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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

Dynamical Inference and 3D Imaging of Magnetized Dusty Plasmas

This is the final technical report for this DOE award. The motion of dust particles in a laboratory plasma has been studied for nearly 30 years and has led to the discovery of strongly-coupled crystalline structures and nonequilibrium dynamics governed by gravitational, hydrodynamic, and electrostatic forces. Many of the inter-particle forces are complex; they can be non-reciprocal, and non-additive. Deciphering the mélange of particle interactions has been a challenging task, nevertheless, magnetized dusty plasmas remains an open challenge with limited understanding. With applications ranging from magnetically-confined plasmas for fusion to near-surface planetary environments, this research field is ripe for well-controlled, laboratory experiments and new theoretical tools. In collaboration with the MDPX experiment at Auburn University, this proposal aims to tease apart both the known and unknown forces that drive dusty plasmas in magnetized environments using high-resolution, three-dimensional imaging and particle tracking coupled with modern dynamical inference and machine learning techniques.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Beyond carbon flux partitioning: Carbon allocation and nonstructural carbon dynamics inferred from continuous fluxes

Carbon (C) allocation and nonstructural carbon (NSC) dynamics play essential roles in plant growth and survival under stress and disturbance. However, quantitative understanding of these processes remains limited. Here, in this work, we propose a framework where we connect commonly measured carbon cycle components (eddy covariance fluxes of canopy CO 2 exchange, soil CO 2 efflux, and allometry-based biomass and net primary production) by a simple mass balance model to derive ecosystem-level NSC dynamics (NSC i ), C translocation (dC i ), and the biomass production efficiency (BPE i ) in above- and belowground plant (i = agp and bgp) compartments. We applied this framework to two long-term monitored loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantations of different ages in North Carolina and characterized the variations of NSC and allocation in years under normal and drought conditions. The results indicated that the young stand did not have net NSC flux at the annual scale, whereas the mature stand stored a near-constant proportion of new assimilates as NSC every year under normal conditions, which was comparable in magnitude to new structural growth. Roots consumed NSC in drought and stored a significant amount of NSC post drought. The above- and belowground dC i and BPE i varied more from year to year in the young stand and approached a relatively stable pattern in the mature stand. The belowground BPE bgp differed the most between the young and mature stands and was most responsive to drought. With the internal C dynamics quantified, this framework may also improve biomass production estimation, which reveals the variations resulting from droughts. Overall, these quantified ecosystem-scale dynamics were consistent with existing evidence from tree-based manipulative experiments and measurements and demonstrated that combining the continuous fluxes as proposed here can provide additional information about plant internal C dynamics. Given that it is based on broadly available flux data, the proposed framework is promising to improve the allocation algorithms in ecosystem C cycle models and offers new insights into observed variability in soil–plant–climate interactions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Implementing Superresolution of Nonstationary Tides with Wavelets: An Introduction to CWT_Multi

Abstract Tides are often nonstationary due to nonastronomical influences. Investigating variable tidal properties implies a trade-off between separating adjacent frequencies (using long analysis windows) and resolving their time variations (short analysis windows). Previous continuous wavelet transform (CWT) tidal methods resolved tidal species. Here, we present CWT_Multi, a MATLAB code that 1) uses CWT linearity (via the “response coefficient method”) to implement superresolution, i.e., resolving tidal constituents beyond the Rayleigh criterion; 2) provides a Munk–Hasselmann constituent selection criterion appropriate for superresolution; and 3) introduces an objective, time-variable form of inference (“dynamic inference”) based on time-varying data properties. CWT_Multi resolves tidal species on time scales of days, and multiple constituents per species with fortnightly filters. It outputs astronomical phase lags and admittances, analyzes multiple records, and provides power spectra of the signal(s), residual(s), and reconstruction(s); confidence limits; and signal-to-noise ratios. Artificial data and water levels from the Lower Columbia River Estuary (LCRE) and San Francisco Bay Delta (SFBD) are used to test CWT_Multi and compare it to harmonic analysis programs NS_Tide and UTide. CWT_Multi provides superior reconstruction, detiding, dynamic analysis utility, and time resolution of constituents (but with broader confidence limits). Dynamic inference resolves closely spaced constituents (like K 1 , S 1 , and P 1 ) on fortnightly time scales, quantifying impacts of diel power peaking (with a 24-h period, like S 1 ) on water levels in the LCRE. CWT_Multi also helps quantify the impacts of high flows and a salt barrier closing on tidal properties in the SFBD. On the other hand, CWT_Multi does not excel at prediction, and results depend on analysis details, as for any method applied to nonstationary data. Significance Statement Ocean tides, especially in coastal and estuarine systems, are often nonstationary, in the sense that the mean and standard deviation of tidal properties vary over time, usually in response to some nontidal process. We introduce here a MATLAB code, CWT_Multi, that uses wavelet transforms to resolve both tidal species and constituents on time scales from a few days to months. Our code accommodates multiple scalar time series and has typical tidal analysis features like constituent selection and inference, plus two forms of uncertainty analyses. It is flexible, allowing the user to adapt analysis properties to diverse datasets. CWT_Multi is applicable to many problems involving time-variable tides, including sea level rise, compound flooding, sediment transport, and wetland habitat analyses. Application to vector data is a straightforward extension, but further development of our uncertainty analysis is merited. Because nonstationary tidal analysis is rapidly advancing, we also define the features of a “well-formed” analysis code.

Lobo, Matthew↗

Can We Infer Ocean Dynamics from Altimeter Wavenumber Spectra?

The wavenumber spectra of sea surface height (SSH) and kinetic energy (KE) have been used to infer the dynamics of the ocean. When quasi-geostrophic dynamics (QG) or surface quasi-geostrophic (SQG) turbulence dominate and an inertial subrange exists, a steep SSH wavenumber spectrum is expected with k-5 for QG turbulence and a flatter k-11/3 for SQG turbulence. However, inspection of the spectral slopes in the mesoscale band of 70 to 250 km shows that the altimeter wavenumber slopes typically are much flatter than the QG or SQG predictions over most of the ocean. Comparison of the altimeter wavenumber spectra with the spectra estimated from the output of an eddy resolving global ocean circulation model (the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model, HYCOM, at 1/25 resolution), which is forced by high frequency winds and includes the astronomical forcing of the sun and the moon, suggests that the flatter slopes of the altimeter may arise from three possible sources, the presence of internal waves, the lack of an inertial subrange in the 70 to 250 km band and noise or submesoscales at small scales. When the wavenumber spectra of SSH and KE are estimated near the internal tide generating regions, the resulting spectra are much flatter than the expectations of QG or SQG theory. If the height and velocity variability are separated into low frequency (periods greater than 2 days) and high frequency (periods less than a day), then a different pattern emerges with a relatively flat wavenumber spectrum at high frequency and a steeper wavenumber spectrum at low frequency. The stationary internal tides can be removed from the altimeter spectrum, which steepens the spectral slopes in the energetic internal wave regions. Away from generating regions where the internal waves

Richman, James↗

Physics-Based Methods of Failure Analysis and Diagnostics in Human Space Flight

The Integrated Health Management (IHM) for the future aerospace systems requires to interface models of multiple subsystems in an efficient and accurate information environment at the earlier stages of system design. The complexity of modern aeronautic and aircraft systems (including e.g. the power distribution, flight control, solid and liquid motors) dictates employment of hybrid models and high-level reasoners for analysing mixed continuous and discrete information flow involving multiple modes of operation in uncertain environments, unknown state variables, heterogeneous software and hardware components. To provide the information link between key design/performance parameters and high-level reasoners we rely on development of multi-physics performance models, distributed sensors networks, and fault diagnostic and prognostic (FD&P) technologies in close collaboration with system designers. The main challenges of our research are related to the in-flight assessment of the structural stability, engine performance, and trajectory control. The main goal is to develop an intelligent IHM that not only enhances components and system reliability, but also provides a post-flight feedback helping to optimize design of the next generation of aerospace systems. Our efforts are concentrated on several directions of the research. One of the key components of our strategy is an innovative approach to the diagnostics/prognostics based on the real time dynamical inference (DI) technologies extended to encompass hybrid systems with hidden state trajectories. The major investments are into the multiphysics performance modelling that provides an access of the FD&P technologies to the main performance parameters of e.g. solid and liquid rocket motors and composite materials of the nozzle and case. Some of the recent results of our research are discussed in this chapter. We begin by introducing the problem of dynamical inference of stochastic nonlinear models and reviewing earlier results. Next, we present our analytical approach to the solution of this problem based on the path integral formulation. The resulting algorithm does not require an extensive global search for the model parameters, provides optimal compensation for the effects of dynamical noise, and is robust for a broad range of dynamical models. In the following Section the strengths of the algorithm are illustrated illustrated by inferring the parameters of the stochastic Lorenz system and comparing the results with those of earlier research. Next, we discuss a number of recent results in application to the development of the IHM for aerospace system. Firstly, we apply dynamical inference approach to a solution of classical three tank problems with mixed unknown continuous and binary parameters. The problem is considered in the context of ground support system for filling fuel tanks of liquid rocket motors. It is shown that the DI algorithm is well suited for successful solution of a hybrid version of this benchmark problem even in the presence of additional periodic and stochastic perturbation of unknown strength. Secondly, we illustrate our approach by its application to an analysis of the nozzle fault in a solid rocket motor (SRM). The internal ballistics of the SRM is modelled as a set of one-dimensional partial differential equations coupled to the dynamics of the propellant regression. In this example we are specifically focussed on the inference of discrete and continuous parameters of the nozzle blocking fault and on the possibility of an application of the DI algorithm to reducing the probability of "misses" of an on-board FD&P for SRM. In the next section re-contact problem caused by first stage/upper stage separation failure is discussed. The reaction forces imposed on the nozzle of the upper stage during the re-contact and their connection to the nozzle damage and to the thrust vector control (TVC) signal are obtained. It is shown that transient impact induced torquean be modelled as a response of an effective damped oscillator. A possible application of the DI algorithm to the inference of damage parameters and predicting fault dynamics ahead of time using the actuator signal is discussed. Finally, we formulate Bayesian inferential framework for development of the IHM system for in-flight structural health monitoring (SHM) of composite materials. We consider the signal generated by piezoelectric actuator mounted on composite structure generating elastic waves in it. The signal received by the sensor is than compared with the baseline signal. The possibility of damage inference is discussed in the context of development of the SHM.

Smelyanskiy, Vadim N.↗

Interface learning in fluid dynamics: Statistical inference of closures within micro–macro-coupling models

Many complex multiphysics systems in fluid dynamics involve using solvers with varied levels of approximations in different regions of the computational domain to resolve multiple spatiotemporal scales present in the flow. The accuracy of the solution is governed by how the information is exchanged between these solvers at the interface and several methods have been devised for such coupling problems. In this article, we construct a data-driven model by spatially coupling a microscale lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) solver and macroscale finite difference method (FDM) solver for reaction-diffusion systems. The coupling between the micro-macro solvers has one to many mapping at the interface leading to the interface closure problem, and we propose a statistical inference method based on neural networks to learn this closure relation. The performance of the proposed framework in a bifidelity setting partitioned between the FDM and LBM domain shows its promise for complex systems where analytical relations between micro-macro solvers are not available.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Inferring the Dynamics of the State Evolution During Quantum Annealing

To solve an optimization problem using a commercial quantum annealer, one has to represent the problem of interest as an Ising or a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem and submit its coefficients to the annealer, which then returns a user-specified number of low-energy solutions. It would be useful to know what happens in the quantum processor during the anneal process so that one could design better algorithms or suggest improvements to the hardware. However, existing quantum annealers are not able to directly extract such information from the processor. Hence, in this work we propose to use advanced features of D-Wave 2000Q to indirectly infer information about the dynamics of the state evolution during the anneal process. Specifically, D-Wave 2000Q allows the user to customize the anneal schedule, that is, the schedule with which the anneal fraction is changed from the start to the end of the anneal. Furthermore, using this feature, we design a set of modified anneal schedules whose outputs can be used to generate information about the states of the system at user-defined time points during a standard anneal. With this process, called "slicing", we obtain approximate distributions of lowest-energy anneal solutions as the anneal time evolves. We use our technique to obtain a variety of insights into the annealer, such as the state evolution during annealing, when individual bits in an evolving solution flip during the anneal process and when they stabilize, and we introduce a technique to estimate the freeze-out point of both the system as well as of individual qubits.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Thunderstorm cloud top dynamics as inferred from satellite observations and a cloud top parcel model

Thunderstorm top temperature-height structure and temperature-height conversion relations in the convective overshooting top region are examined using data from GOES IR, AVHRR, and aircraft overflights, and GOES stereoscopic observations. Using a Lagrangian one-dimensional cloud parcel model applied in the overshooting region, three classes of storm tops are described and the causes of their unique temperature-height structures are explored. Although the parcel model used does not fully reproduce the three-dimensional structure and dynamics of an evolving thunderstorm top, it is shown to crudely reproduce the parcel dynamics of updraft core parcels. The locations of cold points, high points, warm points, and the magnitude of cold-high offsets compare favorably between the model and the satellite observations.

Adler, Robert F.↗

A seamless multiscale operator neural network for inferring bubble dynamics

Modelling multiscale systems from nanoscale to macroscale requires the use of atomistic and continuum methods and, correspondingly, different computer codes. Here, we develop a seamless method based on DeepONet, which is a composite deep neural network (a branch and a trunk network) for regressing operators. In particular, we consider bubble growth dynamics, and we model tiny bubbles of initial size from 100 nm to 10 $\mathrm {\mu }\textrm {m}$ , modelled by the Rayleigh–Plesset equation in the continuum regime above 1 $\mathrm {\mu }\textrm {m}$ and the dissipative particle dynamics method for bubbles below 1 $\mathrm {\mu }\textrm {m}$ in the atomistic regime. After an offline training based on data from both regimes, DeepONet can make accurate predictions of bubble growth on-the-fly (within a fraction of a second) across four orders of magnitude difference in spatial scales and two orders of magnitude in temporal scales. The framework of DeepONet is general and can be used for unifying physical models of different scales in diverse multiscale applications.

Mechanics↗

Matrix Diffusion Controls Mountain Hillslope Groundwater Ages and Inferred Storage Dynamics

Groundwater age distributions provide fundamental insights on coupled water and biogeochemical processes in mountain watersheds. Field-based studies have found mixtures of young and old-aged groundwater in mountain catchments underlain by bedrock; yet, the processes that dictate these groundwater age distributions are poorly understood. In this work, we use the coupled ParFlow-CLM integrated hydrologic and EcoSLIM particle tracking models to simulate groundwater age distributions on a lower montane hillslope in the East River Watershed, Colorado (USA). We develop a convolution-based approach to propagate fracture-matrix diffusion processes to the EcoSLIM advection-dominated age distributions. We compare observed 3 H and 4 He concentrations from two groundwater wells against model predictions that have varying advective transport times and matrix diffusion magnitudes. Based on a Monte Carlo analysis that considers uncertain matrix and fracture parameters, we find that matrix diffusion is needed to jointly predict 3 H and 4 He observations at both wells. The advection-dominated age distributions lack adequate mixing of young and old-aged water to capture the observed co-occurrence of 3 H and 4 He. The model scenario that best matches the 3 H, 4 He, and water level observations when considering both advective flowpath and matrix diffusion mixing processes has a dynamic bedrock groundwater reservoir that is susceptible to considerable storage losses during low-snow periods. This dynamic groundwater system amplifies the need to assimilate deeper bedrock groundwater into watershed hydro-biogeochemical predictions. This work further highlights the importance of considering matrix diffusion when interpreting environmental tracers in bedrock groundwater systems.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Thunderstorm cloud top dynamics as inferred from satellite observations and models

Satellite observations of convective towers penetrating the tropopause are summarized. Three classes of thunderstorm cloud tops including storm tops that have a monotonic temperature-height pattern with the highest point being the coldest point (class 1), tops that have a colocated cold and high point with the warm point on the downward slope to the rear of the highest point (class 2), and tops in which the cold point is offset upwind from the high point, with a cold-warm couplet straddling the convective cloud top (class 3), are described. A one-dimensional cloud parcel model applied in the overshooting region is used to explore the causes of the storm top's unique temperature/height structures.

Adler, R. F.↗

Secure Mass Measurements From Transit Timing: 10 Kepler Exoplanets Between 3 and 8M⊕ with Diverse Densities and Incident Fluxes

We infer dynamical masses in eight multiplanet systems using transit times measured from Keplerʼs complete dataset, including short-cadence data where available. Of the 18 dynamical masses that we infer, 10 pass multiple tests for robustness. These are in systems Kepler-26 (KOI-250), Kepler-29 (KOI-738), Kepler-60 (KOI-2086), Kepler-105 (KOI-115), and Kepler-307 (KOI-1576). Kepler -105 c has a radius of 1.3R⊕ and a density consistent with an Earth-like composition. Strong transit timing variation (TTV) signals were detected from additional planets, but their inferred masses were sensitive to outliers or consistent solutions could not be found with independently measured transit times, including planets orbiting Kepler-49 (KOI-248), Kepler-57 (KOI-1270), Kepler-105 (KOI-115), and Kepler-177 (KOI-523). Nonetheless, strong upper limits on the mass of Kepler-177 cimply an extremely low density of 0.1 g cm−3. In most cases, individual orbital eccentricities were poorly constrained owing to degeneracies in TTV inversion. For five planet pairs in our sample, strong secular interactions imply a moderate to high likelihood of apsidal alignment over a wide range of possible eccentricities. We also find solutions for the three planets known to orbit Kepler-60 in a Laplace-like resonance chain. However, nonlibrating solutions also match the transit timing data. For six systems, we calculate more precise stellar parameters than previously known, enabling useful constraints on planetary densities where we have secure mass measurements. Placing these exoplanets on the mass–radius diagram, we find that a wide range of densities is observed among sub-Neptune-mass planets and that the range in observed densities is anticorrelated with incident flux.

Stars individual↗

Secure Mass Measurements From Transit Timing: 10 Kepler Exoplanets Between 3 and 8 M⊕ With Diverse Densities and Incident Fluxes

We infer dynamical masses in eight multiplanet systems using transit times measured from Keplerʼs complete data set, including short-cadence data where available. Of the 18 dynamical masses that we infer, 10 pass multiple tests for robustness. These are in systems Kepler-26 (KOI-250), Kepler-29 (KOI-738), Kepler-60 (KOI-2086), Kepler-105 (KOI-115), and Kepler-307 (KOI-1576). Kepler-105 c has a radius of 1.3 R(sub ⨁) and a density consistent with an Earth-like composition. Strong transit timing variation (TTV) signals were detected from additional planets, but their inferred masses were sensitive to outliers or consistent solutions could not be found with independently measured transit times, including planets orbiting Kepler-49 (KOI-248), Kepler-57 (KOI-1270), Kepler-105 (KOI-115), and Kepler-177 (KOI-523). Nonetheless, strong upper limits on the mass of Kepler-177 c imply an extremely low density of ∽0.1 g cm(exp −3). In most cases, individual orbital eccentricities were poorly constrained owing to degeneracies in TTV inversion. For five planet pairs in our sample, strong secular interactions imply a moderate to high likelihood of apsidal alignment over a wide range of possible eccentricities. We also find solutions for the three planets known to orbit Kepler-60 in a Laplace-like resonance chain. However, nonlibrating solutions also match the transit timing data. For six systems, we calculate more precise stellar parameters than previously known, enabling useful constraints on planetary densities where we have secure mass measurements. Placing these exoplanets on the mass–radius diagram, we find that a wide range of densities is observed among sub-Neptune-mass planets and that the range in observed densities is anticorrelated with incident flux.

Individual stars↗

Adaptive mitigation of time-varying quantum noise

Current quantum computers suffer from non-stationary noise channels with high error rates, which undermines their reliability and reproducibility. We propose a Bayesian inference based adaptive algorithm that can learn and mitigate quantum noise in response to changing channel conditions. Our study emphasizes the need for dynamic inference of critical channel parameters to improve program accuracy. We use the Dirichlet distribution to model the stochasticity of the Pauli channel. This allows us to perform Bayesian inference, which can improve the performance of probabilistic error cancellation (PEC) under time-varying noise. Our work demonstrates the importance of characterizing and mitigating temporal variations in quantum noise, which is crucial for developing more accurate and reliable quantum technologies. Our results demonstrate that Bayesian PEC can outperform non-adaptive approaches by a factor of 4.5x when measured using Hellinger distance from the ideal distribution.

Dasgupta, Samudra↗

Deriving spatially explicit direct and indirect interaction networks from animal movement data

Abstract Quantifying spatiotemporally explicit interactions within animal populations facilitates the understanding of social structure and its relationship with ecological processes. Data from animal tracking technologies (Global Positioning Systems [“GPS”]) can circumvent longstanding challenges in the estimation of spatiotemporally explicit interactions, but the discrete nature and coarse temporal resolution of data mean that ephemeral interactions that occur between consecutive GPS locations go undetected. Here, we developed a method to quantify individual and spatial patterns of interaction using continuous‐time movement models (CTMMs) fit to GPS tracking data. We first applied CTMMs to infer the full movement trajectories at an arbitrarily fine temporal scale before estimating interactions, thus allowing inference of interactions occurring between observed GPS locations. Our framework then infers indirect interactions—individuals occurring at the same location, but at different times—while allowing the identification of indirect interactions to vary with ecological context based on CTMM outputs. We assessed the performance of our new method using simulations and illustrated its implementation by deriving disease‐relevant interaction networks for two behaviorally differentiated species, wild pigs ( Sus scrofa ) that can host African Swine Fever and mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus ) that can host chronic wasting disease. Simulations showed that interactions derived from observed GPS data can be substantially underestimated when temporal resolution of movement data exceeds 30‐min intervals. Empirical application suggested that underestimation occurred in both interaction rates and their spatial distributions. CTMM‐Interaction method, which can introduce uncertainties, recovered majority of true interactions. Our method leverages advances in movement ecology to quantify fine‐scale spatiotemporal interactions between individuals from lower temporal resolution GPS data. It can be leveraged to infer dynamic social networks, transmission potential in disease systems, consumer–resource interactions, information sharing, and beyond. The method also sets the stage for future predictive models linking observed spatiotemporal interaction patterns to environmental drivers.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Exploring Li-Ion Transport Properties of Li 3 TiCl 6 : A Machine Learning Molecular Dynamics Study

We performed large-scale molecular dynamics simulations based on a machine-learning force field (MLFF) to investigate the Li-ion transport mechanism in cation-disordered Li 3 TiCl 6 cathode at six different temperatures, ranging from 25°C to 100°C. In this work, deep neural network method and data generated by ab − initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations were deployed to build a high-fidelity MLFF. Radial distribution functions, Li-ion mean square displacements (MSD), diffusion coefficients, ionic conductivity, activation energy, and crystallographic direction-dependent migration barriers were calculated and compared with corresponding AIMD and experimental data to benchmark the accuracy of the MLFF. From MSD analysis, we captured both the self and distinct parts of Li-ion dynamics. The latter reveals that the Li-ions are involved in anti-correlation motion that was rarely reported for solid-state materials. Similarly, the self and distinct parts of Li-ion dynamics were used to determine Haven’s ratio to describe the Li-ion transport mechanism in Li 3 TiCl 6 . Obtained trajectory from molecular dynamics infers that the Li-ion transportation is mainly through interstitial hopping which was confirmed by intra- and inter-layer Li-ion displacement with respect to simulation time. Ionic conductivity (1.06 mS/cm) and activation energy (0.29eV) calculated by our simulation are highly comparable with that of experimental values. Overall, the combination of machine-learning methods and AIMD simulations explains the intricate electrochemical properties of the Li 3 TiCl 6 cathode with remarkably reduced computational time. Thus, our work strongly suggests that the deep neural network-based MLFF could be a promising method for large-scale complex materials.

Selvaraj, Selva Chandrasekaran (ORCID:000000029023↗

Contributing to Sunny open source code

The Sunny package is an existing open source software to support the simulation of magnetic spin systems. It is available online under the MIT license here: https://github.com/SunnySuite/Sunny.jl The package aims to include the following features: - Analysis for symmetry-allowed interactions - Monte Carlo algorithms for simulating equilibrium configurations. - Schemes for integrating spin dynamics. - Inference of model Hamiltonians - Support for generalized SU(N) spins - Tools for interpreting experimental data, such as diffraction data, magnetization curves, and heat capacity data

Barros, Kipton↗

Free collapse of a rotating sphere of stars

The free-fall collapse of a system of 115,000 stars was studied by means of a three-dimensional simulation on the ILLIAC IV computer. The system started from a spherical shape with uniform density and rigid rotation which balanced the gravitational force in the equatorial plane. The system settled down into a 'hot' prolate 'bar' in about two initial rotation periods. This bar rotates about a short axis and is a long-lived form. Detailed discussion of the development of this system leads to several important dynamical inferences: (1) the first collapse does not become triaxial, and the prolate form follows much later; (2) forms seen in projection along the rotation axis are strikingly similar to forms seen in disk galaxy simulations, notwithstanding an unusual thickness along the rotation axis (this strengthens confidence in disk galaxy simulations); (3) many elliptical galaxies must be prolate objects rotating about a short axis and seen in projection; and (4) collapse models of galaxy formation lead to strongly anisotropic velocity dispersions, which are not in agreement with observation.

Miller, R. H.↗