Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Source sample”

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 145 records · Page 8

The 3D Kinematics of the Orion Nebula Cluster: NIRSPEC-AO Radial Velocities of the Core Population

The kinematics and dynamics of stellar and substellar populations within young, still-forming clusters provide valuable information for constraining theories of formation mechanisms. Using Keck II NIRSPEC+AO data, we have measured radial velocities for 56 low-mass sources within 4' of the core of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). We also remeasure radial velocities for 172 sources observed with SDSS/APOGEE. These data are combined with proper motions measured using HST ACS/WFPC2/WFC3IR and Keck II NIRC2, creating a sample of 135 sources with all three velocity components. The velocities measured are consistent with a normal distribution in all three components. We measure intrinsic velocity dispersions of (${\sigma }_{{v}_{\alpha }}$, ${\sigma }_{{v}_{\delta }}$, ${\sigma }_{{v}_{r}}$) = (1.64 ± 0.12, 2.03 ± 0.13, ${2.56}_{-0.17}^{+0.16}$) km s –1 . Our computed intrinsic velocity dispersion profiles are consistent with the dynamical equilibrium models from Da Rio et al. (2014) in the tangential direction but not in the line-of-sight direction, possibly indicating that the core of the ONC is not yet virialized, and may require a nonspherical potential to explain the observed velocity dispersion profiles. We also observe a slight elongation along the north–south direction following the filament, which has been well studied in previous literature, and an elongation in the line-of-sight to tangential velocity direction. These 3D kinematics will help in the development of realistic models of the formation and early evolution of massive clusters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The H I absorption zoo: JVLA extension to z ~ 0.4

Here, we present an H I 21 cm absorption study of a sample of 26 radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) at 0.25 < z < 0.4 carried out with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. Our aim was to study the rate of incidence of H I in different classes of radio AGN, the morphology and kinematics of the detected H I, and the nature of the interaction between the H I and the radio source at these redshifts. Our sample consists of 14 sources with sizes of up to tens of kpc and 12 compact sources (< a few kpc) in the radio-power range 10 25.7 W Hz –1 –10 26.5 W Hz –1 . We detect H I in five sources, corresponding to a detection rate of ~19%. Within the error bars, this agrees with the detection rate found at lower redshifts. We find that the rest-frame UV luminosities of most of the sources in the sample, including all the detections, are below the proposed threshold above which the H I is supposed to have been ionised. An analysis of the optical emission-line spectra of the sources shows that despite their high radio powers, about one-third of the sample, including two detections, are low-ionisation sources. The radio continuum emission from the sources detected in H I is unresolved at ~5 to 10 kpc scales in our observations, but shows extended structure on parsec scales. We analysed the H I 21 cm absorption spectra of the detections to understand the morphology and kinematics of H I. The absorption profiles are mostly complex with widths between the nulls ranging from ~60 km s –1 to 700 km s –1 . These detections also exhibit remarkably high H I column densities in the range ~10 21 cm –2 –10 22 cm –2 for T spin = 100 K and unit covering factor. Our modelling of the H I 21 cm absorption profiles suggests that in two sources the gas appears to be disturbed, and in three cases, including one with disturbed H I, the majority of the absorption is consistent with it arising from an H I disc. Despite the high radio power of our sources, we do not detect fast outflows. However, the optical emission lines in these detections show the presence of significantly disturbed gas in the nuclear regions in the form of very wide and highly blueshifted emission-line components. Since some of our detections are also low-ionisation AGN, it is quite possible that this disturbance is caused by the radio jets. Overall, our findings point towards a continuation of the low-z trends in the H I detection rate and the incidence of H I in radio AGN up to z ~ 0.4.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Physics-informed graph neural networks for predicting cetane number with systematic data quality analysis

Designing alternative fuels for advanced compression ignition engines necessitates a predictive model for cetane number (CN). In this study, the physics-informed graph neural networks are introduced for a reliable CN prediction by considering molecular features pertinent to the physical properties of molecules that affect CN. The reliability of measured data is another key factor to consider for improving the predictive model. Various experimental instruments for measuring CN exist, including standard and non-standard methods. In this regard, a systematic data quality analysis was carried out for the total 630 CNs collected from literature and new measurements in this study using Advanced Fuel Ignition Delay Analyzer (AFIDA). The results from this data curation process were reflected in the model by imposing lower sample weights on the data coming from less reliable measurement techniques. This approach effectively maximized the prediction accuracy while incorporating data from all available sources. Using the sample weights decreased the mean absolute error (MAE) up to 0.8 CN units. The accuracy was also improved by introducing the CN-related physical properties (the number of hydrogen bond donors and acceptors); the test set MAE is 5.74 and 7.01 for the model with and without such properties, respectively. Investigating molecular structural effects on CN was also carried out to gain chemical insights into factors used to design new fuel candidates. The dimensionality reduction analysis of feature vectors showed a clear clustering in terms of functional groups and CN and the structural effect derived from the model was consistent with the physicochemical insights. Finally, this physics-informed model and data curation would be helpful for accurate CN prediction and inform rational fuel design.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Maximum a posteriori Ly α estimator (MAPLE): band power and covariance estimation of the 3D Ly α forest power spectrum

We present a novel maximum a posteriori estimator to jointly estimate band powers and the covariance of the three-dimensional power spectrum (P3D) of Ly $\alpha$ forest flux fluctuations, called MAPLE. Our Wiener-filter based algorithm reconstructs a window-deconvolved P3D in the presence of complex survey geometries typical for Ly $\alpha$ surveys that are sparsely sampled transverse to and densely sampled along the line of sight. We demonstrate our method on idealized Gaussian random fields with two selection functions: (i) a sparse sampling of 30 background sources per square degree designed to emulate the current Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument; (ii) a dense sampling of 900 background sources per square degree emulating the upcoming Prime Focus Spectrograph Galaxy Evolution Survey. Our proof-of-principle shows promise, especially since the algorithm can be extended to marginalize jointly over nuisance parameters and contaminants, i.e. offsets introduced by continuum fitting. Our code is implemented in JAX and is publicly available on GitHub.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

OzDES reverberation mapping program: Lag recovery reliability for 6-yr C iv analysis

ABSTRACT We present the statistical methods that have been developed to analyse the OzDES reverberation mapping sample. To perform this statistical analysis we have created a suite of customizable simulations that mimic the characteristics of each source in the OzDES sample. These characteristics include: the variability in the photometric and spectroscopic light curves, the measurement uncertainties, and the observational cadence. By simulating the sources in the OzDES sample that contain the C iv emission line, we developed a set of criteria that rank the reliability of a recovered time-lag depending on the agreement between different recovery methods, the magnitude of the uncertainties, and the rate at which false positives were found in the simulations. These criteria were applied to simulated light curves and these results used to estimate the quality of the resulting Radius–Luminosity relation. We grade the results using three quality levels (gold, silver, and bronze). The input slope of the R–L relation was recovered within 1σ for each of the three quality samples, with the gold standard having the lowest dispersion with a recovered a R–L relation slope of 0.454 ± 0.016 with an input slope of 0.47. Future work will apply these methods to the entire OzDES sample of 771 AGN.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Physical Parameters of Clumps Associated with Class I Methanol Masers

We present a study of the association between class I methanol masers and cold dust clumps from the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) survey. It was found that almost 100% of class I methanol masers are associated with objects listed in the ATLASGAL compact source catalog. We find a statistically significant difference in the flux density, luminosity, number and column density, and temperature distributions of ATLASGAL sources associated with 95/44 GHz methanol masers compared with those ATLASGAL sources devoid of 95 GHz methanol masers. The masers tend to arise in clumps with higher densities, luminosities, and temperatures compared with both the full sample of ATLASGAL clumps, as well as the sample of ATLASGAL sources that were cross-matched with positions previously searched for methanol masers but with no detections. Comparison between the peak position of ATLASGAL clumps and the interferometric positions of the associated class I and II methanol masers reveals that class I masers are generally located at larger physical distances from the peak submillimeter emission than class II masers. We conclude that the tight association between ATLASGAL sources and class I methanol masers may be used as a link toward understanding the conditions of the pumping of these masers and evolutionary stages at which they appear.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

SARS-CoV-2 wastewater variant surveillance: pandemic response leveraging FDA’s GenomeTrakr network

ABSTRACT Wastewater surveillance has emerged as a crucial public health tool for population-level pathogen surveillance. Supported by funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the FDA‘s genomic epidemiology program, GenomeTrakr, was leveraged to sequence SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater sites across the United States. This initiative required the evaluation, optimization, development, and publication of new methods and analytical tools spanning sample collection through variant analyses. Version-controlled protocols for each step of the process were developed and published on protocols.io. A custom data analysis tool and a publicly accessible dashboard were built to facilitate real-time visualization of the collected data, focusing on the relative abundance of SARS-CoV-2 variants and sub-lineages across different samples and sites throughout the project. From September 2021 through June 2023, a total of 3,389 wastewater samples were collected, with 2,517 undergoing sequencing and submission to NCBI under the umbrella BioProject,PRJNA757291. Sequence data were released with explicit quality control (QC) tags on all sequence records, communicating our confidence in the quality of data. Variant analysis revealed wide circulation of Delta in the fall of 2021 and captured the sweep of Omicron and subsequent diversification of this lineage through the end of the sampling period. This project successfully achieved two important goals for the FDA’s GenomeTrakr program: first, contributing timely genomic data for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic response, and second, establishing both capacity and best practices for culture-independent, population-level environmental surveillance for other pathogens of interest to the FDA. IMPORTANCE This paper serves two primary objectives. First, it summarizes the genomic and contextual data collected during a Covid-19 pandemic response project, which utilized the FDA’s laboratory network, traditionally employed for sequencing foodborne pathogens, for sequencing SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater samples. Second, it outlines best practices for gathering and organizing population-level next generation sequencing (NGS) data collected for culture-free, surveillance of pathogens sourced from environmental samples.

Microbiology↗

Multichannel angular spectrometer

A multichannel angular spectrometer includes an array of fiber pickups having an arcuate arrangement and focused about a sample volume. A broadband light source is configured to illuminate a sample within the sample volume. At least one dispersion element is in optical communication with the array of fiber pickups. An imaging sensor is in optical communication with the array of fiber pickups. The imaging sensor is configured to image the broadband light received by the array of fiber pickups and dispersed by the at least one dispersion element. A processor is in electrical communication with the imaging sensor. The processor has a power supply and computer-readable memory.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Clustering redshift distribution calibration of weak lensing surveys using the DESI-DR1 spectroscopic dataset

We estimate the source redshift distribution of current weak lensing surveys by applying the clustering-based redshift calibration technique, using the galaxy redshift sample provided by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Data Release 1 (DESI-DR1). We cross-correlate the Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS), Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) and Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) from DESI, within the redshift range $0.1 < z < 1.6$, with overlapping tomographic source samples from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), and Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey. Using realistic mock catalogues, we test the stability of the clustering-redshift signal to fitting scale, reference-sample choice, and the evolution of source galaxy bias, and we explicitly model and marginalise over magnification contributions, which become non-negligible at $z \gtrsim 1$ due to the depth of the DESI ELG sample. We then compare the resulting bias-weighted redshift distributions to those calibrated using self-organising map (SOM) techniques, finding agreement within uncertainties for all surveys and tomographic bins. Our results demonstrate that clustering redshifts enabled by DESI's unprecedented spectroscopic sample provides a robust, complementary, and independent constraint capable of reducing one of the dominant systematic uncertainties in weak lensing cosmology.

Ruggeri, R. [Queensland U.]↗

Young but fading radio sources: searching for remnants among compact steep-spectrum radio sources

The incidence of young but fading radio sources provides important information on the life cycle of radio emission in radio-loud active galactic nuclei. Despite its importance for constraining the models of radio source evolution, there are no systematic studies of remnants in complete samples of young radio sources. We report results of the study of 18 compact steep-spectrum (CSS) radio sources, selected from the statistically complete B3-VLA (Very Large Array) CSS sample, characterized by a steep optically thin spectrum (α ≥ 1.0) and no core detection in earlier studies. Our deep multifrequency VLA, pc-scale Very Long Baseline Array, and enhanced Multi Element Remotely Linked Interferometer Network (e-MERLIN) observations allowed us to locate the core component in 10 objects. In three CSS sources, there is no clear evidence of present-time active regions, suggesting that they are likely in a remnant phase. Among sources with core detection, we find three objects that have no clear active regions (hotspots) at the edges of the radio structure, suggesting that the radio emission may have just restarted. Our results support a power-law distribution of the source ages, although the poor statistics prevents us from setting solid constraints on the percentage of remnants and restarted sources in subpopulations of radio sources.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Spatially resolved properties of early-type group-dominant galaxies with MUSE: gas content, ionization mechanisms, and metallicity gradients

ABSTRACT With the goal of a thorough investigation of the ionized gas and its origin in early-type group-dominant galaxies, we present archival MUSE data for 18 galaxies from the Complete Local-Volume Groups Sample (CLoGS). These data allowed us to study the spatially resolved warm gas properties, including the morphology of the ionized gas, EW(H α), and kinematics as well as the gas-phase metallicity (12 + log(O/H)) of these systems. In order to distinguish between different ionization mechanisms, we used the emission-line ratios [O iii]/H β and [N ii]/H α in the BPT diagrams and EW(H α). We find that the ionization sources in our sample have variable impacts at different radii; central regions are more influenced by low-luminosity active galactic nuclei, while extended regions of low-ionization nuclear emission-line region-like emission are ionized by other mechanisms with post-asymptotic giant branch stars photoionization likely contributing significantly. We classified our sample into three H α +[N ii] emission morphology types. We calculate the gas-phase metallicity assuming several methods and ionization sources. In general, 12 + log(O/H) decreases with radius from the centre for all galaxies, independently of nebular morphology type, indicating a metallicity gradient in the abundance profiles. Interestingly, the more extended filamentary structures and all extranuclear star-forming regions present shallow metallicity gradients. Within the uncertainties these extended structures can be considered chemically homogeneous. We suggest that group-dominant galaxies in our sample likely acquired their cold gas in the past as a consequence of one or more mechanisms, e.g. gas-clouds or satellite mergers/accretion and/or cooling flows that contribute to the growth of the ionized gas structures.

Lagos, P. (ORCID:0000000223218657)↗

Application of SAMMY for Non-Destructive Characterization of Irradiated Samples Using Neutron Transmission Measurements at VENUS

This report presents the application of SAMMY (Larson 2008), an R-matrix Bayesian fitting system, for analyzing neutron transmission data to enable non-destructive isotopic identification. Transmission measurements were conducted at the VENUS (Bilheux et al. 2023) beamline of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) using samples with unknown or partially characterized compositions. Through the application of SAMMY’s R-matrix Bayesian fitting capabilities to the measured transmission spectra and comparison against evaluated nuclear data libraries, isotopic constituents can be quantitatively determined based on their characteristic neutron resonance signatures. This methodology demonstrates significant potential for applications in nuclear safeguards, forensics, and post-irradiation examination.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Design and Evaluation of a Tethered, Open Port Sampling Interface for Liquid Extraction-Mass Spectrometry Chemical Analysis

Presented in this work is a tethered, liquid-extraction-sampling interface designed for the mass spectrometric surface sampling/analysis of 3D objects. The tethered, open port sampling interface (TOPSI) incorporates a vacuum line between the sampling probe and ionization source, which enables the ability for an extended, tethered sample transfer line. Herein, several designs of the hand-held TOPSI are presented and evaluated on the basis of the analytical metrics of analyte transport time, peak width, and analyte sensitivity. The best analytical metrics were obtained with capillary flow resistances arranged in a particular order and the vacuum region set at 6.2 kPa. This TOPSI design incorporated a transfer capillary 1 m in length, while retaining a fast analyte transport time (12 s), short signal peak width (5 s baseline-to-baseline), and high analyte signal at 90% of that obtained with a regular open port sampling interface (OPSI). The hand-held TOPSI was demonstrated for the characterization of extracted small molecules and metabolites from the surface of mint and rosemary leaves.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Experiments with neutron induced neutron emission from U-235, Pu-239, and graphite

A neutron induced neutron emission experiment was conducted as the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In this experiment, a sample was placed in a well collimated neutron beam and was surrounded by an array of 28 fast neutron detectors (EJ-309). The experiment was performed with a neutron flight path of 21.5 m from the source to the sample, and 1 m from the sample to the detectors. The neutron emission from the sample was measured as a function of neutron time of flight covering an incident energy range from 0.7- 20 MeV. The samples included U-235, Pu-239, carbon (graphite), and blanks that matched the encapsulation of the sample. The measured samples were constantly cycled in and out of the neutron beam. This type of experiment measures neutron emission from all reactions occurring in the sample such as fission and elastic and inelastic scattering. Similar to the methodology previously developed at RPI, the measurements were compared with detailed simulations of the experiment using different cross section evaluations for the sample. The observed differences can be attributed to the evaluated neutron cross section and angular distributions. The carbon sample was used as a reference to validate both the experiment and simulation methodology and showed good agreement between experiments and simulations. A review of the experimental setup, analysis methods, and some of the results will be presented.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Jacobian-scaled K-means clustering for physics-informed segmentation of reacting flows

This work introduces Jacobian-scaled K-means (JSK-means) clustering, which is a physicsinformed clustering strategy centered on the K-means framework. The method allows for the injection of underlying physical knowledge into the clustering procedure through a distance function modification: instead of leveraging conventional Euclidean distance vectors, the JSKmeans procedure operates on distance vectors scaled by matrices obtained from dynamical system Jacobians evaluated at the cluster centroids. The goal of this work is to show how the JSKmeans algorithm - without modifying the input dataset - produces clusters that capture regions of dynamical similarity, in that the clusters are redistributed towards high-sensitivity regions in phase space and are described by similarity in the source terms of samples instead of the samples themselves. The algorithm is demonstrated on a complex reacting flow simulation dataset (a channel detonation configuration), where the dynamics in the thermochemical composition space are known through the highly nonlinear and stiff Arrhenius-based chemical source terms. Interpretations of cluster partitions in both physical space and composition space reveal how JSK-means shifts clusters produced by standard K-means towards regions of high chemical sensitivity (e.g., towards regions of peak heat release rate near the detonation reaction zone). Furthermore, the findings presented here illustrate the benefits of utilizing Jacobian-scaled distances in clustering techniques, and the JSK-means method in particular displays promising potential for improving former partition-based modeling strategies in reacting flow (and other multi-physics) applications.

Clustering↗

The miniJPAS survey quasar selection – I. Mock catalogues for classification

In this series of papers, we employ several machine learning (ML) methods to classify the point-like sources from the miniJPAS catalogue, and identify quasar candidates. Since no representative sample of spectroscopically confirmed sources exists at present to train these ML algorithms, we rely on mock catalogues. In this first paper, we develop a pipeline to compute synthetic photometry of quasars, galaxies, and stars using spectra of objects targeted as quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey . To match the same depths and signal-to-noise ratio distributions in all bands expected for miniJPAS point sources in the range 17.5 ≤ r < 24, we augment our sample of available spectra by shifting the original r-band magnitude distributions towards the faint end, ensure that the relative incidence rates of the different objects are distributed according to their respective luminosity functions, and perform a thorough modelling of the noise distribution in each filter, by sampling the flux variance either from Gaussian realizations with given widths, or from combinations of Gaussian functions. Finally, we also add in the mocks the patterns of non-detections which are present in all real observations. Although the mock catalogues presented in this work are a first step towards simulated data sets that match the properties of the miniJPAS observations, these mocks can be adapted to serve the purposes of other photometric surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

`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 ↗

Finding quadruply imaged quasars with machine learning – I. Methods

ABSTRACT Strongly lensed quadruply imaged quasars (quads) are extraordinary objects. They are very rare in the sky and yet they provide unique information about a wide range of topics, including the expansion history and the composition of the Universe, the distribution of stars and dark matter in galaxies, the host galaxies of quasars, and the stellar initial mass function. Finding them in astronomical images is a classic ‘needle in a haystack’ problem, as they are outnumbered by other (contaminant) sources by many orders of magnitude. To solve this problem, we develop state-of-the-art deep learning methods and train them on realistic simulated quads based on real images of galaxies taken from the Dark Energy Survey, with realistic source and deflector models, including the chromatic effects of microlensing. The performance of the best methods on a mixture of simulated and real objects is excellent, yielding area under the receiver operating curve in the range of 0.86–0.89. Recall is close to 100 per cent down to total magnitude i ∼ 21 indicating high completeness, while precision declines from 85 per cent to 70 per cent in the range i ∼ 17–21. The methods are extremely fast: training on 2 million samples takes 20 h on a GPU machine, and 108 multiband cut-outs can be evaluated per GPU-hour. The speed and performance of the method pave the way to apply it to large samples of astronomical sources, bypassing the need for photometric pre-selection that is likely to be a major cause of incompleteness in current samples of known quads.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗