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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 37 records · Page 2

Magnetohydrodynamic cellular automata

A generalization of the hexagonal lattice gas model of Frisch, Hasslacher and Pomeau is shown to lead to two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics. The method relies on the ideal point-wise conservation law for vector potential.

Montgomery, David↗

Project MAC

On-line programming for the following topics is discussed: (1) artificial intelligence, (2) automata theory, (3) cellular automata, (4) computation structures, (5) computer systems research, (6) dynamic modeling, computer graphics, and computer networks, (7) education, (8) implicit computation, (10) interactive management systems, (11) interactive algebraic manipulation, and (12) programming languages.

Licklider, J. C. R.↗

Small-world complex network generation on a digital quantum processor

Abstract Quantum cellular automata (QCA) evolve qubits in a quantum circuit depending only on the states of their neighborhoods and model how rich physical complexity can emerge from a simple set of underlying dynamical rules. The inability of classical computers to simulate large quantum systems hinders the elucidation of quantum cellular automata, but quantum computers offer an ideal simulation platform. Here, we experimentally realize QCA on a digital quantum processor, simulating a one-dimensional Goldilocks rule on chains of up to 23 superconducting qubits. We calculate calibrated and error-mitigated population dynamics and complex network measures, which indicate the formation of small-world mutual information networks. These networks decohere at fixed circuit depth independent of system size, the largest of which corresponding to 1,056 two-qubit gates. Such computations may enable the employment of QCA in applications like the simulation of strongly-correlated matter or beyond-classical computational demonstrations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Toucan: A performance portable, scalable implementation of the DECA algorithm

In the field of additive manufacturing (AM), cellular automata (CA) is extensively used to simulate microstructural evolution during solidification. However, while traditional CA approaches are relatively fast, they still require a substantial number of time steps, are limited to moderate volumes, and are relatively difficult to improve through parallelism due to the highly localized nature of the solidification front. Here, to address these issues of time to solution and load balancing, we introduce Toucan, a parallel, performance-portable, and scalable code written in C++ with the Kokkos library that leverages the discrete event inspired cellular automata (DECA) algorithm to perform parallel-in-time (PinT) grain growth simulations. Toucan effectively mitigates load balancing issues by distributing the computational workload more evenly across processors, enhancing scalability and efficiency. We conduct both strong and weak scaling studies on up to 64 GPUs on the Frontier supercomputer, demonstrating that Toucan significantly outperforms the current state-of-the-art, time-stepped CA code, ExaCA, on both single and multi-GPU simulations. Even in AM-specific weak scaling scenarios, Toucan maintains near-ideal scaling, in contrast to the linear increase observed with ExaCA due to the moving laser raster pattern. This study highlights Toucan’s potential to transform microstructural simulations in AM by radically improving both efficiency and scalability over existing methods.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Absolutely Stable Time Crystals at Finite Temperature

Here, we show that locally interacting, periodically driven (Floquet) Hamiltonian dynamics coupled to a Langevin bath support finite-temperature discrete time crystals (DTCs) with an infinite autocorrelation time. By contrast to both prethermal and many-body localized DTCs, the time crystalline order we uncover is stable to arbitrary perturbations, including those that break the time translation symmetry of the underlying drive. Our approach utilizes a general mapping from probabilistic cellular automata to open classical Floquet systems undergoing continuous-time Langevin dynamics. Applying this mapping to a variant of the Toom cellular automaton, which we dub the "π-Toom time crystal," leads to a 2D Floquet Hamiltonian with a finite-temperature DTC phase transition. We provide numerical evidence for the existence of this transition, and analyze the statistics of the finite temperature fluctuations. Finally, we discuss how general results from the field of probabilistic cellular automata imply the existence of discrete time crystals (with an infinite autocorrelation time) in all dimensions, d ≥ 1.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

High-resolution (30-m) urban land cover projections for Los Angeles California Urban Area: 2010 to 2100 under SSP5

These data represent simulations of future land use and land cover (LULCC) for Los Angeles urban area (U.S. Census Bureau defined area) as raster tiff images at a 30-m pixel resolution and at decadal time steps from 2010 to 2100. LULCC classes in this product follow the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) classification. NLCD 21-24 correspond to open developed, low developed, medium developed, and high developed urban land classes, respectively. Only urban land cover classes (NLCD class 21, 22, 23, and 24) are dynamic over time; however, all NLCD classes are included in the final product. Therefore, NLCD classes that do not convert to an urban class will be similar to year 2000. The products were developed using a hybridized statistical and cellular automata approach. Linear mixed models (LMMs) were used to estimate future urban land budgets based on 1-km urban land fraction projections from Gao and Pesaresi (2021), whereas separate generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used to estimate shifts in urban land intensities based on retrospective shifts in NLCD urban class intensities over a 20- year period. Based on urban land allocations from the statistical models, a cellular-automata and downscaling routine was used to simulate dynamic urban land expansion at a 30-m resolution based on suitability criteria. Scenarios of future urban landcover change projections include variant solutions for the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 5 (SSP5) based on different population assumptions, different land use intensification assumptions, variable land zoning constraints, and iterative adjustments to correct for over allocation of urban expansion across decadal time periods from 2010 to 2100. This results in 320 raster products.

Land↗

High-resolution (30-m) urban land cover projections for Los Angeles California Urban Area: 2010 to 2100 under SSP3 and SSP5 [Updated simulations based on population-driven urban intensity transitions]

These data (v3) are updated from previous versions (1 and 2) in that they include consider the effects of population on transitions in urban land intensity. This leads to more reasonable differences in urban land projections under variant SSPs. For the present dataset, both SSP3 and SSP5 are provided. These data represent simulations of future land use and land cover (LULCC) for Los Angeles urban area (U.S. Census Bureau defined area) as raster tiff images at a 30-m pixel resolution and at decadal time steps from 2010 to 2100. LULCC classes in this product follow the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) classification. NLCD 21-24 correspond to open developed, low developed, medium developed, and high developed urban land classes, respectively. Only urban land cover classes (NLCD class 21, 22, 23, and 24) are dynamic over time; however, all NLCD classes are included in the final product. Therefore, NLCD classes that do not convert to an urban class will be similar to year 2000. The products were developed using a hybridized statistical and cellular automata approach. Linear mixed models (LMMs) were used to estimate future urban land budgets based on 1-km urban land fraction projections from Gao and Pesaresi (2021), whereas separate generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used to estimate shifts in urban land intensities based on retrospective shifts in NLCD urban class intensities over a 20- year period. Based on urban land allocations from the statistical models, a cellular-automata and downscaling routine was used to simulate dynamic urban land expansion at a 30-m resolution based on suitability criteria. Scenarios of future urban landcover change projections include variant solutions for the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 5 (SSP5) and SSP 3 based on different population assumptions, different land use intensification assumptions, variable land zoning constraints, and iterative adjustments to correct for over allocation of urban expansion across decadal time periods from 2010 to 2100. This results in 320 raster products.

Land↗

VLSI neuroprocessors

Electronic and optoelectronic hardware implementations of highly parallel computing architectures address several ill-defined and/or computation-intensive problems not easily solved by conventional computing techniques. The concurrent processing architectures developed are derived from a variety of advanced computing paradigms including neural network models, fuzzy logic, and cellular automata. Hardware implementation technologies range from state-of-the-art digital/analog custom-VLSI to advanced optoelectronic devices such as computer-generated holograms and e-beam fabricated Dammann gratings. JPL's concurrent processing devices group has developed a broad technology base in hardware implementable parallel algorithms, low-power and high-speed VLSI designs and building block VLSI chips, leading to application-specific high-performance embeddable processors. Application areas include high throughput map-data classification using feedforward neural networks, terrain based tactical movement planner using cellular automata, resource optimization (weapon-target assignment) using a multidimensional feedback network with lateral inhibition, and classification of rocks using an inner-product scheme on thematic mapper data. In addition to addressing specific functional needs of DOD and NASA, the JPL-developed concurrent processing device technology is also being customized for a variety of commercial applications (in collaboration with industrial partners), and is being transferred to U.S. industries. This viewgraph p resentation focuses on two application-specific processors which solve the computation intensive tasks of resource allocation (weapon-target assignment) and terrain based tactical movement planning using two extremely different topologies. Resource allocation is implemented as an asynchronous analog competitive assignment architecture inspired by the Hopfield network. Hardware realization leads to a two to four order of magnitude speed-up over conventional techniques and enables multiple assignments, (many to many), not achievable with standard statistical approaches. Tactical movement planning (finding the best path from A to B) is accomplished with a digital two-dimensional concurrent processor array. By exploiting the natural parallel decomposition of the problem in silicon, a four order of magnitude speed-up over optimized software approaches has been demonstrated.

Kemeny, Sabrina E.↗

Predicting non-linear stress–strain response of mesostructured cellular materials using supervised autoencoder

Recent breakthroughs in advanced manufacturing capabilities have made it possible to design and print sophisticated topologies of cellular structures using diverse engineering materials such as metals, polymers, and ceramics. In these architectured materials, it is often desirable to tailor the mechanical properties by altering the unit cell topology. This necessitates an in-depth understanding of how the topology of the unit cell structure affects the macroscopic behavior of the material in both the linear and the non-linear regimes encountered under large compression. Here, we have developed a machine learning (ML) approach capable of accelerating the prediction of the stress–strain response of a polymer-based cellular structure under uniaxial confined compression. As part of generating the training data for ML, 60,000 mesostructures were generated using a relatively novel approach based on cellular automata, and their corresponding stress–strain responses were obtained from the finite element simulations. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensionality of the stress–strain curves. With only 20 principal components, PCA captured 99.89% of the variance in the stress–strain curves while reducing the dimensionality by 5X. ML using supervised autoencoder was able to successfully speed up the prediction of the non-linear stress–strain response of a unit cell by up to 4600X. The proposed method can serve as an efficient data generation tool and a rapid means for predicting the structure–property relationship through accelerated forward modeling of cellular materials under compaction, in cases where the macroscopic stress–strain response is governed by the unit-cell topology.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Block QCA Fault-Tolerant Logic Gates

Suitably patterned arrays (blocks) of quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) have been proposed as fault-tolerant universal logic gates. These block QCA gates could be used to realize the potential of QCA for further miniaturization, reduction of power consumption, increase in switching speed, and increased degree of integration of very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) electronic circuits. The limitations of conventional VLSI circuitry, the basic principle of operation of QCA, and the potential advantages of QCA-based VLSI circuitry were described in several NASA Tech Briefs articles, namely Implementing Permutation Matrices by Use of Quantum Dots (NPO-20801), Vol. 25, No. 10 (October 2001), page 42; Compact Interconnection Networks Based on Quantum Dots (NPO-20855) Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 2003), page 32; Bit-Serial Adder Based on Quantum Dots (NPO-20869), Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 2003), page 35; and Hybrid VLSI/QCA Architecture for Computing FFTs (NPO-20923), which follows this article. To recapitulate the principle of operation (greatly oversimplified because of the limitation on space available for this article): A quantum-dot cellular automata contains four quantum dots positioned at or between the corners of a square cell. The cell contains two extra mobile electrons that can tunnel (in the quantummechanical sense) between neighboring dots within the cell. The Coulomb repulsion between the two electrons tends to make them occupy antipodal dots in the cell. For an isolated cell, there are two energetically equivalent arrangements (denoted polarization states) of the extra electrons. The cell polarization is used to encode binary information. Because the polarization of a nonisolated cell depends on Coulomb-repulsion interactions with neighboring cells, universal logic gates and binary wires could be constructed, in principle, by arraying QCA of suitable design in suitable patterns. Heretofore, researchers have recognized two major obstacles to realization of QCA-based logic gates: One is the need for (and the difficulty of attaining) operation of QCA circuitry at room temperature or, for that matter, at any temperature above a few Kelvins. It has been theorized that room-temperature operation could be made possible by constructing QCA as molecular-scale devices. However, in approaching the lower limit of miniaturization at the molecular level, it becomes increasingly imperative to overcome the second major obstacle, which is the need for (and the difficulty of attaining) high precision in the alignments of adjacent QCA in order to ensure the correct interactions among the quantum dots.

Firjany, Amir↗

Integrable nonunitary quantum circuits

Here we show that the integrable Lindblad superoperators found recently can be used to build integrable nonunitary quantum circuits with two-site gates by demonstrating that the R(SIC) matrices are completely positive and trace preserving. Using the bond-site transformation, we obtain the corresponding integrable nonunitary quantum circuits with three-site gates. When restricted to the diagonals of the density matrix, these quantum models reduce to integrable classical cellular automata. This approach may pave the way for a systematic construction of circuits.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Bipartite mutual information in classical many-body dynamics

Information theoretic measures have helped to sharpen our understanding of many-body quantum states. As perhaps the most well-known example, the entanglement entropy (or more generally, the bipartite mutual information) has become a powerful tool for characterizing the dynamical growth of quantum correlations. By contrast, although computable, the bipartite mutual information (MI) is almost never explored in classical many particle systems; this owes in part to the fact that computing the MI requires keeping track of the evolution of the full probability distribution, a feat which is rarely done (or thought to be needed) in classical many-body simulations. Here, we utilize the MI to analyze the spreading of information in 1D elementary cellular automata (CA). Broadly speaking, we find that the behavior of the MI in these dynamical systems exhibits a few different types of scaling that roughly correspond to known CA universality classes. Of particular note is that we observe a set of automata for which the MI converges parametrically slowly to its thermodynamic value. We develop a microscopic understanding of this behavior by analyzing a two-species model of annihilating particles moving in opposite directions. Furthermore, our work suggests the possibility that information theoretic tools such as the MI might enable a more fine-grained characterization of classical many-body states and dynamics.

Cellular automata↗

A scalable framework for efficient coupling of thermal and microstructural simulations in additive manufacturing

Predicting microstructure evolution in metal additive manufacturing (AM) is important for process optimization, but spatiotemporal scale disparities between thermal transport and microstructure evolution create significant challenges for efficient data transfer between simulation codes. To address this, we present Stork, a scalable framework for coupling thermal and microstructural simulations. Stork uses a sparse data representation to identify and store active solidification sub-volumes, enabling highly parallel quad-linear interpolation from coarse thermal grids to fine microstructure grids without large intermediate storage. We demonstrate the framework by coupling the semi-analytic heat transfer code 3DThesis with the time-parallel cellular automata code Toucan. This approach achieves over two orders of magnitude reduction in data generation time and file size compared to prior workflows. Numerical studies show that quad-linear interpolation preserves grain morphology and crystallographic texture in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) simulations for coarsening ratios up to 16. Overall, Stork provides a scalable pathway for high-throughput, component-scale AM simulations on modern high-performance computing systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

MHD turbulent processes

Three areas of study in MHD turbulence are considered. These are the turbulent relaxation of the toroidal Z pinch, density fluctuations in MHD fluids, and MHD cellular automata. A Boolean computer game that updates a cellular representation in parallel and that has macroscopic averages converging to solutions of the two-dimensional MHD equations is discussed.

Montgomery, David↗