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Fontes, Christopher

Publications and source records attributed to Fontes, Christopher.

7 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

SuperNu Version 4.x

We seek to release SuperNu, Version 4.x, as a continuation of development for the open source SuperNu software. The SuperNu, Version 3.x Monte Carlo radiative transfer code for astrophysical transients was released with GPLv3 copyright, asserted by LANL in 2015. For the next release we have features planned for development , including: opacity implementation (including non-local thermodynamic equilibrium effects), generalized source implementation (e.g. for emulating shock heating in Type II supernovae), 3T (electron, ion, radiation) internal energy update, special relativity corrections through O(v^2/c^2), light polarization (e.g. for comparison to spectroplarimetry observations of supernovae and kilonovae), and infrastructure features (checkpoint and restart of simulations, and tools including setup and Slurm batch scripts and simulation post-processing/analysis scripts). These features are intended to improve the fidelity and/or better understand uncertainty in supernova and kilonova light curve calculations.

Wollaeger, Ryan↗
DOE OSTI2018

Iron X-ray Transmission at Temperature Near 150 eV Using the National Ignition Facility: First Measurements and Paths to Uncertainty Reduction

Discrepancies exist between theoretical and experimental opacity data for iron, at temperatures 180–195 eV and electron densities near 3 × 1022/cm3, relevant to the solar radiative-convective boundary. Another discrepancy, between theory and helioseismic measurements of the boundary’s location, would be ameliorated if the experimental opacity is correct. To address these issues, this paper details the first results from new experiments under development at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), using a different method to replicate the prior experimental conditions. In the NIF experiments, 64 laser beams indirectly heat a plastic-tamped rectangular iron-magnesium sample inside a gold cavity. Another 64 beams implode a spherical plastic shell to produce a continuum X-ray flash which backlights the hot sample. An X-ray spectrometer records the transmitted X-rays, the unattenuated X-rays passing around the sample, and the sample’s self-emission. From these data, X-ray transmission spectra are inferred, showing Mg K-shell and Fe L-shell X-ray transitions from plasma at a temperature of ~150 eV and electron density of ~8 × 1021/cm3. These conditions are similar to prior Z measurements which agree better with theory. The NIF transmission data show statistical uncertainties of 2–10%, but various systematic uncertainties must be addressed before pursuing quantitative comparisons. The paths to reduction of the largest uncertainties are discussed. Once the uncertainty is reduced, future NIF experiments will probe higher temperatures (170–200 eV) to address the ongoing disagreement between theory and Z data.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Opacity Effects on Pulsations of Main-Sequence A-Type Stars

Here, opacity enhancements for stellar interior conditions have been explored to explain observed pulsation frequencies and to extend the pulsation instability region for B-type main-sequence variable stars. For these stars, the pulsations are driven in the region of the opacity bump of Fe-group elements at ~200,000 K in the stellar envelope. Here we explore effects of opacity enhancements for the somewhat cooler main-sequence A-type stars, in which p-mode pulsations are driven instead in the second helium ionization region at ~50,000 K. We compare models using the new LANL OPLIB vs. LLNL OPAL opacities for the AGSS09 solar mixture. For models of two solar masses and effective temperature 7600 K, opacity enhancements have only a mild effect on pulsations, shifting mode frequencies and/or slightly changing kinetic-energy growth rates. Increased opacity near the bump at 200,000 K can induce convection that may alter composition gradients created by diffusive settling and radiative levitation. Opacity increases around the hydrogen and 1st He ionization region (~13,000 K) can cause additional higher-frequency p modes to be excited, raising the possibility that improved treatment of these layers may result in prediction of new modes that could be tested by observations. New or wider convective zones and higher convective velocities produced by opacity increases could also affect angular momentum transport during evolution. More work needs to be done to quantify the effects of opacity on the boundaries of the pulsation instability regions for A-type stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Collisional-radiative modeling of tungsten at temperatures of 1200–2400 eV

We discuss new collisional-radiative modeling calculations of tungsten at moderate temperatures of 1200 to 2400 eV. Such plasma conditions are relevant to ongoing experimental work at ASDEX Upgrade and are expected to be relevant for ITER. Our calculations are made using the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) collisional-radiative modeling ATOMIC code. These calculations formed part of a submission to the recent NLTE-8 workshop that was held in November 2013. This series of workshops provides a forum for detailed comparison of plasma and spectral quantities from NLTE collisional-radiative modeling codes. We focus on the LANL ATOMIC calculations for tungsten that were submitted to the NLTE-8 workshop and discuss different models that were constructed to predict the tungsten emission. In particular, we discuss comparisons between semi-relativistic configuration-average and fully relativistic configuration-average calculations. We also present semi-relativistic calculations that include fine-structure detail, and discuss the difficult problem of ensuring completeness with respect to the number of configurations included in a CR calculation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2010

The LANL atomic kinetics modeling effort and its application to W plasmas

This is the work of the LANL group on atomic kinetics modelling. There are various levels of detail in the LANL suite of atomic physics codes: (1) Non-relativistic configuration average kinetics (nl{sup w}) + UTA spectra, (2) Relativistic configuration average kinetics (nlj{sup w}) + UTA spectra, (3) Mixed UTA (MUTA) - configuration average kinetics and spectra composed of mixture of UTAs and fine-structure features and (4) Fine-structure levels. The LANL suite of atomic physics codes consists of 5 codes: (1) CATS/RATS atomic structure codes (semi-relativistic Cowan code or Dirac-Fock-Slater code), (2) ACE collisional excitation code (Plane-wave Born, Columb-Born and distorted-wave methods) and (3) GIPPER ionization code (scaled-hydrogenic and distorted-wave methods). An on-line version of the codes is available at http://aphysics2.lanl.gov/tempweb. ATOMIC kinetics modelling code uses the atomic data for LTE or NLTE population kinetics models and spectral modelling of a broad range of plasma applications. The mixed UTA (MUTA) approach was developed for the spectra of complex ions and the results are in very good agreement with the Sandia-Z Iron opacity experiments. The LANL configuration-average/MUTA calculations were applied to tungsten problems of the non-LTE kinetics code comparison workshops. The LANL group plans to perform much larger calculations to assess the accuracy of the older results and to investigate low-temperature tungsten processes relevant to the divertor modelling.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗