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At least 1,459 records · Page 81

Differentiable physics-enabled closure modeling for Burgers’ turbulence

Abstract Data-driven turbulence modeling is experiencing a surge in interest following algorithmic and hardware developments in the data sciences. We discuss an approach using the differentiable physics paradigm that combines known physics with machine learning to develop closure models for Burgers’ turbulence. We consider the one-dimensional Burgers system as a prototypical test problem for modeling the unresolved terms in advection-dominated turbulence problems. We train a series of models that incorporate varying degrees of physical assumptions on an a posteriori loss function to test the efficacy of models across a range of system parameters, including viscosity, time, and grid resolution. We find that constraining models with inductive biases in the form of partial differential equations that contain known physics or existing closure approaches produces highly data-efficient, accurate, and generalizable models, outperforming state-of-the-art baselines. Addition of structure in the form of physics information also brings a level of interpretability to the models, potentially offering a stepping stone to the future of closure modeling.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Creation Synthetic Data to Train a Digital Twin to Predict Reactor Operations

Understanding techniques to strengthen the nuclear safeguards regime is crucial in preventing nuclear proliferation due to recent advancements in the nuclear energy industry such as Generation IV reactors and microreactors. Prior to the construction of a nuclear power plant, it is necessary to understand the proliferation potential of the plant's reactor. Digital twins serve as a unique solution to recognizing reactor behavior indicative of nuclear proliferation. A digital twin is defined as a virtual model that works in unison to represent a physical asset, with a transference of data between the virtual and physical assets [1]. This work serves as validation for training a digital twin on synthetic data fabricated via means of Serpent reactor physics and point kinetics equations simulations. In this case this work is based on parameters of Idaho State University's AGN-201 reactor. The synthetic data can then be utilized to train machine learning models in the future to further investigate the utility of these methods. The accuracy of the predicted data is measured against real operational data to verify the reliability of the synthetic data creation methods and decide whether these methods should be used in the future to inform inspectors of a reactor's proliferation potential.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

The development of thermodynamically consistent and physics-informed equation-of-state model through machine learning

Ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations have become an important tool used in the construction of equations of state (EOS) tables for warm dense matter. Due to computational costs, only a limited number of system state conditions can be simulated, and the remaining EOS surface must be interpolated for use in radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of experiments. In this work, we develop a thermodynamically consistent EOS model that utilizes a physics-informed machine learning approach to implicitly learn the underlying Helmholtz free-energy from AIMD generated energies and pressures. The model, referred to as PIML-EOS, was trained and tested on warm dense polystyrene producing a fit within a 1% relative error for both energy and pressure and is shown to satisfy both the Maxwell and Gibbs–Duhem relations. In addition, we provide a path toward obtaining thermodynamic quantities, such as the total entropy and chemical potential (containing both ionic and electronic contributions), which are not available from current AIMD simulations.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

SPIDARman: System-Level Physics-Informed Detection of Anomalies in Reactor Collected Data Considering Human Errors

In nuclear power plants (NPPs), anomalies arising from sensors or human errors (HEs) can undermine the performance and reliability of plant operations. Anomaly detection models can be employed to detect sensor errors and HEs. Additionally, physics-informed machine learning models can utilize the known physics of the system, as described by mathematical equations, to ensure that sensor values are consistent with physical laws. Hence, we propose SPIDARman: System-level Physics-Informed Detection of Anomalies in Reactor Collected Data Considering Human Errors, a holistic physics-informed anomaly detection approach based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) to detect anomalies in both automatically collected sensor data and manually collected surveillance data. Here we test our approach on data collected from a flow loop testbed, showcasing its potential to detect anomalies. Results demonstrate that the proposed model performs better than the baseline GAN-based models in detecting sensor and surveillance anomalies, suggesting the potential of physics-informed anomaly detection GAN models in NPPs.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Physics-Based Feature Extraction from Bulk Time-Series PMU Datasets for Event Detection

In this work, two physics-based feature extraction techniques are developed for bulk time-series phasor measurement unit (PMU) datasets collected from the field to train the machine learning model for anomaly detection. Two approaches have been developed to extract useful features for different types of events. An admittance-based feature extraction technique is developed to detect events that involve line outages and system topology variations. The developed algorithm extracts the system equivalent admittance variation. Additionally, Fielder’s Theory is utilized to further reduce the potential computation burden by sectionalizing large-scale grids and datasets into smaller areas. Second, an oscillation-based feature extraction technique is developed to detect low-frequency oscillations in power grids. The dominant oscillation modes in the grids are extracted using energy-sorted Prony analysis. The extracted dominant oscillation modes by the developed work exhibit a high fitting resolution. Finally, the developed techniques have been validated using large-scale and real-world datasets.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Peatland fires in Alaska will double by the end of the century

During recent summers, warm and dry conditions have increased the occurrence of wildfires and potentially peat-fires across Alaska. Limitations in resolving the fine-scale distribution of peatlands and climate observations have constrained our ability to accurately predict peat-fire dynamics. Using a new high-resolution peatland map of Alaska, we evaluated the climate and environmental controls of past and future peat-fire activity. Ensemble machine learning models identified reduced soil moisture, higher temperatures, and evapotranspiration as key predictors of annual total burned peatland area (tenfold CV R 2 = 0.62, RMSE = 221.1 km 2 ). By the end of the twenty-first century, models forced with climate datasets from representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 4.5, 6.0, and 8.5 emission scenarios project a statewide doubling of burned peatlands (increasing 61–121%), with regional increases ranging from 25–165% in polar, 61–95% in boreal, and 102–106% in maritime ecoregions. These projections indicate that wildfires will progressively encroach further into organic-rich moist and wet peaty soils, potentially amplifying soil carbon release across Alaska.

climate-change ecology↗

Pairing glue in cuprate superconductors from the self-energy revealed via machine learning

Recently, machine learning was applied to extract both the normal and the anomalous components of the self-energy from photoemission data at the antinodal points in Bi– based cuprate high-temperature superconductors. It was argued that both components do show prominent peaks near 50 meV, which hold information about the pairing glue, but the peaks are hidden in the actual data, which measure only the total self-energy. We analyze the self-energy within an effective fermion-boson theory. We show that soft thermal fluctuations give rise to peaks in both components of the self-energy at a frequency comparable to the superconducting gap, while they cancel in the total self-energy, all irrespective of the nature of the pairing boson. Furthermore, in the quantum limit T → 0 prominent peaks survive only for a very restricted subclass of pairing interactions. We argue that the way to potentially nail down the pairing boson is to determine the thermal evolution of the peaks.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

A general approach to seismic inversion with automatic differentiation

Imaging Earth structure or seismic sources from seismic data involves minimizing a target misfit function, and is commonly solved through gradient-based optimization. The adjoint-state method has been developed to compute the gradient efficiently; however, its implementation can be time-consuming and difficult. We develop a general seismic inversion framework to calculate gradients using reverse-mode automatic differentiation. The central idea is that adjoint-state methods and reverse-mode automatic differentiation are mathematically equivalent. Here, the mapping between numerical PDE simulation and deep learning allows us to build a seismic inverse modeling library, ADSeismic, based on deep learning frameworks, which supports high performance reverse-mode automatic differentiation on CPUs and GPUs. We demonstrate the performance of ADSeismic on inverse problems related to velocity model estimation, rupture imaging, earthquake location, and source time function retrieval. ADSeismic has the potential to solve a wide variety of inverse modeling applications within a unified framework.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Relevant biochar characteristics influencing compressive strength of biochar-cement mortars

To counteract the contribution of CO 2 emissions by cement production and utilization, biochar is being harnessed as a carbon-negative additive in concrete. Increasing the cement replacement and biochar dosage will increase the carbon offset, but there is large variability in methods being used and many researchers report strength decreases at cement replacements beyond 5%. This work presents a reliable method to replace 10% of the cement mass with a vast selection of biochars without decreasing ultimate compressive strength, and in many cases significantly improving it. By carefully quantifying the physical and chemical properties of each biochar used, machine learning algorithms were used to elucidate the three most influential biochar characteristics that control mortar strength: initial saturation percentage, oxygen-to-carbon ratio, and soluble silicon. These results provide additional research avenues for utilizing several potential biomass waste streams to increase the biochar dosage in cement mixes without decreasing mechanical properties.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Explaining System-Level Prognostics with Established Machine Learning Methods

System-level prognostics is crucial for ensuring reliability and enabling predictive maintenance in complex systems with interconnected components. This study presents a framework that integrates data-driven methods to predict the remaining useful life (RUL) of a subsystem under multiple and concurrent faults within a nuclear power plant system with explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). A nuclear power plant (NPP) operation was simulated to model the degradation behavior of NPP components, and four machine learning models—Gradient Boosting Regressor (GBR), Support Vector Regressor (SVR), Fully Connected Neural Network (FCNN), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)—were evaluated for prognostics with a novel system RUL parameter. The LSTM model demonstrated potential superior repeatability, while SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) for explainability provided consistent and trustworthy global explanations. In contrast, LIME (Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations) offered localized interpretability but showed reduced stability for sequential data. Key findings include the interplay between component-level degradation and system-wide performance, with LSTM effectively capturing these dynamics through sequence-level predictions. The XAI techniques enhanced transparency by identifying critical features influencing model predictions and aligning with domain knowledge. Furthermore, this framework has significant implications for improving trust and understanding in predictive maintenance, particularly in safety-critical industries like nuclear energy.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Uncertainty Quantification for Machine Learning

In this paper, we assert the importance of uncertainty quantification for machine learning and sketch an initial research agenda. We define uncertainty in the context of machine learning, identify its sources, and motivate the importance and impact of its quantification. We then illustrate these issues with an image analysis example. The paper concludes by identifying several specific research issues and by discussing the potential long-term implications of uncertainty quantification for data analytics in general.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Data-Driven Specification of Earth's Magnetic Field

As our society is increasingly dependent on technologies in space, predicting space weather becomes ever more important. We have come to rely on technologies such as cellphones, GPS, the Internet, and other commercial and military assets. In order to protect these systems a high priority is to develop better understanding of the harmful conditions of space weather encountered in the near-Earth radiation environment which are mostly dictated by the dynamics of energetic charged particles. The main objective of our proposal was to improve the specification and forecast of the particle distribution in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere using data assimilation together with machine learning (ML) algorithms in our ring current-atmosphere interactions model with self-consistent magnetic and electric fields (RAM-SCBE). Specifically, we explored the application of machine learning algorithms to emulate and improve, through infusion of observational data, the magnetic field (SCBE) of our ring current model. Our work advanced towards the characterization of the RAM-SCBE particle flux field and its potentially different simulation scenarios. We explored how the model behaves in a number of simulation scenarios in order to better understand how the model reacts to perturbations in the solar wind. We were able to capture this behavior through the simulation of an ensemble of RAM-SCB model solutions. The ensemble showed the important correlations between the particle fluxes and the magnetic field. We were able to start the training of a neural network (Autoencoder) to identify the dominant features of the magnetic field, and the main correlations (linear and non-linear) between the particle fluxes and the magnetic field. Our next steps consists of training a neural network to capture the time evolution of the dominant features and obtain a consistent surrogate model for the RAM-SCB.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Machine Learning Design of Perovskite Catalytic Properties

Abstract Discovering new materials that efficiently catalyze the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions is critical for facilitating the widespread adoption of solid oxide fuel cell and electrolyzer (SOFC/SOEC) technologies. Here, machine learning (ML) models are developed to predict perovskite catalytic properties critical for SOFC/SOEC applications, including oxygen surface exchange, oxygen diffusivity, and area specific resistance (ASR). The models are based on trivial‐to‐calculate elemental features and are more accurate and dramatically faster than the best models based on ab initio‐derived features, potentially eliminating the need for ab initio calculations in descriptor‐based screening. The model of ASR enables temperature‐dependent predictions, has well calibrated uncertainty estimates and online accessibility. Use of temporal cross‐validation reveals the model to be effective at discovering new promising materials prior to their initial discovery, demonstrating the model can make meaningful predictions. Using the SHapley Additive ExPlanations (SHAP) approach, detailed discussion of different approaches of model featurization is provided for ML property prediction. Finally, the model is used to screen more than 19 million perovskites to develop a list of promising cheap, earth‐abundant, stable, and high performing materials, and find some top materials contain mixtures of less‐explored elements (e.g., K, Bi, Y, Ni, Cu) worth exploring in more detail.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Automated, high-accuracy classification of textured microstructures using a convolutional neural network

Crystallographic texture is an important descriptor of material properties but requires time-intensive electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) for identifying grain orientations. While some metrics such as grain size or grain aspect ratio can distinguish textured microstructures from untextured microstructures after significant grain growth, such morphological differences are not always visually observable. This paper explores the use of deep learning to classify experimentally measured textured microstructures without knowledge of crystallographic orientation. A deep convolutional neural network is used to extract high-order morphological features from binary images to distinguish textured microstructures from untextured microstructures. The convolutional neural network results are compared with a statistical Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests with traditional morphological metrics for describing microstructures. Results show that the convolutional neural network achieves a significantly improved classification accuracy, particularly at early stages of grain growth, highlighting the capability of deep learning to identify the subtle morphological patterns resulting from texture. The results demonstrate the potential of a convolutional neural network as a tool for reliable and automated microstructure classification with minimal preprocessing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Prediction of cardiac death after adenosine myocardial perfusion SPECT based on machine learning

Background: We developed machine-learning (ML) models to estimate a patient’s risk of cardiac death based on adenosine myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) and associated clinical data, and compared their performance to baseline logistic regression (LR). We demonstrated an approach to visually convey the reasoning behind a patient’s risk to provide insight to clinicians beyond that of a “black box.” Methods: We trained multiple models using 122 potential clinical predictors (features) for 8321 patients, including 551 cases of subsequent cardiac death. Accuracy was measured by area under the ROC curve (AUC), computed within a cross-validation framework. We developed a method to display the model’s rationale to facilitate clinical interpretation. Results: The baseline LR (AUC = 0.76; 14 features) was outperformed by all other methods. A least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) model (AUC = 0.77; p = .045; 6 features) required the fewest features. A support vector machine (SVM) model (AUC = 0.83; p < .0001; 49 features) provided the highest accuracy. Conclusions: LASSO outperformed LR in both accuracy and simplicity (number of features), with SVM yielding best AUC for prediction of cardiac death in patients undergoing MPS. Combined with presenting the reasoning behind the risk scores, our results suggest that ML can be more effective than LR for this application.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Heterogeneous Multilayer Nanopores via Chemically Tuned Dielectric Breakdown for Single‐Molecule Sensing

Solid-state nanopores are powerful platforms for single-molecule sensing, yet their performance is often constrained by fabrication complexity, noise, and limited control over surface properties. Here we report a direct method to fabricate heterogeneous multilayer nanopores using chemically tuned controlled dielectric breakdown (CT-CDB). We integrate hBN, MoS 2 , or graphene atop a silicon nitride membrane to form five distinct bilayer and tri-layer architectures, with bare SiN x nanopore as a control. CT-CDB achieves pore formation reproducibly through material-stacks with high efficiency, good pore size control, and strong yield, validated by various characterizations. Transferrin protein translocation experiments, supported by simulations, reveal that multilayer configurations modulate protein conformations, ionic current blockade and dwell time distributions, reflecting combined effects of membrane type, interfacial chemistry, and local electric field gradients. A supervised machine learning framework is implemented to assist identifying multilayer structure effects embedded in signal signatures, with over 96% accuracy. This work presents a modular and scalable framework for functional nanopore engineering with complex structural integration, thereby expanding the potential of 2D materials in single-molecule sensing applications.

2D materials↗

Estimating the randomness of quantum circuit ensembles up to 50 qubits

Random quantum circuits have been utilized in the contexts of quantum supremacy demonstrations, variational quantum algorithms for chemistry and machine learning, and blackhole information. The ability of random circuits to approximate any random unitaries has consequences on their complexity, expressibility, and trainability. To study this property of random circuits, we develop numerical protocols for estimating the frame potential, the distance between a given ensemble and the exact randomness. Our tensor-network-based algorithm has polynomial complexity for shallow circuits and is high-performing using CPU and GPU parallelism. We study 1. local and parallel random circuits to verify the linear growth in complexity as stated by the Brown–Susskind conjecture, and; 2. hardware-efficient ansätze to shed light on its expressibility and the barren plateau problem in the context of variational algorithms. Our work shows that large-scale tensor network simulations could provide important hints toward open problems in quantum information science.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Atlas of putative minima and low-lying energy networks of water clusters n = 3 - 25

We report a database consisting of the putative minima and ~3.2 million local minima lying within 5 kcal/mol from the putative minima for water clusters of sizes n = 3 – 25 using an improved version of the Monte Carlo Temperature Basin Paving (MCTBP) global optimization procedure in conjunction with the ab-initio based, flexible, polarizable Thole-Type Model (TTM2.1-F, version 2.1) interaction potential for water. Several of the low-lying structures, as well as lowlying penta-coordinated water networks obtained with the TTM2.1-F potential, were further refined at the Møller-Plesset second order perturbation MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory. In total, we have identified 3,138,303 networks corresponding to local minima of the clusters n = 3 – 25, whose Cartesian coordinates and relative energies can be obtained from the webpage https://sites.uw.edu/wdbase/. Networks containing penta-coordinated water molecules start to appear at n = 11 and, quite surprisingly, are energetically close (within 1 – 3 kcal/mol) to the putative minima, a fact that has been confirmed from the MP2 calculations. This large database of water cluster minima spanning quite dissimilar hydrogen bonding networks is expected to influence the development and assessment of the accuracy of interaction potentials for water as well as lower scaling electronic structure methods (such as different density functionals). Furthermore, it can also be used in conjunction with data science approaches (including but no limited to neural networks, machine and deep learning) to understand the properties of water, nature’s most important substance.

Rakshit, Avijit↗