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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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DOE OSTI2019

Nonequilibrium physics in biology

Life is characterized by a myriad of complex dynamic processes allowing organisms to grow, reproduce, and evolve. Physical approaches for describing systems out of thermodynamic equilibrium have been increasingly applied to living systems, which often exhibit phenomena not found in those traditionally studied in physics. Spectacular advances in experimentation during the last decade or two, for example, in microscopy, single-cell dynamics, in the reconstruction of subcellular and multicellular systems outside of living organisms, and in high throughput data acquisition, have yielded an unprecedented wealth of data on cell dynamics, genetic regulation, and organismal development. These data have motivated the development and refinement of concepts and tools to dissect the physical mechanisms underlying biological processes. Notably, landscape and flux theory as well as active hydrodynamic gel theory have proven useful in this endeavor. Together with concepts and tools developed in other areas of nonequilibrium physics, significant progress has been made in unraveling the principles underlying efficient energy transport in photosynthesis, cellular regulatory networks, cellular movements and organization, embryonic development and cancer, neural network dynamics, population dynamics and ecology, as well as aging, immune responses, and evolution. In this paper, recent advances in nonequilibrium physics are reviewd and their application to biological systems is surveyed. Many of these results are expected to be important cornerstones as the field continues to build our understanding of life.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Survey of Deep Learning and Physics-Based Approaches in Computational Wave Imaging

Computational wave imaging (CWI) extracts hidden structure and physical properties of a volume of material by analyzing wave signals that traverse that volume. Applications include seismic exploration of the Earth’s subsurface, acoustic imaging and nondestructive testing (NDT) in material science, and ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) in medicine. Current approaches for solving CWI problems can be divided into two categories: those rooted in traditional physics and those based on deep learning. Physics-based methods stand out for their ability to provide high-resolution and quantitatively accurate estimates of acoustic properties within the medium. However, they can be computationally intensive and are susceptible to ill-posedness and nonconvexity typical of CWI problems. Machine learning (ML)-based computational methods have recently emerged, offering a different perspective to address these challenges. Diverse scientific communities have independently pursued the integration of deep learning in CWI. This review discusses how contemporary scientific ML techniques, and deep neural networks in particular, have been developed to enhance and integrate with traditional physics-based methods for solving CWI problems. We present a structured framework that consolidates existing research spanning multiple domains, including computational imaging, wave physics, and data science. This study concludes with important lessons learned from existing ML-based methods and identifies technical hurdles and emerging trends through a systematic analysis of the extensive literature on this topic.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

New physics in B→K * μμ?

Recent experimental results on angular observables in the rare decay $B\to K^*\mu^+\mu^-$ show significant deviations from Standard Model predictions. We investigate the possibility that these deviations are due to new physics. Combining all relevant data on $b \to s$ rare decays, we show that a consistent explanation of most anomalies can be obtained by new physics contributing simultaneously to the semi-leptonic vector operator $O_9$ and its chirality-flipped counterpart $O_9'$. A partial explanation is possible with new physics in $O_9$ or in dipole operators only. We study in detail the implications for models of new physics, in particular the minimal supersymmetric standard model, models with partial compositeness and generic models with flavour-changing $Z^\prime$ bosons. In all considered models, contributions to $B\to K^*\mu^+\mu^-$ of the preferred size imply a spectrum close to the TeV scale. We stress that measurements of CP asymmetries in $B\to K^*\mu^+\mu^-$ could provide valuable information to narrow down possible new physics explanations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Composites of functional polymers: Toward physical intelligence using flexible and soft materials

Abstract Materials that can assist with perception and responsivity of an engineered machine are said to promote physical intelligence. Physical intelligence may be important for flexible and soft materials that will be used in applications like soft robotics, wearable computers, and healthcare. These applications require stimuli responsivity, sensing, and actuation that allow a machine to perceive and react to its environment. The development of materials that exhibit some form of physical intelligence has relied on functional polymers and composites that contain these polymers. This review will focus on composites of functional polymers that display physical intelligence by assisting with perception, responsivity, or by off-loading computation. Composites of liquid crystal elastomers, shape-memory polymers, hydrogels, self-healing materials, and transient materials and their functionalities are examined with a viewpoint that considers physical intelligence. Graphic Abstract

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics

This funding supported the Northeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics held January 14-16, 2011 in Cambridge, MA. This conference was one of four simultaneous conferences nationwide (the others held at North Carolina State University, Purdue University and the University of Southern California) whose goal is to help undergraduate women continue in physics by providing them with the opportunity to experience a professional conference, information about graduate school and professions in physics, and access to other women in physics of all ages with whom they can share experiences, advice, and ideas. Both men and women attended and benefitted from research talks by faculty, panel discussions about graduate school and careers in physics and related areas, laboratory tours, student research talks and poster presentations, and networking among students and between students and faculty.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Strange Particles and Heavy Ion Physics

This very long-running grant has supported many experiments in nuclear and particle physics by a group from the University of New Mexico. The gamut of these experiments runs from many aspects of Strangeness Nuclear Physics, to rare Kaon decays, to searches for exotic Hadrons such as Pentaquark or H-Dibaryon, and finally to Spin Physics within the PHENIX collaboration at RHIC. These experiments were performed at a number of laboratories worldwide: first and foremost at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL), but also at CERN, KEK, and most recently at J-PARC. In this Final Technical Report we summarize progress and achievements for this award since our last Progress Report, i.e. for the period of fall 2013 until the award’s termination on November 30, 2015. The report consists of two parts, representing our two most recent experimental efforts, participation in the Nucleon Spin Physics program of the PHENIX experiment at RHIC, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at BNL – Task 1, led by Douglas Fields; and participation in several Strangeness Nuclear Physics experiments at J-PARC, the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Center in Tokai-mura, Japan – Task 2, led by Bernd Bassalleck.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Studies of the Impact of Magnetic Field Uncertainties on Physics Parameters of the Mu2e Experiment

The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for a signature of charged lepton flavor violation, an effect prohibitively too small to be observed within the Standard Model of particle physics. Therefore, its observation is a signal of new physics. The signature that Mu2e will search for is the ratio of the rate of neutrinoless coherent conversion of muons into electrons in the field of a nucleus, relative to the muon capture rate by the nucleus. The conversion process is an example of charged lepton flavor violation. This experiment aims at a sensitivity of four orders of magnitude higher than previous related experiments. The desired sensitivity implies highly demanding requirements of accuracy in the design and conduct of the experiment. It is therefore important to investigate the tolerance of the experiment to instrumental uncertainties and provide specifications that the design and construction must meet. This is the core of the work reported in this thesis. The design of the experiment is based on three superconducting solenoid magnets. The most important uncertainties in the magnetic field of the solenoids can arise from misalignments of the Transport Solenoid, which transfers the beam from the muon production area to the detector area and eliminates beam-originating backgrounds. In this thesis, the field uncertainties induced by possible misalignments and their impact on the physics parameters of the experiment are examined. The physics parameters include the muon and pion stopping rates and the scattering of beam electrons off the capture target, which determine the signal, intrinsic background and late-arriving background yields, respectively. Additionally, a possible test of the Transport Solenoid alignment with low momentum electrons is examined, as an alternative option to measure its field with conventional probes, which is technically difficult due to mechanical interference. Misalignments of the Transport Solenoid were simulated using standard magnetic field cal- culation tools. Particle transport was simulated using the Mu2e Offline software, which includes realistic models of particle interactions with materials in the full Mu2e geometry. The physics parameters were found tolerant within the precision requirements of the experiment for rigid-body type of misalignments, which are the most dangerous, up to a maximum coil displacement of nearly 10 mm. With the appropriate choice of low momentum electron detector, the proposed Transport Solenoid test is found to be sensitive to such misalignments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Exploring New Physics Beyond the Standard Model: Final Technical Report

This grant in 2015 to 2016 was for support in the area of theoretical High Energy Physics. The research supported focused mainly on the energy frontier, but it also has connections to both the cosmic and intensity frontiers. Lian-Tao Wang (PI) focused mainly on signal of new physics at colliders. The year 2015 - 2016, covered by this grant, has been an exciting period of digesting the influx of LHC data, understanding its meaning, and using it to refine strategies for deeper exploration. The PI proposed new methods of searching for new physics at the LHC, such as for the compressed stops. He also investigated in detail the signal of composite Higgs models, focusing on spin-1 composite resonances in the di-boson channel. He has also considered di-photon as a probe for such models. He has also made contributions in formulating search strategies of dark matter at the LHC, resulting in two documents with recommendations. The PI has also been active in studying the physics potential of future colliders, including Higgs factories and 100 TeV pp colliders. He has given comprehensive overview of the physics potential of the high energy proton collider, and outline its luminosity targets. He has also studied the use of lepton colliders to probe fermionic Higgs portal and bottom quark couplings to the Z boson.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Aerosol Physics Considerations for Using Cerium Oxide CeO 2 as a Surrogate for Plutonium Oxide PuO 2 in Airborne Release Fraction Measurements for Storage Container Investigations

Cerium oxide (CeO2) dust is recommended as a surrogate for plutonium oxide (PuO2) in airborne release fraction experiments. The total range of applicable particle sizes for PuO2 extends from 0.0032 μm (the diameter of a single PuO2 molecule) to 10 μm (the defined upper boundary for respirable particles). For particulates with a physical particle diameter of 1.0 μm, the corresponding aerodynamic diameters for CeO2 and PuO2 are 2.7 μm and 3.4 μm, respectively. Cascade impactor air samplers are capable of measuring the size distributions of CeO2 or PuO2 particulates. In this document, the aerodynamic diameters for CeO2 and PuO2 were calculated for seven different physical diameters (0.0032, 0.02, 0.11, 0.27, 1.0, 3.2, and 10 μm). For cascade impactor measurements, CeO2 and PuO2 particulates with the same physical diameter would be collected onto the same or adjacent collection substrates. The difference between the aerodynamic diameter of CeO2 and PuO2 particles (that have the same physical diameter) is 39% of the resolution of a twelve-stage MSP Inc. 125 cascade impactor, and 34% for an eight-stage Andersen impactor. An approach is given to calculate the committed effective dose (CED) coefficient for PuO2 aerosol particles, compared to a corresponding aerodynamic diameter of CeO2 particles. With this approach, use of CeO2 as a surrogate for PuO2 material would follow a direct conversion based on a molar equivalent. In addition to the analytical information developed for this document, several US national labs have published articles about the use of CeO2 as a PuO2 surrogate. Different physical and chemical aspects were considered by these investigators, including thermal properties, ceramic formulations, cold pressing, sintering, molecular reactions, and mass loss in high temperature gas flows. All of those US national lab studies recommended the use of CeO2 as a surrogate material for PuO2.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2019

Search for the Higgs and Physics Beyond the Standard Model with the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Experiment is a general purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Laboratory for Nuclear Research (CERN). The LHC is the world’s highest energy particle collider, providing proton-proton collisions up to a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The primary aim of the LHC and the CMS Experiment is to discover new physics at this high energy frontier. In 2012, the discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC marked a crucial milestone in the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics and ushered in the beginning of a new era of exploration at the high energy frontier. Since this discovery, two key areas of study were the characterization of the new particle to confirm that it is, indeed, the predicted SM Higgs boson and also the examination of possible deviations from the SM that may hint at new physics. As a member of the CMS collaboration, the main interest of PI Orimoto has been the study of electromagnetic objects (electrons and photons) as a critical ingredient in the characterization of the Higgs boson, and as a window into physics beyond-the-SM (BSM). To this end, the Orimoto group has led numerous physics analyses ranging from SM Higgs boson studies, searches for exotic production and decay of the Higgs boson, as well as searches for supersymmetric particles. Moreover, the Orimoto group has made significant contributions to the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL), the sub-detector responsible for the precise measurement of the energies of electrons and photons. The Orimoto group’s contributions have been recognized with many leadership roles and high profile conference presentations. This report outlines the group’s products and accomplishments from the award period (June 2013 through July 2018).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Physical Security Model Development of an Electrochemical Facility.

Nuclear facilities in the U.S. and around the world face increasing challenges in meeting evolving physical security requirements while keeping costs reasonable. The addition of security features after a facility has been designed and without attention to optimization (the approach of the past) can easily lead to cost overruns. Instead, security should be considered at the beginning of the design process in order to provide robust, yet efficient physical security designs. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate how modeling and simulation can be used to optimize the design of physical protection systems. A suite of tools, including Scribe3D and Blender, were used to model up a generic electrochemical reprocessing facility. Physical protection elements such as sensors, portal monitors, barriers, and guard forces were added to the model based on best practices for physical security. One outsider theft scenario was examined with 4-8 adversaries to determine security metrics. This work fits into a larger Virtual Test Bed 2020 Milestone in the Material Protection, Accounting, and Control Technologies (MPACT) program through the Department of Energy (DOE). The purpose of the milestone is to demonstrate how a series of experimental and modeling capabilities across the DOE complex provide the capabilities to demonstrate complete Safeguards and Security by Design (SSBD) for nuclear facilities. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was funded by the Materials Protection, Accounting, and Control Technologies (MPACT) working group as part of the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Program under the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2018

CMS Physics Co-coordinator Teaching Buyout

Prof. Tulika Bose has recently served as the Physics Co-coordinator of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Her two-year term started in September 2017 and ended on August 31st, 2019. As CMS Physics Co-coordinator she was one of two lead scientists charged with reviewing the entire scientific output of the CMS experiment. She helped define the goals and types of research that collaborators undertook as they hunted for new physics -- exotic particles that have been theorized to exist as well as new yet unpredicted phenomena. She was responsible for organizing activities to produce and review the physics results of the CMS experiment. CMS scientists published well over 100 papers each year. As Physics Co-coordinator she oversaw all of the issues that went into ensuring that the results were correct and the best that can be produced.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Physics at the MeV-Scale in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers

The liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) is the detection technology chosen for several Fermilab-based neutrino experiments. This technology will be used in studies of neutrino cross-sections and oscillations, neutrinos from supernovae as well as a variety of studies of beyond the Standard Model physics. This thesis explores the use of these detectors to study MeV-scale activity. MeV-scale electrons arising from Compton scatters of deexcitation photons and photons from inelastic neutron scattering in neutrino-nucleus interactions are reconstructed using novel methods presented here. This work represents the first demonstration of MeV-scale physics capabilities in a LArTPC neutrino experiment as well as the first observation of neutrino-produced photons from nuclear de-excitation and inelastic neutron scattering. A search for millicharged particles, postulated by theories of beyond the standard model physics, is also performed using data from a LArTPC and the low-ener gy reconstruction techniques developed. The results set world-leading bounds on the parameter space of millicharged particles. The work in this thesis demonstrates that studies of MeV-scale activity and new physics are possible with LArTPC technology and provides the foundation for future LArTPC studies of low energy neutrinos and new physics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nuclear Weapons Computational Physics [Slides]

This presentation provides an overview of computational physics, the role LANL played in the history of computational physics, and how computational physics differs at LANL. Next, the presentation addresses computational physics as part of the LANL weapons program. Finally, the computational physics structure at LANL is addressed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Physical Security Model Development of an Electrochemical Facility

Nuclear facilities in the U.S. and around the world face increasing challenges in meeting evolving physical security requirements while keeping costs reasonable. The addition of security features after a facility has been designed and without attention to optimization (the approach of the past) can easily lead to cost overruns. Instead, security should be considered at the beginning of the design process in order to provide robust, yet efficient physical security designs. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate how modeling and simulation can be used to optimize the design of physical protection systems. A suite of tools, including Scribe3D and Blender, were used to model a generic electrochemical reprocessing facility. Physical protection elements such as sensors, portal monitors, barriers, and guard forces were added to the model based on best practices for physical security. Two theft scenarios (an outsider attack and insider diversion) as well as a sabotage scenario were examined in order to optimize the security design. Security metrics are presented. This work fits into a larger Virtual Facility Distributed Test Bed 2020 Milestone in the Material Protection, Accounting, and Control Technologies (MPACT) program through the Department of Energy (DOE). The purpose of the milestone is to demonstrate how a series of experimental and modeling capabilities across the DOE complex provide the capabilities to demonstrate complete Safeguards and Security by Design (SSBD) for nuclear facilities.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Leveraging the Higgs to Discover Physics Beyond the Standard Model (Final Technical Report)

The discovery of an apparently Standard Model-like Higgs at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) heralds the start of a new era in particle physics. While the Higgs marks the completion of the Standard Model framework, it offers far more opportunities in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model. The Higgs boson raises a pressing theoretical problem known as the hierarchy problem: why is an elementary scalar particle so light when quantum corrections tie its mass to the highest energy scales? The Higgs also provides an unprecedented experimental opportunity as a bellwether of new physics: it may be merely the first of several states in the electroweak symmetry breaking sector, while its production and decays may provide unique evidence for additional particles. Research supported by this award leveraged the Higgs boson to explore new physics from both directions, developing novel approaches to solving the hierarchy problem posed by the Higgs boson and directly employing the Higgs as a new tool for discovery. Given that null results at the LHC and other experiments have begun to endanger conventional approaches to the hierarchy problem, research supported by the award identified original solutions to the hierarchy problem wherein the lightest degrees of freedom protecting the Higgs boson carry no Standard Model quantum numbers and thus evade existing searches. The PI's approach combined standard tools of quantum field theory with novel applications of the orbifold reduction of continuous symmetries to define the framework of "neutral naturalness'' and explore its experimental consequences across the energy, intensity, and cosmic frontiers. In employing the Higgs directly as a tool for discovery, research supported by this award articulated a systematic approach to searching for extensions of the Higgs sector at the LHC and pursued four key avenues through which the Higgs can be used to uncover new physics across a range of experiments: (1) as a direct final state probe; (2) as an indirect probe through its couplings; (3) as a portal to states neutral under the Standard Model; and (4) as a source of exotic processes in displaced decays.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Latin American Strategy for Research Infrastructures for High Energy, Cosmology, Astroparticle Physics LASF4RI for HECAP

The present document, the Latin American HECAP Physics Briefing Book, is the result of this ambitious grass roots effort. This report contains the work performed by the Preparatory Group to synthesize the main contributions and discussions for each of the topical working groups: Astronomy, Astrophysics and Astroparticle Physics; Cosmology; Dark Matter; Neutrinos; Electroweak and Strong Interactions, Higgs physics, Flavour and CP Physics and Beyond the Standard Model Physics; Instrumentation and Computing. This work aims at providing a landscape of existing expertise and capabilities. It will hopefully instruct some recommendations for further development of strategic research infrastructures relevant for future HECAP efforts in the region as well as for a continuous and successful involvement of Latin American HECAP researchers in the global arena.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

GIF Very High Temperature Reactor: Proliferation Resistance and Physical Protection White Paper

This report is part of a series of six white papers, prepared jointly by the Proliferation Resistance and Physical Protection Working Group (PRPPWG) and the six System Steering Committees (SSCs) and provisional System Steering Committees (pSSCs). This publication is an update to a similar series published in 2011 presenting the status of Proliferation Resistance & Physical Protection (PR&PP) characteristics for each of the six systems selected by the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) for further research and development, namely: the Sodium-cooled fast Reactor (SFR), the Very high temperature reactor (VHTR), the gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR), the Molten salt reactor (MSR) and the Supercritical water–cooled reactor (SCWR). This white paper represents the status of Proliferation Resistance and Physical Protection (PR&PP) characteristics for the Very-High-Temperature Reactor (VHTR) reference designs selected by the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) VHTR System Steering Committee (SSC). The intent is to generate preliminary information about the PR&PP features of the VHTR reactor technology and to provide insights for optimizing their PR&PP performance for the benefit of VHTR system designers. It updates the VHTR analysis published in the 2011 report “Proliferation Resistance and Physical Protection of the Six Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems”, prepared Jointly by the Proliferation Resistance and Physical Protection Working Group (PRPPWG) and the System Steering Committees and provisional System Steering Committees of the Generation IV International Forum, taking into account the evolution of both the systems, the GIF R&D activities, and an increased understanding of the PR&PP features. The white paper, prepared jointly by the GIF PRPPWG and the GIF VHTR SSC, follows the high-level paradigm of the GIF PR&PP Evaluation Methodology to investigate the key points of PR&PP features extracted from the reference designs of VHTRs under consideration in various countries. A major update from the 2011 report is an explicit distinction between prismatic block-type VHTRs and pebble-bed VHTRs. The white paper also provides an overview of the TRISO fuel and fuel cycle. For PR, the document analyses and discusses the proliferation resistance aspects in terms of robustness against State-based threats associated with diversion of materials, misuse of facilities, breakout scenarios, and production in clandestine facilities. Similarly, for PP, the document discusses the robustness against theft of material and sabotage by non-State actors. The document follows a common template adopted by all the white papers in the updated series.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗