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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 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

The National Ignition Facility modular Kirkpatrick-Baez microscope

Current two-dimensional X-ray imaging at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) uses time resolved pinhole cameras with ∼10-25 μm pinholes. This method has limitations in the smallest resolvable features that can be imaged with reasonable photon statistics for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) applications. ICF sources have a broadband self-emission spectrum that causes the pinhole images obtained, through thin foil filters, to contain a similarly broadband spectrum complicating the interpretation of structure in the source. In order to study phenomena on the scale of ∼5 μm, such as dopant mix in the ICF capsule, a narrow energy band, higher spatial resolution microscope system with improved signal/noise has been developed using X-ray optics. Utilizing grazing incidence mirrors in a Kirkpatrick-Baez microscope (KBM) configuration [P. Kirkpatrick and A. V. Baez, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 38, 766–774 (1948)], an X-ray microscope has been designed and fielded on NIF with four imaging channels. The KBM has ∼12 × magnification, <8 μm resolution, and higher throughput in comparison to similar pinhole systems. The first KBM mirrors are coated with a multilayer mirror to allow a “narrow band” energy response at 10.2 keV with ΔE ∼ 3 keV. By adjusting the mirror coating only, the energy response can be matched to the future experimental requirements. Several mirror packs have been commissioned and are interchangeable in the diagnostic snout.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2026

Simulating plasma wave propagation on a superconducting quantum chip

Quantum computers may one day enable the efficient simulation of strongly coupled plasmas that lie beyond the reach of classical computation in regimes where quantum effects are important and the scale separation is large. Here, in this article, we take a first step toward efficient simulation of quantum plasmas by demonstrating linear plasma wave propagation on a superconducting quantum chip. Using high-fidelity and highly expressive device-native gates, combined with an error-mitigation technique, we simulate the scattering of laser pulses from inhomogeneous plasmas. Our approach is made feasible by the identification of a suitable local spin model whose excitations mimic plasma waves, and whose circuit implementation requires a lower gate count than other proposed approaches that would require a future fault-tolerant quantum computer. This work opens avenues to study more complicated phenomena that cannot be simulated efficiently on classical computers, such as nonlinear quantum dynamics when strongly coupled plasmas are driven out of equilibrium.

general physics↗
DOE OSTI2019

Small-angle neutron polarimetry apparatus (SANPA): Development at the NIST Center for Neutron Research

Spherical neutron polarimetry directly measures the rotation of the neutron polarization after scattering from materials with magnetic structure. It is an under utilized measurement technique that is capable of measuring all nine elements of the polarization tensor of a material. In this article, we describe our new cryogen-free small-angle neutron polarimetry apparatus and infrastructure at the NIST Center for Neutron Research. The resulting apparatus is capable of continuous operation and is designed for measurements at low temperatures (4–8 K) using niobium Meissner shielding and mu-metal shielding to produce a zero-field (≤1 μT) cooling sample environment.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Photon pumping in a weakly-driven quantum cavity–spin system

Highlights: • We study photon frequency conversion in a driven spin coupled to a cavity mode. • Quantized frequency conversion is excpected in the strong-drive adiabatic limit. • A new photon pumping effect is established in the accessible weak drive regime. • Pumping is linked to the delocalization of the corresponding Floquet states. • Quantum coherence is preserved in both the strong and ultraweak-drive limits. We investigate the photon pumping effect in a topological model consisting of a periodically driven spin-1/2 coupled to a quantum cavity mode out of the adiabatic limit. In the strong-drive adiabatic limit, a quantized frequency conversion of photons is expected as the temporal analog of the Hall current. We numerically establish a novel photon pumping phenomenon in the experimentally accessible nonadiabatic driving regime for a broad region of the parameter space. The photon frequency conversion efficiency exhibits strong fluctuations and high efficiency that can reach up 80% of the quantized value for commensurate frequency combinations. We link the pumping properties to the delocalization of the corresponding Floquet states which display multifractal behavior as the result of hybridization between localized and delocalized sectors. Finally we demonstrate that the quantum coherence properties of the initial state are preserved during the frequency conversion process in both the strong and ultra-weak-drive limit.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Monotonicity of a relative Rényi entropy

We show that a recent definition of relative Rényi entropy is monotone under completely positive, trace preserving maps. This proves a recent conjecture of Müller-Lennert et al. [“On quantum Rényi entropies: A new definition, some properties,” J. Math. Phys. 54, 122203 (2013); e-print http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1306.3142v1 ; see also e-print http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1306.3142 ].

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

The Snell law for quaternionic potentials

By using the analogy between optics and quantum mechanics, we obtain the Snell law for the planar motion of quantum particles in the presence of quaternionic potentials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Filiform Lie algebras of order 3

The aim of this work is to generalize a very important type of Lie algebras and superalgebras, i.e., filiform Lie (super)algebras, into the theory of Lie algebras of order F. Thus, the concept of filiform Lie algebras of order F is obtained. In particular, for F = 3 it has been proved that by using infinitesimal deformations of the associated model elementary Lie algebra it can be obtained families of filiform elementary lie algebras of order 3, analogously as that occurs into the theory of Lie algebras [M. Vergne, “Cohomologie des algèbres de Lie nilpotentes. Application à l’étude de la variété des algèbres de Lie nilpotentes,” Bull. Soc. Math. France 98, 81–116 (1970)]. Also we give the dimension, using an adaptation of the sl(2,C)-module Method, and a basis of such infinitesimal deformations in some generic cases.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

On boundary fusion and functional relations in the Baxterized affine Hecke algebra

We construct boundary type operators satisfying fused reflection equation for arbitrary representations of the Baxterized affine Hecke algebra. These operators are analogues of the fused reflection matrices in solvable half-line spin chain models. We show that these operators lead to a family of commuting transfer matrices of Sklyanin type. We derive fusion type functional relations for these operators for two families of representations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Beyond the universal Dyson singularity for 1-D chains with hopping disorder

We study a simple non-interacting nearest neighbor tight-binding model in one dimension with disorder, where the hopping terms are chosen randomly. This model exhibits a well-known singularity at the band center both in the density of states and localization length. If the probability distribution of the hopping terms is well-behaved, then the singularities exhibit universal behavior, the functional form of which was first discovered by Freeman Dyson in the context of a chain of classical harmonic oscillators. We show here that this universal form can be violated in a tunable manner if the hopping elements are chosen from a divergent probability distribution. We also demonstrate a connection between a breakdown of universality in this quantum problem and an analogous scenario in the classical domain — that of random walks and diffusion with anomalous exponents.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Density of states for Gaussian unitary ensemble, Gaussian orthogonal ensemble, and interpolating ensembles through supersymmetric approach

We use the supersymmetric formalism to derive an integral formula for the density of states of the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble, and then apply saddle-point analysis to give a new derivation of the 1/N-correction to Wigner's law. This extends the work of Disertori on the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble. We also apply our method to the interpolating ensembles of Mehta–Pandey.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Stochastic dynamics of a delayed bistable system with multiplicative noise

In this paper we investigate the properties of a delayed bistable system under the effect of multiplicative noise. We first prove the existence and uniqueness of the positive solution and show that its moments are uniformly bounded. Then, we study stochastic dynamics of the solution in long time, the lower and upper bounds for the paths and an estimate for the average value are provided.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Interaction-induced transition in the quantum chaotic dynamics of a disordered metal

We demonstrate that a weakly disordered metal with short-range interactions exhibits a transition in the quantum chaotic dynamics when changing the temperature or the interaction strength. For weak interactions, the system displays exponential growth of the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) of the current operator. The Lyapunov exponent of this growth is temperature-independent in the limit of vanishing interaction. With increasing the temperature or the interaction strength, the system undergoes a transition to a non-chaotic behaviour, for which the exponential growth of the OTOC is absent. We conjecture that the transition manifests itself in the quasiparticle energy-level statistics and also discuss ways of its explicit observation in cold-atom setups.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Topology and many-body localization

We discuss the problem of localization in two dimensional electron systems in the quantum Hall (single Landau level) regime. After briefly summarizing the well-studied problem of Anderson localization in the non-interacting case, we concentrate on the problem of disorder induced many-body localization (MBL) in the presence of electron–electron interactions using numerical exact diagonalization and eigenvalue spacing statistics as a function of system size. We provide evidence showing that MBL is not attainable in a single Landau level with short range (white noise) disorder in the thermodynamic limit. We then study the interplay of topology and localization, by contrasting the behavior of topological and nontopological subbands arising from a single Landau level in two models — (i) a pair of extremely flat Hofstadter bands with an optimally chosen periodic potential, and (ii) a Landau level with a split-off nontopological impurity band. Both models provide convincing evidence for the strong effect of topology on the feasibility of many-body localization as well as slow dynamics starting from a nonequilibrium state with charge imbalance.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Equivalence principle in Reissner–Nordström geometry

The Equivalence Principle is a key element in the development of General Relativity. In one of its formulations, the Equivalence Principle states that a reference frame at rest in a uniform gravitational field is equivalent to a reference frame in uniformly accelerated motion in the absence of any gravitation field. We analyze the spacetime surrounding a non-rotating spherically symmetric charged body, known as Reissner–Nordström geometry, and exhibit a coordinate transformation, which makes explicit its compatibility with the Equivalence Principle. We revisit the Schwarzschild case, previously analyzed in the literature. We also consider second order terms of the relevant expansion parameters in the approximate metric, which is needed for the computed curvature quantities to be correct at zeroth order.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

The arbitrary order mimetic finite difference method for a diffusion equation with a non-symmetric diffusion tensor

Here, we present the arbitrary order mimetic finite difference (MFD) discretization for the diffusion equation with non-symmetric tensorial diffusion coefficient in a mixed formulation on general polygonal meshes. The diffusion tensor is assumed to be positive definite. The asymmetry of the diffusion tensor requires changes to the standard MFD construction. We also present new approach for the construction that guarantees positive definiteness of the non-symmetric mass matrix in the space of discrete velocities. The numerically observed convergence rate for the scalar quantity matches the predicted one in the case of the lowest order mimetic scheme. For higher orders schemes, we observed super-convergence by one order for the scalar variable which is consistent with the previously published result for a symmetric diffusion tensor. The new scheme was also tested on a time-dependent problem modeling the Hall effect in the resistive magnetohydrodynamics.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

A conservative, consistent, and scalable meshfree mimetic method

Mimetic methods discretize divergence by restricting the Gauss theorem to mesh cells. Because point clouds lack such geometric entities, construction of a compatible meshfree divergence remains a challenge. In this work, we define an abstract Meshfree Mimetic Divergence (MMD) operator on point clouds by contraction of field and virtual face moments. This MMD satisfies a discrete divergence theorem, provides a discrete local conservation principle, and is first-order accurate. We consider two MMD instantiations. The first one assumes a background mesh and uses generalized moving least squares (GMLS) to obtain the necessary field and face moments. This MMD instance is appropriate for settings where a mesh is available but its quality is insufficient for a robust and accurate mesh-based discretization. The second MMD operator retains the GMLS field moments but defines virtual face moments using computationally efficient weighted graph-Laplacian equations. This MMD instance does not require a background grid and is appropriate for applications where mesh generation creates a computational bottleneck. It allows one to trade an expensive mesh generation problem for a scalable algebraic one, without sacrificing compatibility with the divergence operator. We demonstrate the approach by using the MMD operator to obtain a virtual finite-volume discretization of conservation laws on point clouds. Finally, numerical results in the paper confirm the mimetic properties of the method and show that it behaves similarly to standard finite volume methods.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗