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At least 73 records · Page 4

Chemical bonding dictates drastic critical temperature difference in two seemingly identical superconductors

Though YB 6 and LaB 6 share the same crystal structure, atomic valence electron configuration, and phonon modes, they exhibit drastically different phonon-mediated superconductivity. YB 6 superconducts below 8.4 K, giving it the second-highest critical temperature of known borides, second only to MgB 2 . LaB 6 does not superconduct until near-absolute zero temperatures (below 0.45 K), however. Though previous studies have quantified the canonical superconductivity descriptors of YB 6 ’s greater Fermi-level (E f ) density of states and higher electron–phonon coupling (EPC), the root of this difference has not been assessed with full detail of the electronic structure. Through chemical bonding, we determine low-lying, unoccupied 4f atomic orbitals in lanthanum to be the key difference between these superconductors. These orbitals, which are not accessible in YB 6 , hybridize with π B–B bonds and bring this π-system lower in energy than the σ B–B bonds otherwise at E f . This inversion of bands is crucial: the optical phonon modes we show responsible for superconductivity cause the σ-orbitals of YB 6 to change drastically in overlap, but couple weakly to the π-orbitals of LaB 6 . These phonons in YB 6 even access a crossing of electronic states, indicating strong EPC. No such crossing in LaB 6 is observed. Finally, a supercell (the M k-point) is shown to undergo Peierls-like effects in YB 6 , introducing additional EPC from both softened acoustic phonons and the same electron-coupled optical modes as in the unit cell. Overall, we find that LaB 6 and YB 6 have fundamentally different mechanisms of superconductivity, despite their otherwise near-identity.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

Zero-noise extrapolation for quantum-gate error mitigation with identity insertions

Quantum-gate errors are a significant challenge for achieving precision measurements on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers. Here, this paper focuses on zero-noise extrapolation (ZNE), a technique that can be implemented on existing hardware, studying it in detail and proposing modifications to existing approaches. In particular, we consider identity insertion methods for amplifying noise because they are hardware agnostic. We build a mathematical formalism for studying existing ZNE techniques and show how higher order polynomial extrapolations can be used to systematically reduce depolarizing errors. Furthermore, we introduce a method for amplifying noise that uses far fewer gates than traditional methods. This approach is compared with existing methods for simulated quantum circuits. Comparable or smaller errors are possible with fewer gates, which illustrates the potential for empowering an entirely new class of moderate-depth circuits on near term hardware.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Observation of nearly identical superconducting transition temperatures in the pressurized Weyl semimetals MIrTe 4 (M=Nb and Ta)

In this work, we report the observation of pressure-induced superconductivity in type-II Weyl semimetal (WSM) candidate NbIrTe 4 and the evolution of its Hall coefficient (R H ), magnetoresistance (MR), and lattice with increasing pressure to ~ 63 GPa. These results provide a significant opportunity to investigate the universal high-pressure behavior of ternary WSMs, including the sister compound TaIrTe 4 that has been known through our previous studies. We find that the pressure-tuned evolution from the WSM to the superconducting (SC) state in these two compounds exhibit the same trend, i.e., a pressure-induced SC state emerges from the matrix of the non-superconducting WSM state at ~ 27 GPa, and then the WSM state and the SC state coexist up to 40 GPa. Above this pressure, an identical high-pressure behavior, characterized by almost the same value of R H and MR in its normal state and the same value of T c in its SC state, appears in both compounds. Our results not only reveal the evolution from the WSM state to the SC state, but also demonstrate that NbIrTe 4 and TaIrTe 4 can make the same contribution to the normal and SC states that inhabit in the high-pressure phase, although these two compounds have dramatically different band structure at ambient pressure.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Tropical Tree Species Identity and Diameter at Breast Height in a Throughfall-Reduction Drying Experiment in Four Lowland Panamanian Forests

Objectives: Climatic drying is predicted for many tropical forests, yet effects on soil properties across moisture and soil gradients within tropical forests remain poorly characterized, hampering predictions of forest-climate feedbacks. We hypothesized that drying would suppress soil CO2 fluxes (i.e., respiration) in already-drier tropical forests by further reductions in soil moisture, but increases CO2 fluxes in wetter tropical forests by alleviating anaerobiosis and soil saturation. We measured soil CO2 fluxes, soil moisture, soil temperature, and forest floor biomass during wet-dry cycles (2015 – 2022) in four Panamanian forests that vary in rainfall and soil fertility. We also surveyed all tree species and identified to species in 2018 and 2019.Results: We found that soil moisture peaked in the wet season and declined in the dry season. Measured soil CO2 fluxes declined in the dry season and peaked in the early wet season ahead of peak soil moisture, resulting in a lower soil moisture optimum for respiration than previously modeled. Chronic throughfall exclusion also suppressed soil moisture across the four forests to 20cm depths, and also initially suppressed soil CO2 fluxes across forests. There was sustained suppression of soil CO2 fluxes after four years in the wettest forest only (-28 ± 4% during the dry season), but elevated soil CO2 fluxes in a fertile forest after four years (+75 ± 28% during the late wet season). The unexpected negative drying effect in the wettest, most infertile forest could have resulted from reduced vertical flushing of nutrients into soils, as the drying effect increased with time. Including hydro-nutrient interactions in ecosystem models could improve predictions of tropical forest-climate feedbacks (results presented in Cusack et al. 2023). Datasets included: Datasets included here include .csv and .xls files for tree species identity and diameter at breast height (dbh) in the study plots. There is also a .kml file that includes coordinates for all 32 plots included in the study of four forests (n = 4 throughfall reduction and n = 4 control plots per site). No special software is needed to open these files.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Converting from NIS to Redhat Identity Management

The Jefferson Lab (Jlab) accelerator controls network has transitioned to a new authentication and network service interface. The new system uses the Redhat Identity Manager (IdM) as a single integrating front end to the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and a replacement for NIS and the Kerberos authentication service. This system allows for integration of access and authentication across Unix and Windows environments and across different Jlab computing environments, including across firewalls. The decision making process, conversion steps, issues and solutions will be discussed.

McGuckin, T. S.↗

Blockchain Empowered Provenance Framework for Sensor Identity Management and Data Flow Security in Fossil-based Power Plants

The overall goals of this project are divided into 3 important phases. First, a peer-to-peer SCADA network is to be established where identity profile of sensors from fossil-power plants will be stored in an immutable manner in order to verify data flow integrity in real time. Second, it is aimed to develop a Blockchain-based provenance platform to audit equipment operations along with data and process integrity violations. In this phase, various operational rules will be incorporated in the ledger on behalf of the operating sensor so its abnormal use can be easily detected. In addition, it is aimed to achieve provenance when the rate of transactions is exceedingly high, thus enabling to design a scalable provenance scheme that can work in real time when number of data collecting points or sensor units increase in fossil-based power plants. Finally, a working testbed will be developed to integrate the Blockchain platform with sensor-based fossil power plant comprising of Remote Terminal Units (RTU) and SCADA devices. Using multiple Raspberry-PIs mimicking the role of RTUs that are interfaced with multiple sensors devices will be deployed to serve as a critical component of fossil power plant and the performance metrics such as throughput, latency, bootstrapping time, etc., will be evaluated on the testbed.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

The Eigenvector-Eigenvalue Identity and other pragmatic topics in linear algebra for physicists

Diagonalization of an Hermitian matrix is a common task in physics. All of us have diagonalized 2x2 matrices but few have diagonalized a 3x3 matrix algebraically except in special simplifying cases. In this colloquium, I will discuss the mathematics and methods for diagonalizing small, but larger than 2x2 marices, and discuss the recently rediscovered Eigenvector-Eigenvalue identity. As an explicit, pragmatic example I will use the propagation of neutrino's propagating through matter which is inherently a 3x3 problem.

Parke, Stephen [Fermilab] (ORCID:0000000320286782)↗

High Synteny and Sequence Identity between Genomes of Nitrosococcus oceani Strains Isolated from Different Oceanic Gyres Reveals Genome Economization and Autochthonous Clonal Evolution

The ammonia-oxidizing obligate aerobic chemolithoautotrophic gammaproteobacterium, Nitrosococcus oceani, is omnipresent in the world’s oceans and as such important to the global nitrogen cycle. We generated and compared high quality draft genome sequences of N. oceani strains isolated from the Northeast (AFC27) and Southeast (AFC132) Pacific Ocean and the coastal waters near Barbados at the interface between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean (C-27) with the recently published Draft Genome Sequence of N. oceani Strain NS58 (West Pacific Ocean) and the complete genome sequence of N. oceani C-107, the type strain (ATCC 19707) isolated from the open North Atlantic, with the goal to identify indicators for the evolutionary origin of the species. The genomes of strains C–107, NS58, C-27, and AFC27 were highly conserved in content and synteny, and these four genomes contained one nearly sequence-identical plasmid. The genome of strain AFC132 revealed the presence of genetic inventory unknown from other marine ammonia-oxidizing bacteria such as genes encoding NiFe-hydrogenase and a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS)-like siderophore biosynthesis module. Comparative genome analysis in context with the literature suggests that AFC132 represents a metabolically more diverse ancestral lineage to the other strains with C-107 and NS58 potentially being the youngest. The results suggest that the N. oceani species evolved by genome economization characterized by the loss of genes encoding catabolic diversity while acquiring a higher redundancy in inventory dedicated to nitrogen catabolism, both of which could have been facilitated by their rich complements of CRISPR/Cas and Restriction Modification systems.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Propane Activation on Pt Electrodes at Room Temperature: Quantification of Adsorbate Identity and Coverage

Abstract C−H bond activation is the first step in manufacturing chemical products from readily available light alkane feedstock and typically proceeds via carbon‐intensive thermal processes. The ongoing emphasis on decarbonization via electrification motivates low‐temperature electrochemical alternatives that could lead to sustainable chemicals production. Platinum (Pt) electrocatalysts have shown activity towards reacting alkanes; however, little is known about propane electrocatalytic activation and conditions suitable for enabling selective oxidation to valuable products. Herein, we utilize a combination of electrochemical mass spectrometry (ECMS) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to elucidate the potential dependence of propane activation on Pt electrocatalysts. Results show a strong dependence of adsorption on the applied potential in room‐temperature aqueous acidic electrolyte, with a maximum coverage of propane‐derived adsorbates at 0.30 V vs RHE. Using charge deconvolution and deuterated experiments, the mechanism of adsorption was elucidated, and C 3 H 2 * was determined as the average dehydrogenated propane‐derived adsorbate species. DFT calculations further corroborate these results, showing that the formation of deeply dehydrogenated species is energetically accessible at room temperature. The combined theoretical and experimental findings yield insights for selective activation of paraffinic C−H bonds at room temperature, aqueous conditions—a critical step towards decarbonized chemical manufacturing.

Chemistry↗

Differences in soil organic matter between EcM- and AM-dominated forests depend on tree and fungal identity

As global change shifts the species composition of forests, we need to understand which species characteristics affect soil organic matter (SOM) cycling to predict future soil carbon (C) storage. Recently, whether a tree species forms a symbiosis with arbuscular (AM) versus ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi has been suggested as a strong predictor of soil C storage, but there is wide variability within EcM systems. In this study, we investigated how mycorrhizal associations and the species composition of canopy trees and mycorrhizal fungi related to the proportion of soil C and nitrogen (N) in mineral associations and soil C:N across four sites representing distinct climates and tree communities in the eastern US broadleaf forest biome. In two of our sites, we found the expected relationship of declining mineral-associated C and N and increasing soil C:N ratios as the basal area of EcM-associating trees increased. However, across all sites these soil properties strongly correlated with canopy tree and fungal species composition. Sites where the expected pattern with EcM basal area was observed were (1) dominated by trees with lower quality litter in the Pinaceae and Fagaceae families and (2) dominated by EcM fungi with medium-distance exploration type hyphae, melanized tissues, and the potential to produce peroxidases. Here, this observational study demonstrates that differences in SOM between AM and EcM systems are dependent on the taxa of trees and EcM fungi involved. Important information is lost when the rich mycorrhizal symbiosis is reduced to two categories.

mineral-associated organic matter↗

Effect of Ionic Strength and Anion Identity on Rare‐Earth Element Chelation by Poly(acrylic acid)

Abstract Rare‐earth elements (REEs) are critical components of many modern technologies, but their efficient separation and purification continue to pose significant challenges. Metal‐binding polymers may enable the development of promising alternative approaches to conventional separation techniques (e.g., solvent extraction), and insights into the interactions between the metal ions and polymers in solution are crucial to such development. In this work, the effect of ionic strength on the chelation of REEs by poly(acrylic acid) is investigated using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to measure the metal‐binding thermodynamics. ITC experiments revealed that when ionic strength increases from increasing the sodium acetate buffer strength, polymer‐REE binding becomes increasingly disfavored. However, when ionic strength is increased by the addition of sodium chloride, binding again becomes increasingly disfavored, but to a lesser extent than when ionic strength increases from increasing the buffer strength. Additionally, the reduction in binding affinity is enthalpically driven when ionic strength is raised with sodium chloride, while it is entropically driven when raised with sodium acetate buffer, suggesting competive binding by the acetate ions. These results highlight the importance of ionic strength in polymer‐metal binding thermodynamics and will guide the development of new processes for the purification of critical metals.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Dual-mycorrhizal colonization is determined by plant age and host identity in two species of Populus

Plants have evolved symbioses with mycorrhizal and endophytic fungi that are essential for their growth and survival. While most plants associate with a single guild of mycorrhizal fungi, a select group termed “dual-mycorrhizal plants” associate with both arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Although a shift from predominance of arbuscular mycorrhizal to ectomycorrhizal colonization with plant development has been demonstrated on other dual-mycorrhizal hosts, it is not known how mycorrhizal colonization shifts with plant age in Populus species. We performed a controlled growth experiment with natural field-sourced inocula to test for age-dependent shifts in fungal colonization rates and for host-specific patterns of colonization in two species of Populus (P. tremuloides and P. trichocarpa). We found that only P. trichocarpa displayed dual-mycorrhizal colonization, while P. tremuloides associated with ectomycorrhizal fungi, but not arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Both guilds of mycorrhizal fungi increased in abundance with plant age, while root endophytic fungal colonization decreased. Many of the early-colonizing endophytic fungi that we documented have strong saprotrophic capabilities, which may be an important trait for fast colonization. Dark septate endophytes were more abundant than either guild of mycorrhizal fungi, and are likely to be functionally important members of the Populus root fungal community. Our findings represent a novel pattern in the development of dual-mycorrhizal colonization and illustrate that Populus species vary in their association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. In conclusion, our results also highlight the importance of dark septate endophyte colonization dynamics on dual-mycorrhizal plants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Chapter 4 - Recent Advances in Identification of Differential Equations from Noisy Data: IDENT Review

Differential equations and numerical methods are extensively used to model various real-world phenomena in science and engineering. With modern developments, we aim to find the underlying differential equation from a single observation of time-dependent data. If we assume that the differential equation is a linear combination of various linear and nonlinear differential terms, then the identification problem can be formulated as solving a linear system. The goal then reduces to finding the optimal coefficient vector that best represents the time derivative of the given data. We review some recent works on the identification of differential equations. We find some common themes for the improved accuracy: (i) The formulation of linear system with proper denoising is important, (ii) how to utilize sparsity and model selection to find the correct coefficient support needs careful attention, and (iii) there are ways to improve the coefficient recovery. We present an overview and analysis of recent developments on the topic.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

PlantSegNet: 3D point cloud instance segmentation of nearby plant organs with identical semantics

In this study, we introduce PlantSegNet, a novel neural network model for instance segmentation of nearby objects with similar geometric structures. Our work addresses the challenges of instance segmentation of plant point clouds, including the difficulty of annotating and labeling point clouds, the loss of local structural information in neural network components, and the generation of large numbers of incorrect small clusters due to poor choices of the loss function. One of the key contributions of our approach is a digital twin of sorghum, i.e., a procedural sorghum model, which was used to generate point clouds of sorghum fields. This allowed us to create a large-scale, annotated, synthetic dataset of sorghum plants that we used to train our PlantSegNet model. We demonstrated the effectiveness of our method in segmenting instances of sorghum leaves grown in outdoor field settings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to address this specific instance segmentation problem for plants grown in such a setting. We compared our proposed method with other state-of-the-art methods for indoor settings, including SGPN and TreePartNet, on both synthetic and real data. Furthermore, our results show that PlantSegNet outperforms these methods regarding accuracy, robustness, and efficiency.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗