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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Site Suitability and Air Pollution Impacts of Composting Infrastructure for California’s Organic Waste Diversion Law

The emerging field of polaritonic chemistry explores the behavior of molecules under strong coupling with cavity modes. Despite recent developments in ab initio polaritonic methods for simulating polaritonic chemistry under electronic strong coupling, their capabilities are limited, especially in cases where the molecule also features strong electronic correlation. To bridge this gap, we have developed a novel method for cavity QED calculations utilizing the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) algorithm in conjunction with the Pauli–Fierz Hamiltonian. Our approach is applied to investigate the effect of the cavity on the S0–S1 transition of n-oligoacenes, with n ranging from 2 to 5, encompassing 22 fully correlated π orbitals in the largest pentacene molecule. Our findings indicate that the influence of the cavity intensifies with larger acenes. Additionally, we demonstrate that, unlike the full determinantal representation, DMRG efficiently optimizes and eliminates excess photonic degrees of freedom, resulting in an asymptotically constant computational cost as the photonic basis increases.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bond Dissociation Energies and Electronic Calculations on the Actinide Halides ThX and UX (X = Cl, Br, I)

Resonant two-photon ionization spectroscopy has been used to locate predissociation thresholds in the spectra of the actinide halides ThX and UX, where X = Cl, Br, and I. These predissociation thresholds are identified as the bond dissociation energies (BDEs) of the molecules. The resulting values show very similar BDEs for the corresponding ThX and UX species, with the thorium molecules being slightly more strongly bound: D 0 (ThCl) = 5.077(6) eV, D 0 (ThBr) = 4.391(4) eV, D 0 (ThI) = 3.537(8) eV, D 0 (UCl) = 4.989(3) eV, D 0 (UBr) = 4.313(3) eV, and D 0 (UI) = 3.449(8) eV. Here, the estimated error limit is given in parentheses in units of the last reported digit. Spinor-based coupled cluster calculations have also been carried out on the halides of this work, including also ThF and UF. Here, the final D 0 values after including contributions due to basis set incompleteness, outer-core-correlation, picture-change, and QED effects are within 0.04 eV of the present experimental values in each case.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Bond Dissociation Energies of the Actinide Halides AnX, An = Ac–Lr and X = F–I, Utilizing Relativistic Composite Coupled Cluster Approaches

Bond dissociation energies (BDEs) have been calculated for the set of actinide halides AnX with An=Ac, Pa, and Np-Lr and X=F-I. Two composite thermochemistry methods based on the Feller-Peterson-Dixon (FPD) approach have been utilized, one involving spinor-based relativistic CCSD(T) calculations where spin-orbit (SO) was included at the orbital level and another using scalar relativistic CCSD(T) with a posteriori SO contributions based on 2-component multireference configuration interaction calculations. The method that was chosen for a given actinide halide was based on which representation yielded the best single determinant reference determinant for the coupled cluster calculation. The spinor-based method was chosen for all cases except for AmX, CmX, and BkX. Both composite approaches included contributions accounting for basis set truncation, outer-core correlation, the Gaunt interaction, and QED. The scalar FPD results, as well as the spinor-based calculations for AcF, also included higher order electron correlation up through CCSDT(Q). In addition to BDEs, CCSD(T) equilibrium bond lengths, harmonic frequencies, and vibrational anharmonicity constants are reported for all species. Last, the FPD BDEs for the fluorides were used to confirm the trend across the actinide series previously predicted by Gibson using bonding models based atomic promotion energies that provide a single 6d electron for bonding. In particular the local minimum in the BDEs at AmF is confirmed in the present calculations. Furthermore, the BDEs for LrX are predicted to be slightly larger than those of AcX, making them the largest in the actinide halide series.

Actinides↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Hybrid Molecular–Nanophotonic Platform for On-Chip Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics and Collective Interactions

We present a hybrid solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) platform that integrates a high density of coherent organic molecules with high-quality-factor nanophotonics. Thin anthracene crystals doped with dibenzoterrylene (DBT) are mechanically transferred onto prefabricated silicon nitride photonic crystal cavities, preserving both the cavity quality and molecular coherence. This approach decouples emitter synthesis from nanofabrication, providing a pathway for integrating other types of emitters. The high density of molecular emitters results in up to ten molecules being coupled to a single cavity. By tuning pairs of molecules into resonance within a single cavity mode, we observe cavity-mediated interactions in both dispersive and dissipative regimes. Furthermore, these results establish an accessible route to deterministic on-chip single- and multiphoton sources.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Non-Markovian relaxation spectroscopy of fluxonium qubits

Recent studies have shown that parasitic two-level systems (TLS) in superconducting qubits, which are a leading source of decoherence, can have relaxation times longer than the qubits themselves. However, the standard techniques used to characterize qubit relaxation is only valid for measuring T 1 under the Born-Markov approximation and could mask environmental memory effects in practice. Here, we introduce two-timescale relaxometry, a technique to probe the qubit and environment relaxation simultaneously and efficiently. We apply it to high-coherence fluxonium qubits over a frequency range of 0.1-0.4 GHz, and reveal a discrete spectrum of TLS with millisecond lifetimes. Our analysis of the spectrum is consistent with a random distribution of TLS in the aluminum oxide tunnel barrier of the Josephson junction chain of the fluxonium, with a spectral and volumetric density and average electric dipole similar to previous TLS studies at much higher frequencies. Our study suggests that investigating and mitigating TLS in the junction chain is crucial to the development of various types of noise-protected qubits in circuit QED.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Strong Electromagnetic Fields in Heavy Ion Collisions

Photons play a pivotal role in both theoretical and applied physics, ranging from elementary particle studies to practical technologies. This article explores how ultra-peripheral collisions of heavy ions act as sources of nearly real photons, enabling the investigation of a wide range of photon-induced processes. By applying the equivalent photon approximation, one can study nuclear structure, QED phenomena, and potential new physics, all in a backgroundsuppressed environment.

Bertulani, C. A. [East Texas A & M Univ., Commerce↗
DOE OSTI2025

Topology and spectral entanglement in cavity-mediated photon scattering

Here, we develop a microscopic diagrammatic theory for cavity-mediated photon scattering in a topological one-dimensional insulator described by the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model. Within the velocity-gauge formulation, we derive the photon self-energy and vertex corrections arising from virtual electron–hole excitations coupled to a quantized cavity mode, and we evaluate the resulting polariton dispersion and two-photon correlation spectra. Our analysis shows that vacuum fluctuations of the cavity field induce a momentum-resolved self-energy that mixes conduction and valence bands through virtual photon exchange, producing interband hybridization and avoided crossings in the electronic dispersion. This “cavity dressing” is symmetry-dependent, vanishing at the Brillouin-zone edge where the dipole matrix element is zero, and its strength is controlled by the spatial coherence range ζ ≈ (l c /a) 2 of virtual excitations. We further examine how the cavity modifies nonlinear optical observables, including the Kerr nonlinearity and biphoton spectral entanglement, and identify the regimes where these effects become sensitive to the underlying topological phase. The theoretical framework established here provides a unified description of light–matter coupling in topological and polaritonic systems, bridging solid-state cavity QED with the emerging field of cavity-modified quantum materials. Our results suggest that engineered photonic environments can coherently reshape the electronic landscape of topological insulators, offering new routes to control collective electronic and optical phenomena through vacuum-field fluctuations.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Fast and flexible neutrino decoupling. Part I. The Standard Model

Cosmological determinations of the number of relativistic neutrino species, N eff , are becoming increasingly accurate, and further improvements are expected both from CMB and BBN data. Given this context, we update the evaluation of N eff and the current entropy density via the momentum-averaged approach. This allows for a numerically fast description of neutrino decoupling, easily portable to an array of new physics scenarios. We revisit all aspects of this approach, including collision terms with full electron mass dependence, finite temperature QED corrections to the equation of state, neutrino oscillations, and the modelling of neutrino ensembles with effective chemical potentials. For integrated observables, our results differ by less than 0.04% from the solution of the momentum-dependent evolution equation. We outline how to extend the approach to BSM settings, and will highlight its power in Part II. To facilitate the practical implementation, we release a Mathematica and python code within nudec_BSM_v2, easily linkable to BBN codes.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantum simulation of boson-related Hamiltonians: techniques, effective Hamiltonian construction, and error analysis

Elementary quantum mechanics proposes that a closed physical system consistently evolves in a reversible manner. However, control and readout necessitate the coupling of the quantum system to the external environment, subjecting it to relaxation and decoherence. Consequently, system-environment interactions are indispensable for simulating physically significant theories. A broad spectrum of physical systems in condensed-matter and high-energy physics, vibrational spectroscopy, and circuit and cavity QED necessitates the incorporation of bosonic degrees of freedom, such as phonons, photons, and gluons, into optimized fermion algorithms for near-future quantum simulations. In particular, when a quantum system is surrounded by an external environment, its basic physics can usually be simplified to a spin or fermionic system interacting with bosonic modes. Nevertheless, troublesome factors such as the magnitude of the bosonic degrees of freedom typically complicate the direct quantum simulation of these interacting models, necessitating the consideration of a comprehensive plan. This strategy should specifically include a suitable fermion/boson-to-qubit mapping scheme to encode sufficiently large yet manageable bosonic modes, and a method for truncating and/or downfolding the Hamiltonian to the defined subspace for performing an approximate but highly accurate simulation, guided by rigorous error analysis. In this pedagogical tutorial review, we aim to provide such an exhaustive strategy, focusing on encoding and simulating certain bosonic-related model Hamiltonians, inclusive of their static properties and time evolutions. Specifically, we emphasize two aspects: (1) the discussion of recently developed quantum algorithms for these interacting models and the construction of effective Hamiltonians, and (2) a detailed analysis regarding a tightened error bound for truncating the bosonic modes for a class of fermion-boson interacting Hamiltonians.

bosonic Hamiltonian↗
DOE OSTI2026

Exploratory calculation of 𝐾 L → 𝜇 + ⁢𝜇 − decay from lattice QCD at physical pion mass

We compute the complex, long-distance two-photon-exchange amplitude which contributes to the rare 𝐾 L → 𝜇 + ⁢𝜇 − decay from lattice QCD. We use a 24 3 × 64 physical-pion-mass gauge field ensemble at an inverse lattice spacing of 1.023 GeV and a QED ∞ -based formalism. Our implementation strategies for all five non-SU(3)-flavor-suppressed diagram topologies are given in detail. We achieve a 25% statistical precision on the dispersive part of this long-distance amplitude. This calculation is carried out with 2+1 quark flavors and therefore requires the addition of counterterms to compensate for the absence of the Glashow-Iliopoulos-Maiani mechanism. These counterterms are not included in the current calculation and will be the subject of a second paper. Although a direct comparison to experiment cannot yet be made because of those omitted counterterms, the present exploratory calculation allows one to identify principal sources of statistical uncertainty in this calculation. The precision of our results is limited by the reconstruction of the physical contribution of the 𝜂 intermediate state, for which various strategies are tested and compared.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

First displaced vertex search for electroproduced dark-sector strongly interacting massive particles by the HPS experiment

The Heavy Photon Search experiment (HPS) is a fixed-target, electron beam experiment designed to search for 𝑒 + ⁢𝑒 − mass resonances and displaced decays using a forward acceptance spectrometer. This paper details the search for naturally long-lived “dark” vector mesons (𝑉 𝐷 ) arising from a dark sector of beyond-Standard-Model strongly interacting massive particles, characterized by a QCD-like 𝑆⁢𝑈⁢(3) 𝐷 symmetry and coupled to the Standard Model photon via a new 𝑈⁢(1) 𝐷 gauge interaction mediated by the “heavy photon,” or 𝐴′. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 10 608 nb −1 collected during the 2016 HPS engineering run. The displaced vertex search for 𝑉 𝐷 → 𝑒 +⁢ 𝑒 − in the 𝑒 +⁢ 𝑒 − invariant mass range 39–179 MeV showed no statistically significant evidence for signal above the QED background.

extensions of gauge sector↗
DOE OSTI2025

Finite-volume formalism for physical processes with an electroweak loop integral

This study investigates finite-volume effects in physical processes that involve the combination of long-range hadronic matrix elements with electroweak loop integrals. We adopt the approach of implementing the electroweak part as the infinite-volume version, which is denoted as the EW ∞ method in this work. A general approach is established for correcting finite-volume effects in cases where the hadronic intermediate states are dominated by either a single particle or two particles. For the single-particle case, this work derives the infinite volume reconstruction method from a new perspective. For the two-particle case, we provide the correction formulas for power-law finite-volume effects and unphysical terms with exponentially divergent time dependence. The finite-volume formalism developed in this study has broad applications, including the QED corrections in various processes and the two-photon exchange contribution in 𝐾 𝐿 → 𝜇 + ⁢𝜇 − or 𝜂 → 𝜇 + ⁢𝜇 − decays.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Probing Excited-State Dynamics of Transmon Ionization

The fidelity and quantum nondemolition character of the dispersive readout in circuit QED are limited by unwanted transitions to highly excited states at specific photon numbers in the readout resonator. This observation can be explained by multiphoton resonances between computational states and highly excited states in strongly driven nonlinear systems, analogous to multiphoton ionization in atoms and molecules. In this work, we utilize the multilevel nature of high-𝐸 𝐽 /𝐸 𝐶 transmons to probe the excited-state dynamics induced by strong drives during readout. With up to ten resolvable states, we quantify the critical photon number of ionization, the resulting state after ionization, and the fraction of the population transferred to highly excited states. Moreover, using pulse shaping to control the photon number in the readout resonator in the high-power regime, we tune the adiabaticity of the transition and verify that transmon ionization is a Landau-Zener-type transition. We further extend these methods to a typical transmon with 𝐸 𝐽 /𝐸 𝐶 ≈ 55 and probe the offset-charge dependence of ionization dynamics in a timed-resolved manner. Our experimental results agree well with the theoretical prediction from a semiclassical driven transmon model and may guide future exploration of strongly driven nonlinear oscillators.

cavity quantum electrodynamics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Quantum Interference in Two-Atom Resonant X-ray Scattering of an Intense Attosecond Pulse

We theoretically investigate resonant x-ray scattering from two noninteracting Ne+ ions driven by an intense attosecond pulse using a nonrelativistic, QED-based time-dependent framework. Our model includes Rabi oscillations, photoionization, Auger decay, and quantum interference among elastic scattering and resonance fluorescence pathways. We analyze how the total scattering signal depends on pulse intensity, atomic configuration, and initial electronic state. We find that the total resonant scattering yield exceeds its nonresonant counterpart; the angular dependence of the signal qualitatively resembles a two-atom structure factor; and the visibility of interference fringes is sensitive to pulse area and the initial electronic state. Only a subset of final states reached via resonance fluorescence exhibits interference, determined by the indistinguishability of photon emission pathways. Fringe visibility is maximized in the linear scattering regime, where ionization is minimal and resonance fluorescence pathways can be largely indistinguishable. These results highlight optimal conditions for applying ultrafast resonant x-ray scattering to single-particle imaging.

Venkatesh, Akilesh↗
DOE OSTI2026

Efficient Preparation of Dicke States

Here, we present an algorithm utilizing midcircuit measurement and feedback that prepares Dicke states with polylogarithmically many ancillae and polylogarithmic depth. Our algorithm uses only global midcircuit projective measurements and adaptively chosen global rotations. This improves over prior work that was only efficient for Dicke states of low weight or was not efficient in both depth and width. Our algorithm can also naturally be implemented in a cavity QED context using logarithmic time, zero ancillae, and atom-photon coupling scaling with the square root of the system size.

cavity methods↗
DOE OSTI2026

Intrinsic nonlocality of spin- and polarization-resolved probabilities in strong-field quantum electrodynamics

Spin and polarization are central to precision tests of fundamental physics and for interpreting radiation from astrophysical sources and ultraintense laser-matter experiments. Here, focusing on the fundamental process of nonlinear Compton scattering, we demonstrate that a key assumption underlying current strong-field quantum electrodynamics models, i.e., that emission can be treated as an instantaneous random event sampled from a local differential rate, is inconsistent once emission angles, electron spin, and/or photon polarization are resolved. Namely, even in strictly constant and uniform fields , the resulting fully differential distribution is sign indefinite, yielding negative inferred probabilities. The physical reason is that the photon emission probability builds up over a finite length of the electron trajectory, the formation region, during which the electron direction changes by roughly the same small angle that defines the radiation cone. Therefore, we put forward a new method where we integrate over this formation region analytically to obtain a physically consistent electron spin and photon polarization model. We show that the implementation of our model is compatible with existing Monte Carlo and particle-in-cell workflows. Simulations of a GeV-class electron-laser collision accessible at current petawatt facilities and of emission in a pulsarlike magnetic field are shown to reveal spin and polarization patterns that differ even qualitatively from state-of-the-art local models. In particular, our new model predicts substantial angle-dependent circular photon polarization where the well-known collinear-emission approach yields none, and a pronounced helicity bias in the recoiling electrons absent from current predictions. These findings have direct implications for upcoming strong-field QED experiments and for interpreting polarized radiation from extreme astrophysical environments.

astrophysical electromagnetic fields↗
DOE OSTI2025

Probing New Hadronic Forces with Heavy Exotic Atoms

We explore the potential of precision spectroscopy of heavy exotic atoms where electrons are substituted by negative hadrons to detect new force carriers with hadronic couplings. The selected transitions are unaffected by nuclear contact terms, thus enabling highly accurate calculations using bound-state QED, provided that the nuclear polarization is under control. Alternatively, we demonstrate that the dipole polarizability, a fundamental property of nuclei, can be extracted from the spectroscopy of exotic atoms in a novel way by combining two transitions while maintaining high sensitivity to new physics. Based on existing data, we extracted world-leading bounds on mediator masses ranging from 0.1 to 10 MeV for two benchmark models and show that forthcoming experiments could enhance the sensitivity to new physics by 2 orders of magnitude.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Z α 2 correction to superallowed beta decays in effective field theory and implications for | V u d |

Superallowed ( 0 + → 0 + ) beta decays currently provide the most precise extraction of quark mixing in the Standard Model. Their interpretation as a measurement of | V u d | relies on a reliable first-principles computation of QED radiative corrections expressed as a series in Z α and α . In this work, we provide the first model-independent result for two-loop, O ( Z α 2 ) , long-distance radiative corrections where the nuclei are treated as heavy pointlike particles. We use renormalization group analysis to obtain new results at O ( Z α 3 ) for the coefficient of double logarithms in the ratio of the maximal beta energy to the inverse nuclear size, E m / R - 1 . We use the Kinoshita-Lee-Nauenberg theorem to obtain new results at O ( Z 2 α 3 ) for the coefficient of logarithms in the ratio of maximal beta energy to the electron mass, log ( 2 E m / m ) . We identify a structure-dependent, and, therefore, short-distance, contribution to the traditional Z α 2 correction that should be revisited. We provide the first comprehensive update to the long-distance corrections in almost 40 years and comment on the impact of our findings for extractions of | V u d | . We find that shifts in the long-distance corrections are 2.5 × larger than past estimates of their uncertainty, 1.5 × larger than the statistical uncertainty from the combined fit of superallowed decays, and about 1 / 2 the size of estimated systematic error, which stems dominantly from nuclear structure effects.

Cao, Zehua [Kentucky U.] (ORCID:0009000354256423)↗