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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,675 records · Page 93
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

A dynamic spectrally enriched subgrid-scale model for preferential concentration in particle-laden turbulence

A new subgrid-scale (SGS) model for turbulent velocity fluctuations is proposed for large-eddy simulations (LES) of dispersed multi-phase flows. The modeled velocity contains scales smaller than the LES grid resolution, thereby enabling the prediction of small-scale phenomena such as the preferential concentration of particles in high-strain regions. The construction of the spectrally enriched velocity field in physical space is made dynamically, and is based on (1) modeling the smallest resolved eddies of sizes comparable to the LES grid size via approximate deconvolution, and (2) reconstructing the SGS fluctuations via non-linear generation of small-scale turbulence. The model does not contain tunable parameters, can be deployed in non-uniform grids, and is applicable to inhomogeneous flows subject to arbitrary boundary conditions. Furthermore the performance of the model is assessed in LES of isotropic turbulence laden with inertial particles, where improved agreement with direct numerical simulation results is obtained for the statistics of preferential concentration.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Coherent states for nonlinear harmonic oscillator and some of its properties

A one-dimensional nonlinear harmonic oscillator is studied in the context of generalized coherent states. We develop a perturbative framework to compute the eigenvalues and eigenstates for the quantum nonlinear oscillator and construct the generalized coherent states based on Gazeau-Klauder formalism. We analyze their statistical properties by means of Mandel parameter and second order correlation function. Our analysis reveals that the constructed coherent states exhibit super-Poissonian statistics. Moreover, it is shown that the coherent states mimic the phenomena of quantum revivals and fractional revivals during their time evolution. The validity of our results has been discussed in terms of various parametric bounds imposed by our computational scheme.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

On the measurability of quantum correlation functions

The concept of correlation function is widely used in classical statistical mechanics to characterize how two or more variables depend on each other. In quantum mechanics, on the other hand, there are observables that cannot be measured at the same time; the so-called incompatible observables. This prospect imposes a limitation on the definition of a quantum analog for the correlation function in terms of a sequence of measurements. Here, based on the notion of sequential weak measurements, we circumvent this limitation by introducing a framework to measure general quantum correlation functions, in principle, independently of the state of the system and the operators involved. To illustrate, we propose an experimental configuration to obtain explicitly the quantum correlation function between two Pauli operators, in which the input state is an arbitrary mixed qubit state encoded on the polarization of photons.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS2019

On the Calculation of Exact Cumulative Distribution Statistics for Burgers Equation

A mathematical procedure is presented for the calculation of exact cumulative distribution statistics for a viscosity-free variant of Burgers nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) in one space dimension and time subject to sinusoidal initial data with uncertain (random variable) amplitude or phase shift. Analytical solutions of nonlinear PDEs with uncertain initial and/or boundary data are invaluable benchmarks in assessing approximate uncertainty quantification techniques. The Burgers equation solution with uncertain initial data results in nonsmooth solution behavior in both physical and random variable dimensions which provides a severe test for approximate uncertainty quantification techniques. Mathematical proofs are provided to verify that exact cumulative distribution statistics can be systematically and robustly obtained for all forward time.

Burgers↗
DOE OSTI2016

High-energy tail of the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess

Observations by the Fermi-LAT have uncovered a bright, spherically symmetric excess surrounding the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The spectrum of the ${\gamma}$-ray excess peaks sharply at an energy ${\sim}2\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$, exhibiting a hard spectrum at lower energies, and falls off quickly above an energy ${\sim}5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$. The spectrum of the excess above ${\sim}10\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ is potentially an important discriminator between different physical models for its origin. We focus on observations of the ${\gamma}$-ray excess at energies exceeding 10 GeV, finding: (1) a statistically significant excess remains in the energy range 9.5–47.5 GeV, which is not degenerate with known diffuse emission templates such as the Fermi bubbles, (2) the radial profile of the excess at high energies remains relatively consistent with data near the spectral peak (3) the data above ${\sim}5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ prefer a slightly greater ellipticity with a major axis oriented perpendicular to the Galactic plane. Using the recently developed non-Poissonian template fit, we find mild evidence for a point-source origin for the high-energy excess, although given the statistical and systematic uncertainties we show that a smooth origin of the high-energy emission cannot be ruled out. We discuss the implication of these findings for pulsar and dark matter models of the ${\gamma}$-ray excess. Finally we provide a number of updated measurements of the ${\gamma}$-ray excess, utilizing novel diffuse templates and the Pass 8 data set.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Self-organized criticality in multi-pulse gamma-ray bursts

The variability in multi-pulse gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may help to reveal the mechanism of underlying processes from the central engine. To investigate whether the self-organized criticality (SOC) phenomena exist in the prompt phase of GRBs, we statistically study the properties of GRBs with more than 3 pulses in each burst by fitting the distributions of several observed physical variables with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach, including the isotropic energy E iso , the duration time T, and the peak count rate P of each pulse. Our sample consists of 454 pulses in 93 GRBs observed by the CGRO/BATSE satellite. The best-fitting values and uncertainties for these power-law indices of the differential frequency distributions are: α$^{d}_{E}$ = 1.54±0.09, α$^{d}_{T}$ = 1.82±$^{+0.14}_{0.15}$ and α$^{d}_{P}$ = 2.09$^{+0.18}_{–0.19}$, while the power-law indices in the cumulative frequency distributions are: α$^{c}_{E}$ = 1.44$^{+0.08}_{–0.10}$, α$^{c}_{T}$ = 1.75$^{+0.141}_{–0.13}$ and α$^{c}_{P}$ = 1.99$^{+0.16}_{–0.19}$. We find that these distributions are roughly consistent with the physical framework of a Fractal-Diffusive, Self-Organized Criticality (FD-SOC) system with the spatial dimension S = 3 and the classical diffusion β=1. The results of this study support that the jet responsible for the GRBs should be magnetically dominated and magnetic instabilities (e.g., kink model, or tearing-model instability) lead the GRB emission region into the SOC state.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Primordial nucleosynthesis with non-extensive statistics

The conventional Big Bang model successfully anticipates the initial abundances of 2 H(D), 3 He, and 4 He, aligning remarkably well with observational data. However, a persistent challenge arises in the case of 7 Li, where the predicted abundance exceeds observations by a factor of approximately three. Despite numerous efforts employing traditional nuclear physics to address this incongruity over the years, the enigma surrounding the lithium anomaly endures. In this context, we embark on an exploration of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) of light element abundances with the application of Tsallis non-extensive statistics. A comparison is made between the outcomes obtained by varying the non-extensive parameter q away from its unity value and both observational data and abundance predictions derived from the conventional big bang model. Here, a good agreement is found for the abundances of 4 He, 3 He and 7 Li, implying that the lithium abundance puzzle might be due to a subtle fine-tuning of the physics ingredients used to determine the BBN. However, the deuterium abundance deviates from observations.

Bertulani, Carlos A.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Pion valence quark distribution at physical pion mass of N f = 2 + 1 + 1 lattice QCD

Abstract We present a state-of-the-art calculation of the unpolarized pion valence-quark distribution in the framework of large-momentum effective theory (LaMET) with improved handling of systematic errors as well as two-loop perturbative matching. We use lattice ensembles generated by the MILC collaboration at lattice spacinga≈ 0.09 fm, lattice volume 64 3 × 96,N f = 2 + 1 + 1 flavors of highly-improved staggered quarks and a physical pion mass. The LaMET matrix elements are calculated with pions boosted to momentumP z ≈ 1.72 GeV with high-statistics ofO(10 6 ) measurements. We study the pion PDF in both hybrid-ratio and hybrid-regularization-independent momentum subtraction (hybrid-RI/MOM) schemes and also compare the systematic errors with and without the addition of leading-renormalon resummation (LRR) and renormalization-group resummation (RGR) in both the renormalization and lightcone matching. The final lightcone PDF results are presented in the modified minimal-subtraction scheme at renormalization scaleμ= 2.0 GeV. We show that thex-dependent PDFs are compatible between the hybrid-ratio and hybrid-RI/MOM renormalization with the same improvements. We also show that systematics are greatly reduced by the simultaneous inclusion of RGR and LRR and that these methods are necessary if improved precision is to be reached with higher-order terms in renormalization and matching.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2018

Saturation scalings of toroidal ion temperature gradient turbulence

The emerging understanding of instability-driven plasma-turbulence saturation in terms of energy transfer to stable modes in the same scale range as the instability is employed to derive a saturation theory for the toroidal branch of ion temperature gradient turbulence that provides the scaling of turbulence and zonal flow levels for all physical parameters. The theory is based on the eigenmode decomposition of a nonlinear fluid model, which is subjected to a statistical closure and simplified via an ordering expansion consistent with zonal-flow catalyzed energy transfer from the unstable mode to the stable mode at large scale. Solution of the closed energy balance equations yields a turbulence level that is proportional to the ratio of the zonal flow damping rate and the inverse of the triplet correlation time of the zonal-flow catalyzed wavenumber triplet interaction. The zonal flow energy is proportional to the ratio of the growth rate and the inverse triplet correlation time. The saturation scalings are applied to the ion heat flux, showing that it has a factor proportional to the quasilinear heat flux and a correction factor that includes the inverse of the triplet correlation time and a reduction due to the stable mode.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1982

Criteria for the use of regression analysis for remote sensing of sediment and pollutants

An examination of limitations, requirements, and precision of the linear multiple-regression technique for quantification of marine environmental parameters is conducted. Both environmental and optical physics conditions have been defined for which an exact solution to the signal response equations is of the same form as the multiple regression equation. Various statistical parameters are examined to define a criteria for selection of an unbiased fit when upwelled radiance values contain error and are correlated with each other. Field experimental data are examined to define data smoothing requirements in order to satisfy the criteria of Daniel and Wood (1971). Recommendations are made concerning improved selection of ground-truth locations to maximize variance and to minimize physical errors associated with the remote sensing experiment.

Whitlock, C. H.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Treating random sequential addition via the replica method

While many physical processes are non-equilibrium in nature, the theory and modeling of such phenomena lag behind theoretical treatments of equilibrium systems. The diversity of powerful theoretical tools available to describe equilibrium systems has inspired strategies that map non-equilibrium systems onto equivalent equilibrium analogs so that interrogation with standard statistical mechanical approaches is possible. In this work, we revisit the mapping from the non-equilibrium random sequential addition process onto an equilibrium multi-component mixture via the replica method, allowing for theoretical predictions of non-equilibrium structural quantities. We validate the above approach by comparing the theoretical predictions to numerical simulations of random sequential addition.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Statistics-Based Correction to Measurements of Hardness of Rough Surfaces by Instrumented Indentation

Abstract—A procedure for correcting hardness data measured on rough surfaces using instrumented indentation is presented. The correction procedure relies on the knowledge of surface topography, which can be obtained by atomic force microscopy or other appropriate instrumental technique. The analyzed surface is characterized by the standard deviation of height distribution and an autocorrelation function. The latter is proposed to be modeled with an exponential function with either a quadratic or linear exponent.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Robust estimation of charge carrier diffusivity using transient photoluminescence microscopy

Transient microscopy has emerged as a powerful tool for imaging the diffusion of excitons and free charge carriers in optoelectronic materials. In many excitonic materials, extraction of diffusion coefficients can be simplified because of the linear relationship between signal intensity and local excited state population. However, in materials where transport is dominated by free charge carriers, extracting diffusivities accurately from multidimensional data is complicated by the nonlinear dependence of the measured signal on the local charge carrier density. To obtain accurate estimates of charge carrier diffusivity from transient microscopy data, statistically robust fitting algorithms coupled to efficient 3D numerical solvers that faithfully relate local carrier dynamics to raw experimental measurables are sometimes needed. Here, we provide a detailed numerical framework for modeling the spatiotemporal dynamics of free charge carriers in bulk semiconductors with significant solving speed reduction and for simulating the corresponding transient photoluminescence microscopy data. To demonstrate the utility of this approach, we apply a fitting algorithm using a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler to experimental data on bulk CdS and methylammonium lead bromide (MAPbBr 3 ) crystals. Parameter analyses reveal that transient photoluminescence microscopy can be used to obtain robust estimates of charge carrier diffusivities in optoelectronic materials of interest, but that other experimental approaches should be used for obtaining carrier recombination constants. Additionally, simplifications can be made to the fitting model depending on the experimental conditions and material systems studied. Our open-source simulation code and fitting algorithm are made freely available to the scientific community.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Spatially Resolved Elemental Analysis, Spectroscopy and Diffraction at the GSECARS Sector at the Advanced Photon Source

X‐ray microprobes (XRM) coupled with high‐brightness synchrotron X‐ray facilities are powerful tools for environmental biogeochemistry research. One such instrument, the XRM at the Geo Soil Enviro Center for Advanced Radiation Sources Sector 13 at the Advanced Photon Source (APS; Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL) was recently improved as part of a canted undulator geometry upgrade of the insertion device port, effectively doubling the available undulator beam time and extending the operating energy of the branch supporting the XRM down to the sulfur K edge (2.3 keV). Capabilities include rapid, high‐resolution, elemental imaging including fluorescence microtomography, microscale X‐ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy including sulfur K edge capability, and microscale X‐ray diffraction. These capabilities are advantageous for (i) two‐dimensional elemental mapping of relatively large samples at high resolution, with the dwell times typically limited only by the count times needed to obtain usable counting statistics for low concentration elements, (ii) three‐dimensional imaging of internal elemental distributions in fragile hydrated specimens, such as biological tissues, avoiding the need for physical slicing, (iii) spatially resolved speciation determinations of contaminants in environmental materials, and (iv) identification of contaminant host phases. In this paper, we describe the XRM instrumentation, techniques, applications demonstrating these capabilities, and prospects for further improvements associated with the proposed upgrade of the APS. Core Ideas X‐ray microprobes are powerful tools for environmental biogeochemistry. Upgraded GSECARS XRM operates down to the sulfur K edge. Capabilities: spatially resolved elemental analysis, spectroscopy, and diffraction. Advanced Photon Source upgrade will further advance XRM capabilities.

Sutton, Stephen R.↗
DOE OSTI2015

Introducing Nuclear Data Evaluations of Prompt Fission Neutron Spectra [Slides]

Nuclear data evaluations provide recommended data sets for nuclear data applications such as reactor physics, stockpile stewardship or nuclear medicine. The evaluated data are often based on information from multiple experimental data sets and nuclear theory using statistical methods. Therefore, they are collaborative efforts of evaluators, theoreticians, experimentalists, benchmark experts, statisticians and application area scientists. In this talk, an introductions is given to the field of nuclear data evaluation at the specific example of a recent evaluation of the outgoing neutron energy spectrum emitted promptly after fission from 239 Pu and induced by neutrons from thermal to 30 MeV.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

A direct comparison of particle-resolved and point-particle methods in decaying turbulence

We use particle-resolved direct numerical simulation (PR-DNS) as a model-free physics-based numerical approach to validate particle acceleration modelling in gas-solid suspensions. To isolate the effect of the particle acceleration model, we focus on point-particle direct numerical simulation (PP-DNS) of a collision-free dilute suspension with solid-phase volume fraction $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=0.001$ in a decaying isotropic turbulent particle-laden flow. The particle diameter $d_{p}$ in the suspension is chosen to be the same as the initial Kolmogorov length scale $\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}_{0}$ ( $d_{p}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}_{0}=1$ ) in order to overlap with the regime where PP-DNS is valid. We assess the point-particle acceleration model for two different particle Stokes numbers, $St_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}}=1$ and 100. For the high Stokes number case, the Stokes drag model for particle acceleration under-predicts the true particle acceleration. In addition, second moment quantities which play key roles in the physical evolution of the gas–solid suspension are not correctly captured. Considering finite Reynolds number corrections to the acceleration model improves the prediction of the particle acceleration probability density function and second moment statistics of the point-particle model compared with the particle-resolved simulation. We also find that accounting for the undisturbed fluid velocity in the acceleration model can be of greater importance than using the most appropriate acceleration model for a given physical problem.

Mechanics↗
DOE OSTI2018

Quantum formalism for classical statistics

In static classical statistical systems the problem of information transport from a boundary to the bulk finds a simple description in terms of wave functions or density matrices. While the transfer matrix formalism is a type of Heisenberg picture for this problem, we develop here the associated Schrödinger picture that keeps track of the local probabilistic information. The transport of the probabilistic information between neighboring hypersurfaces obeys a linear evolution equation, and therefore the superposition principle for the possible solutions. Operators are associated to local observables, with rules for the computation of expectation values similar to quantum mechanics. We discuss how non-commutativity naturally arises in this setting. Also other features characteristic of quantum mechanics, such as complex structure, change of basis or symmetry transformations, can be found in classical statistics once formulated in terms of wave functions or density matrices. We construct for every quantum system an equivalent classical statistical system, such that time in quantum mechanics corresponds to the location of hypersurfaces in the classical probabilistic ensemble. For suitable choices of local observables in the classical statistical system one can, in principle, compute all expectation values and correlations of observables in the quantum system from the local probabilistic information of the associated classical statistical system. Realizing a static memory material as a quantum simulator for a given quantum system is not a matter of principle, but rather of practical simplicity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Energy Conservation in Distributed Interference as a Guarantee for Detecting a Detector Blinding Attack in Quantum Cryptography

An avalanche single-photon detector blinding attack is one of the methods for quantum hacking of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. The attack was experimentally demonstrated for both phase- and polarization-encoded QKD systems. During this attack, an eavesdropper knows the entire key, does not produce errors and саnnot be detected. However, the phase encoding has neglected some significant features of the photocount statistics in the receiving party. It is shown in the paper at the level of fundamental principles that this attack changes the photocount statistics and leads to the detection of an eavesdropper. Expressions for the secret key length are obtained for this attack. This does not require any changes in the design and control electronics of the phase-encoded QKD system, and only changes in processing the results of registration of quantum states are sufficient. At the same time, the secret key vulnerability and compromise in polarization-encoded QKD systems is an existing fact rather than a potential menace.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗