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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Enabling real-time multi-messenger astrophysics discoveries with deep learning

Multi-messenger astrophysics is a fast-growing, interdisciplinary field that combines data, which vary in volume and speed of data processing, from many different instruments that probe the Universe using different cosmic messengers: electromagnetic waves, cosmic rays, gravitational waves and neutrinos. In this Expert Recommendation, we review the key challenges of real-time observations of gravitational wave sources and their electromagnetic and astroparticle counterparts, and make a number of recommendations to maximize their potential for scientific discovery. These recommendations refer to the design of scalable and computationally efficient machine learning algorithms; the cyber-infrastructure to numerically simulate astrophysical sources, and to process and interpret multi-messenger astrophysics data; the management of gravitational wave detections to trigger real-time alerts for electromagnetic and astroparticle follow-ups; a vision to harness future developments of machine learning and cyber-infrastructure resources to cope with the big-data requirements; and finally, the need to build a community of experts to realize the goals of multi-messenger astrophysics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

A description of the Galactic Center excess in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

Observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) indicate an excess in gamma rays originating from the center of our Galaxy. A possible explanation for this excess is the annihilation of Dark Matter particles. We have investigated the annihilation of neutralinos as Dark Matter candidates within the phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (pMSSM). An iterative particle filter approach was used to search for solutions within the pMSSM. We found solutions that are consistent with astroparticle physics and collider experiments, and provide a fit to the energy spectrum of the excess. The neutralino is a Bino/Higgsino or Bino/Wino/Higgsino mixture with a mass in the range 84–92 GeV or 87–97 GeV annihilating into W bosons. A third solutions is found for a neutralino of mass 174–187 GeV annihilating into top quarks. The best solutions yield a Dark Matter relic density 0.06<Ωh{sup 2}<0.13. These pMSSM solutions make clear forecasts for LHC, direct and indirect DM detection experiments. If the pMSSM explanation of the excess seen by Fermi-LAT is correct, a DM signal might be discovered soon.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Design and characterization of the SPT-3G receiver (Conference Presentation)

(On behalf of the SPT-3G collaboration)The SPT-3G receiver was commissioned in early 2017 on the 10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) to map the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with arcminute resolution. The new instrument significantly improves on previous SPT camera designs, offering unprecedented sensitivity to the CMB’s temperature and polarization anisotropies while maintaining a tight control on systematic effects.A restructured optics chain features new secondary and tertiary mirrors to increase the receiver’s field of view by a factor of four in area, coupling light through a set of four cryogenic 720 mm alumina elements, which re-image the Gregorian focus inside the receiver. The broad-band (70-270 GHz) anti-reflective coated lenses are paired with a Lyot stop and cooled to 4 K using a dedicated two-stage pulse-tube cooler (PTC) to minimize in-band attenuation, internal radiative loading, and stray light on the considerably larger focal plane, which is populated with ~2,700 diffraction-limited pixels.Each independent pixel incorporates a lenslet-coupled broadband sinuous antenna, which routes signals through superconducting transmission lines and in-line band-defining filters to six transition-edge sensors, each measuring one of three bands (90, 150, and 220 GHz) and two polarizations, yielding a total of ~16,000 bolometers distributed across ten 150 mm monolithic wafers on a 430 mm image plane. A robust mechanical and thermal architecture supports and cools all detectors across this sizable focal plane to ~250 mK using a closed-cycle Helium adsorption refrigerator backed by a PTC, allowing a duty cycle greater than 90%.This order of magnitude increase in detector count relies on an improved digital frequency-domain SQUID readout system which integrates superconducting inductor-capacitor resonators wired in series with each bolometer to achieve a 68x multiplexing factor while mitigating noise and crosstalk effects.Cumulatively, SPT-3G’s new optics, detector, and readout strategies boast a potential factor of ~20 improvement in mapping speed over its predecessor, SPT-Pol, offering the potential to improve our understanding of inflationary physics, astroparticle physics, and growth of structure. We summarize the new receiver’s core design principles, outline technology characterization results, and report on plans for future upgrades.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

XXVIIth International Conference on Supersymmetry and Unification of Fundamental Interactions (SUSY 2019) (Final Report)

Supersymmetry (SUSY) is one of most elegant extensions of the Standard Model (SM) and explains the puzzles of the SM by providing a candidate to explain the dark matter content of the universe, allowing scientists to understand the origin of the electroweak scale requiring the top mass to be around 170 GeV and leading to the unification of forces at a grand unified scale. Further the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) predicts the Higgs boson mass to be less than 135 GeV. The discovery of the Higgs Boson with mass around 125 GeV at the LHC has provided a major support to SUSY ideas. Searches for SUSY are ongoing at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Direct and indirect dark matter experiments are searching for a particle dark matter candidate which arises most naturally in SUSY models. Proton decay predicted by SUSY grand unified theories is being searched for at deep underground experiments. In addition, recent advances in neutrino and dark matter physics, observational astrophysics, precision cosmology and the promising new window into the cosmos opened by the direct detection of gravitational waves, have brought new ideas on the potential connections between new fundamental particles and our understanding of their impact on the early universe and its evolution. At present, the major questions include: Is SUSY still the best candidate for models beyond the SM? Do we have any well motivated alternative to SUSY? Have we exhausted all possibilities to search for new physics at high and low energy scales? XXVIIth International Conference on Supersymmetry and Unification of Fundamental Interactions (SUSY 2019), hosted by Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi during May 20-24, 2019, provided a unique venue to discus and understand the status of SUSY, connection between particle physics and cosmology, supersymmetry and its alternative, Higgs sector, neutrino sector, flavor sector, dark matter, electroweak phase transition, astroparticle physics, gravitational waves and string theory. Discussion of results from the LHC, recent neutrino experiments and observations, direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments, detection of gravitational waves, data from particle colliders, as well as measurements of the CMB and Large Scale Structure were an integral part of SUSY 2019. To ensure the younger participants will benefit from the conference the most, the conference was preceded by the 4 day long pre-SUSY summer school for graduate students and postdocs. The invited speakers were leading scientists in the fields of SUSY interest. The school took place on Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi campus during the week prior the SUSY 2019 conference (May 15 – 18, 2019). Since its inception in 1993, SUSY has become one of the most important and widely attended international meetings in high energy physics, devoted to new ideas in fundamental particle physics. SUSY 2019 brought together approximately 250 scientists, theorists, phenomenologists, experimentalists and cosmologists, (including over 60 graduate students and 70 postdocs) representing 22 nations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United States. SUSY 2019 provided a stimulating venue for the exchange of scientific ideas among experts in dark matter, neutrino physics, particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. The following scientific topics were delivered during SUSY 2019 in form of 44 plenary talks and over 200 parallel talks: Unification of Forces; Electroweak, Top and Higgs Physics; Precision Calculations and MC tools; BSM in Flavor Physics; Neutrino Masses: Models and Phenomenology; Cosmology and Gravitational Waves; Dark Matter, Astroparticle Physics; Formal Field Theory and Strings; Alternatives to Supersymmetry; Quantum Information: Machine Learning/Big Data. 28 talks were given during the pre-SUSY program related to the following topics: Neutrino Physics; Big Data; Collider Physics & SUSY; String Phenomenology; Cosmology; Dark Matter; SUSY Models and Phenomenology

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS2019

Enabling Real-time Multi-messenger Astrophysics Discoveries with Deep Learning

Multi-messenger astrophysics is a fast-growing, interdisciplinary field that combines data, which vary in volume and speed of data processing, from many different instruments that probe the Universe using different cosmic messengers: electromagnetic waves, cosmic rays, gravitational waves and neutrinos. In this Expert Recommendation, we review the key challenges of real-time observations of gravitational wave sources and their electromagnetic and astroparticle counterparts, and make a number of recommendations to maximize their potential for scientific discovery. These recommendations refer to the design of scalable and computationally efficient machine learning algorithms; the cyber-infrastructure to numerically simulate astrophysical sources, and to process and interpret multi-messenger astrophysics data; the management of gravitational wave detections to trigger real-time alerts for electromagnetic and astroparticle follow-ups; a vision to harness future developments of machine learning and cyber-infrastructure resources to cope with the big-data requirements; and the need to build a community of experts to realize the goals of multi-messenger astrophysics.

E A Huerta↗
NASA NTRS2019

CALET Results After Three Years on Orbit on the International Space Station

The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is an astroparticle physics experiment installed on the International Space Station since August 2015. The CALET mission was conceived to address several outstanding questions of high-energy astroparticle physics, like indirect detection of dark matter, the origin of cosmic rays (CRs), their mechanisms of acceleration and galactic propagation, the presence of possible nearby astrophysical CR sources. That can be achieved by precise measurements of the fluxes of CR electrons and gamma-rays up to the unexplored region above 1 TeV, and the energy spectra and composition of CR nuclei from a few tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV. In order to perform these observations, the instrument combines a thick total absorption PWO crystal calorimeter for energy measurement, a scintillator hodoscope for charge identi cation and thin imaging tungsten-scintillating fiber calorimeter providing accurate particle tracking and complementary charge measurement. In this paper, we will present an overview of the main CALET results based on the data collected in the first three years of the mission.

P Maestro↗
DOE OSTI2026

The forward physics facility: Physics opportunities and conceptual design

The Forward Physics Facility (FPF) is a proposed extension of the HL-LHC program designed to exploit the unique scientific opportunities offered by the intense flux of high energy neutrinos, and possibly new particles, in the far-forward direction. Located in a well-shielded cavern 627 m downstream of one of the LHC interaction points, the facility will support a broad and ambitious physics program that significantly expands the discovery potential of the HL-LHC. Equipped with four complementary detectors -- FLArE, FASER$ν$2, FASER2, and FORMOSA -- the FPF will enable breakthrough measurements that will advance our understanding of neutrino physics, quantum chromodynamics, and astroparticle physics, and will search for dark matter and other new particles. With this Letter of Intent, we propose the construction of the FPF cavern and the construction, integration, and installation of its experiments. We summarize the physics case, the facility design, the layout and components of the detectors, as well as the envisioned collaboration structure, cost estimate, and implementation timeline.

Astroparticle physics↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC

High energy collisions at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produce a large number of particles along the beam collision axis, outside of the acceptance of existing LHC experiments. The proposed Forward Physics Facility (FPF), to be located several hundred meters from the ATLAS interaction point and shielded by concrete and rock, will host a suite of experiments to probe standard model (SM) processes and search for physics beyond the standard model (BSM). In this report, we review the status of the civil engineering plans and the experiments to explore the diverse physics signals that can be uniquely probed in the forward region. FPF experiments will be sensitive to a broad range of BSM physics through searches for new particle scattering or decay signatures and deviations from SM expectations in high statistics analyses with TeV neutrinos in this low-background environment. High statistics neutrino detection will also provide valuable data for fundamental topics in perturbative and non-perturbative QCD and in weak interactions. Experiments at the FPF will enable synergies between forward particle production at the LHC and astroparticle physics to be exploited. We report here on these physics topics, on infrastructure, detector, and simulation studies, and on future directions to realize the FPF’s physics potential.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Sanford Underground Research Facility’s approach to school education, community activities, and public outreach

The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) is the deepest underground science facility in the United States. SURF hosts world-leading experiments in neutrino, astroparticle and nuclear physics, as well as projects in biology, geology, and engineering, and is home to a major excavation project making space for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF), which will power the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). An emphasis on outreach and education is embedded in SURF’s mission statement: “to advance world-class science and inspire learning across generations.” To achieve this mission, SURF goes beyond established science communication methods, including operating an open-to-the-public visitor center, hosting multiple public outreach events per month, and an annual city-wide science festival. Furthermore, SURF is training K-12 science educators, developing school curriculum units, and providing classroom materials, based on science researched at the laboratory. The strategic approach, specific methods, and successful outcomes of these programs, which are based on SURF’s science, location, and community, may serve as examples for effective science education, public outreach, and community engagement.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

A portalino to the dark sector

“Portal” models that connect the Standard Model to a Dark Sector allow for a wide variety of scenarios beyond the simplest WIMP models. Kinetic mixing of gauge fields in particular has allowed a broad range of new ideas. However, the models that evade CMB constraints are often non-generic, with new mass scales and operators to split states and suppress indirect detection signals. Models with a “portalino”, a neutral fermion that marries a linear combination of a standard model neutrino and dark sector fermion and carries a conserved quantum number, can be simpler. This is especially interesting for interacting dark sectors; then the unmarried linear combination which we identify as the standard model neutrino inherits these interactions too, and provides a new, effective interaction between the dark sector and the standard model. These interactions can be simple Z' type interactions or lepton-flavor changing. Dark matter freezes out into neutrinos, thereby evading CMB constraints, and conventional direct detection signals are largely absent. The model offers different signals, however. The “portalino” mechanism itself predicts small corrections to the standard model neutrino couplings as well as the possibility of discovering the portalino particle in collider experiments. Possible cosmological and astroparticle signatures include monochromatic neutrino signals from annihilation, spectral features in high energy CR neutrinos as well as conventional signals of additional light species and dark matter interactions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

High-energy and ultra-high-energy neutrinos: A Snowmass white paper

Astrophysical neutrinos are excellent probes of astroparticle physics and high-energy physics. With energies far beyond solar, supernovae, atmospheric, and accelerator neutrinos, high-energy and ultra-high-energy neutrinos probe fundamental physics from the TeV scale to the EeV scale and beyond. They are sensitive to physics both within and beyond the Standard Model through their production mechanisms and in their propagation over cosmological distances. They carry unique information about their extreme non-thermal sources by giving insight into regions that are opaque to electromagnetic radiation. Here in this white paper describes the opportunities astrophysical neutrino observations offer for astrophysics and high-energy physics, today and in coming years.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Electron/hadron separation with the TRD based on GaAs pixel detectors

Transition Radiation Detectors (TRDs) are widely used for particle identification in both high-energy physics and astroparticle physics. They are typically equipped with gaseous detectors. The main limitation of these types of detectors is that TR photons and ionization losses cannot be decoupled, which significantly reduces the particle separation power. Recent advancements in the development of pixel detectors based on GaAs sensors offer a unique opportunity to effectively detect TR photons and separate them from ionization losses. Such detectors represent novel devices that combine precise tracking capabilities with particle identification (PID) properties. The present work is dedicated to an experimental study of particle identification properties of the TRD prototype based on 500 μ m-thick GaAs sensor bonded to a Timepix3 chip. Studies were performed at the CERN SPS and it was shown that at a particle momentum of 20 GeV/c, the probability of misidentifying a hadron as an electron is below 10 −2 for an electron detection efficiency of 98%–99%, and it is 1 . 6⋅10 −4 for electron detection efficiency of 90%. This performance surpasses the electron/hadron rejection power of all known TRDs by an order of magnitude for the same detector length.

GaAs detectors↗
DOE OSTI2025

From oversimplified to overlooked: The case for exploring rich dark sectors

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics provides a very successful description of fundamental particles and their interactions but it is incomplete, as neutrino masses, dark matter and the baryon asymmetry of the Universe indicate. In addition, the origin of masses and of the approximate fundamental symmetries call out for deeper explanations. The quest for a New SM Theory, that extends the SM to a more general theory, is ongoing. For decades the main focus has been on the TeV scale, but despite an impressive theoretical and experimental effort, no hints of new physics at such scale has been found in experiments. Dark sectors provide an interesting alternative to TeV scale extensions of the SM to explain the open questions in particle and astroparticle physics. Going beyond minimal models, rich dark sectors extend the SM to a complex theory with multiple particles and interactions, in analogy to the SM itself. They have a wealth of theoretical and astrophysical/cosmological consequences and can lead to phenomenological signatures that can be markedly different to that of minimal ones. These include short-lived particles and semi-visible decay signatures, as opposed to minimal models where new states are typically long-lived and purely visible or invisible resonances. Given the experimental configurations and analysis strategies, current dark sector searches might miss such signatures. We advocate a dedicated programme of searches for rich dark sectors that overcomes the assumptions on minimality and on the long lifetime of particles and encompasses a broader range of possibilities. Here, we discuss a prototype model that includes a complex structure akin to the SM: multiple generations of fermions charged under a new spontaneously-broken gauge symmetry.

Dark matter↗
DOE OSTI2015

The Second-phase Development of the China JinPing Underground Laboratory

During 2013-2015 an expansion of the China JinPing underground Laboratory (CJPL) will be undertaken along a main branch of a bypass tunnel in the JinPing tunnel complex. This second phase of CJPL will increase laboratory space to approximately 96,000 m 3 , which can be compared to the existing CJPL-I volume of ∼ 4,000 m 3 . One design configuration has eight additional hall spaces, each over 60 m long and approximately12 m in width, with overburdens of about 2.4 km of rock, oriented parallel to and away from the main water transport and auto traffic tunnels. There are additional possibilities for further expansions at a nearby second bypass tunnel and along the entrance and exit branches of both bypass tunnels, potentially leading to an expanded CJPL comparable in size to Gran Sasso. Concurrent with the excavation activities, planning is underway for dark matter and other rare- event detectors, as well as for geophysics/engineering and other coupled multi-disciplinary sensors. In the town meeting on 8 September, 2013 at Asilomar, CA, associated with the 13 th International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP), presentations and panel discussions addressed plans for one-ton expansions of the current CJPL germanium detector array of the China Darkmatter EXperiment (CDEX) collaboration and of the duel-phase xenon detector of the Panda-X collaboration, as well as possible new detector initiatives for dark matter studies, low-energy solar neutrino detection, neutrinoless double beta searches, and geoneutrinos. JinPing was also discussed as a site for a low-energy nuclear astrophysics accelerator. Geophysics/engineering opportunities include acoustic and micro-seismic monitoring of rock bursts during and after excavation, coupled-process in situ measurements, local, regional, and global monitoring of seismically induced radon emission, and electromagnetic signals. Additional ideas and projects will likely be developed in the next few years, driven by China’s domestic needs and by international experiments requiring access to very great depths.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Forward Physics Facility: Sites, experiments, and physics potential

The Forward Physics Facility (FPF) is a proposal to create a cavern with the space and infrastructure to support a suite of far-forward experiments at the Large Hadron Collider during the High Luminosity era. Located along the beam collision axis and shielded from the interaction point by at least 100 m of concrete and rock, the FPF will house experiments that will detect particles outside the acceptance of the existing large LHC experiments and will observe rare and exotic processes in an extremely low-background environment. In this work, we summarize the current status of plans for the FPF, including recent progress in civil engineering in identifying promising sites for the FPF and the experiments currently envisioned to realize the FPF’s physics potential. We then review the many Standard Model and new physics topics that will be advanced by the FPF, including searches for long-lived particles, probes of dark matter and dark sectors, high-statistics studies of TeV neutrinos of all three flavors, aspects of perturbative and non-perturbative QCD, and high-energy astroparticle physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Multi-messengers at ultra-high energies with the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is an Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) detector which has studied cosmic particles with energies above and around 10 18 eV for more than 15 years. It has proved to be the most competitive instrument at these energies and has produced a wealth of valuable results, improving our understanding of UHECRs. A complete understanding of these highest energy particles is crucial to understand the extreme astrophysical events in which they are produced and accelerated, as well as their propagation to Earth. In the same range of energies, UHE photons and neutrinos are of paramount importance as, being electrically neutral, they point back to their origin while charged particles are deflected in the galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields. The flux of extragalactic photons, neutrinos, and cosmic rays are believed to be highly linked, by their origin and their interactions. Each messenger provides different information about the potential sources, and having detection means for all four messengers, including gravitational waves, allows us to shed light on energetic sources of astroparticles. The Pierre Auger Observatory benefits from a large exposure and a good angular resolution, and is efficient in detecting UHE photons and neutrinos. These performances make possible follow-up searches for events detected by gravitational waves, such as the binary mergers observed by the LIGO/Virgo detectors, or any other energetic sources of particles.

Binary black hole mergers↗
DOE OSTI2013

BiPo: A dedicated radiopurity detector for the SuperNEMO experiment

New generation experiments in Astroparticle Physics need to operate in really restrictive background conditions, which implies the use of high radiopure materials for the experimental setup construction. For this reason the screening of the materials with enough sensitivity has become a challenge that sometimes cannot be afforded with standard techniques like Germanium detector spectroscopy. BiPo is a dedicated detector, that operates in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory, designed to measure the radiopurity, mainly of the ββ sources of the SuperNEMO experiment, by the detection of BiPo events. It is composed of two modules with 40 optical lines each one, registering the energy and the time of the emitted particles. The well known features of the BiPo events (delayed coincidence between an electron and an alpha particle) facilitate the discrimination of other background events that could entangle the expected signal. In addition, the geometry of the detector, with an active area of around 3.6 m{sup 2}, has been optimized to reach the necessary sensitivity levels for the SuperNEMO source foils in the shortest time possible. Preliminary results of background measurements and calibrations taken since summer 2012 shows that the required sensitivity for the measurements of the source foils could be reached in few months. Routine measurements of samples are already started being an important point for the SuperNEMO source foils construction.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗