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At least 901 records · Page 50

Interfaces of dicationic ionic liquids and graphene: a molecular dynamics simulation study

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the interfacial structure and capacitance of electrical double layers (EDLs) in dicationic ionic liquids (DILs) 1-alkyl-3-dimethylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [Cn(mim)2](BF4)2 (n = 3, 6, 9), with respect to a baseline of a monocationic ionic liquid [C3mim][BF4], near planar carbon electrodes consisting of graphene sheets. The simulation results show that an adsorbed layer with double peaks is exclusively found for [C3(mim)2](BF4)2, while a single peak of the other three cations is observed at the neutral electrode, due to the difference in ion–wall interaction and cation–anion association. As the electrode becomes negatively charged, the second peak of [C3(mim)2]2+ is dramatically reduced, whereas those of [C6(mim)2]2+ and [C9(mim)2]2+ become non-trivial. The capacitance–potential curve of EDLs in DILs manifests a transition from camel shape to bell shape as the cation chain length increases, which is attributed to the enlargement of ion adsorption (per unit charge) on the electrode and the decrease of attractive interaction between ions.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Dynamic re-equilibration controlled multi-step transformations in (Mn, Fe) 2 (P, Si) alloys

In (Mn, Fe) 2 (P, Si) alloys crystallographic first-order phase transformations enable strong coupling of magnetic and entropic properties, potentially leading to high-efficiency energy generation and refrigeration applications. Although hysteresis losses that limit these applications can be reduced through careful control of alloy composition, compositional tuning can also unfavorably influence transformation temperatures and magnetocaloric coupling strength. Hence, exploration of additional processing variables enabling independent control of transformation properties is crucial. In this work, we investigate the role of thermal history as an additional processing variable, exploiting thermally-activated mechanisms to control properties of non-diffusive transformations in (Mn, Fe) 2 (P, Si) alloys. In so doing, we report an unusual transformation-splitting phenomenon following annealing at intermediate times, where a single well-defined magneto-structural transformation evolves towards a multi-step transformation with individual steps occurring at multiple distinct temperatures. Here, on longer annealing at the same temperatures, single-step transformation behavior is recovered. Through additional magnetic and crystallographic characterization, we show that the thermal history-controlled multi-step behavior results from sluggish thermally-activated diffusion. The two-step transformation corresponds to non-equilibrium bimodal composition distributions in the transforming phase, and these develop through a dynamic re-equilibration process as the alloy passes relatively slowly between different thermal equilibria. Together, these results suggest that thermal history primarily controls the transformation properties of (Mn, Fe) 2 (P, Si) alloys indirectly through the composition of one or more transforming phases. Additional investigations are needed to develop thermal history processing for decoupling hysteresis control from other transformation properties.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

High dynamic range CdTe mixed-mode pixel array detector (MM-PAD) for kilohertz imaging of hard x-rays

A hard x-ray, high-speed, high dynamic range scientific x-ray imager is described. The imager is based on the mixed-mode pixel array detector (MM-PAD) readout chip coupled to a 750 µm thick cadmium telluride (CdTe) sensor. The full imager is a 2 × 3 tiled array of MM-PAD sensor/readout chip hybrids. CdTe improves detection for high energy x-rays as compared to silicon sensors, enabling efficient x-ray imaging to extend to >100 keV. The detector is capable of 1 kHz imaging and in-pixel circuitry has been designed to allow for well depths of greater than 4 × 10 6 80 keV x-rays. Here, a charge integrating front-end allows for quantitative measurement of high flux x-ray images beyond the capabilities of photon counting detectors. Detector performance is summarized and experimental measurements are presented.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

PhenoCurve: capturing dynamic phenotype-environment relationships using phenomics data

MOTIVATION: Phenomics is significant for understanding the mechanisms that regulate or influence growth, fitness, and development. Techniques have been developed to conduct high-throughput large-scale phenotyping on animals, plants and humans, aiming to bridge the gap between genomics, gene functions and traits. Although new developments in phenotyping techniques are exciting, we are limited by the tools to analyze fully the massive phenotype data, especially the dynamic relationships between phenotypes and environments. RESULTS: We present a new algorithm called PhenoCurve, a knowledge-based curve fitting algorithm, aiming to identify the complex relationships between phenotypes and environments, thus studying both values and trends of phenomics data. The findings on both real and simulated data showed that PhenoCurve has the best performance among all the six tested methods. Its application to photosynthesis hysteresis pattern identification reveals new functions of core genes that control photosynthetic efficiency in response to varying environmental conditions, which are critical for understanding plant energy storage and improving crop productivity.

Yang, Yifan↗

Dynamical localization in molecular alignment of kicked quantum rotors

The periodically δ -kicked quantum linear rotor is known to experience nonclassical bounded energy growth due to quantum dynamical localization in angular momentum space. We study the effect of random deviations of the kick period in simulations and experiments. This breaks the energy and angular momentum localization and increases the rotational alignment, which is the analog of the onset of Anderson localization in one-dimensional chains.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Electronic Structure, Phonon Dynamical Properties, and CO 2 Capture Capability of Na 2 - x M x Zr O 3 ( M = Li ,K): Density-Functional Calculations and Experimental Validations

The electronic structural and phonon properties of Na 2-α M α ZrO 3 (M ¼ Li,K, α = ¼ 0.0,0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0) are investigated by first-principles density-functional theory and phonon dynamics. The thermodynamic properties of CO 2 absorption and desorption in these materials are also analyzed. With increasing doping level α, the binding energies of Na 2-α Li α ZrO 3 are increased while the binding energies of Na 2-α K α ZrO 3 are decreased to destabilize the structures. The calculated band structures and density of states also show that, at the same doping level, the doping sites play a significant role in the electronic properties. The phonon dispersion results show that few soft modes are found in several doped configurations, which indicates that these structures are less stable than other configurations with different doping levels. From the calculated relationships among the chemical-potential change, the CO 2 pressure, and the temperature of the CO 2 capture reactions by Na 2-α M α ZrO 3 , and from thermogravimetric-analysis experimental measurements, the Li- and K-doped mixtures Na 2-α M α ZrO 3 have lower turnover temperatures (T t ) and higher CO 2 capture capacities, compared to pure Na 2 ZrO 3 . The Li-doped systems have a larger T t decrease than the K-doped systems. When increasing the Li-doping level α, the T t of the corresponding mixture Na 2-α Li α ZrO 3 decreases further to a low-temperature range. However, in the case of K-doped systems Na 2-α K α ZrO 3 , although doping K into Na 2 ZrO 3 initially shifts its T t to lower temperatures, further increases of the K-doping level α causes T t to increase. Therefore, doping Li into Na 2 ZrO 3 has a larger influence on its CO 2 capture performance than the K-doped Na 2 ZrO 3 . Compared with pure solidsM 2 ZrO 3 , after doping with other elements, these doped systems’ CO 2 capture performances are improved.

Duan, Yuhua↗

Dynamic mode decomposition for extrapolating nonequilibrium Green's-function dynamics

The Hartree-Fock generalized Kadanoff-Baym ansatz (HF-GKBA) offers an approximate numerical procedure for propagating the two-time nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF). Here, using the GW self-energy, we compare the HF-GKBA to exact results for a variety of systems with long- and short-range interactions, different two-body interaction strengths, and various nonequilibrium preparations. We find excellent agreement between the HF-GKBA and exact time evolution in models when more realistic long-range exponentially decaying interactions are considered. Furthermore, this agreement persists for long times and for intermediate to strong interaction strengths. In large systems, HF-GKBA becomes prohibitively expensive for long-time evolutions. For this reason, we look at the use of dynamical mode decomposition (DMD) to reconstruct long-time NEGF trajectories from a sample of the initial trajectory. Using no more than 16% of the total time evolution, we reconstruct the total trajectory with high fidelity. Our results show the potential for DMD to be used in conjunction with HF-GKBA to calculate long-time trajectories in large-scale systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Impact of deformation on the atomic structures and dynamics of a Cu-Zr metallic glass: A molecular dynamics study

Despite numerous studies on the atomic structures of Cu-Zr metallic glasses (MGs), their inherent structural ordering, e.g., medium-range order (MRO), remains difficult to describe. Specifically lacking is an understanding of how the MRO responds to deformation and the associated changes in atomic mobility. In this paper, we focus on the impact of deformation on MRO and associated effect on diffusion in a well-relaxed Cu 64.5 Zr 35.5 MG by molecular dynamics simulations. The Cu-Zr MG exhibits a larger elastic limit of 0.035 and a yield stress of 3.5 GPa. The cluster alignment method was employed to characterize the icosahedral short-range order (ISRO) and Bergman-type medium-range order (BMRO) in the models upon loading and unloading. From this analysis, we find the disruption of both ISRO and BMRO occurs as the strain reaches about 0.02, well below the elastic limit. Within the elastic limit, the total fractions of ISRO or BMRO can be fully recovered upon unloading. The diffusivity increases six to eight times in regions undergoing plastic deformation, which is due to the dramatic disruption of the ISRO and BMRO. As a result, by mapping the spatial distributions of the mobile atoms, we demonstrate the increase in atomic mobility is due to the extended regions of disrupted ISRO and more importantly BMRO.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Lines and boxes: Unmasking Dynamical Dark Matter through correlations in the MeV gamma-ray spectrum

Identifying signatures of dark matter at indirect-detection experiments is generally more challenging for scenarios involving non-minimal dark sectors such as Dynamical Dark Matter (DDM) than for scenarios involving a single dark particle. This additional difficulty arises because the partitioning of the total dark-matter abundance across an ensemble of different constituent particles with different masses tends to "smear" the injection spectra of photons and other cosmic-ray particles that are produced via dark-matter annihilation or decay. As a result, the imprints of the dark sector on these cosmic-ray flux spectra typically take the form of continuum features rather than sharp peaks or lines. In this paper, however, we identify an unambiguous signature of non-minimal dark sectors such as DDM which can overcome these issues and potentially be observed at gamma-ray telescopes operating in the MeV range. Finally, we discuss the specific situations in which this signature can arise, and demonstrate that this signature can be exploited in order to significantly enhance our ability to resolve the unique spectral features of DDM and other non-minimal dark sectors at future gamma-ray facilities.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Nonlinear dynamics from the relativistic Boltzmann equation in the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker spacetime

The dissipative dynamics of an expanding massless gas with constant cross section in a spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe is researched. The mathematical problem of solving the full nonlinear relativistic Boltzmann equation is recast into an infinite set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the moments of the one-particle distribution function. Momentum-space resolution is determined by the number of nonhydrodynamic modes included in the moment hierarchy, i.e., by the truncation order. We show that in the FLRW spacetime the nonhydrodynamic modes decouple completely from the hydrodynamic degrees of freedom. This results in the system flowing as an ideal fluid while at the same time producing entropy. The solutions to the nonlinear Boltzmann equation exhibit transient tails of the distribution function with nontrivial momentum dependence. The evolution of this tail is not correctly captured by the relaxation time approximation nor by the linearized Boltzmann equation. Yet, the latter probes additional high-momentum details unresolved by the relaxation time approximation. While the expansion of the FLRW spacetime is slow enough for the system to move towards (and not away from) local thermal equilibrium, it is not sufficiently slow for the system to actually ever reach complete local equilibrium. Equilibration is fastest in the relaxation time approximation, followed, in turn, by kinetic evolution with a linearized and a fully nonlinear Boltzmann collision term.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Gravitational waves from asymmetric oscillon dynamics?

It has been recently suggested that oscillons produced in the early universe from certain asymmetric potentials continue to emit gravitational waves for a number of e-folds of expansion after their formation, leading to potentially detectable gravitational wave signals. We revisit this claim by conducting a convergence study using graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated lattice simulations and show that numerical errors accumulated with time are significant in low-resolution scenarios, or in scenarios where the run-time causes the resolution to drop below the relevant scales in the problem. Our study determines that the dominant, growing high frequency peak of the gravitational wave signals in the fiducial "hill-top model" in [arXiv:1607.01314] is a numerical artifact. This new finding prompts the need for a more careful analysis of the numerical validity of other similar results related to gravitational waves from oscillon dynamics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗