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At least 523 records · Page 29

Dissolution of used nuclear fuel using recycled nitric acid

An evaluation was performed on the feasibility of using HB-Line anion exchange column waste streams from Alternate Feedstock 2 (AFS-2) processing for the dissolver solution for used nuclear fuel (UNF) processing. The targeted UNF for dissolution using recycled solution are fuels similar to the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) fuel. Furthermore, the objectives of this experimental program were to validate the feasibility of using impure dissolver solutions with the MURR dissolution flowsheet to verify they would not significantly affect dissolution of the UNF in a detrimental manner.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

IMPROVING COSMOLOGICAL DISTANCE MEASUREMENTS USING TWIN TYPE IA SUPERNOVAE

We introduce a method for identifying “twin” Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and using them to improve distance measurements. This novel approach to SN Ia standardization is made possible by spectrophotometric time series observations from the Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory). We begin with a well-measured set of SNe, find pairs whose spectra match well across the entire optical window, and then test whether this leads to a smaller dispersion in their absolute brightnesses. This analysis is completed in a blinded fashion, ensuring that decisions made in implementing the method do not inadvertently bias the result. We find that pairs of SNe with more closely matched spectra indeed have reduced brightness dispersion. We are able to standardize this initial set of SNfactory SNe to 0.083 ± 0.012 mag, implying a dispersion of 0.072 ± 0.010 mag in the absence of peculiar velocities. We estimate that with larger numbers of comparison SNe, e.g., using the final SNfactory spectrophotometric data set as a reference, this method will be capable of standardizing high-redshift SNe to within 0.06–0.07 mag. These results imply that at least 3/4 of the variance in Hubble residuals in current SN cosmology analyses is due to previously unaccounted-for astrophysical differences among the SNe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Three-photon resonance ionization of atomic Mn in a hot-cavity laser ion source using Ti:sapphire lasers

Three-photon resonance ionization of atomic manganese (Mn) in a hot-cavity ion source using Ti:sapphire lasers has been demonstrated. Three-step ionization schemes employing different intermediate levels and Rydberg or autoionizing (AI) states in the final ionization step are established. Strong AI resonances were observed via the 3d 5 4s5s f 6 S 5/2 level at 49 415.35 cm -1 , while Rydberg transitions were reached from the 3d 5 4s4d e 6 D 9/2,7/2,5/2 levels at around 47 210 cm -1 . Analyses of the strong Rydberg transitions associated with the 3d 5 4s4d e 6 D 7/2 lower level indicate that they belong to the dipole-allowed 4d→nf 6 F° 9/2,7/2,5/2 series converging to the 3d 5 4s 7 S 3 ground state of Mn II. From this series, an ionization potential of 59 959.56 ± 0.01 cm -1 is obtained for Mn. At high ion source temperatures the semi-forbidden 4d→nf 8 F° 9/2,7/2,5/2 series was also observed. The overall ionization efficiency for Mn has been measured to be about 0.9% when using the strong AI transition in the third excitation step and 0.3% when employing an intense Rydberg transition. Ultimately, our experimental data indicate that the ionization efficiency was limited by the interaction of Mn atoms with ion source materials at high temperatures.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Numerical simulation of the hot-tail runaway electron production mechanism using CQL3D and comparison with Smith–Verwichte analytical model

Abstract The hot-tail mechanism of runaway electron (RE) production (Harvey et al 2000 Phys. Plasmas 7 4590) is the primary source of RE in the case of rapidly cooling tokamak plasma. Quantifying this mechanism is very important as it can provide most of the post-thermal-quench (TQ) current, or a seed current for the secondary source of RE through the avalanche mechanism. An analytic model which omits pitch-angle scattering is often used in literature for estimating the hot-tail RE density (Smith and Verwichte 2008 Phys. Plasmas 15 072502). In the present study, we use the CQL3D bounce-averaged Fokker–Planck code (Harvey and McCoy 1992 Proc. IAEA Technical Committee Meeting on Advances in Simulation and Modeling of Thermonuclear Plasmas p 527) to test the limits of validity of the model. In particular, we examine the cases of Z = 1 and Z = 18 ions, for sets of different initial temperature, density, electric field and the characteristic time of temperature decay. We show that for Z = 1 plasma, the ratio of RE density computed by CQL3D to that estimated from the model is within 0.6–6.0 in studied cases. For the Z = 18 case, this factor is systematically a much smaller number, typically 0.02–0.6. We suggest a simple correction to the model that narrows down the range of this ratio to 0.3–3.8 in all of the cases, including Z = 1 and Z = 18 plasmas.

Physics↗

Limits on dark matter proton scattering from neutrino telescopes using micrOMEGAs

Limits on dark matter spin dependent elastic scattering cross section on protons derived from IceCube data are obtained for different dark matter annihilation channels using micrOMEGAs. The uncertainty on the derived limits, estimated by using different neutrino spectra, can reach a factor two. For all dark matter annihilation channels except for quarks, the limits on the spin dependent cross section are more stringent than those obtained in direct detection experiments. The new functions that allow to derive those limits are described.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Measuring galaxy cluster masses with CMB lensing using a Maximum Likelihood estimator: statistical and systematic error budgets for future experiments

We develop a Maximum Likelihood estimator (MLE) to measure the masses of galaxy clusters through the impact of gravitational lensing on the temperature and polarization anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We show that, at low noise levels in temperature, this optimal estimator outperforms the standard quadratic estimator by a factor of two. For polarization, we show that the Stokes Q/U maps can be used instead of the traditional E- and B-mode maps without losing information. We test and quantify the bias in the recovered lensing mass for a comprehensive list of potential systematic errors. Using realistic simulations, we examine the cluster mass uncertainties from CMB-cluster lensing as a function of an experiment’s beam size and noise level. We predict the cluster mass uncertainties will be 3 - 6% for SPT-3G, AdvACT, and Simons Array experiments with 10,000 clusters and less than 1% for the CMB-S4 experiment with a sample containing 100,000 clusters. The mass constraints from CMB polarization are very sensitive to the experimental beam size and map noise level: for a factor of three reduction in either the beam size or noise level, the lensing signal-to-noise improves by roughly a factor of two.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Prediction of histone post-translational modifications using deep learning

Abstract Motivation Histone post-translational modifications (PTMs) are involved in a variety of essential regulatory processes in the cell, including transcription control. Recent studies have shown that histone PTMs can be accurately predicted from the knowledge of transcription factor binding or DNase hypersensitivity data. Similarly, it has been shown that one can predict PTMs from the underlying DNA primary sequence. Results In this study, we introduce a deep learning architecture called DeepPTM for predicting histone PTMs from transcription factor binding data and the primary DNA sequence. Extensive experimental results show that our deep learning model outperforms the prediction accuracy of the model proposed in Benveniste et al. (PNAS 2014) and DeepHistone (BMC Genomics 2019). The competitive advantage of our framework lies in the synergistic use of deep learning combined with an effective pre-processing step. Our classification framework has also enabled the discovery that the knowledge of a small subset of transcription factors (which are histone-PTM and cell-type-specific) can provide almost the same prediction accuracy that can be obtained using all the transcription factors data. Availabilityand implementation https://github.com/dDipankar/DeepPTM. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Baisya, Dipankar Ranjan (ORCID:0000000267847359)↗

Integrating proteomic or transcriptomic data into metabolic models using linear bound flux balance analysis

Abstract Motivation Transcriptomics and proteomics data have been integrated into constraint-based models to influence flux predictions. However, it has been reported recently for Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, that model predictions from parsimonious flux balance analysis (pFBA), which does not use expression data, are as good or better than predictions from various algorithms that integrate transcriptomics or proteomics data into constraint-based models. Results In this paper, we describe a novel constraint-based method called Linear Bound Flux Balance Analysis (LBFBA), which uses expression data (either transcriptomic or proteomic) to predict metabolic fluxes. The method uses expression data to place soft constraints on individual fluxes, which can be violated. Parameters in the soft constraints are first estimated from a training expression and flux dataset before being used to predict fluxes from expression data in other conditions. We applied LBFBA to E.coli and S.cerevisiae datasets and found that LBFBA predictions were more accurate than pFBA predictions, with average normalized errors roughly half of those from pFBA. For the first time, we demonstrate a computational method that integrates expression data into constraint-based models and improves quantitative flux predictions over pFBA. Availability and implementation Code is available in the Supplementary data available at Bioinformatics online. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Tian, Mingyuan↗

Assessment of Clonal Expansion Using CarcSeq Measurement of Lung Cancer Driver Mutations and Correlation With Mouse Strain- and Sex-Related Incidence of Spontaneous Lung Neoplasia

Quantification of variation in levels of spontaneously occurring cancer driver mutations (CDMs) was developed to assess clonal expansion and predict future risk of neoplasm development. Specifically, an error-corrected next-generation sequencing method, CarcSeq, and a mouse CarcSeq panel (analogous to human and rat panels) were developed and used to quantify low-frequency mutations in a panel of amplicons enriched in hotspot CDMs. Mutations in a subset of panel amplicons, Braf, Egfr, Kras, Stk11, and Tp53, were related to incidence of lung neoplasms at 2 years. This was achieved by correlating median absolute deviation (MAD) from the overall median mutant fraction (MF) measured in the lung DNA of 16-week-old male and female, B6C3F1 and CD-1 mice (10 mice/sex/strain) with percentages of spontaneous alveolar/bronchioloalveolar adenomas and carcinomas reported in bioassay control groups. A total of 1586 mouse lung mutants with MFs > x 10-4 were recovered. The ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous mutations was used to assess the proportion of recovered mutations conferring a positive selective advantage. The greatest ratio was observed in what is considered the most lung tumor-sensitive model examined, male B6C3F1 mice. Of the recurrent, nonsynonymous mouse mutations recovered, 55.5% have been reported in human tumors, with many located in or around the mouse equivalent of human cancer hotspot codons. MAD for the same subset of amplicons measured in normal human lung DNA samples showed a correlation of moderate strength and borderline significance with age (a cancer risk factor), as well as age-related cumulative lung cancer risk, suggesting MAD may inform species extrapolation.

Toxicology↗

Enhancing strontium clock atom interferometry using quantum optimal control

Strontium clock atom interferometry is a promising new technology, with multiple experiments under development around the world to explore its potential for dark matter and gravitational wave detection. In these detectors, large momentum transfer using sequences of many laser pulses is necessary, and thus high-fidelity pulses are important since small errors become magnified. Quantum optimal control (QOC) is a framework for developing control pulse waveforms that achieve high fidelity and are robust against experimental imperfections. Resonant single-photon transitions using the narrow clock transition of strontium involve significantly different quantum dynamics than more established atom interferometry methods based on far-detuned two-photon Raman or Bragg transitions, which leads to new opportunities and challenges when applying QOC. Here, we study in simulation QOC pulses for strontium clock interferometry and demonstrate their advantage over basic square pulses (primitive pulses) and composite pulses in terms of robustness against multiple noise channels. In conclusion, this could improve the scale of large momentum transfer in Sr clock interferometers, paving the way to achieving these scientific goals.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Nonequilibrium lattice-driven dynamics of stripes in nickelates using time-resolved x-ray scattering

Here, we investigate the lattice coupling to the spin and charge orders in the striped nickelate, La 1.75 Sr 0.25 NiO 4 , using time-resolved resonant x-ray scattering. Lattice-driven dynamics of both spin and charge orders are observed when the pump photon energy is tuned to that of an E u bond- stretching phonon. We present a likely scenario for the behavior of the spin and charge order parameters and its implications using a Ginzburg-Landau theory.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Nucleon-gold collisions at 200A GeV using tagged d + Au interactions in the PHOBOS detector

Forward calorimetry in the PHOBOS detector has been used to study charged hadron production in d+Au, p+Au, and n+Au collisions at √s NN =200GeV. The forward proton calorimeter detectors are described and a procedure for determining collision centrality with these detectors is detailed. The deposition of energy by deuteron spectator nucleons in the forward calorimeters is used to identify p+Au and n+Au collisions in the data. A weighted combination of the yield of p+Au and n+Au is constructed to build a reference for Au+Au collisions that better matches the isospin composition of the gold nucleus. The p T and centrality dependence of the yield of this improved reference system is found to match that of d+Au. The shape of the charged-particle transverse momentum distribution is observed to extrapolate smoothly from p+p¯ to central d+Au as a function of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density. The asymmetry of positively and negatively charged hadron production in p+Au is compared to that of n+Au. No significant asymmetry is observed at midrapidity. In conclusion, these studies augment recent results from experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider facilities to give a more complete description of particle production in p+A and d+A collisions, essential for the understanding the medium produced in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DESI 2024: Constraints on physics-focused aspects of dark energy using DESI DR1 BAO data

Baryon acoustic oscillation data from the first year of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) provide near percent-level precision of cosmic distances in seven bins over the redshift range z=0.1–4.2. Here, this paper is the follow-up to the original DESI BAO cosmology paper [A. G. Adame et al. (DESI Collaboration), arXiv:2404.03002], which considered the conventional w 0 w a cold dark matter (CDM) model. We use the novel DESI data, together with other cosmic probes, to constrain the background expansion history using some well-motivated physical classes of dark energy. In particular, we explore three physics-focused behaviors of dark energy from the equation of state and energy density perspectives: the thawing class (matching many simple quintessence potentials), emergent class (where dark energy comes into being recently, as in phase transition models), and mirage class [where phenomenologically the distance to cosmic microwave background (CMB) last scattering is close to that from a cosmological constant Λ despite dark energy dynamics]. All three classes fit the data at least as well as Λ ⁢CDM, and indeed can improve on it by Δ⁢χ 2 ≈ –5 to –17 for the combination of DESI BAO with CMB and supernova data while having one more parameter. The mirage class does essentially as well as w 0 ⁢w a CDM and exhibits moderate to strong Bayesian evidence preference with respect to Λ⁢ CDM. These classes of dynamical behaviors highlight worthwhile avenues for further exploration into the nature of dark energy.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Search for metastable heavy charged particles with large ionization energy loss in p p collisions at s = 13 TeV using the ATLAS experiment

This study presents a search for massive charged long-lived particles produced in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13TeV at the LHC using the ATLAS experiment. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb –1 . Many extensions of the Standard Model predict the existence of massive charged long-lived particles, such as R-hadrons. These massive particles are expected to be produced with a velocity significantly below the speed of light, and therefore to have a specific ionization higher than any Standard Model particle of unit charge at high momenta. The Pixel subsystem of the ATLAS detector is used to measure the ionization energy loss of reconstructed charged particles and to search for such highly ionizing particles. The search presented here has much greater sensitivity than a similar search performed using the ATLAS detector in the $\sqrt{s}$ = 8TeV data set, thanks to the increase in expected signal cross section due to the higher center-of-mass energy of collisions, to an upgraded detector with a new silicon layer close to the interaction point, and to analysis improvements. No significant deviation from Standard Model background expectations is observed, and lifetime-dependent upper limits on R-hadron production cross sections and masses are set. Gluino R-hadrons with lifetimes above 0.4 ns and decaying to $q\overline{q}$ plus a 100 GeV neutralino are excluded at the 95% confidence level, with lower mass limit ranging between 740 and 1590 GeV. In the case of stable R-hadrons the lower mass limit at the 95% confidence level is 1570 GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for pair production of Higgs bosons in the b b ¯ b b ¯ final state using proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector with the ATLAS detector

A search for Higgs-boson pair production in the b b ¯ b b ¯ final state using proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV final state is carried out with 3.2 fb -1 of proton-proton collision data collected at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. The data are consistent with the estimated background and are used to set upper limits on the production cross section of Higgs-boson pairs times branching ratio to b b ¯ b b ¯ final state using proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV for both nonresonant and resonant production. In the case of resonant production of Kaluza-Klein gravitons within the Randall-Sundrum model, upper limits in the 24 to 91 fb range are obtained for masses between 600 and 3000 GeV, at the 95% confidence level. The production cross section times branching ratio for nonresonant Higgs-boson pairs is also constrained to be less than 1.22 pb, at the 95% confidence level.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Near- and Extended-Edge X-Ray-Absorption Fine-Structure Spectroscopy Using Ultrafast Coherent High-Order Harmonic Supercontinua

Recent advances in high-order harmonic generation have made it possible to use a tabletop-scale setup to produce spatially and temporally coherent beams of light with bandwidth spanning 12 octaves, from the ultraviolet up to x-ray photon energies >1.6 keV. Here we demonstrate the use of this light for x-ray-absorption spectroscopy at the K- and L-absorption edges of solids at photon energies near 1 keV. We also report x-ray-absorption spectroscopy in the water window spectral region (284–543 eV) using a high flux high-order harmonic generation x-ray supercontinuum with 10 9 photons/s in 1% bandwidth, 3 orders of magnitude larger than has previously been possible using tabletop sources. Since this x-ray radiation emerges as a single attosecond-to-femtosecond pulse with peak brightness exceeding 10 26 photons/s/mrad 2 /mm 2 /1% bandwidth, these novel coherent x-ray sources are ideal for probing the fastest molecular and materials processes on femtosecond-to-attosecond time scales and picometer length scales.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Raster-scanning serial protein crystallography using micro- and nano-focused synchrotron beams

A raster scanning serial protein crystallography approach is presented, that consumes as low ∼200–700 nl of sedimented crystals. New serial data pre-analysis software, NanoPeakCell, is introduced. High-resolution structural information was obtained from lysozyme microcrystals (20 µm in the largest dimension) using raster-scanning serial protein crystallography on micro- and nano-focused beamlines at the ESRF. Data were collected at room temperature (RT) from crystals sandwiched between two silicon nitride wafers, thereby preventing their drying, while limiting background scattering and sample consumption. In order to identify crystal hits, new multi-processing and GUI-driven Python-based pre-analysis software was developed, named NanoPeakCell, that was able to read data from a variety of crystallographic image formats. Further data processing was carried out using CrystFEL, and the resultant structures were refined to 1.7 Å resolution. The data demonstrate the feasibility of RT raster-scanning serial micro- and nano-protein crystallography at synchrotrons and validate it as an alternative approach for the collection of high-resolution structural data from micro-sized crystals. Advantages of the proposed approach are its thriftiness, its handling-free nature, the reduced amount of sample required, the adjustable hit rate, the high indexing rate and the minimization of background scattering.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗