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Results for “neutral theory”

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
NASA NTRS1984

Evolutionary constraints and the neutral theory

The neutral theory of molecular evolution postulates that nucleotide substitutions inherently take place in DNA as a result of point mutations followed by random genetic drift. In the absence of selective constraints, the substitution rate reaches the maximum value set by the mutation rate. The rate in globin pseudogenes is about 5 x 10 to the -9th substitutions per site per year in mammals. Rates slower than this indicate the presence of constraints imposed by negative (natural) selection, which rejects and discards deleterious mutations.

Jukes, T. H.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Nonlinear transient neutralization theory of ion beams with dissipation

An analytical theory of nonlinear neutralization waves generated by injection of electrons from a grid in the direction of a homogeneous ion beam of uniform velocity and infinite extension is presented. The electrons are assumed to interact with the ions through the self-consistent space charge field and by strong collective interactions. The associated nonlinear boundary-value problem is solved in closed form by means of a von Mises transformation. It is shown that the electron gas moves into the ion space in the form of a discontinuous neutralization wave. This periodic wave structure is damped out by intercomponent momentum transfer, i.e., after a few relaxation lengths a quasi-neutral beam results. The relaxation scale in space agrees with neutralization experiments of rarefied ion beams, if the collective momentum transfer between the electron and ion streams is assumed to be of the Buneman type.

Wilhelm, H. E.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Stochastic Spatial Models in Ecology: A Statistical Physics Approach

Ecosystems display a complex spatial organization. Ecologists have long tried to characterize them by looking at how different measures of biodiversity change across spatial scales. Ecological neutral theory has provided simple predictions accounting for general empirical patterns in communities of competing species. However, while neutral theory in well-mixed ecosystems is mathematically well understood, spatial models still present several open problems, limiting the quantitative understanding of spatial biodiversity. In this review, we discuss the state of the art in spatial neutral theory. We emphasize the connection between spatial ecological models and the physics of non-equilibrium phase transitions and how concepts developed in statistical physics translate in population dynamics, and vice versa. We focus on non-trivial scaling laws arising at the critical dimension D=2 of spatial neutral models, and their relevance for biological populations inhabiting two-dimensional environments. We conclude by discussing models incorporating non-neutral effects in the form of spatial and temporal disorder, and analyze how their predictions deviate from those of purely neutral theories.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1988

Energy branching in the Io plasma torus - The failure of neutral cloud theory

Model calculations are used to explore the energy source characteristics of the energy branching of the hot Io plasma torus. It is assumed that the energy is derived from the kinetic energy acquired by ions created in the rotating planetary magnetic field, and that Coulomb collisions with the electron gas control the flow of energy to the ionizing and radiative processes. The results show that neutral cloud theory is qualitatively inadequate. It is shown that neutral cloud theory can only support a dominantly singly ionized system (at the measured electron densities in the plasma torus) and that it fails to predict observed plasma properties relative to variations in number density.

Shemansky, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1979

A meteor ablation-cluster ion atmospheric sodium theory

Neutral and ionic forms of sodium form narrow, well-defined layers which peak in the 90-95 km altitude region at midlatitudes. A new theory for the sodium layer is presented, which is found to be in good agreement with existing atmospheric observations as well as available laboratory measurements of rate constants. The layer is believed to result naturally from a meteor ablation source over a chemical sink with vertical transport of Na(+) playing an important role in the layer shape and variation. While the neutral chemistry is believed to consist of chemical equilibrium between Na and NaO, the ion chemistry departs from earlier studies and considers a cluster ion scheme. It is possible that higher-order cluster ions of sodium play a role in the formation of aerosols, through attachment or ion-induced nucleation processes.

Richter, E. S.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Neutral cloud theory of the Jovian nebula: Anomalous ionization effect of superthermal electrons

The standard model of the Jovian nebula postulates that its particle source is the extended cloud of neutral sulfur and oxygen atoms that escape from the satellite Io and become ionized through electron impact from the corotating plasma. Its energy source is the gyroenergy acquired by newly formed pickup ions as they are swept up to corotation velocity by the planetary magnetic field. Elastic collisions between plasma ions and electrons cool the ions and heat the electrons, while inelastic collisions cool the electrons and excite the ions to radiate intense line emission, which is the primary energy-loss mechanism for the plasma. This neutral cloud theory of the Io plasma torus, as it has come to be known, has been the subject of recent critcism which asserts that the theory cannot account for the observed charge state of the plasma which features O(+) and S(2+) as the dominant ions. It is shown in this work that the inclusion of a small population of super-thermal electrons is required to achieve the correct ion partitioning among various charge states. It is also argued that the anomalous ionization effect of the superthermal electrons is responsible for the overall spatial bifurcation of the nebula into a hot multiply charged plasma region outside of 5.7 Jovian radii and a cool singly ionized plasma inside this distance.

Barbosa, D. D.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scaling Theory of Neutral Sequence-Specific Polyampholytes

The primary sequence of charged monomers in a polyampholyte has a profound effect on its conformational properties. In this work, theory and simulations are used to predict how the sequence influences the single-chain behavior of globally neutral polyampholytes (PAs) under salt-free conditions. We consider PAs with Markov statistics of charges, where charge “blockiness” is defined by the correlation λ along the chain. These PAs cover a wide spectrum of primary sequences ranging from alternating (λ = –1) to ideally random (λ = 0) to diblock (λ → 1). In a theta solvent, sufficiently long PAs of any primary sequence form globules, but their internal structure, as well as the position and sharpness of the coil–globule transition, crucially depends on λ. Further, using scaling arguments, we demonstrate that the excess charge of the globule correlation volume (blob) increases with increasing λ, thereby inducing stronger Coulomb attractions between neighboring blobs of opposite charge and leading to higher density PA globules. Scaling predictions are supported by the results of the random phase approximation (RPA) and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. A generalization to good and poor solvents is presented that enables the construction of the resulting scaling diagram of PA conformations in terms of solvent quality and charge blockiness, thereby providing a comprehensive molecular understanding of the role of the PA primary sequence in the chain structure.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Stochastic Real-Time Second-Order Green’s Function Theory for Neutral Excitations in Molecules and Nanostructures

We present a real-time second-order Green’s function (GF) method for computing excited states in molecules and nanostructures, with a computational scaling of O(N e 3 ), where N e is the number of electrons. The cubic scaling is achieved by adopting the stochastic resolution of the identity to decouple the 4-index electron repulsion integrals. To improve the time propagation and the spectral resolution, we adopt the dynamic mode decomposition technique and assess the accuracy and efficiency of the combined approach for a chain of hydrogen dimer molecules of different lengths. We find that the stochastic implementation accurately reproduces the deterministic results for the electronic dynamics and excitation energies. Furthermore, we provide a detailed analysis of the statistical errors, bias, and long-time extrapolation. Overall, the approach offers an efficient route to investigate excited states in extended systems with open or closed boundary conditions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1991

A theory of neutral gas emissions from a plasma contactor and its effect on electrodynamic tether performance

An existing anisotropic anodic plasma contactor model is extended to include neutral gas emissions. Within the framework of the contactor model, the inclusion of external ionization leads to an integrodifferential equation. By choosing the ratio of the contactor radius to the neutral gas-electron ionization mean free path at the contactor exit as a suitable expansion parameter, an analytical expression for the current-voltage characteristic can be found. The performance of this contactor model is examined via a dynamic simulation model developed for electrodynamic tethers. Detailed models of the geomagnetic field and the ionosphere are used to create a realistic environment. The highly nonlinear contactor voltagle-current characteristic is incorporated into a circuit equation, which includes radiation impedance, and is solved along the tether's orbit. Results show that it is more effective to fully ionize the contactor gas internally, than to partially ionize it externally, and that based on the specific power for the tether system, the optimum gas to use is argon. In addition, the effect of the radiation impedance on tether system performance is examined.

Roy, R. I. S.↗
DOE OSTI2016

Novel covariance-based neutrality test of time-series data reveals asymmetries in ecological and economic systems

Systems as diverse as the interacting species in a community, alleles at a genetic locus, and companies in a market are characterized by competition (over resources, space, capital, etc) and adaptation. Neutral theory, built around the hypothesis that individual performance is independent of group membership, has found utility across the disciplines of ecology, population genetics, and economics, both because of the success of the neutral hypothesis in predicting system properties and because deviations from these predictions provide information about the underlying dynamics. However, most tests of neutrality are weak, based on static system properties such as species-abundance distributions or the number of singletons in a sample. Time-series data provide a window onto a system’s dynamics, and should furnish tests of the neutral hypothesis that are more powerful to detect deviations from neutrality and more informative about to the type of competitive asymmetry that drives the deviation. Here, we present a neutrality test for time-series data. We apply this test to several microbial time-series and financial time-series and find that most of these systems are not neutral. Our test isolates the covariance structure of neutral competition, thus facilitating further exploration of the nature of asymmetry in the covariance structure of competitive systems. Much like neutrality tests from population genetics that use relative abundance distributions have enabled researchers to scan entire genomes for genes under selection, we anticipate our time-series test will be useful for quick significance tests of neutrality across a range of ecological, economic, and sociological systems for which time-series data are available. Here, future work can use our test to categorize and compare the dynamic fingerprints of particular competitive asymmetries (frequency dependence, volatility smiles, etc) to improve forecasting and management of complex adaptive systems.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1974

Nonlinear theory of electron neutralization waves in ions beams with dissipation

An analytical theory of nonlinear neutralization waves generated by injection of electrons from a grid in the direction of a homogeneous ion beam of uniform velocity and infinite extension is presented. The electrons are assumed to interact with the ions through the self-consistent space charge field and by strong collective interactions, while diffusion in the pressure gradient is disregarded (zero-temperature approximation). The associated nonlinear boundary-value problem is solved in closed form by means of a von Mises transformation. It is shown that the electron gas moves into the ion space in the form of a discontinuous neutralization wave, which exhibits a periodic field structure (incomplete neutralization). This periodic wave structure is damped out by intercomponent momentum transfer - i.e., after a few relaxation lengths a quasi-neutral plasma results.

Wilhelm, H. E.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Self-consistent dispersal puts tight constraints on the spatiotemporal organization of species-rich metacommunities

Dispersal can be critical to the maintenance of ecosystems as it allows local communities to be recolonized after extinction. However, it remains unclear whether the extinction-mitigating effect of dispersal persists when the number of competing species is large. Based on a spatially explicit mathematical description of metacommunities, we show that when many species coexist, each species operates near its extinction threshold, barely surviving due to dispersal. This has general consequences for spatiotemporal abundance patterns. For short-range dispersal, species organize into fractal spatiotemporal extinction patterns characteristic of a directed percolation phase transition. As species approach their extinction threshold, biodiversity is very sensitive to perturbation, suggesting that dispersal within a metacommunity puts tight constraints on the robustness and evolution of species-rich metacommunities. Biodiversity is often attributed to a dynamic equilibrium between the immigration and extinction of species. This equilibrium forms a common basis for studying ecosystem assembly from a static reservoir of migrants—the mainland. Yet, natural ecosystems often consist of many coupled communities (i.e., metacommunities), and migration occurs between these communities. The pool of migrants then depends on what is sustained in the ecosystem, which, in turn, depends on the dynamic migrant pool. This chicken-and-egg problem of survival and dispersal is poorly understood in communities of many competing species, except for the neutral case—the “unified neutral theory of biodiversity.” Employing spatiotemporal simulations and mean-field analyses, we show that self-consistent dispersal puts rather tight constraints on the dynamic migration–extinction equilibrium. When the number of species is large, species are pushed to the edge of their global extinction, even when competition is weak. As a consequence, the overall diversity is highly sensitive to perturbations in demographic parameters, including growth and dispersal rates. When dispersal is short range, the resulting spatiotemporal abundance patterns follow broad scale-free distributions that correspond to a directed percolation phase transition. The qualitative agreement of our results for short-range and long-range dispersal suggests that this self-organization process is a general property of species-rich metacommunities. Our study shows that self-sustaining metacommunities are highly sensitive to environmental change and provides insights into how biodiversity can be rescued and maintained.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1978

Neutral changes during divergent evolution of hemoglobins

A comparison of the mRNAs for rabbit and human beta-hemoglobins shows that synonymous changes in codons have accumulated three times as rapidly as nucleotide replacements that produced changes in amino acids. This agrees with predictions based on the so-called neutral theory. In addition, seven codon changes that appear to be single-base changes (according to maximum parsimony) are actually two-base changes. This indicates that the construction of primordial sequences is of limited significance when based on inferences that assume minimum base changes for amino acid replacements.

Jukes, T. H.↗
DOE OSTI2015

Neutral Vlasov kinetic theory of magnetized plasmas

The low-frequency limit of Maxwell equations is considered in the Maxwell-Vlasov system. This limit produces a neutral Vlasov system that captures essential features of plasma dynamics, while neglecting radiation effects. Euler-Poincaré reduction theory is used to show that the neutral Vlasov kinetic theory possesses a variational formulation in both Lagrangian and Eulerian coordinates. By construction, the new model recovers all collisionless neutral models employed in plasma simulations. Then, comparisons between the neutral Vlasov system and hybrid kinetic-fluid models are presented in the linear regime.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗