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At least 487 records · Page 27
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

BeyondPlanck: V. Minimal ADC Corrections for Planck LFI

We describe the correction procedure for Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) differential non-linearities (DNL) adopted in the Bayesian end-to-end BEYONDPLANCK analysis framework. This method is nearly identical to that developed for the official Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) Data Processing Center (DPC) analysis, and relies on the binned rms noise profile of each detector data stream. However, rather than building the correction profile directly from the raw rms profile, we first fit a Gaussian to each significant ADC-induced rms decrement, and then derive the corresponding correction model from this smooth model. The main advantage of this approach is that only samples which are significantly affected by ADC DNLs are corrected, as opposed to the DPC approach in which the correction is applied to all samples, filtering out signals not associated with ADC DNLs. The new corrections are only applied to data for which there is a clear detection of the non-linearities, and for which they perform at least comparably with the DPC corrections. Out of a total of 88 LFI data streams (sky and reference load for each of the 44 detectors) we apply the new minimal ADC corrections in 25 cases, and maintain the DPC corrections in 8 cases. All these corrections are applied to 44 or 70 GHz channels, while, as in previous analyses, none of the 30 GHz ADCs show significant evidence of non-linearity. By comparing the BEYONDPLANCK and DPC ADC correction methods, we estimate that the residual ADC uncertainty is about two orders of magnitude below the total noise of both the 44 and 70 GHz channels, and their impact on current cosmological parameter estimation is small. However, we also show that non-idealities in the ADC corrections can generate sharp stripes in the final frequency maps, and these could be important for future joint analyses with the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI), Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), or other datasets. We therefore conclude that, although the existing corrections are adequate for LFI-based cosmological parameter analysis, further work on LFI ADC corrections is still warranted.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Grid-based minimization at scale: Feldman-Cousins corrections for light sterile neutrino search

High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments generally employ sophisticated statistical methods to present results in searches of new physics. In the problem of searching for sterile neutrinos, likelihood ratio tests are applied to short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments to construct confidence intervals for the parameters of interest. The test statistics of the form Δχ2 is often used to form the confidence intervals, however, this approach can lead to statistical inaccuracies due to the small signal rate in the region-of-interest. In this paper, we present a computational model for the computationally expensive Feldman-Cousins corrections to construct a statistically accurate confidence interval for neutrino oscillation analysis. The program performs a grid-based minimization over oscillation parameters and is written in C++. Our algorithms make use of vectorization through Eigen3, yielding a single-core speed-up of 350 compared to the original implementation, and achieve MPI data parallelism by employing DIY. We demonstrate the strong scaling of the application at High-Performance Computing (HPC) sites. We utilize HDF5 along with HighFive to write the results of the calculation to file.

Wospakrik, Marianette↗
DOE OSTI2014

The role of orbital order in the stabilization of the (π, 0) ordered magnetic state in a minimal two-band model for iron pnictides

Spin wave excitations and stability of the (π, 0) ordered magnetic state are investigated in a minimal two-band itinerant-electron model for iron pnictides. Presence of hopping anisotropy generates a strong ferro-orbital order in the d{sub xz} and d{sub yz} Fe orbitals in the (π, 0) state. The orbital order sign is as observed in experiments. The induced ferro-orbital order strongly enhances the spin wave energy scale and stabilizes the magnetic state by optimizing the strength of the emergent antiferromagnetically and ferromagnetically spin couplings through optimal band fillings in the two orbitals. The calculated spin-wave dispersion is in quantitative agreement with neutron scattering measurements. Finite inter-orbital Hund's coupling is shown to further enhance the spin wave energies state by coupling the two magnetic sub-systems. A more realistic two-band model with less hopping anisotropy is also considered, which yields not only the circular hole pockets but also correct ferro-orbital order and emergent F spin coupling.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

An effective approach for the minimization of errors in capacitance-voltage carrier profiling of quantum structures

Experimental capacitance–voltage (C-V) profiling of semiconductor heterojunctions and quantum wells has remained ever important and relevant. The apparent carrier distributions (ACDs) thus obtained reveal the carrier depletions, carrier peaks and their positions, in and around the quantum structures. Inevitable errors, encountered in such measurements, are the deviations of the peak concentrations of the ACDs and their positions, from the actual carrier peaks obtained from quantum mechanical computations with the fundamental parameters. In spite of the very wide use of the C-V method, comprehensive discussions on the qualitative and quantitative nature of the errors remain wanting. The errors are dependent on the fundamental parameters, the temperature of measurements, the Debye length, and the series resistance. In this paper, the errors have been studied with doping concentration, band offset, and temperature. From this study, a rough estimate may be drawn about the error. It is seen that the error in the position of the ACD peak decreases at higher doping, higher band offset, and lower temperature, whereas the error in the peak concentration changes in a strange fashion. A completely new method is introduced, for derivation of the carrier profiles from C-V measurements on quantum structures to minimize errors which are inevitable in the conventional formulation.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Challenging the minimal supersymmetric SU(5) model

We review the main constraints on the parameter space of the minimal renormalizable supersymmetric SU(5) grand unified theory. They consist of the Higgs mass, proton decay, electroweak symmetry breaking and fermion masses. Superpartner masses are constrained both from below and from above, giving hope for confirming or definitely ruling out the theory in the future. This contribution is based on Ref. [1].

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Note: A method for minimizing oxide formation during elevated temperature nanoindentation

A standardized method to protect metallic samples and minimize oxide formation during elevated-temperature nanoindentation was adapted to a commercial instrument. Nanoindentation was performed on Al (100), Cu (100), and W (100) single crystals submerged in vacuum oil at 200 °C, while the surface morphology and oxidation was carefully monitored using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results were compared to room temperature and 200 °C nanoindentation tests performed without oil, in order to evaluate the feasibility of using the oil as a protective medium. Extensive surface characterization demonstrated that this methodology is effective for nanoscale testing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

A line source in Minkowski for the de Sitter spacetime scalar Green's function: Massless minimally coupled case

Motivated by the desire to understand the causal structure of physical signals produced in curved spacetimes – particularly around black holes – we show how, for certain classes of geometries, one might obtain its retarded or advanced minimally coupled massless scalar Green's function by using the corresponding Green's functions in the higher dimensional Minkowski spacetime where it is embedded. Analogous statements hold for certain classes of curved Riemannian spaces, with positive definite metrics, which may be embedded in higher dimensional Euclidean spaces. The general formula is applied to (d ≥ 2)-dimensional de Sitter spacetime, and the scalar Green's function is demonstrated to be sourced by a line emanating infinitesimally close to the origin of the ambient (d + 1)-dimensional Minkowski spacetime and piercing orthogonally through the de Sitter hyperboloids of all finite sizes. This method does not require solving the de Sitter wave equation directly. Only the zero mode solution to an ordinary differential equation, the “wave equation” perpendicular to the hyperboloid – followed by a one-dimensional integral – needs to be evaluated. A topological obstruction to the general construction is also discussed by utilizing it to derive a generalized Green's function of the Laplacian on the (d ≥ 2)-dimensional sphere.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Minimal model for spoof acoustoelastic surface states

Similar to textured perfect electric conductors for electromagnetic waves sustaining artificial or spoof surface plasmons we present an equivalent phenomena for the case of sound. Aided by a minimal model that is able to capture the complex wave interaction of elastic cavity modes and airborne sound radiation in perfect rigid panels, we construct designer acoustoelastic surface waves that are entirely controlled by the geometrical environment. Comparisons to results obtained by full-wave simulations confirm the feasibility of the model and we demonstrate illustrative examples such as resonant transmissions and waveguiding to show a few examples of many where spoof elastic surface waves are useful.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Fine-tuning to minimize emittances of J-PARC RF-driven H{sup −} ion source

The Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) cesiated RF-driven H{sup −} ion source has been successfully operated for about one year. By the world’s brightest level beam, the J-PARC design beam power of 1 MW was successfully demonstrated. In order to minimize the transverse emittances, the rod-filter-field (RFF) was optimized by changing the triple-gap-lengths of each of pairing five piece rod-filter-magnets. The larger emittance degradation seems to be caused by impurity-gases than the RFF. The smaller beam-hole-diameter of the extraction electrode caused the more than expected improvements on not only the emittances but also the peak beam intensity.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Enhancing pairwise state-transition weights: A new weighting scheme in simulated tempering that can minimize transition time between a pair of conformational states

Simulated tempering (ST) is a widely used enhancing sampling method for Molecular Dynamics simulations. As one expanded ensemble method, ST is a combination of canonical ensembles at different temperatures and the acceptance probability of cross-temperature transitions is determined by both the temperature difference and the weights of each temperature. One popular way to obtain the weights is to adopt the free energy of each canonical ensemble, which achieves uniform sampling among temperature space. However, this uniform distribution in temperature space may not be optimal since high temperatures do not always speed up the conformational transitions of interest, as anti-Arrhenius kinetics are prevalent in protein and RNA folding. Here, we propose a new method: Enhancing Pairwise State-transition Weights (EPSW), to obtain the optimal weights by minimizing the round-trip time for transitions among different metastable states at the temperature of interest in ST. The novelty of the EPSW algorithm lies in explicitly considering the kinetics of conformation transitions when optimizing the weights of different temperatures. We further demonstrate the power of EPSW in three different systems: a simple two-temperature model, a two-dimensional model for protein folding with anti-Arrhenius kinetics, and the alanine dipeptide. The results from these three systems showed that the new algorithm can substantially accelerate the transitions between conformational states of interest in the ST expanded ensemble and further facilitate the convergence of thermodynamics compared to the widely used free energy weights. We anticipate that this algorithm is particularly useful for studying functional conformational changes of biological systems where the initial and final states are often known from structural biology experiments.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Light/multicomponent dark matter: A minimal model and detection prospects

We present a minimal extension of the standard model that gives rise to post-sphaleron baryogenesis by introducing colored scalar fields. The model can accommodate a fermionic dark matter candidate of Ο(GeV) mass whose stability is tied to proton stability. The supersymmetric extension of this model is straightforward and can lead to a realizion of multicomponent dark matter scenario. We discuss possible direct and indirect detection signals of the dark matter candidate(s) in this model.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Experimental observation of chimera and cluster states in a minimal globally coupled network

A “chimera state” is a dynamical pattern that occurs in a network of coupled identical oscillators when the symmetry of the oscillator population is broken into synchronous and asynchronous parts. We report the experimental observation of chimera and cluster states in a network of four globally coupled chaotic opto-electronic oscillators. This is the minimal network that can support chimera states, and our study provides new insight into the fundamental mechanisms underlying their formation. We use a unified approach to determine the stability of all the observed partially synchronous patterns, highlighting the close relationship between chimera and cluster states as belonging to the broader phenomenon of partial synchronization. Our approach is general in terms of network size and connectivity. We also find that chimera states often appear in regions of multistability between global, cluster, and desynchronized states.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Canards in a minimal piecewise-linear square-wave burster

We construct a piecewise-linear (PWL) approximation of the Hindmarsh-Rose (HR) neuron model that is minimal, in the sense that the vector field has the least number of linearity zones, in order to reproduce all the dynamics present in the original HR model with classical parameter values. This includes square-wave bursting and also special trajectories called canards, which possess long repelling segments and organise the transitions between stable bursting patterns with n and n + 1 spikes, also referred to as spike-adding canard explosions. We propose a first approximation of the smooth HR model, using a continuous PWL system, and show that its fast subsystem cannot possess a homoclinic bifurcation, which is necessary to obtain proper square-wave bursting. We then relax the assumption of continuity of the vector field across all zones, and we show that we can obtain a homoclinic bifurcation in the fast subsystem. We use the recently developed canard theory for PWL systems in order to reproduce the spike-adding canard explosion feature of the HR model as studied, e.g., in Desroches et al., Chaos 23(4), 046106 (2013).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

Communication: Improved ab initio molecular dynamics by minimally biasing with experimental data

Accounting for electrons and nuclei simultaneously is a powerful capability of ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD). However, AIMD is often unable to accurately reproduce properties of systems such as water due to inaccuracies in the underlying electronic density functionals. This shortcoming is often addressed by added empirical corrections and/or increasing the simulation temperature. We present here a maximum-entropy approach to directly incorporate limited experimental data via a minimal bias. Biased AIMD simulations of water and an excess proton in water are shown to give significantly improved properties both for observables which were biased to match experimental data and for unbiased observables. Here, this approach also yields new physical insight into inaccuracies in the underlying density functional theory as utilized in the unbiased AIMD.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Minimizing scatter-losses during pre-heat for magneto-inertial fusion targets

Here, the size, temporal and spatial shape, and energy content of a laser pulse for the pre-heat phase of magneto-inertial fusion affect the ability to penetrate the window of the laser-entrance-hole and to heat the fuel behind it. High laser intensities and dense targets are subject to laser-plasma-instabilities (LPI), which can lead to an effective loss of pre-heat energy or to pronounced heating of areas that should stay unexposed. While this problem has been the subject of many studies over the last decades, the investigated parameters were typically geared towards traditional laser driven Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) with densities either at 10% and above or at 1% and below the laser's critical density, electron temperatures of 3–5 keV, and laser powers near (or in excess of) 1 × 10 15 W/cm 2 . In contrast, Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) currently operates at 5% of the laser's critical density using much thicker windows (1.5–3.5 μm) than the sub-micron thick windows of traditional ICF hohlraum targets. This article describes the Pecos target area at Sandia National Laboratories using the Z-Beamlet Laser Facility as a platform to study laser induced pre-heat for magneto-inertial fusion targets, and the related progress for Sandia's MagLIF program. Forward and backward scattered light were measured and minimized at larger spatial scales with lower densities, temperatures, and powers compared to LPI studies available in literature.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Strong bonds and far-from-equilibrium conditions minimize errors in lattice-gas growth

We use computer simulation to study the layer-by-layer growth of particle structures in a lattice gas, taking the number of incorporated vacancies as a measure of the quality of the grown structure. A dynamic scaling relation describes the quality of structures in and out of equilibrium and reveals that the highest-quality structures are obtained, for fixed observation time, using strong interactions and far-from-equilibrium growth conditions. This result contrasts with the usual assumption that weak interactions and mild nonequilibrium conditions are the best way to minimize errors during assembly.

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

Accurate prediction of core-level spectra of radicals at density functional theory cost via square gradient minimization and recoupling of mixed configurations

State-specific orbital optimized approaches are more accurate at predicting core-level spectra than traditional linear-response protocols, but their utility had been restricted due to the risk of "variational collapse" down to the ground state. We employ the recently developed square gradient minimization algorithm to reliably avoid variational collapse and study the effectiveness of orbital optimized density functional theory (DFT) at predicting second period element 1s core-level spectra of open-shell systems. Several density functionals (including SCAN, B3LYP, and ωB97X-D3) are found to predict excitation energies from the core to singly occupied levels with high accuracy (≤0.3 eV RMS error) against available experimental data. Higher excited states are, however, more challenging by virtue of being intrinsically multiconfigurational. We thus present a configuration interaction inspired route to self-consistently recouple single determinant mixed configurations obtained from DFT, in order to obtain approximate doublet states. This recoupling scheme is used to predict the C K-edge spectra of the allyl radical, the O K-edge spectra of CO + , and the N K-edge of NO 2 with high accuracy relative to experiment, indicating substantial promise in using this approach for the computation of core-level spectra for doublet species [vs more traditional time dependent DFT, equation of motion coupled cluster singles and doubles (EOM-CCSD), or using unrecoupled mixed configurations]. Finally, we also present general guidelines for computing core-excited states from orbital optimized DFT.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Numerical minimization of neoclassical poloidal viscosity for supersonic equilibria in tokamak geometry

Extensive experimental evidence has shown that the presence of poloidal flow in tokamaks can dramatically improve transport properties. However, theory indicates that poloidal flows are damped by poloidal viscosity, thus necessitating external drivers, such as neutral beam injection or radio frequency heating. In this work, ideal magnetohydrodynamic equilibria are calculated via the FORTRAN code FLOW [Guazzotto et al., Phys. Plasmas 11, 604 (2004)] and a postprocessor is used to estimate the neoclassical poloidal viscosity. The equilibrium inputs, which correspond to intuitive physical quantities, are then numerically optimized to reduce a viscosity figure of merit. We present supersonic equilibria in tokamak geometry with minimized neoclassical poloidal viscosities for various velocity free function inputs, plasma aspect ratios, and collisionality regimes. Benchmarks are made against an analytic theory as well as a classical expression of poloidal viscosity. Numerical confirmation of the analytic theory is obtained in the high aspect ratio and high collisionality limit. Good agreement is also seen near the plasma core and edge, with discrepancies arising in the intermediate region. Outside of these limits, rotation input function profiles are found that provide ∼order of magnitude improvements over the analytic theory, with additional progress being made toward predictions for tokamak-relevant equilibria.

Physics↗