Engineering topics

Bo, Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Bo, Zhao.

6 records

DOE OSTI2012

Dosimetric effect of intrafraction tumor motion in phase gated lung stereotactic body radiotherapy

Purpose: A major concern for lung intensity modulated radiation therapy delivery is the deviation of actually delivered dose distribution from the planned one due to simultaneous movements of multileaf collimator (MLC) leaves and tumor. For gated lung stereotactic body radiotherapy treatment (SBRT), the situation becomes even more complicated because of SBRT's characteristics such as fewer fractions, smaller target volume, higher dose rate, and extended fractional treatment time. The purpose of this work is to investigate the dosimetric effect of intrafraction tumor motion during gated lung SBRT delivery by reconstructing the delivered dose distribution with real-time tumor motion considered. Methods: The tumor motion data were retrieved from six lung patients. Each of them received three fractions of stereotactic radiotherapy treatments with Cyberknife Synchrony (Accuray, Sunnyvale, CA). Phase gating through an external surrogate was simulated with a gating window of 5 mm. The resulting residual tumor motion curves during gating (beam-on) were retrieved. Planning target volume (PTV) was defined as physician-contoured clinical target volume (CTV) surrounded by an isotropic 5 mm margin. Each patient was prescribed with 60 Gy/3 fractions. The authors developed an algorithm to reconstruct the delivered dose with tumor motion. The DMLC segments, mainly leaf position and segment weighting factor, were recalculated according to the probability density function of tumor motion curve. The new DMLC sequence file was imported back to treatment planning system to reconstruct the dose distribution. Results: Half of the patients in the study group experienced PTV D95% deviation up to 26% for fractional dose and 14% for total dose. CTV mean dose dropped by 1% with tumor motion. Although CTV is almost covered by prescribed dose with 5 mm margin, qualitative comparison on the dose distributions reveals that CTV is on the verge of underdose. The discrepancy happens due to tumor excursion outside of the gating window, which, for our study group, is mainly caused by baseline shift, i.e., the change in general trend of the motion curve during extended period of treatment time. Conclusions: The dose deviation in PTV and CTV due to target motion is not always negligible in gated SBRT. Although CTVs are covered sufficiently with prescribed dose in most cases, some are on the verge of underdose due to large tumor excursion caused by factors such as baseline shift.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2012

PROTOSTELLAR ACCRETION FLOWS DESTABILIZED BY MAGNETIC FLUX REDISTRIBUTION

Magnetic flux redistribution lies at the heart of the problem of star formation in dense cores of molecular clouds that are magnetized to a realistic level. If all of the magnetic flux of a typical core were to be dragged into the central star, the stellar field strength would be orders of magnitude higher than the observed values. This well-known magnetic flux problem can in principle be resolved through non-ideal MHD effects. Two-dimensional (axisymmetric) calculations have shown that ambipolar diffusion, in particular, can transport magnetic flux outward relative to matter, allowing material to enter the central object without dragging the field lines along. We show through simulations that such axisymmetric protostellar accretion flows are unstable in three dimensions to magnetic interchange instability in the azimuthal direction. The instability is driven by the magnetic flux redistributed from the matter that enters the central object. It typically starts to develop during the transition from the prestellar phase of star formation to the protostellar mass accretion phase. In the latter phase, the magnetic flux is transported outward mainly through advection by strongly magnetized low-density regions that expand against the collapsing inflow. The tussle between the gravity-driven infall and magnetically driven expansion leads to a highly filamentary inner accretion flow that is more disordered than previously envisioned. The efficient outward transport of magnetic flux by advection lowers the field strength at small radii, making the magnetic braking less efficient and the formation of rotationally supported disks easier in principle. However, we find no evidence for such disks in any of our rotating collapse simulations. We conclude that the inner protostellar accretion flow is shaped to a large extent by the flux redistribution-driven magnetic interchange instability. How disks form in such an environment is unclear.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

MAGNETIC FLUX EXPULSION IN STAR FORMATION

Stars form in dense cores of magnetized molecular clouds. If the magnetic flux threading the cores is dragged into the stars, the stellar field would be orders of magnitude stronger than observed. This well-known 'magnetic flux problem' demands that most of the core magnetic flux be decoupled from the matter that enters the star. We carry out the first exploration of what happens to the decoupled magnetic flux in three dimensions, using a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) version of the ENZO adaptive mesh refinement code. The field-matter decoupling is achieved through a sink particle treatment, which is needed to follow the protostellar accretion phase of star formation. We find that the accumulation of the decoupled flux near the accreting protostar leads to a magnetic pressure buildup. The high pressure is released anisotropically along the path of least resistance. It drives a low-density expanding region in which the decoupled magnetic flux is expelled. This decoupling-enabled magnetic structure has never been seen before in three-dimensional MHD simulations of star formation. It generates a strong asymmetry in the protostellar accretion flow, potentially giving a kick to the star. In the presence of an initial core rotation, the structure presents an obstacle to the formation of a rotationally supported disk, in addition to magnetic braking, by acting as a rigid magnetic wall that prevents the rotating gas from completing a full orbit around the central object. We conclude that the decoupled magnetic flux from the stellar matter can strongly affect the protostellar collapse dynamics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Two Photon Exchange in Quasi-elastic and Deep-inelastic Scattering

In this paper, I present an overview and preliminary results from three experiments at Jefferson Lab that were recently completed using a {sup 3}He gas target with polarization oriented normal to the scattering plane of unpolarized incident electrons. A target single spin asymmetry was formed by periodically flipping the direction of the target spin. In the reaction {up_arrow}{sup 3}He(e,e'), the Born contribution is expected to be zero, giving direct sensitivity to two photon exchange. This asymmetry was measured in the quasi-elastic and deep-inelastic regimes with 0.1 < Q{sup 2} < 1.0 GeV{sup 2}. The asymmetry is predicted to decrease by two-orders of magnitude for deep-inelastic versus quasi-elastic scattering. Preliminary results from these experiments will be presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2011

ECLIPSING BINARY SCIENCE VIA THE MERGING OF TRANSIT AND DOPPLER EXOPLANET SURVEY DATA-A CASE STUDY WITH THE MARVELS PILOT PROJECT AND SuperWASP

Exoplanet transit and Doppler surveys discover many binary stars during their operation that can be used to conduct a variety of ancillary science. Specifically, eclipsing binary stars can be used to study the stellar mass-radius relationship and to test predictions of theoretical stellar evolution models. By cross-referencing 24 binary stars found in the MARVELS Pilot Project with SuperWASP photometry, we find two new eclipsing binaries, TYC 0272-00458-1 and TYC 1422-01328-1, which we use as case studies to develop a general approach to eclipsing binaries in survey data. TYC 0272-00458-1 is a single-lined spectroscopic binary for which we calculate a mass of the secondary and radii for both components using reasonable constraints on the primary mass through several different techniques. For a primary mass of M{sub 1} = 0.92 {+-} 0.1 M{sub sun}, we find M{sub 2} = 0.610 {+-} 0.036 M{sub sun}, R{sub 1} = 0.932 {+-} 0.076 R{sub sun}, and R{sub 2} = 0.559 {+-} 0.102 R{sub sun}, and find that both stars have masses and radii consistent with model predictions. TYC 1422-01328-1 is a triple-component system for which we can directly measure the masses and radii of the eclipsing pair. We find that the eclipsing pair consists of an evolved primary star (M{sub 1} = 1.163 {+-} 0.034 M{sub sun}, R{sub 1} = 2.063 {+-} 0.058 R{sub sun}) and a G-type dwarf secondary (M{sub 2} = 0.905 {+-} 0.067 M{sub sun}, R{sub 2} = 0.887 {+-} 0.037 R{sub sun}). We provide the framework necessary to apply this analysis to much larger data sets.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Deterministic spin-wave interferometer based on the Rydberg blockade

The spin-wave (SW) N-particle path-entangled |N,0>+|0,N> (NOON) state is an N-particle Fock state with two atomic spin-wave modes maximally entangled. Attributed to the property that the phase is sensitive to collective atomic motion, the SW NOON state can be utilized as an atomic interferometer and has promising application in quantum enhanced measurement. In this paper we propose an efficient protocol to deterministically produce the atomic SW NOON state by employing the Rydberg blockade. Possible errors in practical manipulations are analyzed. A feasible experimental scheme is suggested. Our scheme is far more efficient than the recent experimentally demonstrated one, which only creates a heralded second-order SW NOON state.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗