Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Differentiable physics”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 811 records · Page 45

The Next Frontier for Remote Sensing of Freshwater HABS: Utilizing Imaging Spectroscopy Data to Identify Cyanobacteria Bloom Types

Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and their associated toxicity are a concern for inland waters. Due to the extensive spatial coverage and frequent data availability of satellite-based sensors, multi-spectral remote sensing tools have demonstrated utility for monitoring, understanding, and managing these blooms. The next frontier is utilizing high spectral resolution imaging spectroscopy data, such as from NASA’s upcoming PACE, GLIMR, and SBG missions planned for this decade, which allow for the development of more sophisticated cyanobacteria detection algorithms. We evaluate the performance of cyanobacteria genera differentiation algorithms using precursor datasets in support of these upcoming hyperspectral missions. In situ measurements of lake optical, biological, chemical, and physical properties are used to characterize cyanobacteria blooms in hypereutrophic Clear Lake, CA, USA, which supports large, diverse algal and cyanobacteria populations. Data collection occurred during 12 field events in 2021-2022 across all seasons. Three field events were conducted concurrently with hyperspectral data acquisitions from the DESIS sensor on the International Space Station. The results of this study will support the development of future tools utilizing satellite-based imaging spectroscopy data to identify the cyanobacteria genera present in a bloom, and thus the potential for cyanotoxin production. This outcome – the ability to quickly characterize a cyanobacteria bloom at a low cost – will have enormous benefits for public health.

remote sensing↗

Measurement of the Medium Energy NuMI Flux Using the Low-$\nu$ and High-$\nu$ Methods at MINERvA

As we continue to improve our experimental capabilities, the measurements we make of accelerator-based neutrino phenomena are becoming increasingly limited by systematic, rather than statistical uncertainties. Among these are uncertainties corresponding to our understanding of the neutrino flux and to the models that we use to simulate neutrino interactions. These already are significant for currently-running neutrino experiments, and will become more important for next-generation neutrino experiments such as DUNE. Dedicated efforts at experiments such as MINERvA are pursuing improved comprehensive modeling of neutrino cross sections and improving our understanding of how to precisely measure neutrino fluxes. This thesis discusses these themes in the context of MINERvA, a neutrino scattering experiment which was located on-axis in the NuMI beamline at Fermilab. A pair of \textit{in situ} measurements of the flux are presented which utilize Medium Energy $\nu_{\mu}$ data colle cted at MINERvA between 2013 and 2017. The low-$\nu$ technique is used to make a direct measurement of the flux from low-inelasticity events, and that flux is used to measure the total charged-current inclusive cross section. The novel ``high-$\nu$'' technique is used to make a second direct measurement of the flux from a complementary selection of high-inelasticity events, and that flux is used to measure a double-differential cross section of charged-current quasielastic-like events.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Bulk Composition of Vesta as Constrained by the Dawn Mission and the HED Meteorites

Of the objects in the main asteroid belt, Vesta is of particular interest as it is large enough to have experienced internal differentiation (520 km diameter), and it is known to have a basaltic surface dominated by FeO-bearing pyroxenes. Furthermore, visible-IR spectra of Vesta and associated Vestoids are remarkably similar to laboratory spectra of Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) meteorites, leading to the paradigm that the HEDs ultimately came from Vesta. Geochemical and petrological studies of the HEDs confirm the differentiated nature of the near-surface region of their parent body, and imply that crust extraction occurred well within the first 10 Ma of solar system history Vesta is therefore a prime target for studies that aim to constrain the earliest stages of planet building, and it is within this context that the NASA Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. The results of the Dawn mission so far have significantly reinforced the HED-Vesta connection, confirming a significant degree of internal differentiation, a surface mineralogy compatible with that of the HEDs, and near-surface ratios of Fe/O and Fe/Si consistent with HED lithologies. The combination of data from the HED meteorites and the Dawn mission thus presents an unprecedented opportunity to use Vesta as a natural laboratory of early differentiation processes in the early solar system. However, the bulk composition of Vesta remains a significant unknown parameter, but one that plays a key role on the physical and chemical properties of the internal and surface reservoirs (core, mantle, crust). Several attempts have been made to constrain the bulk composition of the eucrite parent body, early endeavours relying on petrological or cosmochemical constraints. More recently, individual chondrite class compositions, or mixtures thereof, have been considered, constrained by considerations such as O-isotopes, trace-element ratios and siderophile element concentrations of the eucrites. The work presented here builds upon these latter studies, with the primary aims of: i) illustrating the potential diversity of the geochemical and geophysical properties of a fully differentiated Vesta-sized parent body, and ii) assessing which, if any, of the known chondritic bulk compositions are plausible analogues for proto-Vesta.

Toplis, M. J.↗

A Neural Differential Equation Formulation for Modeling Atmospheric Effects in Hyperspectral Images

Atmospheric correction is the process for removing atmospheric effects from spectral data; a necessary step for recovering salient spectral properties. The complex interactions between the atmosphere and light are dominated by absorbance and scattering physics. Existing methods for modeling atmospheric interactions typically rely on deep knowledge of relevant environmental conditions and high-fidelity numerical simulations of the governing physics in order to obtain accurate estimates of these effects. Additionally, existing approaches often require a subject matter expert for pre/post-processing of the data. Model-based approaches for removing atmospheric effects struggle in situations where such domain expertise is not available, and require significant human effort and computational power even when that expertise is available. In contrast, we propose a data-driven approach the uses Neural Differential Equations (NDEs) to accurately learn the interactions between electromagnetic radiation and the atmospheric without access to location specific environmental information. Once trained, the NDE can be applied bi-directionally; to apply or remove atmospheric effects. We demonstrate the effectiveness and utility of these techniques on an example multi-spectral scene.

Koch, James V.↗

New high statistics results from the MINERvA experiment Medium Energy run

The MINERvA experiment has completed its physics run using the 6 GeV, on-axis NuMI ME beam at Fermilab. The experiment received a total of 12 x 10^20 protons on target in both neutrino and antineutrino mode running. This allows MINERvA a new level of statistics in neutrino interaction measurements with the ability to measure multi-dimensional differential cross sections. In addition, in order to make the most of this jump in statistics, a new level of precision in fluxprediction has been achieved. We present results from MINERvA's Medium Energy (ME) physics program, including the new kinematic regimes that are now accessible.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

First Measurement Of Charged-current 1 Muon 2 Proton 0 Pion Single Differential Cross-sections On Argon-40 At 0.8 Gev Average Neutrino Energy With The MicroBooNE Detector

Constraining systematic uncertainties that arise from neutrino-nucleon cross-section modeling is critical for upcoming neutrino oscillation experiments. Neutrino interactions that lead to the ejection of 2 particles from the target nucleus, leaving the nucleus with 2 holes, are one cross-section of interest. These instances, known as 2-particle 2-hole (2p2h) states, can be produced either by neutrino interaction modes or from the influence of nuclear physics on the neutrino interaction. While there are many theoretical models that attempt to describe the nature of 2p2h states, very few experimental measurements of this process exist, making it difficult to benchmark theoretical calculations. Furthermore, no high statistic cross-section measurements of 2p2h states exist on $^{40}$Ar, the target nucleus of many current and next generation neutrino oscillation experiments. This analysis aims to address this issue by providing the first high-statistic single differential cross-section me asurements of 2p2h states. Using data collected from the first 3 years of running of the MicroBooNE experiment, we select $\nu_\mu$ charged-current interaction events that produce a single muon, 2 protons, and no pions in the final state (CC1$\mu$2p0$\pi$). The single differential cross-section is then extracted as a function of a variety of physics variables and compared to theoretical predictions from several event generator model sets.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Comment on the paper “Physical characterization of Bis(2,2-dinitropropyl) acetal and Bis(2,2-dinitropropyl) formal” by Alexander Edgar, Justine Yang, Manuel Chavez, Michelle Yang & Dali Yang

Errors are noted in the construction of the binary phase diagram in the paper “Physical characterization of Bis(2,2-dinitropropyl) acetal and Bis(2,2-dinitropropyl) formal” by Alexander Edgar, Justine Yang, Manuel Chavez, Michelle Yang & Dali Yang. The authors of that paper misinterpret differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermal features. All of the DSC data show features consistent with samples that are supercooled during testing. Such samples do not show solidus points and may not show liquidus points, rendering the constructed phase diagram invalid.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A Real Time Differential GPS Tracking System for NASA Sounding Rockets

Sounding rockets are suborbital launch vehicles capable of carrying scientific payloads to several hundred miles in altitude. These missions return a variety of scientific data including: chemical makeup and physical processes taking place in the atmosphere, natural radiation surrounding the Earth, data on the Sun, stars, galaxies and many other phenomena. In addition, sounding rockets provide a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices to be used on satellites and other spacecraft prior to their use in these more expensive missions. Typically around thirty of these rockets are launched each year, from established ranges at Wallops Island, Virginia; Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska; White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico and from a number of ranges outside the United States. Many times launches are conducted from temporary launch ranges in remote parts of the world requiring considerable expense to transport and operate tracking radars. In order to support these missions, an inverse differential GPS system has been developed. The flight system consists of a small, inexpensive receiver, a preamplifier and a wrap-around antenna. A rugged, compact, portable ground station extracts GPS data from the raw payload telemetry stream, performs a real time differential solution and graphically displays the rocket's path relative to a predicted trajectory plot. In addition to generating a real time navigation solution, the system has been used for payload recovery, timing, data timetagging, precise tracking of multiple payloads and slaving of optical tracking systems for over the horizon acquisition. This paper discusses, in detail, the flight and ground hardware, as well as data processing and operational aspects of the system, and provides evidence of the system accuracy.

Bull, Barton↗

Sensitivity Studies, Gap Analysis, and Benchmark Experiment Optimization for Reactor Physics and Criticality Safety Applications

Many new reactor designs, such as advanced reactors and micro reactors, have materials that lack nuclear data validation. This is also true for many other applications in criticality safety and global security. Both differential and integral experiments are needed to validate cross-section data. Without this, a user cannot have confidence in the predicted results of a radiation-transport code. This work describes an approach called ARCHIMEDES (Application Relevant Critical/Subcritical HEU/Pu-based Integral Measurements for Enhancing Data and Evaluating Sensitivities) to design new criticality experiments that have similar k eff cross-section sensitivities to an application of interest. This process involves simulations to generate cross-section sensitivities to a parameter of interest (such as k eff ), a gap analysis to determine which existing benchmarks are most similar to the application, and an experiment optimization. Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in the reactor physics community on advanced reactors, micro reactors, and accelerator driven systems (ADS). This work will apply the described method to specific examples in this area. The focus of this work will be on the sensitivity study and gap analysis, while future work will include experiment design.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

The phase space distance between collider events

How can one fully harness the power of physics encoded in relativistic N-body phase space? Topologically, phase space is isomorphic to the product space of a simplex and a hypersphere and can be equipped with explicit coordinates and a Riemannian metric. This natural structure that scaffolds the space on which all collider physics events live opens up new directions for machine learning applications and implementation. Here we present a detailed construction of the phase space manifold and its differential line element, identifying particle ordering prescriptions that ensure that the metric satisfies necessary properties. We apply the phase space metric to several binary classification tasks, including discrimination of high-multiplicity resonance decays or boosted hadronic decays of electroweak bosons from QCD processes, and demonstrate powerful performance on simulated data. Our work demonstrates the many benefits of promoting phase space from merely a background on which calculations take place to being geometrically entwined with a theory’s dynamics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The effect of inverse Compton losses on particle acceleration in three-dimensional relativistic reconnection

Relativistic magnetic reconnection is a key mechanism for dissipating magnetic energy and accelerating particles in astrophysics. In the absence of radiative cooling, recent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have shown that high-energy particles gain most of their energy in the upstream region, during a short-lived "free phase" where they meander between the two sides of the layer; when they get captured/trapped by the downstream flux ropes, they undergo a "trapped phase", where no significant energization occurs. Here, we perform a suite of 3D PIC simulations of relativistic reconnection including inverse Compton (IC) losses in the weakly cooled regime in which the radiation-reaction-limited Lorentz factor $γ_{\rm rad}$ exceeds the magnetization $σ$. We show that electron cooling losses do not appreciably alter the reconnection rate, the structure of the layer, and the physics of particle acceleration in the free phase, so the spectrum of free electrons is $dN_{\rm free}/dγ\propto γ^{-1}$, as in the uncooled case. The spectrum of trapped electrons above the cooling break $γ_{\rm cool}$ (in the range $γ_{\rm cool}<γ<γ_{\rm rad}$) is $dN/dγ\propto γ^{-3}$, steeper than the scaling $dN/dγ\propto γ^{-2}$ of uncooled simulations. This confirms that no significant particle energization occurs during the trapped phase. Our results validate the model by arXiv:2302.12269 for particle acceleration in 3D relativistic reconnection, and imply that radiative emission models of reconnection-powered astrophysical sources should employ a two-zone structure, that differentiates between free, rapidly accelerating particles and trapped, passively cooling particles.

FOS: Physical sciences↗

Fast and accurate simulations of calorimeter showers with normalizing flows

In this study, we introduce caloflow, a fast detector simulation framework based on normalizing flows. For the first time, we demonstrate that normalizing flows can reproduce many-channel calorimeter showers with extremely high fidelity, providing a fresh alternative to computationally expensive geant4 simulations, as well as other state-of-the-art fast simulation frameworks based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) or variational autoencoders (VAEs). In addition to the usual histograms of physical features and images of calorimeter showers, we introduce a new metric for judging the quality of generative modeling: the performance of a classifier trained to differentiate real from generated images. We show that GAN-generated images can be identified by the classifier with nearly 100% accuracy, while images generated from caloflow are better able to fool the classifier. More broadly, normalizing flows offer several advantages compared to other state-of-the-art approaches (GANs and VAEs), including tractable likelihoods, stable and convergent training, and principled model selection. Normalizing flows also provide a bijective mapping between data and the latent space, which could have other applications beyond simulation, for example, to detector unfolding.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Complex eigenvalue instantons and the Fredholm determinant expansion in the Gross-Witten-Wadia model

We study the leading nonperturbative corrections to the strong-coupling (ungapped) phase of the Gross-Witten-Wadia (GWW) integral over unitary matrices, to one-loop order. We compute these corrections directly in terms of eigenvalue tunneling in a holomorphic presentation of the integral over eigenvalues. The leading nonperturbative contribution to the partition function comes from a pair of complex eigenvalue instantons. We show that these are in fact “ghost instantons”, which are extrema of the one-eigenvalue effective potential on the “unphysical sheet” of the spectral curve and have been discussed in detail recently by Mariño, Schiappa, and Schwick. Further, we discuss the relationship of these instantons to the Fredholm determinant expansion of the unitary matrix integral, which has recently become an object of interest in the computations of BPS indices of supersymmetric gauge theories and black holes. We find that, after taking the ’t Hooft limit, the first correction given by the Fredholm determinant expansion of the GWW integral agrees precisely with the leading nonperturbative correction, to one-loop order.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗