hydro (SLH) code was used to perform multidimensional simulations of convective helium shell burning based on a 25 M ⊙ star model. The results obtained with the low-Mach AUSM + -up solver were compared to results when using its non low-Mach variant AUSM B + -up. We applied well-balancing of the gravitational source term to maintain the initial hydrostatic background stratification. The computational grids have resolutions ranging from 180 × 90 2 to 810 × 540 2 cells and the nuclear energy release was boosted by factors of 3 × 10 3 , 1 × 10 4 , and 3 × 10 4 to study the dependence of the results on these parameters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Introducing the DREAMS Project: DaRk mattEr and Astrophysics with Machine Learning and Simulations

We introduce the DaRk mattEr and Astrophysics with Machine learning and Simulations (DREAMS) project, an innovative approach to understanding the astrophysical implications of alternative dark matter (DM) models and their effects on galaxy formation and evolution. The DREAMS project will ultimately comprise thousands of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations that simultaneously vary over DM physics, astrophysics, and cosmology in modeling a range of systems—from galaxy clusters to ultra-faint satellites. Such extensive simulation suites can provide adequate training sets for machine-learning-based analyses. This paper introduces two new cosmological hydrodynamical suites of warm dark matter (WDM), each comprising 1024 simulations generated using the arepo code. One suite consists of uniform-box simulations covering a ${(25\,{h}^{-1}\,{\rm{Mpc}})}^{3}$ volume, while the other consists of Milky Way zoom-ins with sufficient resolution to capture the properties of classical satellites. For each simulation, the WDM particle mass is varied along with the initial density field and several parameters controlling the strength of baryonic feedback within the IllustrisTNG model. We provide two examples, separately utilizing emulators and convolutional neural networks, to demonstrate how such simulation suites can be used to disentangle the effects of DM and baryonic physics on galactic properties. The DREAMS project can be extended further to include different DM models, galaxy formation physics, and astrophysical targets. In this way, it will provide an unparalleled opportunity to characterize uncertainties on predictions for small-scale observables, leading to robust predictions for testing the particle physics nature of DM on these scales.

cosmological parameters↗
DOE OSTI2021

Practical Effects of Integrating Temperature with Strang Split Reactions

For astrophysical reacting flows, operator splitting is commonly used to couple hydrodynamics and reactions. Each process operates independent of one another, but by staggering the updates in a symmetric fashion (via Strang splitting) second order accuracy in time can be achieved. However, approximations are often made to the reacting system, including the choice of whether or not to integrate temperature with the species. Here we demonstrate through a simple convergence test that integrating an energy equation together with reactions achieves the best convergence when modeling reactive flows with Strang splitting. Additionally, second order convergence cannot be achieved without integrating an energy or temperature equation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1989

Monte Carlo simulation of particle acceleration at astrophysical shocks

A Monte Carlo code was developed for the simulation of particle acceleration at astrophysical shocks. The code is implemented in Turbo Pascal on a PC. It is modularized and structured in such a way that modification and maintenance are relatively painless. Monte Carlo simulations of particle acceleration at shocks follow the trajectories of individual particles as they scatter repeatedly across the shock front, gaining energy with each crossing. The particles are assumed to scatter from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence on both sides of the shock. A scattering law is used which is related to the assumed form of the turbulence, and the particle and shock parameters. High energy cosmic ray spectra derived from Monte Carlo simulations have observed power law behavior just as the spectra derived from analytic calculations based on a diffusion equation. This high energy behavior is not sensitive to the scattering law used. In contrast with Monte Carlo calculations diffusive calculations rely on the initial injection of supra-thermal particles into the shock environment. Monte Carlo simulations are the only known way to describe the extraction of particles directly from the thermal pool. This was the triumph of the Monte Carlo approach. The question of acceleration efficiency is an important one in the shock acceleration game. The efficiency of shock waves efficient to account for the observed flux of high energy galactic cosmic rays was examined. The efficiency of the acceleration process depends on the thermal particle pick-up and hence the low energy scattering in detail. One of the goals is the self-consistent derivation of the accelerated particle spectra and the MHD turbulence spectra. Presumably the upstream turbulence, which scatters the particles so they can be accelerated, is excited by the streaming accelerated particles and the needed downstream turbulence is convected from the upstream region. The present code is to be modified to include a better description of particle scattering (pitch-angle instead of hard-sphere) and as iterative procedure for treating the self-excitation of the MHD turbulence.

Campbell, Roy K.↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Joint Roman Space Telescope and Rubin Observatory Synthetic Wide-Field Imaging Survey

We present and validate 20 deg(2) of overlapping synthetic imaging surveys representing the full depth of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope High-Latitude Imaging Survey (HLIS) and 5 yr of observations of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The two synthetic surveys are summarized, with reference to the existing 300 deg(2) of LSST simulated imaging produced as part of Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) Data Challenge 2 (DC2). Both synthetic surveys observe the same simulated DESC DC2 universe. For the synthetic Roman survey, we simulate for the first time fully chromatic images along with the detailed physics of the Sensor Chip Assemblies derived from lab measurements using the flight detectors. The simulated imaging and resulting pixel-level measurements of photometric properties of objects span a wavelength range of similar to 0.3-2.0 mu m. We also describe updates to the Roman simulation pipeline, changes in how astrophysical objects are simulated relative to the original DC2 simulations, and the resulting simulated Roman data products. We use these simulations to explore the relative fraction of unrecognized blends in LSST images, finding that 20-30 per cent of objects identified in LSST images with i-band magnitudes brighter than 25 can be identified as multiple objects in Roman images. These simulations provide a unique testing ground for the development and validation of joint pixel-level analysis techniques of ground- and space-based imaging data sets in the second half of the 2020s - in particular the case of joint Roman-LSST analyses.

gravitational lensing↗
DOE OSTI2025

athenapk

The LANL fork of the AthenaPK project, which contains curvlinear coordinates The Code is a set of modifications to AthenaPK, an existing open source 3D hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics simulation software for astrophysics, which enable simulation with uniform curvilinear geometries. Specifically it extends the existing Cartesian coordinates to uniform spherical coordinate and uniform cylindrical coordinate systems

Miller, Jonah [@LANL]↗
DOE OSTI2026

Comparing ICME simulations with scaled laboratory experiment

In stellar physics and astrophysics, numerical simulations and laboratory experiments are often compared to observational data to support their representation of the real world. However, there is also merit in comparing numerical simulations to properly scaled experiments, especially when the experiment and the simulation are both emulating the solar phenomena. Confirming the credibility of scaled experiments and their scaling with well-validated models is important to expand our knowledge of the associated physical phenomena. This is significant because experiments and simulations can be performed frequently, whereas observations may be limited by location, field of view, and missing data. In this work, we use the Alfvén Wave Solar atmosphere Model, a well-validated magnetohydrodynamic model, to simulate an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) and compare it to an experiment which provides a scaled analog to a physical ICME. The experiment was performed on the Big Red Ball facility and scaled using dimensionless parameters such as plasma β and magnetosonic Mach number to reproduce the main structure of an ICME. We compare the model-simulated temperature, density, and magnetic field to those from the experiment, as well as the scaling parameters used in the experiment, to those calculated from the simulation. This comparison is performed to further justify the scaling arguments made by the experiment. Additionally, the comparison would lead to the development of stronger scaling arguments for future experiments.

Bryant, K. [University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI ↗
NASA NTRS1992

Instabilities in astrophysical jets. II - Numerical simulations of slab jets

Numerical simulations of an unstable supersonic slab-symmetric jet are described. The instabilities within the jet are characterized by growing internal body waves and their coupled surface waves that are also predicted in linear perturbation theory. The characteristic theory of fluid dynamics is used to help interpret the wave morphologies. It is demonstrated that these waves can be excited by imposing an arbitrary disturbance. From the numerical simulations, it is found that the sound waves propagating against the flow slow down as they propagate outward, and they grow in amplitude. These waves eventually disrupt the jet at a certain length. This disruption length is related to the jet Mach number and the perturbation intensity. Thus, the Mach number of a jet observed with a radio telescope can be estimated by measuring the disruption length and estimating the perturbation intensity. The jet Mach numbers in radio tailed sources determined in this way agree quite well with estimates from ram pressure bending arguments. The wiggles and flares observed in many extragalactic jets, especially in tailed radio sources, appear to be intimately related to instabilities and the jet disruption process.

Zhao, Jun-Hui↗
DOE OSTI2021

`SkyPy`: A package for modelling the Universe

SkyPy is an open-source Python package for simulating the astrophysical sky. It comprises a library of physical and empirical models across a range of observables and a command-line script to run end-to-end simulations. The library provides functions that sample realisations of sources and their associated properties from probability distributions. Simulation pipelines are constructed from these models using a YAML-based configuration syntax, while task scheduling and data dependencies are handled internally and the modular design allows users to interface with external software. SkyPy is developed and maintained by a diverse community of domain experts with a focus on software sustainability and interoperability. By fostering development, it provides a framework for correlated simulations of a range of cosmological probes including galaxy populations, large scale structure, the cosmic microwave background, supernovae and gravitational waves. Version 0.4 implements functions that model various properties of galaxies including luminosity functions, redshift distributions and optical photometry from spectral energy distribution templates. Future releases will provide additional modules, for example, to simulate populations of dark matter halos and model the galaxy-halo connection, making use of existing software packages from the astrophysics community where appropriate.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Formation and Diagnostics of Collisionless Shocks in Laser-Produced Plasmas (Final Report)

Collisions of supersonic flows occur frequently in astrophysics, and the resulting shock waves are responsible for the properties of many astrophysical phenomena, such as supernova remnants, Gamma Ray Bursts and jets from Active Galactic Nuclei. Because of the low density of astrophysical plasmas, the mean free path due to Coulomb collisions is typically very large; therefore, most shock waves in astrophysics are “collisionless” and form due to plasma instabilities and self-generated magnetic fields. Laboratory experiments at DOE high energy density (HED) facilities can achieve the conditions necessary for the formation of collisionless shocks and will provide a unique avenue for studying the nonlinear physics of shock waves. This project investigates the parameters and experimental configurations needed for the creation of collisionless shocks in the laboratory experiments. This study is being performed with state of the art 3D kinetic plasma simulations. Recent advances in ab-initio particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of astrophysical shocks enable us to simulate shock formation on timescales and in geometries relevant to the laboratory experiments. The main goal of the proposal is to ascertain which signatures of shock physics can be extracted from the realistic experiments, accounting for limitations imposed by finite spatial and time scales in the lab. To aid the interpretation of current and future experimental data, PIC simulation data have been analyzed using the same diagnostic techniques as used in the laboratory, such as proton radiography and neutronics, to unambiguously predict the experimental signatures of relevant collisionless shock phenomena.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2003

Finite Element Method for Capturing Ultra-relativistic Shocks

While finite element methods are used extensively by researchers solving computational fluid dynamics in fields other than astrophysics, their use in astrophysical fluid simulations has been predominantly overlooked. Current simulations using other methods such as finite difference and finite volume (based on finite difference) have shown remarkable results, but these methods are limited by their fundamental properties in aspects that are important for simulations with complex geometries and widely varying spatial and temporal scale differences. We have explored the use of finite element methods for astrophysical fluids in order to establish the validity of using such methods in astrophysical environments. We present our numerical technique applied to solving ultra-relativistic (Lorentz Factor Gamma >> 1) shocks which are prevalent in astrophysical studies including relativistic jets and gamma-ray burst studies. We show our finite element formulation applied to simulations where the Lorentz factor ranges up to 2236 and demonstrate its stability in solving ultra-relativistic flows. Our numerical method is based on the Flowfield Dependent Variation (FDV) Method, unique in that numerical diffusion is derived from physical parameters rather than traditional artificial viscosity methods. Numerical instabilities account for most of the difficulties when capturing shocks in this regime. Our method results in stable solutions and accurate results as compared with other methods.

Richardson, G. A.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Laser Plasma Interaction in the MG Magnetic Field (Final Report)

Strong magnetic fields change properties of plasma. Employment of the magnetic fields can improve conditions for inertial confinement fusion. Compression and heating of the magnetized plasma is a base of the MagLIF pulsed power approach to the controlled fusion. Study of expansion and heating of plasma in the external magnetic fields, development of plasma instabilities, parametric and other effects are important for basic physics and applications. The main goal of the research for the grant was experimental investigation of laser produced plasma in the well characterized and controlled MG magnetic fields. We developed a platform for investigation of high intensity laser-plasma interaction (LPI) in the MG fields using a university-scale pulsed power machine. A Zebra machine at UNR generated transverse magnetic fields of 3 MG on the surface of the rod load and longitudinal fields of 1.4 MG in the coil loads. The magnetic fields were characterized with two-color Faraday rotation diagnostics. The pulsed power machine provided almost static magnetic fields for LPI compared to the much faster laser driven magnetic fields. We found that eddy currents in the rising magnetic field generate plasma on the metal targets. Eddy currents did not impact Si and CH dielectric targets. A Leopard laser with intensity in the focus up to 10 19 W/cm 2 produced plasma in the MG magnetic fields. The modified reflected Faraday diagnostics was used to study laser driven B-field at the MTW laser at Laboratory for Laser Energetics, UR. We demonstrated a slow dependence of the magnetic field in the coil on the applied laser intensity. The magnetic field increased by a factor of 2 if laser intensity increased by a factor of 30. This scaling is important for comparison of experiments at different laser facilities. Expansion of the plasma in the 2-3 MG external B-field was studied. Laser-produced plasma in the azimuthal magnetic field took the unique form of a thin disc expanding radially with a velocity of 250 km/s and confined in the vertical direction. A HYDRA MHD program at the University of Rochester was applied for simulations of LPI in the magnetic field B >3 MG. Simulations for the plasma disc parameters and the expansion dynamics were in a good agreement with experiments. Generation of narrow dense plasma jets in the longitudinal magnetic field of 0.6-0.8 MG was studied. Narrow plasma jets reached a length of 3-4 mm with the electron plasma density of (0.2-1.2)x10 20 cm -3 . A jet tip propagated with the velocity of 160-200 km/s. MHD simulations showed a good agreement of the dynamics of the formation of plasma jets with experiments. These jets are relevant to astrophysical jets. Simulations of K-shell spectra of Si plasma was performed for LPI in the B-field. The laser prepulse generated plasma near the laser target. A PrismSPECT model with a MeV electron beam produced by the laser was used. The spectral modelling showed the increased plasma density by a factor by 2-3 in the magnetic field. This was in agreement with the observed dynamics of the plasma plume confined by the axial magnetic field. The two-plasmon decay was studied in the 2.5-3 MG transversal magnetic fields. Strong 2-3.5 nm spectral widening and a 2-4 nm shifts of “red” and “blue” 3/2ω 0 spectral components were observed. The large shift and widening exceed the expected temperature and magnetic shift. PIC simulations are performing to clarify physics of this effect. The experimental research program for the grant is completed. New plasma effects in the MG fields were studied at the university-scale pulsed power generator. Two graduate and two undergraduate UNR and UR students carried experiments at the Zebra generator, supported and developed plasma diagnostics, provided data processing, and performed MHD simulations of LPI in the strong magnetic field. Research results are published in 9 referred papers and presented in 12 conferences. Program manager: Kramer U. Akli; Collaborators: R. C. Mancini and H. Sawada, University of Nevada, Reno (UNR); R. Betti and A. V. Maximov, University of Rochester (UR).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2000

X-Ray Astronomy

Dr. S. N. Zhang has lead a seven member group (Dr. Yuxin Feng, Mr. XuejunSun, Mr. Yongzhong Chen, Mr. Jun Lin, Mr. Yangsen Yao, and Ms. Xiaoling Zhang). This group has carried out the following activities: continued data analysis from space astrophysical missions CGRO, RXTE, ASCA and Chandra. Significant scientific results have been produced as results of their work. They discovered the three-layered accretion disk structure around black holes in X-ray binaries; their paper on this discovery is to appear in the prestigious Science magazine. They have also developed a new method for energy spectral analysis of black hole X-ray binaries; four papers on this topics were presented at the most recent Atlanta AAS meeting. They have also carried Monte-Carlo simulations of X-ray detectors, in support to the hardware development efforts at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). These computation-intensive simulations have been carried out entirely on the computers at UAH. They have also carried out extensive simulations for astrophysical applications, taking advantage of the Monte-Carlo simulation codes developed previously at MSFC and further improved at UAH for detector simulations. One refereed paper and one contribution to conference proceedings have been resulted from this effort.

Wu, S. T.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Simulating Turbulence-aided Neutrino-driven Core-collapse Supernova Explosions in One Dimension

The core-collapse supernova (CCSN) mechanism is fundamentally 3D, with instabilities, convection, and turbulence playing crucial roles in aiding neutrino-driven explosions. Simulations of CCNSe including accurate treatments of neutrino transport and sufficient resolution to capture key instabilities remain among the most expensive numerical simulations in astrophysics, prohibiting large parameter studies in 2D and 3D. Studies spanning a large swath of the incredibly varied initial conditions of CCSNe are possible in 1D, though such simulations must be artificially driven to explode. We present a new method for including the most important effects of convection and turbulence in 1D simulations of neutrino-driven CCSNe, called Supernova Turbulence In Reduced-dimensionality, or STIR. Our new approach includes crucial terms resulting from the turbulent and convective motions of the flow. We estimate the strength of convection and turbulence using a modified mixinglength theory approach, introducing a few free parameters to the model that are fit to the results of 3D simulations. For sufficiently large values of the mixing-length parameter, turbulence-aided neutrino-driven explosions are obtained. We compare the results of STIR to high-fidelity 3D simulations and perform a parameter study of CCSN explosion using 200 solar-metallicity progenitor models from 9 to 120 M ⊙ . We find that STIR is a better predictor of which models will explode in multidimensional simulations than other methods of driving explosions in 1D. We also present a preliminary investigation of predicted observable characteristics of the CCSN population from STIR, such as the distributions of explosion energies and remnant masses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Towards performance portability in the Spark astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics solver in the Flash-X simulation framework

Simulations of core-collapse supernovae, and other astrophysical phenomena, are quintessential extreme-scale computing challenges. For core-collapse supernova simulations to be carried out by the ExaStar project under the Exascale Computing Project umbrella, a robust, efficient, and state-of-the-art magnetohydrodynamics solver is a critical requirement. In Flash-X, the primary software instrument for ExaStar, a new magnetohydrodynamics solver has been designed and implemented from the ground up to achieve accuracy and efficiency for simulations of complex astrophysical flows. This new solver, dubbed Spark, uses high-order spatial reconstruction, Runge-Kutta time integration, and an efficient cell-centered approach to satisfying the divergence-free condition for the magnetic fields. Spark was written to be optimized for data locality in cache hierarchy of CPUs. Since data locality optimizations for cache hierarchy are not directly compatible with those of accelerators, we have taken the approach of using program synthesis to avoid massive amounts of code replication that would be necessary if we were to maintain two different versions of the solver. Our program synthesis relies on a simple key-dictionary approach, implemented in python, that enables us to assemble the version of the solver suitable for the target hardware from code fragments identified by specific keys. In this work, we describe the data locality optimizations of the solver for CPUs and accelerators and the program synthesis tools that enable this portability. We also detail the parallel performance of Spark for both CPUs and accelerators.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2010

The Kepler End-to-End Model: Creating High-Fidelity Simulations to Test Kepler Ground Processing

The Kepler mission is designed to detect the transit of Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars by observing 100,000 stellar targets. Developing and testing the Kepler ground-segment processing system, in particular the data analysis pipeline, requires high-fidelity simulated data. This simulated data is provided by the Kepler End-to-End Model (ETEM). ETEM simulates the astrophysics of planetary transits and other phenomena, properties of the Kepler spacecraft and the format of the downlinked data. Major challenges addressed by ETEM include the rapid production of large amounts of simulated data, extensibility and maintainability.

Bryson, Stephen T.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evidence for large baryonic feedback at low and intermediate redshifts from kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich observations with ACT and DESI photometric galaxies

Recent advances in cosmological observations have provided an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the distribution of baryons relative to the underlying matter. In this work, we show that the gas is more extended than the dark matter, and the amount of baryonic feedback at $z \lesssim 1$ disfavors low-feedback models such as that of state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG compared with high-feedback models such as that of the original Illustris simulation. This has important implications for bridging the gap between theory and observations and understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Furthermore, a better grasp of the baryon-dark matter link is critical to future cosmological analyses, which are currently impeded by our limited knowledge of baryonic feedback. Here, we measure the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), stacked on the luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) imaging survey. This is the first analysis to use photometric redshifts for reconstructing galaxy velocities. Due to the large number of galaxies comprising the DESI imaging survey, this is the highest signal-to-noise stacked kSZ measurement to date: we detect the signal at 13$σ$, finding strong evidence that the gas is more spread out than the dark matter, as well as a preference for larger feedback compared to some commonly used state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations. Here, our work opens up the possibility of recalibrating large hydrodynamical simulations using the kSZ effect. In addition, our findings highlight the importance of properly accounting for baryonic feedback with future surveys such as LSST through direct probes such as the kSZ, and shed light on long-standing enigmas in astrophysics, such as the “missing baryon” problem.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗