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At least 1,081 records · Page 60

Space dependent, full orbit effects on runaway electron dynamics in tokamak plasmas

The dynamics of RE (runaway electrons) in fusion plasmas span a wide range of temporal scales, from the fast gyro-motion, ∼10−11 s, to the observational time scales, ∼10−2→1 s. To cope with this scale separation, RE are usually studied within the bounce-average or the guiding center approximations. Although these approximations have yielded valuable insights, a study with predictive capabilities of RE in fusion plasmas calls for the incorporation of full orbit effects in configuration space in the presence of three-dimensional magnetic fields. We present numerical results on this problem using the Kinetic Orbit Runaway electrons Code that follows relativistic electrons in general electric and magnetic fields under the full Lorentz force, collisions, and radiation losses. At relativistic energies, the main energy loss is due to radiation damping, which we incorporate using the Landau-Lifshitz formulation of the Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac force. The main focus is on full orbit effects on synchrotron radiation. It is shown that even in the absence of magnetic field stochasticty, neglecting orbit dynamics can introduce significant errors in the computation of the total radiated power and the synchrotron spectra. The statistics of collisionless (i.e., full orbit induced) pitch angle dispersion, and its key role played on synchrotron radiation, are studied in detail. Numerical results are also presented on the pitch angle dependence of the spatial confinement of RE and on full orbit effects on the competition of electric field acceleration and radiation damping. Finally, full orbit calculations are used to explore the limitations of gyro-averaging in the relativistic regime. To explore the practical impact of the results, DIII-D and ITER-like parameters are used in the simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Three-dimensional analysis of magnetometer array data

A technique is developed for mapping magnetic variation fields in three dimensions using data from an array of magnetometers, based on the theory of optimal linear estimation. The technique is applied to data from the Scandinavian Magnetometer Array. Estimates of the spatial power spectra for the internal and external magnetic variations are derived, which in turn provide estimates of the spatial autocorrelation functions of the three magnetic variation components. Statistical errors involved in mapping the external and internal fields are quantified and displayed over the mapping region. Examples of field mapping and of separation into external and internal components are presented. A comparison between the three-dimensional field separation and a two-dimensional separation from a single chain of stations shows that significant differences can arise in the inferred internal component.

Richmond, A. D.↗

Scalable quantum simulations of scattering in scalar field theory on 120 qubits

Simulations of collisions of fundamental particles on a quantum computer are expected to have an exponential advantage over classical methods and promise to enhance searches for new physics. Furthermore, scattering in scalar field theory has been shown to be bounded-error quantum polynomial time (BQP) complete, making it a representative problem for which quantum computation is efficient. As a step toward large-scale quantum simulations of collision processes, scattering of wave packets in one-dimensional scalar field theory is simulated using 120 qubits of IBM’s Heron superconducting quantum computer ibm_fez. Variational circuits compressing vacuum preparation, wave packet initialization, and time evolution are determined using classical resources. By leveraging physical properties of states in the theory, such as symmetries and locality, the variational quantum algorithm constructs scalable circuits that can be used to simulate arbitrarily large system sizes. A new strategy is introduced to mitigate errors in quantum simulations, which enables the extraction of meaningful results from circuits with up to 4924 two-qubit gates and two-qubit gate depths of 103. The effect of interactions is clearly seen, and is found to be in agreement with classical matrix product state simulations. Finally, the developments that will be necessary to simulate high-energy inelastic collisions on a quantum computer are discussed.

quantum circuits↗

Two-color volumetric laser-induced fluorescence for 3D OH and temperature fields in turbulent reacting flows

two-color, volumetric laser-induced fluorescence (TC-VLIF) was demonstrated for three-dimensional, tomographic imaging of the structural properties of the OH radical and temperature field in a turbulent hydrogen-air flame. Two narrow-band laser sources were tuned to the Q i (5) and Q i (14) transitions of the (1,0) band in the A 2 E<—X 2 II system and illuminated a volumetric region of the flame. Images from eight unique perspectives collected simultaneously from each of the two transitions were used to reconstruct overlapping 011 fields with different Boltzmann fractions and map the 3D temperature distribution with nanosecond precision. Key strategies for minimizing sources of error, such as detector sensitivity and spatial overlap of the two fields, are discussed.

42 ENGINEERING↗

The simultaneous inference of stratospheric NO2-H2O and HNO3-CF2Cl2 using limb sounding radiometry

An inversion algorithm has been developed to simultaneously infer the concentrations of two gases with overlapping spectral signatures using limb emission measurements. The algorithm provides a solution in two or three iterations and has been tested in a simulation study for the inference of stratospheric NO2-H2O and HNO3-CF2Cl2. Existing satellite instrumentation was the basis for errors used in the calculations. These included noise, scale and bias errors, angular registration errors, spacecraft motion effects, and effects due to a finite instrument field of view. It is estimated that concentrations of all four gases can be measured globally from a satellite with errors of less than 20%.

Russell, J. M., III↗

Towards operational atmospheric correction of airborne hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy: Algorithm evaluation, key parameter analysis, and machine learning emulators

Atmospheric correction of airborne hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy (AHIS) to obtain high-quality surface reflectance is the prerequisite for remote sensing applications. Over the last decades, different atmospheric correction methods have been developed based on radiative transfer models (RTMs), however, the relative performances of different algorithms are unclear. Automated operational atmospheric correction methods to process large-volume AHIS data in a high-accurate and high-throughput manner are still lacking. Therefore, this study proposed an operational atmospheric correction pipeline for deriving surface reflectance from AHIS data. To ensure the accuracy and efficiency of the pipeline, we focused on three specific aspects: (1) selecting a suitable RTM for the development of atmospheric lookup tables (LUTs) by comparing the commercial MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission (MODTRAN) and open-sourced Library for Radiative TRANsfer (LibRadTRAN) models, where the widely-used software, Atmospheric/Topographic Correction for Airborne Imagery (ATCOR), was used as benchmarks; (2) identifying key atmospheric correction parameters and determining suitable sources for parameter retrievals including AHIS, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET); and (3) testing the performance of using machine learning emulators to speed up the RTM-based atmospheric correction. Results indicate that (1) atmospheric correction based on MODTRAN LUTs can produce surface reflectance accurately with mean absolute errors < 0.05 and cosine similarities > 0.98 compared to field measurements, which is comparable to the software ATCOR and slightly outperforms the LibRadTRAN LUTs; (2) sobol global sensitivity analysis demonstrates that in the atmospheric correction, visibility and water vapor are two key parameters that can be accurately derived from AHIS in contrast to MODIS or AERONET data; and (3) Random Forest emulators can produce accurate estimations of surface reflectance with mean absolute errors < 0.03 and cosine similarities > 0.98 for higher processing efficiency and determine a suitable set of wavelengths for retrieving atmospheric visibility and water vapor. In conclusion, the proposed atmospheric correction pipeline also improved the four-stream radiative transfer theory for airborne applications by considering adjacent effects from airborne surrounding pixels and can also be applied for atmospheric correction of hyperspectral data from spaceborne missions.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

A discussion on various experimental methods of impact ionization coefficient measurement in GaN

Impact ionization coefficients play a critical role in semiconductors. In addition to silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride are important semiconductors that are being seen more as mainstream semiconductor technologies. As a reflection of the maturity of these semiconductors, predictive modeling has become essential to device and circuit designers, and impact ionization coefficients play a key role here. Recently, several studies have measured impact ionization coefficients. We dedicated the first part of our study to comparing three experimental methods to estimate impact ionization coefficients in GaN, which are all based on photomultiplication but feature characteristic differences. The first method inserts an InGaN hole-injection layer, the accuracy of which is challenged by the dominance of ionization in InGaN, leading to possible overestimation of the coefficients. The second method utilizes the Franz–Keldysh effect for hole injection but not for electrons, where the mixed injection of induced carriers would require a margin of error. The third method uses complementary p–n and n–p structures that have been at the basis of this estimation in Si and SiC and leans on the assumption of a constant electric field, and any deviation would require a margin of error. In the second part of our study, we evaluated the models using recent experimental data from diodes demonstrating avalanche breakdown.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Benchmark data on the separability among crops in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California

Landsat MSS data were input to a discriminant analysis of 21 crops on each of eight dates in 1979 using a total of 4,142 fields in southern Fresno County, California. The 21 crops, which together account for over 70 percent of the agricultural acreage in the southern San Joaquin Valley, were analyzed to quantify the spectral separability, defined as omission error, between all pairs of crops. On each date the fields were segregated into six groups based on the mean value of the MSS7/MSS5 ratio, which is correlated with green biomass. Discriminant analysis was run on each group on each date. The resulting contingency tables offer information that can be profitably used in conjunction with crop calendars to pick the best dates for a classification. The tables show expected percent correct classification and error rates for all the crops. The patterns in the contingency tables show that the percent correct classification for crops generally increases with the amount of greenness in the fields being classified. However, there are exceptions to this general rule, notably grain.

Morse, A.↗

SU-E-T-442: Sensitivity of Quality Assurance Tools to Delivery Errors On a Magnetic Resonance-Imaging Guided Radiation Therapy (MR-IGRT) System

Purpose: To test the sensitivity of the quality assurance (QA) tools actively used on a clinical MR-IGRT system for potential delivery errors. Methods: Patient-specific QA procedures have been implemented for a commercially available Cobalt-60 MR-IGRT system. The QA tools utilized were a MR-compatible cylindrical diode-array detector (ArcCHECK) with a custom insert which positions an ionization chamber (Exradin A18) in the middle of the device, as well as an in-house treatment delivery verification program. These tools were tested to investigate their sensitivity to delivery errors. For the ArcCHECK and ion chamber, a baseline was established with a static field irradiation to a known dose. Variations of the baseline were investigated which included rotated gantry, altered field size, directional shifts, and different delivery time. In addition, similar variations were tested with the automated delivery verification program that compared the treatment parameters in the machine delivery logs to the ones in the plan. To test the software, a 3-field conformal plan was generated as the baseline. Results: ArcCHECK noted at least a 13% decrease in passing rate from baseline in the following scenarios: gantry rotation of 1 degree from plan, 5mm change in field size, 2mm lateral shift, and delivery time decrease. Ion chamber measurements remained consistent for these variations except for the 5 second decrease in delivery time scenario which resulted in an 8% difference from baseline. The delivery verification software was able to detect and report the simulated errors such as when the gantry was rotated by 0.6 degrees, the beam weighting was changed by a percent, a single multileaf collimator was moved by 1cm, and the dose was changed from 2 to 1.8Gy. Conclusion: The results show that the current tools used for patient specific QA are capable of detecting small errors in RT delivery with presence of magnetic field.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Hadron structure from lattice QCD

Recent progress in lattice QCD calculations of nucleon structure will be presented. Calculations of nucleon matrix elements and form factors have long been difficult to reconcile with experiment, but with advances in both methodology and computing resources, this situation is improving. Some calculations have produced agreement with experiment for key observables such as the axial charge and electromagnetic form factors, and the improved understanding of systematic errors will help to increase confidence in predictions of unmeasured quantities. The long-omitted disconnected contributions are now seeing considerable attention and some recent calculations of them will be discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Calibration and Localization of Optically Pumped Magnetometers Using Electromagnetic Coils

In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the position, orientation, and gain of a magnetic field sensor using a set of (large) electromagnetic coils. We apply the method for calibrating an array of optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) for magnetoencephalography (MEG). We first measure the magnetic fields of the coils at multiple known positions using a well-calibrated triaxial magnetometer, and model these discreetly sampled fields using vector spherical harmonics (VSH) functions. We then localize and calibrate an OPM by minimizing the sum of squared errors between the model signals and the OPM responses to the coil fields. We show that by using homogeneous and first-order gradient fields, the OPM sensor parameters (gain, position, and orientation) can be obtained from a set of linear equations with pseudo-inverses of two matrices. The currents that should be applied to the coils for approximating these low-order field components can be determined based on the VSH models. Computationally simple initial estimates of the OPM sensor parameters follow. As a first test of the method, we placed a fluxgate magnetometer at multiple positions and estimated the RMS position, orientation, and gain errors of the method to be 1.0 mm, 0.2°, and 0.8%, respectively. Lastly, we calibrated a 48-channel OPM array. The accuracy of the OPM calibration was tested by using the OPM array to localize magnetic dipoles in a phantom, which resulted in an average dipole position error of 3.3 mm. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using electromagnetic coils to calibrate and localize OPMs for MEG.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Quantum mechanical calculation of electric fields and vibrational Stark shifts at active site of human aldose reductase

Recent advance in biophysics has made it possible to directly measure site-specific electric field at internal sites of proteins using molecular probes with C = O or C≡N groups in the context of vibrational Stark effect. These measurements directly probe changes of electric field at specific protein sites due to, e.g., mutation and are very useful in protein design. Computational simulation of the Stark effect based on force fields such as AMBER and OPLS, while providing good insight, shows large errors in comparison to experimental measurement due to inherent difficulties associated with point charge based representation of force fields. In this study, quantum mechanical calculation of protein’s internal electrostatic properties and vibrational Stark shifts was carried out by using electrostatically embedded generalized molecular fractionation with conjugate caps method. Quantum calculated change of mutation-induced electric field and vibrational Stark shift is reported at the internal probing site of enzyme human aldose reductase. The quantum result is in much better agreement with experimental data than those predicted by force fields, underscoring the deficiency of traditional point charge models describing intra-protein electrostatic properties.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Quantitative assessment of eddy viscosity rans models for turbulent mixed convection in a differentially heated plane channel

Turbulent mixed convection between two vertical, infinite parallel plates at different temperatures is studied using various two-equation turbulence models. The numerical simulations are performed at a turbulent Reynolds number of Re τ = 150 and a Grashof number of Gr = 9.6 × 10 5 . Comparisons are made against the highly trusted DNS results. Consistent with the DNS approach, the current simulations are performed using constant properties and the Boussinesq approximation to predict the influence of buoyancy. Previous studies have provided assessments of two-equation turbulence models for various scenarios, but often rely on a qualitative “eye” test in order to determine the most appropriate model to predict a given flow. This study aims to provide a new form of quantitative assessment that accounts for both the physics captured by the turbulence model as well as the magnitude of the system response quantities (SRQ) using a modified symmetric mean absolute percent error (SMAPE) method. This method is designed to be approachable to researchers at any level and can be applied to system response quantities from multiple research fields. Uncertainty quantification is also performed to determine the discretization error for each turbulence model. Recommendations are made as to which turbulence models best capture the physics – hydrodynamically and thermally – using both local and global validation metrics. Lastly, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the damping functions used in the most accurate models. This underpins the potential of model developments and adjustments most worth pursuing for buoyant flows. Finally, this framework provides a more physics-based comparative analysis of the selected turbulence models.

42 ENGINEERING↗

TU-C-BRE-10: A Streamlined Approach to EPID Transit Dosimetry

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of a simple and efficient transit dosimetry method using the electronic portal imaging device (EPID) for dose delivery error detection and prevention. Methods: In the proposed method, 2D reference transit images are generated for comparison with online images acquired during treatment. Reference transit images are generated by convolving through-air EPID measurements of each field with pixel-specific kernels selected from a library of pre-calculated Monte Carlo pencil kernels of varying radiological thickness. The kernel used for each pixel is selected based on the calculated radiological thickness of the patient along a line joining the pixel and the virtual source. The accuracy of the technique was evaluated in flat homogeneous and heterogeneous plastic water phantoms, a heterogeneous cylindrical phantom, and an anthropomorphic head phantom. Gamma criteria of 3%/3 mm was used to quantify the accuracy of the technique for the various cases. Results: An average of 99.9% and 99.7% of the points in the comparison between the measured and predicted images passed a 3%/3mm gamma for the homogeneous and heterogeneous plastic water phantoms, respectively. 97.1% of the points passed for the analysis of the heterogeneous cylindrical phantom. For the anthropomorphic head phantom, an average of 97.8% of points passed the 3%/3mm gamma criteria for all field sizes. Failures were observed primarily in areas of drastic thickness or material changes and at the edges of the fields. Conclusion: The data suggest that the proposed transit dosimetry method is a feasible approach to in vivo dose monitoring. Future research efforts could include implementation for more complex fields and sensitivity testing of the method to setup errors and changes in anatomy. Oncology Data Systems provided partial funding support but did not participate in the collection or analysis of data.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Using a Neural Network to Determine the Hatch Status of the AERI at the ARM North Slope of Alaska Site

The fore-optics of the Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) are protected by an automated hatch to prevent precipitation from fouling the instrument's scene mirror (Knuteson et al. 2004). Limit switches connected with the hatch controller provide a signal of the hatch state: open, closed, undetermined (typically associated with the hatch being between fully open or fully closed during the instrument's sky view period), or an error condition. The instrument then records the state of the hatch with the radiance data so that samples taken when the hatch is not open can be removed from any subsequent analysis. However, the hatch controller suffered a multi-year failure for the AERI located at the ARM North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Central Facility in Barrow, Alaska, from July 2006-February 2008. The failure resulted in misreporting the state of the hatch in the 'hatchOpen' field within the AERI data files. With this error there is no simple solution to translate what was reported back to the correct hatch status, thereby making it difficult for an analysis to determine when the AERI was actually viewing the sky. As only the data collected when the hatch is fully open are scientifically useful, an algorithm was developed to determine whether the hatch was open or closed based on spectral radiance data from the AERI. Determining if the hatch is open or closed in a scene with low clouds is non-trivial, as low opaque clouds may look very similar spectrally as the closed hatch. This algorithm used a backpropagation neural network; these types of neural networks have been used with increasing frequency in atmospheric science applications.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Polarimetry-Enhanced Imaging towards Autonomous Solar Field and Receiver Inspections

During the typical operation of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant, a large portion of the energy (~45%) can be lost due to various imperfect conditions, such as blocking, shading, mirror soiling, tracking and canting errors, etc. It is necessary to develop efficient and effective field inspection technology to optically survey and characterize a CSP field, which can be used as an input for autonomous control, maintenance scheduling and spot repair whenever necessary to maximize the overall efficiency of the plant. In this project, We aim to apply polarimetric imaging for CSP collector and receiver inspection and develop polarimetric drone cameras (via integrating polarimetric imagers onto drones) for autonomous field inspection in CSP plants.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Spectrally resolved motional Stark effect measurements on ASDEX Upgrade

A spectrally resolved Motional Stark Effect (MSE) diagnostic has been installed at ASDEX Upgrade. The MSE data have been fitted by a forward model providing access to information about the magnetic field in the plasma interior [R. Reimer, A. Dinklage, J. Geiger et al., Contrib. Plasma Phys. 50, 731–735 (2010)]. The forward model for the beam emission spectra comprises also the fast ion D{sub α} signal [W. W. Heidbrink and G. J. Sadler, Nucl. Fusion 34, 535–615 (1994)] and the smearing on the CCD-chip. The calculated magnetic field data as well as the revealed (dia)magnetic effects are consistent with the results from equilibrium reconstruction solver. Measurements of the direction of the magnetic field are affected by unknown and varying polarization effects in the observation.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Quantum computation architecture using optical tweezers

We present a complete architecture for scalable quantum computation with ultracold atoms in optical lattices using optical tweezers focused to the size of a lattice spacing. We discuss three different two-qubit gates based on local collisional interactions. The gates between arbitrary qubits require the transport of atoms to neighboring sites. We numerically optimize the nonadiabatic transport of the atoms through the lattice and the intensity ramps of the optical tweezer in order to maximize the gate fidelities. We find overall gate times of a few 100 {mu}s, while keeping the error probability due to vibrational excitations and spontaneous scattering below 10{sup -3}. The requirements on the positioning error and intensity noise of the optical tweezer and the magnetic field stability are analyzed and we show that atoms in optical lattices could meet the requirements for fault-tolerant scalable quantum computing.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗