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Results for “GRAVITATIONAL EFFECT”

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
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Crustal Deformation and Gravitational Effects From Dynamic Ocean Mass Redistribution Impact Projected Sea‐Level Change

As the climate warms, associated changes in ocean dynamics will redistribute sea‐water mass within the ocean, contributing to relative sea‐level change. This mass redistribution will cause additional sea‐level changes due to gravitational self‐attraction, deformation of the solid Earth, and shifts in the Earth's rotation axis (GRD), which are not incorporated in sea‐level projections. Using CMIP6 climate model output, we quantify relative sea‐level changes induced by GRD from ocean‐dynamic mass loading through 2100. These effects act to amplify projected ocean‐dynamic sea‐level patterns, causing sea‐level rise in coastal regions, particularly along wide continental shelves and at high latitudes. On average, the magnitude of such GRD‐induced sea‐level change is equivalent to ∼15% of the signal due to dynamic ocean mass redistribution. Although our results show substantial inter‐model spread, they reveal that GRD‐induced relative sea‐level changes from ocean mass redistribution represent a non‐negligible component of regional sea‐level change and should be considered in projections.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Superconducting Levitated Detector of Gravitational Waves

A magnetically levitated mass couples to gravity and can act as an effective gravitational wave detector. We show that a superconducting sphere levitated in a quadrupolar magnetic field, when excited by a gravitational wave, will produce magnetic field fluctuations that can be read out using a flux tunable microwave resonator. With a readout operating at the standard quantum limit, such a system could achieve broadband strain noise sensitivity of h ≲ 10 − 20 / Hz for frequencies of 1 kHz–1 MHz, opening new corridors for astrophysical probes of new physics. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Stemflow Hydrodynamics

Stemflow hydrodynamics is the study of water movement along the exterior surface area of plants. Its primary goal is to describe water velocity and water depth along the stem surface area. Its significance in enriching the rhizosphere with water and nutrients is not in dispute. Yet, the hydrodynamics of stemflow have been entirely overlooked. This review seeks to fill this knowledge gap by drawing from thin film theories to seek outcomes at the tree scale. The depth‐averaged conservation equations of water and solute mass are derived at a point. These equations are then supplemented with the conservation of momentum that is required to describe water velocities or relations between water velocities and water depth. Relevant forces pertinent to momentum conservation are covered and include body forces (gravitational effects), surface forces (wall friction), line forces (surface tension), and inertial effects. The inclusion of surface tension opens new vistas into the richness and complexity of stemflow hydrodynamics. Flow instabilities such as fingering, pinching of water columns into droplets, accumulation of water within fissures due to surface tension and their sudden release are prime examples that link observed spatial patterns of stemflow fronts and morphological characteristics of the bark. Aggregating these effects at the tree‐ and storm‐ scales are featured using published experiments. The review discusses outstanding challenges pertaining to stemflow hydrodynamics, the use of dynamic similarity and 3D printing to enable the interplay between field studies and controlled laboratory experiments.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Gravitationally misaligned ultralight dark matter and implications for neutron stars

We examine the possibility that dark matter (DM) may be an ultralight scalar that was misaligned via nonminimal coupling to gravity, in the early Universe. For a certain regime of scalar masses, gravitational effects in neutron stars could place interesting bounds on the viable parameter space of the model, even in the absence of nongravitational interactions between DM and ordinary matter. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Does the Sun have a dark disk?

The Sun is not quite a perfect sphere, and its oblateness, thought to be induced through its rotation, has been measured using optical observations of its radius. Its gravitational quadrupole moment can then be deduced using solar models, or through helioseismology, and it can also be determined from measurements of its gravitational effects on Mercury’s orbit. The various assessments do not appear to agree, with the most complete and precise orbital assessments being in slight excess of other determinations. This may speak to the existence of a nonluminous disk or ring, where we also note evidence for a circumsolar dust ring within Mercury’s orbit from the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) mission. Historically, too, a protoplanetary disk may have been key to reconciling the Sun’s metallicity with its neutrino yield. The distribution of the nonluminous mass within Mercury’s orbit can modify the relative size of the optical and orbital quadrupole moments in different ways. We develop how we can use these findings to limit the mass of a dark disk, ring, or halo in the immediate vicinity of the Sun, and we note how future observational studies of the inner Solar System can not only refine these constraints but can also help to identify and to assess the mass of its dark-matter component. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Strong Gravitational Lens Is Worth a Thousand Dark Matter Halos: Inference on Small-scale Structure Using Sequential Methods

Strong gravitational lenses are a singular probe of the Universe’s small-scale structure—they are sensitive to the gravitational effects of low-mass (<10 10 M ⊙ ) halos even without a luminous counterpart. Recent strong-lensing analyses of dark matter structure rely on simulation-based inference (SBI). Modern SBI methods, which leverage neural networks as density estimators, have shown promise in extracting the halo-population signal. However, it is unclear whether the constraints from these models are limited by the methodology or the data. In this study, we introduce an accelerator-optimized simulation pipeline that can generate lens images with realistic subhalo populations in milliseconds. Leveraging this simulator, we identify the main limitation of our fiducial SBI analysis: training set size. We then adopt a sequential neural posterior estimation (SNPE) approach, allowing us to refine the training distribution to align with the observed data. Using only one-fifth as many mock Hubble Space Telescope images, SNPE matches the constraints on the low-mass halo population produced by our best nonsequential model. Our experiments suggest that an over 3 order-of-magnitude increase in training set size and GPU hours would be required to achieve an equivalent result without sequential methods. While the full potential of the existing lens sample remains to be explored, the notable improvement in constraining power enabled by our sequential approach highlights that current constraints are limited primarily by methodology and not the data itself. Moreover, our results emphasize the need to treat training set generation and model optimization as interconnected stages of any cosmological analysis using SBI.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Improving Projections of Antarctic Ice Sheet Contribution to Sea‐Level Change Through 2300 by Capturing Gravitational, Rotational, and Deformational Effects

Ice-mass change induces regionally varying patterns of sea-level change due to gravitational, rotational, and deformational (GRD) effects, which in turn influence marine-based ice stability in Antarctica. For improved projection of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), there is a need for including GRD effects in modeling and improving understanding of basin-by-basin sensitivity of ice evolution to GRD effects under a range of climate scenarios. We couple a high-resolution, higher-order ice-sheet model with a 1D global sea-level model that fully captures GRD effects, and simulate ice evolution in Antarctica under the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6 experiments. We perform two sets of coupled simulations incorporating 1D Maxwell solid Earth structure suitable for West and East Antarctica and show that the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) in West Antarctica has the highest sensitivity to GRD effects—in high-emission scenarios, grounding-line retreat accelerates by hundreds of kilometers by 2300 without GRD effects, but GRD effects delay this retreat on a timescale of decades. However, we find that delay times do not show a clear relationship to the strength of climate forcing alone. Furthermore, GRD effects can influence ice-sheet dynamics more than the choice of climate model for a given emissions scenario. In contrast, East Antarctica exhibits minimal sensitivity to GRD effects throughout the study period. These findings underscore the critical role of GRD effects in shaping future West AIS evolution, highlighting the importance of constraining the regional 3D Earth structure and bed topography in West Antarctica, particularly the ASE.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantum Gravity and Laser Interferometry: Towards Observable Predictions

Understanding quantum gravity remains one of the deepest challenges in modern physics, as direct experimental access to Planck-scale effects is beyond current technological reach. However, recent theoretical advances indicate that quantum fluctuations of spacetime may produce measurable effects in precision experiments, particularly near causal horizons. This opens new avenues for testing quantum gravity phenomena through high-precision measurement techniques. This dissertation develops multiple theoretical models to characterize these effects and examines their potential observational signatures in future gravitational wave interferometers. We begin by investigating the role of quantum fluctuations in near-horizon geometries through the lens of the AdS/CFT correspondence, which provides a powerful framework for understanding the interplay between quantum field theory and general relativity via holographic principles. By modeling stochastic energy-momentum sources in Rindler-AdS spacetime, we demonstrate that vacuum fluctuations transform the Einstein equations into a Langevin-type stochastic differential equation, leading to potentially observable fluctuations in photon traversal times. Extending this approach to Minkowski spacetime, we establish a correspondence between gravitational shockwaves and fluid dynamics, showing that near-horizon perturbations satisfy an equation analogous to that governing incompressible fluids, thereby reinforcing the membrane paradigm and hydrodynamic analogies in the context of the fluid/gravity duality. Furthermore, we construct the covariant phase space of a spherically symmetric causal diamond in Minkowski spacetime, identifying two fundamental charges that govern its evolution. These results provide a foundation for quantizing causal horizons and understanding their microscopic degrees of freedom. Building upon these theoretical developments, we further examine a related stochastic phenomenon: the gravitational wave memory background arising from the cumulative memory steps produced by supermassive black hole mergers. After reviewing the standard stochastic gravitational wave background, gravitational memory effects, and BMS symmetries, we model the stochastic memory background using a Brownian motion framework. We show that while the cumulative memory background initially appears above the sensitivity curve of space-based interferometers like LISA, the realistic subtraction of individually resolvable merger events substantially suppresses the residual signal, making its detection more challenging. This highlights the critical importance of source subtraction when evaluating the detectability of gravitational memory effects. By bridging fundamental theory with experimental prospects, this dissertation contributes to the ongoing effort to uncover the quantum nature of spacetime through precision measurement techniques. Whether through detecting quantum spacetime fluctuations, gravitational memory backgrounds, or probing the symmetries of causal horizons, the pursuit of observable quantum gravity phenomena continues to expand the frontiers of both theory and experiment.

Zhang, Yiwen [Caltech] (ORCID:0000000323559416)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Origin of the ring ellipticity in the black hole images of M87*

We investigate the origin of the elliptical ring structure observed in the images of the supermassive black hole M87*, aiming to disentangle contributions from gravitational, astrophysical, and imaging effects. Leveraging the enhanced capabilities of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)'s 2018 array, including improved (u,v)-coverage from the Greenland Telescope, we measured the ring's ellipticity using five independent imaging methods, obtaining a consistent average value of τ = 0.08−0.02+0.03 with a position angle of ξ = 50.1−7.6+6.2 degrees. To interpret this measurement, we compared it to general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations spanning a wide range of physical parameters including the thermal or nonthermal electron distribution function, spins, and ion-to-electron temperature ratios in both low- and high-density regions. We find no statistically significant correlation between spin and ellipticity in GRMHD images. Instead, we identify a correlation between ellipticity and the fraction of non-ring emission, particularly in nonthermal models and models with higher jet emission. These results indicate that the ellipticity measured from the M87* emission structure is consistent with that expected from simulations of turbulent accretion flows around black holes, where it is dominated by astrophysical effects rather than gravitational ones. Future high-resolution imaging, including space very long baseline interferometry and long-term monitoring, will be essential to isolate gravitational signatures from astrophysical effects.Key words: accretion, accretion disks / black hole physics / gravitation / galaxies: active** These authors have contributed equally to this work.*** NASA Hubble Fellowship Program, Einstein Fellow.† Deceased.

Dahale, Rohan [Granada U., Theor. Phys. Astrophys.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Effects of Particle Mixing and Gravitational Settling on Charge Transport in Carbon Flow-Electrode Cells

Flowable carbon slurries are actively studied and under development for charge transport in various electrochemical systems including flow capacitors, capacitive deionization cells, semi-solid flow batteries, and lithium extraction. However, much less is known about in operando slurry flow dynamics and their corresponding effect on charge transport. We performed an experimental study of mixing and settling dynamics of slurry electrodes within an electrochemical flow cell during continuous operations. The electrochemical cell consisted of two horizontal co-flowing channels, separated by a cation-exchange membrane (CEM). Here we used high-speed optical imaging of planes parallel to gravity and simultaneous electrochemical measurements. At low flow rates, dense yet dynamic particle beds formed on the bottom electrode in each channel, which unexpectedly yielded the highest currents. This approach enables the operation of the flow cell at low system-average particle concentrations while leveraging gravity-driven particle settling to locally enhance carbon concentrations precisely at the current collector sites. Conversely, high flow rates were characterized by thin particle beds and well-mixed particle flows. In the latter case, the electrodes in closest proximity (located on either side of the CEM) achieved a current higher than the other electrode pairs. The observations have implications for slurry control and electrode designs in electrochemical systems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

QuGrav: Bringing gravitational waves to light with qumodes

We propose using qumodes, quantum bosonic modes, for detecting high-frequency gravitational waves via the inverse Gertsenshtein effect, where a gravitational wave resonantly converts into a single photon in a magnetized cavity. For an occupation number n of the photon field in a qumode, the conversion probability is enhanced by a factor of n + 1 due to Bose-Einstein statistics. Unlocking this increased sensitivity entails the ability to continuously prepare the qumode and perform nondemolition measurement on the qumode-qubit system within the qumode coherence time. Our results indicate that, at microwave frequencies and with existing technology, the proposed setup can attain sensitivities within 1.7 orders of magnitude of the cosmological bound. With anticipated near-future improvements, it has the potential to surpass this limit and pave the way for the first exploration of high-frequency cosmological gravitational wave backgrounds. At optical frequencies, it can enhance the sensitivity of current detectors by one order of magnitude. That further enhances their potential in reaching the single-graviton level.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-quality axions from higher-form symmetries in extra dimensions

The extradimensional axion solves the strong C P problem while largely circumventing the quality problem that plagues its four-dimensional counterparts. Such high quality can be clearly understood in terms of the generalized global symmetries of the higher-dimensional theory. We emphasize that an electric one-form symmetry is entirely responsible for protecting the potential of axions arising from 5D gauge theories and use this to systematically characterize the extradimensional axion quality problem. We identify three ways of breaking this one-form symmetry to generate an axion potential: adding electrically charged matter, gauging a magnetic higher-form symmetry, and turning on an Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly. In the latter case, we identify new ways of generating an axion potential via extradimensional magnetic monopoles. We also discuss how the axion is modified if the protective electric one-form symmetry is itself gauged. Finally, we relate these effects to gravitational expectations for the quality problem via generalized weak gravity conjectures. The clarity that generalized symmetries bring to the extradimensional axion quality problem highlights their relevance to particle phenomenology. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Craig, Nathaniel↗
DOE OSTI2025

Neutron stars as a probe of the cosmic neutrino background

The cosmic neutrino background ( C ν B ) constitutes the last observable prediction of the standard cosmological model, which has yet to be detected directly. In this work, we show how the coherent scattering of neutrinos off dense neutron matter can lead to an additional cooling channel in neutron stars (NSs). We also include the effects of gravitational capture and boosting, but find that the cooling is efficient only in the presence of large overdensities. We further discuss the prediction of a boosted C ν B flux on Earth from nearby NSs and the potential detection prospects in the case of a future nearby galactic supernova. Although currently these ideas do not offer any detection prospects, they can be used to constrain overdensities η ≲ 10 11 – 10 14 on short length scales O ( 10 km ) . We also discuss the impact of new physics scenarios, such as long-range forces, on NS cooling through the C ν B . Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Chauhan, Garv (ORCID:0000000281298034)↗
DOE OSTI2026

Test of the Gravitational Force Law on Cosmological Scales Using the Kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect

The mean pairwise velocity of massive halos reflects the gravitational force law on cosmic scales. For this work, we combine cosmic microwave background intensity maps from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and a galaxy catalog from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to estimate the mean pairwise velocity using the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) effect. On scales from 30 to 230 megaparsecs, we constrain the gravitational acceleration between pairs of halos at separation 𝑟 to be 𝑔 ∝ 1/𝑟 𝑛 with 𝑛 = 2.1 ± 0.3, which is consistent with Newtonian gravity in an expanding spacetime (i.e., the standard Λ⁢ CDM model). This constraint shows agreement with an inverse quadratic radial dependence over the large distances separating galaxy halos, as expected in standard cosmology. Upcoming surveys have the potential to rule out 𝑛 = 1 at 10⁢𝜎 significance. Our results establish the kSZ effect as a powerful tool for testing gravity on cosmological scales.

alternative gravity theories↗
DOE OSTI2025

New particle pusher with hadronic interactions for modeling multimessenger emission from compact objects

We propose novel numerical schemes based on the Boris method in curved spacetime, incorporating both hadronic and radiative interactions for the first time. Once the proton has lost significant energy due to radiative and hadronic losses, and its gyroradius has decreased below typical scales on which the electromagnetic field varies, we apply a guiding center approximation (GCA). We fundamentally simulate collision processes either with a Monte-Carlo method or, where applicable, as a continuous energy loss, contingent on the local optical depth. To test our algorithm for the first time combining the effects of electromagnetic, gravitational, and radiation fields including hadronic interactions, we simulate highly relativistic protons traveling through various electromagnetic fields and proton backgrounds. We provide unit tests in various spatially dependent electromagnetic and gravitational fields and background photon and proton distributions, comparing the trajectory against analytic results. We propose that our method can be used to analyze hadronic interactions in black hole accretion disks, jets, and coronae to study the neutrino abundance from active galactic nuclei.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Dark matter clumps as sources of gravitational-wave glitches in LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data

We consider the hypothetical possibility that nonstationary glitch features in the noise of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors could be produced by small dark matter clumps that pass through the earth in the vicinity of gravitational-wave detectors. Here, we first derive the gravitational-wave strain that would be generated by the passage of such a dark matter clump. We find that the strain is primarily sourced by the Newtonian gravitational acceleration of the mirrors toward the clump and by the Shapiro time delay of the photons in the laser beams as they pass through the gravitational potential created by the dark matter clump. We also find that the Newtonian acceleration effect dominates the gravitational-wave strain for both ground and space-based interferometers. We then compare our dark matter clump, gravitational-wave strain model to 84 Koi-Fish glitches detected during the second observing run of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Collaboration through a Markov chain Monte Carlo Bayesian analysis. We find that all glitches but nine can be confidently rejected as having originated from dark matter clumps. For the remaining glitches, the dark matter hypothesis cannot be excluded, and the maximum a posteriori parameters yield minimum densities of about 10 −7 g⁡/cm 3 , within the model. These results allow us to place the first direct upper limits with gravitational-wave detectors on the local over-density of dark matter in the form of clumps in the local neighborhood of Earth, namely 𝜌 DM ⁢clumps ≲ 10 −15 g⁡/cm −3 .

Astronomy and AstroPhysics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Development of magnetic field monitoring system for the MAGIS-100 experiment

The MAGIS-100 collaboration is building a long-baseline atom interferometer designed to investigate dark matter, novel forces, gravitational waves, and quantum science. A major design challenge is external, time-varying magnetic fields, the effect of which can mimic gravitational waves or expected dark matter signals. Several mitigations will be enacted, including mu-metal shielding and a suite of magnetometers. This presentation will discuss the development of a magnetic field monitoring system based on commercial magneto-inductive sensors to be installed at several points along the interferometer.

Arce, Edwin [Unlisted; Fermilab]↗
DOE OSTI2026

Development of a magnetic field monitoring system for the MAGIS-100 experiment

The MAGIS-100 collaboration is building a long-baseline atom interferometer designed to investigate dark matter, novel forces, gravitational waves, and quantum science. A major design challenge is external, time-varying magnetic fields, the effect of which can mimic gravitational waves or expected dark matter signals; static magnetic fields must also be tightly controlled to manage measurement resolution. Several tools are being applied to the problem, including mu-metal shielding, field biasing, and a suite of magnetometers. This report details the development of a magnetic field monitoring system to be built from commercially available parts and installed at seventeen locations, one for each of the modular sections making up the length of the MAGIS-100 apparatus.

Arce, Edwin [Unlisted, US, CA]↗