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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 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Nuclear collective flow and charged-pion emission in Ne-nucleus collisions at E/A = 800 MeV

Triple-differential cross sections of charged pions were measured for collisions of Ne projectiles at E/A = 800 MeV with NaF, Nb, and Pb targets. The reaction plane was estimated event by event from the light-baryon momentum distribution. For heavy targets, preferential emission of charged pions away from the interaction zone towards the projectile side was observed in the transverse direction. Such a preferential emission, which is not predicted by cascade calculations, may be attributed to a stronger pion absorption by the heavier spectator remnant.

NASA Discipline Number 04-10↗
DOE OSTI2014

Lattice study of the leptonic decay constant of the pion and its excitations

We present a calculation of the decay constant of the pion, and its lowest-lying three excitations, at three values of the pion mass between around 400 and 700 MeV, using anisotropic clover lattices. We use the variational method to determine an optimal interpolating operator for each of the states. We find that the decay constant of the first excitation, and more notably of the second, is suppressed with respect to that of the ground-state pion, but that the suppression shows little dependence on the quark mass.

Mastropas, Ekaterina↗
DOE OSTI2014

Lattice study of the Boer-Mulders transverse momentum distribution in the pion

The Boer-Mulders transverse momentum-dependent parton distribution (TMD) characterizes polarized quark transverse momentum in an unpolarized hadron. Techniques previously developed for lattice calculations of nucleon TMDs are applied to the pion. These techniques are based on the evaluation of matrix elements of quark bilocal operators containing a staple-shaped Wilson connection. Results for the Boer-Mulders transverse momentum shift in the pion, obtained at a pion mass of mπ=518MeV, are presented and compared to corresponding results in the nucleon.

Engelhardt, Michael↗
DOE OSTI2016

Neutrinos from PIon Beam Line, nuPIL

LBNF-DUNE (Long Baseline Neutrino Facilities - Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) is a project based at Fermilab to study neutrino oscillations. The current baseline regarding the neutrino production considers the conventional approach: a high energy proton beam hits a target, producing pions that are collected by a horn and that decay in a decay pipe. An alternative solution, called nuPIL (neutrinos from a Pion beam Line) consists of using a beam line to guide the pions to clean the beam and to put instrumentation to monitor it. This paper presents the concept and the first preliminary results.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Quasi-Elastic Scattering and Pion Production at MINER$\nu$A

MINER$\nu$A is a neutrino scattering experiment to make precision measurements of cross sections and investigate nuclear effects. A precise understanding of quasi-elastic and charged pion interactions is crucial to neutrino oscillation measurements. We present measurements of the differential cross sections for charged-current quasi-elastic scattering of neutrinos, antineutrinos and charged-current inclusive pion production on a hydrocarbon target. Comparisons of measurements with theoretical models are reported. We find the shape of the quasi-elastic differential cross section for neutrinos and antineutrinos disfavor a simple Relativistic Fermi Gas model and for charged-current pion differential cross section the data is consistent with the GENIE simulation using final state interactions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Testing Lepton Flavor Universality and CKM Unitarity with Rare Pion Decays in the PIONEER experiment

The physics motivation and the conceptual design of the PIONEER experiment, a next-generation rare pion decay experiment testing lepton flavor universality and CKM unitarity, are described. Phase I of the PIONEER experiment, which was proposed and approved at Paul Scherrer Institut, aims at measuring the charged-pion branching ratio to electrons vs. muons, $R_{e/\mu}$, 15 times more precisely than the current experimental result, reaching the precision of the Standard Model (SM) prediction at 1 part in $10^4$. Considering several inconsistencies between the SM predictions and data pointing towards the potential violation of lepton flavor universality, the PIONEER experiment will probe non-SM explanations of these anomalies through sensitivity to quantum effects of new particles up to the PeV mass scale. The later phases of the PIONEER experiment aim at improving the experimental precision of the branching ratio of pion beta decay (BRPB), $\pi^+\to \pi^0 e^+ \nu (\gamma)$, currently at $1.036(6)\times10^{-8}$, by a factor of three (Phase II) and an order of magnitude (Phase III). Such precise measurements of BRPB will allow for tests of CKM unitarity in light of the Cabibbo Angle Anomaly and the theoretically cleanest extraction of $|V_{ud}|$ at the 0.02% level, comparable to the deduction from superallowed beta decays.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2017

Measuring the Charged Pion Polarizability in the $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow\pi^{+{}}\pi^{-{}}$ Reaction

A new measurement of the charged pion polarizability ????? is approved to run at Jefferson Lab using the GlueX detector in experimental Hall D. The charged pion polarizability ranks among the most important tests of low-energy QCD presently unresolved by experiment. Analogous to precision measurements of ?0??? that test the intrinsic odd-parity (anomalous) sector of QCD, the pion polarizability tests the intrinsic even-parity sector of QCD. The ????+?? cross section will be accessed via the Primakoff mechanism on a nuclear target. The linearly polarized photon source in Hall D will allow the separation of the Primakoff cross section from coherent ?0(770) production. An additional detector will also need to be constructed to help distinguish ?+?? and ?+?? events. An update on the status of the experiment will be given.

Lawrence, David↗
DOE OSTI2024

Pion Nucleon Scattering in BCHPT Combined with 1/Nc Expansion

Pion nucleon scattering has played a crucial role in advancing our understanding of the low-energy regime of strong interactions. This dissertation presents the development of a new theoretical framework that combines Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory (BChPT) with the 1/Nc Expansion to analyze pion nucleon scattering. The resulting effective Lagrangian incorporates both chiral and spin-flavor symmetries. Scattering amplitudes are calculated up to the one-loop level (NNLO), which includes four tree-level Feynman diagrams and 45 non-zero loop diagrams. The effective Lagrangian is renormalized at the one-loop level. With spin-3/2 baryons naturally included, the framework demonstrates strong convergence at higher energies. The NNLO pion nucleon scattering amplitude shows good agreement with experimental data from the SAID database. This novel approach, BChPT combined with 1/Nc Expansion, demonstrates substantial predictive power at higher energies where other low-energy theories fall short, achieving the goals of this combined framework. The contribution from loop diagrams is essential for achieving good agreement with the data, highlighting the importance of conducting the calculation up to NNLO. Extracted values for physically measurable quantities agree reasonably well with independently extracted values, underscoring the robustness of the theory.

Jayakodige, Dulitha [Hampton Univ., Hampton, VA (U↗
DOE OSTI2018

A Precision Measurement of Neutral Pion Lifetime

The neutral pion decays via chiral anomaly and this process historically led to the discovery of the chiral anomaly. The p 0 decay width is among the most precise predictions of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at low energy. However, the current experimental results are not commensurate with theoretical predictions. The Particle Data Group (PDG) average of the experimental results is 7.63  0.16 eV, which is consistent with the chiral anomaly prediction (7.725  0.044 eV). Recent theoretical calculations based on the sum rule and chiral perturbation theories (ChPT) show an increase of 3.0%-4.5% to the chiral anomaly prediction with 1% precision. As a result, a precise measurement of the neutral pion decay width would be one of the most stringent tests of low energy QCD. PrimEx-II experiment measured the neutral pion decay width via the Primakoff effect using two targets, silicon and 12C. The p 0 decay width was extracted by fitting the measured cross sections using recently updated theoretical models for the process. The resulting total p 0 decay width is 7.82  0.05pstatq  0.10psystq eV. With a total uncertainty of 1.8%, this result is the most precise experimental estimation. The PrimEx-II result lies within 0.8 s above the chiral anomaly predition, one s below the sum rule prediction, and 1.8 s below the ChPT calculations. This result is in better agreement with the chiral anomaly prediction.

Zhang, Yang↗
DOE OSTI2026

First Measurement of Sub-GeV $ν_μ$ Charged-Current Coherent Pion Production on Argon in MicroBooNE

We report a measurement of the charged-current coherent pion production cross section on argon using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber exposed to the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab. The measurement uses the MicroBooNE data set corresponding to $1.26 \times 10^{21}$ protons on target with a mean neutrino energy of $0.8$~GeV. The flux-averaged cross section is measured to be $(9.1 \pm 1.2_{\text{stat}} \pm 1.2_\text{syst}) \times 10^{-40}\,\text{cm}^2/\text{Ar}$. This result represents the first measurement of charged-current coherent pion production on argon at sub-GeV neutrino energies. Due to its clean two-body kinematics, where the neutrino interacts coherently with the entire nucleus producing a forward muon and pion with no nuclear breakup, this process provides a useful tool for constraining neutrino flux uncertainties in current and future oscillation experiments such as DUNE.

Abratenko, P. [Tufts U.] (ORCID:0000000169455941)↗
DOE OSTI2015

Impact of pion dynamics on nuclear shell structure

Spin-isospin response in exotic nuclear systems is investigated. It is found that in some nuclei excitations with pionic quantum numbers (0{sup −}, 1{sup +}, 2{sup −}, …) appear at very low energies with large transition probabilities, which is an indication of the vicinity of the onset of pion condensation. As an example, 2{sup −} components of the spin-dipole resonance in {sup 78}Ni and {sup 132}Sn are considered. The existence of such modes points out to the necessity of taking into account their coupling to other elementary modes of excitation, e.g. single-quasiparticle ones. This coupling is introduced in the theory for the first time. Thereby, both rho-meson and pion-exchange contributions to the nucleon-nucleon interaction are included in the relativistic framework beyond the Hartree-Fock approximation. Namely, classes of Feynman diagrams are selected according to their significance for nuclear spectroscopic characteristics, such as single-particle energies and strength functions, and included into the nucleonic self-energy in all orders of meson-exchange. As an illustration, the impact of these new contributions on the single-particle energies of {sup 100}Sn is discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Tomography of pions and protons via transverse momentum dependent distributions

We perform the first simultaneous extraction of parton collinear and transverse degrees of freedom from low-energy fixed-target Drell-Yan data in order to compare the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the pion and proton. We demonstrate that the transverse separation of the quark field encoded in TMDs of the pion is more than 4⁢𝜎 smaller than that of the proton. Additionally, we find the transverse separation of the quark field decreases as its longitudinal momentum fraction decreases. In studying the nuclear modification of TMDs, we find clear evidence for a transverse EMC effect. We comment on possible explanations for these intriguing behaviors, which call for a deeper examination of tomography in a variety of strongly interacting quark-gluon systems.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Exclusive single pion electroproduction off the proton: Results from CLAS

Exclusive meson electroproduction off protons is a powerful tool to probe the effective degrees of freedom in excited nucleon states at the varying distance scale where the transition from the contributions of both quark core and meson-baryon cloud to the quark core dominance. During the past decade, the CLAS collaboration has executed a broad experimental program to study the excited states of the proton using polarized electron beam and both polarized and unpolarized proton targets. The measurements covered a broad kinematic range in the invariant mass $W$ and photon virtuality $Q^2$ with nearly full coverage in polar and azimuthal angles in the hadronic CM system. As results, several low-lying nucleon resonance states in particular from pion threshold to $W < 1.6$ GeV have been explored. These include $\Delta$(1232)$\frac{3}{2}^+$, $N(1440)\frac{1}{2}^+$, $N(1520)\frac{3}{2}^-$, and $N(1535)\frac{1}{2}^-$ states. In addition, we recently published the differential cross sections and helicity amplitudes of the reaction $\gamma^*p\to n\pi^+$ at higher $W$ (1.6 to 2.0 GeV) which are the $N(1675)\frac{5}{2}^-$, $N(1680)\frac{5}{2}^+$, and $N(1710)\frac{1}{2}^+$ states. These excited states with isospin $1/2$ and with masses near 1.7 GeV can be accessed in single $n\pi^+$ production as there are no isospin $3/2$ states present in this mass range with the same spin-parity assignments. As a result, I will briefly discuss these states from CLAS results of the single charged pion electroproduction data.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Coherent and neutral pion production results from MINERνA

MINERνA is a neutrino-nucleus scattering experiment employing multiple nuclear targets. The experiment is studying neutral pion production due to coherent, resonant and deep-inelastic processes, from both charged current and neutral current reactions. Neutral pions are detected through their two photon decay and the resultant electromagnetic showers. We will describe the analysis for the cross sections of inclusive and exclusive processes.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tomography of pions and kaons in the QCD vacuum: Transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions

We evaluate the pion and kaon transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions in the instanton liquid model, a model of the QCD vacuum at low resolution. The relevant transverse momentum distributions (TMDs) are factored into a constituent quark distribution times a rapidity dependent soft factor from staple-shaped Wilson lines, for fixed parton longitudinal momentum and transverse separation. The results are evolved to higher rapidities using the Collins-Soper kernel and higher resolution using renormalization group evolution. The comparison to existing extractions of pion TMDs from Drell-Yan data is briefly discussed.

classical solutions in field theory↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quark counting, Drell-Yan West, and the pion wave function

The relation between the pion's quark distribution function, 𝑞⁡(𝑥), its light-front wave function, and the elastic charge form factor, 𝐹⁡(Δ 2 ), is explored. The square of the leading-twist pion wave function at a special probe scale, 𝜁 𝐻 , is determined using models and Poincaré covariance from realistic results for 𝑞⁡(𝑥). This wave function is then used to compute form factors with the result that the Drell-Yan-West and quark counting relationships are not satisfied. A new relationship between 𝑞⁡(𝑥) and 𝐹⁡(Δ 2 ) is proposed.

Form factors↗
DOE OSTI2016

Pion polarizabilities from a γ γ → π π analysis

Here, we present results for pion polarizabilities predicted using dispersion relations from our earlier Amplitude Analysis of world data on two photon production of meson pairs. The helicity-zero polarizabilities are rather stable and insensitive to uncertainties in cross-channel exchanges. The need is first to confirm the recent result on $(\alpha_1-\beta_1)$ for the charged pion by COMPASS at CERN to an accuracy of 10% by measuring the $\gamma\gamma\to\pi^+\pi^-$ cross-section to an uncertainty of ~1\%. Then the same polarizability, but for the $\pi^0$, is fixed to be $(\alpha_1-\beta_1)_{\pi^0}=(0.9\pm0.2)\times 10^{-4}$ fm$^{3}$. By analyzing the correlation between uncertainties in the meson polarizability and those in $\gamma\gamma$ cross-sections, we suggest experiments need to measure these cross-sections between $\sqrt{s}\simeq 350$ and 600~MeV. The $\pi^0\pi^0$ cross-section then makes the $(\alpha_2-\beta_2)_{\pi^0}$ the easiest helicity-two polarizability to determine.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Connected and leading disconnected hadronic light-by-light contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment with a physical pion mass

We report a lattice QCD calculation of the hadronic light-by-light contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment at a physical pion mass. The calculation includes the connected diagrams and the leading, quark-line-disconnected diagrams. We incorporate algorithmic improvements developed in our previous work. The calculation was performed on the 48 3 × 96 ensemble generated with a physical pion mass and a 5.5 fm spatial extent by the RBC and UKQCD Collaborations using the chiral, domain wall fermion formulation. We find a HLbL μ = 5.35(1.35) × 10 –10 , where the error is statistical only. The finite-volume and finite lattice-spacing errors could be quite large and are the subject of ongoing research. Finally, the omitted disconnected graphs, while expected to give a correction of order 10%, also need to be computed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗