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At least 559 records · Page 31
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Performance of PMTs for the JSNS 2 experiment

The JSNS 2 (J-PARC Sterile Neutrino Search at J-PARC Spallation Neutron Source) experiment aims to search for neutrino oscillations over a 24 m short baseline at J-PARC. The JSNS 2 inner detector is filled with 17 tons of gadolinium-loaded liquid scintillator (LS) and both the intermediate γ-catcher and the optically separated outer veto are filled with un-loaded LS. Optical photons from scintillation are observed by 120 Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs). A total of 130 PMTs for the JSNS 2 experiment were both donated by other experiments and purchased from Hamamatsu. Donated PMTs were purchased around 10 years ago, therefore JSNS 2 did pre-calibration of the PMTs including the purchased PMTs. 123 PMTs demonstrated acceptable performance for the JSNS 2 experiment, and 120 PMTs were installed in the detector.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1983

Absorption of energetic protons by Saturn's Ring G

A reexamination of Pioneer 11 data for the distribution of energetic protons in Saturn's inner magnetosphere has yielded an improved value for the ratio of the cosmic ray albedo neutron decay source strength to the radial diffusion coefficient, and the use of the Blake et al. (1983) lower limit on the source strength is used to find an upper limit on the mean residence time against diffusion. By means of Voyager data on normal optical opacity and radial width, it is found that the particulates in Saturn's Ring G have an efective radius of more than about 0.035 cm, an areal mass density of 1.4 x 10 to the -6th g/sq cm, and an areal number density of 0.008/sq cm. It is reasonably certain that there are no satellites having a radius of the order of 1 km or larger associated with Ring G.

Van Allen, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Aerospace devices for magnetic replicas

Retained persistent magnetic field has been studied and improved in the superconductor YBa2Cu3O7 (Y123). During the study, trapped magnetic field, B(t), has been increased by over a factor of 10(exp 5). Methods used to improve magnetic field trapping were principally: (1) the adoption of the Melt Texturing process to increase grain size; (2) the addition of excess Y to disperse deposits of Y2BaCuO5 (Y211) and again increase grain size; (3) irradiation with high energy particles including 1H+, 3He++, 4He++, and fission fragments; and (4) utilizing temperatures below 77 K has also been quantified as a way to increase trapped field. In addition, in our study of B(t), we have found laws governing creep, activation, temperature dependence, creep vs. current flow, etc. In the range 20 K less than or equal to T less than or equal to 65 K, and for B less than 10 Tesla, a simple empirical relationship was found: B(trap) (T2) = B(trap) (T1) ((Tc - T2)/(Tc - T1))squared where Tc is the critical temperature. The highest experimental trapped field was B(trap) = 3.96 Tesla, at 65 K. We believe this to be the highest persistent field ever produced, by any method. A two component model of the persistent currents has been developed. This accurately reproduces the data, using as parameters only the magnitude of a constant surface current, J(s), and a constant volume current J(v). The model successfully predicts B(t) (xyz) for the case of maximum trapped field, for all samples observed. It has also been extended to describe the unsaturated case either zero field cooled, or field cooled. Loss of strap with time has been studied for the critical state (Bt,max), and non critical state (Bt less than Bt,max), for times from a few minutes to a few months, for unirradiated material, for irradiation by 1H+, 3He++, 4He++, high z projectiles, and neutrons, and for all materials used in the overall study. We conclude that: (1) multi Tesla trapped fields are attained; (2) fields over 10 T are achievable; (3) creep is not a large problem; (4) application is feasible to motors, generators, magnets for particle beam optics, separators, levitating bearings, energy storage, shielding, and transportation.

Weinstein, Roy↗
NASA NTRS1994

Discovery of Be/x-ray stars in two supernova remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud

We present ROSAT high resolution x-ray images of two previously cataloged supernova remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC): 0101-72.4 and 0104-72.3. These remnants were known to show optical, x-ray, and radio emission based on earlier observations: the present data show the first evidence for arcsecond-scale x-ray structure. There is no diffuse x-ray emission associated with the optically emitting shell in 0101-72.4; we set a 3 sigma upper limit of 7 x 10(exp 34) erg s(exp -1) on the 0.02-2 keV luminosity from the region. The x-ray emission comes instead from a weak pointlike object near the limb of the remnant. Optical observations of this source reveal a m(sub v) = 14.8 blue star with H alpha and H beta in emission; we identify this as a Be star in the SMC. No evidence for variability down to time scales of about 1 s was found in the ROSAT data; however, a comparison of the ROSAT and Einstein fluxes indicates possible long term variability by a factor of approximately 2 over several years. The other SNR, 0104-72.3, also contains a pointlike x-ray source with a blue optical counterpart (m(sub v) = 16.7) and H alpha emission. We tentatively identify this as a Be star as well. In addition to the point source there is weak diffuse x-ray emission from 0104-72.3 (L(sub x) approximately 1.4 x 10(exp 35) erg s(exp -1)), but the remnant's appearance in the x-ray band is considerably different from that in either the radio or optical band. We argue for a physical association between the supernova remnants (SNRs) and Be/x-ray stars. A large space velocity (greater than or approximately 100 km s(exp -1)) for the Be/x-ray binaries is required if the explosions that produced the remnants also formed the neutron stars in the binaries. Alternatively, the associations could be the result of common membership in OB associations in the SMC.

Hughes, John P.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Advances in detection for neutron reflectometry with time-resolved imaging detectors

Thermal neutron detection in neutron scattering science is a challenging endeavour due to a limited number of technologies which are sensitive to these weakly interacting particles. While many improvements to conventional detectors are underway at various facilities, there is a great opportunity to make a leap in performance by combining the spatial resolution benefits of imaging and the temporal resolution and background discrimination of event-driven radiation detectors. This idea has been realized by using a neutron sensitive scintillator read out by a single-photon sensitive camera based on a Timepix3 ASIC. We demonstrate how such data-driven imaging sensors can enable unprecedented performance in neutron reflectometry using the ASTERIX instrument at the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center. Several samples were measured with both the new and a conventional 3 He detector systems. The results from this work demonstrate that these imaging based systems can satisfy performance parameters for the future QIKR reflectometer to be built at the Second Target Station at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Further improvements to the detector are already underway which will allow streamlined and expedited experiments. We demonstrate at least a two order of magnitude increase in detection rate at an acceptable dead time and introduce a new way of tuning the detector efficiency using light collecting optics to accommodate highly intense direct beams which cannot be measured with any current detectors without severe attenuation. This will allow measurements of complete reflectometry profiles and using a single sample measurement combined with fewer direct beam calibration measurements on QIKR and potentially other reflectometers.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

An all-digital associated particle imaging system for the 3D determination of isotopic distributions

Associated particle imaging (API) is a non-destructive nuclear technique for the 3D determination of isotopic distributions. By detecting the alpha particle associated with the emitted neutron in the deuterium–tritium fusion reaction with a position- and time-resolving detector, the direction of the 14.1 MeV neutron and its time of emission can be determined. Employing this method, isotope characteristic gamma rays emitted in inelastic neutron scattering events can be correlated with the neutron interaction location. Here, an API system consisting of a sealed-type neutron generator, gamma detectors, and a position-sensitive alpha detector was designed, constructed, and characterized. The system was tested with common soil elements and shown to be sensitive to 12 C, 16 O, 28 Si, 27 Al, and 56 Fe. New aspects of our approach are the use of a yttrium–aluminum–perovskite scintillator, using a sapphire window instead of a fiber-optic faceplate for light transport to the photomultiplier, and the all-digital data acquisition system. We present a description of the system with simulations and experimental results that show a position resolution on the alpha detector of 1 mm, a depth resolution using a LaBr 3 detector of 6.2 cm, and an angular resolution of 4.5°. Additionally, we present single-element gamma response measurements for the elements mentioned above together with a comparison to Monte Carlo simulations (MCNP6).

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Libration of hydroxyl groups in layered aluminum (oxy)hydroxides and other material analogs: insights from inelastic neutron scattering and theory

We analyzed the hydroxyl librational signatures of five structurally related aluminum (oxy)hydroxides, using inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and plane-wave lattice dynamics simulations. A clear trend across these aluminum-containing phases illustrates the relationship between hydrogen bonding, local atomic structure, and the spectral location and profile of the librational bands. The INS spectra have been compared to previous optical spectroscopy and computational studies, highlighting the complementary nature of the INS technique. Taking into account other structurally or chemically related material analogs, we have identified a correlation between a blueshift (to higher energy) of the upper librational band edge and the geometry of the hydrogen bond interactions, mirroring (with opposite correlation) the well-known redshift in the intramolecular O–H stretching energy with increasing hydrogen bond strength. For hydroxyl groups that do not participate in hydrogen bonding effectively, the bending librations occur at lower energies and hybridize with metal–oxygen lattice modes. Standard density functional theory approximations, including dispersion corrections, struggle to correctly predict vibrational frequencies of motions dominated by H but perform well for metal–oxygen modes, allowing us to make detailed mode assignments in several cases, including a demonstration of how layer-to-layer disorder in boehmite hydrogen bond orientations is reflected in the sharp but minor low energy peaks (at ∼70–80 meV) of the INS spectrum.

Wang, Hsiu-Wen [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORN↗
NASA NTRS1992

Gamma-ray bursts as the death throes of massive binary stars

We propose that gamma-ray bursts are created in the mergers of double neutron star binaries and black hole neutron star binaries at cosmological distances. Two different processes provide the electromagnetic energy for the bursts: neutrino-antineutrino annihilation into electron-position pairs during the merger, and magnetic flares generated by the Parker instability in a postmerger differentially rotating disk. In both cases, an optically thick fireball of size less than or approximately equal to 100 km is initially created, which expands ultrarelativistically to large radii before radiating. The scenario is only qualitative at this time, but it eliminates many previous objections to the cosmological merger model. The strongest bursts should be found close to, but not at the centers of, galaxies at redshifts of order 0.1, and should be accompanied by bursts of gravitational radiation from the spiraling-in binary which could be detected by LIGO.

Narayan, Ramesh↗
NASA NTRS1998

Searching for Black Holes

Our UV/VIS work concentrates on black hole X-ray nova. These objects consist of two stars in close orbit, one of which we believe is a black hole - our goal is to SHOW that one is a black hole. In order to reach this goal we carry out observations in the Optical, UV, IR and X-ray bands, and compare the observations to theoretical models. In the past year, our UV/VIS grant has provided partial support (mainly travel funds and page charges) for work we have done on X-ray nova containing black holes and neutron stars. We have been very successful in obtaining telescope time to support our project - we have completed approximately a dozen separate observing runs averaging 3 days each, using the MMT (5M), Lick 3M, KPNO 2.1M, CTIO 4M, CTIO 1.5M, and the SAO/WO 1.2M telescopes. These observations have allowed the identification of one new black hole (Nova Oph 1977), and allowed the mass of another to be measured (GS2000+25). Perhaps our most exciting new result is the evidence we have gathered for the existence of 'event horizons' in black hole X-ray nova.

Garcia, M.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Recommended Priorities for NASA's Gamma Ray Astronomy Program 1999-2013

The Gamma-Ray Astronomy Program Working Group (GRAPWG) recommends priorities for the NASA Gamma-Ray Astronomy Program. The highest priority science topic is nuclear astrophysics and sites of gamma ray line emission. Other high priority topics are gamma ray bursts, hard x-ray emission from accreting black holes and neutron stars, the Advanced Compton Telescope (ACT), the High-resolution Spectroscopic Imager (HSI), and the Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST). The recommendations include special consideration for technology development, TeV astronomy, the ultra-long duration balloon (ULDB) program, the International Space Station, optical telescope support, and data analysis and theory.

Carol, Ladd↗
DOE OSTI2020

Superfluid condensate fraction and pairing wave function of the unitary Fermi gas

The unitary Fermi gas is a many-body system of two-component fermions with zero-range interactions tuned to infinite scattering length. Despite much activity and interest in unitary Fermi gas and its universal properties, there have been great difficulties in performing accurate calculations of the superfluid condensate fraction and pairing wave function. In this paper, we present auxiliary-field lattice Monte Carlo simulations using a lattice interaction which accelerates the approach to the continuum limit, thereby allowing for robust calculations of these difficult observables. As a benchmark test, we compute the ground-state energy of 33 spin-up and 33 spin-down particles. As a fraction of the free Fermi gas energy $E_{\text{FG}}$, we find $E_0/E_{\text{FG}}$ = 0.369(2), 0.372(2), using two different definitions of the finite-system energy ratio, in agreement with the latest theoretical and experimental results. We then determine the condensate fraction by measuring off-diagonal long-range order in the two-body density matrix. We find that the fraction of condensed pairs is α = 0.43(2). Further, we also extract the pairing wave function and find the pair correlation length to be $ζ_pk_F$ = 1.8(3)ℏ, where $k_F$ is the Fermi momentum. Provided that the simulations can be performed without severe sign oscillations, the methods we present here can be applied to superfluid neutron matter as well as more exotic $\textit{P}$-wave and $\textit{D}$-wave superfluids.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2007

SIM Planetquest Science and Technology: A Status Report

Optical interferometry will open new vistas for astronomy over the next decade. The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM-PlanetQuest), operating unfettered by the Earth's atmosphere, will offer unprecedented astrometric precision that promises the discovery of Earth-analog extra-solar planets as well as a wealth of important astrophysics. Results from SIM will permit the determination of stellar masses to accuracies of 2% or better for objects ranging from brown dwarfs through main sequence stars to evolved white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. Studies of star clusters will yield age determinations and internal dynamics. Microlensing measurements will present the mass spectrum of the Milky Way internal to the Sun while proper motion surveys will show the Sun's orbital radius and speed. Studies of the Galaxy's halo component and companion dwarf galaxies permit the determination of the Milky Way's mass distribution, including its Dark Matter component and the mass distribution and Dark Matter component of the Local Group. Cosmology benefits from precision (1-2%) determination of distances to Cepheid and RR Lyrae standard candles. The emission mechanism of supermassive black holes will be investigated. Finally, radio and optical celestial reference frames will be tied together by an improvement of two orders of magnitude. Optical interferometers present severe technological challenges. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with the support of Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (LM ATC) and Northrop Grumman Space Technology (NGST), has addressed these challenges with a technology development program that is now complete. The requirements for SIM have been satisfied, based on outside peer review, using a series of laboratory tests and appropriate computer simulations: laser metrology systems perform with 10 picometer precision; mechanical vibrations have been controlled to nanometers, demonstrating orders of magnitude disturbance rejection; and knowledge of component positions throughout the whole test assembly has been demonstrated to the required picometer level. Technology transfer to the SIM flight team is now well along.

astrometry↗
DOE OSTI2021

Kinetically Controlled Formation of Semi-crystalline Conjugated Polymer Nanostructures

Conjugated polymer (CP) materials that are considered as an attractive choice for various electronic and optoelectronic applications possess highly heterogeneous complex structures that can span several orders of magnitude in length scale. This is due to the intricate coupling effects of weak secondary interactions and entropic forces that determine molecular organization in bulk polymer materials. Understanding the influence of molecular interactions on the emergence and evolution of nano- and microscale structures is of paramount importance to the guided design and development of condensed CP materials. Such understanding is even more critical for the rational design of hierarchical systems away from equilibrium, where weak molecular interactions can guide the system along competing kinetic pathways toward local energy minima and metastable architectures. In this work, we studied a promising concept for accessing various kinetically stabilized semi-crystalline CP nanostructures that are formed in the process of controlled chain-growth Kumada catalyst-transfer polymerization initiated by a small-molecule catalytic species which can exist in equilibrium between free and aggregated states. Specifically, we chose a small-molecule perylenedicarboximide (PDCI) polymerization catalytic initiator which has a strong tendency toward reversible supramolecular assembly–disassembly that can be controlled by temperature. Addition of a thiophene monomer to a solution of the PDCI initiator starts the chain-growth polymerization process, which produces distinct nanoscale semi-crystalline polythiophene structures formed under predominant kinetic control. Furthermore, we demonstrated that, depending on the reaction temperature (which affects the fine balance between the position of PDCI assembly–disassembly equilibrium, rate of polymerization, and solvent–solute interactions for the growing polythiophene chains), a range of kinetically trapped hierarchically organized semi-crystalline CP systems with substantially varying optoelectronic properties could be obtained. In addition to spectroscopic and electron microscopic studies, in order to better reveal the structural aspects of the generated polymer nanoscale systems, we carried out a series of X-ray diffraction and neutron scattering experiments which indicated complex hierarchical organization in these kinetically stabilized CP assembled materials. We expect that this in situ polymerization-based approach can lead to a general way to expand access to various semi-crystalline CP nanostructured materials with broadly tunable electronic and optical properties.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Probing for the host galaxies of the fast X-ray transients XRT 000519 and XRT 110103

Over the past few years, ~30 extragalactic fast X-ray transients (FXRTs) have been discovered, mainly in Chandra and XMM-Newton data. Their nature remains unclear, with proposed origins, including a double neutron star merger, a tidal disruption event involving an intermediate-mass black hole and a white dwarf, or a supernova shock breakout. A decisive differentiation between these three promising mechanisms for their origin requires an understanding of the FXRT energetics, environments, and/or host properties. We present optical observations obtained with the Very Large Telescope for the FXRTs XRT 000519 and XRT 110103 and Gran Telescopio Canarias observations for XRT 000519 designed to search for host galaxies of these FXRTs. In the g s , r s , and R-band images, we detect an extended source on the north-west side of the $\sim \, 1^{\prime \prime }$ (68 per cent confidence) error circle of the X-ray position of XRT 000519 with a Kron magnitude of g s = 26.29 ± 0.09 (AB magnitude). We discuss the XRT 000519 association with the probable host candidate for various possible distances, and we conclude that if XRT 000519 is associated with the host candidate a supernova shock breakout scenario is likely excluded. No host galaxy is found near XRT 110103 down to a limiting magnitude of R > 25.8.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

MeV Gamma Rays from Fission: A Distinct Signature of Actinide Production in Neutron Star Mergers

Neutron star mergers (NSMs) are the first verified sites of rapid neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis, and could emit gamma rays from the radioactive isotopes synthesized in the neutron-rich ejecta. These MeV gamma rays may provide a unique and direct probe of the NSM environment as well as insight into the nature of the r process, just as observed gammas from the 56 Ni radioactive decay chain provide a window into supernova nucleosynthesis. In this work, we include the photons from fission processes for the first time in estimates of the MeV gamma-ray signal expected from an NSM event. We consider NSM ejecta compositions with a range of neutron richness and find a dramatic difference in the predicted signal depending on whether or not fissioning nuclei are produced. The difference is most striking at photon energies above ~3.5 MeV and at a relatively late time, several days after the merger event, when the ejecta is optically thin. We estimate that a Galactic NSM could be detectable by a next generation gamma-ray detector such as AMEGO in the MeV range, up to ~104 days after the merger, if fissioning nuclei are robustly produced in the event.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1979

Nuclear pumped laser modeling

A model for an indirectly nuclear pumped laser experiment was developed. The apparatus consists of the usual cylindrical neutron moderator enclosing a gas filled quartz cell. The quartz cell in this case has two concentric compartments; the larger output compartment is filled with He-3 and fluorescent gases which are coupled radiatively to the inner compartment which is filled with a lasing gas for efficient optical pumping. The fluorescent gas in this study was a mixture of Ar, Kr and F2. Perfluoroalkyliodide was chosen as the lasant material of the inner compartment. The degree of photoabsorption in the lasant gas was calculated. The kinetic efficiencies of various gas combinations in the outer fluorescence tube were then evaluated in order to maximize the fluorescence output in the iodine pump band.

Wilson, J. W.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of moment-based, energy integrated neutrino transport on microphysics and ejecta in binary neutron star mergers

We present an extensive study of the effects of neutrino transport in three-dimensional general relativistic radiation hydrodynamics (GRHD) simulations of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers using our moment-based, energy-integrated neutrino radiation transport (M1) scheme. Here, we consider a total of eight BNS configurations, while varying equation of state models, mass ratios, and grid resolutions, for a total of 16 simulations. We find that M1 neutrino transport is crucial in modeling the local absorption of neutrinos and the deposition of lepton number throughout the medium. We provide an in-depth look at the effects of neutrinos on the fluid dynamics and luminosity during the late inspiral and postmerger phases, the properties of ejecta and outflow, and the postmerger nucleosynthesis. The simulations presented in this work comprise an extensive study of the combined effect of the equation of state and M1 neutrino transport in GRHD simulations of BNS mergers, and establish that the solution provided by our M1 scheme is robust across system properties.

150 ≤ A ≤ 18959 ≤ A ≤ 8990 ≤ A ≤ 149↗
NASA NTRS1986

Physics through the 1990s: Scientific interfaces and technological applications

The volume examines the scientific interfaces and technological applications of physics. Twelve areas are dealt with: biological physics-biophysics, the brain, and theoretical biology; the physics-chemistry interface-instrumentation, surfaces, neutron and synchrotron radiation, polymers, organic electronic materials; materials science; geophysics-tectonics, the atmosphere and oceans, planets, drilling and seismic exploration, and remote sensing; computational physics-complex systems and applications in basic research; mathematics-field theory and chaos; microelectronics-integrated circuits, miniaturization, future trends; optical information technologies-fiber optics and photonics; instrumentation; physics applications to energy needs and the environment; national security-devices, weapons, and arms control; medical physics-radiology, ultrasonics, MNR, and photonics. An executive summary and many chapters contain recommendations regarding funding, education, industry participation, small-group university research and large facility programs, government agency programs, and computer database needs.

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