Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “proton science”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 631 records · Page 35

Examining Ohmic Losses in Fuel-Cell Catalyst Layers with Different Pt/C Ratios

A model of a fuel-cell cathode with distinct proton conductivities at the agglomerate and electrode scales was used to simulate polarization curves under conditions with facile oxygen transport. Here, the model was applied to electrodes containing agglomerates with different ratios of platinum to carbon in order to examine the hypothesis that intra-agglomerate proton conductivity is substantially lower than ionomer conductivity. The model predicts decreasing performance and increasing sensitivity to Pt/C ratio as intra-agglomerate conductivity declines relative to a constant through-electrode conductivity. Experiments on catalyst layers with Vulcan supports do not show the predicted trend indicating that mesoscale intra-agglomerate conductivity is not orders of magnitude lower than bulk ionomer conductivity.

08 HYDROGEN↗

(abstract) Saturn Mini-Probes Mission

The original Cassini mission concept for intensive Saturn exploration included dual atmospheric probes - to Titan and Saturn. The Saturn probe was lost in Cassini Project cost reduction, but the Saturn atmospheric goals are still important to the planetary science community - especially it measurements can be acquired during synoptic coverage by the Cassini Orbiter. New advanced technology and design heritage from the Pluto Fast Flyby mission permit a low cost mission concept for launch early in the first decade of the 21st century, in time to take advantage of the Cassini spacecraft being in orbit around Saturn. This paper will describe such a concept. The mini-probe carrier can be a relatively simple design, depending on a solar array/battery power system design instead of Radioactive Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) with their attendant programmatic complexities, costs, and constraints. The Atlas IIAS/Star 48B, Proton, and STS with upper stage are launch vehicle options which permit modest payload deliveries to Saturn with relatively short flight times (3 to 4 years) such that the mini-probes arrive in the time period when the Cassini Orbiter is operating at Saturn. The Cassini time-line with a compatible SMP mission sequence is described. An example mission concept includes a carrier spacecraft with three 10 to 20 kg mini-probes, launched in the late summer of 2001 by an Atlas IIAS/Star 48B on a 3.8 year trip to Saturn. Preliminary evaluation of the Cassini time-line suggests compatibility of the probe entries with collecting the data for Earth-return.

Saturn Cassini miniprobes cost Pluto Fast Flyby↗

Physics Potential of a Future Large n Detector in Korea

The demand for underground labs for neutrino and rare event search experiments has been increasing over the last few decades. Yemilab, constructed in October 2022, is the first deep (1~km) underground lab dedicated to science in Korea, where a large cylindrical cavern (D: 20~m, H: 20~m) was excavated in addition to the main caverns and halls. The large cavern could be utilized for a low background neutrino experiment by a liquid scintillator-based detector (LSC) where a 2.26 kiloton LS target would be filled.It's timely to have such a large but ultra-pure LS detector after the shutdown of the Borexino experiment so that solar neutrinos can be measured much more precisely. Interesting BSM physics searches can be also pursued with this detector when it's combined with an electron linac, a proton cyclotron (IsoDAR source), or a radioactive source. This talk discusses the concept of a candidate detector and the physics potential of a large liquid scintillator detector.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Rational design, synthesis, and evaluation of uncharged, “smart” bis-oxime antidotes of organophosphate-inhibited human acetylcholinesterase

Organophosphate (OP) intoxications from nerve agent and OP pesticide exposures are managed with pyridinium aldoxime–based therapies whose success rates are currently limited. The pyridinium cation hampers uptake of OPs into the central nervous system (CNS). Furthermore, it frequently binds to aromatic residues of OP-inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in orientations that are nonproductive for AChE reactivation, and the structural diversity of OPs impedes efficient reactivation. Improvements of OP antidotes need to include much better access of AChE reactivators to the CNS and optimized orientation of the antidotes' nucleophile within the AChE active-center gorge. On the basis of X-ray structures of a CNS-penetrating reactivator, monoxime RS194B, reversibly bound to native and venomous agent X (VX)–inhibited human AChE, here we created seven uncharged acetamido bis-oximes as candidate antidotes. Both oxime groups in these bis-oximes were attached to the same central, saturated heterocyclic core. Diverse protonation of the heterocyclic amines and oxime groups of the bis-oximes resulted in equilibration among up to 16 distinct ionization forms, including uncharged forms capable of diffusing into the CNS and multiple zwitterionic forms optimal for reactivation reactions. Conformationally diverse zwitterions that could act as structural antidote variants significantly improved in vitro reactivation of diverse OP-human AChE conjugates. Oxime group reorientation of one of the bis-oximes, forcing it to point into the active center for reactivation, was confirmed by X-ray structural analysis. Finally, our findings provide detailed structure-activity properties of several CNS-directed, uncharged aliphatic bis-oximes holding promise for use as protonation-dependent, conformationally adaptive, “smart” accelerated antidotes against OP toxicity.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A very high energy hadron collider on the Moon

Abstract The long-term prospect of building a hadron collider around the circumference of a great circle of the Moon is sketched. A circular collider on the Moon (CCM) of ∼11 000 km in circumference could reach a proton–proton center-of-mass collision energy of 14 PeV—a thousand times higher than the Large Hadron Collider at CERN—optimistically assuming a dipole magnetic field of 20 T. Several aspects of such a project are presented, including siting, construction, availability of necessary materials on the Moon, and powering, as well as a discussion of future studies and further information needed to determine the more concrete feasibility of each. Machine parameters and vacuum requirements are explored, and an injection scheme is delineated. Other unknowns are set down. Due to the strong interest from multiple organizations in establishing a permanent Moon presence, a CCM could be the (next-to-) next-to-next-generation discovery machine for high-energy particle physics and a natural successor to next-generation machines, such as the proposed future circular collider at CERN or a super proton–proton collider in China, and other future machines, such as a collider in the Sea, in the Gulf of Mexico. A CCM would serve as an important stepping stone toward a Planck-scale collider sited in our Solar System.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Design and Principles of Linear Accelerators and Colliders." in Particle Physics Reference Library, pp. 295-336. Springer, Cham, 2020.

Linear accelerators (linacs) use alternating radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields to accelerate charged particles in a straight line. Linacs were invented about 95 years ago and have seen many significant technical innovations since. A wide range of particle beams have been accelerated with linacs including beams of electrons, positrons, protons, antiprotons, and heavy ions. Linac parameter possibilities include pulsed versus continuous wave, low and high beam powers, low and high repetition rates, low transverse emittance beams, short bunches with small energy spreads, and accelerated multiple bunches in a single pulse. The number of linacs around the world has grown tremendously with thousands of linacs in present use, many for medical therapy, in industry, and for research and development in a broad spectrum of scientific fields. Researchers have developed accelerators for scientific tools in their own right, being awarded several Nobel prizes. Moreover, linacs and particle accelerators in general have enabled many discovery level science experiments in related fields, resulting in many Nobel prizes as well.

Seeman, John↗

Temperature and dopant concentration effects on proton light quenching in rare-earth inorganic scintillators [Slides]

Rare-earth inorganic scintillators have characteristics that offer optimal detection qualities for space applications as long a quenching is considered; Incident proton and electron response was measured in four different rare-earth inorganic scintillators of interest; We observed: A temperature effect on quenching for GAGG type detectors. A dopant concentration/decay time effect on quenching for GAGG detectors; Extracting the Birks’ factor for future detectors will improve the analysis of data.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

TRACER-MAP_2022_volatile_organic_compounds_PTRMS

VOCs collected by quadrupole proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry for July-August 2022. A description of this instrument is included in the related publication. The location of the measurement is indicated by latitude and longitude coordinates; TRACER-MAP included time at the AMF site in La Porte and additional sites around Houston. Data below the minimum detection limit are not included here.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Estimating Cosmic Ray Spectral Parameters from Simulated Detector Responses

A simple power law model consisting of a single spectral index al is believed to be an adequate description of the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) proton flux at energies below 100 TeV, with a transition at kink energy Ek to a steeper spectral index a2>al above Ek. The maximum likelihood procedure is developed for estimating these three spectral parameters of the broken power law energy spectrum from simulated detector responses. These estimates and their surrounding statistical uncertainty are being used to derive the requirements in energy resolution, calorimeter size, and energy response of a proposed sampling calorimeter for the Advanced Cosmic-ray Composition Experiment for the Space Station (ACCESS). This study thereby permits instrument developers to make important trade studies in design parameters as a function of the science objectives, which is particularly important for space-based detectors where physical parameters, such as dimension and weight, impose rigorous practical limits to the design envelope.

Howell, Leonard↗

Erratum: Description of the Proton-Decaying 0$^{+}_{2}$ Resonance of the 𝛼 Particle [Phys. Rev. Lett. 131 , 242502 (2023)]

As pointed out by P. Yin, H. Li, A. M. Shirokov, X. Zhao, and J. P. Vary, due to the incorrect normalization of the charge density, our definition of the monopole form factor 𝐹rel⁡(𝑞 2 ) was different from that used in other papers [1,2] by a factor of 1/𝑍. Furthermore, this resulted in the overall incorrect normalization of the monopole form factor in this Letter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Development and Transition of the Radiation, Interplanetary Shocks, and Coronal Sources (RISCS) Toolset

We outline a plan to develop and transition a physics based predictive toolset called The Radiation, Interplanetary Shocks, and Coronal Sources (RISCS) to describe the interplanetary energetic particle and radiation environment throughout the inner heliosphere, including at the Earth. To forecast and "nowcast" the radiation environment requires the fusing of three components: 1) the ability to provide probabilities for incipient solar activity; 2) the use of these probabilities and daily coronal and solar wind observations to model the 3D spatial and temporal heliosphere, including magnetic field structure and transients, within 10 Astronomical Units; and 3) the ability to model the acceleration and transport of energetic particles based on current and anticipated coronal and heliospheric conditions. We describe how to address 1) - 3) based on our existing, well developed, and validated codes and models. The goal of RISCS toolset is to provide an operational forecast and "nowcast" capability that will a) predict solar energetic particle (SEP) intensities; b) spectra for protons and heavy ions; c) predict maximum energies and their duration; d) SEP composition; e) cosmic ray intensities, and f) plasma parameters, including shock arrival times, strength and obliquity at any given heliospheric location and time. The toolset would have a 72 hour predicative capability, with associated probabilistic bounds, that would be updated hourly thereafter to improve the predicted event(s) and reduce the associated probability bounds. The RISCS toolset would be highly adaptable and portable, capable of running on a variety of platforms to accommodate various operational needs and requirements. The described transition plan is based on a well established approach developed in the Earth Science discipline that ensures that the customer has a tool that meets their needs

Spann, James F.↗

The NOvA Test Beam Program

NOvA is a long-baseline oscillation neutrino experiment designed to study and measure a wide range of important topics for neutrino physics such as the neutrino mixing parameters, the neutrino mass hierarchy, and CP violation in the lepton sector. The NOvA Test Beam experiment uses a scaled-down detector of 30 tons to analyze tagged beamline particles. A new tertiary beamline deployed at Fermilab can select and identify electrons, muons, pions, kaons and protons with momenta from 0.2 to 2 GeV/c. Using these data, the Test Beam program will provide NOvA with a better understanding of the largest systematic uncertainties impacting the analyses, including the detector response, calibration, and hadronic and electromagnetic energy resolution. The status and future plans for the NOvA Test beam program, along with preliminary results, are presented in these Proceedings.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Radio science with Voyager 1 at Jupiter - Preliminary profiles of the atmosphere and ionosphere

A preliminary profile of the atmosphere of Jupiter in the South Equatorial Belt shows (1) the tropopause occurring at a pressure level of 100 millibars and temperature of about 113 K, (2) a higher warm inversion layer at about the 35-millibar level, and (3) a lower-altitude constant lapse rate matching the adiabatic value of about 2 K/km, with the temperature reaching 150 K at the 600-millibar level. Preliminary afternoon and predawn ionospheric profiles at 12 deg and near the equator, respectively, have topside plasma scale heights of 590 km changing to 960 km above an altitude of 3500 km for the dayside, and about 960 km at all measured heights above the peak for the nightside. The higher value of scale height corresponds to a plasma temperature of 1100 K under the assumption of a plasma of protons and electrons in ambipolar diffusive equilibrium. The peak electron concentration in the upper ionosphere is approximately 200,000/cu cm for the dayside and about a factor of 10 less for the nightside. These peaks occur at altitudes of 1600 and 2300 km, respectively. Continuing analyses are expected to extend and refine these results, and to be used to investigate other regions and phenomena.

Eshleman, V. R.↗

Proton irradiation-decelerated intergranular corrosion of Ni-Cr alloys in molten salt

The effects of ionizing radiation on materials often reduce to "bad news". Radiation damage usually leads to detrimental effects such as embrittlement, accelerated creep, phase instability, and radiation-altered corrosion. Here we report that proton irradiation decelerates intergranular corrosion of Ni-Cr alloys in molten fluoride salt at 650 °C. We demonstrate this by showing that the depth of intergranular voids resulting from Cr leaching into the salt is reduced by proton irradiation alone. Interstitial defects generated from irradiation enhance diffusion, more rapidly replenishing corrosion-injected vacancies with alloy constituents, thus playing the crucial role in decelerating corrosion. Our results show that irradiation can have a positive impact on materials performance, challenging our view that radiation damage usually results in negative effects.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

High energy particle production from proton synchrotron radiation in strong magnetic fields in relativistic quantum field theory

We investigate photon, pion, and 𝜌-meson production from proton synchrotron radiation in the presence of strong magnetic fields. The proton decay widths and the luminosities of the emitted particles are calculated within a relativistic quantum framework that incorporates Landau quantization. A scaling rule is derived for the transition probability between different Landau levels. This allows an evaluation of transitions for extremely high Landau numbers exceeding 10 15 . Furthermore, we calculate the momentum distribution of the emitted particles by properly including the proton recoil effect associated with particle emission. The results differ significantly from conventional semiclassical approaches.

Cosmic ray sources↗

Room-temperature neutron and X-ray data collection of 3CL M pro from SARS-CoV-2

The replication of SARS-CoV-2 produces two large polyproteins, pp1a and pp1ab, that are inactive until cleavage by the viral chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease enzyme (3CL M pro ) into a series of smaller functional proteins. At the heart of 3CL M pro is an unusual catalytic dyad formed by the side chains of His41 and Cys145 and a coordinated water molecule. The catalytic mechanism by which the enzyme operates is still unknown, as crucial information on the protonation states within the active site is unclear. To experimentally determine the protonation states of the catalytic site and of the other residues in the substrate-binding cavity, and to visualize the hydrogen-bonding networks throughout the enzyme, room-temperature neutron and X-ray data were collected from a large H/D-exchanged crystal of ligand-free (apo) 3CL M pro .

3CL Mpro↗

Hadron-argon cross-section measurements in ProtoDUNE-SP

The single-phase liquid argon ProtoDUNE detector (ProtoDUNE-SP) is located at CERN’s neutrino platform facility and serves as a prototype to validate the technology for the 10-kton fiducial mass liquid argon detectors for the DUNE experiment. ProtoDUNE-SP was exposed to a variety of test-beam particles (electrons, muons, pions, kaons, and protons) towards the end of 2018 collecting data in a broad range of momenta, from 0.3 - 7 GeV/c. The results will improve the understanding of final-state interactions in neutrino-argon cross-sections. The progress of the analyses towards the cross-section measurements on argon from the test-beam data collected at protoDUNE-SP will be presented.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗