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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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1998

Investigation of the Possibility of Using Nuclear Magnetic Spin Alignment

The goal of the program to investigate a "Gasdynamic fusion propulsion system for space exploration" is to develop a fusion propulsion system for a manned mission to the planet mars. A study using Deuterium and Tritium atoms are currently in progress. When these atoms under-go fusion, the resulting neutrons and alpha particles are emitted in random directions (isotropically). The probable direction of emission is equal for all directions, thus resulting in wasted energy, massive shielding and cooling requirements, and serious problems with the physics of achieving fusion. If the nuclear magnetic spin moments of the deuterium and tritium nuclei could be precisely aligned at the moment of fusion, the stream of emitted neutrons could be directed out the rear of the spacecraft for thrust and the alpha particles directed forward into an electromagnet ot produce electricity to continue operating the fusion engine. The following supporting topics are discussed: nuclear magnetic moments and spin precession in magnetic field, nuclear spin quantum mechanics, kinematics of nuclear reactions, and angular distribution of particles.

Dent, William V., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Manipulation of quantum evolution

The free evolution of a non-relativistic charged particle is manipulated using time-dependent magnetic fields. It is shown that the application of a programmed sequence of magnetic pulses can invert the free evolution process, forcing an arbitrary wave packet to 'go back in time' to recover its past shape. The possibility of more general operations upon the Schrodinger wave packet is discussed.

Cabera, David Jose Fernandez↗
NASA NTRS2001

Antimatter Production at a Potential Boundary

Current antiproton production techniques rely on high-energy collisions between beam particles and target nuclei to produce particle and antiparticle pairs, but inherently low production and capture efficiencies render these techniques impractical for the cost-effective production of antimatter for space propulsion and other commercial applications. Based on Dirac's theory of the vacuum field, a new antimatter production concept is proposed in which particle-antiparticle pairs are created at the boundary of a steep potential step formed by the suppression of the local vacuum fields. Current antimatter production techniques are reviewed, followed by a description of Dirac's relativistic quantum theory of the vacuum state and corresponding solutions for particle tunneling and reflection from a potential barrier. The use of the Casimir effect to suppress local vacuum fields is presented as a possible technique for generating the sharp potential gradients required for particle-antiparticle pair creation.

LaPointe, Michael R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Where Lies the Quantumness Behind Detecting Electromagnetic Waves for Frequencies from Infrared and Up?

The synthesis of Newtonian concept of corpuscles during emission with Huygens’ concept of secondary-wavelets during propagation implies that all EM radiations from quantized atoms and molecules are released as discrete amount of energies. However, they propagate out as time-finite Maxwellian light pulses. Huygens also underscored that his secondary wavelets keep propagating as independent pulses in the absence of any interacting medium, or until intercepted by an interface with a medium or a detector. Then we use the Superposition Principle and the coherence theory to derive Einstein’s photoelectric equation by summing innumerable random time-finite pulses. This process driven approach should yield the characteristic statistical variations of photoelectron current pulses, as generated by photodetectors for different kinds of light sources. Lamb & Scully originally proposed this semiclassical approach without assuming that light actually consists of time finite pulses. The quantumness remains confined within the excitation and de-excitations processes in the material particles.

Electromagnetic Waves↗
NASA NTRS1991

Two-dimensional model calculation of fluorine-containing reservoir species in the stratosphere

Two-dimensional model calculations have been carried out of the distributions of the fluorine-containing reservoir species HF, CF2O, and CFClO. HF constitutes the largest fluorine reservoir in the stratosphere, but CF2O also makes an important contribution to the inorganic fluorine budget. CFClO amounts are most important in the tropical lower stratosphere. HF amounts increase with altitude throughout the stratosphere, while those of CF2O and CFClO fall off above their mixing ratio peaks due to photolysis. The model is in good qualitative agreement with observed vertical profiles of HF and CF2O but tends to underestimate the total column of HF. The calculated CFClO distribution is in good agreement with the very limited data. The disagreement in the HF columns is likely due to small inaccuracies in the model's treatment of lower stratospheric photolysis of chlorofluorocarbons. The model results support the suggestion that CF2O may be heterogeneously converted to HF on the surface of polar stratospheric cloud particles. The model results also suggest that the quantum yield for photolysis of CF2O is near unity.

Kaye, Jack A.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Global analysis of fermion mixing with exotics

The limits are analyzed on deviation of the lepton and quark weak-couplings from their standard model values in a general class of models where the known fermions are allowed to mix with new heavy particles with exotic SU(2) x U(1) quantum number assignments (left-handed singlets or right-handed doublets). These mixings appear in many extensions of the electroweak theory such as models with mirror fermions, E(sub 6) models, etc. The results update previous analyses and improve considerably the existing bounds.

Nardi, Enrico↗
NASA NTRS1993

Exact and quasi-classical density matrix and Wigner functions for a particle in the box and half space

The exact expressions for density matrix and Wigner functions of quantum systems are known only in special cases. Corresponding Hamiltonians are quadratic forms of Euclidean coordinates and momenta. In this paper we consider the problem of one-dimensional free particle movement in the bounded region 0 is less than x is less than a (including the case a = infinity).

Akhundova, E. A.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A new thermal sensor for X-ray microcalorimetry

A concept for a detector is introduced which exploits the significant temperature dependence of the dielectric constant in ferroelectric materials. The concept permits the use of a microcalorimeter without the resistive sensors which are associated with heat dissipation and increased Johnson noise in the electronic conversion circuit. General calorimeter features are listed, and the concepts related to dielectric calorimeters are discussed in terms of operational and detection advantages. The use of the device is delineated both theoretically and experimentally with the results of an operational dielectric material. The mixed-crystal quantum ferroelectric is employed and detects 6 MeV alpha particles while operating at 1.2 K in the first detection conducted. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant in the materials allows for the elimination of resistive sensors in microcalorimeters, thereby improving the ultimate sensitivity of the instrument.

Silver, Eric↗
NASA NTRS2011

Entanglement in Self-Supervised Dynamics

A new type of correlation has been developed similar to quantum entanglement in self-supervised dynamics (SSD). SSDs have been introduced as a quantum-classical hybrid based upon the Madelung equation in which the quantum potential is replaced by an information potential. As a result, SSD preserves the quantum topology along with superposition, entanglement, and wave-particle duality. At the same time, it can be implemented in any scale including the Newtonian scale. The main properties of SSD associated with simulating intelligence have been formulated. The attention with this innovation is focused on intelligent agents interaction based upon the new fundamental non-New tonian effect; namely, entanglement.

Zak, Michail↗
NASA NTRS1985

The origins of cosmic rays and quantum effects on gravity

The energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays is explained by particles emitted during a thermal expansion of explosive objects inside and near the galaxy, remnants of which may be supernova and/or active talaxies, or even stars or galaxies that disappeared from our sight after the explosion. A power law energy spectrum for cosmic rays, E to the (-alpha -1, is obtained from an expansion rate T is proportional to R to the alpha. Using the solution of the Einstein equation, we obtain a spectrum which agrees very well with experimental data. The implication of an inflationary early universe on the cosmic ray spectrum is also discussed. It is also suggested that the conflict between this model and the singularity theorem in classical general relativity may be eliminated by quantum effects.

Tomozawa, Y.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Possible form of vacuum deformation by heavy particles

The possibility is discussed that the lowest-energy state for certain quantum numbers involves a Higgs field polarized into a skyrmion-type configuration. In some models a new type of vacuum instability arises. Phenomenological consequences are indicated schematically.

Mackenzie, R.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Scheme for Quantum Computing Immune to Decoherence

A constructive scheme has been devised to enable mapping of any quantum computation into a spintronic circuit in which the computation is encoded in a basis that is, in principle, immune to quantum decoherence. The scheme is implemented by an algorithm that utilizes multiple physical spins to encode each logical bit in such a way that collective errors affecting all the physical spins do not disturb the logical bit. The scheme is expected to be of use to experimenters working on spintronic implementations of quantum logic. Spintronic computing devices use quantum-mechanical spins (typically, electron spins) to encode logical bits. Bits thus encoded (denoted qubits) are potentially susceptible to errors caused by noise and decoherence. The traditional model of quantum computation is based partly on the assumption that each qubit is implemented by use of a single two-state quantum system, such as an electron or other spin-1.2 particle. It can be surprisingly difficult to achieve certain gate operations . most notably, those of arbitrary 1-qubit gates . in spintronic hardware according to this model. However, ironically, certain 2-qubit interactions (in particular, spin-spin exchange interactions) can be achieved relatively easily in spintronic hardware. Therefore, it would be fortunate if it were possible to implement any 1-qubit gate by use of a spin-spin exchange interaction. While such a direct representation is not possible, it is possible to achieve an arbitrary 1-qubit gate indirectly by means of a sequence of four spin-spin exchange interactions, which could be implemented by use of four exchange gates. Accordingly, the present scheme provides for mapping any 1-qubit gate in the logical basis into an equivalent sequence of at most four spin-spin exchange interactions in the physical (encoded) basis. The complexity of the mathematical derivation of the scheme from basic quantum principles precludes a description within this article; it must suffice to report that the derivation provides explicit constructions for finding the exchange couplings in the physical basis needed to implement any arbitrary 1-qubit gate. These constructions lead to spintronic encodings of quantum logic that are more efficient than those of a previously published scheme that utilizes a universal but fixed set of gates.

Williams, Colin↗
NASA NTRS1982

A study of atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling

The properties of low energy plasma in the magnetosphere were predicted. The effects of wave particle interactions involving the concept of plasmons are studied, and quantum mechanical formulations are used for the processes occurring and bulk energization of the low energy plasma are investigated through the concept of the energy momentum tensor for the plasma and its electromagnetic environment.

Raitt, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Can we detect antimatter from other galaxies

A novel particle detection technique employing well established principles of high order quantum electrodynamics for searching for antimatter in cosmic rays is described, and shown to have both collecting power and resolution superior to conventional alternatives. By taking into account various estimates of the metagalactic cosmic-ray energy density, and the possible modulation of metagalactic cosmic rays by a galactic wind within the framework of the dynamical halo model, it is shown that the experiment proposed would be the first to be sensitive to the presence of extragalactic antimatter.

Ahlen, S. P.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Improved perfect-fluid energy-momentum tensor with spin in Einstein-Cartan space-time

The description of the spin given here is classical in that it is intrinsic but not quantized. The approach in this matter is similar to, for example, the work of Bailey and Israel (1973, 1975, 1979), where the fluid particles, which have intrinsic spin, may be galaxies or clusters of galaxies. The elementary particles of these objects and the 'ferromagnetic alignment' of their quantum spins are not resorted to in order to describe a fluid with spin. Physically this means that the equation of motion for the spin tensor is a modified Fermi-Walker transport equation (Misner et al., 1973), arising as a direct result of the inclusion of spin as an intrinsic variable in the thermodynamic description of the internal energy. The variables in this description are classical variables throughout and are not microscopic fields. An improved perfect-fluid energy-momentum tensor that includes spin and torsion is presented. Use is made of a Lagrangian variational principle based on the tetrad formalism of Halbwach (1960) and the method od constraints of Ray (1972).

Ray, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Infrared photodetectors with tailorable response due to resonant plasmon absorption in epitaxial silicide particles embedded in silicon

Tailorable infrared photoresponse in the 1-2 micron range are demonstrated in a device incorporating electrically floating metal silicide particles. Photons absorbed by excitation of the metallic-particle surface plasmon are shown to contribute to the photoresponse. Quantum efficiencies of roughly 0.2 percent are measured at 77 K, with dark currents of less than 2 nA/sq cm at a reverse bias of 1 V and detectivities of 4 x 10 exp 9 - 8 x 10 exp 9 cm sq rt Hz/W are obtained.

Fathauer, R. W.↗