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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 19 records

Fractonic coset construction for spontaneously broken translations

We study the homogeneous breaking of spatial translation symmetry concomitantly with the spontaneous breaking of other internal and spacetime symmetries, including dilations. We use the symmetry-breaking pattern as the only input to derive, via the coset construction, general effective field theories for the symmetry-originated modes associated with Goldstone’s theorem, namely the Nambu-Goldstone candidates. Through explicit computations, we show that integrating out the explicit massive Nambu-Goldstone candidates or imposing symmetric constraints, namely the inverse Higgs constraints, to express massive modes in terms of the massless ones leads to physically distinct effective field theories. This sensitivity to the chosen method can be traced back to the homogeneous breaking of translations, the homogeneous aspect of the breaking induces a mixing between internal and spacetime symmetries at the level of the Lie algebra. This, in turn, leads to subtle discussions about the inverse Higgs constraints, in particular that they lead to a loss of generality in our specific examples. The derived general effective field theories also give rise to a broad class of theories exhibiting emergent enhanced shift symmetries, which constrain the mobility of the modes. The latter are referred to as fractonic modes. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Chavda, Ameya (ORCID:0000000211731605)↗

Effective field theories for collective excitations of atomic nuclei

Collective modes emerge as the relevant degrees of freedom that govern low-energy excitations of atomic nuclei. These modes—rotations, pairing rotations, and vibrations—are separated in energy from non-collective excitations, making it possible to describe them in the framework of effective field theory. Rotations and pairing rotations are the remnants of Nambu–Goldstone modes from the emergent breaking of rotational symmetry and phase symmetries in finite deformed and finite superfluid nuclei, respectively. The symmetry breaking severely constrains the structure of low-energy Lagrangians and thereby clarifies what is essential and simplifies the description. The approach via effective field theories exposes the essence of nuclear collective excitations and is defined with a breakdown scale in mind. This permits one to make systematic improvements and to estimate and quantify uncertainties. Effective field theories of collective excitations have been used to compute spectra, transition rates, and other matrix elements of interest. In particular, predictions of the nuclear matrix element for neutrinoless double beta decay then come with quantified uncertainties. This review summarizes these results and also compares the approach via effective field theories to well-known models and ab initio computations.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Production of Magnetic Turbulence by Cosmic Rays Drifting Upstream of Supernova Remnant Shocks

I will present results of our recent two- and three-dimensional Particle-In-Cell simulations of magnetic-turbulence production by cosmic-ray ions drifting upstream of supernova remnant shocks. These studies' aim is twofold: test recent predictions of strong amplification in short wavelength, non-resonant wave modes, and study the subsequent evolution of the magnetic turbulence, including its backreaction on cosmic-ray trajectories. We confirm that the drifting cosmic rays give rise to a turbulent magnetic field, but show that an oblique filamentary mode grows more rapidly than the non-resonant parallel modes found in analytical theory. The field perturbations grow more slowly than estimated using a quasi-linear analytical approach for the parallel plane-wave mode, and saturate in amplitude at deltaB/B approximately equal to 1. The backreaction of the magnetic turbulence on the particles leads to an alignment of the bulk-flow velocities of the cosmic rays and the background medium. This is an essential characteristic of cosmic ray-modified shocks: the upstream flow speed is continuously changed by the cosmic rays. The reduction of relative drift between cosmic rays and background medium accounts for the saturation of the instability at only moderate magnetic-field amplitudes. It is possible that the prolonged magnetic field growth observed in recent MHD simulations results from a cosmic-ray current assumed to be constant and thus immune to the backreaction from the turbulent field. We speculate that the parallel plane-wave mode found in analytical treatments very quickly leads co filamentation, which we observe in our PIC modeling and is also apparent in the MHD simulations.

Stroman, Thomas↗

BASS Code Development

The BASS computational aeroacoustic code solves the fully nonlinear Euler equations in the time domain in two-dimensions. The acoustic response of the stator is determined simultaneously for the first three harmonics of the convected vortical gust of the rotor. The spatial mode generation, propagation and decay characteristics are predicted by assuming the acoustic field away from the stator can be represented as a uniform flow with small harmonic perturbations superimposed. The computed field is then decomposed using a joint temporal-spatial transform to determine the wave amplitudes as a function of rotor harmonic and spatial mode order. This report details the following technical aspects of the computations and analysis. 1) the BASS computational technique; 2) the application of periodic time shifted boundary conditions; 3) the linear theory aspects unique to rotor-stator interactions; and 4) the joint spatial-temporal transform. The computational results presented herein are twofold. In each case, the acoustic response of the stator is determined simultaneously for the first three harmonics of the convected vortical gust of the rotor. The fan under consideration here like modern fans is cut-off at +, and propagating acoustic waves are only expected at 2BPF and 3BPF. In the first case, the computations showed excellent agreement with linear theory predictions. The frequency and spatial mode order of acoustic field was computed and found consistent with linear theory. Further, the propagation of the generated modes was also correctly predicted. The upstream going waves propagated from the domain without reflection from the in ow boundary. However, reflections from the out ow boundary were noticed. The amplitude of the reflected wave was approximately 5% of the incident wave. The second set of computations were used to determine the influence of steady loading on the generated noise. Toward this end, the acoustic response was determined with three steady loading conditions: design, low-loading, high-loading. The overall trend showed significant (approximately 10 dB) increases in the generated noise for the highly loaded stator.

Sawyer, Scott↗

Zero modes of massive fermions delocalize from axion strings

Massless chiral excitations can arise from the interactions between a fermion and an axion string, propagating along the string and allowing it to superconduct. The properties of these excitations, or zero modes, dictate how the string interacts with light and can thus have important phenomenological consequences. In this paper, we add a nowhere-vanishing Dirac mass for the fermion in the usual model of axion electrodynamics. We find that the zero modes exhibit an interesting phase structure in which they delocalize from the string’s core as the mass increases, up until a critical value past which they disappear. We study this structure from an analytic perspective, with explicit numerical solutions, and via anomaly inflow arguments. Finally, we derive the two-dimensional effective theory of the zero mode and its interactions with the four-dimensional gauge field and show how this effective theory breaks down as the zero modes delocalize.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The electrostatic effect for the collisionless tearing mode

Electron dynamics has not been self-consistently considered in collisionless tearing mode theories to date because of the mathematical complexity of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations. It has been found, using computer simulations, that electrostatic fields play an important role in the tearing mode. Vlasov theory, including the electrostatic field, is investigated for topologies with both antiparallel and nonantiparallel magnetic field lines. The electrostatic field influences the resonant current in the neutral sheet which is a non-MHD effect, and modifies the linear growth rate. At the magnetopause, where the field lines are not antiparallel, the electrostatic effect acts to raise the linear growth rate of the tearing mode. On the other hand, in the magnetotail, where magnetic field lines are antiparallel, the electrostatic effect reduces the tearing mode growth rate.

Hoshino, Masahiro↗

Analyses of near- and far-field two-lobe patterns outside the output endface of a two-mode fiber

The behaviors of the near- and far-field two-lobe radiation patterns from a circular-core two-mode fiber are studied by using both the mode and Kirchhoff diffraction theories. The electric field outside the output endface of the fiber is derived from the electric field distribution of the LP sub 01 and LP sub 11 modes at the fiber endface using the Kirchhoff diffraction formula. Different phenomena are studied by solving this expression numerically at near-and far-fields. The Gouy phase shifts are quantitatively evaluated at cross-sections of the near field. The results reveal the distortion and dislocation of the far-field two-lobe pattern induced by an inclination angle of the fiber endface.

Wang, A.↗

On the magnon interaction in Haematite. 2: Magnon energy of the acoustical mode and magnetic critical fields

Previous spin wave theories of the antiferromagnet hematite were extended. The behavior of thermodynamic quantities around the Morin transition temperature was studied, and the latent heat of the Morin transition was calculated. The temperature dependence of the antiferromagnetic resonance frequency and the parallel and perpendicular critical spin-flop magnetic fields were calculated. It was found that the theory agrees well with experiment.

Bonavito, N. L.↗

Cosmological dynamics of string theory axion strings

The quantum chromodynamics (QCD) axion may solve the strong CP problem and explain the dark matter (DM) abundance of our Universe. The axion was originally proposed to arise as the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of global U⁢(1) PQ Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking, but axions also arise generically in string theory as zero modes of higher-dimensional gauge fields. In this work we show that string theory axions behave fundamentally differently from field theory axions in the early Universe. Field theory axions may form axion strings if the PQ phase transition takes place after inflation. In contrast, we show that string theory axions do not generically form axion strings. In special inflationary paradigms, such as D-brane inflation, string theory axion strings may form; however, their tension is parametrically larger than that of field theory axion strings. We then show that such QCD axion strings overproduce the DM abundance for all allowed QCD axion masses and are thus ruled out, except in scenarios with large warping. A loop-hole to this conclusion arises in the axiverse, where an axion string could be composed of multiple different axion mass eigenstates; a heavier eigenstate could collapse the network earlier, allowing for the QCD axion to produce the correct DM abundance and also generating observable gravitational wave signals.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Theoretical frameworks for testing relativistic gravity. IV - A compendium of metric theories of gravity and their post-Newtonian limits.

Metric theories of gravity are compiled and classified according to the types of gravitational fields they contain, and the modes of interaction among those fields. The gravitation theories considered are classified as (1) general relativity, (2) scalar-tensor theories, (3) conformally flat theories, and (4) stratified theories with conformally flat space slices. The post-Newtonian limit of each theory is constructed and its Parametrized Post-Newtonian (PPN) values are obtained by comparing it with Will's version of the formalism. Results obtained here, when combined with experimental data and with recent work by Nordtvedt and Will and by Ni, show that, of all theories thus far examined by our group, the only currently viable ones are general relativity, the Bergmann-Wagoner scalar-tensor theory and its special cases (Nordtvedt; Brans-Dicke-Jordan), and a recent, new vector-tensor theory by Nordtvedt, Hellings, and Will.

Ni, W.-T.↗

Theory of a high-intensity gas laser

Single mode gas laser theory for arbitrary field intensities in terms of ensemble averaged form of density-matrix equations of motion

Feld, M. S.↗

Modeling Strong Light-Matter Coupling in Correlated Systems: State-Averaged Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics Complete Active Space Self-Consistent Field Theory

The description of strongly correlated systems interacting with quantized cavity modes poses significant theoretical challenges due to the combinatorial scaling of electronic and photonic degrees of freedom. Recent advances addressing this complexity include cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) generalizations of complete active space configuration interaction and density matrix renormalization group methods. In this work, we introduce a QED extension of state-averaged complete active space self-consistent field theory, which incorporates cavity-induced correlations through a second-order orbital optimization framework with robust convergence properties. The method is implemented using both photon number state and coherent state representations, with the latter showing robust origin invariance in the energies regardless of the completeness of the photonic Fock space. The implementation enables symmetry-free orbital relaxations to account for photon-mediated symmetry breaking in polaritonic systems. Numerical validation on lithium hydride, hydroxide anion, and magnesium hydride cation demonstrates that this method achieves significantly improved accuracy in modeling ground-state and polariton potential energy surfaces compared to QED-CASCI in a fixed orbital basis. In these studies, we reach sub-kcal/mol accuracy in potential energy surface in much smaller active spaces than are required for QED-CASCI. This advancement provides a more robust approach for studying cavity-altered chemical landscapes for ground and exited strongly coupled systems.

CASSCF↗

Supermode analysis of phase-locked arrays of semiconductor lasers

The optical characteristics of phase-locked semiconductor laser arrays are formulated in terms of the array supermodes, which are the eigenmodes of the composite-array waveguide, by using coupled-mode theory. These supermodes are employed to calculate the near fields, the far fields, and the difference in the longitudinal-mode oscillation wavelengths of the array. It is shown that the broadening in the far-field beam divergence, as well as the broadening of each of the longitudinal modes that were observed in phase-locked arrays, may arise from the excitation of an increasing number of supermodes at increasing pumping levels.

Kapon, E.↗

Numerical Predictions of Mode Reflections in an Open Circular Duct: Comparison with Theory

The NASA Broadband Aeroacoustic Stator Simulation code was used to compute the acoustic field for higher-order modes in a circular duct geometry. To test the accuracy of the results computed by the code, the duct was terminated by an open end with an infinite flange or no flange. Both open end conditions have a theoretical solution that was used to compare with the computed results. Excellent comparison for reflection matrix values was achieved after suitable refinement of the grid at the open end. The study also revealed issues with the level of the mode amplitude introduced into the acoustic held from the source boundary and the amount of reflection that occurred at the source boundary when a general nonreflecting boundary condition was applied.

Duct Modes↗

Changes in the earth's rotation and low-degree gravitational field induced by earthquakes

Analytical formulas based on the normal-mode theory are used together with a spherically symmetric earth model and the centroid-moment tensor solutions for earthquake sources to compute the earthquake-induced changes in the earth's rotation and low-degree harmonics of the gravitational field for the period 1977-1985. Spectral and statistical analyses are conducted on these changes. It is found that the earthquake-induced changes are two orders of magnitude smaller than those observed; most of these changes show strong evidence of nonrandomness either in their polarity or in their directions.

Chao, B. Fong↗