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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 109 records · Page 6

Modeling the Simultaneous Dropout of Energetic Electrons and Protons by Magnetopause Shadowing

Abstract Magnetopause shadowing (MPS) effect could drive a concurrent dropout of radiation belt electrons and ring current protons. However, its relative role in the dropout of both plasma populations has not been well quantified. In this work, we study the simultaneous dropout of MeV electrons and 100s keV protons during an intense geomagnetic storm in May 2017. A radial diffusion model with an event‐specific last closed drift shell is used to simulate the MPS loss of both populations. The model well captures the fast shadowing loss of both populations at L * > 4.6, while the loss at L * < 4.6, possibly due to the electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave scattering, is not captured. The observed butterfly pitch angle distributions of electron fluxes in the initial loss phase are well reproduced by the model. The initial proton losses at low pitch angles are underestimated, potentially also contributed by other mechanisms such as field line curvature scattering.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Nonlocal suppression of Biermann battery magnetic-field generation for arbitrary atomic numbers and magnetization

The Biermann battery term of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) generates a magnetic field where electron density gradients and electron temperature gradients are perpendicular to one another. Kinetic simulations and experiments have shown that the rate of magnetic-field generation is lower than Biermann when the electron mean free path becomes comparable to or greater than the temperature gradient scale length, known as the nonlocal regime. We investigate the nonlocal suppression of the Biermann term using simplified Fokker–Planck simulations covering a wide range of parameters. We provide the first fit for nonlocal Biermann suppression that has physically accurate behavior for small and large values of a suitable nonlocality parameter, valid for an arbitrary atomic number, and that includes the effect of magnetization on nonlocality. Lastly, the fit is intended to provide an approximate method to account for reduced magnetic-field generation in MHD codes and theory.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A Butterfly-Accelerated Volume Integral Equation Solver for Broad Permittivity and Large-Scale Electromagnetic Analysis

In this work, a butterfly-accelerated volume integral equation (VIE) solver is proposed for fast and accurate electromagnetic (EM) analysis of scattering from heterogeneous objects. The proposed solver leverages the hierarchical off-diagonal butterfly (HOD-BF) scheme to construct the system matrix and obtain its approximate inverse, used as a preconditioner. Complexity analysis and numerical experiments validate the O(N log 2 N) construction cost of the HOD-BF-compressed system matrix and O(N log 1.5 N) inversion cost for the preconditioner, where N is the number of unknowns in the high-frequency EM scattering problem. For many practical scenarios, the proposed VIE solver requires less memory and computational time to construct the system matrix and obtain its approximate inverse compared to a H matrix-accelerated VIE solver. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed solver have been demonstrated via its application to the EM analysis of large-scale canonical and real-world structures comprising of broad permittivity values and involving millions of unknowns.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Compton scattering from the deuteron above pion-production threshold

The electromagnetic polarizabilities of the nucleon are fundamental nucleon-structure observables that characterize its response to external electromagnetic fields. The neutron polarizabilities can be accessed from Compton-scattering data on light nuclear targets. Recent measurements of the differential cross section for Compton scattering on the deuteron below the pion-production threshold have decreased the uncertainties in the neutron polarizabilities, yet the proton polarizabilities remain known substantially more accurately. Here, as the sensitivity of the cross section to the polarizabilities increases with incident photon energy, measurements above the pion threshold may offer a way for an improved determination of the neutron polarizabilities. In this work, the first measurement of the cross section for Compton scattering on the deuteron above the pion-production threshold is presented.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Potential Constraints to Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions Based on Electron Scattering Data

A thorough understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions physics is crucial to achieving precision goals in broader neutrino physics programs. The complexity of nuclei comprising the detectors and limited understanding of their weak response constitutes one of the biggest systematic uncertainties in neutrino experiments - both at intermediate energies affecting the short- and long-baseline neutrino programs as well as at lower energies affecting coherent scattering neutrino programs. While electron and neutrino interactions are different at the primary vertex, many underlying relevant physical processes in the nucleus are the same in both cases, and electron scattering data collected with precisely controlled kinematics, large statistics and high precision allows one to constrain nuclear properties and specific interaction processes. To this end, electron-nucleus scattering experiments provide vital complementary information to test, assess and validate different nuclear models and event generators intended to be used in neutrino experiments. In fact, for many decades, the study of electron scattering off a nucleus has been used as a tool to probe the properties of that nucleus and its electromagnetic response. While previously existing electron scattering data provide important information, new and proposed measurements are tied closely to what is required for the neutrino program in terms of expanding kinematic reach, the addition of relevant nuclei and information on the final states hadronic system.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Precision Measurements of Electron-Proton Elastic Scattering Cross Sections at Large Q2

The electromagnetic form factors are fundamental quantities characterizing the internal structure of the nucleon. Their measurements have provided significant insight into the spatial distribution and interaction of quarks inside the proton. The knowledge of high Q2 form factors proves essential in understanding the properties of quantum chromodynamics in the transition region from non-perturbative to perturbative behavior. It also provides important links to generalized parton distributions, which describe the three-dimensional structure of hadrons at the parton level. In view of the significant theoretical research activities in this field, high quality experimental data are crucial for providing stringent tests and benchmarks to guide and test different models. The form factors can be accessed in experiments by measuring elastic scattering of electrons off a hydrogen target. Experiment E12-07-108, which took place at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, conducted precise measurements of the unpolarized e-p elastic scattering cross section over a Q2 range of 0.6-16.5 GeV2 . This thesis presents the results for 7 kinematic settings with total uncertainties that are 1.5 times smaller than those of the existing data at large Q2 . The proton magnetic form factors were extracted using a parameterization of the form factor ratio obtained from recent polarized e-p scattering experiments. Comparisons to existing global and phenomenological fits are presented.

Ou, Longwu↗

Combining Electromagnetic and Gravitational-Wave Constraints on Neutron-Star Masses and Radii

In this work, we perform a joint Bayesian inference of neutron-star mass and radius constraints based on GW170817, observations of quiescent low-mass x-ray binaries (QLMXBs), photospheric radius expansion x-ray bursting sources, and x-ray timing observations of J0030+0451. With this dataset, the form of the prior distribution still has an impact on the posterior mass-radius curves and equation of state (EOS), but this impact is smaller than recently obtained when considering QLMXBs alone. We analyze the consistency of the electromagnetic data by including an “intrinsic scattering” contribution to the uncertainties, and find only a slight broadening of the posteriors. This suggests that the gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations of neutron-star structure are providing a consistent picture of the neutron-star mass-radius curve and the EOS.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Relativistic Electron Precipitation Events Driven by Solar Wind Impact on the Earth's Magnetosphere

Certain forms of solar wind transients contain significant enhancements of dynamic pressure and may effectively drive magnetosphere dynamics, including substorms and storms. An integral element of such driving is the generation of a wide range of electromagnetic waves within the inner magnetosphere, either by compressionally heated plasma or by substorm plasma sheet injections. Consequently, solar wind transient impacts are traditionally associated with energetic electron scattering and losses into the atmosphere by electromagnetic waves. In this study, we show the first direct measurements of two such transient-driven precipitation events as measured by the low-altitude Electron Losses and Fields Investigation CubeSats. The first event demonstrates storm-time generated electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves efficiently precipitating sub-relativistic and relativistic electrons from >300 keV to 2 MeV at the duskside. The second event demonstrates whistler-mode waves leading to scattering of electrons from 50 to 700 keV on the dawnside. These observations confirm the importance of solar wind transients in driving energetic electron losses and subsequent dynamics in the ionosphere.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Conservative Binary Dynamics at Order 𝛼 5 in Electrodynamics

We compute the potential-photon contributions to the classical relativistic scattering angle of two charged nonspinning bodies in electrodynamics through fifth order in the coupling. We use the scattering amplitudes framework, effective field theory, and multiloop integration techniques based on integration by parts and differential equations. At fifth order, the result is expressed in terms of cyclotomic polylogarithms. Our calculation demonstrates the feasibility of the corresponding calculations in general relativity, including the evaluation of the encountered four-loop integrals.

classical electromagnetism↗

Interaction of radio frequency waves with cylindrical density filaments: scattering and radiation pressure

The propagation of radio-frequency (RF) waves in tokamaks can be affected by filamentary structures, or blobs, that are present in the edge plasma and the scrape-off layer. The difference in the permittivity between the surrounding plasma and interior of a filament leads to reflection, refraction and diffraction of the waves. This, in turn, can affect the power flow into the core of the plasma and reduce the efficiency of heating and/or current generation. The scattering of RF waves, lower hybrid, helicon and ion cyclotron waves, by a single cylindrical filament, embedded in a background plasma, is studied using a full-wave analytical theory developed previously (Ram & Hizanidis, Phys. Plasmas , vol. 23, 2016, 022504). The theory assumes that the plasma in and around a filament is homogeneous and cold. A detailed scattering analysis reveals a variety of common features that exist among the three distinctly different RF waves. These common attributes can be inferred intuitively based on an examination of the cold plasma dispersion relation. The physical intuition is a useful step to understanding experimental observations on scattering, as well as results from simulations that include general forms of edge plasma turbulence. While a filament can affect the propagation of RF waves, the radiation force exerted by the waves can influence the filament. The force on a filament is determined using the Maxwell stress tensor. In 1905, Poynting was the first to evaluate and measure the radiation force on an interface separating two different dielectric media (Poynting, London Edinburgh Dublin Philos. Mag. J. Sci. , vol. 9, 1905, pp. 393–406). For ordinary light propagating in vacuum and incident on a glass surface, Poynting noted that the surface is ‘pulled’ towards the vacuum. In a magnetized cold plasma, there are two independent wave modes. Even if only one of these modes is excited by an RF antenna, a filament will couple power to the other mode: a consequence of electromagnetic boundary conditions. This facet of scattering has consequences on the radiation force that go beyond Poynting's seminal contribution. The direction of the force depends on the polarization of the incident wave and on the mode structure of the waves inside and in the vicinity of a filament. It can either pull the filament toward the RF source or push it away. For slow lower hybrid waves, filaments with densities greater than the ambient density are pulled in, while filaments with lower densities are pushed out, thereby enhancing the density in front of the antenna. In the case of fast helicon and ion cyclotron waves, the direction of the force depends on the plasma and wave parameters; in particular, on the ambient density. The radiation force, in all three frequency ranges, is large enough to affect the motion of a filament and could be measured experimentally. This also suggests the possibility of modifying the edge turbulence using RF waves.

Physics↗

Interaction of radio frequency waves with cylindrical density filaments -- scattering and radiation pressure

The propagation of radio-frequency (RF) waves in tokamaks can be affected by filamentary structures, or blobs, that are present in the edge plasma and the scrape-off layer. The difference in the permittivity between the surrounding plasma and interior of a filament leads to reflection, refraction and diffraction of the waves. This, in turn, can affect the power flow into the core of the plasma and reduce the efficiency of heating and/or current generation. The scattering of RF waves, lower hybrid, helicon and ion cyclotron waves, by a single cylindrical filament, embedded in a background plasma, is studied using a full-wave analytical theory developed previously (Ram & Hizanidis, Phys. Plasmas, vol. 23, 2016, 022504). The theory assumes that the plasma in and around a filament is homogeneous and cold. A detailed scattering analysis reveals a variety of common features that exist among the three distinctly different RF waves. These common attributes can be inferred intuitively based on an examination of the cold plasma dispersion relation. The physical intuition is a useful step to understanding experimental observations on scattering, as well as results from simulations that include general forms of edge plasma turbulence. While a filament can affect the propagation of RF waves, the radiation force exerted by the waves can influence the filament. The force on a filament is determined using the Maxwell stress tensor. In 1905, Poynting was the first to evaluate and measure the radiation force on an interface separating two different dielectric media (Poynting, London Edinburgh Dublin Philos. Mag. J. Sci., vol. 9, 1905, pp. 393–406). For ordinary light propagating in vacuum and incident on a glass surface, Poynting noted that the surface is ‘pulled’ towards the vacuum. In a magnetized cold plasma, there are two independent wave modes. Even if only one of these modes is excited by an RF antenna, a filament will couple power to the other mode: a consequence of electromagnetic boundary conditions. This facet of scattering has consequences on the radiation force that go beyond Poynting's seminal contribution. The direction of the force depends on the polarization of the incident wave and on the mode structure of the waves inside and in the vicinity of a filament. It can either pull the filament toward the RF source or push it away. For slow lower hybrid waves, filaments with densities greater than the ambient density are pulled in, while filaments with lower densities are pushed out, thereby enhancing the density in front of the antenna. In the case of fast helicon and ion cyclotron waves, the direction of the force depends on the plasma and wave parameters; in particular, on the ambient density. The radiation force, in all three frequency ranges, is large enough to affect the motion of a filament and could be measured experimentally. This also suggests the possibility of modifying the edge turbulence using RF waves.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Metasurface-assisted 3D beam shaping using array of scatterers

Cascaded metasurfaces can control the phase, amplitude and polarization of an electromagnetic beam, shaping it in three dimensional configuration not achievable with other methods. Each cascaded metasurface has dielectric or metallic scatterers arranged in a period array. The shape of the scatterers determines the three dimensional configuration of the output beam and is determined with iterative calculations through computational simulations.

Kamali, Seyedeh Mahsa↗

Persistence of collectivity in the low-lying states of 30,31 Na inside the 𝑁 = 20 island of inversion

Near the 𝛽-stability line, nuclei with magic numbers are expected to exhibit spherical ground states. However, mass measurements of neutron-rich nuclei near the 𝑁 = 20 island of inversion have indicated an excess in the binding energies. These results, together with subsequent spectroscopic studies and theoretical works, point to the structural evolution from normal configurations to intruder-deformed configurations characterized by particle-hole excitations across the shell gap. Despite evidence of intruder-dominant ground states for the 30,31 Na isotopes in the vicinity of 𝑁 = 20, a question remains as to whether the deformation persists into the ground-state bands beyond the first excited states. Here, in this work, we report on a heavy-ion inelastic scattering measurement performed with GRETINA, the TRIPLEX device, and the S800 spectrograph to study the low-lying excitations in neutron-rich 30,31 Na . The observed gamma rays for the (4 + ) → (3 + ), (3 + ) → 2$^+_{g.s.}$, and (4 + ) → 2$^+_{g.s.}$ decays in 30 Na and for the (7/2 + ) → (5/2 + ) and (5/2 + )→3/2$^+_{g.s.}$ decays in 31 Na were used to extract the reduced transition probabilities 𝐵⁡(𝐸⁢2↑). We report the first measurement of the 𝐵⁡(𝐸⁢2↑) between the 3/2$^+_{g.s.}$ and the (7/2 + ) states in 31 Na . The results from this study are compared to shell-model calculations, confirming the persistence of large collectivity in the low-lying excited states consistent with the formation of the well-deformed ground-state bands in 30,31 Na .

collective models↗

Process-Independent Effective Coupling from QCD Green's Functions to Phenomenology

This article reports on a very recent proposal for a new type of process-independent QCD effective charge (Binosi et al. in Phys Rev D 96(5):054026, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.054026) defined, as an anologue of the Gell-Mann-Low effective charge in QCD, on the ground of nothing but the knowledge of the gauge-field two-point Green's function, albeit modified within a particular computational framework; namely, the combination of pinch technique and background field method which makes possible a systematic rearranging of classes of diagrams in order to redefine the Green's function and have them obey linear QED-like Slavnov-Taylor identities. We have here calculated that effective charge, shown how strikingly well it compares to a process-dependent effective charge based on the Bjorken sum rule; and, finally, employed it in an exploratory calculation of the proton electromagnetic form factor in the hard scattering regime.

confinement↗

FLArE up dark sectors with EM form factors at the LHC forward physics facility

Despite being mostly secluded, dark sector particles may feebly interact with photons via a small mass-dimension 4 millicharge, a mass-dimension 5 magnetic and electric dipole moment, or a mass-dimension 6 anapole moment and charge radius. If sufficiently light, the LHC may produce an intense and collimated beam of these particles in the far forward direction. We study the prospects of searching for such dark sector particles with electromagnetic form factors via their electron scattering signature in the Forward Liquid Argon Experiment (FLArE) at the Forward Physics Facility (FPF). We find that FLArE can provide new probes of sub-GeV dark particles with dipole moments and strong sensitivities for millicharged particles in the 100 MeV to 100 GeV region. This complements other search strategies using scintillation signatures or dark matter direct detection and allows for probing strongly interacting dark matter motivated by the EDGES anomaly. Along with the FORMOSA detector, this leads to a very versatile and leading experimental program in the search for millicharged particles in the FPF.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Flow Channels and the Generation of Alfvénic Turbulence Along Storm‐Time Inner Magnetospheric Field‐Lines

Abstract A feature of Earth's storm‐time magnetosphere outside the plasmapause is the occurrence of broad‐spectrum Alfvénic fluctuations. In this letter observations from the Van Allen Probes are compared with 3‐D fluid‐kinetic simulations of an evolving convective flow channel to investigate the mechanisms generating the observed spectrum. It is shown how narrow channels of fast convection are unstable to the Kelvin‐Helmholtz instability which on closed field‐lines initiates a cascade to small scales. Sustained driving of the flow combined with reflection from the topside ionosphere leads to the generation of an intensified spectrum of electromagnetic structures having similar spectral and morphological characteristics to those observed. This process couples enhanced magnetospheric convection to kinetic scale electromagnetic fluctuations that drive particle transport, scattering and energization through the outer radiation belt and ring current during geomagnetic storms.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Measurement of Compton Scattering at MAMI for the Extraction of the Electric and Magnetic Polarizabilities of the Proton

A precise measurement of the differential cross sections dσ/dΩ and the linearly polarized photon beam asymmetry Σ 3 for Compton scattering on the proton below pion threshold has been performed with a tagged photon beam and almost 4π detector at the Mainz Microtron. The incident photons were produced by the recently upgraded Glasgow-Mainz photon tagging facility and impinged on a cryogenic liquid hydrogen target, with the scattered photons detected in the Crystal Ball/TAPS setup. Using the highest statistics Compton scattering data ever measured on the proton along with two effective field theories (both covariant baryon and heavy-baryon) and one fixed-t dispersion relation model, constraining the fits with the Baldin sum rule, we have obtained the proton electric and magnetic polarizabilities with unprecedented precision: α E1 = 10.99 ± 0.16 ± 0.47 ± 0.17 ± 0.34, β M1 = 3.14 ± 0.21 ± 0.24 ± 0.20 ± 0.35; in units of 10 -4 fm 3 where the errors are statistical, systematic, spin polarizability dependent, and model dependent.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

The BDX experiment at Jefferson Laboratory

The Beam Dump Experiment (BDX) at Jefferson Laboratory (JLab) is an electron-beam thick-target experiment to search for Light Dark Matter (LDM) particles in the MeV-GeV mass range. BDX will exploit the high-intensity 10.6 GeV e^-e ? beam from CEBAF accelerator impinging on the beam dump of experimental Hall-A, collecting up to 10^{22}10 22 electrons-on-target (EOT) in a few years time. Any LDM particle produced by the interaction of the primary e^-e ? beam with the beam dump will be detected by measuring their scattering inside the BDX detector, an electromagnetic calorimeter surrounded by an hermetic veto system, which is to be installed in a dedicated underground facility, located 20 m downstream. Thanks to the large detection efficiency and background rejection capabilities, BDX will be able to explore a so-far unknown region in the LDM parameter space, improving current exclusion limits by one order of magnitude in case of a null observation. In preparation to the full experiment, a small-scale version called BDX-MINI, has been built and operated at JLab with a lower energy beam. Despite the small interaction volume, the large accumulated charge of 2.2\times10^{21}2.2×10 21 EOT allowed for the BDX-MINI measurement to set competitive exclusion limits on the LDM parameters space, comparable to those reported by larger-scale efforts.

Celentano, A.↗