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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 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Subsurface microbial communities as a tool for characterizing regional-scale groundwater flow

Subsurface microbial community distribution patterns are influenced by biogeochemical and groundwater fluxes and may inform hydraulic connections along groundwater-flow paths. This study examined the regional-scale microbial community of the Death Valley Regional Flow System and evaluated whether subsurface communities can be used to identify groundwater-flow paths between recharge and discharge areas. Samples were collected from 36 sites in three groundwater basins: Pahute Mesa–Oasis Valley (PMOV), Ash Meadows (AM), and Alkali Flat–Furnace Creek Ranch (AFFCR). Microbial diversity within and between communities varied by location, and communities were separated into two overall groups that affiliated with the AM and PMOV/AFFCR basins. Network analysis revealed patterns between clusters of common microbes that represented groundwaters with similar geochemical conditions and largely corroborated hydraulic connections between recharge and discharge areas. Null model analyses identified deterministic and stochastic ecological processes contributing to microbial community assemblages. Most communities were more different than expected and governed by dispersal limitation, geochemical differences, or undominating processes. However, certain communities from sites located within or near the Nevada National Security Site were more similar than expected and dominated by homogeneous dispersal or selection. Overall, the (dis)similarities between the microbial communities of DVRFS recharge and discharge areas supported previously documented hydraulic connections between: (1) Spring Mountains and Ash Meadows; (2) Frenchman and Yucca Flat and Amargosa Desert; and (3) Amargosa Desert and Death Valley. However, only a portion of the flow path between Pahute Mesa and Oasis Valley could be supported by microbial community analyses, likely due to well-associated artifacts in samples from the two Oasis Valley sites. This study demonstrates the utility of combining microbial data with hydrologic, geologic, and water-chemistry information to comprehensively characterize groundwater systems, highlighting both strengths and limitations of this approach.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Elucidating plasma dynamics in Hasegawa–Wakatani turbulence by information geometry

In this work, the impact of adiabatic electrons on drift-wave turbulence, modeled by the Hasegawa–Wakatani equations, is studied using information length. Information length is a novel theoretical method for measuring distances between statistical states represented by different probability distribution functions (PDFs) along the path of a system and represents the total number of statistically different states that a system evolves through in time. Specifically, the time-dependent PDFs of turbulent fluctuations for a given adiabatic index $A$ are computed. The changes in fluctuation statistics are then quantified in time by using information length. The numerical results provide time traces exhibiting intermittent plasma dynamics, and such behavior is identified by a rapid change in the information length. The effects of $A$ are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Gyrokinetic particle simulations of interactions between energetic particles and magnetic islands induced by neoclassical tearing modes

Interactions between energetic particles (EPs) and neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) islands in the DIII-D tokamak are studied using the global gyrokinetic toroidal code (GTC). GTC simulations find that the EP radial profile is partially flattened within the magnetic island regions and that there are stochastic regions in the particle phase space. Radial particle flux is induced mainly around the magnetic island regions and decreases with time to almost zero when the initial EP distribution achieves a new steady-state in the absence of EP sources. Stochastic regions of magnetic field lines induced by the superposition of multiple islands have weak effects on the particle flux when the width of stochastic regions is smaller than the EP drift orbit width. In conclusion, the perturbed parallel EP current induced by the magnetic islands has weak stabilizing effects on the linear growth rate of the NTM instability in this DIII-D experiment.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Non-Hermitian approach for quantum plasmonics

Herein, we examine the limits of applicability of a simple non-Hermitian model for exciton/plasmon interactions in the presence of dissipation and dephasing. The model can be used as an alternative to the more complete Lindblad density matrix approach and is computationally and conceptually simpler. We find that optical spectra in the linear regime can be adequately described by this approach. The model can fail, however, under continuous optical driving in some circumstances. In the case of two quantum dots or excitons interacting with a plasmon, the model can also describe coherences and entanglement qualitatively when both dissipation and dephasing are present and quantitatively in the limit with no dephasing. The approach, within a single excitation manifold, is also applied to assess the role of disorder for 50 quantum dots interacting with a plasmon, where we find that, on average, large enough disorder can help stabilize the ensemble average of the open quantum system toward a dark quasi-steady-state much faster than without disorder. Furthermore, while such single excitation manifold calculations in this size limit can readily be done with either the non-Hermitian or Lindblad forms, as one goes to larger Hilbert space sizes, the computational and storage advantages of the non-Hermitian approach can become more useful. Published under license by AIP Publishing.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Runaway electron transport in stochastic toroidal magnetic fields

Here, we study the transport and confinement properties of runaway electrons (RE) in the presence of magnetic fields with perturbations producing different levels of stochasticity. We use Kinetic Orbit Runaway Electron Code (KORC) [Carbajal et al. , Phys. Plasmas 24, 042512 (2017) and del-Castillo-Negrete et al. , Phys. Plasmas 25, 056104 (2018)] for simulating the full-orbit (FO) and guiding-center (GC) dynamics of RE in perturbed magnetic fields that exhibit magnetic islands. We extend previous works on this problem [Wingen et al. , Nucl. Fusion 46, 941 (2006); Izzo et al. , Nucl. Fusion 51, 063032 (2011); Papp et al. , Nucl. Fusion 51, 043004 (2011); V. Izzo and P. Parks, Phys. Plasmas 24, 060705 (2017); and Sommariva et al. , Nucl. Fusion 58, 016043 (2018)] by studying in detail full-orbit effects on the RE dynamics. We quantify FO effects on RE transport by performing one-to-one comparisons between FO and GC simulations. It is found that, for the magnetic field configurations considered, GC simulations predict twice the RE losses of FO simulations for 1 MeV and four times the RE losses of FO simulations for 25 MeV. Similarly, we show how different GC and FO dynamics of RE moving around magnetic islands can be, especially in the scenario where the RE Larmor radius is on the order of the size of the magnetic island. We also study the role of rotation of the magnetic islands on RE confinement, and we find that low-frequency toroidal rotation has no observable effect on RE transport in the cases considered. These results shed some light into the potential of avoidance or mitigation mechanisms based on magnetic perturbations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Simulation of Alfvénic avalanche onset in NSTX

In some tokamak discharges, a number of Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs) have been observed to cause a large-scale collapse of the high energy particle distribution, a phenomenon referred to as an avalanche. We examine the necessary conditions for an avalanche using the available experimental information from NSTX on the equilibrium and mode properties for two cases, one with a measurable but benign AE activity and one with an AE activity leading up to an avalanche. To produce an avalanche, the modes present in the discharge must possess resonances that can overlap with a modest increase in instability magnitude, providing a path to global particle stochastic motion. In this paper, we find that the modes present in the avalanche-free discharge do not provide such a path even at a very large amplitude. During the discharge which subsequently produces an avalanche, the high energy population is growing and the Alfvén frequency is dropping due to increasing density, and we find that both these changes, producing a small increased drive or an increased resonance width for the Alfvén modes, can lead in this case to uncontrolled mode growth and large-scale beam particle loss.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Photoinduced phase separation in the lead halides is a polaronic effect

We present a perspective on recent observations of the photoinduced phase separation of halides in multi-component lead-halide perovskites. The spontaneous phase separation of an initial homogeneous solid solution under steady-state illumination conditions is found experimentally to be reversible, stochastic, weakly dependent on morphology, yet strongly dependent on composition and thermodynamic state. Regions enriched in a specific halide species that form upon phase separation are self-limiting in size, pinned to specific compositions, and grow in number in proportion to the steady-state carrier concentration until saturation. These empirical observations of robustness rule out explanations based on specific defect structures and point to the local modulation of an existing miscibility phase transition in the presence of excess charge carriers. A model for rationalizing existing observations based on the coupling between composition, strain, and charge density fluctuations through the formation of polarons is reviewed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Gyrokinetic understanding of the edge pedestal transport driven by resonant magnetic perturbations in a realistic divertor geometry

Self-consistent simulations of neoclassical and electrostatic turbulent transport in a DIII-D H-mode edge plasma under resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) have been performed using the global total-f gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code x-point gyrokinetic code (XGC), in order to study density pump-out and electron heat confinement. The RMP field is imported from the extended magneto-hydrodynamics code M3D-C1, taking into account the linear two-fluid plasma response. With both neoclassical and turbulence physics considered together, the XGC simulation reproduces two key features of experimentally observed edge transport under RMPs: increased radial particle transport in the pedestal region that is sufficient to account for the experimental pump-out rate and suppression of the electron heat flux in the steepest part of the edge pedestal. In the simulation, the density fluctuation amplitude of modes moving in the electron diamagnetic direction increases due to interaction with RMPs in the pedestal shoulder and outward, while the electron temperature fluctuation amplitude decreases.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Oscillation-like diffusion of two-dimensional liquid dusty plasmas on one-dimensional periodic substrates with varied widths

The long-time diffusion of two-dimensional dusty plasmas on a one-dimensional periodic substrate with varying widths is investigated using Langevin dynamical simulations. When the substrate is narrow and the dust particles form a single row, the diffusion is the smallest in both directions. In this study, we find that as the substrate width gradually increases to twice its initial value, the long-time diffusion of the two-dimensional dusty plasmas first increases, then decreases, and finally increases again, giving an oscillation-like diffusion with varying substrate widths. When the width increases to a specific value, the dust particles within each potential well arrange themselves in a stable zigzag pattern, greatly reducing the diffusion and leading to the observed oscillation in the diffusion with the increase in the width. In addition, the long-time oscillation-like diffusion is consistent with the number of dust particles that are hopping across the potential wells of the substrate.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

A light weight regularization for wave function parameter gradients in quantum Monte Carlo

The parameter derivative of the expectation value of the energy, ∂E/∂p, is a key ingredient in variational Monte Carlo (VMC) wave function optimization methods. In some cases, a naïve estimate of this derivative suffers from an infinite variance, which inhibits the efficiency of optimization methods that rely on a stable estimate of the derivative. In this work, we derive a simple regularization of the naïve estimator, which is trivial to implement in existing VMC codes, has finite variance, and a negligible bias, which can be extrapolated to zero bias with no extra cost. We use this estimator to construct an unbiased, finite variance estimation of ∂E/∂p for a multi-Slater–Jastrow trial wave function on the LiH molecule and in the optimization of a multi-Slater–Jastrow trial wave function on the CuO molecule. This regularized estimator is a simple and efficient estimator of ∂E/∂p for VMC optimization techniques.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Efficient Langevin dynamics for “noisy” forces

Efficient Boltzmann-sampling using first-principles methods is challenging for extended systems due to the steep scaling of electronic structure methods with the system size. Additionally, stochastic approaches provide a gentler system-size dependency at the cost of introducing “noisy” forces, which could limit the efficiency of the sampling. When the forces are deterministic, the first-order Langevin dynamics (FOLD) offers efficient sampling by combining a well-chosen preconditioning matrix S with a time-step-bias-mitigating propagator [G. Mazzola and S. Sorella, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 015703 (2017)]. However, when forces are noisy, S is set equal to the force-covariance matrix, a procedure that severely limits the efficiency and the stability of the sampling. Here, we develop a new, general, optimal, and stable sampling approach for FOLD under noisy forces. We apply it for silicon nanocrystals treated with stochastic density functional theory and show efficiency improvements by an order-of-magnitude.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Thermal transport modeling of laser-irradiated spheres

Thermal transport of uniformly laser-irradiated spheres of various materials is investigated computationally. One-dimensional simulations of low- to mid-Z materials (Be, Al, and Cu) are performed to evaluate the impact of nonlocal electron transport on experimental observables under laser intensities of relevance to direct-drive inertial confinement fusion. Here we compare thermal transport models of different levels of fidelity: flux-limited Spitzer–Harm diffusion, the Schurtz–Nicolai–Busquet (SNB) reduced-order nonlocal model, and a Fokker–Planck description. Spitzer–Harm diffusion with different flux-limiter factors are compared with different implementations of the SNB model in the HYDRA radiation hydrodynamics code. Under the conditions of interest, the peak heat flux in the thermal front with the SNB model shows good agreement with Fokker–Planck calculations, with the largest errors below 10% at 10 15 W/cm 2 laser intensity. From HYDRA-SNB simulations, two experimentally relevant effects are observed from nonlocal heat transport when compared to flux-limited Spitzer–Harm modeling: coronal temperatures are cooler due to reduced heat fluxes in the expanding plasma and (for mid-Z materials) x-ray emissions are enhanced due to preheating in the dense plasma.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reconstruction of effective potential from statistical analysis of dynamic trajectories

The broad incorporation of microscopic methods is yielding a wealth of information on the atomic and mesoscale dynamics of individual atoms, molecules, and particles on surfaces and in open volumes. Analysis of such data necessitates statistical frameworks to convert observed dynamic behaviors to effective properties of materials. Here, we develop a method for the stochastic reconstruction of effective local potentials solely from observed structural data collected from molecular dynamics simulations (i.e., data analogous to those obtained via atomically resolved microscopies). Using the silicon vacancy defect in graphene as a model, we apply the statistical framework presented herein to reconstruct the free energy landscape from the calculated atomic displacements. Evidence of consistency between the reconstructed local potential and the trajectory data from which it was produced is presented, along with a quantitative assessment of the uncertainty in the inferred parameters.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Range-separated stochastic resolution of identity: Formulation and application to second-order Green’s function theory

We develop a range-separated stochastic resolution of identity (RS-SRI) approach for the four-index electron repulsion integrals, where the larger terms (above a predefined threshold) are treated using a deterministic RI and the remaining terms are treated using a SRI. The approach is implemented within a second-order Green’s function formalism with an improved O(N 3 ) scaling with the size of the basis set, N. Moreover, the RS approach greatly reduces the statistical error compared to the full stochastic version [T. Y. Takeshita et al., J. Chem. Phys. 151, 044114 (2019)], resulting in computational speedups of ground and excited state energies of nearly two orders of magnitude, as demonstrated for hydrogen dimer chains and water clusters.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Fast rise breakdown in dielectric filled air gap for surge protection

Electric discharge across an air gap can be self-healing, providing a unique capability for repetitive, fast, high-voltage/current switching applications through arc conduction. Furthermore, incorporating dielectric granules in the air gap stimulates gas ionization, which lowers the breakdown voltage and narrows breakdown voltage distribution, thereby enabling engineered surge protection from multiple lightning strikes on aerospace vehicles and sensitive solid-state electronics in critical systems. This study investigates the effect of the permittivity of dielectric granules, gap filling, surface roughness, and metal work function on fast-rising, high-voltage breakdowns. In addition to the air gap width, these factors play important roles in gas ionization, field concentration, and initiation of electrical discharge and arcing. Therefore, they could potentially be used to control and narrow operational breakdown voltages for practical applications. Additionally, a modified Langevin–Debye model is developed to correlate the breakdown voltage and the permittivity of the dielectric filler. These investigations identify and highlight key underpinning mechanisms governing the gas discharge behavior across a dielectric filled air gap during voltage surge events.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Convergence acceleration of Monte Carlo many-body perturbation methods by using many control variates

Herein, the use of many control variates is proposed as a method to accelerate the second- and third-order Monte Carlo (MC) many-body perturbation (MC-MP2 and MC-MP3) calculations. A control variate is an exactly integrable function that is strongly correlated or anti-correlated with the target function to be integrated by the MC method. Evaluating both integrals as well as their covariances in the same MC run, one can effect a mutual cancellation of the statistical uncertainties and biases in the MC integrations, thereby accelerating its convergence considerably. Six and thirty-six control variates, whose integrals are known a priori, are generated for MC-MP2 and MC-MP3, respectively, by systematically replacing one or more two-electron-integral vertexes of certain configurations by zero-valued overlap-integral vertexes in their Goldstone diagrams. The variances and co- variances of these control variates are computed at a marginal cost, enhancing the overall efficiency of the MC-MP2 and MC-MP3 calculations by a factor of up to 14 and 20, respectively.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Similarity of capacitive radio-frequency discharges in nonlocal regimes

Similarity transformations are essential for correlating discharges at different scales, which are mostly utilized with local field or local energy approximations. In this work, we report the fully kinetic results from particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision simulations that unambiguously demonstrate the similarity of radio frequency (rf) discharges in nonlocal regimes where the electron energy relaxation length is much larger than the gap dimension. It is found that at a constant rf voltage amplitude, discharges will be similar if the gas pressure, inverse of gap distance, and rf driving frequency are all changed by the same scaling factor. The scaling relations of fundamental parameters are illustrated for rf discharges in the alpha-mode with secondary electron emission ignored, and the temporal electron kinetics are shown to have invariance in similar discharges. The results explicitly validate the scaling laws in nonlocal kinetic regimes, indicating promising application potentials of the similarity transformations across a wide range of kinetic regimes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reconstruction and uncertainty quantification of lattice Hamiltonian model parameters from observations of microscopic degrees of freedom

The emergence of scanning probe and electron beam imaging techniques has allowed quantitative studies of atomic structure and minute details of electronic and vibrational structure on the level of individual atomic units. These microscopic descriptors, in turn, can be associated with local symmetry breaking phenomena, representing the stochastic manifestation of the underpinning generative physical model. In this work, we explore the reconstruction of exchange integrals in the Hamiltonian for a lattice model with two competing interactions from observations of microscopic degrees of freedom and establish the uncertainties and reliability of such analysis in a broad parameter-temperature space. In contrast to other approaches, we specifically specify a loss function inherent to thermodynamic systems and utilize it to estimate uncertainty in simulated realizations of different models. As an ancillary task, we develop a machine learning approach based on histogram clustering to predict phase diagrams efficiently using a reduced descriptor space. We further demonstrate that reconstruction is possible well above the phase transition and in the regions of parameter space when the macroscopic ground state of the system is poorly defined due to frustrated interactions. This suggests that this approach can be applied to the traditionally complex problems of condensed matter physics such as ferroelectric relaxors and morphotropic phase boundary systems, spin and cluster glasses, and quantum systems once the local descriptors linked to the relevant physical behaviors are known.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗