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At least 559 records · Page 31

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NASA NTRS1994

Beat, modulational, and decay instabilities of a circularly polarized Alfven wave

A circulary polarized low-frequency electomagnetic pump wave propoagating along an ambient magnetic field is known to be unstable to the growth of several parallel-propagating parametric instabilties. If ion-cyclotron effects are retained in a two-fluid description, the dispersion relation is a sixth-order polynomial. We present a series of new analytical approximations to this dispersion relation. We emphasize new results for the beat instability that occurs as an interaction of the forward prpagating upper sideband with the backward propagating lower sideband. The nature of the beat instabitlity depends on beta = (v(sub sound)/v(sub A)(exp 2) and on the sense of polarization of the pump wave. The beat and decay instabilities can occur together if the pump is left-handed (i.e., ion resonant) and if beta is less than or approximately 1, but they cannot occur together if the pump is right-handed. For a left-handed pump the beat mode is the only instability if beta is greater than or approximately 1. If the pump is right-handed and beta is greater than or approximately 1, then the beat instability exists only when the pump amplitude exceeds a threshold value, and the beat will be the only instability if the pump amplitude is large enough to stabilize the modulational instability. If the pump is left-handed and beta is less than or approximately 1, then the beat mode is stabilized when the pump amplitude becomes sufficiently large. The beat instability primarily produces a forward propagating transverse wave in the upper sideband. Thus if beta is greater than or approximately 1, the instabilities considered here do not produce the backward propagating waves which are thought to affect turbulence and the evolution of cross helicity in the solar wind. New analytical results are presented also for the decay and modulational instabilites when beta is approximately equal to 1.

Hollweg, Joseph V.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Properties and decay of stratospheric aerosols in the Arctic following the 1991 eruptions of Mount Pinatubo

Sunphotometer observations made from an aircraft several months after the June 1991 eruptions of Mount Pinatubo are used to quantify the spectral opacity of the Arctic stratosphere. Ancillary surface-based measurements are presented in support of the aircraft data that show large increases in stratospheric optical depth attributed to the presence of volcanic aerosols. Visible optical depths greater than 0.2 were observed during flight segments flown above the tropopause. An inversion algorithm and the optical depth data are used to infer effective aerosol size distributions. The distributions tend to be bimodal, having a large-partical mode radius of about 0.50 micron and a small-particle mode of higher concentration with radii less than 0.18 micron. Surface measurements made during spring 1992 and 1993 are also used to estimate a time constant (e-folding time) of about 13.5 months assuming that the Arctic stratosphere's opacity decays exponentially; this estimate is larger than decay times observed following other major volcanic eruptions. Our results suggest that any climate perturbations in the Arctic caused by eruptions of Pinatubo may be significant and will very likely persist longer than any volcanically-induced changes observed there during the past century.

Stone, Robert S.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Principal modes of variation of rain-rate probability distributions

Radar or satellite observations of an area generate sequences of rain-rate maps. From a gridded map a histogram of rain rates can be obtained representing the relative areas occupied by rain rates of various strengths. The histograms vary with time as precipitating systems in the area evolve and decay and amounts of convective and stratiform rain in the area change. A method of decomposing the histograms into linear combinations of a few empirical distributions with time-dependent coefficients is developed, using principal component analysis as a starting point. When applied to a tropical Atlantic dataset (GATE), two distributions emerge naturally from the analysis, resembling stratiform and convective rain-rate distributions in that they peak at low and high rain rates, respectively. The two 'modes' have different timescales and only the high-rain-rate mode has a statistically significant diurnal cycle. The ability of just two modes to describe rain variabiltiy over an area can explain why methods of estimating area-averaged rain rate from the area covered by rain rates above a certain threshold are so successful.

Bell, Thomas L.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Vapor-Phase Intercalation of Cesium into Black Phosphorous

Cesium vapors were charged into black phosphorous (BP) flakes at varied times and at a temperature gradient of 150 °C. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements of these samples suggest a reduction in the strength of van der Waal interactions between BP layers leading to the loss of coherence of out-of-plane peaks. At the same time, the three main Raman modes of BP (A g 1 , B 2 g , and A g 2 ) steadily redshifted as exposure times were increased, with modes B 2 g and A g 2 shifting faster than A g 1 . After initial rapid downshifts of active BP phonon modes, this intercalation strategy showed its limits following prolonged exposure times. Saturation of BP flakes by Cs vapors ensued and the kinetics was fitted with an exponential decay function. Furthermore, the thermoelectric power (TEP) of cesiated BP exhibited an inversion in sign from positive to negative around 400 K, lending credence to the transformation of as-prepared BP which is a p-type semiconductor to an n-type equivalent due to Cs atom intercalation driven shifting of the Fermi level toward the conduction band of BP and the donation of electrons from Cs. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to delve deeper into understanding Cs intercalation on the structural evolution of BP.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Infrared-active phonon modes in single-crystal thorium dioxide and uranium dioxide

The infrared-active phonon modes, in single-crystal samples of thorium dioxide (ThO 2 ) and uranium dioxide (UO 2 ), were investigated using spectroscopic ellipsometry and compared with density functional theory. Both ThO 2 and UO 2 are found to have one infrared-active phonon mode pair [consisting of one transverse optic (TO) and one associated longitudinal optic (LO) mode], which is responsible for the dominant features in the ellipsometric data. Furthermore, at room temperature, our results for the mode pair’s resonant frequencies and broadening parameters are comparable with previous reflectance spectroscopy characterizations and density functional theory predictions. For ThO 2 , our ellipsometry and density function theory results both show that the LO mode broadening parameter is larger than the TO mode broadening. This signifies mode anharmonicity, which can be attributed to the intrinsic phonon–phonon interaction. In addition to the main mode pair, a broad low-amplitude impurity-like vibrational mode pair is detected within the reststrahlen band for both ThO 2 and UO 2 . Elevated temperature measurements were performed for ThO 2 in order to study the mechanisms by which the phonon parameters evolve with increased heat. The observed change in the TO resonant frequency is in excellent agreement with previous density functional calculations, which only consider volume expansion of the crystal lattice. This suggests that the temperature-dependent change in the TO frequency is primarily due to volume expansion. The change in the main mode pair’s broadening parameters is nearly linear within the temperature range of this study, which indicates the intrinsic anharmonic scattering (via cubic anharmonicities) as the main decay mechanism.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

The role of vectors in reheating

We explore various aspects concerning the role of vector bosons during the reheating process. Generally, reheating occurs during the period of oscillations of the inflaton condensate and the evolution of the radiation bath depends on the inflaton equation of state. For oscillations about a quadratic minimum, the equation of state parameter, w = p/ρ = 0, and the evolution of the temperature, T(a) with respect to the scale factor is independent of the spin of the inflaton decay products. However, for cases when w > 0, there is a dependence on the spin, and here we consider the evolution when the inflaton decays or scatters to vector bosons. We also investigate the gravitational production of vector bosons as potential dark matter candidates. Gravitational production predominantly occurs through the longitudinal mode. We compare these results to the gravitational production of scalars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Nature of quantum spin liquids of the S = 1 2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice: A parallel DMRG study

Here we study the ground-state properties of the quantum spin liquid (QSL) phases of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice with nearest- (J 1 ), next-nearest- (J 2 ), and third-neighbor (J 3 ) interactions by using density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method. By combining parallel DMRG with SU(2) spin rotational symmetry, we are able to obtain accurate results on large cylinders with length up to L x =48 and circumference L y =6–12. Our results suggest that the QSL phase of the J 1 -J 2 Heisenberg model is gapped which is characterized by the absence of gapless mode, short-range spin-spin and dimer-dimer correlations. In the presence of J 3 interaction, we find that a new critical QSL with a single gapless mode emerges. While both spin-spin and scalar chiral-chiral correlations are short-ranged, dimer-dimer correlations are quasi-long-ranged which decays as a power-law at long distances.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

NASA NTRS1995

Plasma waves in the magnetic hole

Magnetic holes in the solar wind, which are characterized by isolated local depressions in the magnetic field magnitude, have been observed previously. The Unified Radio and Plasma Wave (URAP) instrument of Ulysses has found that within such magnetic structures, electrostatic waves at kHz frequency and ultralow frequency electromagnetic waves are often excited and seen as short duration wave bursts. Most of these bursts occur near the ambient electron plasma frequency, which suggests that the waves are Langmuir waves. Such waves are usually excited by electron streams. Some evidence of the streaming of energetic electrons required for exciting Langmuir waves has been observed. These electrons may have originated at sources near the Sun, which would imply that the magnetic structures containing the waves would exist as long channels formed by field and plasma conditions near the Sun. On the other hand, the electrons could be suprathermal 'tails' from wave collapse processes occurring near the spacecraft. In either case, the Langmuir waves excited in the magnetic holes provide a measurement of the plasma density inside the holes. Low frequency electromagnetic waves, having frequencies of a fraction of the local electron cyclotron frequency, sometimes accompany the Langmuir waves observed in magnetic holes. Waves excited in this frequency range are very likely to be whistler-mode waves. They may have been excited by an electron temperature anisotropy which has been observed in the vicinity of the magnetic holes or generated through the decay of Langmuir waves.

Lin, Naiguo↗

DOE OSTI2020

New results from the CUORE experiment

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is the first cryogenic experiment searching for neutrinoless double-beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay that has been able to reach the one-ton scale. The detector, located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, consists of an array of 988 TeO$_2$ crystals arranged in a compact cylindrical structure of 19 towers. Following the completion of the detector construction in August 2016, CUORE began its first physics data run in 2017 at a base temperature of about 10 mK. Following multiple optimization campaigns in 2018, CUORE is currently in stable operating mode. In 2019, CUORE released its 2\textsuperscript{nd} result of the search for $0\nu\beta\beta$ with a TeO$_2$ exposure of 372.5 kg$\cdot$yr and a median exclusion sensitivity to a $^{130}$Te $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay half-life of $1.7\cdot 10^{25}$ yr. We find no evidence for $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay and set a 90\% C.I. (credibility interval) Bayesian lower limit of $3.2\cdot 10^{25}$ yr on the $^{130}$Te $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay half-life. In this work, we present the current status of CUORE's search for $0\nu\beta\beta$, as well as review the detector performance. Finally, we give an update of the CUORE background model and the measurement of the $^{130}$Te two neutrino double-beta ($2\nu\beta\beta$) decay half-life.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Operation modes of the KATRIN experiment Tritium Loop System using 83m Kr

The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims to search for the effective electron antineutrino mass with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV (90 % C.L.). In order to achieve this goal, KATRIN measurement phases focusing on the neutrino mass search are alternated with phases of investigations of systematic effects. During these phases, metastable 83m Kr is used as a calibration source. The monoenergetic conversion electrons emitted accompanying the decay of 83m Kr allow a direct access to the starting conditions of β-electrons produced inside the windowless gaseous tritium source (WGTS) of KATRIN. To make use of 83m Kr in the WGTS, the Tritium Loop System, which provides a stable flow of tritium to the WGTS, needs to be operated in special modes. This paper focuses on the technical implementation of these modes and their performance with regard to the achievable 83m Kr-rates, gas densities, and gas compositions inside the WGTS.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

NASA NTRS1991

Free vibrations of delaminated beams

Free vibration of laminated composite beams is studied. The effect of interply delaminations on natural frequencies and mode shapes is evaluated both analytically and experimentally. The equation of motion and associated boundary conditions are derived for the free vibration of a composite beam with a delamination of arbitrary size and location. A generalized variational principle is used to formulate the equation of motion, taking into account the interlaminar stress concentration at the crack-tips. This is accomplished by introducing a 'crack function' into the beam's compatibility relations. This function has its maximum value at the crack tip and decays exponentially in the longitudinal direction. The rate of exponential decay is determined by a least-square fit with the experimental results. The effect of coupling between longitudinal vibration and bending vibration is considered in the present study. This coupling effect is found to significantly affect the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the delaminated beam.

Shen, M.-H. H.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Chemical Interface Damping Revealed by Single-Particle Absorption Spectroscopy

Plasmon-induced interfacial charge separation is a promising way to efficiently extract energetic carriers through direct plasmon decay. This mechanism of charge transfer has been investigated by single-particle scattering spectroscopy, which measures the homogeneous plasmon line width. The line width is broadened by charge transfer, generally known as chemical interface damping. However, conflicting reports exist regarding the effect of chemical interface damping on the corresponding single-particle absorption spectrum, which is needed to accurately determine absolute light conversion efficiencies. This work aims to resolve this question by directly correlating absorption and scattering spectra of individual gold nanorods in the presence and absence of a charge-accepting interface. We find that for TiO 2 coated nanorods, the absorption line width is indeed broadened due to chemical interface damping but is overall narrower than the scattering line width. Here, chemical interface damping is furthermore found to increase with larger resonance energies. The observed differences in line widths between absorption and scattering are elucidated within the context of an analytically tractable model describing the lowest energy optically bright and higher-order optically dark plasmon modes of the nanorod, including bulk, radiative, and chemical interface damping effects. Taken together, these results establish that single-particle absorption spectroscopy is capable of revealing interfacial charge injection by direct plasmon decay.

absorption↗

DOE OSTI2021

Photoluminescence Enhancement, Blinking Suppression, and Improved Biexciton Quantum Yield of Single Quantum Dots in Zero Mode Waveguides

The capability of quantum dots to generate both single and multiexcitons can be harnessed for a wide variety of applications, including those that require high optical gain. Here, we use time-correlated photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to demonstrate that the isolation of single CdSeTe/ZnS core–shell, nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs) in Zero Mode Waveguides (ZMWs) leads to a significant modification in PL intensity, blinking dynamics, and biexciton behavior. QDs in aluminum ZMWs (AlZMWs) exhibited a 15-fold increase in biexciton emission, indicating a preferential enhancement of the biexciton radiative decay rate as compared to the single exciton rate. The increase in biexciton behavior was accompanied by a decrease in blinking events due to a shortening in the dark state residence time. These results indicate that plasmon mediated enhanced decay rates of QDs in AlZMWs lead to substantial changes in the photophysical properties of single quantum dots, including an increase in biexciton behavior.

photon correlation↗

DOE OSTI2024

Experimental observations of bifurcated power decay lengths in the near Scrape-Off Layer of ST40 High Field Spherical Tokamak

The scrape-off layer parallel heat flux decay lengths measured at ST40, a high field, low aspect ratio spherical tokamak, have been observed to bifurcate into two groups. The wide group follows established H-mode scalings (ranging between 2 to 8 mm) while the narrow group falls up to 10 times below these scalings (between 0.2 and 0.8 mm), being comparable to the ion total Larmor radius rather than the ion poloidal Larmor radius. The heat flux profiles of the latter group can only be described by a multi-exponential function, rather than the single exponential function convoluted with a Gaussian. The onset of the narrow scrape-off layer width is observed to be associated with suppressed magnetic fluctuations, suggesting reduced electromagnetic turbulence levels in the SOL.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Flow field characteristics of a 127-pin rod bundle with hexagonal spacer grids

A determination of nominal flow phenomena in liquid metal fast reactor (LMFR) fuel assemblies is critical toward generation-IV reactor development. Axially positioned spacer grids are used to maintain the geometry of hexagonal rod bundles and simultaneously introduce perturbations in the flow. Three-dimensional (3D) printed asymmetric honeycomb spacer grids were installed in a prototypical 127-pin LMFR fuel assembly model to study complex fluid dynamics interactions induced by the spacer grid and rods. To characterize flow dynamics in this intricate geometry, time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) using the matched-index-of-refraction method was employed to obtain non-intrusive velocity measurements for three axial planes (one near-wall and two interior planes) at a Reynolds number of 6000. The statistical TR-PIV results compared sub-channel-dependent normalized time-averaged velocity, velocity fluctuations, Reynolds stress, vorticity, and turbulence kinetic energy distributions. TR-PIV line profiles characterized downstream spacer grid flow dynamics. Two-point spatial and spatial–temporal cross-correlation fields revealed local coherent structures and quantified convection velocities of traveling vortices. Spatial–temporal decomposition using dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) applied to the near-wall vorticity fields extracted turbulent structures and flow instabilities in the wake region of the spacer grid, along with their decay and frequency rates. Reduced-order velocity fields from DMD reconstructions identified the most energy-containing coherent structures persistent in the near-wall region. This research provides experimental data sets and analyses of flow behavior in rod bundles with hexagonal spacer grids. In conclusion, the results are critical toward LMFR design and geometry optimization, crucial for the validation of computational fluid dynamics and reduced-order flow models.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS1973

Background of the completed research; relevances to solar physics

Research activities reported consider the atomic structures of highly stripped heavy ions and their modes of formation and destruction in collisions. The lifetime of the metastable 2 3p1 state of the two electron ion F-7(+) was determined by measuring the radiative decay of an excited helium-like fluorine beam, Metastable state quenching measurements were performed on a helium-like ion to obtain the 1 1S0 to 2 3p2 transition probability. Exponential exchange state dependence of X-ray production cross sections was studied in heavy target atoms during collisions with light charged particles.

Sellin, I. A.↗

NASA NTRS2021

Evidence that Horizontal Moisture Advection Regulates the Ubiquitous Amplification of Rainfall Variability over Tropical Oceans

The column moist static energy (MSE) budget equation approximates the processes associated with column moistening and drying in the tropics, and is therefore predictive of precipitation amplification and decay. We use ERA-Interim (ERA-I) and TRMM 3B42 data to investigate day-to-day convective variability and distinguish the roles of horizontal MSE (or moisture) advection versus vertical advection, sources, and sinks. Over tropical convergence zones, results suggest that horizontal moisture advection is a primary driver of day-to-day precipitation fluctuations; when drying via horizontal moisture advection is smaller (greater) than Chikira’s “column process,” precipitation tends to amplify (decay). In the absence of horizontal moisture advection, precipitation tends to increase spontaneously almost universally through a positive column process feedback. This bulk positive feedback is characterized by negative effective gross moist stability (GMS), which is maintained throughout the tropical convergence zones. How this positive feedback is achieved varies geographically, depending on the shape of vertical velocity (omega) profiles. In regions where omega profiles are top-heavy, the effective GMS is negative primarily owing to strong feedbacks between convection and diabatic MSE sources (radiative and surface fluxes). In these regions, vertical MSE advection stabilizes the atmosphere (positive vertical GMS). Where omega profiles are bottom-heavy, by contrast, a positive feedback is primarily driven by import of MSE through a shallow circulation (negative vertical GMS). The diabatic feedback and vertical GMS are in a seesaw balance, offsetting one another. Our results suggest that ubiquitous convective variability is amplified by the same mechanism as moisture-mode instability.

horizontal moisture advection↗

DOE OSTI2024

Study of h c → 3 ( π + π − ) π 0 , h c → 2 ( π + π − ) ω , h c → 2 ( π + π − ) π 0 η , h c → 2 ( π + π − ) η , and h c → p p ¯

Based on ( 2712.4 ± 14.1 ) × 10 6 ψ ( 3686 ) events collected with the BESIII detector, we study the decays h c → 3 ( π + π − ) π 0 , h c → 2 ( π + π − ) ω , h c → 2 ( π + π − ) π 0 η , h c → 2 ( π + π − ) η , and h c → p p ¯ via ψ ( 3686 ) → π 0 h c . The decay channel h c → 3 ( π + π − ) π 0 is observed for the first time, and its branching fraction is determined to be ( 9.28 ± 1.14 ± 0.77 ) × 10 − 3 , where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. In addition, first evidence is found for the modes h c → 2 ( π + π − ) π 0 η and h c → 2 ( π + π − ) ω with significances of 4.8 σ and 4.7 σ , and their branching fractions are determined to be ( 7.55 ± 1.51 ± 0.77 ) × 10 − 3 and ( 4.00 ± 0.86 ± 0.35 ) × 10 − 3 , respectively. No significant signals of h c → 2 ( π + π − ) η and h c → p p ¯ are observed, and the upper limits of the branching fractions of these decays are determined to be < 6.19 × 10 − 4 and < 4.40 × 10 − 5 at the 90% confidence level, respectively. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗