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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 757 records · Page 42
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

3ω techniques for measurement of volumetric heat capacity and anisotropic thermal conductivity of a solution processable, hybrid organic/inorganic film, Te-PEDOT:PSS

We report that measuring the thermal properties of anisotropic films of hybrid materials poses a challenge to existing metrology techniques. We have developed a new approach for measuring the volumetric heat capacity and anisotropic thermal conductivity of these systems using the 3ω method. While there exist many avenues for measuring the thermal properties of thin films, most carry with them difficult requirements such as smooth surfaces or advanced lithography. Here, we present measurements of a film's in-plane and cross-plane conductance and its volumetric heat capacity using relatively simple sample configurations, each requiring a single heater. For the measurement of volumetric heat capacity, we present a new model fitting method, relying on a standard film-on-substrate configuration. For the measurement of in-plane thermal conductance by 3ω, we have developed the use of an embedded micro-wire heater in suspended drop cast films, allowing for a 12 μm wide heater without the need for advanced lithography. We also expose the surprisingly significant effect of thermal radiation in the suspended film measurement and its associated error. Our measurements reveal a large anisotropy in the thermal conductivity of our test material, Te-PEDOT:PSS, of k in-plane / k cross-plane = 19, consistent with the nanoscale morphology of the material.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Feedback lock-in: A versatile multi-terminal measurement system for electrical transport devices

Here, we present the design and implementation of a measurement system that enables parallel drive and detection of small currents and voltages at numerous electrical contacts to a multi-terminal electrical device. This system, which we term a feedback lock-in, combines digital control-loop feedback with software-defined lock-in measurements to dynamically source currents and measure small, pre-amplified potentials. The effective input impedance of each current/voltage probe can be set via software, permitting any given contact to behave as an open-circuit voltage lead or as a virtually grounded current source/sink. This enables programmatic switching of measurement configurations and permits measurement of currents at multiple drain contacts without the use of current preamplifiers. Our 32-channel implementation relies on commercially available digital input/output boards, home-built voltage preamplifiers, and custom open-source software. With our feedback lock-in, we demonstrate differential measurement sensitivity comparable to a widely used commercially available lock-in amplifier and perform efficient multi-terminal electrical transport measurements on twisted bilayer graphene and SrTiO 3 quantum point contacts. The feedback lock-in also enables a new style of measurement using multiple current probes, which we demonstrate on a ballistic graphene device.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Three-dimensional full-field velocity measurements in shock compression experiments using stereo digital image correlation

Shock compression plate impact experiments conventionally rely on point-wise velocimetry measurements based on laser-based interferometric techniques. This study presents an experimental methodology to measure the free surface full-field particle velocity in shock compression experiments using high-speed imaging and three-dimensional (3D) digital image correlation (DIC). The experimental setup has a temporal resolution of 100 ns with a spatial resolution varying from 90 to 200 μm/pixel. Experiments were conducted under three different plate impact configurations to measure spatially resolved free surface velocity and validate the experimental technique. First, a normal impact experiment was conducted on polycarbonate to measure the macroscopic full-field normal free surface velocity. Second, an isentropic compression experiment on Y-cut quartz–tungsten carbide assembly is performed to measure the particle velocity for experiments involving ramp compression waves. To explore the capability of the technique in multiaxial loading conditions, a pressure shear plate impact experiment was conducted to measure both the normal and transverse free surface velocities under combined normal and shear loading. The velocities measured in the experiments using digital image correlation are validated against previous data obtained from laser interferometry. Numerical simulations were also performed using established material models to compare and validate the experimental velocity profiles for these different impact configurations. The novel ability of the employed experimental setup to measure full-field free surface velocities with high spatial resolutions in shock compression experiments is demonstrated for the first time in this work.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measurement of ion temperature and toroidal flow during magnetic reconnection with a large guide field

Here, ion temperature and toroidal flow along the guide field direction are measured using a new ion tomographic diagnostic on the Magnetic Reconnection eXperiment (MRX) during magnetic reconnection with a guide field strength of about 1.4 and 2.1 times the strength of the reconnecting component. Strong toroidal flows, beyond what has been measured in anti-parallel and lower guide field conditions on MRX, are observed. Sustained ion heating with no discernible structure within the measurement region is also observed. Probe measurements including Langmuir and Mach probe measurements are made to support the tomographic inversion of line-integrated measurements, as well as to provide local measurements of plasma parameters. Measurements of toroidal velocity and ion temperature are supported with time series data. Energy flow into and out of the X-line region is estimated using a guiding center framework and presented in the Appendix of this manuscript, suggesting an outsized role played by parallel electric field in energizing ions. The guiding center approximation is not well satisfied in the region of interest; however, the estimates provide a springboard for future, further experimentation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of amorphous yttrium iron oxide thin films and consequences for non-local resistance measurements

We present magnetic characterization, charge resistivity, and optical photoluminescence measurements on amorphous yttrium iron oxide thin films ( ⁠a-Y–Fe–O), with supporting comparisons to amorphous germanium (⁠ a-Ge) films. We measured magnetic properties with both SQUID magnetometry and polarized neutron reflectometry. These results not only confirm that a-Y–Fe–O is a disordered magnetic material with strong predominantly antiferromagnetic exchange interactions and a high degree of frustration, but also that it is best understood electrically as a disordered semiconductor. As with amorphous germanium, a-Y–Fe–O obeys expectations for variable-range hopping through localized electron states over a wide range of temperature. We also clarify the consequences of charge transport through such a semiconducting medium for non-local voltage measurements intended to probe spin transport in nominally insulating magnetic materials. We further compare non-local resistance measurements made with “quasi-dc” automated current reversal to ac measurements made with a lock-in amplifier. These show that the “quasi-dc” measurement has an effective ac current excitation with frequency up to approximately 22 Hz, and that this effective ac excitation can cause artifacts in these measurements including incorrect sign of the non-local resistance. Here, this comprehensive investigation of non-local resistance measurements in a-Y–Fe–O shows no evidence of spin transport on micrometer length scales, which is contrary to our original work, and in line with more recent investigations by other groups.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measurement of Photoneutrons from Depleted Uranium and Comparison Study Using MCNPX-PoliMi

High-energy photon interrogation is a nondestructive technique that is used to detect special nuclear materials and characterize nuclear waste. The development of such systems is complex and requires Monte Carlo simulations to optimize system performance. Monte Carlo simulations rely on various scattering, absorption, and photonuclear cross-section data. While the scattering and absorption cross-section data have been extensively studied and validated with experiments, the results obtained from photonuclear simulations are often found to underpredict measured results, indicating uncertainties in the photonuclear cross sections themselves. Thus, there is a need for new measured results that can be used to quantify underpredictions in simulations using photonuclear cross-section data. In the present work, we interrogated depleted uranium with a 9-MV electron linac and detected photoneutrons with trans-stilbene organic scintillators. The measurement of photoneutrons with organic scintillators is challenging due to the presence of the intense photon flux, which causes issues such as pulse pile-up, detector saturation, and poor signal-to-background ratio. To mitigate these challenges, we used iron and polyethylene shielding of varying thicknesses around the depleted uranium target and a neural network–based digital pulse processing algorithm to recover neutron and photon information from piled-up events. Our goal was to compare the measured photoneutron count rate with the simulated rate obtained using the MCNPX-PoliMi transport code. For a light output window of 0.28 to 2.67 MeVee (1.66- to 6.85-MeV proton recoil energy), we found that the simulated count rate obtained using the ENDF/B-VII photonuclear cross-section library underpredicts the measured rate by 32.8% 3.2%. Additionally, we compared the simulated and measured photoneutron light output distributions. For the least thicknesses of shielding, the simulation was found to underpredict measurements in the 0.70- to 2.67-MeVee light output window. For the greatest thicknesses of shielding, the simulation was found to underpredict the measurement across the entire light output window of 0.28 to 2.67 MeVee.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2020

Considerations for in situ, real time measurement of plasma-material interactions using Digital Holographic imaging

Digital Holographic (DH) imaging is a laser-based measurement technique, which can be used to monitor a material surface as it is being exposed to fusion-relevant plasmas. Both single-laser and dual-laser DH measurements have been demonstrated ex situ at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). A DH diagnostic system is being assessed for deployment at ORNL to make in situ, real-time measurements of plasma erosion/redeposition in the Prototype Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (Proto-MPEX). In situ, real time measurements pose unique challenges to diagnostic systems, which are not encountered by ex situ analysis techniques. The absolute surface height (tracked at the nm to μm position) during plasma exposure can be modified by: 1) surface movement due to vibration or thrust exerted by the plasma device, 2) surface growth due to the thermal expansion of the material under steady MW/m2 or transient GW/m2 plasma heat loads, and 3) surface modification due to plasma erosion/redeposition of the material substrate. To assess these effects, 1) the vibration spectrum of the diagnostic and the pulsed plasma device have been measured, 2) the thermal growth of the surface has been measured for an applied heat flux, and 3) the surface modification has been measured ex situ post plasma exposure, and ex situ post laser ablation as a proxy for the plasma. This paper will provide an overview of the results that have been achieved in the development of a DH diagnostic for in situ real-time measurements of plasma exposed surfaces in the Proto-MPEX device.

Biewer, Theodore↗
DOE OSTI2023

A long path-length optical property measurement device for highly transparent detector media

Measurements of the optical properties of highly transparent liquids are necessary for large-scale detectors that seek to detect optical signatures in kiloton-scale or larger volumes. Detailed understanding of the attenuation and scattering properties of fill media is critical to the ability to accurately simulate detector performance, and yet is often unavailable until in-situ measurements can be performed. Moreover, in-situ measurements may rely on effective attenuation lengths or other approximations to characterize performance, rather than absolute measurements of attenuation and scattering. To better understand the optical properties of potential fill media and purification schemes, a system has been developed which provides simultaneous attenuation and differential scattering cross-section measurements for highly transparent liquids. This horizontal, adjustable path-length “long-arm” system provides excellent isolation from the atmosphere, a high degree of vibration insensitivity, and a simple and reliable method of calibration. Further, scattering measurements can be carried out simultaneously at ports along the beamline equipped with optics allowing the selection of scatter angle and polarization. This enables both reliable quantitative scatter measurements and phase-function separation. This system has been extensively tested using deionized (DI) water as a benchmark, and has demonstrated repeatable measurements of attenuation lengths exceeding 100 m and scattering lengths approaching 1 km.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

RhizoVision Explorer: open-source software for root image analysis and measurement standardization

Abstract Roots are central to the function of natural and agricultural ecosystems by driving plant acquisition of soil resources and influencing the carbon cycle. Root characteristics like length, diameter and volume are critical to measure to understand plant and soil functions. RhizoVision Explorer is an open-source software designed to enable researchers interested in roots by providing an easy-to-use interface, fast image processing and reliable measurements. The default broken roots mode is intended for roots sampled from pots and soil cores, washed and typically scanned on a flatbed scanner, and provides measurements like length, diameter and volume. The optional whole root mode for complete root systems or root crowns provides additional measurements such as angles, root depth and convex hull. Both modes support providing measurements grouped by defined diameter ranges, the inclusion of multiple regions of interest and batch analysis. RhizoVision Explorer was successfully validated against ground truth data using a new copper wire image set. In comparison, the current reference software, the commercial WinRhizo™, drastically underestimated volume when wires of different diameters were in the same image. Additionally, measurements were compared with WinRhizo™ and IJ_Rhizo using a simulated root image set, showing general agreement in software measurements, except for root volume. Finally, scanned root image sets acquired in different labs for the crop, herbaceous and tree species were used to compare results from RhizoVision Explorer with WinRhizo™. The two software showed general agreement, except that WinRhizo™ substantially underestimated root volume relative to RhizoVision Explorer. In the current context of rapidly growing interest in root science, RhizoVision Explorer intends to become a reference software, improve the overall accuracy and replicability of root trait measurements and provide a foundation for collaborative improvement and reliable access to all.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Characterizing Canopy Openness in Open Forests: Spherical Densiometer and Canopy Photography Are Equivalent but Less Sensitive than Direct Measurements of Solar Radiation

In forest ecosystems, canopy openness affects understory light availability, plant growth, and tree species recruitment, thus shaping future forest composition, structure, and functional diversity. Foresters must correctly and quickly measure canopy openness to meet their management objectives. To help guide the selection of an appropriate method for measuring canopy openness, we compared three common techniques that vary in cost, complexity, and time required for measurements and data processing: smartphone-based hemispherical photography, spherical densiometer measurements, and direct measurements of solar radiation (using AccuPAR ceptometer). We measured canopy openness using these three methods on 28 permanent forest health monitoring plots in pine-oak forests of the Central Pine Barrens of Long Island in New York State. By analysis of variance and regression analyses, we found the three methods (particularly densiometer and hemispherical photographs) yielded broadly equivalent and strongly positively correlated descriptions of canopy openness. The direct measurements of solar radiation seemed to have a greater potential to detect subtle variation in forest understory light. Forest managers may sufficiently characterize canopy openness using quick and cheap methods (e.g., spherical densiometers) and avoid larger costs of devices for direct light measurements (e.g., ceptometers) and the larger data processing times of hemispherical photography.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

A measurement of the distance to the Galactic centre using the kinematics of bar stars

The distance to the Galactic centre R 0 is a fundamental parameter for understanding the Milky Way, because all observations of our Galaxy are made from our heliocentric reference point. The uncertainty in R 0 limits our knowledge of many aspects of the Milky Way, including its total mass and the relative mass of its major components, and any orbital parameters of stars employed in chemo-dynamical analyses. While measurements of R 0 have been improving over a century, measurements in the past few years from a variety of methods still find a wide range of R 0 being somewhere within 8.0 to $8.5\, \mathrm{kpc}$. The most precise measurements to date have to assume that Sgr A* is at rest at the Galactic centre, which may not be the case. In this paper, we use maps of the kinematics of stars in the Galactic bar derived from APOGEE DR17 and Gaia EDR3 data augmented with spectrophotometric distances from the astroNN neural-network method. These maps clearly display the minimum in the rotational velocity v T and the quadrupolar signature in radial velocity v R expected for stars orbiting in a bar. From the minimum in v T , we measure $R_0 = 8.23\pm 0.12\, \mathrm{kpc}$. We validate our measurement using realistic N-body simulations of the Milky Way. We further measure the pattern speed of the bar to be $\Omega _\mathrm{bar} = 40.08\pm 1.78\, \mathrm{km\, s}^{-1}\,\mathrm{kpc}^{-1}$. Because the bar forms out of the disc, its centre is manifestly the barycentre of the bar+disc system and our measurement is therefore one of the most robust and accurate measurements of R 0 to date.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Some entanglement survives most measurements

To prepare quantum states and extract information, it is often assumed that one can perform a perfectly projective measurement. Such measurements can achieve an uncorrelated system and environment state. However, perfectly projective measurements can be difficult or impossible to perform in practice. Here, we investigate the limitations of repeated nonprojective measurements in preparing a quantum system. For an n-qubit system initially entangled with its environment and subsequently prepared with measurements, using a sequence of weak measurements, we show that some entanglement remains unless one of the measurement operators becomes perfectly projective through an extreme limiting process. Removing initial (unentangled) correlations between a system and its environment and the scenario where measurement outcomes are not tracked are also discussed. We present results for n-qubit and n-dimensional input states.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Measurement of the 239 Pu$(n, f$) prompt fission neutron spectrum from 10 keV to 10 MeV induced by neutrons of energy 1–20 MeV

Although the prompt fission neutron spectrum (PFNS) is an essential component of neutron-driven systems that has been measured for decades, there are still multiple glaring unknowns regarding the PFNS of major actinides in the fission neutron incident energy range, specifically with regard to multichance fission and pre-equilibrium neutron emission processes. The only impactful experimental 239 Pu PFNS measurements included in recent nuclear data evaluations were measured over a limited outgoing neutron energy range at thermal and 1.5-MeV average incident neutron energy, while other potentially impactful measurements have been shown to contain errors that resulted in either large uncertainty increases or in complete exclusion from nuclear data evaluation. Here, we report a measurement of the 239 Pu PFNS over a wide range of incident neutron energy (1–20 MeV) and three orders of magnitude in outgoing neutron energy (0.01–10 MeV) resulting from the Chi-Nu experiment at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. These results are the combination of separate PFNS measurements in the same experimental area, one using a Li-glass and the other a liquid scintillator detector array. Covariances between all PFNS data points from each detector and within each incident energy range were generated between all other data in both detector arrays and within all other incident neutron energy bins, yielding a single covariance matrix for all 1300 PFNS data points reported here. These covariances are based on a thorough assessment of systematic bias and uncertainties associated with the measurement, PFNS extraction technique, combination of data from each detector type, and other aspects of the analysis. The existence of covariances between PFNS data points in different incident neutron energy ranges yielded covariances between average PFNS energy values at each incident energy to be reported here as well, which allowed for firm statements to be made regarding a shape of a purely experimental mean PFNS energy trend for the first time. Although minor PFNS shape differences exist between the results reported here and recent nuclear data evaluations, the ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.3 PFNS evaluations agree reasonably well with the present results from 1-to 10-MeV incident neutron energy, which spans the well-measured 1.5-MeV incident neutron energy PFNS from Lestone and Shores as well as the onset of second-chance fission. However, while the pre-equilibrium component of the PFNS above 12-MeV incident neutron energy roughly agrees in position and magnitude with ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.3, clear differences relating to the relative magnitude of third-chance fission PFNS features are present in the PFNS shape and in the mean PFNS energy trends.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measurements and computational analysis of the natural decay of 176 Lu

Background: Mainly because of its long half-life and despite its scientific relevance, spectroscopic measurements of 176 Lu forbidden β decays are very limited and lack formulation of shape factors. A direct precise measurement of its Q value is also presently unreported. In addition, the description of forbidden decays provides interesting challenges for nuclear theory. The comparison of precise experimental results with theoretical calculations for these decays can help to test underlying models and can aid the interpretation of data from other experiments. Purpose: Perform the first precision measurements of 176 Lu β-decay spectra and attempt the observation of its electron capture decays, as well as perform the first precision direct measurement of the 176 Lu β-decay Q value. Compare the shape of the precisely determined experimental β spectra to theoretical calculations, and compare the end point energy to that obtained from an independent Q value measurement. Method: Here, the 176 Lu β-decay spectra measurements and the search for electron capture decays were performed with an experimental setup that employed lutetium-containing scintillator crystals and a NaI(Tl) spectrometer for coincidence counting. The β decay Q value was determined via high-precision Penning trap mass spectrometry (PTMS) with the LEBIT facility at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The β-spectrum calculations were performed within the Fermi theory formalism with nuclear structure effects calculated using a shell model approach. Results: Both β transitions of 176 Lu were experimentally observed and corresponding shape factors formulated in their entire energy ranges. The search for electron capture decay branches led to an experimental upper limit of 6.3×10 –6 relative to its β decays. The 176 Lu β-decay and electron capture Q values were measured using PTMS to be 1193.0(6) and 108.9(8) keV, respectively. This enabled precise β end point energies of 596.2(6) and 195.3(6) keV to be determined for the primary and secondary β decays, respectively. The conserved vector current hypothesis was applied to calculate the relativistic vector matrix elements. The β-spectrum shape was shown to significantly depend on the Coulomb displacement energy and on the value of the axial vector coupling constant gA, which was extracted according to different assumptions. Conclusion: The implemented self-scintillation method has provided unmatched observations of 176 Lu, independently validated by the first direct measurements of its β-decay Q value by Penning trap mass spectrometry. Theoretical study of the main β transition led to the extraction of very different effective gA and log10f values, showing that a high-precision description of this transition would require a realistic nuclear structure with nucleus deformation.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Combined kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich measurements from BOSS CMASS and LOWZ halos

The scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons off the free-electron gas in galaxies and clusters leaves detectable imprints on high resolution CMB maps: the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effects (tSZ and kSZ respectively). We use combined microwave maps from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope DR5 and Planck in combination with the CMASS (mean redshift $\langle z \rangle$ = 0.55 and host halo mass $\langle M_{vir} \rangle$ = 3 × 10 13 M ⊙ ) and LOWZ ( $\langle z \rangle$ = 0.31 , $\langle M_{vir} \rangle$ = 5 × 10 13 M ⊙ ) galaxy catalogs from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS DR10 and DR12), to study the gas associated with these galaxy groups. Using individual reconstructed velocities, we perform a stacking analysis and reject the no-kSZ hypothesis at 6.5σ, the highest significance to date. This directly translates into a measurement of the electron number density profile, and thus of the gas density profile. Despite the limited signal to noise, the measurement shows at high significance that the gas density profile is more extended than the dark matter density profile, for any reasonable baryon abundance (formally > 90 σ for the cosmic baryon abundance). We simultaneously measure the tSZ signal, i.e., the electron thermal pressure profile of the same CMASS objects, and reject the no-tSZ hypothesis at 10σ. We combine tSZ and kSZ measurements to estimate the electron temperature to 20% precision in several aperture bins, and find it comparable to the virial temperature. In a companion paper, we analyze these measurements to constrain the gas thermodynamics and the properties of feedback inside galaxy groups. We present the corresponding LOWZ measurements in this paper, ruling out a null kSZ (tSZ) signal at 2.9 (13.9) σ , and leave their interpretation to future work. This paper and the companion paper demonstrate that current CMB experiments can detect and resolve gas profiles in low mass halos and at high redshifts, which are the most sensitive to feedback in galaxy formation and the most difficult to measure any other way. They will be a crucial input to cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, thus improving our understanding of galaxy formation. These precise gas profiles are already sufficient to reduce the main limiting theoretical systematic in galaxy-galaxy lensing: baryonic uncertainties. Future such measurements will thus unleash the statistical power of weak lensing from the Rubin, Euclid and Roman observatories. Finally, our stacking software ThumbStackis publicly available and directly applicable to future Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Modeling the gas thermodynamics in BOSS CMASS galaxies from kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich measurements

The thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects (tSZ, kSZ) probe the thermodynamic properties of the circumgalactic and intracluster medium (CGM and ICM) of galaxies, groups, and clusters, since they are proportional, respectively, to the integrated electron pressure and momentum along the line-of-sight. We present constraints on the gas thermodynamics of CMASS galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) using new measurements of the kSZ and tSZ signals obtained in a companion paper. Combining kSZ and tSZ measurements, we measure within our model the amplitude of energy injection $\epsilon M_\star c^2$, where $M_\star$ is the stellar mass, to be $\epsilon=(40\pm9)\times10^{-6}$, and the amplitude of the non-thermal pressure profile to be $\alpha_{\rm Nth}<0.2$ (2$\sigma$), indicating that less than 20% of the total pressure within the virial radius is due to a non-thermal component. We estimate the effects of including baryons in the modeling of weak-lensing galaxy cross-correlation measurements using the best fit density profile from the kSZ measurement. Our estimate reduces the difference between the original theoretical model and the weak-lensing galaxy cross-correlation measurements in arXiv:1611.08606 by half, but does not fully reconcile it. Comparing the kSZ and tSZ measurements to cosmological simulations, we find that they under predict the CGM pressure and to a lesser extent the CGM density at larger radii. This suggests that the energy injected via feedback models in the simulations that we compared against does not sufficiently heat the gas at these radii. We do not find significant disagreement at smaller radii. These measurements provide novel tests of current and future simulations. Here, this work demonstrates the power of joint, high signal-to-noise kSZ and tSZ observations, upon which future cross-correlation studies will improve.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Precision measurements of EFT parameters and BAO peak shifts for the Lyman- α forest

We present precision measurements of the bias parameters of the one-loop power spectrum model of the Lyman- α (Ly- α ) forest, derived within the effective field theory (EFT) of large-scale structure. We fit our model to the three-dimensional flux power spectrum measured from the ACCEL 2 hydrodynamic simulations. The EFT model fits the data with an accuracy of below 2% up to k = 2 h Mpc − 1 . Further, we analytically derive how nonlinearities in the three-dimensional clustering of the Ly- α forest introduce biases in measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) scaling parameters in radial and transverse directions. From our EFT parameter measurements, we obtain a theoretical error budget of Δ α ∥ = − 0.2 % ( Δ α ⊥ = − 0.3 % ) for the radial (transverse) parameters at redshift z = 2.0 . This corresponds to a shift of − 0.3 % (0.1%) for the isotropic (anisotropic) distance measurements. We provide an estimate for the shift of the BAO peak for Ly- α -quasar cross-correlation measurements assuming analytical and simulation-based scaling relations for the nonlinear quasar bias parameters resulting in a shift of − 0.2 % ( − 0.1 % ) for the radial (transverse) dilation parameters, respectively. This analysis emphasizes the robustness of Ly- α forest BAO measurements to the theory modeling. We provide informative priors and an error budget for measuring the BAO feature—a key science driver of the currently observing Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Our work paves the way for full-shape cosmological analyses of Ly- α forest data from DESI and upcoming surveys such as the Prime Focus Spectrograph, WEAVE-QSO, and 4MOST. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

de Belsunce, Roger (ORCID:0000000336604028)↗
DOE OSTI2024

W2VPCA: A Machine Learning Method for Measuring Attitudes With Natural Language

Company strategy influences many decisions in freight transportation. Behavioral models of company decision-making therefore could benefit from including strategy variables. However, strategy is difficult to observe and quantify. Attitudinal surveys of company executives can be used to collect measurements of latent strategy to use in quantitative models. However, surveys are costly and burdensome. Text mining methods to collect measurements overcome these issues somewhat, but typically require manual intervention and ignore the context of words, which can be problematic. This study introduces a new machine learning method to generate strategy measurement data from existing big text data. The new method, called W2VPCA, combines Natural Language Processing and Principal Components Analysis. W2VPCA produces measurement data that serve as quantitative indicators of latent strategy in behavioral models. W2VPCA is unsupervised, data-driven, and uses information on word context. We apply W2VPCA to generate measurements of latent strategies using readily available, large-scale text data: annual company reports. The empirical measurements are used successfully to associate two latent strategies, one focusing on distribution and the other on products, with truck fleet and distribution center outsourcing decisions. The main empirical outcome is that the W2VPCA measurements outperform Bag-of-Words measurements in a psychometric analysis of latent firm strategies. While this study focuses on freight behavioral models, W2VPCA may also have applications in behavioral modeling in other domains.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗