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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Terahertz Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of Molecular Assemblies and Nanostructures

Chemical, physical, biological and materials engineering disciplines use a variety of chiroptical spectroscopies to probe geometrical and optical asymmetry in molecules and particles. Electronic (ECD) and vibrational (VCD) circular dichroism are the most common of these techniques and collectively enable the studies of electronic and vibronic transitions with energies between 0.1 and 5.0 eV. The vibrational states with characteristic energies in the range of 0.001–0.01 eV carry valuable information about concerted intermolecular motions in molecules and crystals involving multiple atoms. These vibronic transitions located in the terahertz (THz) part of the spectrum become increasingly more important for the chemistry, physics, and biology of complex molecules and materials However, the methodology and hardware of THz circular dichroism (TCD) are much less developed than the chiroptical spectroscopies for ultraviolet, visible, near- and mid infrared photons. In this report we provide theoretical foundations, practical implementations, comparative assessments, and exemplary applications of TCD spectroscopy. We show that the sign, intensity, and position of TCD peaks are highly sensitive to the three-dimensional structure and long-range organization of molecular crystals, which offer unique capabilities to study (bio) molecules, their crystals, and nanoscale assemblies and apply the novel data processing methodologies. TCD also offers a convenient toolbox to identify new physical phenomena, such as chiral phonons and their propagation in nanostructured matter. We also discuss the major challenges, emerging opportunities and promising research directions, including broad investigation of chiral phonons observed in chiral (nano) crystals and emerging machine learning methodologies for TCD in biological and nanoscale structures. Ubiquity of low-frequency vibrations with rotational components in biomolecular structures, combined with sharpness of peaks in TCD spectra, enables a variety of technological translations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Individual neutrino masses from a supernova

A nearby supernova will carry an unprecedented wealth of information about astrophysics, nuclear physics, and particle physics. Because supernova are fundamentally neutrino driven phenomenon, our knowledge about neutrinos—particles that remain quite elusive—will increase dramatically with such a detection. One of the biggest open questions in particle physics is related to the masses of neutrinos. Here, we show how a galactic supernova provides information about the masses of each of the three mass eigenstates , at some precision, and is well probed at JUNO. This information comes from several effects including time delay and the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect within the supernova. The time delay feature is strongest during a sharp change in the flux such as the neutronization burst; additional information may also come from a QCD phase transition in the supernova or if the supernova forms a black hole. We consider both standard cases as dictated by local oscillation experiments as well as new physics motivated scenarios where neutrino masses may differ across the galaxy. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Accurately simulating nine-dimensional phase space of relativistic particles in strong fields

Next-generation high-power laser systems that can be focused to ultra-high intensities exceeding 10 23 W/cm 2 are enabling new physics regimes and applications. The physics of how these lasers interact with matter is highly nonlinear, relativistic, and can involve lowest-order quantum effects. The current tool of choice for modeling these interactions is the particle-in-cell (PIC) method. In the presence of strong electromagnetic fields, the motion of charged particles and their spin is affected by radiation reaction (either the semi-classical or the quantum limit). Standard (PIC) codes usually use Boris or similar operator-splitting methods to advance the particles in standard phase space. These methods have been shown to require very small time steps in the strong-field regime in order to obtain accurate results. In addition, some problems require tracking the spin of particles, which creates a nine-dimensional (9D) particle phase space, i.e., (x, u, s). Therefore, numerical algorithms that enable high-fidelity modeling of the 9D phase space in the strong-field regime (where both the spin and momentum evolution are affected by radiation reaction) are desired. Here we present a new particle pusher that works in 9D and 6D phase space (i.e., with and without spin) based on analytical rather than leapfrog solutions to the momentum and spin advance from the Lorentz force, together with the semi-classical form of radiation reaction in the Landau-Lifshitz equation and spin evolution given by the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation. Analytical solutions for the position advance are also obtained, but these are not amenable to the staggering of space and time in standard PIC codes. These analytical solutions are obtained by assuming a locally uniform and constant electromagnetic field during a time step. The solutions provide the 9D phase space advance in terms of a particle's proper time, and a mapping is used to determine the proper time step duration for each particle as a function of the lab frame time step. Due to the analytical integration of particle trajectory and spin orbit, the constraint on the time step needed to resolve trajectories in ultra-high fields can be greatly reduced. The time step required in a PIC code for accurately advancing the fields may provide additional constraints. We present single-particle simulations to show that the proposed particle pusher can greatly improve the accuracy of particle trajectories in 6D or 9D phase space for given laser fields. We have implemented the new pusher into the PIC code Osiris. Example simulations show that the proposed pusher provides improvement for a given time step. A discussion on the numerical efficiency of the proposed pusher is also provided.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

e + e – → ZH process in the SMEFT beyond leading order

We systematically study potential effects of Beyond the Standard Model physics in the e + e – → ZH process. To this end, we include all relevant dimension-6 Standard Model Effective Field Theory operators and work to next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy in the electroweak coupling. We consider both polarized and unpolarized electron and positron beams and present results for $\sqrt {s}$ = 240, 365 and 500 GeV, emphasizing contributions where the NLO predictions differ significantly from the leading order results. At NLO, a sensitivity arises to operators that do not contribute at tree level, such as the Higgs tri-linear coupling, CP-violating operators, and dimension-6 operators involving the top quark, among many others. We compare the prospects of future e + e – colliders to explore these new physics effects with existing measurements from the LHC, electron EDMs (for CP violating operators), and Z pole measurements.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electroweak, QCD and flavour physics studies with ATLAS data from Run 2 of the LHC

A of precision measurements sensitive to electroweak, QCD and quark-flavour effects performed by the ATLAS Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider is reported. The measurements are predominantly performed on proton–proton ( p p ) collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV taken from 2015 to 2018, with an integrated luminosity of up to 140 fb−1, with some results based on p p and Pb+Pb data recorded at lower nucleon centre-of-mass energies. The results cover a wide range of topics, from strong production of particles at low energies and the spectroscopy of hadrons to perturbative QCD with hadronic jets and electroweak and strong production of single and multiple vector bosons. They provide precise measurements of fundamental constants and stringent tests of the Standard Model with unprecedented precision and in energy ranges never explored before. They are also used to explore the proton structure and to perform model-independent searches for new physics.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1990

Observational properties of compact groups of galaxies

Compact groups are small, relatively isolated, systems of galaxies with projected separations comparable to the diameters of the galaxies themselves. Two well-known examples are Stephan's Quintet (Stephan, 1877) and Seyfert's Sextet (Seyfert 1948a,b). In groups such as these, the apparent space density of galaxies approaches 10(exp 6) Mpc(sub -3), denser even than the cores of rich clusters. The apparent unlikeliness of the chance occurrence of such tight groupings lead Ambartsumyan (1958, 1975) to conclude that compact groups must be physically dense systems. This view is supported by clear signs of galaxy interactions that are seen in many groups. Spectroscopic observations reveal that typical relative velocities of galaxies in the groups are comparable to their internal stellar velocities. This should be conducive to strong gravitational interactions - more so than in rich clusters, where galaxy velocities are typically much higher. This suggests that compact groups could be excellent laboratories in which to study galaxy interactions and their effects. Compact groups often contain one or more galaxies whose redshift differs greatly from those of the other group members. If these galaxies are at the same distance as the other members, either entire galaxies are being ejected at high velocities from these groups, or some new physical phenomena must be occurring. If their redshifts are cosmological, we must explain why so many discordant galaxies are found in compact groups. In recent years much progress has been made in addressing these questions. Here, the author discusses the current observational data on compact groups and their implications.

Hickson, Paul↗
DOE OSTI2023

Origin of Soft-Switching Output Capacitance Loss in Cascode GaN HEMTs at High Frequencies

Output capacitance (C OSS ) loss (E DISS ) is produced when the C OSS of a power device is charged and discharged, which ideally should be a lossless process. This loss was recently revealed to be a crucial concern for GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) in high-frequency soft-switching applications. Among various GaN devices, the composite-type, cascode GaN HEMT was reported to show the largest E DISS with a voltage dependence distinct from discrete GaN HEMTs. However, the physical origins of the EDISS in cascode GaN HEMTs remain unclear. This work fills this gap by identifying three loss components and, for the first time, experimentally quantifying them in the multi-MHz resonant switching. These loss components include a) the avalanche loss of Si MOSFET, b) the intrinsic E DISS of GaN HEMT, and c) the Si avalanche-induced GaN turn-ON loss. The last component was found to dominate E DISS at high voltage. By eliminating the Si avalanche and the associated loss components (a) and (c), the E DISS of cascode GaN HEMTs can be reduced by up to 75% at the price of an increase in output charge and switching transition time. Furthermore, these results provide new physical insights and practical guidelines to trim the soft-switching loss of cascode GaN HEMTs in high-frequency applications.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Automated detector simulation and reconstruction parametrization using machine learning

Rapidly applying the effects of detector response to physics objects (e.g. electrons, muons, showers of particles) is essential in high energy physics. Presently available tools for the transformation from truth-level physics objects to reconstructed detector-level physics objects involve manually defining resolution functions. These resolution functions are typically derived in bins of variables that are correlated with the resolution (e.g. pseudorapidity and transverse momentum). This process is time consuming, requires manual updates when detector conditions change, and can miss important correlations. Machine learning offers a way to automate the process of building these truth-to-reconstructed object transformations and can capture complex correlation for any given set of input variables. Such machine learning algorithms, with sufficient optimization, could have a wide range of applications: improving phenomenological studies by using a better detector representation, allowing for more efficient production of Geant4 simulation by only simulating events within an interesting part of phase space, and studies on future experimental sensitivity to new physics.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
NASA NTRS1991

Cosmological structure formation

A summary of the current forefront problem of physical cosmology, the formation of structures (galaxies, clusters, great walls, etc.) in the universe is presented. Solutions require two key ingredients: (1) matter; and (2) seeds. Regarding the matter, it now seems clear that both baryonic and non-baryonic matter are required. Whether the non-baryonic matter is hot or cold depends on the choice of seeds. Regarding the seeds, both density fluctuations and topological defects are discussed. The combination of isotropy of the microwave background and the recent observations indicating more power on large scales have severly constrained, if not eliminated, Gaussian fluctuations with equal power on all scales, regardless of the eventual resolution of both the matter and seed questions. It is important to note that all current structure formation ideas require new physics beyond SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1).

Schramm, David N.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Hybridized Exciton-Photon-Phonon States in a Transition Metal Dichalcogenide van der Waals Heterostructure Microcavity

Excitons in atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have been established as an attractive platform to explore polaritonic physics, owing to their enormous binding energies and giant oscillator strength. Basic spectral features of exciton polaritons in TMD microcavities, thus far, were conventionally explained via two-coupled-oscillator models. This ignores, however, the impact of phonons on the polariton energy structure. Here we establish and quantify the threefold coupling between excitons, cavity photons, and phonons. For this purpose, we employ energy-momentum-resolved photoluminescence and spatially resolved coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy to investigate the spectral properties of a high-quality-factor microcavity with an embedded WSe 2 van der Waals heterostructure at room temperature. Our approach reveals a rich multibranch structure which thus far has not been captured in previous experiments. Simulation of the data reveals hybridized exciton-photon-phonon states, providing new physical insight into the exciton polariton system based on layered TMDs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Measurement of the anomalous precession frequency in the Muon $g-2$ experiment at Fermilab

The muon anomalous magnetic moment, $a_\mu=\frac{g-2}{2}$, is a low energy observable that can be both measured and computed with high precision, therefore it can provide an important test of the Standard Model and it is a sensitive probe for new physics. In particular, any discrepancy between the experimental value and the theoretical prediction can be due to Beyond Standard Model physics contribution. The E989 Muon $g-2$ Experiment at Fermilab aims to measure $a_\mu$ with a precision of 140 parts per billion, four time more precisely than the previous experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). E989 seeks to either resolve or confirm the observed discrepancy of $3.7\sigma$ between the Standard Model value and the experimental one. The $a_\mu$ measurement requires a precise determination of both the muon spin anomalous precession frequency and the average magnetic field seen by the muons as they circulate in a storage ring. The anomalous precession frequency measurement is b ased on the time distribution of high-energy decay positrons observed by 24 electromagnetic calorimeters placed around the inner circumference of the ring, while the magnetic field is constantly monitored by NMR probes. Last spring, E989 has published a new measurement of $a_\mu$ from the 2018 data-taking campaign, confirming the previous BNL value with comparable precision, bringing the discrepancy with the theoretical value to $4.2\sigma$. The candidate worked on the measurement of the anomalous precession frequency and on the estimate of the related systematic uncertainties of the 2018 data, giving an important contribution to the data analysis. The result presented in chapters 4 and 5 of this dissertation was included, among three other analyses, to determine the estimate of the anomalous magnetic moment by the Muon g-2 experiment. This work will present the anomalous precession frequency analysis technique and its result, the related systematics and finally the latest $a_\mu$ result.

Sorbara, Matteo↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bringing weak transitions to light

Abstract Weak transitions between quantum states are of fundamental importance for a broad range of phenomena from analytical biochemistry to precision physics, but generally challenge experimental detection. Due to their small cross sections scaling with the absolute square of their transition matrix elements, spectroscopic measurements often fail in particular in the presence of competing background processes. Here we introduce a general concept to break this scaling law and enhance the transition probability by exploiting a stronger laser-coupled pathway to the same excited state. We demonstrate the concept experimentally by attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy in helium atoms. The quasi-forbidden transitions from the ground state 1s 2 to the weakly coupled doubly excited 2p3dandsp 2,4− states are boosted by an order of magnitude. Enhancing single-photon-suppressed transitions can find widespread applicability, from spectral diagnostics of complex molecules in life and chemical sciences to precision spectroscopy of weak transitions in metastable atomic nuclei in the search for new physics.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Nonlinear causality of Israel-Stewart theory with diffusion

We present the first fully nonlinear causality constraints in D = 3 + 1 dimensions for Israel-Stewart theory in the presence of energy and number diffusion in the Eckart and Landau hydrodynamic frames, respectively. These constraints are algebraic inequalities that make no assumption on the underlying geometry of the spacetime or the equation of state. In order to highlight the distinct physical and structural behavior of the two hydrodynamic frames, we discuss the special ultrarelativistic ideal gas equation of state considered in earlier literature in D = 1 + 1 dimensions, and show that our general D = 3 + 1 constraints reduce to their results upon an appropriate choice of angles. For this equation of state in both D = 1 + 1 and D = 3 + 1 dimensions one can show that: (i) there exists a region allowed by nonlinear causality in which the baryon current transitions into a spacelike vector in the Landau frame, and (ii) an analogous argument shows that the solutions of the Eckart frame equations of motion never violate the dominant energy condition, assuming nonlinear causality holds. Furthermore, we then compare our results with those from linearized Israel-Stewart theory and show that the linear causality bounds fail to capture the new physical constraints on energy and number diffusion that are successfully obtained through our nonlinear causality approach.

Quark-gluon plasma↗
DOE OSTI2025

Anomalous electroweak physics unraveled via evidential deep learning

The ever-growing ecosystem of beyond standard model (BSM) calculations and parametrizations has motivated the development of systematic methods for making quantitative cross-comparisons over the wide range of possible models, especially with controllable uncertainties. In this setting, the language of uncertainty quantification (UQ) furnishes useful metrics for assessing statistical overlaps and discrepancies among BSM and related models. In this study, we leverage recent machine learning (ML) developments in evidential deep learning (EDL) for UQ to separate data (aleatoric) and knowledge (epistemic) uncertainties in a model-discrimination setting. We construct several potentially BSM-motivated scenarios for the anomalous electroweak interaction (AEWI) of neutrinos with nucleons in deep inelastic scattering ( v DIS). These scenarios are then quantitatively mapped, as a demonstration, alongside Monte Carlo replicas of the CT18 PDFs used to calculate the $\varDelta \chi ^{2}$ statistic for a typical multi-GeV v DIS experiment, CDHSW. Our framework effectively highlights areas of model agreement and provides a classification of out-of-distribution (OOD) samples. By offering the opportunity to quantitatively understand model overlaps, the approach presented in this work can help facilitate efficient BSM model exploration and exclusion for future New Physics searches.

AI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Probing cosmic inflation with the LiteBIRD cosmic microwave background polarization survey

LiteBIRD, the Lite (Light) satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and Inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection, is a space mission for primordial cosmology and fundamental physics. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected LiteBIRD in May 2019 as a strategic large-class (L-class) mission, with an expected launch in the late 2020s using JAXA’s H3 rocket. LiteBIRD is planned to orbit the Sun–Earth Lagrangian point L2, where it will map the cosmic microwave background polarization over the entire sky for three years, with three telescopes in 15 frequency bands between 34 and 448 GHz, to achieve an unprecedented total sensitivity of $2.2\, \mu$K-arcmin, with a typical angular resolution of 0.5° at 100 GHz. The primary scientific objective of LiteBIRD is to search for the signal from cosmic inflation, either making a discovery or ruling out well-motivated inflationary models. The measurements of LiteBIRD will also provide us with insight into the quantum nature of gravity and other new physics beyond the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. We provide an overview of the LiteBIRD project, including scientific objectives, mission and system requirements, operation concept, spacecraft and payload module design, expected scientific outcomes, potential design extensions, and synergies with other projects.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Exploring the keV-scale physics potential of CUORE

We present the analysis techniques developed to explore the keV-scale energy region of the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment, based on more than 2 metric ton yr of data collected over five years. By prioritizing a stricter selection over a larger exposure, we are able to optimize data selection for thresholds at 10 keV and 3 keV with 691 kg yr and 11 kg yr of data, respectively. We study how the performance varies among the 988-detector array with different detector characteristics and data-taking conditions. We achieve an average baseline resolution of 2.54 ±0.14 keV FWHM and 1.18 ±0.02 keV FWHM for the data selection at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. The analysis methods employed reduce the overall background by about an order of magnitude, reaching 2.06±0.05 counts/(keV kg days) and 16±2 counts/(keV kg days) at the thresholds of 10 keV and 3 keV. We evaluate for the first time the near-threshold reconstruction efficiencies of the CUORE experiment, and find these to be 50 ±2% and 26 ±4% at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. This analysis provides crucial insights into rare decay studies, new physics searches, and keV-scale background modeling with CUORE. We demonstrate that ton-scale cryogenic calorimeters can operate across a wide energy range, from keV to MeV, establishing their scalability as versatile detectors for rare event and dark matter physics. These findings also inform the optimization of future large mass cryogenic calorimeters to enhance the sensitivity to low-energy phenomena.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

R&D toward design for a pion-production target for Mu2e-II

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for evidence of charged lepton flavor violation by observing the conversion of a negative muon into an electron in the Coulomb field of a nucleus without emission of neutrinos and will probe effective new-physics mass scales in the 103-104 TeV range. One of the main parts of the Mu2e experimental setup is its target station in which negative pions are generated in interactions of the 8 GeV primary proton beam with a tungsten target, which will be capable of producing $2\times10^{17}$ negative muons per year. Mu2e can be extended by a next generation experiment, Mu2e-II, with a sensitivity improved by another factor of 10 or more as enabled by the PIP-II accelerator upgrade project. PIP-II is a 250-meter-long linac capable of accelerating a 2 mA proton beam to a kinetic energy of 800 MeV corresponding to 1.6 MW of power. To achieve another factor of ten improvement in sensitivity, Mu2e-II will require about 100 kW of proton beam on target, and the added power requires a new target design. We will present our progress in RD of a target station conceptual design for Mu2e-II, using the MARS15 and G4beamline Monte-Carlo codes toward a selection between granular, conveyor, and rotating cylindrical target options.

Lynch, Kevin Richard↗