Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “PURE STATES”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1982

The satellites of Uranus

Observations and the probable natures of the five known satellites of Uranus are reviewed. Photographic, photoelectric and CCD photometry of the satellites since 1961, although in agreement within experimental error, is not as mutually consistent as may be expected, and broadband JHK photometry falls in a portion of the J-H, H-K color diagram difficult to interpret. Spectrophotometry in the range 0.3-1.1 microns taken on two separate occasions is inconsistent, with only the relatively neutral reflectances of Titania and Oberon regarded as well established. Near-infrared spectrophotometry has revealed the presence of water ice or frost on the satellite surfaces, possibly in a very pure state, with spectra most similar to Ganymede. Estimations of the properties of the satellites from their surface geometric albedos, assumed mean densities and dynamics yield radii in the range 160-520 km, albedos on the order of 0.5 and densities of about 1.3 g/cu cm, similar to the icy Saturn satellites. The satellites are also believed to have formed after the event that caused the planet to tilt to its present obliquity.

Cruikshank, D. P.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Frequency and intensity analysis of the nu3, nu4, and nu6 bands of formaldehyde

The infrared spectra of the nu3, nu4, and nu6 bands of formaldehyde in the region from 890/cm to 1580/cm have been obtained at high resolution using tunable diode laser and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy. The transition frequencies have been analyzed using a Hamiltonian including terms through sextic in centrifugal distortion and including five interstate vibration-rotation coupling terms. Excited-state pure rotational transitions are also included in the data, and their frequencies are reproduced well. Individual measured line intensities are used to determine dipole derivatives and band strengths using the fully coupled, asymmetric top eigenvectors.

Reuter, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Non-oscillatory and non-diffusive solution of convection problems by the iteratively reweighted least-squares finite element method

A comparative description is presented for the least-squares FEM (LSFEM) for 2D steady-state pure convection problems. In addition to exhibiting better control of the streamline derivative than the streamline upwinding Petrov-Galerkin method, numerical convergence rates are obtained which show the LSFEM to be virtually optimal. The LSFEM is used as a framework for an iteratively reweighted LSFEM yielding nonoscillatory and nondiffusive solutions for problems with contact discontinuities; this method is shown to convect contact discontinuities without error when using triangular and bilinear elements.

Jiang, Bo-Nan↗
NASA NTRS1991

Alleviation of whirl-flutter on a joined-wing tilt-rotor aircraft configuration using active controls

The feasibility of using active controls to delay the onset of whirl-flutter on a joined-wing tilt rotor aircraft was investigated. The CAMRAD/JA code was used to obtain a set of linear differential equations which describe the motion of the joined-wing tilt-rotor aircraft. The hub motions due to wing/body motion is a standard input to CAMRAD/JA and were obtained from a structural dynamics model of a representative joined-wing tilt-rotor aircraft. The CAMRAD/JA output, consisting of the open-loop system matrices, and the airframe free vibration motion were input to a separate program which performed the closed-loop, active control calculations. An eigenvalue analysis was performed to determine the flutter stability of both open- and closed-loop systems. Sensor models, based upon the feedback of pure state variables and based upon hub-mounted sensors, providing physically measurable accelerations, were evaluated. It was shown that the onset of tilt-rotor whirl-flutter could be delayed from 240 to above 270 knots by feeding back vertical and span-wise accelerations, measured at the rotor hub, to the longitudinal cyclic pitch. Time response calculations at a 270-knot cruise condition showed an active cyclic pitch control level of 0.009 deg, which equates to a very acceptable 9 pound active-control force applied at the rotor hub.

Vanaken, Johannes M.↗
NASA NTRS1995

The Surface Compositions of Triton, Pluto, and Charon

Neptune's satellite Triton, and the planet-satellite binary Pluto and Charon, are the most distant planetary bodies on which ices have been directly detected. Triton and Pluto have very similar dimensions and mean densities, suggesting a similar or common origin. Through earth-based spectroscopic observations in the near-infrared, solid N2, CH4, and CO have been found on both bodies, with the additional molecule C02 on Triton. N2 dominates both surfaces, although the coverage is not spatially uniform. On Triton, the CH4 and CO are mostly or entirely frozen in the N2 matrix, while CO2 may be spatially segregated. On Pluto, some CH4 and the CO are frozen in the N2 matrix, but there is evidence for additional CH4 in a pure state, perhaps lying as a lag deposit on a subsurface layer of N2. Despite their compositional and dimensional similarities, Pluto and Triton are quite different from one another in detail. Additional hydrocarbons and other volatile ices have been sought spectroscopically but not yet have been detected. The only molecule identified on Pluto's satellite Charon is solid H2O, but the spectroscopic data are of low precision and admit the presence of other ices such as CH4.

Cruikshank, Dale P.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Candle Flames in Microgravity

This work is a study of a candle flame in a microgravity environment. The purpose of the work is to determine if a steady (or quasi-steady) flame can exist in a microgravity environment, study the characteristics of the steady flame, investigate the pre-extinction flame oscillations observed in a previous experiment in more detail, and finally, determine the nature of the interactions between two closely spaced candle flames. The candle flame is used as a model combustion system, in that in microgravity it is one of the only examples of a non-propagating, steady-state, pure diffusion flame. Others have used the candle to study a number of combustion phenomena including flame flicker, flame oscillations, electric field effects and enhanced and reduced gravitational effects in flames. The present work is a continuation of a small-scale Shuttle experiment on candle flames. That study showed that the candle flame lifetimes were on the order of 40 seconds, the flames were dim blue after a transient ignition period, and that just prior to extinction the flames oscillated spontaneously for about five seconds at a frequency of 1 Hz. The authors postulated that the gas phase in the immediate vicinity of the flame was quasi-steady. Further away from the flame, however, the assertion of a quasi-steady flame was less certain, thus the authors did not prove that a steady flame could exist. They also speculated that the short lifetime of the candle flame was due to the presence of the small, weakly perforated box that surrounded the candle. The Candle Flames in Microgravity (CFM) experiment, with revised hardware, was recently flown aboard the Mir orbiting station, and conducted inside the glovebox facility by Dr. Shannon Lucid. In addition to the purposes described above, the experiments were NASA's first ability to ascertain the merits of the Mir environment for combustion science studies. In this article, we present the results of that experiment. We are also in the process of developing a numerical model of the microgravity candle flame. The status and results of the modeling efforts to date are also presented.

Dietrich, Daniel L.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Candle Flames in Microgravity

This work is a study of a candle flame in a microgravity environment. The purpose of the work is to determine if a steady (or quasi-steady) flame can exist in a microgravity environment, study the characteristics of the steady flame, investigate the pre-extinction flame oscillations observed in a previous experiment in more detail, and finally, determine the nature of the interactions between two closely spaced candle flames. The candle flame in microgravity is used as a model of a non-propagating, steady-state, pure diffusion flame. The present work is a continuation of two small-scale, space-based experiments on candle flames, one on the Shuttle and the other on the Mir OS. The previous studies showed nearly steady dim blue flames with flame lifetimes as high as 45 minutes, and 1 Hz spontaneous flame oscillations prior to extinction. The present paper summarizes the results of the modeling efforts to date.

Daniel L Dietrich↗
NASA NTRS2017

Emulation of Condensed Fuel Flames Using a Burning Rate Emulator (BRE) in Microgravity

The Burning Rate Emulator (BRE) is a gaseous fuel burner developed to emulate the burning of condensed phase fuels. The current study details several tests at the NASA Glenn 5-s drop facility to test the BRE technique in microgravity conditions. The tests are conducted for two burner diameters, 25 mm and 50 mm respectively, with methane and ethylene as the fuels. The ambient pressure, oxygen content and fuel flow rate are additional parameters. The microgravity results exhibit a nominally hemispherical flame with decelerating growth and quasi-steady heat flux after about 5 seconds. The BRE burner was evaluated with a transient analysis to assess the extent of steady-state achieved. The burning rate and flame height recorded at the end of the drop are correlated using two steady-state purely diffusive models. A higher burning rate for the bigger burner as compared to theory indicates the significance of gas radiation. The effect of the ambient pressure and oxygen concentration on the heat of gasification are also examined.

flames↗
DOE OSTI2024

High temperature thermochemical energy storage materials

Disclosed are high enthalpy thermochemical energy storage materials that exhibit high thermal conductivity and stability at high temperature reaction conditions. Disclosed materials include hydride-based alloys that can undergo high temperature reversible hydrogenation/dehydrogenation reactions without phase change of any metal or metalloid components of the alloy. The materials undergo a reversible exothermic hydrogenation reaction to form a metal hydride and a ternary alloy that includes a high thermal conductivity metal that, in its pure state, would exhibit a phase change at the hydrogenation reaction conditions.

Ward, Patrick A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Spin Squeezing as a Probe of Emergent Quantum Orders

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments can reveal local properties in materials, but are often limited by the low signal-to-noise ratio. Spin squeezed states have an improved resolution below the Heisenberg limit in one of the spin components, and have been extensively used to improve the sensitivity of atomic clocks, for example [1]. Interacting and entangled spin ensembles with non-linear coupling are a natural candidate for implementing squeezing. Furthermore, we propose measurement of the spin-squeezing parameter that itself can act as a local probe of emergent orders in quantum materials. In particular, we demonstrate how to investigate an anisotropic electric field gradient via its coupling to the nuclear quadrupole moment. While squeezed spin states are pure, the squeezing parameter can be estimated for both pure and mixed states. We evaluate the range of fields and temperatures for which a thermal-equilibrium state is sufficient to improve the resolution in an NMR experiment and probe relevant parameters of the quadrupole Hamiltonian, including its anisotropy.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Single-qubit multi-party transmission using universal symmetric quantum cloning

This study considers the hypothetical quantum network case where Alice wishes to transmit one qubit of information (specifically a pure quantum state) to M parties, where M is some large number. The remote receivers locally perform single-qubit quantum state tomography on the transmitted qubits in order to compute the quantum state within some error rate (dependent on the tomography technique and the number of transmitted qubits). We show that with the use of an intermediate optimal symmetric universal quantum cloning machine (between Alice and the remote receivers) as a repeater-type node in a hypothetical quantum network, Alice can send significantly fewer qubits compared to direct transmission of the message qubits to each of the M remote receivers. This is possible due to two properties of quantum cloning. The first is that single qubit quantum clones retain the same Bloch angle as the initial quantum state. This means that if the mixed state of the quantum clone can be computed to high enough accuracy, the original pure quantum state can be inferred by extrapolating that vector to the surface of the Bloch sphere. The second property is that the state overlap of approximate quantum clones, with respect to the original pure quantum state, quickly converges (specifically for 1 → M , the limit of the fidelity as M goes to infinity is $\frac{2}{3}$). This means that Alice can prepare a constant number of qubits (which are then passed through the quantum cloning machine) in order to achieve a desired error rate if M is large enough. Combined, these two properties mean that for a large M , Alice can prepare many orders of magnitude fewer qubits in order to achieve the same single qubit transmission accuracy compared to the naive direct qubit transmission approach.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

A simple coin for a 2d entangled walk

We analyze the effect of a simple coin operator, built out of Bell pairs, in a 2d Discrete Quantum Random Walk (DQRW) problem. The specific form of the coin enables us to find analytical and closed form solutions to the recursion relations of the DQRW. The coin induces entanglement between the spin and position degrees of freedom, which oscillates with time and reaches a constant value asymptotically. We probe the entangling properties of the coin operator further, by two different measures. First, by integrating over the space of initial tensor product states, we determine the Entangling Power of the coin operator. Secondly, we compute the Generalized Relative Rényi Entropy between the corresponding density matrices for the entangled state and the initial pure unentangled state. Both the Entangling Power and Generalized Relative Rényi Entropy behaves similar to the entanglement with time. Finally, in the continuum limit, the specific coin operator reduces the 2d DQRW into two 1d massive fermions coupled to synthetic gauge fields, where both the mass term and the gauge fields are built out of the coin parameters.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Efficient verification of anticoncentrated quantum states

I present a method for estimating the fidelity F(μ, τ) between a preparable quantum state μ and a classically specified pure target state τ=|τ> <τ|, using simple quantum circuits and on-the-fly classical calculation (or lookup) of selected amplitudes of |τ>. The method is sample efficient for anticoncentrated states (including many states that are hard to simulate classically), with approximate cost 4ϵ –2 (1 – F)dpcoll where ϵ is the desired precision of the estimate, d is the dimension of the Hilbert space, and pcoll is the collision probability of the target distribution. Furthermore, this scaling is exponentially better than that of any method based on classical sampling. I also present a more sophisticated version of the method that uses any efficiently preparable and well-characterized quantum state as an importance sampler to further reduce the number of copies of μ needed. Though some challenges remain, this work takes a significant step toward scalable verification of complex states produced by quantum processors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantifying Quantum Chaos through Microcanonical Distributions of Entanglement

A characteristic feature of “quantum chaotic” systems is that their eigenspectra and eigenstates display universal statistical properties described by random matrix theory (RMT). However, eigenstates of local systems also encode structure beyond RMT. To capture this feature, we introduce a framework that allows us to compare the properties of eigenstates in local systems with those of pure random states. In particular, our framework defines a notion of distance between quantum state ensembles that utilizes the Kullback-Leibler divergence to compare the microcanonical distribution of entanglement entropy (EE) of eigenstates with a reference RMT distribution generated by pure random states (with appropriate constraints). This notion gives rise to a quantitative metric for quantum chaos that not only accounts for averages of the distributions but also higher moments. The differences in moments are compared on a highly resolved scale set by the standard deviation of the RMT distribution, which is exponentially small in system size. As a result, the metric can distinguish between chaotic and integrable behaviors and, in addition, quantify and compare the of chaos (in terms of proximity to RMT behavior) between two systems that are assumed to be chaotic. We implement our framework in local, minimally structured, Floquet random circuits, as well as a canonical family of many-body Hamiltonians, the mixed-field Ising model (MFIM). Importantly, for Hamiltonian systems, we find that the reference random distribution must be appropriately constrained to incorporate the effect of energy conservation in order to describe the ensemble properties of midspectrum eigenstates. The metric captures deviations from RMT across all models and parameters, including those that have been previously identified as strongly chaotic, and for which other diagnostics of chaos such as level spacing statistics look strongly thermal. In Floquet circuits, the dominant source of deviations is the second moment of the distribution, and this persists for all system sizes. For the MFIM, we find significant variation of the KL divergence in parameter space. Notably, we find a small region where deviations from RMT are minimized, suggesting that “maximally chaotic” Hamiltonians may exist in fine-tuned pockets of parameter space. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗
NASA NTRS2000

Thermal and Driven Stochastic Growth of Langmuir Waves in the Solar Wind and Earth's Foreshock

Statistical distributions of Langmuir wave fields in the solar wind and the edge of Earth's foreshock are analyzed and compared with predictions for stochastic growth theory (SGT). SGT quantitatively explains the solar wind, edge, and deep foreshock data as pure thermal waves, driven thermal waves subject to net linear growth and stochastic effects, and as waves in a pure SGT state, respectively, plus radiation near the plasma frequency f(sub p). These changes are interpreted in terms of spatial variations in the beam instability's growth rate and evolution toward a pure SGT state. SGT analyses of field distributions are shown to provide a viable alternative to thermal noise spectroscopy for wave instruments with coarse frequency resolution, and to separate f(sub p) radiation from Langmuir waves.

Cairns, Iver H.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Precision ultranarrow-linewidth resonance excitation (PURE) preparation of a molecular beam of nitric oxide molecules for inelastic scattering with argon

We recently reported a novel technique that utilizes narrow-linewidth lasers to selectively excite molecules into a pure quantum state with a well-resolved, tunable distribution of velocities [O. A. Krohn and D. W. Chandler, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 15(50), 12455–12463 (2024)]. We refer to the preparation of molecules by this technique as precision ultranarrow-linewidth resonant excitation (PURE) preparation. Here, in this study, we pair this PURE preparation methodology with active frequency stabilization of the quantum cascade laser that drives the excitation. In doing so, highly velocity-resolved packets of molecules are possible, with the limitations of this velocity resolution set by the stability of the laser locking and the spectral linewidth of the transition. We show that side-of-fringe locking to a Doppler-broadened absorption spectrum of our target molecule is sufficiently stable for PURE preparation of molecules for long timescales (several hours) with highly resolved velocity spreads (σ < 3 m/s). To demonstrate the scientific utility of this new capability, we present differential cross sections from scattering between a neat molecular beam of argon and a velocity-selected beam of nitric oxide (NO) in a pure quantum state. We observe well-resolved quantum diffraction oscillations in the forward-scattered collisions as well as general trends consistent with prior characterized collisions of NO + Ar.

Krohn, Olivia A. [Sandia National Laboratories (SN↗
NASA NTRS1976

A real-time optical data processing device

A novel liquid-crystal electro-optical device useful as a real-time input device in coherent optical data processing is described. The device is a special adaptation of an ac photoactivated liquid-crystal light valve, and utilizes a hybrid field effect (45 deg twisted nematic effect in OFF state and pure optical birefringence of the liquid crystal in ON state). A thin-film sandwich exerts photoelectric control over the optical birefringence of a thin liquid-crystal layer. Liquid-crystal layer thickness is successfully reduced without image degradation. The device offers high resolution (better than 100 lines/mm), contrast (better than 100/1), high speed (10 msec ON, 15 msec OFF), high input sensitivity, low power input, low fabrication cost, and can be operated at below 10 V rms. Preliminary measurements on device performance in level slicing, filtering, contrast reversal, and edge enhancement are under way.

Jacobson, A.↗