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At least 379 records · Page 21

Capturing the ground state of uranium dioxide from first principles: Crystal distortion, magnetic structure, and phonons

Uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) remains a formidable challenge for first-principles approaches due to the complex interplay among spin-orbit coupling, Mott physics, magnetic ordering, and crystal distortions. Here we use DFT+U to explore UO 2 at zero temperature, incorporating all the aforementioned phenomena. The technical challenge is to navigate the many metastable electronic states produced by DFT+U, which is accomplished using f-orbital occupation matrix control to search for the ground state. We restrict our search to the high-symmetry ferromagnetic phase, including spin-orbit coupling, which produces a previously unreported occupation matrix. This newfound occupation matrix is then used as an initialization to explore the broken symmetry phases. We find the oxygen cage distortion of the 3k antiferromagnetic state to be in excellent agreement with experiments, and both the spin-orbit coupling and the Hubbard U are critical ingredients. Further, we demonstrate that only select phonon modes have a strong dependence on the Hubbard U, whereas magnetic ordering has only a small influence overall. We perform measurements of the phonon dispersion curves using inelastic neutron scattering, and our calculations show good agreement when using reasonable values of U. The quantitative success of DFT+U warrants exploration of thermal transport and other observables within this level of theory.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Magnetic ground state and perturbations of the distorted kagome Ising metal TmAgGe

Here, we present the magnetic orders and excitations of the distorted kagome intermetallic magnet TmAgGe. Using neutron single crystal diffraction we identify the propagation vectors k = ($\frac{1}{2}$ 0 0) and k = (0 0 0) and determine the magnetic structures of the zero-field and magnetic field-induced phases for H along the $\mathcal{a}$ and [–110] crystal directions. We determine the experimental magnetic field- temperature (H, T)-phase diagram and reproduce it by Monte Carlo simulations of an effective spin exchange Hamiltonian for one distorted kagome layer. Our model includes a strong axial single-ion anisotropy and significantly smaller exchange couplings, which span up to the third-nearest neighbors within the layer. Single crystal inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements reveal an almost flat, only weakly dispersive mode around 7 meV that we use alongside bulk magnetization data to deduce the crystal-electric field (CEF) scheme for the Tm 3+ ions. Random phase approximation (RPA) calculations based on the determined CEF wave functions of the two lowest quasidoublets enable an estimation of the interlayer coupling that is compatible with the experimental INS spectra. No evidence for low-energy spin waves associated to the magnetic order was found, which is consistent with the strongly Ising nature of the ground state.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Local distortion driven magnetic phase switching in pyrochlore Yb 2 ( Ti 1 - x Sn x ) 2 O 7

While it is commonly accepted that the disorder induced by magnetic ion doping in quantum magnets usually generates a rugged free-energy landscape resulting in slow or glassy spin dynamics, the disorder/distortion effects associated with nonmagnetic ion sites doping are still illusive. Here, using AC susceptibility measurements, we show that the mixture of Sn/Ti on the nonmagnetic ion sites of pyrochlore Yb 2 ⁢(Ti 1-x⁢ Sn x ) 2⁢ O 7 induces an antiferromagnetic ground state despite both parent compounds, Yb 2 ⁢Ti 2 ⁢O 7 and Yb 2 ⁢Sn 2⁢ O 7 , order ferromagnetically. Local structure studies through neutron total scattering reveals the local distortion in the nonmagnetic ion sites and its strong correlation with the magnetic phase switching. Further, our study demonstrates the local distortion as induced by the nonmagnetic ion site mixture could be a new path to achieve magnetic phase switching, which has been traditionally obtained by external stimuli such as temperature, magnetic field, pressure, strain, light, etc.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Symbolic pregression: Discovering physical laws from distorted video

In this work, we present a method for unsupervised learning of equations of motion for objects in raw and optionally distorted unlabeled synthetic video (or, more generally, for discovering and modeling predictable features in time-series data). We first train an autoencoder that maps each video frame into a low-dimensional latent space where the laws of motion are as simple as possible, by minimizing a combination of nonlinearity, acceleration, and prediction error. Differential equations describing the motion are then discovered using Pareto-optimal symbolic regression. We find that our pre-regression (“pregression”) step is able to rediscover Cartesian coordinates of unlabeled moving objects even when the video is distorted by a generalized lens. Using intuition from multidimensional knot theory, we find that the pregression step is facilitated by first adding extra latent space dimensions to avoid topological problems during training and then removing these extra dimensions via principal component analysis. An inertial frame is autodiscovered by minimizing the combined equation complexity for multiple experiments.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Structural distortion and incommensurate noncollinear magnetism in EuAg 4 As 2

Layered pnictide materials have provided a fruitful platform to study various emergent phenomena, including superconductivity, magnetism, charge density waves, etc. In this work, we report the observation of structural distortion and noncollinear magnetism in layered pnictide EuAg 4 As 2 via transport, magnetization, single crystal x-ray, and neutron diffraction data.EuAg 4 As 2 single crystal shows a structural distortion at 120 K, where two sets of superlattice peaks with the propagation vectors of q 1 =±(0, 0.25, 0.5) and q 2 =±(0.25, 0, 1) emerge. Between 9–15 K, the hexagonal Eu 2+ sublattice enters an unpinned incommensurate magnetic state, with magnetic Bragg reflections pictured as circular sectors. Furthermore, below 9 K, it orders in an incommensurate noncollinear antiferromagnetic state with a well-defined propagation wavevector of (0, 0.1, 0.12) and a very rare magnetic structure, which is helical along the c axis and cycloidal along the b axis with a moment of 6.4 μB/Eu 2+ . Furthermore, rich magnetic phases under magnetic fields, large magnetoresistance, and strong coupling between charge carriers and magnetism in EuAg 4 As 2 are revealed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Magnetic excitations from the hexagonal spin clusters in the 𝑆 = $\frac{1}{2}$ distorted honeycomb lattice antiferromagnet Cu 2 ⁢(pymca)⁢ 3 ⁢(ClO 4 )

Cu 2 ⁢(pymca) ⁢3 (ClO 4 ) (pymca: pyrimidine-2-carboxylate) consists of a slightly distorted honeycomb lattice of Cu 2+ spins, which shows no long-range magnetic order down to 0.6 K. A magnetization study revealed 1/3 and 2/3 plateau phases [A. Okutani et al., J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 88, 013703 (2019)], which is not expected for regular honeycomb antiferromagnets. Inelastic neutron scattering experiments were performed using a powder sample to investigate the exchange interactions of this material. The spin excitations from the singlet ground state to the first three triplet states, predicted from the antiferromagnetic hexagonal spin cluster interacting with 3.9 meV, were observed. Using the exact diagonalization methods, the intercluster coupling was estimated from the excitation peak width to be about 20% of the intracluster interaction, which is consistent with the previously reported value. Finally, our exchange path model explains the anisotropic exchange interactions in the distorted honeycomb plane.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Understanding nanoscale structural distortions in Pb(Zr 0.2 Ti 0.8 )O 3 by utilizing X-ray nanodiffraction and clustering algorithm analysis

Hard X-ray nanodiffraction provides a unique nondestructive technique to quantify local strain and structural inhomogeneities at nanometer length scales. However, sample mosaicity and phase separation can result in a complex diffraction pattern that can make it challenging to quantify nanoscale structural distortions. In this work, a k-means clustering algorithm was utilized to identify local maxima of intensity by partitioning diffraction data in a three-dimensional feature space of detector coordinates and intensity. This technique has been applied to X-ray nanodiffraction measurements of a patterned ferroelectric PbZr 0.2 Ti 0.8 O 3 sample. The analysis reveals the presence of two phases in the sample with different lattice parameters. A highly heterogeneous distribution of lattice parameters with a variation of 0.02 Å was also observed within one ferroelectric domain. This approach provides a nanoscale survey of subtle structural distortions as well as phase separation in ferroelectric domains in a patterned sample.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Adaptive Envelope Detector-Based Phase Fault Detection Method for Power System Grid Distortions

In this study, a phase fault detection algorithm is developed by employing the envelope detector method. The proposed method diagnoses faults among phases and defines fault areas in the incoming signal. The designed algorithm consists of three steps: analytical signal conversion, complex magnitude, and fault detection. Initially, an analytical signal is obtained from the incoming power signal to determine the instantaneous amplitude and phase of the signal. A complex magnitude operation is applied to analytical signals to display changes in amplitude. On the basis of the threshold values specified by the user, the last step identifies the distortion signal in terms of the type of error and size. The proposed method is tested with realistically simulated substation power signal data and real power system data from the Grid Event Signature Library. The obtained results revealed that the proposed method detects distortions accurately.

Alaca, Ozgur↗

Detection of Grid-Signal Distortions Using the Spectral Correlation Function

This study proposes a novel method for signal detection and feature extraction based on the spectral correlation function, enabling improved characterization of grid-signal distortions. Our approach differs from existing treatments of signal distortion in its analysis of the varied spectral content of signals observed in real-world scenarios. The method we propose has state-of-the-art discriminative power that provides meaningful and understandable characterizations of various grid events and anomalies. In conclusion, to validate the approach, we use real world data from the Grid Event Signature Library, which is maintained jointly by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Glass Refraction Distortion Object Detection via Abstract Features

Glass reflection and refraction lead to missing and distorted object feature data, affecting the accuracy of object detection. In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposed a glass refraction distortion object detection via abstract features. The number of parameters of the algorithm is reduced by introducing skip connections and expansion modules with different expansion rates. The abstract feature information of the object is extracted by binary cross-entropy loss. Meanwhile, the abstract feature distance between the object domain and source domain is reduced by a loss function, which improves the accuracy of object detection under glass interference. To verify the effectiveness of the algorithm in this paper, the GRI dataset is produced and made public on GitHub. The algorithm of this paper is compared with the current state-of-the-art Deep Face, VGG Face, TBE-CNN, DA-GAN, PEN-3D, LMZMPM, and the average detection accuracy of our algorithm is 92.57% at the highest, and the number of parameters is only 5.13 M.

Cai, Lei↗

Compensating for Sintering Distortion in Additively Manufactured Shaped Charge Liners using Physics-Informed Machine Learning

Copper is a challenging material to process using laser-based additive manufacturing due to its high reflectivity and high thermal conductivity. Sintering-based processes can produce solid copper parts without the processing challenges and defects associated with laser melting; however, sintering can also cause distortion in copper parts, especially those with thin walls. In this study, we use physics-informed Gaussian process regression to predict and compensate for sintering distortion in thin-walled copper parts produced using a Markforged Metal X bound powder extrusion (BPE) additive manufacturing system. Through experimental characterization and computational simulation of copper’s viscoelastic sintering behavior, we can predict sintering deformation. We can then manufacture, simulate, and test parts with various compensation scaling factors to inform Gaussian process regression and predict a compensated as-printed (pre-sintered) part geometry that produces the desired final (post-sintered) part.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Neutron Positioning and Geometric Distortion Correction on the SNS SiPM Anger Camera

Neutron Anger cameras are scintillator-based thermal neutron detectors that utilize pixelated photosensors to read out visible light signals and position neutrons accurately They are versatile detectors that can cover large areas for diffraction instruments and offer high efficiency and sub-millimeter spatial resolution. Photomultiplier Tube (PMT) based cameras are installed on three instruments at Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). The next generation camera uses Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) instead of PMTs, which allows for a more compact design and higher spatial resolution. In this report, the Gaussian least-squares position fitting method is described in detail, as well as the method used to correct for geometric distortions across the face of the camera. Results from neutron camera tests before and after the distortion correction are shown and the spatial resolution is quantified.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Numerical Investigation of Wall-Cooling Effect on Aero-Optical Distortions for Hypersonic Boundary Layer

Compressible wall-modeled large-eddy simulations of Mach 8 turbulent boundary-layer flows over a flat plate were carried out for the conditions of the hypersonic wind tunnel at Sandia National Laboratories. The simulations provide new insight into the effect of wall cooling on the aero-optical path distortions for hypersonic turbulent boundary-layer flows. Four different wall-to-recovery temperature ratios, 0.3, 0.48, 0.71, and 0.89, are considered. Despite the much lower grid resolution, the mean velocity, temperature, and resolved Reynolds stress profiles from the simulation for a temperature ratio of 0.48 are in good agreement with those from a reference direct numerical simulation. The normalized root-mean-square optical path difference obtained from the present simulations is compared with that from reference direct numerical simulations, Sandia experiments, as well as predictions obtained with a semi-analytical model by Notre Dame University. Here the present analysis focuses on the effect of wall cooling on the wall-normal density correlations, on key underlying assumptions of the aforementioned model such as the strong Reynolds analogy, and on the elevation angle effect on the optical path difference. Wall cooling is found to increase the velocity fluctuations and decrease the density fluctuations, resulting in an overall reduction of the normalized optical path distortion. Compared to the simulations, the basic strong Reynolds analogy overpredicts the temperature fluctuations for cooled walls. Also different from the strong Reynolds analogy, the velocity and temperature fluctuations are not perfectly anticorrelated. Finally, as the wall temperature is raised, the density correlation length, away from the wall but inside the boundary layer, increases significantly for beam paths tilted in the downstream direction.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Out-of-Plane Sulfur Distortions in the Bi4O4S3 Superconductor

The local atomic structure of the non-magnetic layered superconductor Bi4O4S3 was investigated using neutron diffraction and pair density function (PDF) analysis. Although on average, the crystal structure is well ordered, evidence for local, out–of–plane sulfur distortions is provided, which may act as a conduit for charge transfer from the SO4 blocks into the superconducting BiS2 planes. In contrast with LaO1−xFxBiS2, no sulfur distortions were detected in the planes, which indicates that charge density wave fluctuations are not supported in Bi4O4S3.

Philip, Sharon S. (ORCID:000000031055718X)↗

Distortion of a Relativistic Jet Echoing a Magnetic Flux Eruption

Magnetized accretion onto spinning black holes (BHs) can accumulate a large magnetic flux across the event horizon and launch a pair of relativistic jets via the Blandford–Znajek mechanism. In the magnetically saturated (arrested) state, excess magnetic flux is ejected from the BH in episodic magnetic flux eruptions, which result in a significant yet temporary reduction of jet power. We analyze results of a high-resolution 3D general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulation of geometrically thick magnetically saturated accretion onto a high-spin Kerr BH for a single cycle of magnetic flux eruption and accumulation. We show that following an eruption, a weakened jet develops a strong helical distortion with a distinct structure of magnetic fields—the poloidal field along the jet core is unaffected by the eruption; while toroidal field lines, ejected from the BH during the eruption and later readvected onto it, form poloidal “bypasses” along the inner jet sheath. Such a distortion may appear in sources fed by geometrically thick accretion flows as an asymmetric superluminal knot, strongly interacting with the jet sheath along an oblique working surface. The jet section repowered by magnetic flux reaccumulated on the BH is tilted by a few degrees, implying significant variations in radiation boost towards observers of BL Lac blazars. The intrinsic structure of the jet spine is consistent with axisymmetric semi-analytical models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Frequency response of a vaporization process to distorted acoustic disturbances

The open-loop response properties expressed as the mass vaporized in phase and out of phase with the pressure oscillations were numerically evaluated for a vaporizing n-heptane droplet. The evaluation includes the frequency dependence introduced by periodic oscillation in droplet mass and temperature. A given response was achieved over a much broader range of frequency with harmonically distorted disturbances than with sinusoidal disturbances. The results infer that distortion increases the probability of incurring spontaneous and triggered instability in any rocket engine combustor by broadening the frequency range over which the vaporization process can support an instability.

Heidmann, M. F.↗

Digital image processing for the rectification of television camera distortions.

All television systems introduce distortions into the imagery they record which influence the results of quantitative photometric and geometric measurements. Digital computer techniques provide a powerful approach to the calibration and rectification of these systematic effects. Nonlinear as well as linear problems can be attacked with flexibility and precision. Methods which have been developed and applied for the removal of structured system noises and the correction of photometric, geometric, and resolution distortions in vidicon systems are briefly described. Examples are given of results derived primarily from the Mariner Mars 1969 television experiment.

Rindfleisch, T. C.↗