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At least 73 records · Page 4

The physical origin of dark energy constraints from rubin observatory and CMB-S4 lensing tomography

ABSTRACT We seek to clarify the origin of constraints on the dark energy equation of state parameter from CMB lensing tomography, that is the combination of galaxy clustering and the cross-correlation of galaxies with CMB lensing in a number of redshift bins. We focus on the analytic understanding of the origin of the constraints. Dark energy information in these data arises from the influence of three primary relationships: distance as a function of redshift (geometry), the amplitude of the power spectrum as a function of redshift (growth), and the power spectrum as a function of wavenumber (shape). We find that the effects from geometry and growth play a significant role and partially cancel each other out, while the shape effect is unimportant. We also show that Dark Energy Task Force figure of merit forecasts from the combination of LSST galaxies and CMB-S4 lensing are comparable to the forecasts from cosmic shear in the absence of the CMB lensing map, thus providing an important independent check. Compared to the forecasts with the LSST galaxies alone, combining CMB lensing and LSST clustering information increases the FoM by roughly a factor of 3–4 in the optimistic scenario where systematics are fully under control. We caution that achieving these forecasts will likely require a full analysis of higher-order biasing, photometric redshift uncertainties, and stringent control of other systematic limitations, which are outside the scope of this work, whose primary purpose is to elucidate the physical origin of the constraints.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

An empirical approach to model selection: weak lensing and intrinsic alignments

ABSTRACT In cosmology, we routinely choose between models to describe our data, and can incur biases due to insufficient models or lose constraining power with overly complex models. In this paper, we propose an empirical approach to model selection that explicitly balances parameter bias against model complexity. Our method uses synthetic data to calibrate the relation between bias and the χ2 difference between models. This allows us to interpret χ2 values obtained from real data (even if catalogues are blinded) and choose a model accordingly. We apply our method to the problem of intrinsic alignments – one of the most significant weak lensing systematics, and a major contributor to the error budget in modern lensing surveys. Specifically, we consider the example of the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3), and compare the commonly used non-linear alignment (NLA) and tidal alignment and tidal torque (TATT) models. The models are calibrated against bias in the Ωm–S8 plane. Once noise is accounted for, we find that it is possible to set a threshold Δχ2 that guarantees an analysis using NLA is unbiased at some specified level Nσ and confidence level. By contrast, we find that theoretically defined thresholds (based on, e.g. p-values for χ2) tend to be overly optimistic, and do not reliably rule out cosmological biases up to ∼1–2σ. Considering the real DES Y3 cosmic shear results, based on the reported difference in χ2 from NLA and TATT analyses, we find a roughly $30{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ chance that were NLA to be the fiducial model, the results would be biased (in the Ωm–S8 plane) by more than 0.3σ. More broadly, the method we propose here is simple and general, and requires a relatively low level of resources. We foresee applications to future analyses as a model selection tool in many contexts.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Effective electric field: Quantifying the sensitivity of searches for new -odd physics with EuCl 3 ∙ 6H 2 O

Laboratory-scale precision experiments are a promising approach to searching for physics beyond the standard model. Noncentrosymmetric solids offer favorable statistical sensitivity for efforts that search for new fields, whose interactions violate the discrete parity and time-reversal symmetries. One example is the cosmic axion spin precession experiment (CASPEr), which can be sensitive to the defining interaction of the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) axion dark matter with gluons in atomic nuclei. The effective electric field is the parameter that quantifies the sensitivity of such experiments to new physics. We describe the theoretical approach to calculating the effective electric field for noncentrosymmetric sites in ionic insulating solids. We consider the specific example of the crystal, which is a particularly promising material. The optimistic estimate of the effective electric field for the isotope in this crystal is . The calculation uncertainty is estimated to be two orders of magnitude, dominated by the evaluation of the europium nuclear Schiff moment.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Nuclear recoil response of liquid xenon and its impact on solar 8B neutrino and dark matter searches

Knowledge of the ionization and scintillation responses of liquid xenon (LXe) to nuclear recoils is crucial for LXe-based dark matter experiments. Current calibrations carry large uncertainties in the low-energy region below ∼3 keV nr where signals from dark matter particles of <10 GeV/c 2 masses are expected. The coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE ν NS) by solar 8 B neutrinos also results in a continuum of nuclear recoil events below 3.0 keV nr (99% of events), which further complicates low-mass dark matter searches in LXe experiments. In this paper, we describe a method to quantify the uncertainties of low-energy LXe responses using published calibration data, followed by case studies to evaluate the impact of yield uncertainties on 8 B searches and low-mass dark matter sensitivity in a typical ton-scale LXe experiment. We conclude that naively omitting yield uncertainties leads to overly optimistic limits by factor ∼2 for a 6 GeV WIMP mass. Future nuclear recoil light yield calibrations could allow experiments to recover this sensitivity and also improve the accuracy of solar 8 B flux measurements.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Searching for high-frequency gravitational waves with phonons

The gravitational wave (GW) spectrum at frequencies above a kHz is a largely unexplored frontier. We show that detectors with sensitivity to single-phonon excitations in crystal targets can search for GWs with frequencies, 1 THz ≲ f ≲ 100 THz , corresponding to the range of optical phonon energies, 1 meV ≲ ω ≲ 100 meV . Such detectors are already being built to search for light dark matter (DM), and therefore sensitivity to high-frequency GWs will be achieved as a byproduct. We begin by deriving the absorption rate of a general GW signal into single phonons. We then focus on carefully defining the detector sensitivity to monochromatic and chirp signals, and compute the detector sensitivity for many proposed light DM detection targets. The detector sensitivity is then compared to the signal strength of candidate high-frequency GW sources, e.g., superradiant annihilation and black hole inspiral, as well as other recent detector proposals in the 1 MHz ≲ f ≲ 100 THz frequency range. With a judicious choice of target materials, a collection of detectors could optimistically achieve sensitivities to monochromatic signals with h 0 ∼ 10 − 23 − 10 − 25 over 1 THz ≲ f ≲ 100 THz . Published by the American Physical Society 2024

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Feature Engineering and Ensemble Methods for Imbalanced ICS Intrusion Detection: Pipeline Audit and Constrained Evaluation

Industries are becoming increasingly connected and are more vulnerable to cyberattacks due to the widened attack surface. Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are among the most critical sectors that malicious actors can target, as such attacks can cause significant operational disruption and physical damage. It is imperative to detect such attacks as early as possible. This paper evaluates constraint-conditioned optimistic performance estimates for traditional ML models in ICS intrusion detection (i.e., estimates obtained under contiguous, non-shuffled temporal evaluation without test-set alteration, but with pre-split feature engineering that may introduce temporal leakage, due to dataset constraints). Our findings are threefold. First, we quantify how iterative feature engineering affects tree-based ensemble performance and examine how pipeline decisions (split strategy, sampling scope, and cleaning policy) can inflate or reduce reported IDS results under constraint-bound evaluation. Second, we compare intrinsic class-imbalance handling across ensemble models. Third, under our current pipeline constraints (including pre-split feature engineering), CatBoost achieves the best performance on Water Storage Tank (accuracy: 0.9831, class-1 F1: 0.9682), while Light- GBM achieves the best performance on Gas Pipeline (accuracy: 0.9618, class-1 F1: 0.9086).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Comparison of Electromagnetic Transient and Phasor Dynamic Simulations: Implications for Inverter Dominated Systems

The simulation of very high shares of inverter-based resources in power systems has begun to draw into question the validity of phasor domain tools in capturing relevant dynamics. Electromagnetic transient simulators can capture the dynamics of power electronics with substantially smaller time steps, but are computationally expensive. This work contrasts the results of phasor domain and electromagnetic transient tools for simulations on a validated model of the Maui power system operating at very high inverter-based resource shares with near zero voltage forming devices. The results show that the phasor domain tool predicts optimistic stability with fewer voltage forming elements on the network, and loses computational stability before the electromagnetic transient tool. As the electromagnet transient model is of the entire system, and system-wide discrepancies are observed, this case study of a physical power system highlights the potential need for system-wide detailed modeling during periods of very high shares of inverter-based resources and few voltage forming devices.

electromagnetic transient-domain↗

Estimating Fast Charging Infrastructure Requirements to Fully Electrify Ride-Hailing Fleets Across the United States

Ride-hailing electrification is made challenging by a variety of factors, including limited driver access to overnight charging and a nascent network of public direct-current fast charging (DCFC). This article projects the DCFC infrastructure needed to electrify ride-hailing across 384 cities in the United States. Research leveraging a novel infrastructure projection tool, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Tool for On-Demand Mobility Services model (EVI-OnDemand), estimates that 25,400 DCFC ports capable of charging vehicles at a mean power of 150 kW are required to electrify 1.45 million ride-hailing vehicles in the baseline scenario. Results show that ride-hailing vehicles require 17.5 DCFC ports per 1000 vehicles, three times that of personal electric vehicles (EVs). Infrastructure demand is also shown to vary across cities; 63% more DCFC ports are needed to support 1000 battery EVs in Chicago versus Miami. The analysis also includes sensitivity studies that explore variation in charging demand across input assumptions, finding that charging power, vehicle class, overnight charging access rates, and port utilization influence the network size needed. Projections vary from 18,600 to 41,300 DCFC ports across sensitivity scenarios, indicating that ride-hailing electrification will require significant expansion of access to fast charging even in the most optimistic scenarios, and investments into supporting assets can reduce the scale of the public charging expansion needed.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Performance Analysis of Speculative Parallel Adaptive Local Timestepping for Conservation Laws

Stable simulation of conservation laws, such as those used to model fluid dynamics and plasma physics applications, requires the satisfaction of the so-called Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition. By allowing regions of the mesh to advance with different timesteps that locally satisfy this stability constraint, significant work reduction can be attained when compared to a time integration scheme using a single timestep size. However, parallelizing this algorithm presents considerable difficulty. Since the stability condition depends on the state of the system, dependencies become dynamic and potentially non-local. In this article, we present an adaptive local timestepping algorithm using an optimistic (Timewarp-based) parallel discrete event simulation. We introduce waiting heuristics to limit misspeculation and a semi-static load balancing scheme to eliminate load imbalance as parts of the mesh require finer or coarser timesteps. Last, we outline an interface for separating the physics of the specific conservation law from the temporal integration allowing for productive adoption of our proposed algorithm. We present a misspeculation study for three conservation laws, demonstrating both the productivity of the local timestepping API, for which 74% of the lines of code are reused across different conservation laws, and the robustness of the waiting heuristics—at most 1.5% of element updates are rolled back. Our performance studies demonstrate up to a 2.8× speedup versus a baseline unoptimized local timestepping approach, a 4x improvement in per-node throughput compared to an MPI parallelization of synchronous timestepping, and scalability up to 3,072 cores on NERSC’s Cori Haswell partition.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

SPADES (Scalable Parallel Discrete Events Simulation) [SWR-24-99]

SPADES (Solver for PArallel Discrete Event Simulation) is an open-source parallel discrete event simulation (PDES) package built on the AMReX library. Targeted at solving discrete event systems in parallel, this software package aims to be performance portable and scalable on heterogeneous computing architectures, e.g., graphic processing units (GPU). SPADES implements optimistic synchronization with rollback through an implementation of the Time Warp algorithm. An alternative conservative synchronization approach is also implemented using the Lower Bound on Incoming Time Stamp. In our implementation, logical processes are represented as cells in a grid and event messages are represented as particles. SPADES supports various parallel decomposition strategies, including the use of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) and OpenMP threading. All major GPU architectures (e.g., Intel, AMD, NVIDIA) are supported through the use of performance portability functionalities implemented in AMReX. The SPADES software is released in NREL Software Record SWR-24-99 “SPADES (Scalable Parallel Discrete Events Simulation)”.

Henry de Frahan, Marc [National Renewable Energy L↗

Tropical Interbasin Interaction as Effective Predictors of Late-Spring Precipitation Variability in the Southern Great Plains

Abstract The southern Great Plains experience fluctuating precipitation extremes that significantly impact agriculture and water management. Despite ongoing efforts to enhance forecast accuracy, the underlying causes of these climatic phenomena remain inadequately understood. This study elucidates the relative influence of the tropical Pacific and Atlantic basins on April–May–June precipitation variability in this region. Our partial ocean assimilation experiments using the Community Earth System Model unveil the prominent role of interbasin interaction, with the Pacific and Atlantic contributing approximately 70% and 30%, respectively, to these interbasin contrasts. Our statistical analyses suggest that these tropical interbasin contrasts could serve as a more reliable indicator for late-spring precipitation anomalies than El Niño–Southern Oscillation. The conclusions are reinforced by analyses of seven climate forecasting systems within the North American Multi-Model Ensemble, offering an optimistic outlook for enhancing real-time forecasting of late-spring precipitation in the southern plains. However, the current predictive skills of the interbasin contrasts across the prediction systems are hindered by the lower predictability of the tropical Atlantic Ocean, pointing to the need for future research to refine climate prediction models further. Significance Statement Agriculture and infrastructure in the southern plains face challenges from severe late-spring precipitation extremes. Traditional predictors like El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) lose effectiveness during the critical spring-to-summer transition, creating a forecasting gap. This study introduces the concept of tropical interbasin interactions, known to enhance seasonal predictability for late-spring precipitation in the southern plains. Novel climate model experiments highlight contributions from the tropical Pacific and Atlantic, offering a promising predictability that potentially surpasses the limitations of ENSO-based predictions. These outcomes hold the potential for developing operational forecasts of late-spring precipitation anomalies in the southern plains, enabling proactive risk management.

Chikamoto, Yoshimitsu↗

A field guide to cultivating computational biology

Evolving in sync with the computation revolution over the past 30 years, computational biology has emerged as a mature scientific field. While the field has made major contributions toward improving scientific knowledge and human health, individual computational biology practitioners at various institutions often languish in career development. As optimistic biologists passionate about the future of our field, we propose solutions for both eager and reluctant individual scientists, institutions, publishers, funding agencies, and educators to fully embrace computational biology. We believe that in order to pave the way for the next generation of discoveries, we need to improve recognition for computational biologists and better align pathways of career success with pathways of scientific progress. With 10 outlined steps, we call on all adjacent fields to move away from the traditional individual, single-discipline investigator research model and embrace multidisciplinary, data-driven, team science.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Stand-Alone and Hybrid Electric Thermal Energy Storage in the System Advisor Model

This project developed stand-alone electric-thermal energy storage (ETES), stand-alone pumped thermal energy storage (PTES), and hybrid molten-salt power tower (MSPT)-ETES performance and dispatch optimization techno-economic models. The models are available to the public through the System Advisor Model (SAM) software, scripting, and as open-source code. We compared results of the dispatch model to PLEXOS dispatch of a similar generator using the same initial grid pricing signal and found our dispatch model performed well, but closer agreement between the models was limited by the inherent differences between price-taker and unit commitment models. Nevertheless, the price-taker models developed in this project are useful to analyze proposed ETES and PTES technologies because they provide more detailed system and component models, solve several orders of magnitude faster, and are available as free open-source software. The model results represent the most optimistic returns considering grid arbitrage from the input electricity pricing, so the financial results can be applied as a feasibility stage-gate. We also submitted a journal draft paper that describes the ETES dispatch model methodology and demonstrates model functionality. An accepted journal article will serve as peer-reviewed documentation for the models, along with the open-source code, SAM help-menu content, and eventually this final project report.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

NA-22 IAP Review: ATONA Project [Slides]

The ATONA technology has the potential to impact measurement capabilities in the broad field nuclear forensics, and not just for uranium. We remain cautiously optimistic that we can develop ATONA based environmental measurement techniques that will be of use to some of our partners.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Projecting California Light-Duty Vehicle Attributes (2019-2035)

In this report, we estimated a set of future vehicle attribute scenarios for new light-duty vehicles for the California market using the Automotive Deployment Options Projection Tool (ADOPT). ADOPT starts simulations with all existing vehicle makes and models and endogenously creates new vehicle models over time based on assumed technology improvements and market conditions. For this study, we simulated four scenarios with varied technology, policy, and electric vehicle infrastructure assumptions. We aggregated simulation results into up to 30 vehicle classes (covering size and price classifications) for each powertrain, for six powertrains. We simulated model years 2019 to 2035. We present results for four vehicle attributes: vehicle acceleration, fuel economy (including electric and gasoline for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles [PHEVs]), vehicle range, and vehicle purchase price. We also present results showing the estimated number of vehicle models available in each vehicle class over time. In the Mid scenario, which contains conditions between our most conservative and most optimistic assumptions for emerging electric and hydrogen technologies, we observe improvements in acceleration, range (for battery-electric vehicles [BEVs]), and vehicle purchase price for electric and hydrogen powertrains. In some cases, we project that consumer preferences lead to trade-offs between vehicle attributes, such as reduced fuel economy in exchange for improved acceleration. Conventional vehicles show modest improvements in fuel economy in these scenarios due to the high numbers of BEV and PHEV sales, which reduce the improvements required in conventional vehicles to meet fleet fuel economy standards. In scenarios with advanced technology assumptions (including reduced battery price and improved energy density), we observe further improvements in BEV range and price relative to the improvements in the Mid scenario.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Erratum to: Data Fusion to Support Integrated Nuclear Detonation Detection [Slides]

The original document (LA-UR-22-29547) contained minor equation errors that approximate correct equations that couple the multi-sensor, serial system detector thresholds for a seismic Rayleigh wave detector and an acoustic energy detector. Those errors appeared on slides 62-67. This erratum associates the following slides with the erroneous slides. The numbers of the erroneous slides are marked at the upper right in small text in orange. A result of those errors over-predict the performance of the two-sensor serial network, that is, the former document provides an optimistic estimate of system performance.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Advanced Reactor Supply Chain Assessment (GAIN Report)

Several net-zero scenario evaluations predict a rapid ramp up of nuclear energy in the coming decades. If this materializes, it will most likely strain the supply chains associated with the potential advanced reactor concepts awaiting deployment. To help assess the current and potential capacities of the various advanced reactor supply chains, the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) conducted a survey of companies able to produce components for advanced reactors in the near future (namely for sodium, gas-cooled, and molten salt reactors). Using an aggressive nuclear deployment scenario, the objective was to assess the ability of the various supply chains to meet the considerable demand projections for certain key components (vessels, heat exchangers, pumps, graphite, and sensors) and identify potential challenges. While individual companies were unable to meet the most optimistic nuclear deployment rate projections, it was found that on aggregate, a United States-based supply chain projected that expansion could be ramped up to meet a larger future demand of these components. However, meeting projected demand for several more complex items (namely gas or salt heat exchangers) was found to be more challenging. Deploying new reactors at scale necessitates the production of more and more supply chain components, requiring a ramp up in production. Supply chain companies were surveyed, and respondents appeared less able to meet short term demand (next year) versus longer-term demand projections (5 and 10 years). This reflects the need to obtain orders with adequate lead times (can range from 3 to 30 months). Future demand will need to be met by expanding existing capacity. These expansions will require suppliers to raise capital or secure other types of support (federal loans or grants) to invest in facilities, equipment, and workforce. Individual suppliers indicated financial investments could be in the range of $\$ $100 million to $\$ $1 billion for their own facilities (depending on the type of facility). The biggest risk, according to respondents, related to general uncertainties surrounding the future nuclear industry and whether the potential demand projections will materialize into real demand that is actionable from a business perspective. Businesses do not seem willing to take investments risks without clear orders. If businesses are not able to invest to expand the supply, it will either delay the deployment of advanced nuclear technology, or the supply chain will be met by suppliers outside of the United States. This report only focuses on the domestic supply chain’s ability to meet the various projections stipulated here for the specific assessed components (vessels, heat exchangers, pumps, graphite, and sensors). The report does not cover all reactor designs or all components that may ultimately be needed for any one reactor design. It also does not address whether any specific aspect of the supply chain will be cost competitive in the global market, nor how potential state-backed entities could affect the expansion of a United States-based supply chain. The largest challenges in ramping up capacity among respondents appear to be workforce related. This includes workforce availability, experience, training, and turnover. In addition to facility investment, suppliers will also need to invest heavily in long-term workforce training to meet production goals. This issue is not nuclear-specific, and the expansion of any supply chain will likely face similar challenges. While suppliers evaluated expected normal business demand from other markets outside of nuclear, it is possible that other market segments could expand more than predicted and compete for the same suppliers. One potential market that may compete for the same supplier resources is the United States military, as many of these suppliers support both the commercial nuclear sector as well as the Navy with reactors and components. In summary, suppliers in the United States believe that there is a way to increase production in order to begin meeting the demand which will exist for advanced reactors—as long as appropriate investments can be made in the supply chain in an appropriate timeframe. Based on the capacity projections and lead times, investment will be needed to meet the 5-year and 10-year production targets. Therefore, if significant nuclear deployment is to occur in the 2030s, investment and ramp up of the advanced nuclear supply chain will need to begin in the near future for the United States to successfully deploy these advanced reactors with domestic supply chains.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Sustainable Aviation Fuels from 30,000 feet – Scoping Report

A literature review, first principles analysis, and mapping of the airline-fuel infrastructure were performed to reassess the potential for various means of realizing a sustainable aviation sector. The literature review found a plethora of technical methods to make the airline industry net-zero CO 2 but limited work on the emergent barriers to sustainable aviation implementation such as land use, repurposing of fuel refining assets, and airline cost structures. First principles analyses of the energy, land, and costs of three broad net-zero strategies were performed to determine if sustainable aviation is feasible even in the most optimistic scenarios. Those methods were biomass-derived sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), fuel produced from CO 2 captured from the air and H 2 produced from water electrolysis (air-to-fuel: ATF), and offsetting fossil-derived Jet Fuel with carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere (direct air capture and storage: DACS). Offsetting CO 2 emissions from using fossil Jet Fuel with DACS was found to consume the least energy, require the smallest quantity of land, and be the cheapest option. Replacing Jet Fuel with SAF was found to be only slightly more expensive than DACS but require substantially more land. ATF was found to be the most expensive and energy intensive option, though it did spare land relative to SAF. We found that calls to utilize waste biomass are well-founded, but wastes alone cannot cover the needs of the global airline industry. This means additional land will need to be allocated for biomass cultivation if SAF becomes the primary pathway to sustainable aviation. While differences were found in the performance of different types of biomass, those differences were small relative to differences with ATF and DACS. An analysis of the pricing structure of the airline industry suggests that some of the cost advantage of DACS may be erased by consumer sentiment which could explain why, to-date, the airline industry is focused primarily on SAF and to a lesser extent ATF. Further work is required to estimate the transportation, capital cost, and financing cost implications of greenfield and brownfield sites for SAF, DACS, and ATF. In the final report, we will analyze the potential to retrofit corn ethanol facilities to operate the ethanol-to-jet fuel process in response to decreasing gasoline demand as the electrification of road transport progresses. We will also construct a prioritization of land use to determine whether each net-zero CO 2 aviation pathway can make claim to the land required by their technology.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗