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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1972

An integrated radiation physics computer code system.

An integrated computer code system for the semi-automatic and rapid analysis of experimental and analytic problems in gamma photon and fast neutron radiation physics is presented. Such problems as the design of optimum radiation shields and radioisotope power source configurations may be studied. The system codes allow for the unfolding of complex neutron and gamma photon experimental spectra. Monte Carlo and analytic techniques are used for the theoretical prediction of radiation transport. The system includes a multichannel pulse-height analyzer scintillation and semiconductor spectrometer coupled to an on-line digital computer with appropriate peripheral equipment. The system is geometry generalized as well as self-contained with respect to material nuclear cross sections and the determination of the spectrometer response functions. Input data may be either analytic or experimental.

Steyn, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Oscillations During Thermonuclear X-ray Bursts

High amplitude, nearly coherent X-ray brightness oscillations during thermonuclear X-ray bursts were discovered with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) in early 1996. Spectral and timing evidence strongly supports the conclusion that these oscillations are caused by rotational modulation of the burst emission and that they reveal the spin frequency of neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries, a long sought goal of X-ray astronomy. Studies carried out over the past year have led to the discovery of burst oscillations in four new sources, bringing to ten the number with confirmed burst oscillations. I review the status of our knowledge of these oscillations and indicate how they can be used to probe the physics of neutron stars. For a few burst oscillation sources it has been proposed that the strongest and most ubiquitous frequency is actually the first overtone of the spin frequency and hence that two nearly antipodal hot spots are present on the neutron star. This inference has important implications for both the physics of thermonuclear burning as well as the mass - radius relation for neutron stars, so its confirmation is crucial. I discuss recent attempts to confirm this hypothesis for 4U 1636-53, the source for which a signal at the putative fundamental (290Hz) has, been claimed.

Strohmayer, Tod E.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Neutron stars - General review

A review is presented of those properties of neutron stars upon which there is general agreement and of those areas which currently remain in doubt. Developments in theoretical physics of neutron star interiors are summarized with particular attention devoted to hyperon interactions and the structure of interior layers. Determination of energy states and the composition of matter is described for successive layers, beginning with the surface and proceeding through the central region into the core. Problems encountered in determining the behavior of matter in the ultra-high density regime are discussed, and the effects of the magnetic field of a neutron star are evaluated along with the behavior of atomic structures in the field. The evolution of a neutron star is outlined with discussion centering on carbon detonation, cooling, vibrational damping, rotation, and pulsar glitches. The role of neutron stars in cosmic-ray propagation is considered.

Cameron, A. G. W.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Neutrino Flavor Transformation in Neutron Star Mergers

Here, we present the first numerical relativity simulations including neutrino flavor transformations that could result from flavor instabilities, quantum many-body effects, or potential beyond standard model physics in neutron star mergers. We find that neutrino flavor transformations impact the composition and structure of the remnant, potentially leaving an imprint on the postmerger gravitational-wave signal. They also have a significant impact on the composition and nucleosynthesis yields of the ejecta.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Toward Accelerated Nuclear-physics Parameter Estimation from Binary Neutron Star Mergers: Emulators for the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff Equations

Abstract Gravitational-wave observations of binary neutron-star (BNS) mergers have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the nuclear equation of state (EOS) and the fundamental interactions that determine its properties. However, Bayesian parameter estimation frameworks do not typically sample over microscopic nuclear-physics parameters that determine the EOS. One of the major hurdles in doing so is the computational cost involved in solving the neutron-star structure equations, known as the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) equations. In this paper, we explore approaches to emulating solutions for the TOV equations: multilayer perceptrons (MLPs), Gaussian processes, and a data-driven variant of the reduced basis method (RBM). We implement these emulators for three different parameterizations of the nuclear EOS, each with a different degree of complexity represented by the number of model parameters. We find that our MLP-based emulators are generally more accurate than the other two algorithms, whereas the RBM results in the largest speedup with respect to the full high-fidelity TOV solver. We employ these emulators for a simple parameter inference using a potentially loud BNS observation and show that the posteriors predicted by our emulators are in excellent agreement with those obtained from the full TOV solver.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Weak-charge radius of 40 Ar: From CREX constraints to CE⁢𝜈⁢NS sensitivity

Despite significant theoretical efforts, the CREX-PREX dilemma remains unresolved, preventing the reliable prediction of neutron (or weak-charge) radii that, besides their intrinsic nuclear-structure interest, often serve to quantify the impact of nuclear uncertainties in searches for new physics. Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering is a clean and attractive portal to new physics, whose sensitivity may be impacted by such nuclear uncertainties. In this paper I use CREX as the basis, together with a strong calcium-argon correlation, to provide a robust baseline for the weak radius of 40 Ar : 𝑅$^{40}_{wk}$ = 3.452 ± 0.028 (stat) ± 0.022 (syst) fm. Here, the weak radius of argon is an observable, highly relevant to ongoing and future liquid-argon campaigns, that encodes the loss of coherence at small momentum transfers.

39 ≤ A ≤ 58↗
DOE OSTI2025

Neutron Scattering Cross Sections: (n,n′), (n,n′γ), and (n,γ) Measurements (Final Technical Report)

This technical report discusses the outcomes from a grant to the University of Dallas in collaboration with the University of Kentucky, the United States Naval Academy and Mississippi State University to measure neutron cross sections and to provide educational opportunities in nuclear science for undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1994

High-energy astrophysics: A theoretical analysis of thermal radiation from neutron stars

The unambiguous detection of thermal radiation from the surface of a cooling neutron star was one of the most anxiously awaited results in neutron star physics. This particular Holy Grail was found by Halpern and Holt, who used ROSAT to detect pulsed X-rays from the gamma-ray source Geminga and demonstrate that it was a neutron star, probably a radio pulsar beamed away from us. At an age of approximately 3.4 x 10(exp 5) years, Geminga is in the photon cooling era. Its surface temperature of 5.2 x 10(exp 5) K can be explained within the contexts of both the slow and fast cooling scenarios. In the slow cooling scenario, the surface temperature is too high unless the specific heat of the interior is reduced by extensive baryon pairing. In the fast cooling scenario, the surface temperature will be much too low unless the fast neutrino cooling is shut off by baryon pairing. Two other pulsars, PSR 0656+14 and PSR 1055-52, have also been detected in thermal X-rays by ROSAT. They are also in the photon cooling era. All of this research's neutron star cooling models to date have used the unmagnetized effective temperature-interior temperature relation for the outer boundary condition. Models are being improved by using published magnetic envelope calculations and assumed geometried for the surface magnetic field to determine local interior temperature-emitted flux relations for the surface of the star.

Applegate, James H.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Accurate universal parameterization of absorption cross sections II--neutron absorption cross sections

A recent parameterization (here after referred as paper I, Ref. [4]) of absorption cross sections for any system of charged ions collisions including proton -nucleus collisions, is extended for neutron-nucleus collisions valid from approximately 1 MeV to a few GeV, thus providing a comprehensive picture of absorption cross sections for any system of collision pair (charged and/or uncharged). The parameters are associated with the physics of the problem. At lower energies, the optical potential at the surface is important and the Pauli operator plays an increasingly important role at intermediate energies. The agreement between the calculated and experimental data is better than earlier published results.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗
NASA NTRS1983

On neutron star structure and the millisecond pulsar

The millisecond pulsar is the first observed example of a neutron star spinning rapidly enough to approach the Jacobi bifurcation point and thus affords the possibility of constraining neutron star physics. The pulsar must be rotating below the critical frequency at which its equilibrium configuration would become nonaxisymmetric, since the lifetime of this configuration against decay by gravitational radiation is very short. This critical frequency may be used to set a lower limit of 2 x 10 to the 14th g/cu cm on the density of the star. If the mass is 0.5-1.5 solar mass, several of the stiffer neutron star equations of state may be ruled out, and the radius should be less than 16 km. The condition for axisymmetry also imposes an upper limit on the rotation rate to which neutron stars may be spun up by accretion disks in binary systems.

Harding, A. K.↗
DOE OSTI2025

An Analytic Benchmark for Neutron Boltzmann Transport with Downscattering—Part IV: PFNS and $\bar{ν}$ Uncertainty Propagation

An analytic benchmark with continuous-energy cross sections was previously derived to validate criticality calculations. Here, to extend the utility of the analytic benchmark to verify the implementation of $\bar{ν}$ and prompt fission neutron spectrum (PFNS) uncertainty propagation methods, new simplified forms that are dependent on the incident (fission-causing) neutron energy, as well as the outgoing neutron energy for the PFNS, are introduced in this work. The analytical forms for the flux and adjoint flux are derived for the extended benchmark and used to determine the 𝑘-eigenvalue sensitivity to $\bar{ν}$ and PFNS. The 𝑘-eigenvalue uncertainty due to $\bar{ν}$ and PFNS is calculated for the analytic benchmark using simplified$\bar{ν}$ and PFNS representations based on the ENDF-B/VIII.0 239 Pu evaluation. Because of the low sensitivity of the analytic benchmark to the physical PFNS, a nonphysical high-sensitivity PFNS is also presented.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1972

Neutron stars.

Particular attention is given to the physical concepts underlying neutron stars. The characteristics of an equation of state which is suitable for a neutron star configuration are discussed. Cold neutron star models are examined, including the properties of a particular model in the intermediate range of stable models. Questions regarding the thermal energy of a neutron star are discussed together with aspects of vibrational energy, rotational energy, magnetic energy, and problems in connection with the Vela pulsar.

Cameron, A. G. W.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Effect of magnetic fields on Urca rates in neutron star mergers

Isospin-equilibrating weak processes, called “Urca” processes, are of fundamental importance in astrophysical environments like (proto-)neutron stars, neutron star mergers, and supernovae. In these environments, matter can reach high temperatures of tens of MeVs and be subject to large magnetic fields. We thus investigate Urca rates at different temperatures and field strengths by performing the full temperature and magnetic-fielddependent rate integrals for different equations of state. We find that the magnetic fields play an important role at temperatures of a few MeV, especially close to or below the direct Urca threshold, which is softened by the magnetic field. At higher temperatures, the effect of the magnetic fields can be overshadowed by the thermal effects. Finally, we observe that the magnetic field influences the neutron decay rates more strongly than the electron-capture rates, leading to a shift in the flavor equilibrium.

electroweak interactions in nuclear physics↗
NASA NTRS1990

Single nucleon emission in relativistic nucleus-nucleus reactions

Significant discrepancies between theory and experiment have previously been noted for nucleon emission via electromagnetic processes in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. The present work investigates the hypothesis that these discrepancies have arisen due to uncertainties about how to deduce the experimental electromagnetic cross section from the total measured cross section. An optical-model calculation of single neutron removal is added to electromagnetic cross sections and compared to the total experimental cross sections. Good agreement is found thereby resolving some of the earlier noted discrepancies. A detailed comparison to the recent work of Benesh, Cook, and Vary is made for both the impact parameter and the nuclear cross section. Good agreement is obtained giving an independent confirmation of the parametrized formulas developed by those authors.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗
DOE OSTI2025

Radiation-resilient InAs quantum dot lasers

Displacement damage from particle radiation increases the threshold current of semiconductor lasers, impeding the deployment of photonic systems in harsh radiation environments. Replacing conventional quantum well (QW) gain regions with quantum dots (QDs) has been shown to suppress the radiation-induced increase in threshold current owing to three-dimensional carrier confinement, which effectively segregates charge carriers away from radiation-induced defects. However, radiation-induced change in threshold current is also affected by extrinsic design elements of a laser, such as photon lifetime, and therefore provides only a partial assessment of the radiation hardness. In this work, we advance the understanding of the radiation resiliency of InAs QD lasers by extracting the change in the nonradiative recombination rate after radiation exposure, which provides a more fundamental assessment of the intrinsic radiation hardness of InAs QD gain regions. We find that carriers that populate InAs QD states have a nonradiative recombination rate that is over an order-of-magnitude less sensitive to neutron radiation relative to carriers in InGaAsP QWs. InAs QD lasers must be designed such that carriers primarily occupy QD states, preventing carrier spillover into surrounding barrier layers to obtain the maximum benefit. Furthermore, we show that enhanced radiation hardness is observed in InAs QD lasers grown on both highly lattice-mismatched silicon substrates and native GaAs substrates, further broadening the appeal of InAs QD lasers as reliable light sources for photonic systems operating in harsh radiation environments.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗