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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 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

On the possibility of generating low-energy positrons on accelerators of electrons with a beam energy of a few MeV and on terawatt lasers

Based on the numerical simulations, we estimate the possibility of generating positrons by low-energy electrons (below 10 MeV) produced by electron accelerators and femtosecond lasers. A review of experimental work reported in the literature is presented. The simulation is carried out using the GEANT-4 software package for the particular conditions of a possible experiment at the terawatt femtosecond laser facility of the International Laser Centre at the Moscow State University and the LUE-8 MeV linear electron accelerator at the Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences. (paper)

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Indirect and direct signatures of Higgs portal decaying vector dark matter for positron excess in cosmic rays

We investigate the indirect signatures of the Higgs portal U(1){sub X} vector dark matter (VDM) X{sub μ} from both its pair annihilation and decay. The VDM is stable at renormalizable level by Z{sub 2} symmetry, and thermalized by Higgs-portal interactions. It can also decay by some nonrenormalizable operators with very long lifetime at cosmological time scale. If dim-6 operators for VDM decays are suppressed by 10{sup 16} GeV scale, the lifetime of VDM with mass ∼ 2 TeV is just right for explaining the positron excess in cosmic ray observed by PAMELA and AMS02 Collaborations. The VDM decaying into μ{sup +}μ{sup −} can fit the data, evading various constraints on cosmic rays. We give one UV-complete model as an example. This scenario for Higgs portal decaying VDM with mass around ∼ 2 TeV can be tested by DM direct search at XENON1T, and also at the future colliders by measuring the Higgs self-couplings.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Systematic study of the uncertainties in fitting the cosmic positron data by AMS-02

The operation of AMS-02 opens a new era for the study of cosmic ray physics with unprecedentedly precise data which are comparable with the laboratory measurements. The high precision data allow a quantitative study on the cosmic ray physics and give strict constraints on the nature of cosmic ray sources. However, the intrinsic errors from the theoretical models to interpret the data become dominant over the errors in the data. In the present work we try to give a systematic study on the uncertainties of the models to explain the AMS-02 positron fraction data, which shows the cosmic ray e{sup +}e{sup −} excesses together with the PAMELA and Fermi-LAT measurements. The excesses can be attributed to contributions from the extra e{sup +}e{sup −} sources, such as pulsars or the dark matter annihilation. The possible systematic uncertainties of the theoretical models considered include the cosmic ray propagation, the treatment of the low energy data, the solar modulation, the pp interaction models, the nuclei injection spectrum and so on. We find that in general a spectral hardening of the primary electron injection spectrum above ∼50–100 GeV is favored by the data. Furthermore, the present model uncertainties may lead to a factor of ∼2 enlargement in the determination of the parameter regions of the extra source, such as the dark matter mass, annihilation rate and so on.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Dark matter vs. astrophysics in the interpretation of AMS-02 electron and positron data

We perform a detailed quantitative analysis of the recent AMS-02 electron and positron data. We investigate the interplay between the emission from primary astrophysical sources, namely Supernova Remnants and Pulsar Wind Nebulae, and the contribution from a dark matter annihilation or decay signal. Our aim is to assess the information that can be derived on dark matter properties when both dark matter and primary astrophysical sources are assumed to jointly contribute to the leptonic observables measured by the AMS-02 experiment. We investigate both the possibility to set robust constraints on the dark matter annihilation/decay rate and the possibility to look for dark matter signals within realistic models that take into account the full complexity of the astrophysical background. Our results show that AMS-02 data enable to probe efficiently vast regions of the dark matter parameter space and, in some cases, to set constraints on the dark matter annihilation/decay rate that are comparable or even stronger than the ones derived from other indirect detection channels.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

MAGNETIC FIELD GENERATION AND PARTICLE ENERGIZATION AT RELATIVISTIC SHEAR BOUNDARIES IN COLLISIONLESS ELECTRON-POSITRON PLASMAS

Using particle-in-cell simulations, we study the kinetic physics of relativistic shear flow in collisionless electron-positron (e+e-) plasmas. We find efficient magnetic field generation and particle energization at the shear boundary, driven by streaming instabilities across the shear interface and sustained by the shear flow. Nonthermal, anisotropic high-energy particles are accelerated across field lines to produce a power-law tail turning over just below the shear Lorentz factor. These results have important implications for the dissipation and radiation of jets in blazars and gamma-ray bursts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

RELATIVISTIC POSITRON-ELECTRON-ION SHEAR FLOWS AND APPLICATION TO GAMMA-RAY BURSTS

We present particle-in-cell simulation results of relativistic shear flows for hybrid positron-electron-ion plasmas and compare to those for pure e {sup +} e {sup –} and pure e {sup –} ion plasmas. Among the three types of relativistic shear flows, we find that only hybrid shear flow is able to energize the electrons to form a high-energy spectral peak plus a hard power law tail. Such electron spectra are needed to model the observational properties of gamma-ray bursts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Analysis of metabolic washout of positron emitters produced during carbon ion head and neck radiotherapy

Purpose: Particle Therapy Positron Emission Tomography (PT-PET) is a suitable method for verification of therapeutic dose delivery by measurements of irradiation-induced β{sup +}-activity. Due to metabolic processes in living tissue β{sup +}-emitters can be removed from the place of generation. This washout is a limiting factor for image quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a washout model obtained by animal experiments is applicable to patient data.Methods: A model for the washout has been developed by Mizuno et al. [Phys. Med. Biol. 48(15), 2269–2281 (2003)] and Tomitani et al. [Phys. Med. Biol. 48(7), 875–889 (2003)]. It is based upon measurements in a rabbit in living and dead conditions. This model was modified and applied to PET data acquired during the experimental therapy project at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt, Germany. Three components are expected: A fast one with a half life of 2 s, a medium one in the range of 2–3 min, and a slow component of the order of 2–3 h. Ten patients were selected randomly for investigation of the fast component. To analyze the other two components, 12 one-of-a-kind measurements from a single volunteer patient are available.Results: A fast washout on the time scale of a few seconds was not observed in the patient data. The medium processes showed a mean half life of 155.7 ± 4.6 s. This is in the expected range. Fractions of the activity not influenced by the washout were found.Conclusions: On the time scale of an in-beam or in-room measurement only the medium-time washout processes play a remarkable role. A slow component may be neglected if the measurements do not exceed 20 min after the end of the irradiation. The fast component is not observed due to the low relative blood filled volume in the brain.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Concept and simulation study of a novel localization method for robotic endoscopic capsules using multiple positron emission markers

Purpose: Over the last decade, wireless capsule endoscope has been the tool of choice for noninvasive inspection of the gastrointestinal tract, especially in the small intestine. However, the latest clinical products have not been equipped with a sufficiently accurate localization system which makes it difficult to determine the location of intestinal abnormalities, and to apply follow-up interventions such as biopsy or drug delivery. In this paper, the authors present a novel localization method based on tracking three positron emission markers embedded inside an endoscopic capsule. Methods: Three spherical {sup 22}Na markers with diameters of less than 1 mm are embedded in the cover of the capsule. Gamma ray detectors are arranged around a patient body to detect coincidence gamma rays emitted from the three markers. The position of each marker can then be estimated using the collected data by the authors’ tracking algorithm which consists of four consecutive steps: a method to remove corrupted data, an initialization method, a clustering method based on the Fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm, and a failure prediction method. Results: The tracking algorithm has been implemented inMATLAB utilizing simulation data generated from the Geant4 Application for Emission Tomography toolkit. The results show that this localization method can achieve real-time tracking with an average position error of less than 0.4 mm and an average orientation error of less than 2°. Conclusions: The authors conclude that this study has proven the feasibility and potential of the proposed technique in effectively determining the position and orientation of a robotic endoscopic capsule.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

WE-G-BRD-06: Variation in Dynamic Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of Tumor Hypoxia in Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Undergoing Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy

Purpose: Tumor hypoxia is correlated with treatment failure. To date, there are no published studies investigating hypoxia in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing SBRT. We aim to use 18F-fluoromisonidazole (18F-FMISO) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to non-invasively quantify the tumor hypoxic volume (HV), to elucidate potential roles of reoxygenation and tumor vascular response at high doses, and to identify an optimal prognostic imaging time-point. Methods: SBRT-eligible patients with NSCLC tumors >1cm were prospectively enrolled in an IRB-approved study. Computed Tomography and dynamic PET images (0–120min, 150–180min, and 210–240min post-injection) were acquired using a Siemens BiographmCT PET/CT scanner. 18F-FMISO PET was performed on a single patient at 3 different time points around a single SBRT delivery of 18 Gy and HVs were compared using a tumor-to-blood ratio (TBR)>1.2 and rate of influx (Ki)>0.0015 (Patlak). Results: Results from our first patient showed substantial temporal changes in HV following SBRT. Using a TBR threshold >1.2 and summed images 210–240min, the HVs were 19%, 31% and 13% of total tumor volume on day 0, 2 (48 hours post-SBRT), and 4 (96 hours post-SBRT). The absolute volume of hypoxia increased by nearly a factor of 2 after 18 Gy and then decreased almost to baseline 96 hours later. Selected imaging timepoints resulted in temporal changes in HV quantification obtained with TBR. Ki, calculated using 4-hour dynamic data, evaluated HVs as 22%, 75% and 21%, respectively. Conclusions: ith the results of only one patient, this novel pilot study highlights the potential benefit of 18F-FMISO PET imaging as results indicate substantial temporal changes in tumor HV post-SBRT. Analysis suggests that TBR is not a robust parameter for accurate HV quantification and heavily influenced by imaging timepoint selection. Kinetic modeling parameters are more sensitive and may aid in future treatment individualization based on patient-specific biological information.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-D-201-06: Random Walk Algorithm Seed Localization Parameters in Lung Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Images

Purpose: The objective of this study was to find the best seed localization parameters in random walk algorithm application to lung tumor delineation in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images. Methods: PET images suffer from statistical noise and therefore tumor delineation in these images is a challenging task. Random walk algorithm, a graph based image segmentation technique, has reliable image noise robustness. Also its fast computation and fast editing characteristics make it powerful for clinical purposes. We implemented the random walk algorithm using MATLAB codes. The validation and verification of the algorithm have been done by 4D-NCAT phantom with spherical lung lesions in different diameters from 20 to 90 mm (with incremental steps of 10 mm) and different tumor to background ratios of 4:1 and 8:1. STIR (Software for Tomographic Image Reconstruction) has been applied to reconstruct the phantom PET images with different pixel sizes of 2×2×2 and 4×4×4 mm{sup 3}. For seed localization, we selected pixels with different maximum Standardized Uptake Value (SUVmax) percentages, at least (70%, 80%, 90% and 100%) SUVmax for foreground seeds and up to (20% to 55%, 5% increment) SUVmax for background seeds. Also, for investigation of algorithm performance on clinical data, 19 patients with lung tumor were studied. The resulted contours from algorithm have been compared with nuclear medicine expert manual contouring as ground truth. Results: Phantom and clinical lesion segmentation have shown that the best segmentation results obtained by selecting the pixels with at least 70% SUVmax as foreground seeds and pixels up to 30% SUVmax as background seeds respectively. The mean Dice Similarity Coefficient of 94% ± 5% (83% ± 6%) and mean Hausdorff Distance of 1 (2) pixels have been obtained for phantom (clinical) study. Conclusion: The accurate results of random walk algorithm in PET image segmentation assure its application for radiation treatment planning and diagnosis.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Resonant generation of an electron–positron pair by two photons to excited Landau levels

We consider the resonant generation of an electron–positron pair by two polarized photons to arbitrarily low Landau levels. The resonance occurs when the energy of one photon exceeds the one-photon generation threshold, and the energy of the other photon is multiple to the spacing between the levels. The cross section of the process is determined taking into account the spins of particles. The order of magnitude of the cross section is the highest when the magnetic moments of the particles are oriented along the magnetic field.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Fine-grid calculations for stellar electron and positron capture rates on Fe isotopes

The acquisition of precise and reliable nuclear data is a prerequisite to success for stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis studies. Core-collapse simulators find it challenging to generate an explosion from the collapse of the core of massive stars. It is believed that a better understanding of the microphysics of core-collapse can lead to successful results. The weak interaction processes are able to trigger the collapse and control the lepton-to-baryon ratio (Y{sub e}) of the corematerial. It is suggested that the temporal variation of Y{sub e} within the core of a massive star has a pivotal role to play in the stellar evolution and a fine-tuning of this parameter at various stages of presupernova evolution is the key to generate an explosion. During the presupernova evolution of massive stars, isotopes of iron, mainly {sup 54-56}Fe, are considered to be key players in controlling Y{sub e} ratio via electron capture on these nuclides. Recently an improved microscopic calculation of weak-interaction-mediated rates for iron isotopes was introduced using the proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase-approximation (pn-QRPA) theory. The pn-QRPA theory allows a microscopic state-by-state calculation of stellar capture rates which greatly increases the reliability of calculated rates. The results were suggestive of some fine-tuning of the Y{sub e} ratio during various phases of stellar evolution. Here we present for the first time the fine-grid calculation of the electron and positron capture rates on {sup 54-56}Fe. The sensitivity of the pn-QRPA calculated capture rates to the deformation parameter is also studied in this work. Core-collapse simulators may find this calculation suitable for interpolation purposes and for necessary incorporation in the stellar evolution codes.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Resonance mechanism of the production of electron-positron pairs in a strong magnetic field

The Compton-like process γe{sup ±} → e{sup ±}e{sup +}e{sup −} involving the production of an electron-positron pair in the interaction of an ultrarelativistic electron with a soft x-ray photon in the vicinity of the polar cap of a magnetar is considered. It is shown that the amplitude for this reaction has a resonance character. A simple analytic expression is obtained for the electron-absorption coefficient. Possible astrophysical implications of the resonance process γe{sup ±} → e{sup ±}e{sup +}e{sup −} are discussed.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Charmed baryons in electron-positron collisions

Charmed baryons are classified, and the experimental data on charmed-baryon states are reviewed paying special attention to those obtained at the electron-positron colliders.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Investigation of the Generation of Positrons near the Threshold

The results of experimental studies of positron generation near the threshold carried out in 2018 at the ILC MSU femtosecond laser complex and the LUE-8 linear electron accelerator of the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences are presented. The measurements were carried out using three different detection methods: using a MEDIPIX detector; phosphor films and video cameras; as well as scintillation arrays and silicon photomultipliers.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2017

Dust ion acoustic solitary structures in the presence of isothermal positrons

The Sagdeev potential technique has been employed to study the dust ion acoustic solitary waves and double layers in an unmagnetized collisionless dusty plasma consisting of negatively charged static dust grains, adiabatic warm ions, isothermally distributed electrons, and positrons. A computational scheme has been developed to draw the qualitatively different compositional parameter spaces or existence domains showing the nature of existence of different solitary structures with respect to any parameter of the present plasma system. The present system supports both positive and negative potential double layers. The negative potential double layer always restricts the occurrence of negative potential solitary waves, i.e., any sequence of negative potential solitary waves having monotonically increasing amplitude converges to a negative potential double layer. However, there exists a parameter regime for which the positive potential double layer is unable to restrict the occurrence of positive potential solitary waves. As a result, in this region of the parameter space, there exist solitary waves after the formation of positive potential double layer, i.e., positive potential supersolitons have been observed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Analysis of the Vacancy System of Restructured Zinc by the Positron Annihilation Method

We have obtained restructured zinc (high-purity zinc prepared by mechanothermal action of various intensity levels) and have analyzed its structure by the positron spectroscopy methods. Bulk vacancytype defects (vacancies and vacancy clusters), as well as the regions with an extended crystal lattice, have been discovered in the restructured samples and analyzed quantitatively. These effects are responsible for the emergence of internal microstresses in the material, which modify its properties.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗