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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 811 records · Page 45

Modification of Lie's transform perturbation theory for charged particle motion in a magnetic field

It is pointed out that the conventional Lie transform perturbation theory for the guiding center motion of charged particles in a magnetic field needs to be modified for ordering inconsistency. There are two reasons. First, the ordering difference between the temporal variation of gyrophase and that of the other phase space coordinates needs to be taken into account. Second, it is also important to note that the parametric limit of the derivative of a function is not equivalent to the derivative of the limit function. When these facts are taken into account, the near identity transformation rule for one form related to the Lagrangian is modified. With the modified near identity transformation rule, the drift motion of charged particles can be described in the first order, instead of the second order and beyond through a tedious expansion process as in the conventional formulation. Here, this resolves the discrepancy between the direct and Lie transform treatments in the Lagrangian perturbation theory for charged particle motion in a magnetic field.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Transport processes research

Fundamental research in reduced gravity on transport processes occurring during crystallization and/or during solidification processes was studied. The details of the transport processes in various materials processing modes will be systematically studied. A Shuttle experiment will be planned to provide a better understanding of the role of fluid motion on the formation of morphological patterns and roles of these patterns in solid composition. The approach to the research will involve theoretical modeling of transport processes, non-incursive ground-based laboratory measurements of model systems, and the definition of requirements for space experimentation.

Saville, D. A.↗

Optical control of ultrafast structural dynamics in a fluorescent protein

The photoisomerization reaction of a fluorescent protein chromophore occurs on the ultrafast timescale. The structural dynamics that result from femtosecond optical excitation have contributions from vibrational and electronic processes and from reaction dynamics that involve the crossing through a conical intersection. The creation and progression of the ultrafast structural dynamics strongly depends on optical and molecular parameters. When using X-ray crystallography as a probe of ultrafast dynamics, the origin of the observed nuclear motions is not known. Now, high-resolution pump–probe X-ray crystallography reveals complex sub-ångström, ultrafast motions and hydrogen-bonding rearrangements in the active site of a fluorescent protein. However, we demonstrate that the measured motions are not part of the photoisomerization reaction but instead arise from impulsively driven coherent vibrational processes in the electronic ground state. A coherent-control experiment using a two-colour and two-pulse optical excitation strongly amplifies the X-ray crystallographic difference density, while it fully depletes the photoisomerization process. A coherent control mechanism was tested and confirmed the wave packets assignment.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Studies of convection in a solidifying system with surface tension at reduced gravity

The low gravity environment of Earth's orbit is being seriously considered for experimentation on the production of materials in space. Most of such materials processes inevitably involve either the solidification of melt or the melting of solids. Inherent in most fluid mechanisms with temperature gradients is convective motion. A study is presented for the onset of convection in a solidifying system in an environment which is similar to that encountered in space processing. Since the study is for a low gravity condition, the only driving mechanism considered is that due to the variation of surface tension force at the free surface of the melt layer. Two simple solidification models were considered, one in which the solidification process enters in the perturbation system and another in which the melt is solidifying at a constant rate. The results show that the solidification process will bring about convection in the melt earlier than otherwise.

Antar, B. N.↗

Turbulence theories and statistical closure approaches

When discussing research in physics and in science more generally, it is common to ascribe equal importance to the three components of the scientific trinity: theoretical, experimental, and computational studies. This review will explore the future of modern turbulence theory by tracing its history, which began in earnest with Kolmogorov’s 1941 analysis of turbulence cascade and inertial range [A.N. Kolmogorov, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 30, 299, (1941); 32, 19, (1941)]. The 80th Anniversary of Kolmogorov’s landmark study is a welcome opportunity to survey the achievements and evaluate the future of the theoretical approach of turbulence research. Over the years, turbulence theories have been critically important in laying the foundation of our understanding of the nature of turbulent flows. In particular, the Direct Interaction Approximation (DIA) [R.H. Kraichnan, J. Fluid Mech., 5, 497 (1959)] and its subsequent development, known as the statistical closure approach, can be identified as perhaps the most profound single advancement. The remarkable success of the statistical closure has furnished a platform to study such essential concepts as the energy transfer process and interacting scales, and the roles of the straining and sweeping motions. More recently, the quasi-Lagrangian formulation of V. L’vov & I. Procaccia and Kraichnan’s solvable passive scalar model provided powerful ways to explore another fundamental aspect of turbulent flows, the phenomena of intermittency, and the associated anomalous scaling exponents. In the meantime, the theory of fluid equilibria has been developed to describe the large-scale structures that can emerge from turbulent cascades of two-dimensional and geophysical flows at a later time. And yet, despite all these successes, analytical treatments suffer from mathematical complexities. As a result, the utility of theoretical approaches has been limited to relatively idealized flows. On the other hand, in recent decades, computational abilities and experimental facilities have reached an unprecedented scale. Looking beyond the horizon, the imminent deployment of exascale supercomputers will generate complete datasets of the entire flow field of key benchmark flows, allowing researchers to extract additional measurements concerning fully developed, complex turbulent flow fields far beyond those available from the statistical closure theories. Some other developments that could potentially influence the future course of turbulence theories include the advancement of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science; likely disruptions arising from the advent of quantum computation; and the increasingly prominent role of turbulence research in providing more accurate climate scientific data. Finally, turbulence theorists can leverage these developments by asking the right questions and developing advanced, sophisticated frameworks that will be able to predict and correlate vast amounts of data from the other two components of the trinity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Temporal dynamics of large-scale structures for turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in a moderate aspect-ratio cylinder

We investigate the spatial organization and temporal dynamics of large-scale, coherent structures in turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection via direct numerical simulation of a 6.3 aspect-ratio cylinder with Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers of 9.6×10 7 and 6.7, respectively. Fourier modal decomposition is performed to investigate the structural organization of the coherent turbulent motions by analysing the length scales, time scales and the underlying dynamical processes that are ultimately responsible for the large-scale structure formation and evolution. We observe a high level of rotational symmetry in the large-scale structure in this study and that the structure is well described by the first four azimuthal Fourier modes. Two different large-scale organizations are observed during the duration of the simulation and these patterns are dominated spatially and energetically by azimuthal Fourier modes with frequencies of 2 and 3. Studies of the transition between these two large-scale patterns, radial and vertical variations in the azimuthal energy spectra, as well as the spatial and modal variations in the system's correlation time are conducted. Rotational dynamics are observed for individual Fourier modes and the global structure with strong similarities to the dynamics that have been reported for unit aspect-ratio domains in prior works. It is shown that the large-scale structures have very long correlation time scales, on the order of hundreds to thousands of free-fall time units, and that they are the primary source for a horizontal inhomogeneity within the system that can be observed during a finite, but a very long-time simulation or experiment.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Asynchronous domain dynamics and equilibration in layered oxide battery cathode

To improve lithium-ion battery technology, it is essential to probe and comprehend the microscopic dynamic processes that occur in a real-world composite electrode under operating conditions. The primary and secondary particles are the structural building blocks of battery cathode electrodes. Their dynamic inconsistency has profound but not well-understood impacts. In this research, we combine operando coherent multi-crystal diffraction and optical microscopy to examine the chemical dynamics in local domains of layered oxide cathode. Our results not only pinpoint the asynchronicity of the lithium (de)intercalation at the sub-particle level, but also reveal sophisticated diffusion kinetics and reaction patterns, involving various localized processes, e.g., chemical onset, reaction front propagation, domains equilibration, particle deformation and motion. These observations shed new lights onto the activation and degradation mechanisms of state-of-the-art battery cathode materials.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Weak structure functions in $\nu_l-N$ and $\nu_l-A$ scattering with nonperturbative and higher order perturbative QCD effects

We study the effect of various perturbative and nonperturbative QCD corrections on the free nucleon structure functions [FiNWI(x,Q2);i=1–3] and their implications in the determination of nuclear structure functions. The evaluation of the nucleon structure functions has been performed by using the MMHT 2014 parton distribution functions (PDFs) parametrization, and the target mass correction (TMC) and higher twist (HT) effects are incorporated following the works of Schienbein et al. and Dasgupta et al., respectively. These nucleon structure functions are taken as input in the determination of nuclear structure functions. The numerical calculations for the νl/ν¯l-A deep inelastic scattering (DIS) process have been performed by incorporating the nuclear medium effects like Fermi motion, binding energy, nucleon correlations, mesonic contributions, shadowing, and antishadowing in several nuclear targets such as carbon, polystyrene scintillator, iron, and lead, which are being used in MINERνA, and in argon nuclei, which is relevant for the ArgoNeuT and DUNE experiments. The differential scattering cross sections d2σAWIdxdy and (dσAWIdx/dσCHWIdx) have also been studied in the kinematic region of the MINERνA experiment. The theoretical results are compared with the recent experimental data of MINERνA and the earlier data of the NuTeV, CCFR, CDHSW, and CHORUS Collaborations. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the present results for the ratio (dσAWIdx/dσCHWIdx), and the results from the Monte Carlo (MC) generator GENIE and other phenomenological models of Bodek and Yang, and Cloet et al., has been performed in the context of the MINERνA experiment. The predictions have also been made for the ν¯l-A cross section relevant for the MINERνA experiment.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Dipole-Phonon Quantum Logic with Trapped Polar Molecular Ions

The interaction between the electric dipole moment of a trapped molecular ion and the phonon modes of the confined Coulomb crystal couples the orientation of the molecule to its motion. We consider the practical feasibility of harnessing this interaction to initialize, process, and read out quantum information encoded in molecular ion qubits without ever optically illuminating the molecules. We present two schemes wherein a molecular ion can be entangled with a cotrapped atomic ion qubit, providing, among other things, a means for molecular state preparation and measurement. Here, we also show that virtual phonon exchange can significantly boost the range of the intermolecular dipole-dipole interaction, allowing strong coupling between widely separated molecular ion qubits.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A Probabilistic Scheme for Semilinear Nonlocal Diffusion Equations with Volume Constraints

This work presents a probabilistic scheme for solving semilinear nonlocal diffusion equations with volume constraints and integrable kernels. The nonlocal model of interest is defined by a time-dependent semilinear partial integro-differential equation (PIDE), in which the integro-differential operator consists of both local convection-diffusion and nonlocal diffusion operators. Here, our numerical scheme is based on the direct approximation of the nonlinear Feynman–Kac formula that establishes a link between nonlinear PIDEs and stochastic differential equations. The exploitation of the Feynman–Kac representation avoids solving dense linear systems arising from nonlocal operators. Compared with existing stochastic approaches, our method can achieve first-order convergence after balancing the temporal and spatial discretization errors, which is a significant improvement of existing probabilistic/stochastic methods for nonlocal diffusion problems. Error analysis of our numerical scheme is established. The effectiveness of our approach is shown in two numerical examples. The first example considers a three-dimensional nonlocal diffusion equation to numerically verify the error analysis results. The second example presents a physics problem motivated by the study of heat transport in magnetically confined fusion plasmas.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Department of Energy Project DE-SC0012198: Probing Electron-Molecule Scattering with HHG: Theory and Experiment (Final Report)

The study of the motion of atoms in molecules is important to understanding many areas of physical and life sciences. Such motion occurs on many different times scales, with electronic motion occurring on a sub-femtosecond time scale, and simple vibrational motion in tens to hundreds of femtoseconds. One way to follow such processes in real time is by the use of shortpulsed lasers, and in particular by studying time-resolved photoionization and the related process of high-harmonic generation (HHG). Thus there has been much effort to develop the tools necessary to probe molecular systems using short pulse lasers and understanding the sensitivity of the different possible probes to the time dependent geometric structure as well as the electronic structure of molecules. Our research has particularly focused on the connection between high-field processes and the more traditional weak field photoionization processes. Strong field and weak field processes can be connected through models that involve the same matrix elements. We have demonstrated in our study of HHG from SF 6 that the spectrum is sensitive to the interplay between the angular dependence of the ionization step and recombination step. In our study of rescattering spectroscopy, we have shown that with a combination of experiment and theory, we can use this high-field spectroscopy to determine molecular structure in molecules such as C 2 H 4 . We have also developed new computational tools based on overset grids to enable studies on larger molecular systems which use much more robust numerical approaches so that the resulting code can be a tool that non-specialists can use to study related systems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

An Analysis of Published DAS Studies for Application to SPE Phase III

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is an emerging technology capable of recording the acoustic wavefield at unprecedented spatial resolution. However, this new tool requires significant refinements before it becomes operational for explosion monitoring objectives. Recent studies have shown significant development of array processing with DAS data. In this report we explore three such array processing methods including DAS strain-rate data versus geophone measured ground motion, beamforming for event parameters, and machine learning based denoising. Prior to applying these algorithms to the Source Physics Experiment Phase II and Phase III data, we validate these methods through replication analysis.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Improved head-controlled TV system produces high-quality remote image

Manipulator operator uses an improved resolution tv camera/monitor positioning system to view the remote handling and processing of reactive, flammable, explosive, or contaminated materials. The pan and tilt motions of the camera and monitor are slaved to follow the corresponding motions of the operators head.

Goertz, R.↗

Note on the origin of Jupiter's magnetic field

The effect of the coriolis force was examined for stability of rotating hydromagnetic systems. It is shown that the effect of this force is to inhibit the onset of instability which leads to convective motion in these systems. The possibility of the existence of a dynamo process in Jupiter's interior is discussed, taking into account the effect of the coriolis force.

Sakurai, K.↗

Review of coherent optical data processing

The fundamental features of coherent optical data processing systems are reviewed for potential application to image processing. The application of optical spatial filtering to image mapping and cloud motion is discussed.

Vanderlugt, A.↗

The benefits of using short interval satellite images to derive winds for tropical cyclones

During the 1975, 1976, and 1977, NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Service and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center conducted a cooperative program to determine the optimum resolution and frequency of satellite images for deriving winds to study and forecast tropical cyclones. Rapid scan images were obtained at 7.5 minute interval from SMS-2 for hurricane Eloise and cyclone Caroline, and at 3 minute intervals from GOES-1 for tropical storms Belle, Holly, and Anita. Cloud motions were derived from these images using the Atmospheric and Oceanographic Information Processing System. Winds that were derived from the movement of upper and lower tropospheric level clouds using rapid scan data were compared with the 15 and 30 minute interval data. Greater than 10 (5) times as many clouds could be tracked to obtain winds using 3 and 7.5 minute rapid scan images as when using 15 or 30 minute interval images. A few bright areas within the central dense overcast which appeared to be moving with the winds at low levels were tracked.

Rodgers, E.↗

Reports on crustal movements and deformations

This Catalog of Reports on Crustal Movements and Deformation is a structured bibliography of scientific papers on the movements of the Earth crust. The catalog summarizes by various subjects papers containing data on the movement of the Earth's surface due to tectonic processes. In preparing the catalog we have included studies of tectonic plate motions, spreading and convergence, microplate rotation, regional crustal deformation strain accumulation and deformations associated with the earthquake cycle, and fault motion. We have also included several papers dealing with models of tectonic plate motion and with crustal stress. Papers which discuss tectonic and geologic history but which do not present rates of movements or deformations and papers which are primarily theoretical analyses have been excluded from the catalog. An index of authors cross-referenced to their publications also appears in the catalog. The catalog covers articles appearing in reviewed technical journals during the years 1970-1981. Although there are citations from about twenty journals most of the items come from the following publications: Journal of Geophysical Research, Tectonophysics, Geological Society of America Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Nature, Science, Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, and Geology.

Cohen, S. C.↗