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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

A Compact Cryogenic Environment for In Situ Neutron Diffraction Under Mechanical Loading

Understanding the deformation mechanisms of materials at cryogenic temperatures is crucial for cryogenic engineering applications. In situ neutron diffraction is a powerful technique for probing such mechanisms under cryogenic conditions. In this study, we present the development of a compact cryogenic environment (CCE) designed to facil-itate in situ neutron diffraction experiments under mechanical loading at tempera-tures as low as 77 K. The CCE features a polystyrene foam cryogenic chamber, alumi-num blocks serving as neutron-transparent cold sinks, a liquid nitrogen dosing system for cryogen delivery, a nitrogen gas flow control system for thermal management, a process controller for temperature control, and a pair of thermally isolated grip adapt-ers for mechanical testing. The CCE achieves reliable temperature control with mini-mal neutron attenuation. Utilizing this setup, we conducted three in situ neutron dif-fraction tensile tests on a 316L stainless steel at 77 , 173 , and 298 K, respectively. The results highlight the pronounced effects of cryogenic temperatures on the material's deformation mechanisms, underscoring both the significance of cryogenic deformation studies and the effectiveness of the CCE.

Yu, Dunji [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000189467851)↗
DOE OSTI2024

SCIMON: Scientific Inspiration Machines Optimized for Novelty

We explore and enhance the ability of neu- ral language models to generate novel scien- tific directions grounded in literature. Work on literature-based hypothesis generation has traditionally focused on binary link prediction— severely limiting the expressivity of hypothe- ses. This line of work also does not focus on optimizing novelty. We take a dramatic depar- ture with a novel setting in which models use as input background contexts (e.g., problems, experimental settings, goals), and output natu- ral language ideas grounded in literature. We present SCIMON, a modeling framework that uses retrieval of “inspirations” from past scien- tific papers, and explicitly optimizes for novelty by iteratively comparing to prior papers and up- dating idea suggestions until sufficient novelty is achieved. Comprehensive evaluations reveal that GPT-4 tends to generate ideas with over- all low technical depth and novelty, while our methods partially mitigate this issue. Our work represents a first step toward evaluating and developing language models that generate new ideas derived from the scientific literature.

Ji, Heng↗
DOE OSTI2024

On the hardness of learning ground state entanglement of geometrically local Hamiltonians

Characterizing the entanglement structure of ground states of local Hamiltonians is a fundamental problem in quantum information. In this work we study the computational complexity of this problem, given the Hamiltonian as input. Our main result is that to show it is cryptographically hard to determine if the ground state of a geometrically local, polynomially gapped Hamiltonian on qudits (d=O(1)) has near-area law vs near-volume law entanglement. This improves prior work of Bouland et al. (arXiv:2311.12017) showing this for non-geometrically local Hamiltonians. In particular we show this problem is roughly factoring-hard in 1D, and LWE-hard in 2D. Our proof works by constructing a novel form of public-key pseudo-entanglement which is highly space-efficient, and combining this with a modification of Gottesman and Irani's quantum Turing machine to Hamiltonian construction. Our work suggests that the problem of learning so-called "gapless" quantum phases of matter might be intractable.

Computational Complexity (cs.CC)↗
NASA NTRS1971

A note on AFLs and bounded erasing

F-bounded erasing operator in abstract family of language for mapping, applying to families defined by tape-bounded Turing acceptors

Book, R. V.↗
NASA NTRS1986

A survey of functional programming language principles

Research in the area of functional programming languages has intensified in the 8 years since John Backus' Turing Award Lecture on the topic was published. The purpose of this paper is to present a survey of the ideas of functional programming languages. The paper assumes the reader is comfortable with mathematics and has knowledge of the basic principles of traditional programming languages, but does not assume any prior knowledge of the ideas of functional languages. A simple functional language is defined and used to illustrate the basic ideas. Topics discussed include the reasons for developing functional languages, methods of expressing concurrency, the algebra of functional programming languages, program transformation techniques, and implementations of functional languages. Existing functional languages are also mentioned. The paper concludes with the author's opinions as to the future of functional languages. An annotated bibliography on the subject is also included.

Holloway, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS1997

What can Robots Do? Towards Theoretical Analysis

Robots have become more and more sophisticated. Every robot has its limits. If we face a task that existing robots cannot solve, then, before we start improving these robots, it is important to check whether it is, in principle, possible to design a robot for this task or not. For that, it is necessary to describe what exactly the robots can, in principle, do. A similar problem - to describe what exactly computers can do - has been solved as early as 1936, by Turing. In this paper, we describe a framework within which we can, hopefully, formalize and answer the question of what exactly robots can do.

Nogueira, Monica↗
NASA NTRS2000

On the Computational Capabilities of Physical Systems: The Impossibility of Infallible Computation - Part 1

In this first of two papers, strong limits on the accuracy of physical computation are established. First it is proven that there cannot be a physical computer C to which one can pose any and all computational tasks concerning the physical universe. Next it is proven that no physical computer C can correctly carry out any computational task in the subset of such tasks that can be posed to C. This result holds whether the computational tasks concern a system that is physically isolated from C, or instead concern a system that is coupled to C. As a particular example, this result means that there cannot be a physical computer that can, for any physical system external to that computer, take the specification of that external system's state as input and then correctly predict its future state before that future state actually occurs; one cannot build a physical computer that can be assured of correctly 'processing information faster than the universe does'. The results also mean that there cannot exist an infallible, general-purpose observation apparatus, and that there cannot be an infallible, general-purpose control apparatus. These results do not rely on systems that are infinite, and/or non-classical, and/or obey chaotic dynamics. They also hold even if one uses an infinitely fast, infinitely dense computer, with computational powers greater than that of a Turing Machine. This generality is a direct consequence of the fact that a novel definition of computation - a definition of 'physical computation' - is needed to address the issues considered in these papers. While this definition does not fit into the traditional Chomsky hierarchy, the mathematical structure and impossibility results associated with it have parallels in the mathematics of the Chomsky hierarchy. The second in this pair of papers presents a preliminary exploration of some of this mathematical structure, including in particular that of prediction complexity, which is a 'physical computation analogue' of algorithmic information complexity. It is proven in that second paper that either the Hamiltonian of our universe proscribes a certain type of computation, or prediction complexity is unique (unlike algorithmic information complexity), in that there is one and only version of it that can be applicable throughout our universe.

Wolpert, David H.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Nonintrusive Temperature and Velocity Measurements in a Hypersonic Nozzle Flow

Distributions of nitric oxide vibrational temperature, rotational temperature and velocity have been measured in the hypersonic freestream at the exit of a conical nozzle, using planar laser-induced fluorescence. Particular attention has been devoted to reducing the major sources of systematic error that can affect fluorescence tempera- ture measurements, including beam attenuation, transition saturation effects, laser mode fluctuations and transition choice. Visualization experiments have been performed to improve the uniformity of the nozzle flow. Comparisons of measured quantities with a simple one-dimensional computation are made, showing good agreement between measurements and theory given the uncertainty of the nozzle reservoir conditions and the vibrational relaxation rate.

OByrne, S.↗
NASA NTRS2004

ENSO Bred Vectors in Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere General Circulation Models

The breeding method has been implemented in the NASA Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction Project (NSIPP) Coupled General Circulation Model (CGCM) with the goal of improving operational seasonal to interannual climate predictions through ensemble forecasting and data assimilation. The coupled instability as cap'tured by the breeding method is the first attempt to isolate the evolving ENSO instability and its corresponding global atmospheric response in a fully coupled ocean-atmosphere GCM. Our results show that the growth rate of the coupled bred vectors (BV) peaks at about 3 months before a background ENSO event. The dominant growing BV modes are reminiscent of the background ENSO anomalies and show a strong tropical response with wind/SST/thermocline interrelated in a manner similar to the background ENSO mode. They exhibit larger amplitudes in the eastern tropical Pacific, reflecting the natural dynamical sensitivity associated with the presence of the shallow thermocline. Moreover, the extratropical perturbations associated with these coupled BV modes reveal the variations related to the atmospheric teleconnection patterns associated with background ENSO variability, e.g. over the North Pacific and North America. A similar experiment was carried out with the NCEP/CFS03 CGCM. Comparisons between bred vectors from the NSIPP CGCM and NCEP/CFS03 CGCM demonstrate the robustness of the results. Our results strongly suggest that the breeding method can serve as a natural filter to identify the slowly varying, coupled instabilities in a coupled GCM, which can be used to construct ensemble perturbations for ensemble forecasts and to estimate the coupled background error covariance for coupled data assimilation.

Yang, S. C.↗
NASA NTRS2005

New Species of Fire Discovered: Fingering Flamelets Form a Dynamic Population

Poets and artists have long used fire as a metaphor for life. At the NASA Glenn Research Center, recent experiments in a subcritical Rayleigh number flow channel demonstrated that this analogy holds up surprisingly well when tools developed to characterize a biological population are applied to a class of fire that occurs in near-extinction, weakly convective environments (such as microgravity) or in vertically confined spaces (such as our apparatus). Under these conditions, the flame breaks into numerous 'flamelets" that form a Turing-type reaction-diffusion fingering pattern as they spread across the fuel. It is standard practice on U.S. spacecraft for the astronaut crew to turn off the ventilation to help extinguish a fire, both to eliminate the fresh oxygen supply and to reduce the distribution of the smoke. When crew members think that the fire is fully extinguished, they reactivate the ventilation system to clear the smoke. However, some flamelets can survive, and our experiments have demonstrated that flamelets quickly grow into a large fire when ventilation increases.

Olson, Sandra L.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) for the HyspIRI Spectrometer Mission

The OSSE software provides an integrated end-to-end environment to simulate an Earth observing system by iteratively running a distributed modeling workflow based on the HyspIRI Mission, including atmospheric radiative transfer, surface albedo effects, detection, and retrieval for agile exploration of the mission design space. The software enables an Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) and can be used for design trade space exploration of science return for proposed instruments by modeling the whole ground truth, sensing, and retrieval chain and to assess retrieval accuracy for a particular instrument and algorithm design. The OSSE in fra struc ture is extensible to future National Research Council (NRC) Decadal Survey concept missions where integrated modeling can improve the fidelity of coupled science and engineering analyses for systematic analysis and science return studies. This software has a distributed architecture that gives it a distinct advantage over other similar efforts. The workflow modeling components are typically legacy computer programs implemented in a variety of programming languages, including MATLAB, Excel, and FORTRAN. Integration of these diverse components is difficult and time-consuming. In order to hide this complexity, each modeling component is wrapped as a Web Service, and each component is able to pass analysis parameterizations, such as reflectance or radiance spectra, on to the next component downstream in the service workflow chain. In this way, the interface to each modeling component becomes uniform and the entire end-to-end workflow can be run using any existing or custom workflow processing engine. The architecture lets users extend workflows as new modeling components become available, chain together the components using any existing or custom workflow processing engine, and distribute them across any Internet-accessible Web Service endpoints. The workflow components can be hosted on any Internet-accessible machine. This has the advantages that the computations can be distributed to make best use of the available computing resources, and each workflow component can be hosted and maintained by their respective domain experts.

Turmon, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Ground Based Observation of Isotopic Oxygen in the Martian Atmosphere Using Infrared Heterodyne Spectroscopy

Infrared heterodyne spectra of isotopic CO2 in the Martian atmosphere were obtained using the Goddard Heterodyne Instrument for Planetary Wind and Composition, HIPWAC, which was interfaced with the 3-meter telescope at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility- Spectra were colle cted at a resolution of lambda/delta lambda=10(exp 7). Absorption fea tures of the CO2 isotopologues have been identified from which isotop ic ratios of oxygen have been determined. The isotopic ratios O-17/O -16 and O-18/O-16 in the Martian atmosphere can be related to Martian atmospheric evolution and can be compared to isotopic ratios of oxyg en in the Earth's atmosphere. Isotopic carbon and oxygen are importa nt constraints on any theory for the erosion of the Martian primordia l atmosphere and the interaction between the atmosphere and surface o r subsurface chemical reservoirs. This investigation explored the pr esent abundance of the stable isotopes of oxygen in Mars' atmospheric carbon dioxide by measuring rovibrational line absorption in isotop ic species of CO2 using groundbased infrared heterodyne spectroscopy in the vicinity of the 9.6 micron and 10.6 micron CO2 lasing bands. T he target transitions during this observation were O-18 C-12 O-16 as well as O-178 C-12 O-16 and O-16 C-113 O-16 at higher resolving power of lambda/delta lambda=10(exp 7) and with high signal-to-noise ratio (longer integration time) in order to fully characterize the absorpt ion line profiles. The fully-resolved lineshape of both the strong n ormal-isotope and the weak isotopic CO2 lines were measured simultane ously in a single spectrum.

Smith, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Latency and User Performance in Virtual Environments and Augmented Reality

System rendering latency has been recognized by senior researchers, such as Professor Fredrick Brooks of UNC (Turing Award 1999), as a major factor limiting the realism and utility of head-referenced displays systems. Latency has been shown to reduce the user's sense of immersion within a virtual environment, disturb user interaction with virtual objects, and to contribute to motion sickness during some simulation tasks. Latency, however, is not just an issue for external display systems since finite nerve conduction rates and variation in transduction times in the human body's sensors also pose problems for latency management within the nervous system. Some of the phenomena arising from the brain's handling of sensory asynchrony due to latency will be discussed as a prelude to consideration of the effects of latency in interactive displays. The causes and consequences of the erroneous movement that appears in displays due to latency will be illustrated with examples of the user performance impact provided by several experiments. These experiments will review the generality of user sensitivity to latency when users judge either object or environment stability. Hardware and signal processing countermeasures will also be discussed. In particular the tuning of a simple extrapolative predictive filter not using a dynamic movement model will be presented. Results show that it is possible to adjust this filter so that the appearance of some latencies may be hidden without the introduction of perceptual artifacts such as overshoot. Several examples of the effects of user performance will be illustrated by three-dimensional tracking and tracing tasks executed in virtual environments. These experiments demonstrate classic phenomena known from work on manual control and show the need for very responsive systems if they are indented to support precise manipulation. The practical benefits of removing interfering latencies from interactive systems will be emphasized with some classic final examples from surgical telerobotics, and human-computer interaction.

Ellis, Stephen R.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Flash Cracking Reactor for Waste Plastic Processing

Conversion of waste plastic to energy is a growing problem that is especially acute in space exploration applications. Moreover, utilization of heavy hydrocarbon resources (wastes, waxes, etc.) as fuels and chemicals will be a growing need in the future. Existing technologies require a trade-off between product selectivity and feedstock conversion. The objective of this work was to maintain high plastic-to-fuel conversion without sacrificing the liquid yield. The developed technology accomplishes this goal with a combined understanding of thermodynamics, reaction rates, and mass transport to achieve high feed conversion without sacrificing product selectivity. The innovation requires a reaction vessel, hydrocarbon feed, gas feed, and pressure and temperature control equipment. Depending on the feedstock and desired product distribution, catalyst can be added. The reactor is heated to the desired tempera ture, pressurized to the desired pressure, and subject to a sweep flow at the optimized superficial velocity. Software developed under this project can be used to determine optimal values for these parameters. Product is vaporized, transferred to a receiver, and cooled to a liquid - a form suitable for long-term storage as a fuel or chemical. An important NASA application is the use of solar energy to convert waste plastic into a form that can be utilized during periods of low solar energy flux. Unlike previous work in this field, this innovation uses thermodynamic, mass transport, and reaction parameters to tune product distribution of pyrolysis cracking. Previous work in this field has used some of these variables, but never all in conjunction for process optimization. This method is useful for municipal waste incinerator operators and gas-to-liquids companies.

Timko, Michael T.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Refractory Materials for Flame Deflector Protection System Corrosion Control: Similar Industries and/or Launch Facilities Survey

A trade study and litera ture survey of refractory materials (fi rebrick. refractory concrete. and si licone and epoxy ablatives) were conducted to identify candidate replacement materials for Launch Complexes 39A and 398 at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). In addition, site vis its and in terviews with industry expens and vendors of refractory materials were conducted. As a result of the si te visits and interviews, several products were identified for launch applications. Firebrick is costly to procure and install and was not used in the si tes studied. Refractory concrete is gunnable. adheres well. and costs less 10 install. Martyte. a ceramic fi lled epoxy. can protect structural stccl but is costly. difficullto apply. and incompatible with silicone ablatives. Havanex, a phenolic ablative material, is easy to apply but is costly and requires frequent replacement. Silicone ablatives are ineJ[pensive, easy to apply. and perl'onn well outside of direct rocket impingement areas. but refractory concrete and epoxy ablatives provide better protection against direcl rocket exhaust. None of the prodUCIS in this trade study can be considered a panacea for these KSC launch complexes. but the refractory products. individually or in combination, may be considered for use provided the appropriate testing requirements and specifications are met.

Calle, Luz Marina↗
NASA NTRS2014

The Investigation of Magnesium Perchlorate/Iron Phase-mineral Mixtures as a Possible Source of Oxygen and Chlorine Detected by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument in Gale Crater, Mars

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument onboard the Curiosity rover detect-ed O2 and HCl gas releases from the Rocknest (RN) eolian bedform and the John Klein (JK) and Cumber-land (CB) drill hole materials in Gale Crater (Fig. 1) [1,2]. Chlorinated hydrocarbons have also been detect-ed by the SAM quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (GCMS) [1,2,3,4]. These detections along with the detection of perchlorate (ClO4(-)) by the Mars Phoenix Lander's Wet Chemistry Laboratory (WCL) [5] suggesting perchlo-rate is a possible candidate for evolved O2 and chlorine species. Laboratory thermal analysis of individual per-chlorates has yet to provide an unequivocal tempera-ture match to the SAM O2 and HCl release data [1,2]. Catalytic reactions of Fe phases in the Gale Crater ma-terial with perchlorates can potentially reduce the de-composition temperatures of these otherwise pure per-chlorate/chlorate phases [e.g., 6,7]. Iron mineralogy found in the Rocknest materials when mixed with Ca-perchlorate was found to cause O2 release temperatures to be closer match to the SAM O2 release data and enhance HCl gas releases. Exact matches to the SAM data has unfortnunately not been achieved with Ca-perchlorate-Fe-phase mixtures [8]. The effects of Fe-phases on magnesium perchlorate thermal decomposi-tion release of O2 and HCl have not been evaluated and may provide improved matches to the SAM O2 and HCl release data. This work will evaluate the thermal decomposition of magnesium perchlorate mixed with fayalite/magnetite phase and a Mauna Kea palagonite (HWMK 919). The objectives are to 1) summarize O2 and HCl releases from the Gale Crater materials, and 2) evaluate the O2 and HCl releases from the Mg-perchlorate + Fe phase mixtures to determine if Mg-perchlorate mixed with Fe-phases can explain the Gale Crater O2 and HCl releases.

Sutter, B.↗