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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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At least 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Dihadron beam spin asymmetries on an unpolarized hydrogen target with CLAS12

The semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering process, where an electron scatters off a proton target at high enough energy that the process can be described by the scattering off a single constituent particle, offers targeted access to the internal structure of the nucleon. The process can be described in two phases by parton distribution functions (PDFs), which describe the likelihood of finding a quark or gluon in a particular state inside of the nucleon and then by fragmentation functions (FFs) which describe the likelihood of forming a particular final state particle.

Hayward, Timothy↗
DOE OSTI2020

Measurement of 3-Flavour Neutrino Oscillation Parameters in the NOvA Experiment

NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment consisting of two functionally identical tracking calorimeters, a Near and Far Detector, that measure neutrino interactions induced by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s NuMI beam at baselines of 1 km and 810 km, respectively. The NuMI beam can be configured to produce either a primary ν µ neutrino or $\bar{ν}$ µ anti-neutrino beam. Neutrino oscillations are observed and measured by the analysis of ν µ + $\bar{ν}$ µ disappearance and νe + $\bar{ν}$ e appearance in the beam, comparing the neutrino energy spectra in the Near and Far detectors means that neutrino oscillation parameters sin 2 θ 23 , |Δ$m^2_{32}$|, and δ CP can be constrained. This thesis presents the 2018 NOvA ν µ +$\bar{ν}$ µ disappearance, ν e +$\bar{ν}$ e appearance, and combined analyses using both neutrino and anti-neutrino data, where oscillation fits have been performed, where possible, on an event-by-event basis rather than on a bin-by-bin basis as has conventionally been used in NOvA oscillation analyses. This allows for better precision in applying both neutrino oscillation probabilities and systematic uncertainties. Furthermore, oscillation analyses for the disappearance, appearance, and combined channels are presented using an unbinned likelihood fit and compared with the equivalent binned χ 2 likelihood fit used in the standard analysis. The 14 ktonne detector equivalent beam exposures used for this thesis are 8.85 × 10 20 and 6.91 × 10 20 protons on target for neutrino and antineutrino data respectively, corresponding to 5 years of NOvA data taking. A combined ν µ + $\bar{ν}$ µ disappearance and ν e + $\bar{ν}$ e appearance fit to the Far Detector data, assuming normal mass ordering and using the event-by-event oscillation and unbinned fitting methodologies, produces oscillation parameter constraints of Δ$m^2_{32}$ = (2.50$^{+0.08}_{-0.06}$) × 10 -3 eV 2 , sin 2 θ 23 = 0.59$^{+0.02}_{-0.04}$, and δ CP = 0.72$^{+0.5}_{-0.9}$π.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Probabilidad de que los murcielagos sufran barotraumatismo cerca de palas de aerogeneradores en movimiento (Spanish)

In October 2018, the International Energy Agency Wind Task 34 - Working Together to Resolve the Environmental Effects of Wind Energy (WREN) - organized a virtual forum to discuss the likelihood of bats experiencing barotrauma when flying near moving wind turbine blades. The forum included experts in bat biology and physiology, bat and wind turbine interactions, wind turbine technology, and atmospheric sciences. This educational brief summarizes the discussion during the forum and written comments from those who could not attend. Relevant literature was used to provide additional context when needed. Possible explanations regarding the direct cause of bat mortality at operating wind turbines are (1) blunt force trauma caused by turbine blades striking individual bats, often referred to as collisions, and (2) barotrauma, resulting from exposure to pressure changes located near the surface of moving wind turbine blades. While collision- related mortality is easily understood, the mechanism causing barotrauma is more complex. Fast-moving wind turbine blades create regions of high- and low-pressure variations along the blade surfaces. If bats fly within these regions, the rapid change in pressure may cause internal bleeding, damage to lungs or other organs, and damage to the inner ear. However, sufficient data demonstrating barotrauma as a common cause of bat mortality at wind turbines are lacking. Moreover, the pressure variation necessary to cause barotrauma in bats is so close to the surface of turbine blades that there is a higher probability of direct contact with the blades than of solely experiencing barotrauma. Regardless of the cause, bats are interacting with fast-moving wind turbine blades, and these interactions are resulting in fatalities. Resolving this issue will require a better understanding of bat behavior and cost-effective measures to reduce interactions between bats and wind turbines. This is the Spanish translation of NREL/FS-5000-84749, "The Likelihood of Bats Experiencing Barotrauma Near Moving Wind Turbine Blades."

barotrauma↗
DOE OSTI2026

HDSense: An efficient method for ranking observable sensitivity

Identifying which observables most effectively constrain model parameters can be computationally prohibitive when considering full likelihoods of many correlated observables. This is especially important for, e.g., hadronization models, where high precision is required to interpret the results of collider experiments. We introduce the High-Dimensional Sensitivity (HDSense) score, a computationally efficient metric for ranking observable sets using only one-dimensional histograms. Derived by profiling over unknown correlations in the Fisher information framework, the score balances total information content against redundancy between observables. We apply HDSense to rank a set observables in terms of their constraining power with respect to five parameters of the Lund string model of hadronization implemented in Pythia using simulated leptonic collider events at the $Z$ pole. Validation against machine-learning--based full-likelihood approximations demonstrates that HDSense successfully identifies near-optimal observable subsets. The framework naturally handles data from multiple experiments with different acceptances and incorporates detector effects. While demonstrated on hadronization models, the methodology applies broadly to generic parameter estimation problems where correlations are unknown or difficult to model.

Assi, Benoît [Cincinnati U.] (ORCID:00000003092433↗
DOE OSTI2026

Smokescreen: A Python package for data vector blinding and encryption in cosmological analyses

Smokescreen is an open-source Python library for data-vector concealment (blinding) in cosmological analyses. Data-vector blinding works by applying cosmology-dependent shifts to the observed data vector, moving it away from the true cosmological signal without affecting its statistical properties, so that analysts cannot infer the true result until the analysis is frozen and the blinding is lifted. The package computes these shifts using Firecrown likelihoods applied to data vectors stored in the SACC format, ensuring that the theoretical model used for blinding is identical to that used for inference whilst remaining agnostic to the specific observable being blinded. To prevent accidental unblinding, the original SACC file, containing the true cosmology, is encrypted. Although developed for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), Smokescreen is applicable to any experiment using Firecrown likelihoods and the SACC data format.

Loureiro, Arthur [Stockholm U., OKC; Imperial Coll↗
DOE OSTI2026

Strong Lensing Cosmology with Population-level Calibrated Neural Ratio Estimation

Strong gravitational lensing contains key information about cosmic acceleration. Modern and next-generation galaxy imaging surveys are expected to provide high-quality data on $\mathcal{O}(10^5)$ galaxy-galaxy lensing systems. The plethora and complexity of the data are likely to present computational challenges for parameter inference methods for fitting high-dimensional likelihoods, which are often analytically intractable. Neural Ratio Estimation (NRE) efficiently computes individual likelihood ratios that can be combined into population-level posteriors. We use simulations to study the capacity of NRE to jointly predict the dark energy equation-of-state parameter $w$ and the total matter density $Ω_{m}$ from lensing images and companion spectroscopic information. We also introduce a post hoc posterior coverage calibration procedure that mitigates the model overconfidence that is typically found in neural density estimation applications. Our experiments show that the errors on both parameters decrease with increasing inference population sizes. In particular, for 100 lenses in a standard $Λ$CDM Universe, our calibrated NRE model achieves median fractional uncertainty of $22.8\%$ in $w$ and $2.9\%$ in $Ω_{m}$. This proof of concept demonstrates a potentially scalable approach for efficient cosmological parameter inference with large populations of galaxy-scale lenses observed in future surveys.

Jarugula, Sreevani [Fermilab] (ORCID:0000000253867↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reconstructing the Position and Intensity of Multiple Gamma-Ray Point Sources with a Sparse Parametric Algorithm

IEEE We present an experimental demonstration of Additive Point Source Localization (APSL), a sparse parametric imaging algorithm that reconstructs the 3D positions and activities of multiple gamma-ray point sources. Using a handheld gamma-ray detector array and up to four 8 μCi 137 Cs gamma-ray sources, we performed both source-search and source-separation experiments in an indoor laboratory environment. In the majority of the source-search measurements, APSL reconstructed the correct number of sources with position accuracies of ~20 cm and activity accuracies (unsigned) of ~20%, given measurement times of two to three minutes and distances of closest approach (to any source) of ~20 cm. In source-separation measurements where the detector could be moved freely about the environment, APSL was able to resolve two sources separated by 75 cm or more given only ~60 s of measurement time. In these source-separation measurements, APSL produced larger total activity errors of ~40%, but obtained source separation distances accurate to within 15 cm. We also compare our APSL results against traditional Maximum Likelihood-Expectation Maximization (ML-EM) reconstructions, and demonstrate improved image accuracy and interpretability using APSL over ML-EM. These results indicate that APSL is capable of accurately reconstructing gamma-ray source positions and activities using measurements from existing detector hardware.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Effect of thermal conditioning on the initiation threshold of secondary high‐explosives

While most performance metrics of high–explosive (HE) based devices like detonation velocity, detonation pressure, and energy output are expected to degrade over time, the evolution of initiation threshold appears less clear, with claims of both increasing and decreasing trends in threshold having been made in the literature. This work analyzes D–optimally designed sequential binary test data for a few thermally conditioned porous–powder and polymer–bonded HE initiator systems using a Bayesian likelihood method employing the probit regression model. Here we find that in most cases the initiation threshold decreases (i.e., sensitivity increases) upon accelerated thermal conditioning. However, such results are nuanced and influenced by factors like the contact area of initiating stimulus, HE characteristics like density and specific surface area, as well as possible thermally induced changes to other materials and interfaces involved.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Fitting Matérn smoothness parameters using automatic differentiation

The Mat$\acute{e}$rn covariance function is ubiquitous in the application of Gaussian processes to spatial statistics and beyond. Perhaps the most important reason for this is that the smoothness parameter $\nu$ gives complete control over the mean-square differentiability of the process, which has significant implications for the behavior of estimated quantities such as interpolants and forecasts. Unfortunately, derivatives of the Mat$\acute{e}$rn covariance function with respect to $\nu$ require derivatives of the modified second-kind Bessel function $K$ $\nu$ with respect to $\nu$. While closed form expressions of these derivatives do exist, they are prohibitively difficult and expensive to compute. For this reason, many software packages require fixing $\nu$ as opposed to estimating it, and all existing software packages that attempt to offer the functionality of estimating $\nu$ use finite difference estimates for $\partial$ $\nu$ $K$ $\nu$ . In this work, we introduce a new implementation of $K$$\nu$ that has been designed to provide derivatives via automatic differentiation (AD), and whose resulting derivatives are significantly faster and more accurate than those computed using finite differences. Here, we provide comprehensive testing for both speed and accuracy and show that our AD solution can be used to build accurate Hessian matrices for second-order maximum likelihood estimation in settings where Hessians built with finite difference approximations completely fail.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

CMPLE: Correlation Modeling to Decode Photosynthesis Using the Minorize–Maximize Algorithm

In plant genomic experiments, correlations among various biological traits (phenotypes) give new insights into how genetic diversity may have tuned biological processes to enhance fitness under diverse conditions. Consequently, knowing how the correlations are affected by genetic (G) and environmental (E) factors helps develop climate-resilient plants. However, the current literature lacks any method for assessing the effect of predictors on pairwise correlations among multiple phenotypes together with easily interpretable model parameters. To address this need, we propose to model pairwise correlations directly in terms of G and E and develop a computationally efficient inference procedure. Two major novelties in our methodology are (1) the use of a composite pairwise likelihood method to avoid the positive definiteness restriction on the correlation matrix and (2) the use of a novel Minorize–Maximize (MM) algorithm for the efficient estimation of a large number of parameters. The proposed method shows excellent numerical performance on synthetic datasets. Here, the analysis of the motivating data on cowpea reveals that the rates of solar energy storage by photosynthesis (the aggregate trait) are differentially affected by different genetic loci through two distinct processes: “photoinhibition” which results from photodamage caused by excess light, and “photoprotection” which protects plants from photodamage but also results in energy loss.

Correlation modeling↗
DOE OSTI2020

Modeling strength and failure variability due to porosity in additively manufactured metals

To model and quantify the variability in plasticity and failure of additively manufactured metals due to imperfections in their microstructure, we have developed uncertainty quantification methodology based on pseudo marginal likelihood and embedded variability techniques. We account for both the porosity resolvable in computed tomography scans of the initial material and the sub-threshold distribution of voids through a physically motivated model. Calibration of the model indicates that the sub-threshold population of defects dominates the yield and failure response. Finally, the technique also allows us to quantify the distribution of material parameters connected to microstructural variability created by the manufacturing process, and, thereby, make assessments of material quality and process control.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Neural networks for parameter estimation in intractable models

The goal is to use deep learning models to estimate parameters in statistical models when standard likelihood estimation methods are computationally infeasible. For instance, inference for max-stable processes is exceptionally challenging even with small datasets, but simulation is straightforward. Data from model simulations are used to train deep neural networks and learn statistical parameters from max-stable models. The proposed neural network-based method provides a competitive alternative to current approaches, as demonstrated by considerable accuracy and computational time improvements. Finally, it serves as a proof of concept for deep learning in statistical parameter estimation and can be extended to other estimation problems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

A practical way to regularize unfolding of sharply varying spectra with low data statistics

Unfolding is a well-established tool in particle physics. However, a naive application of the standard regularization techniques to unfold the momentum spectrum of protons ejected in the process of negative muon nuclear capture led to a result exhibiting unphysical artifacts. A finite data sample limited the range in which unfolding can be performed, thus introducing a cutoff. A sharply falling “true” distribution led to low data statistics near the cutoff, which exacerbated the regularization bias and produced an unphysical spike in the resulting spectrum. An improved approach has been developed to address these issues and is illustrated using a toy model. The approach uses full Poisson likelihood of data, and produces a continuous, physically plausible, unfolded distribution. Here, the new technique has a broad applicability since sharply falling spectra are common.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Model correction and updating of a stochastic degradation model for failure prognostics of miter gates

Understanding the degradation of the quoin block is vital for failure prognostics in miter gates. Due to the complicated degradation mechanism, degradation models based on simplifications and assumptions cannot accurately describe the damage evolution. It is observed that small errors in a simplified degradation model can lead to a large discrepancy in the remaining useful life estimation attributed to error accumulation over time. Aiming to address this issue in failure prognostics, this paper presents a dynamic model correction framework for a simplified degradation model using strain measurements. In the proposed framework, a polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) model is employed to compensate the missing physics in a simplified stochastic degradation model. Here, a maximum likelihood estimation method is developed to estimate the uncertain parameters of the simplified physics-based degradation model along with the unknown PCE model parameters using strain measurements as the observables. The updated damage degradation model is then applied to failure prognostics of a miter gate. Results of a case study show that the proposed approach can effectively improve the accuracy of failure prognostics in miter gates.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Measurement of off-shell Higgs boson production in the $H^*\rightarrow ZZ\rightarrow 4\ell$ decay channel using a neural simulation-based inference technique in 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of off-shell Higgs boson production in the $H^*\to ZZ\to 4\ell$ decay channel is presented. The measurement uses 140 fb −1 of proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider and supersedes the previous result in this decay channel using the same dataset. The data analysis is performed using a neural simulation-based inference method, which builds per-event likelihood ratios using neural networks. The observed (expected) off-shell Higgs boson production signal strength in the $ZZ\to 4\ell$ decay channel at 68% CL is $0.87^{+0.75}_{-0.54}$ ($1.00^{+1.04}_{-0.95}$ ). The evidence for off-shell Higgs boson production using the $ZZ\to 4\ell$ decay channel has an observed (expected) significance of 2.5σ (1.3σ). The expected result represents a significant improvement relative to that of the previous analysis of the same dataset, which obtained an expected significance of 0.5σ. When combined with the most recent ATLAS measurement in the $ZZ\to 2\ell 2\nu$ decay channel, the evidence for off-shell Higgs boson production has an observed (expected) significance of 3.7σ (2.4σ). The off-shell measurements are combined with the measurement of on-shell Higgs boson production to obtain constraints on the Higgs boson total width. The observed (expected) value of the Higgs boson width at 68% CL is $4.3^{+2.7}_{-1.9}$ ($4.1^{+3.5}_{-3.4}$ ) MeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Ptychographic phase retrieval by proximal algorithms

We derive a set of ptychography phase-retrieval iterative engines based on proximal algorithms originally developed in convex optimization theory, and discuss their connections with existing ones. The use of proximal operator creates a simple frame work that allows us to incorporate the effect of noise from a maximum-likelihood (ML) principle. We focus on three particular algorithms, namely proximal minimization, alternating direction method of multiplier and accelerated proximal gradient (APG). We benchmark their performance with numerical simulations, and discuss their optimal conditions for convergence and accuracy. An experimental dataset is used to demonstrate their effectiveness as well, in which case an array of cubic Au nanoparticles with a size of 50 nm is imaged. We show that with the presence of Poisson noise, a dataset with photon counts up to 10 4 at one detector pixel already requires ML-based methods to achieve a stable convergence. Among the three algorithms derived in this work, APG method is reported first time for its application in ptychographic reconstruction and shows superior performance in terms of both accuracy and convergence rate with a noisy dataset.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Detection of translational noncrystallographic symmetry in Patterson functions

Detection of translational noncrystallographic symmetry (TNCS) can be critical for success in crystallographic phasing, particularly when molecular-replacement models are poor or anomalous phasing information is weak. If the correct TNCS is detected then expected intensity factors for each reflection can be refined, so that the maximum-likelihood functions underlying molecular replacement and single-wavelength anomalous dispersion use appropriate structure-factor normalization and variance terms. Here, an analysis of a curated database of protein structures from the Protein Data Bank to investigate how TNCS manifests in the Patterson function is described. These studies informed an algorithm for the detection of TNCS, which includes a method for detecting the number of vectors involved in any commensurate modulation (the TNCS order). The algorithm generates a ranked list of possible TNCS associations in the asymmetric unit for exploration during structure solution.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Absorptive Weak Plume Detection on Gaussian and Non-Gaussian Background Clutter

For additive signals on Gaussian clutter, the optimal detector is a linear matched filter that is adapted to the known signal and the covariance of the background. This adaptive matched filter is widely used for gas-phase plume detection, even though the effect of the plume on the background is not strictly additive. Here, a derivation of the matched filter for a strictly absorptive plume produces, in the weak plume limit, a quadratic filter. This quadratic matched filter is extended in two ways: an elliptically-contoured multivariate t distribution is used to generalize the Gaussian background clutter, and a generalized likelihood ratio test detector is derived to extend applicability to stronger plumes. In addition to detectors whose purpose is to identify presence versus absence of a plume, expressions are also derived for estimating plume strength. The performance of these various detectors is evaluated by implanting simulated plume into background images that are either real hyperspectral images or simulated images based on different (Gaussian, multivariate t, and lognormal) clutter distributions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗