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DOE OSTI2011

OECD 2-D Core Concrete Interaction (CCI) tests : CCI-2 test plan, Rev. 0 January 31, 2004.

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. As a follow-on program to MACE, The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction Experiments (MCCI) project is conducting reactor material experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focuses on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in MACE integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term two-dimensional molten core-concrete interactions under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Achievement of these two program objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs for future plants. In terms of satisfying these objectives, the Management Board (MB) approved the conduct of two long-term 2-D Core-Concrete Interaction (CCI) experiments designed to provide information in several areas, including: (i) lateral vs. axial power split during dry core-concrete interaction, (ii) integral debris coolability data following late phase flooding, and (iii) data regarding the nature and extent of the cooling transient following breach of the crust formed at the melt-water interface. The first of these two tests, CCI-1, was conducted on December 19, 2003. This test investigated the interaction of a fully oxidized 400 kg PWR core melt, initially containing 8 wt % calcined siliceous concrete, with a specially designed two-dimensional siliceous concrete test section with an initial cross-sectional area of 50 cm x 50 cm. The second of these two planned tests, CCI-2, will be conducted with a nearly identical test facility and experiment boundary conditions, but with a Limestone/Common Sand (LCS) concrete test section to investigate the effect of concrete type on the two-dimensional core-concrete interaction and debris cooling behavior. The objective of this report is to provide the overall test plan for CCI-2 to enable pretest calculations to be carried out. The report begins by providing a summary description of the CCI-2 test apparatus, followed by a description of the planned test operating procedure. Overall specifications for CCI-2 are provided in Table 1-1.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2011

OECD MCCI 2-D Core Concrete Interaction (CCI) tests : CCI-2 test data report-thermalhydraulic results, Rev. 0 October 15, 2004.

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. As a follow-on program to MACE, The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction Experiments (MCCI) project is conducting reactor material experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focuses on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in MACE integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term two-dimensional molten core-concrete interactions under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Achievement of these two program objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs for future plants. In terms of satisfying these objectives, the Management Board (MB) approved the conduct of two long-term 2-D Core-Concrete Interaction (CCI) experiments designed to provide information in several areas, including: (i) lateral vs. axial power split during dry core-concrete interaction, (ii) integral debris coolability data following late phase flooding, and (iii) data regarding the nature and extent of the cooling transient following breach of the crust formed at the melt-water interface. This data report provides thermal hydraulic test results from the CCI-2 experiment, which was conducted on August 24, 2004. Test specifications for CCI-2 are provided in Table 1-1. This experiment investigated the interaction of a fully oxidized 400 kg PWR core melt, initially containing 8 wt % Limestone/Common Sand (LCS) concrete, with a specially designed two-dimensional LCS concrete test section with an initial cross-sectional area of 50 cm x 50 cm. The report begins by providing a summary description of the CCI-2 test apparatus and operating procedures, followed by presentation of the thermal-hydraulic results. Detailed posttest debris examination results will be provided in a subsequent publication. Observations drawn within this report regarding the overall cavity erosion behavior may be subject to revision once the posttest examinations are completed, since these examinations will fully reveal the final cavity shape.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2011

OECD MCCI project 2-D Core Concrete Interaction (CCI) tests : CCI-3 test data report-thermalhydraulic results. Rev. 0 October 15, 2005.

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. As a follow-on program to MACE, The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction Experiments (MCCI) project is conducting reactor material experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focuses on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in MACE integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term two-dimensional molten core-concrete interactions under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Achievement of these two program objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs for future plants. In terms of satisfying these objectives, the Management Board (MB) approved the conduct of a third long-term 2-D Core-Concrete Interaction (CCI) experiment designed to provide information in several areas, including: (i) lateral vs. axial power split during dry core-concrete interaction, (ii) integral debris coolability data following late phase flooding, and (iii) data regarding the nature and extent of the cooling transient following breach of the crust formed at the melt-water interface. This data report provides thermal hydraulic test results from the CCI-3 experiment, which was conducted on September 22, 2005. Test specifications for CCI-3 are provided in Table 1-1. This experiment investigated the interaction of a fully oxidized 375 kg PWR core melt, initially containing 15 wt% siliceous concrete, with a specially designed two-dimensional siliceous concrete test section with an initial cross-sectional area of 50 cm x 50 cm. The sand and aggregate constituents for this particular siliceous concrete were provided by CEA as an in-kind contribution to the program. The report begins by providing a summary description of the CCI-3 test apparatus and operating procedures, followed by presentation of the thermal-hydraulic results. Detailed posttest debris examination results will be provided in a subsequent publication. Observations drawn within this report regarding the overall cavity erosion behavior may be subject to revision once the posttest examinations are completed, since these examinations will fully reveal the final cavity shape.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2020

High-resolution infrared spectroscopy of jet cooled CH 2 Br radicals: The symmetric CH stretch manifold and absence of nuclear spin cooling

Direct laser absorption of a slit supersonic discharge expansion provides the first high-resolution spectroscopic results on the symmetric CH stretch excitation (ν 1 ) of the bromomethyl (CH 2 Br) radical in the ground electronic state. Narrowband (<1 MHz) mid-infrared radiation is produced by difference-frequency generation of two visible laser beams, with the open shell halohydrocarbon radical generated by electron dissociative attachment of CH 2 Br 2 in a discharge and rapidly cooled to T rot = 18 ± 1 K in the subsequent slit-jet supersonic expansion. A rovibrational structure in the radical spectrum is fully resolved, as well as additional splittings due to spin-rotation effects and 79 Br/ 81 Br isotopologues in natural abundance. Spectroscopic constants and band origins are determined by fitting the transition frequencies to a non-rigid Watson Hamiltonian, yielding results consistent with a vibrationally averaged planar radical and an unpaired electron in the out-of-plane p π orbital. Additionally, extensive satellite band structure from a vibrational hot band is observed and analyzed. The hot band data is compared to CFOUR/VPT2 (CCSD(T)cc-pVQZ) ab initio anharmonic predictions of the vibration rotation alpha matrix, which permits unambiguous assignment to CH 2 symmetric-stretch excitation built on the singly excited CH 2 out-of-plane bending mode (ν 1 + ν 4 ← ν 4 ). Longitudinal cooling of the Doppler width in the slit-jet expansion geometry also reveals partially resolved hyperfine structure on transitions out of the lowest angular momentum states in excellent agreement with predictions based on microwave studies. High level ab initio MOLPRO calculations [CCSD(T)-f12b/VnZ-f12 (n = 3, 4, CBS)] are also performed with explicitly correlated f12 electron methods for the out-of-plane CH 2 bending mode over the halogen series CH 2 X (X = F, Cl, Br, I), which clearly reveals a non-planar geometry for X = F (with a ΔE ≈ 0.3 kcal/mol barrier) and yet planar equilibrium geometries for X = Cl, Br, and I. Finally, a detailed Boltzmann analysis of the transition intensities provides support for negligible collisional equilibration of the entangled H atom nuclear spin states on the few hundred microsecond time scale and high collision densities of a slit supersonic expansion.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2018

Morphology evolution of γ′ precipitates in a powder metallurgy Ni-base superalloy

Highlights: • The 3-D morphology of the γ′ precipitate for the Ni-base superalloy was characterized using the electronic etching. • Various morphologies of the γ′ precipitates, including cuboids, octet and dendritic shape, were observed. • Cooling rate has a significant influence on the morphology of the γ′ precipitate. • When the cooling rate was lower than 6 °C/min, the dendritic shape γ′ with eight-primary-branch pattern was observed. - Abstract: Effect of the cooling rate on the morphological evolution of the γ′ precipitate in a powder metallurgy Ni-base superalloy FGH96 was studied. Results showed that as the cooling rate decreased from 600 °C/min to 2 °C/min, the precipitate morphology transformed from sphere to cuboid, octet and dendrite. As the cooling rate increased, the mean size of the γ′ precipitates decreased while the nucleation density increased. When the cooling rate was lower than 6 °C/min, the precipitate would evolve from a sphere to cuboids with concave faces, octets, dendrite to final split-off branches. The morphological transition was driven by energy balance between coherent strain induced by the γ′/γ lattice misfit and interface energy. The dendritic shape γ′ exhibited an eight-primary-branch pattern with preferred growth direction along <111>, and secondary arms along <100>.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2013

Effect of vortex hotspots on the radio-frequency surface resistance of superconductors

We present detailed experimental and theoretical investigations of hotspots produced by trapped vortex bundles and their effect on the radio-frequency (rf) surface resistance R s of superconductors at low temperatures. Our measurements of R s , combined with the temperature mapping and laser scanning of a 2.36-mm-thick Nb plate incorporated into a 3.3-GHz Nb resonator cavity cooled by the superfluid He at 2 K, revealed spatial scales and temperature distributions of hotspots and showed that they can be moved or split by thermal gradients produced by the scanning laser beam. These results, along with the observed hysteretic field dependence of R s which can be tuned by the scanning laser beam, show that the hotspots in our Nb sample are due to trapped vortex bundles which contain ~10 6 vortices spread over regions ~0.1–1 cm. We calculated the frequency dependence of the rf power dissipated by oscillating vortex segments trapped between nanoscale pinning centers, taking into account all bending modes and the nonlocal line tension of the vortex driven by rf Meissner currents. We also calculated the temperature distributions caused by trapped vortex hotspots, and suggested a method of reconstructing the spatial distribution of vortex dissipation sources from the observed temperature maps. Vortex hotspots can dominate the residual surface resistance at low temperatures and give rise to a significant dependence of R s on the rf field amplitude H p , which can have important implications for the rf resonating cavities used in particle accelerators and for thin-film structures used in quantum computing and photon detectors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2016

Performance Analysis of a Modular Small-Diamter Air Distribution System

This report investigates the feasibility of using a home-run manifold small-diameter duct system to provide space conditioning air to individual thermal zones in a low-load home. This compact layout allows duct systems to be brought easily within conditioned space via interior partition walls. Centrally locating the air handler unit in the house significantly reduces duct lengths. The plenum box is designed so that each connected duct receives an equal amount of airflow, regardless of the duct position on the box. Furthermore, within a reasonable set of length restrictions, each duct continues to receive similar airflow. The design method uses an additive approach to reach the total needed zonal airflow. Once the cubic feet per minute needed to satisfy the thermal load of a zone has been determined, the total number of duct runs to a zone can be calculated by dividing the required airflow by the standard airflow from each duct. The additive approach greatly simplifies the design effort and reduces the potential for duct design mistakes to be made. Measured results indicate that this plenum design can satisfy the heating load. However, the total airflow falls short of satisfying the cooling load in a hypothetical building. Static pressure inside the plenum box of 51.5 Pa limited the total airflow of the attached mini-split heat pump blower, thus limiting the total thermal capacity. Fan energy consumption is kept to 0.16 to 0.22 watt/CFM by using short duct runs and smooth duct material.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2015

Potential energy savings with exterior shades in large office buildings and the impact of discomfort glare

Exterior shades are highly efficient for reducing solar load in commercial buildings. Their impact on net energy use depends on the annual energy balance of heating, cooling, fan and lighting energy. This paper discusses the overall energy use intensity of various external shading systems for a prototypical large office building split into the different types of energy use and for different orientations and window sizes. Lighting energy was calculated for a constant lighting power as well as for dimmed lighting fixtures (daylighting control). In Section 3, slat angles and solar cut-off angles were varied for fixed exterior slat shading systems. While the most light-blocking shades performed best for the case without daylighting controls, the optimum cut-off angle with daylighting controls was found to be 30 deg for the office building prototype used in Chicago and Houston. For large window-to-wall (WWR) ratios, window related annual energy use could be reduced by at least 70 % without daylighting control and by a minimum of 86 % with daylighting control in average over all orientations. The occurrence of discomfort glare was is considered in Section 4 of the paper, which looks at the performance of commercially available exterior shading systems when an interior shade is used in addition to the exterior shade during hours when occupants would experience discomfort glare. Glare control impacts overall energy use intensity significantly for exterior shades with high transmittance, especially when daylighting controls are used. In these cases, exterior shades are only beneficial for window-to-wall areas ≥ 45% in the hot Houston climate. For smaller windows and in a heating/cooling climate like Chicago, exterior shades can increase energy consumption

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NASA NTRS1979

Cooling a radioisotope power source in the Space Shuttle Orbiter

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG's), used to generate electrical power on outer planetary spacecraft, are presently planned for a January 1982 launch of Galileo and later for a February 1983 launch. The RTG's will be externally located on a spacecraft to be deployed from the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Each RTG rejects nearly 2.5 kW (8500 Btu/hr) of thermal energy. From the time the RTG's are loaded into the payload bay until the doors are opened one to three hours after launch, active cooling will maintain proper temperature limits. This paper includes a description of two types of RTG's and the various cooling concepts considered. The payload cooling capability of the Shuttle Orbiter and modifications required to accommodate the RTG's are discussed. The analytical technique for determining the heat load split between the orbiter environment and RTG coolant is also presented.

Levine, D. I.↗

DOE OSTI2016

Building America Case Study: Mockup Small-Diameter Air Distribution System

This report investigates the feasibility of using a home-run manifold small-diameter duct system to provide space conditioning air to individual thermal zones in a low-load home. This compact layout allows duct systems to be brought easily within conditioned space via interior partition walls. Centrally locating the air hander unit in the house significantly reduces duct lengths. The plenum box is designed so that each connected duct receives an equal amount of airflow, regardless of the duct position on the box. Furthermore, within a reasonable set of length restrictions, each duct continues to receive similar airflow. The design method uses an additive approach to reach the total needed zonal airflow. Once the cubic feet per minute needed to satisfy the thermal load of a zone has been determined, the total number of duct runs to a zone can be calculated by dividing the required airflow by the standard airflow from each duct. The additive approach greatly simplifies the design effort and reduces the potential for duct design mistakes to be made. Measured results indicate that this plenum design can satisfy the heating load. However, the total airflow falls short of satisfying the cooling load in a hypothetical building. Static pressure inside the plenum box of 51.5 Pa limited the total airflow of the attached mini-split heat pump blower, thus limiting the total thermal capacity. Fan energy consumption is kept to 0.16 to 0.22 watt/CFM by using short duct runs and smooth duct material.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2016

Mockup Small-Diameter Air Distribution System

This report investigates the feasibility of using a home-run manifold small-diameter duct system to provide space conditioning air to individual thermal zones in a low-load home. This compact layout allows duct systems to be brought easily within conditioned space via interior partition walls. Centrally locating the air hander unit in the house significantly reduces duct lengths. The plenum box is designed so that each connected duct receives an equal amount of airflow, regardless of the duct position on the box. Furthermore, within a reasonable set of length restrictions, each duct continues to receive similar airflow. The design method uses an additive approach to reach the total needed zonal airflow. Once the cubic feet per minute needed to satisfy the thermal load of a zone has been determined, the total number of duct runs to a zone can be calculated by dividing the required airflow by the standard airflow from each duct. The additive approach greatly simplifies the design effort and reduces the potential for duct design mistakes to be made. Measured results indicate that this plenum design can satisfy the heating load. However, the total airflow falls short of satisfying the cooling load in a hypothetical building. Static pressure inside the plenum box of 51.5 Pa limited the total airflow of the attached mini-split heat pump blower, thus limiting the total thermal capacity. Fan energy consumption is kept to 0.16 to 0.22 watt/CFM by using short duct runs and smooth duct material.

air distribution↗

DOE OSTI2015

KIC 4552982: OUTBURSTS AND ASTEROSEISMOLOGY FROM THE LONGEST PSEUDO-CONTINUOUS LIGHT CURVE OF A ZZ Ceti

We present the Kepler light curve of KIC 4552982, the first ZZ Ceti (hydrogen-atmosphere pulsating white dwarf star) discovered in the Kepler field of view. Our data span more than 1.5 years, with a 86% duty cycle, making it the longest pseudo-continuous light curve ever recorded for a ZZ Ceti. This extensive data set provides the most complete coverage to date of amplitude and frequency variations in a cool ZZ Ceti. We detect 20 independent frequencies of variability in the data that we compare with asteroseismic models to demonstrate that this star has a mass M{sub ∗}>0.6 M{sub ⊙}. We identify a rotationally split pulsation mode and derive a probable rotation period for this star of 17.47 ± 0.04 hr. In addition to pulsation signatures, the Kepler light curve exhibits sporadic, energetic outbursts that increase the star’s relative flux by 2%–17%, last 4–25 hr, and recur on an average timescale of 2.7 days. These are the first detections of a new dynamic white dwarf phenomenon that may be related to the pulsations of this relatively cool (T{sub eff} = 10,860±120 K) ZZ Ceti star near the red edge of the instability strip.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Using Computational Fluid Dynamics to Assess Dynamic Line Rating in Southern Idaho

The overall goal of the study is to combine computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with weather data that is collected over a 1-year long period across southern Idaho to calculate the dynamic line ratings (DLR) of several transmission lines. These ratings can be compared to the static rating assumptions to show the potential for additional current carrying capacity along transmission lines through account for additional effects of convective cooling from the wind. The region of interest is quite large, sized at 144 km by 98 km; in order to cover this large region, the CFD simulations are split into four separate regions of over 80 million computational cells each. The weather data that was collected suggest initial assumptions used to make the static ratings were vastly over predicted with regards to summer temperatures and solar irradiance. The weather data is ran through the General Line Ampacity State Solver (GLASS) tool that was developed by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to parse large quantities of weather data across thousands of transmission midpoint spans in the region. For shorter lines, the dynamic line ratings often show large improvement over static ratings. The case study here shows over 95% of the time DLR values are above static values on the short transmission lines. However, for long lines, a conundrum occurs, where due to the large number of weather stations associated with the line, there is often a single weather station which may read local wind speeds of zero. This often defaults the line rating to be limited by natural convective cooling and does not show as much improvement over static as might be expected from the weather data if DLR calculations are used with a minimum ampacity across all midpoints. Other methods with transient state calculations should be utilized for long lines.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2019

Structural and Reorientational Dynamics of Tetrahydroborate (BH4-) and Tetrahydrofuran (THF) in a Mg(BH4)2 3THF Adduct: Neutron-Scattering Characterization

Metal borohydrides are considered promising materials for hydrogen storage applications due to their high volumetric and gravimetric hydrogen density. Recently, different Lewis bases have been complexed with Mg(BH4)2 in efforts to improve hydrogenation/dehydrogenation properties. Notably, Mg(BH4)2 xTHF adducts involving tetrahydrofuran (THF; C4H8O) have proven to be especially interesting. This work focuses on exploring the physicochemical properties of the THF-rich Mg(BH4)2 3THF adduct using neutron-scattering methods and molecular DFT calculations. Structural analysis, based on neutron diffraction measurements of Mg(11BH4)2 3TDF (D-deuterium), has confirmed a lowering of the symmetry upon cooling, from monoclinic C2/c to P[1 with combining macron] via a triclinic distortion. Vibrational properties are strongly influenced by the THF environment, showing a splitting in spectral features as a result of changes in the bond lengths, force constants, and lowering of the overall symmetry. Interestingly, the orientational mobilities of the BH4- anions obtained from quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) are not particularly sensitive to the presence of THF and compare well with the mobilities of BH4- anions in unsolvated Mg(BH4)2. The QENS data point to uniaxial 180 degree jump reorientations of the BH4- anions around a preferred C2 anion symmetry axis. The THF rings are also found to be orientationally mobile, undergoing 180 degree reorientational jumps around their C2 molecular symmetry axis with jump frequencies about an order of magnitude lower than those for the BH4- anions. In contrast, no dynamical behavior of the THF rings is observed with QENS for a more THF-deficient 2Mg(BH4)2 THF adduct. This lack of comparable THF mobility may reflect a stronger Mg2+-THF bonding interaction for lower THF/Mg(BH4)2 stoichiometric ratios, which is consistent with DFT calculations showing a decrease in the binding energy with each additional THF ring in the adduct. Based on the combined experimental and computational results, we propose that combining THF and Mg(BH4)2 is beneficial to (i) preventing weakly bound THF from coming free from the Mg2+ cation and reducing the concentration of any unwanted impurity in the hydrogen and (ii) disrupting the stability of the crystalline phase, leading to a lower melting point and enhanced kinetics for any potential hydrogen storage applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2019

Experimental Validation of a Compact Double-walled Twisted-Tube Heat Exchanger Concept

This report summarizes the results of a 3-year NEUP 15-8667 project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy to Experimentally Validate the Compact Double-walled Twisted-Tube Heat Exchanger Concept to support the development of the Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR). The NEUP activities led by the University of New Mexico (UNM) in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) are split into two major parts, Part-I Simulation for optimized heat exchanger design and Part II Experimental evaluation of the HX performance. The executive summary lists the major findings of the simulation and experimental activities.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

NASA NTRS1982

The peculiar star RX Puppis

The first high dispersion observations of RX Puppis in the wavelength region 1200-3200 A were obtained with the International Ultraviolet Explorer. The anomalies observed in lines such as He II, semiforbidden C III, C IV, semiforbidden N III, semiforbidden N IV, semiforbidden O III, and semiforbidden Si III, which show split line profiles and Doppler displaced components, suggest dynamic activity in circumstellar material that probably has the form of rings and/or gas streamers between the cool giant and the hot companion. The Mg II lines show P-Cygni structure arising in the Mira primary. The continuum cannot be due to a star earlier than AO II and it may arise in an accretion disk around the hot secondary. Moreover, the line emission requires photoionization either from a hot subdwarf or the inner accretion disk.

Kafatos, M.↗

DOE OSTI2011

SYNCHROTRON POLARIZATION AND SYNCHROTRON SELF-ABSORPTION SPECTRA FOR A POWER-LAW PARTICLE DISTRIBUTION WITH FINITE ENERGY RANGE

We have derived asymptotic forms for the degree of polarization of the optically thin synchrotron and for synchrotron self-absorption (SSA) spectra assuming a power-law particle distribution of the form N({gamma}) {approx} {gamma}{sup -p} with {gamma}{sub 1} < {gamma} < {gamma}{sub 2}, especially for a finite high-energy limit, {gamma}{sub 2}, in the case of an arbitrary pitch angle. The new results inferred concern more especially the high-frequency range x >> {eta}{sup 2} with parameter {eta} = {gamma}{sub 2}/{gamma}{sub 1}. The calculated SSA spectra concern instantaneous photon emission where cooling effects are not considered. They have been obtained by also ignoring likely effects such as Comptonization, pair creation and annihilation, as well as magnetic photon splitting. To that aim, in addition to the two usual absorption frequencies, a third possible one has been derived and expressed in terms of the Lambert W function based on the analytical asymptotic form of the absorption coefficient, {alpha}{sub {nu}}, for the high-frequency range {nu} >> {nu}{sub 2} (with {nu}{sub 2} the synchrotron frequency corresponding to {gamma}{sub 2}). We have shown that the latter frequency may not have realistic applications in astrophysics, except in the case of an adequate set of parameters allowing one to neglect Comptonization effects. More detailed calculations and discussions are presented.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Statistical properties of the population of the Galactic centre filaments – II. The spacing between filaments

ABSTRACT We carry out a population study of magnetized radio filaments in the Galactic centre using MeerKAT data by focusing on the spacing between the filaments that are grouped. The morphology of a sample of 43 groupings containing 174 magnetized radio filaments are presented. Many grouped filaments show harp-like, fragmented cometary tail-like, or loop-like structures in contrast to many straight filaments running mainly perpendicular to the Galactic plane. There are many striking examples of a single filament splitting into two prongs at a junction, suggestive of a flow of plasma along the filaments. Spatial variations in spectral index, brightness, bending, and sharpening along the filaments indicate that they are evolving on a 105−6-yr time-scale. The mean spacings between parallel filaments in a given grouping peaks at ∼16 arcsec. We argue by modeling that the filaments in a grouping all lie on the same plane and that the groupings are isotropically oriented in 3D space. One candidate for the origin of filamentation is interaction with an obstacle, which could be a compact radio source, before a filament splits and bends into multiple filaments. In this picture, the obstacle or sets the length scale of the separation between the filaments. Another possibility is synchrotron cooling instability occurring in cometary tails formed as a result of the interaction of cosmic ray driven Galactic centre outflow with obstacles such as stellar winds. In this picture, the mean spacing and the mean width of the filaments are expected to be a fraction of a parsec, consistent with observed spacing.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗