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At least 829 records · Page 46
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Black hole accretion disk diffuse neutrino background

We study the cosmic MeV neutrino background from accretion disks formed during collapsars and the coalescence of compact-object mergers. We provide updated estimates, including detection rates, of relic neutrinos from collapsars, as well as estimates for neutrinos that are produced in mergers. Furthermore, our results show that diffuse neutrinos detected at HyperK would likely include some that were emitted from binary neutron-star mergers. The collapsar rate is uncertain, but at its upper limit relic neutrinos from these sources would provide a significant contribution to the cosmic diffuse neutrino background.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Impact of binary interactions on the diffuse supernova neutrino background

Binary interactions, especially mass transfer and mergers, can strongly influence the evolution of massive stars and change their final properties and the occurrence of supernovae. Here, we investigate how binary interactions affect predictions of the diffuse flux of neutrinos. By performing stellar population syntheses including prescriptions for binary interactions, we show that the resulting detection rates of the diffuse supernova neutrino background is enhanced by 15%–20% compared to estimates without binary considerations. A source of significant uncertainty arises due to the presently sparse knowledge of the evolution of rapidly rotating carbon-oxygen cores, especially those created as a result of mergers near the white dwarf to core collapse boundary. As a result, the enhancement effect may be as small as a few percent if the effects of rotation in postmerger systems are neglected, or as large as 75% if trends are extrapolated. Our estimates serve to highlight that binary effects can be important.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Characterization of the astrophysical diffuse neutrino flux using starting track events in IceCube

In this article, a measurement of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino spectrum is presented using IceCube data collected from 2011-2022 (10.3 years). We developed novel detection techniques to search for events with a contained vertex and exiting track induced by muon neutrinos undergoing a charged-current interaction. Searching for these starting track events allows us to not only more effectively reject atmospheric muons but also atmospheric neutrino backgrounds in the southern sky, opening a new window to the sub-100 TeV astrophysical neutrino sky. The event selection is constructed using a dynamic starting track veto and machine learning algorithms. We use this data to measure the astrophysical diffuse flux as a single power law flux (SPL) with a best-fit spectral index of γ=2.58$_{-0.09}^{+0.10}$ and per-flavor normalization of $\phi$$_{per-flavor}^{Astro}$=1.68$_{-0.22}^{+0.19}$×10 -18 ×GeV -1 cm -2 s -1 sr -1 (at 100 TeV). The sensitive energy range for this dataset is 3-550 TeV under the SPL assumption. This data was also used to measure the flux under a broken power law, however we did not find any evidence of a low energy cutoff.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advancing set-conditional set generation: Diffusion models for fast simulation of reconstructed particles

The computational intensity of detector simulation and event reconstruction poses a significant difficulty for data analysis in collider experiments. This challenge inspires the continued development of machine learning techniques to serve as efficient surrogate models. We propose a fast emulation approach that combines simulation and reconstruction. In other words, a neural network generates a set of reconstructed objects conditioned on input particle sets. To make this possible, we advance set-conditional set generation with diffusion models. Using a realistic, generic, and public detector simulation and reconstruction package (COCOA), we show how diffusion models can accurately model the complex spectrum of reconstructed particles inside jets.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Correlation Function Approach for Diffusion in Confined Geometries

This paper describes a formalism for extracting spatially varying transport coefficients from simulations of a molecular fluid in a nano channel. This approach is applied to self-diffusion of a Lennard-Jones fluid confined between two parallel surfaces. A numerical grid is laid over the domain confining the fluid, and fluid properties are projected onto the grid cells. The time correlation functions between properties in different grid cells are calculated and can be used as the basis for a fitting procedure for extracting spatially varying diffusion coefficients from the simulation. Results for the Lennard-Jones system show that transport behavior varies sharply near the liquid-solid boundary and that the changes depend on the details of the liquid-solid interaction. A quantitative difference between the reduced and detailed models is discussed. It is found that the difference could be associated with assumptions about the form of the transport equations at molecular scales in lieu of problems with the method itself. The study suggests that this approach to fitting molecular simulations to continuum equations may guide the development of appropriate coarse-grained equations to model transport phenomena at nanometer scales.

Nanoscale flow, Transport, molecular simulation↗
DOE OSTI2021

Molecular Viscosity and Diffusivity Effects in Transitional and Shock-Driven Mixing Flows

Here, this paper investigates the importance of molecular viscosity and diffusivity for the prediction of transitional and shock-driven mixing flows featuring high and low Reynolds and Mach number regions. Two representative problems are computed with implicit large-eddy simulations using the inviscid Euler equations (EE) and viscous Navier-Stokes equations (NSE): the Taylor-Green vortex at Reynolds number Re = 3000 and initial Mach number Ma = 0.28, and an air- SF 6 -air gas curtain subjected to two shock waves at Ma = 1.2. The primary focus is on differences between NSE and EE predictions due to viscous effects. The outcome of the paper illustrates the advantages of utilizing NSE. In contrast to the EE, where the effective viscosity decreases upon grid refinement, NSE predictions can be assessed for simulations of flows with transition to turbulence at prescribed constant Re. The NSE can achieve better agreement between solutions and reference data, and the results converge upon grid refinement. On the other hand, the EE predictions do not converge with grid refinement, and can only exhibit similarities with the NSE results at coarse grid resolutions. We also investigate the effect of viscous effects on the dynamics of the coherent and turbulent fields, as well as on the mechanisms contributing to the production and diffusion of vorticity. The results show that nominally inviscid calculations can exhibit significantly varying flow dynamics driven by changing effective resolution-dependent Reynolds number, and highlight the role of viscous processes affecting the vorticity field. These tendencies become more pronounced upon grid refinement. The discussion of the results concludes with the assessment of the computational cost of inviscid and viscous computations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Separated reactant mix width across diffusion-dominated and hydrodynamically dominated interface mix in inertial confinement fusion implosions

Diffusion-dominated mix in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is characterized where the majority of the mix occurs in the immediate fuel-shell interface while hydrodynamic-dominated mix pulls shell material from farther away into the central fuel. A thin (150 nm) separated reactants ICF mix platform is highly sensitive to the amount of mix from the first micron of shell-fuel interface. This fine-spatial resolution platform has revealed that material mix in moderate convergence ( CR ∼ 12 ) ICF implosions is dominated by a diffusion mechanism. This technique has now been expanded across a set of OMEGA ICF implosions, observing an increase in mix width and mix amount for cooler, slower, and more compressive implosions. Hydrodynamic simulations require a buoyancy-drag mix model to capture the increasing mix width, suggesting a transition between these two mix mechanisms. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Heavy Quark Diffusion from 2+1 Flavor Lattice QCD with 320 MeV Pion Mass

We present the first calculations of the heavy flavor diffusion coefficient using lattice QCD with light dynamical quarks corresponding to a pion mass of around 320 MeV. For temperatures 195 MeV< 𝑇 <352 MeV, the heavy quark spatial diffusion coefficient is found to be significantly smaller than previous quenched lattice QCD and recent phenomenological estimates. The result implies very fast hydrodynamization of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma created during ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quark Mass Dependence of Heavy Quark Diffusion Coefficient from Lattice QCD

We present the first study of the quark mass dependence of the heavy quark momentum and spatial diffusion coefficients using lattice QCD with light dynamical quarks corresponding to a pion mass of 320 MeV. We find that, for the temperature range 195 MeV < 𝑇 < 293 MeV, the spatial diffusion coefficients of the charm and bottom quarks are smaller than those obtained in phenomenological models that describe the 𝑝 𝑇 spectra and elliptic flow of open heavy flavor hadrons.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Theory of Nonlinear Diffusion with a Physical Gapped Mode

In a system with one conserved charge the charge diffusion is modified by nonlinear self-interactions within an effective field theory (EFT) of diffusive fluctuations. We include the slowest ultraviolet (UV) mode, constructing a UV-regulated EFT. The relaxation time of this UV mode is protected from renormalization, as supported by experimental data in a bad metal system. Furthermore, the retarded density-density Green’s function acquires four branch points, eventually increasing the range of applicability. We discuss the fate of long time tails as well as implications for the quark gluon plasma. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Disorder and diffuse scattering in single-chirality (TaSe 4 ) 2 ⁢I crystals

The quasi-one-dimensional chiral compound (TaSe 4 ) 2 I has been extensively studied as a prime example of a topological Weyl semimetal. Upon crossing its phase transition temperature $T$ CDW ≈263K, (TaSe 4 ) 2 I exhibits incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) modulations described by the well-defined propagation vector ∼(0.05,0.05,0.11), oblique to the TaSe 4 chains. Although optical and transport properties greatly depend on chirality, there is no systematic report about chiral domain size for (TaSe 4 ) 2 I. In this study, our single-crystal scattering refinements reveal a bulk iodine deficiency, and Flack parameter measurements on multiple crystals demonstrate that separate (TaSe 4 ) 2 I crystals have uniform handedness, supported by direct imaging and helicity-dependent terahertz emission spectroscopy. Our single-crystal x-ray scattering and calculated diffraction patterns identify multiple diffuse features and create a real-space picture of the temperature-dependent (TaSe 4 ) 2 I crystal structure. Further, the short-range diffuse features are present at room temperature and decrease in intensity as the CDW modulation develops. These transverse displacements, along with electron pinning from the iodine deficiency, help explain why (TaSe 4 ) 2 I behaves as an electronic semiconductor at temperatures above and below $T$ CDW , despite a metallic band structure calculated from density functional theory of the ideal structure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Physics-constrained superresolution diffusion for six-dimensional phase space diagnostics

Adaptive physics-constrained superresolution diffusion is developed for noninvasive virtual diagnostics of the six-dimensional (6D) phase space density of charged particle beams. An adaptive variational autoencoder embeds initial beam condition images and scalar measurements to a low-dimensional latent space from which a 32 6 pixel 6D tensor representation of the beam's 6D phase space density is generated. Projecting from a 6D tensor generates physically consistent two-dimensional projections. Physics-guided superresolution diffusion transforms low-resolution images of the 6D density to high resolution 256 × 256 pixel images. Unsupervised adaptive latent space tuning enables tracking of time-varying beams without knowledge of time-varying initial conditions. The method is demonstrated with experimental data and multiparticle simulations at the HiRES UED. The general approach is applicable to a wide range of complex dynamic systems evolving in high-dimensional phase space. The method is shown to be robust to distribution shift without retraining. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Single-Crystal Diffuse Neutron Scattering Study of the Dipole-Octupole Quantum Spin-Ice Candidate Ce 2⁢ Zr 2 ⁢O 7 : No Apparent Octupolar Correlations Above 𝑇 = 0.05 K

The insulating magnetic pyrochlore Ce 2 ⁢Zr 2 ⁢O 7 has gained attention as a quantum spin-ice candidate with dipole-octupole character that arises from the crystal-electric-field ground-state doublet for the Ce 3+ Kramers ion. This dipole-octupole character permits both spin-ice phases based on magnetic dipoles and those based on more-exotic octupoles. This work reports low-temperature neutron diffraction measurements on single-crystal Ce 2 ⁢Zr 2⁢ O 7 with 𝑄 coverage both at low 𝑄, where the magnetic form factor for dipoles is near maximal, and at high 𝑄, covering the region where the magnetic form factor for Ce 3+ octupoles is near maximal. This study was motivated by recent powder neutron diffraction studies of other Ce-based dipole-octupole pyrochlores, Ce 2 ⁢Sn 2 ⁢O 7 and Ce 2 ⁢Hf 2 ⁢O 7 , which each showed temperature-dependent diffuse diffraction at high 𝑄, interpreted as arising from octupolar correlations. Our measurements use an optimized single-crystal diffuse scattering instrument that allows us to screen against strong Bragg scattering from Ce 2 ⁢Zr 2 ⁢O 7 . The temperature-difference neutron diffraction reveals a low-𝑄 peak consistent with dipolar spin-ice correlations reported in previous work, and an alternation between positive and negative net intensity at higher 𝑄. These features are consistent with our numerical-linked-cluster calculations using pseudospin interaction parameters previously reported for Ce 2 ⁢Zr 2⁢ O 7 , Ce 2 ⁢Sn 2 ⁢O 7 , and Ce 2 ⁢Hf 2 ⁢O 7 . Importantly, neither the measured data nor any of the NLC calculations show evidence for increased scattering at high 𝑄 resulting from octupolar correlations. We conclude that at the lowest attainable temperature for our measurements (𝑇 = 0.05 K), scattering from octupolar correlations in Ce 2 ⁢Zr 2 ⁢O 7 is not present in the neutron diffraction signal on the level of our observation threshold of around 0.1% of the low-𝑄 dipole scattering. We compare these results to those obtained earlier on powder Ce 2 ⁢Sn 2 ⁢O 7 and Ce 2⁢ Hf 2⁢ O 7 , and to low-energy inelastic neutron scattering from single-crystal Ce 2 ⁢Zr 2 ⁢O 7 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Conditional diffusion machine-learning framework for mapping valence electron distribution from convergent beam electron diffraction

Quantitative convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED) enables determination of aspherical valence electron distributions through refinement of low-order structure factors, which are highly sensitive to chemical bonding and charge density variations. However, conventional quantitative CBED (QCBED) requires solving a highly nonlinear inverse problem with many coupled parameters, and computationally intensive dynamical diffraction calculations, making it time-consuming and difficult to apply to complex systems. More broadly, reconstructing charge density and orbital electron distribution from diffraction data has long been a central challenge in both x-ray and electron crystallography. Here, in this study, we introduce an artificial-intelligence (AI)-based framework that replaces traditional refinement with a data-driven inverse solver. Using a large synthetic CBED dataset generated by Bloch-wave simulations, we train a conditional diffusion model to directly infer crystal structural parameters and multipole density formalism parameters, and hence valence electron distributions, from CBED patterns alone. By learning from forward simulations across realistic parameter space, the model effectively solves the inverse problem. Compared with direct regression approaches, the diffusion-based framework provides posterior parameter distributions for rigorous uncertainty quantification while preserving quantitative fidelity and reducing analysis time by orders of magnitude. By eliminating the need for external single-crystal x-ray diffraction data and complex nonlinear refinement, this approach enables practical, high-throughput, and in situ quantitative CBED, enabling real-time mapping of valence electron distributions and their correlation with functional responses in quantum and energy materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Laser-Induced Spectral Diffusion of T Centers in Silicon Nanophotonic Devices

Color centers in silicon are emerging as spin-photon interfaces operating at telecommunication wavelengths. The nanophotonic device integration of silicon color centers via ion implantation leads to significant optical-linewidth broadening, which makes indistinguishable photon generation challenging. Here, we study the optical spectral diffusion of T centers in a silicon photonic crystal cavity. We investigate the linewidth-broadening timescales and origins by measuring the temporal correlations of the resonance frequency under different conditions. Spectral hole-burning measurements reveal no spectral broadening at short timescales from 102 ns to 725 ns. We probe broadening at longer timescales using a check pulse to herald the T-center frequency and a probe pulse to measure the frequency after a wait time. The optical resonance frequency is stable up to 3 ms in the dark. Laser pulses below the silicon band gap applied during the wait time lead to linewidth broadening. Our observations establish laser-induced processes as the dominant spectral-diffusion mechanism for T centers in devices and inform materials and feedback strategies for indistinguishable photon generation.

Zhang, Xueyue↗
DOE OSTI2021

Detection of diffusion limited oxidation in thermally aged ethylene propylene rubber cable insulation material

The lifetime prediction of electrical cable insulation in nuclear power plants (NPPs) is primarily based on accelerated aging. Polymeric insulation exposed to accelerated aging at high temperatures may demonstrate diffusion limited oxidation (DLO) where oxygen within the material is consumed faster than can be supplied by diffusion from the surrounding air. This situation leads to equilibrium oxidation at the exposed surfaces and limited oxidation away from the surfaces. Therefore, DLO results in a heterogeneously aged material which can lead to underestimation of lifetime for in-service cable insulation. In this study, the presence of inhomogeneous aging caused by DLO was evaluated on cross-sectioned cable insulation specimens made of ethylene propylene rubber (EPR). The studies were performed on thermally aged specimens (165 °C, 1 day and 165 °C, 16 days) using local measurement techniques including nanoindentation, micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) - energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). All the results indicate some degree of heterogenous aging, with 165 °C, 16 days, aging demonstrating highest degree of oxidative degradation on the inside edges presumably caused due to copper catalyzed oxidation.

Pallaka, Madhusudhan Reddy↗
DOE OSTI2019

Multiresolution Localization with Temporal Scanning for Super-Resolution Diffuse Optical Imaging of Fluorescence

A super-resolution optical imaging method is introduced that relies on the distinct temporal information associated with each fluorescent optical reporter to determine its spatial position to high precision with measurements of heavily scattered light. This multiple-emitter localization approach uses a diffusion equation forward model in a cost function, and has the potential to achieve micron-scale spatial resolution through centimeters of tissue. Utilizing some degree of temporal separation for the reporter emissions, position and emission strength are determined using a computationally efficient time stripping multiresolution algorithm. The method circumvents the spatial resolution challenges faced by earlier optical imaging approaches using a diffusion equation forward model, and is promising for in vivo applications. For example, in principle, the approach could be used to localize individual neurons firing throughout a rodent brain, enabling direct imaging of neural network activity.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2019

A General Study of Counterflow Diffusion Flames for Supercritical CO2 Combustion

Abstract A counterflow diffusion flame for supercritical CO2 combustion is investigated at various CO2 dilution levels and pressures by accounting for real gas effects into both thermal and transport properties. The UCF 1.1 24-species mechanism is used to account the chemistry. The nature of important nonpremixed combustion characteristics such as Prandtl number, thermal diffusivity, Lewis number, stoichiometric scalar dissipation rate, flame thickness, and Damköhler number are investigated with respect to CO2 dilution and pressure. The results show that the aforementioned parameters are influenced by both dilution and pressure; the dilution effect is more dominant. Further, the result shows that Prandtl number increases with CO2 dilution and at 90% CO2 dilution, the difference between the Prandtl number of the inlet jets and the flame is minimal. Also, the common assumption of unity Lewis number in the theory and modeling of nonpremixed combustion does not hold reasonable for sCO2 applications due to large difference of Lewis number across the flame and the Lewis number on the flame drop significantly with an increase in the CO2 dilution. An interesting relation between Lewis number and CO2 dilution is observed. The Lewis number of species drops by 15% when increasing the CO2 dilution by 30%. Increasing the CO2 dilution increases both the flow and chemical timescales; however, chemical timescale increases faster than the flow timescales. The magnitudes of the Damköhler number signify the need to consider finite rate chemistry for sCO2 applications. Further, the Damköhler numbers at 90% sCO2 dilution are very small; hence, laminar flamelet assumptions in turbulent combustion simulations are not physically correct for this application. Also, it is observed that the Damköhler number drops nonlinearly with increasing CO2 dilution in the oxidizer stream. This is a very important observation for the operation of sCO2 combustors. Further, the flame thickness is found to increase with CO2 dilution and reduce with pressure.

Engineering↗