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At least 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Magnets are Weber Bar Gravitational Wave Detectors

When a gravitational wave (GW) passes through a dc magnetic field, it couples to the conducting wires carrying the currents which generate the magnetic field, causing them to oscillate at the GW frequency. The oscillating currents then generate an ac component through which the GW can be detected-thus forming a resonant mass detector or a nagnetic Weber bar. We quantify this claim and demonstrate that magnets can have exceptional sensitivity to GWs over a frequency range demarcated by the mechanical and electromagnetic resonant frequencies of the system; indeed, we outline why a magnetic readout strategy can be considered an optimal Weber bar design. The concept is applicable to a broad class of magnets, but can be particularly well exploited by the powerful magnets being deployed in search of axion dark matter, for example, by DMRadio and ADMX-EFR. Explicitly, we demonstrate that the MRI magnet that is being deployed for ADMX-EFR can achieve a broadband GW strain sensitivity of ∼10^{-20}/sqrt[Hz] from a few kHz to about 10 MHz, with a peak sensitivity down to ∼10^{-22}/sqrt[Hz] at a kHz exploiting a mechanical resonance.

Domcke, Valerie↗
DOE OSTI2025

On-demand magnon resonance isolation in cavity magnonics

Cavity magnonics is a promising field focusing on the interaction between spin waves (magnons) and other types of signal. In cavity magnonics, isolation of magnons from the cavity to allow signal storage and processing fully in the magnonic domain is highly desired, but its realization is often hindered by the lack of necessary tunability of the interaction. This work shows that by using the collective mode of two yttrium iron garnet spheres and applying Floquet engineering, magnonic signals can be switched on demand to a magnon dark mode that is protected from the environment, enabling a variety of manipulation over the magnon dynamics. Furthermore, our demonstration can be scaled up to systems with an array of magnonic resonators, paving the way for large-scale programmable hybrid magnonic circuits.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Loschmidt-amplitude wave function spectroscopy and the physics of dynamically driven phase transitions

In this work, we introduce the Loschmidt amplitude as a powerful tool to perform spectroscopy of generic many-body wave functions and use it to interrogate the wave function obtained after ramping the transverse field quantum Ising model through its quantum critical point. Previous results are confirmed and a more complete understanding of the population of defects and of the effects of magnon-magnon interaction or finite-size corrections is obtained. The influence of quantum coherence is clarified.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Ultrarelativistic quark-nucleus scattering in a light-front Hamiltonian approach

In this work, we investigate the scattering of a quark on a heavy nucleus at high energies using the time-dependent basis light-front quantization (tBLFQ) formalism, which is the first application of the tBLFQ formalism in QCD. We present the real-time evolution of the quark wave function in a strong classical color field of the relativistic nucleus, described as the color glass condensate. The quark and the nucleus color field are simulated in the QCD SU(3) color space. We calculate the total and the differential cross sections, and the quark distribution in coordinate and color spaces using the tBLFQ approach. We recover the eikonal cross sections in the eikonal limit. We find that the differential cross section from the tBLFQ simulation is in agreement with a perturbative calculation at large $p_⊥$, and it deviates from the perturbative calculation at small $p_⊥$ due to higher-order contributions. In particular, we relax the eikonal limit by letting the quark carry realistic finite longitudinal momenta. We study the sub-eikonal effect on the quark through the transverse coordinate distribution of the quark with different longitudinal momentum, and we find the sub-eikonal effect to be sizable. Our results can significantly reduce the theoretical uncertainties in small $p_⊥$ region which has important implications to the phenomenology of the hadron-nucleus and deep inelastic scattering at high energies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Characteristics and selection of near-fault simulated earthquake ground motions for nonlinear analysis of buildings

Earthquake-induced ground shaking near rupturing faults is highly sensitive to the rupture characteristics, seismic wave propagation patterns and site conditions, and field recordings of near-fault shaking are relatively sparse. These challenges complicate the assessment of the seismic performance of near-fault structures. A common approach to representing near-fault ground motion in engineering analysis is to explicitly consider and select records with strong directivity pulses (pulse records). We use three-dimensional high-resolution physics-based earthquake simulations to test this approach in the context of scenario-based ground motion record selection, and to study the important characteristics of near-fault ground shaking. We highlight the deficiencies associated with classifying near-fault simulated records as “pulse” or “non-pulse,” based on the presence of a single dominating pulse in the velocity time history. We show that this approach is inadequate for characterizing near-fault shaking on soft soils which can be dominated by both forward rupture directivity and basin amplification effects. We conduct ground motion selection experiments for the analysis of near-fault structures with and without explicit classification of the pulse features in the records, and evaluate the bias in the predicted structural demands. We find that the maximum interstory drift demands on building structures imposed by unscaled site-specific simulated ground motion records selected based on relevant spectral shape features are not sensitive to the classification of records as pulse/non-pulse. Therefore, with regard to predicting the maximum interstory drifts in near-fault buildings, we do not find justification for the binary pulse classification of near-fault records.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Measuring an ultrashort, ultraviolet pulse in a slowly responding, absorbing medium

Frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) is a common technique for measuring ultrashort laser pulses using an instantaneous, nonlinear-optical interaction as a fast time-gate to measure the pulse intensity and phase. But at high frequencies, materials are often absorbing and it is not always possible to find a medium with a fast nonlinear-optical response. Here we show that an ultrashort, ultraviolet (UV) pulse can be measured in a strongly absorbing medium, using the absorption as the nonlinear-optical time-gate. To do this, we build on our recent implementation of FROG, known as induced-grating cross-correlation FROG (IG XFROG), where an unknown, higher-frequency pulse creates a transient grating that is probed with a lower-frequency, more easily detectable reference pulse. We demonstrate this with an 800 nm reference pulse to characterize 400 nm or 267 nm pulses using ZnS as the nonlinear-optical medium, which is absorptive at and below 400 nm. By scanning the delay between the two UV pulses which create the transient grating, we show that the phase-sensitive instantaneous four-wave-mixing contribution to the nonlinear signal field can be detected and separated from the slower, incoherent part of the response. Measuring a spectrally-resolved cross-correlation in this way and then applying a simple model for the response of the medium, we show that a modified generalized projections (GP) phase-retrieval algorithm can be used to extract the pulse amplitude and phase. We test this approach by measuring chirped UV pulses centered at 400 nm and 267 nm. Since interband absorption (or even photoionization) is not strongly wavelength-dependent, we expect IG XFROG to be applicable deeper into the UV.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

MULTI-TECHNIQUE CHARACTERIZATION OF SUPERCONDUCTING MATERIALS FOR PARTICLE ACCELERATOR APPLICATIONS

We investigated the performance limitations of superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities and materials using multiple experimental techniques. In particular, this study focuses on understanding the surface properties of nitrogen-doped Nb cavities and super?conducting thin films with higher Tc such as Nb3Sn. The main goal of this work is to use different techniques to better understand each aspect of the complex loss mechanism in superconductors to further improve the already highly efficient SRF cavities. Nitrogen doping applied to a Nb SRF cavity significantly improves the quality factor Q0 compared to a conventional Nb cavity, at an expense of reduced maximum accelerating gradient. The early quench mechanism was analyzed by using temperature maps before and during the quenching. The temperature maps revealed insignificant heating before the quench, and we concluded that nitrogen doping reduces critical magnetic fields in local regions, leading to premature quenching. To understand the origin of the increasing Q0 with the rf field, the density of states (DOS) of cold spots from nitrogen-doped and standard cavities were measured and analyzed using scanning tunneling microscopy. The results suggested that nitrogen doping reduces the spatial inhomogeneity of superconducting properties and shrinks the metallic suboxide layers, which tunes the DOS in such a way as to produce the field-induced reduction in the surface resistance. To characterize SRF thin films, an experimental setup for measuring a coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonator was developed and tested. A surface impedance measurement of the Nb film showed good agreement with the BCS calculation. The preliminary results from measurements of Nb3Sn and NbTiN films are also presented here. The nonlinear Meissner effect was investigated in Nb3Sn film CPW resonators by mea?suring the resonant frequency as a function of a parallel magnetic field. Contrary to a conventional quadratic dependence of the penetration depth ?(B) on the applied magnetic field B, as expected in s-wave superconductors, nearly a linear increase of ?(B) with B was observed. It was concluded that this behavior of ?(B) is due to weakly linked grain bound?aries on the polycrystalline Nb3Sn films, which can mimic the NLME expected in a clean d-wave superconductor.

Makita, Junki↗
DOE OSTI2022

Instanton Effects in Euclidean vacuum, Real Time Production, and in the Light-front Wave Functions

Nontrivial topological structures of non-Abelian gauge fields were discovered in the 1970s. Instanton solutions, describing vacuum tunneling through topological barriers, have fermionic zero modes which are at the origin of ‘t Hooft effective Lagrangian. In the 1980s, instanton ensembles have been used to explain chiral symmetry breaking. In the 1990s, a large set of numerical simulations were performed deriving Euclidean correlation functions. The special role of scalar diquarks in nucleons and color superconductivity in dense quark matter has been elucidated. In these lectures, we discuss further developments of physics related to gauge topology. We show that the instanton–anti-instanton “streamline” configurations describe “sphaleron transitions” in high-energy collisions, which result in production of hadronic clusters with nontrivial topological/chiral charges. (They are not yet observed, but discussions of dedicated experiments at the LHC and RHIC are ongoing.) Another new direction is instanton effects in hadronic spectroscopy, both in the rest frame and on the light front. We will discuss their role in central and spin-dependent potentials, form factors and antiquark nuclear “sea”. Finally, we summarize the advances in the semiclassical theory of deconfinement, and chiral phase transitions at finite temperature, in QCD, and in some of its “deformed” versions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Theory and simulations of cross-beam energy transfer between speckled laser beams

In this paper, we introduce a realistic modeling of laser beams smoothed by random phase plates to investigate cross-beam energy transfer (CBET). We compute the total field of the smoothed laser beams, which allows us to perform accurate simulations and to build a model accounting for the realistic structure of the speckles. This lets us confirm the results already discussed in a previous work given by Oudin et al. [Phys. Plasmas 29, 112112 (2022)]. When CBET is induced by a plasma flow, plane wave models can predict the exchange between smoothed laser beams. By contrast, when the exchange is caused by a wavelength shift between the laser fields of each beam, plane wave models overestimate the energy transfer, even for strongly Landau-damped ion acoustic waves. We also show that the laser angular spread, which results from its focusing, affects the resonance between the ponderomotive force induced by the laser fields and the ion acoustic wave. It increases the resonance width, which weakly depends on the Landau damping rate when there is a wavelength shift and no flow. In addition, the power transfer obtained with or without a phase plate is essentially the same in the perturbative regime and for small crossing angles.

Laser plasma interactions↗
DOE OSTI2026

Dynamic magneto-chiral instability in photoexcited tellurium

In systems of charged chiral fermions out of equilibrium, an electric current parallel to a magnetic field can generate a dynamic instability that amplifies electromagnetic waves. Whether this mechanism also operates in chiral solid-state systems has remained uncertain. Here we observe signatures of a dynamic magneto-chiral instability in elemental tellurium, a structurally chiral crystal, using time-domain terahertz emission spectroscopy. Under transient photoexcitation in a moderate magnetic field, we observe terahertz radiation with coherent modes that grow in amplitude over time. We present a theoretical model that describes this behaviour based on a dynamic instability of electromagnetic waves interacting with infrared-active oscillators of acceptor states in tellurium, giving rise to an amplifying polariton. These results demonstrate that magneto-chiral instabilities can emerge in solid-state systems and establish a mechanism for terahertz-wave amplification in chiral materials.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Properties of Lower Hybrid Drift Waves and Energy Transfer Near and Inside the Magnetic Reconnection Electron Diffusion Regions

Here, we investigate properties of lower hybrid drift waves (LHDWs) near and inside the electron diffusion regions in 17 magnetopause and 9 magnetotail reconnection events using Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission observations. Our analysis show that LHDW type depend on the electron beta, as electron beta increases LHDWs become more electromagnetic in nature. The energy transfer from electromagnetic fields to particles is higher in electrostatic LHDWs and it is largely in parallel direction with respect to the local magnetic field. Linear dispersion analysis shows that electrostatic LHDWs are perpendicular propagating while electromagnetic waves propagate in oblique directions and the normalized wavenumber of all LHDW types falls within 0.5–0.8 range. A simple estimate on the LHDW nonlinear saturation suggests a possibly important roles played by these waves in supporting the reconnection electric field.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Anomalous cross-field transport in a Hall thruster inferred from direct measurement of instability growth rates

The contribution of the electron drift instability to anomalous electron transport is experimentally assessed in a Hall effect discharge. The transport is represented by an anomalous collision frequency, which is related through quasilinear theory to the energy and growth rate of the instability. The wave energy is measured directly with ion saturation probes, while estimates of the growth rate are employed based on both linearized theory and direct measurement. The latter measurement is performed with a bispectral analysis method. The wave-driven collision frequency is compared to measurements of the actual collision frequency inferred from a method based on laser- induced fluorescence. It is found that estimates for transport using linearized theory for the growth differ by over an order of magnitude from the actual anomalous collision frequency in the plasma. The wave-driven anomalous collision frequency with measured growth, however, is shown to agree with the electron collision frequency in magnitude and capture aspects of the trends in spatial variation. This result demonstrates experimentally that wave-driven effects ultimately can explain the observed cross-field transport in these devices. As a result, the implications of this finding are discussed in the context of the key lengthscales that drive the transport as well as the implications identifying reduced fidelity models that could be used to predict anomalous collision frequency.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Gravitational waves from stochastic scalar fluctuations

Here, we present a novel mechanism for gravitational wave generation in the early Universe. Light spectator scalar fields during inflation can acquire a blue-tilted power spectrum due to stochastic effects. We show that this effect can lead to large curvature perturbations at small scales (induced by the spectator field fluctuations) while maintaining the observed, slightly red-tilted curvature perturbations at large cosmological scales (induced by the inflaton fluctuations). Along with other observational signatures, such as enhanced dark matter substructure, large curvature perturbations can induce a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). The predicted strength of SGWB in our scenario, Ω GW ⁢ℎ 2 ≃10 -20 -10 -15 , can be observed with future detectors, operating between 10 -5 Hz and 10 Hz. We note that, in order to accommodate the newly reported NANOGrav observation, one could consider the same class of spectator models. At the same time, one would need to go beyond the simple benchmark considered here and consider a regime in which a misalignment contribution is also important.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Determining Optimal Magnetometer Configuration on MAGIS-100

Long-baseline atom interferometers such as the Matter-wave Atomic Gradiometer Interferometric Sensor (MAGIS-100) require stringent control and continuous characterization of background magnetic fields and spatial gradients to prevent systemic phase shifts that mimic ultralight dark matter or gravitational wave signatures. Because direct sensor placement within the ultra-high vacuum beam pipe is infeasible, in-situ magnetic field monitoring relies on external sensor arrays situated in the surrounding annular region. This work demonstrates a field reconstruction framework for a 5.3-meter MAGIS-100 modular section using finite-element Opera simulations. Transverse magnetic fields are expanded using a cylindrical multipole framework as informed by Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment, with magnetometer array configurations optimized via Fisher information matrix D-optimality. Inverting external sensor readings through a Gauss-Newton scheme recovers interior tube fields across distinct axial positions. In the discontinuity-averse uniform region (slice pair P4), the model achieves sub-noise-floor performance with a cross-validated root-mean-square error (RMSE) of $6.7227 \times 10^{-4}\text{ A/m}$ ($0.845\times$ sensor noise floor) and an interior field coefficient of variation of $1.71\%$. An elbow criterion in the Fisher bounds establishes $n_{\text{max}} = 2$ as the optimal multipole truncation order to prevent noise amplification from over-parameterization, with $n_{\text{max}} = 3$ (sextupole) order chosen for analysis to demonstrate further complexity and cross-pair comparison. Furthermore, analytical differentiation of the fitted multipole coefficients yields dense spatial maps of the transverse Jacobian gradient matrix $\nabla \mathbf{H}$ along with propagated $1\sigma$ uncertainty bounds across the beam region ($r \le 2.75\text{ in}$). This operational framework confirms that external magnetometer arrays can reliably monitor magnetic field uniformity and spatial gradients along the 100-meter flight path given appropriate sampling for any complexity order.

Appleby, Darwin [William Rainey Harper Coll.] (ORC↗
DOE OSTI2026

Determining Optimal Magnetometer Configuration on MAGIS-100

Long-baseline atom interferometers such as the Matter-wave Atomic Gradiometer Interferometric Sensor (MAGIS-100) require stringent control and continuous characterization of background magnetic fields and spatial gradients to prevent systemic phase shifts that mimic ultralight dark matter or gravitational wave signatures. Because direct sensor placement within the ultra-high vacuum beam pipe is infeasible, in-situ magnetic field monitoring relies on external sensor arrays situated in the surrounding annular region. This work demonstrates a field reconstruction framework for a 5.3-meter MAGIS-100 modular section using finite-element Opera simulations. Transverse magnetic fields are expanded using a cylindrical multipole framework as informed by Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment, with magnetometer array configurations optimized via Fisher information matrix D-optimality. Inverting external sensor readings through a Gauss-Newton scheme recovers interior tube fields across distinct axial positions. In the discontinuity-averse uniform region (slice pair P4), the model achieves sub-noise-floor performance with a cross-validated root-mean-square error (RMSE) of $6.7227 \times 10^{-4}\text{ A/m}$ ($0.845\times$ sensor noise floor) and an interior field coefficient of variation of $1.71\%$. An elbow criterion in the Fisher bounds establishes $n_{\text{max}} = 2$ as the optimal multipole truncation order to prevent noise amplification from over-parameterization, with $n_{\text{max}} = 3$ (sextupole) order chosen for analysis to demonstrate further complexity and cross-pair comparison. Furthermore, analytical differentiation of the fitted multipole coefficients yields dense spatial maps of the transverse Jacobian gradient matrix $\nabla \mathbf{H}$ along with propagated $1\sigma$ uncertainty bounds across the beam region ($r \le 2.75\text{ in}$). This operational framework confirms that external magnetometer arrays can reliably monitor magnetic field uniformity and spatial gradients along the 100-meter flight path given appropriate sampling for any complexity order.

Appleby, Darwin [William Rainey Harper Coll.] (ORC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Analysis of the density field around a supersonic conical projectile using quantitative schlieren

Quantitative schlieren imaging is a flow measurement technique that is capable of measuring density fields throughout refractive flowfields. The technique was applied here to measure the density field surrounding supersonic conical projectiles in free flight. Shock waves attached to a supersonic conical projectile offer a simple geometry with the well-established Taylor–Maccoll analytical flow solution to which these experimental measurements were compared. The schlieren images recorded a projection of the index of refraction field surrounding the 10° half-angle cones which was converted to density first through an Abel inversion and then the Gladstone–Dale law. Three Abel inversion methods—two-point, three-point, and arbitrary ray axisymmetric projection (ARAP)—were applied to deconvolute the three-dimensional flow within the constrained axisymmetric flow field. The resulting reconstructed density profiles were compared to the Taylor–Maccoll solution, parameterized by cone geometry and Mach number. The experimental density fields demonstrated strong agreement with the theoretical profiles. Experimental consistency was confirmed across various projectile speeds, demonstrating quantitative schlieren’s capability to accurately reconstruct the density of the flow field, even within the resolution constraints imposed by high-speed imaging. In conclusion, an assessment of experimental uncertainties in the density reconstruction was performed.

Abel Inversion↗
DOE OSTI2022

Experimental study of electromagnetic wave scattering from a gyrotropic gaseous plasma column

We experimentally demonstrate the controlled scattering of incident transverse-electric electromagnetic waves from a gyrotropic magnetized plasma cylindrical discharge. Scattered electromagnetic waves can bend left and right by changing the external magnetic field of a plasma rod. Measured scattered wavefronts are in good agreement with electromagnetic simulations. A gyrotropic response is observed for incident wave frequencies ranging from 3.5 to 5.6 GHz for conditions corresponding to a ratio of cyclotron frequency to plasma frequency, ω ce /ω p ≈ 0.16. In conclusion, the observation of a gyrotropic response from cylindrical plasma discharges paves the way for their use as building blocks for future devices such as magnetized plasma photonic crystals, topological insulators, plasma metamaterials, non-reciprocal waveguide structures, and other devices, which require a tunable gyrotropic response from centimeter to meter-scale materials with application-specific geometry.

42 ENGINEERING↗