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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 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Density Functional Theory Guided Investigation of Ligand‐Induced Neptunyl‐Neptunyl Interactions

Abstract Actinyl‐actinyl interactions are particularly prevalent for the pentavalent neptunyl cation (Np(V)O 2 ) + where these interactions appear either as a T ‐ or D ‐shape (diamond‐shape). T ‐shaped interactions have been previously identified in high concentration Np(V) solutions containing simple anions (NO 3 − , ClO 4 − , Cl − ) whereas D ‐shaped have only been isolated in the solid‐state in the presence of carboxylate ligands. In this study, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were paired with Raman spectroscopy to evaluate the formation of D ‐shaped interactions in the presence of aliphatic (R=H (formate), CH 3 (acetate), CH 2 CH 3 (propionate)) and aromatic (R=C 6 H 5 (benzoate), C 6 H 4 OH (4‐hydroxybenzoate), C 5 H 4 N (isonicotinate)) carboxylate ligands. DFT studies indicate that the Δ G to form hydrated T ‐ and D ‐shaped forms are not spontaneous but become so with the addition of the carboxylate ligands. Raman spectra of the Np(V) carboxylate solutions contained vibrational modes associated with the D ‐shaped interactions, but spectral changes observed over time indicate a dynamic system. Crystallization experiments from the Np(V) carboxylate systems confirmed the presence of D‐ shaped dimers for the aromatic carboxylates, suggesting that the choice of the anion in solution favors actinyl‐actinyl interactions even at low concentrations (≤20 mM) of Np(V).

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Systems Theory Principles and Complex Systems Engineering Concepts for Protection and Resilience in Critical Infrastructure: Lessons from the Nuclear Sector

Part of the Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21) (PPD 2013) mandate includes evaluating safety, security, and safeguards (or nonproliferation) mechanisms traditionally implemented within the nuclear reactors, materials, and waste sector of critical infrastructure—including a complex, dynamic set of risks and threats within an all-hazards approach. In response, research out of Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) explores the ability of systems theory principles (hierarchy and emergence) and complex systems engineering concepts (multidomain interdependence) to better understand and address these risks and threats. Herein, this Sandia research explores the safety, safeguards, and security risks of three different nuclear sector-related activities—spent nuclear fuel transportation, small modular reactors, and portable nuclear power reactors—to investigate the complex and dynamic risk related to the PPD-21-mandated all-hazards approach. This research showed that a systems-theoretic approach can better identify inter-dependencies, conflicts, gaps, and leverage points across traditional safety, security, and safeguards hazard mitigation strategies in the nuclear reactors, materials, and waste sector. Resulting from this, mitigation strategies from applying systems theoretic principles and complex systems engineering concepts can be (1) designed to better capture interdependencies, (2) implemented to better align with real-world operational uncertainties, and (3) evaluated as a systems-level whole to better identify, characterize, and manage PPD-21's all hazards strategies.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Survey on stochastic distribution systems: A full probability density function control theory with potential applications

Complex systems seen either in general engineering practice or economics are subjected to ever increased uncertainties that are mostly represented as random variables or parameters, and the characteristics of random variables are represented by their probability density functions (PDFs). Controlling their PDFs means to shape their stochastic distributions and in general it would provide a full treatment for system analysis and operational control and optimization. This leads to the development of stochastic distribution control (SDC) systems theory in the past decades, where the original aim of the controller design is to realize a shape control of the distributions of certain random variables in their PDFs sense for some engineering processes. Indeed, once the PDFs of these random variables or parameters are used to describe their distribution characters, the control task is to obtain control signals so that the output PDFs of stochastic systems are made to follow their target PDFs. The subject of SDC was initially originated for non-Gaussian stochastic control systems design but has found a wide spectrum of applications in general systems in terms of data-driven modeling, analysis, signal processing (filtering), data mining via multivariable statistics, decision-making (optimization) for systems subjected to uncertainties and even in economics. In this context, SDC constitutes an effective primer tool for complex system analysis, control and operational optimizations. In this review paper, a detailed survey of the developments on the research of SDC systems will be made together with their wide spectrum applications and future perspectives.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Theory Summary at Strangeness in Quark Matter 2019

This is the theory summary of Strangeness in Quark Matter 2019 conference. Here, results include the state-of-the-art updates to the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram with contributions both from heavy-ion collisions and nuclear astrophysics, studies on the QCD freeze-out lines, and several aspects regarding small systems including collectivity, heavy flavor dynamics, strangeness, and hard probes.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Observable optimization for precision theory: machine learning energy correlators

The practice of collider physics typically involves the marginalization of multi-dimensional collider data to uni-dimensional observables relevant for some physics task. In many cases, such as classification or anomaly detection, the observable can be arbitrarily complicated, such as the output of a neural network. However, for precision measurements, the observable must correspond to something computable systematically beyond the level of current simulation tools. In this work, we demonstrate that precision-theory-compatible observable space exploration can be systematized by using neural simulation-based inference techniques from machine learning. We illustrate this approach by exploring the space of marginalizations of the energy 3-point correlator to optimize sensitivity to the top quark mass. We first learn the energy-weighted probability density from simulation, then search in the space of marginalizations for an optimal triangle shape. Although simulations and machine learning are used in the process of observable optimization, the output is an observable definition which can be then computed to high precision and compared directly to data without any memory of the computations which produced it. We find that the optimal marginalization is isosceles triangles on the sphere with a side ratio approximately $1 : 1 : \sqrt{2}$ (i.e. right triangles) within the set of marginalizations we consider.

Jets and Jet Substructure↗
DOE OSTI2021

Precision Higgs couplings in neutral naturalness models: an effective field theory approach

The Higgs sector in neutral naturalness models provides a portal to the hidden sectors, and thus measurements of Higgs couplings at current and future colliders play a central role in constraining the parameter space of the model. We investigate a class of neutral naturalness models, in which the Higgs boson is a pseudo-Goldstone boson from the universal SO(N)/SO(N - 1) coset structure. Integrating out the radial mode from the spontaneous global symmetry breaking, we obtain various dimension-six operators in the Standard Model effective field theory, and calculate the low energy Higgs effective potential with radiative corrections included. We perform a χ 2 fit to the Higgs coupling precision measurements at current and future colliders and show that the new physics scale could be explored up to 2.3 (2.4) TeV without (with) the Higgs invisible decay channels at future Higgs factories. The limits are comparable to the indirect constraints obtained via electroweak precision measurements.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Holevo information and ensemble theory of gravity

Holevo information is an upper bound for the accessible classical information of an ensemble of quantum states. In this work, we use Holevo information to investigate the ensemble theory interpretation of quantum gravity. We study the Holevo information in random tensor network states, where the random parameters are the random tensors at each vertex. Based on the results in random tensor network models, we propose a conjecture on the holographic bulk formula of the Holevo information in the gravity case. As concrete examples of holographic systems, we compute the Holevo information in the ensemble of thermal states and thermo-field double states in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. The results are consistent with our conjecture.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Right-handed neutrino portal to the hidden sector: active neutrinos and their twins in an F-theory model

We analyze the neutrino phenomenology in an SU(5) F-theory model with both a visible sector and a twin hidden sector. At low energies, the strong and weak scales of the two sectors may differ but the spectrum of states is described by the MSSM (MSSM') in the visible (twin) sectors. What is special about the model is that there are right-handed neutrinos which couple to both sectors via Yukawa couplings. As a result, assuming 3 right-handed neutrinos with a large mass much greater than the weak scale, at tree-level the seesaw mechanism results in 3 massive Majorana neutrinos and 3 massless ones. The massless neutrinos acquire mass via radiative corrections. In our analysis, the massless neutrinos are predominantly active neutrinos, while the massive neutrinos are predominantly sterile neutrinos. We fit the active neutrino masses and mixing angles and discuss the phenomenology of the lightest sterile neutrino. Finally we consider some possible scenarios for cosmology.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Search for new physics in top quark production with additional leptons in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV using effective field theory

Events containing one or more top quarks produced with additional prompt leptons are used to search for new physics within the framework of an effective field theory (EFT). The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb$^{−1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC, collected by the CMS experiment in 2017. The selected events are required to have either two leptons with the same charge or more than two leptons; jets, including identified bottom quark jets, are also required, and the selected events are divided into categories based on the multiplicities of these objects. Sixteen dimension-six operators that can affect processes involving top quarks produced with additional charged leptons are considered in this analysis. Constructed to target EFT effects directly, the analysis applies a novel approach in which the observed yields are parameterized in terms of the Wilson coefficients (WCs) of the EFT operators. A simultaneous fit of the 16 WCs to the data is performed and two standard deviation confidence intervals for the WCs are extracted; the standard model expectations for the WC values are within these intervals for all of the WCs probed.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

On the equivalence between SRS and PCO formulations of superstring perturbation theory

We establish the equivalence between two formulations of superstring perturbation theory, one based on integration over the supermoduli space of super Riemann surfaces (SRS), the other based on integration over the bosonic moduli space with insertions of picture changing operators (PCO) on the worldsheet and the vertical integration prescription, by showing how the latter arises from a specific construction of the supermoduli integration contour.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

On small black holes in string theory

Abstract We discuss the worldsheet sigma-model whose target space is thed+1 dimensional Euclidean Schwarzschild black hole. We argue that in the limit where the Hawking temperature of the black hole,T, approaches the Hagedorn temperature,T H , it can be described in terms of a generalized version of the Horowitz-Polchinski effective theory. Ford≥ 6, where the Horowitz-Polchinski EFT [1, 2] does not have suitable solutions, the modified effective Lagrangian allows one to study the black hole CFT in an expansion in powers ofd− 6 andT H −T. AtT=T H , the sigma model is non-trivial for alld> 6. It exhibits an enhanced SU(2) symmetry, and is described by a non-abelian Thirring model with a radially dependent coupling. The resulting picture connects naturally to the results of [3–5], that relate Schwarzschild black holes in flat spacetime at largedto the two dimensional black hole. We also discuss an analogous open string system, in which the black hole is replaced by a system of two separated D-branes connected by a throat. In this system, the asymptotic separation of the branes plays the role of the inverse temperature. At the critical separation, the system is described by a Kondo-type model, which again exhibits an enhanced SU(2) symmetry. At larged, the brane system gives rise to the hairpin brane [6].

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2025

Constraints on standard model effective field theory for a Higgs boson produced in association with W or Z bosons in the H → $\textrm{b}\overline{\textrm{b}}$ decay channel in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

A standard model effective field theory (SMEFT) analysis with dimension-six operators probing nonresonant new physics effects is performed in the Higgs-strahlung process, where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a W or Z boson, in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The final states in which the W or Z boson decays leptonically and the Higgs boson decays to a pair of bottom quarks are considered. The analyzed data were collected by the CMS experiment between 2016 and 2018 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb −1 . An approach designed to simultaneously optimize the sensitivity to Wilson coefficients of multiple SMEFT operators is employed. Likelihood scans as functions of the Wilson coefficients that carry SMEFT sensitivity in this final state are performed for different expansions in SMEFT. The results are consistent with the predictions of the standard model.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

An effective field theory approach to quarkonium at small transverse momentum

In this work we apply effective field theory (EFT) to observables in quarkonium production and decay that are sensitive to soft gluon radiation, in particular measurements that are sensitive to small transverse momentum. Within the EFT framework we study χQ decay to light quarks followed by the fragmentation of those quarks to light hadrons. We derive a factorization theorem that involves transverse momentum distribution (TMD) fragmentation functions and new quarkonium TMD shape functions. We derive renormalization group equations, both in rapidity and virtuality, which are used to evolve the different terms in the factorization theorem to resum large logarithms. This theoretical framework will provide a systematic treatment of quarkonium production and decay processes in TMD sensitive measurements.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Measurement of the inclusive and differential $t\overline{t}γ$ cross sections in the dilepton channel and effective field theory interpretation in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

The production cross section of a top quark pair in association with a photon is measured in proton-proton collisions in the decay channel with two oppositely charged leptons (e ± μ ∓ , e + e - , or μ + μ - ). The measurement is performed using 138 fb -1 of proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at √s = 13 TeV during the 2016–2018 data-taking period of the CERN LHC. A fiducial phase space is defined such that photons radiated by initial-state particles, top quarks, or any of their decay products are included. An inclusive cross section of 175.2 ± 2.5(stat) ± 6.3(syst) fb is measured in a signal region with at least one jet coming from the hadronization of a bottom quark and exactly one photon with transverse momentum above 20 GeV. Differential cross sections are measured as functions of several kinematic observables of the photon, leptons, and jets, and compared to standard model predictions. The measurements are also interpreted in the standard model effective field theory framework, and limits are found on the relevant Wilson coefficients from these results alone and in combination with a previous CMS measurement of the tt¯γ production process using the lepton+jets final state.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multi-instanton calculus in $c$ = 1 string theory

We formulate a strategy for computing the complete set of non-perturbative corrections to closed string scattering in c = 1 string theory from the worldsheet per spective. This requires taking into account the effect of multiple ZZ-instantons, including higher instantons constructed from ZZ boundary conditions of type (m, 1), with a careful treatment of the measure and contour in the integration over the instanton moduli space. The only a priori ambiguity in our prescription is a normalization constant $\mathcal{N}_m$ that ap pears in the integration measure for the (m, 1)-type ZZ instanton, at each positive integer m. We investigate leading corrections to the closed string reflection amplitude at the n instanton level, i.e. of order e -n/g s , and find striking agreement with our recent proposal on the non-perturbative completion of the dual matrix quantum mechanics, which in turn fixes $\mathcal{N}_m$ for all m.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Jet thermalization in QCD kinetic theory

We perform numerical studies in the framework of QCD kinetic theory to investigate the energy and angular profiles of a high energy parton — as a proxy for a jet produced in heavy ion collisions — passing through a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). We find that the fast parton loses energy to the plasma mainly via a radiative turbulent quark and gluon cascade that transports energy locally from the jet down to the temperature scale where dissipation takes place. In this first stage of the system time evolution, the angular structure of the turbulent cascade is found to be relatively collimated. However, when the lost energy reaches the plasma temperature it is rapidly transported to large angles w.r.t. the jet axis and thermalizes. We investigate the contribution of the soft jet constituents to the total jet energy. We show that for jet opening angles of about 0.3 rad or smaller, the effect is negligible. Conversely, larger opening angles become more and more sensitive to the thermal component of the jet and thus to medium response. Our result showcases the importance of the jet cone size in mitigating or enhancing the details of dissipation in jet quenching observables.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The S-matrix of 2D type 0B string theory. Part II. D-instanton effects

We study the effect of D-instantons on closed string scattering amplitudes in the two-dimensional type 0B string theory from the worldsheet perspective. We find that the contribution from a pair of D-instanton and anti-D-instanton to the closed string reflection amplitude, with a suitable contour prescription for the integration over the D-instanton moduli space, agrees with the corresponding leading non-perturbative corrections in the proposed dual matrix quantum mechanics. This analysis is further extended to thermal observables defined at finite temperature. The infrared divergence in charged processes is understood through the measure factor for charged D-instantons, and can be treated with spacetime dimensional regularization.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗