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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2018

Meal Replacement Mass Reduction Integration and Acceptability Study

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and future exploration missions are mass constrained; therefore we are challenged to reduce the mass of the food system by 10% while maintaining safety, nutrition, and acceptability to support crew health and performance for exploration missions. Meal replacement with nutritionally balanced, 700-900 calorie bars was identified as a method to reduce mass. However, commercially available products do not meet the requirements for a meal replacement in the spaceflight food system. The purpose of this task was to develop a variety of nutritionally balanced, high quality, breakfast replacement bars, which enable a 10% food mass savings. To date, six nutrient-dense meal replacement bars have been developed, all of which meet spaceflight nutritional, microbiological, sensory, and shelf-life requirements. The four highest scoring bars were evaluated based on final product sensory acceptability, nutritional stability, qualitative stability of analytical measurements (i.e. color and texture), and microbiological compliance over a period of two years to predict long-term acceptability. All bars maintained overall acceptability throughout the first year of storage, despite minor changes in color and texture. However, added vitamins C, B1, and B9 degraded rapidly in fortified samples of Banana Nut bars, indicating the need for additional development. In addition to shelf-life testing, four bar varieties were evaluated in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), campaign 3, to assess the frequency with which actual meal replacement options may be implemented, based on impact to satiety and psychosocial measurements. Crewmembers (n=16) were asked to consume meal replacement bars every day for the first fifteen days of the mission and every three days for the second half of the mission. Daily surveys assessed the crew's responses to bar acceptability, mood, food fatigue and perceived stress. Preliminary results indicate that the majority of crew members were noncompliant with daily meal replacement during the first half of the mission. Several crew members chose to forgo the meal, resulting in caloric deficits that were higher on skipped-bar days. Body mass loss was significant throughout the mission. Although there was no significant difference in body mass loss overall between the first half and second half of the mission, a higher number of individual crew members lost more body mass in the first half of the mission. Analysis is still ongoing, but current trends suggest that daily involuntary meal replacement can lead to greater individual impacts on body mass and psychological factors, while meal replacement on a more limited basis may be acceptable to most crew for missions up to 30 days. This data should be considered in Orion mass trades with health and human performance.

Sirmons, T.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Tidal Disruptions of Main-sequence Stars. II. Simulation Methodology and Stellar Mass Dependence of the Character of Full Tidal Disruptions

This is the second in a series of papers presenting the results of fully general relativistic simulations of stellar tidal disruptions in which the stars' initial states are realistic main-sequence models. In the first paper, we gave an overview of this program and discussed the principal observational implications of our work. Here we describe our calculational method, which includes a new method for calculating fully relativistic stellar self-gravity, and provide details about the outcomes of full disruptions, focusing on the stellar mass dependence of the outcomes for a black hole of mass 106 M(⊙). We consider eight different stellar masses, from 0.15 M(⊙) to 10 M(⊙). We find that, relative to the traditional order-of-magnitude estimate r t, the physical tidal radius of low-mass stars (M(*) ≲ 0.7 M(⊙)) is larger by tens of percent, while for high-mass stars (M(*) ≲ 1 M(⊙)) it is smaller by a factor of 2–2.5. The traditional estimate of the range of energies found in the debris is ≈1.4× too large for low-mass stars, but is a factor of ~2 too small for high-mass stars; in addition, the energy distribution for high-mass stars has significant wings. For all stars undergoing tidal encounters, we find that mass loss continues for many stellar vibration times because the black hole's tidal gravity competes with the instantaneous stellar gravity at the star's surface until the star has reached a distance from the black hole ~O(10)r(t).

Taeho Ryu↗
NASA NTRS2022

Study of the Mass-loss Rate from the Sun

We investigate the temporal evolution of the yearly total mass-loss rate (YTMLR) from the Sun through coronal mass ejections (CMEs) over solar cycles 23 and 24. The mass determination of CMEs can be subject to significant uncertainty. To minimize this problem, we have used extensive statistical analysis. For this purpose, we employed data included in the Coordinated Data Analysis Workshop (CDAW) catalog. We estimated the contributions to mass loss from the Sun from different subsamples of CMEs (selected on the basis of their masses, angular widths, and position angles). The temporal variations of the YTMLR were compared to those of the sunspot number (SSN), X-ray flare flux, and the Disturbance Storm Time (Dst) index. We show that the CME mass included in the CDAW catalog reflects with high accuracy the actual mass-loss rate from the Sun through CMEs. Additionally, it is shown that the CME mass distribution in the log-lin representation reflects the Gaussian distribution very well. This means that the CMEs included in the CDAW catalog form one coherent population of ejections that have been correctly identified. Unlike the CME occurrence rate, it turns out that the YTMLR is a very good indicator of solar activity (e.g., SSN) and space weather (e.g., Dst index) consequences. These results are very important, since the YTMLR, unlike the mass loss through solar wind, significantly depends on solar cycles.

the sun↗
DOE OSTI2013

Justification to Disregard U-234 Mass in Certain Uranium Systems

The ANSI/ANS-8.1-1998 Standard regarding nuclear criticality safety in operations with fissionable material outside reactors states certain guidelines for dealing with uranium isotopes when setting mass limits. In ANSI/ANS-8.1-1998 235 U limits apply to mixtures “with 234 U, 236 U, or 238 U, provided that 234 U is considered to be 235U” in computing mass. In this evaluation calculations coupled with benchmark data show a superior way of handling the other common uranium isotopes when setting limits for 235 U. Currently 234 U mass must be considered as 235 U mass in order to account for the fact 234 U has a k ∞ = 1.70 meaning criticality can be reached with a finite amount of 234 U mass. 236 U and 238 U have k ∞ ’s equal to 0.71 and 0.31 meaning they remain subcritical in infinite amounts and thus no mass limits are required. In fresh uranium (un-irradiated or reprocessed) enriched to 94% 235 U by weight, bounding ratios of 234 U, 236U, and 238U exist due to the enrichment process. Utilizing these ratios it is shown that 234 U accounts for less than 0.20 of the total mass fraction of 234 U, 236 U, and 238 U and the remaining 0.80 mass fraction is in a ratio of at least 1:1 for 238 U: 236 U. Creating models conservatively based on these two material limits, the resulting k ∞ = 0.91367 ± 0.00208 suggests a mass limit for 234 U is no longer required.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Investigation of reactivity differences in cylinder arrays using various fill geometries with constant mass

The factors affecting criticality safety are well understood by the nuclear engineering industry. Array configurations present multiple challenges to the industry due to the competing effects that are present in array systems - most notably interaction/spacing, moderation, and reflection. However, even the fissile mass geometry has been shown to complicate array systems. This attribute is also seen in filled UF{sub 6} cylinders, thus making it important to understand the reactivity in cylinder arrays. The process of filling UF{sub 6} cylinders results in non-uniform cylinder fill geometries. Due to the non-uniform fill, it becomes necessary to model a specific UF{sub 6} mass, in cylinder arrays, in different ways to ensure understanding of the reactivity of the system. Some of the ways to model the UF{sub 6} include: spreading the UF{sub 6} mass across the cylinder, all UF{sub 6} on the bottom of the cylinder, UF{sub 6} consolidated in the middle of the cylinder, and UF{sub 6} consolidated on the outside of the cylinder. Spreading the UF{sub 6} mass across the cylinder is accomplished by adjusting the UF{sub 6} density to achieve the given UF{sub 6} mass, whereas all the other scenarios use a fixed UF{sub 6} density with varying thicknesses to achieve the given UF{sub 6} mass. A different modeling approach, which helps to capture mixture effects, is to model the UF{sub 6} mass using the nominal UF{sub 6} density along with the void space for a given mass and distribute the mixture throughout the entire cylinder. This paper compares the reactivity of a cylinder array at a constant mass value using three different modeling techniques - completely filling the cylinder using a reduced UF{sub 6} density, filling the cylinder with nominal UF{sub 6} density and void space throughout the cylinder (same amount of void space as in the last technique), and all UF{sub 6} in the bottom of the cylinder (all void space on top of UF{sub 6}). The results demonstrate that completely filling the cylinder produces the most reactive UF{sub 6} cylinder array system. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Atalante research facility new mass limits in a unit containing plutonium and minor actinides - 14402

ATALANTE, located in Marcoule, is one of the main Nuclear Facilities of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). This facility is mainly dedicated to research and development for nuclear energy related to the back end of the fuel cycle: spent fuel and final waste management. It is a large research complex housing chemistry and analytical laboratories and shielded cells (240 glove boxes and 11 shielded cells), equipped for basic studies through to demonstration experiments. Within the facility, one unit can contain plutonium and curium at the same time. In this case, nuclear criticality safety is achieved by exercising control over mass. A subcritical mass limit is defined for plutonium (280 g for {sup 239}Pu) and an exemption mass limit (3 g for {sup 245}Cm) is used for the actinide. In order to increase the maximum mass (in particular {sup 245}Cm) which can be handled in the unit, new mass control limits were studied, based on control over the sum of the mass ratio to the upper subcritical mass, noted m{sub lim}, for each nuclide (350 g for {sup 239}Pu; 34.8 g or 23 g for {sup 245}Cm) as shown in equation (1) below. m({sup 239}Pu)/ m{sub lim}({sup 239}Pu)+ m({sup 245}Cm)/m{sub lim}({sup 245}Cm)≤1 (1) To validate this criticality safety control method, a study was conducted to demonstrate that, for different masses of {sup 239}Pu and {sup 245}Cm meeting equation (1), the calculated effective multiplication factor is always lower than the effective multiplication factor corresponding to a sphere of 350 g of pure {sup 239}Pu, moderated, with 20 cm water reflection. The two pseudo fissile media are: - metallic plutonium (100% {sup 239}Pu, density 19.86), moderated with water, - metallic curium (100% {sup 245}Cm, density 13.566), moderated with water. The calculation model is a sphere of {sup 245}Cm metal positioned in a sphere of {sup 239}Pu metal, with optimum moderation for each fissile material, and a full water reflection (20 cm). The results show that, under certain conditions, the effective multiplication factor of the mixture can be higher than the effective multiplication factor of each pure fissile material when using the upper subcritical mass of 34.8 g for {sup 245}Cm. When using 23 g of {sup 245}Cm, the k{sub eff} of the mixture is always lower than the k{sub eff} of pure {sup 239}Pu. These calculations enable the safety documentation to be changed by introducing a new process operational procedure, based on equation (1). This change in procedure allows the operator to work with a larger quantity of curium in the unit. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2013

ON THE CLUSTER PHYSICS OF SUNYAEV-ZEL'DOVICH AND X-RAY SURVEYS. III. MEASUREMENT BIASES AND COSMOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF GAS AND STELLAR MASS FRACTIONS

Gas masses tightly correlate with the virial masses of galaxy clusters, allowing for a precise determination of cosmological parameters by means of X-ray surveys. However, the gas mass fractions (f{sub gas}) at the virial radius (R{sub 200}) derived from recent Suzaku observations are considerably larger than the cosmic mean, calling into question the accuracy of cosmological parameters. Here, we use a large suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to study measurement biases of f{sub gas}. We employ different variants of simulated physics, including radiative gas physics, star formation, and thermal feedback by active galactic nuclei, which we show is able to arrest overcooling and to result in constant stellar mass fractions for redshifts z < 1. Computing the mass profiles in 48 angular cones, we find anisotropic gas and total mass distributions that imply an angular variance of f{sub gas} at the level of 30%. This anisotropy originates from the recent formation epoch of clusters and from the strong internal baryon-to-dark-matter density bias. In the most extreme cones, f{sub gas} can be biased high by a factor of two at R{sub 200} in massive clusters (M{sub 200} ∼ 10{sup 15} M{sub ☉}), thereby providing an explanation for high f{sub gas} measurements by Suzaku. While projection lowers this factor, there are other measurement biases that may (partially) compensate. At R{sub 200}, f{sub gas} is biased high by 20% when assuming hydrostatic equilibrium masses, i.e., neglecting the kinetic pressure, and by another ∼10%-20% due to the presence of density clumping. At larger radii, both measurement biases increase dramatically. While the cluster sample variance of the true f{sub gas} decreases to a level of 5% at R{sub 200}, the sample variance that includes both measurement biases remains fairly constant at the level of 10%-20%. The constant redshift evolution of f{sub gas} within R{sub 500} for massive clusters is encouraging for using gas masses to derive cosmological parameters, provided the measurement biases can be controlled.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

3D-HST+CANDELS: The evolution of the galaxy size-mass distribution since z = 3

Spectroscopic+photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift range 0 < z < 3. Separating early- and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and we find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, R {sub eff}∝(1 + z){sup –1.48}, and moderate evolution for the late-type population, R {sub eff}∝(1 + z){sup –0.75}. The large sample size and dynamic range in both galaxy mass and redshift, in combination with the high fidelity of our measurements due to the extensive use of spectroscopic data, not only fortify previous results but also enable us to probe beyond simple average galaxy size measurements. At all redshifts the slope of the size-mass relation is shallow, R{sub eff}∝M{sub ∗}{sup 0.22}, for late-type galaxies with stellar mass >3 × 10{sup 9} M {sub ☉}, and steep, R{sub eff}∝M{sub ∗}{sup 0.75}, for early-type galaxies with stellar mass >2 × 10{sup 10} M {sub ☉}. The intrinsic scatter is ≲0.2 dex for all galaxy types and redshifts. For late-type galaxies, the logarithmic size distribution is not symmetric but is skewed toward small sizes: at all redshifts and masses, a tail of small late-type galaxies exists that overlaps in size with the early-type galaxy population. The number density of massive (∼10{sup 11} M {sub ☉}), compact (R {sub eff} < 2 kpc) early-type galaxies increases from z = 3 to z = 1.5-2 and then strongly decreases at later cosmic times.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

The NANOGrav nine-year data set: mass and geometric measurements of binary millisecond pulsars

We analyze 24 binary radio pulsars in the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) nine-year data set. We make 14 significant measurements of the Shapiro delay, including new detections in four pulsar-binary systems (PSRs J0613−0200, J2017+0603, J2302+4442, and J2317+1439), and derive estimates of the binary-component masses and orbital inclination for these MSP-binary systems. We find a wide range of binary pulsar masses, with values as low as m{sub p}=1.18{sub −0.09}{sup +0.10} M{sub ⊙} for PSR J1918−0642 and as high as m{sub p}=1.928{sub −0.017}{sup +0.017} M{sub ⊙} for PSR J1614−2230 (both 68.3% credibility). We make an improved measurement of the Shapiro timing delay in the PSR J1918−0642 and J2043+1711 systems, measuring the pulsar mass in the latter system to be m{sub p}=1.41{sub −0.18}{sup +0.21} M{sub ⊙} (68.3% credibility) for the first time. We measure secular variations of one or more orbital elements in many systems, and use these measurements to further constrain our estimates of the pulsar and companion masses whenever possible. In particular, we used the observed Shapiro delay and periastron advance due to relativistic gravity in the PSR J1903+0327 system to derive a pulsar mass of m{sub p}=1.65{sub −0.02}{sup +0.02} M{sub ⊙} (68.3% credibility). We discuss the implications that our mass measurements have on the overall neutron-star mass distribution, and on the “mass/orbital-period” correlation due to extended mass transfer.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

REMOVING BIASES IN RESOLVED STELLAR MASS MAPS OF GALAXY DISKS THROUGH SUCCESSIVE BAYESIAN MARGINALIZATION

Stellar masses of galaxies are frequently obtained by fitting stellar population synthesis models to galaxy photometry or spectra. The state of the art method resolves spatial structures within a galaxy to assess the total stellar mass content. In comparison to unresolved studies, resolved methods yield, on average, higher fractions of stellar mass for galaxies. In this work we improve the current method in order to mitigate a bias related to the resolved spatial distribution derived for the mass. The bias consists in an apparent filamentary mass distribution and a spatial coincidence between mass structures and dust lanes near spiral arms. The improved method is based on iterative Bayesian marginalization, through a new algorithm we have named Bayesian Successive Priors (BSP). We have applied BSP to M51 and to a pilot sample of 90 spiral galaxies from the Ohio State University Bright Spiral Galaxy Survey. By quantitatively comparing both methods, we find that the average fraction of stellar mass missed by unresolved studies is only half what previously thought. In contrast with the previous method, the output BSP mass maps bear a better resemblance to near-infrared images.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Chapter 14: Heat and Mass Transfer

Fluidized beds are used in a variety of processes due to their excellent heat and mass transfer properties. Heat transfer in fluidized beds can refer to interphase heat transfer, or more commonly to bed-to-surface heat transfer. Heat transfer between bubble phase and dense phase can be characterized by an interphase heat transfer coefficient. This chapter elaborates the derivation of the interphase heat transfer coefficient by an analogy to mass transfer. Mass transfer in fluidized beds usually refers to gas-to-particle mass transfer, or interphase mass transfer, where a component migrates from particles to fluids, or vice versa. The chapter describes the two major components of the interphase mass transfer: particle and fluid mass transfer in the dense phase; and bubble- to dense-phase mass transfer.

CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Emergent Newtonian dynamics and the geometric origin of mass

We consider a set of macroscopic (classical) degrees of freedom coupled to an arbitrary many-particle Hamiltonian system, quantum or classical. These degrees of freedom can represent positions of objects in space, their angles, shape distortions, magnetization, currents and so on. Expanding their dynamics near the adiabatic limit we find the emergent Newton’s second law (force is equal to the mass times acceleration) with an extra dissipative term. In systems with broken time reversal symmetry there is an additional Coriolis type force proportional to the Berry curvature. We give the microscopic definition of the mass tensor. The mass tensor is related to the non-equal time correlation functions in equilibrium and describes the dressing of the slow degree of freedom by virtual excitations in the system. In the classical (high-temperature) limit the mass tensor is given by the product of the inverse temperature and the Fubini–Study metric tensor determining the natural distance between the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian. For free particles this result reduces to the conventional definition of mass. This finding shows that any mass, at least in the classical limit, emerges from the distortions of the Hilbert space highlighting deep connections between any motion (not necessarily in space) and geometry. We illustrate our findings with four simple examples. -- Highlights: •Derive the macroscopic Newton’s equation from the microscopic many-particle Schrödinger’s equation. •Deep connection between geometry and dynamics. •Geometrical interpretation of the mass of macroscopic object as deformation of Hilbert space. •Microscopic expression for mass and friction tensors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Ambiguities and subtleties in fermion mass terms in practical quantum field theory

This is a review on structure of the fermion mass terms in quantum field theory, under the perspective of its practical applications in the real physics of Nature—specifically, we discuss fermion mass structure in the Standard Model of high energy physics, which successfully describes fundamental physics up to the TeV scale. The review is meant to be pedagogical, with detailed mathematics presented beyond the level one can find any easily in the textbooks. The discussions, however, bring up important subtleties and ambiguities about the subject that may be less than well appreciated. In fact, the naive perspective of the nature and masses of fermions as one would easily drawn from the presentations of fermion fields and their equations of motion from a typical textbook on quantum field theory leads to some confusing or even wrong statements which we clarify here. In particular, we illustrate clearly that a Dirac fermion mass eigenstate is mathematically equivalent to two degenerated Majorana fermion mass eigenstates at least as long as the mass terms are concerned. There are further ambiguities and subtleties in the exact description of the eigenstate(s). Especially, for the case of neutrinos, the use of the Dirac or Majorana terminology may be mostly a matter of choice. The common usage of such terminology is rather based on the broken SU(2) charges of the related Weyl spinors hence conventional and may not be unambiguously extended to cover more complicate models. - Highlights: • Structure of fermion mass terms in practical quantum field theory is reviewed. • Important subtleties and ambiguities on the subject are clarified. • A mass eigenstate Dirac fermion and two degenerated Majorana ones are equivalent. • The conventional meaning of such terminology for neutrinos is critically discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Co-registered Topographical, Band Excitation Nanomechanical, and Mass Spectral Imaging Using a Combined Atomic Force Microscopy/Mass Spectrometry Platform

The advancement of a hybrid atomic force microscopy/mass spectrometry imaging platform demonstrating for the first time co-registered topographical, band excitation nanomechanical, and mass spectral imaging of a surface using a single instrument is reported. The mass spectrometry-based chemical imaging component of the system utilized nanothermal analysis probes for pyrolytic surface sampling followed by atmospheric pressure chemical ionization of the gas phase species produced with subsequent mass analysis. We discuss the basic instrumental setup and operation and the multimodal imaging capability and utility are demonstrated using a phase separated polystyrene/poly(2-vinylpyridine) polymer blend thin film. The topography and band excitation images showed that the valley and plateau regions of the thin film surface were comprised primarily of one of the two polymers in the blend with the mass spectral chemical image used to definitively identify the polymers at the different locations. Data point pixel size for the topography (390 nm x 390 nm), band excitation (781 nm x 781 nm), mass spectrometry (690 nm x 500 nm) images was comparable and submicrometer in all three cases, but the data voxel size for each of the three images was dramatically different. The topography image was uniquely a surface measurement, whereas the band excitation image included information from an estimated 10 nm deep into the sample and the mass spectral image from 110-140 nm in depth. Moreover, because of this dramatic sampling depth variance, some differences in the band excitation and mass spectrometry chemical images were observed and were interpreted to indicate the presence of a buried interface in the sample. The spatial resolution of the mass spectral image was estimated to be between 1.5 m 2.6 m, based on the ability to distinguish surface features in that image that were also observed in the other images.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Play the heavy: An effective mass study for α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} and corundum oxides

Iron(III) oxide (α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}) is a known water splitting catalyst commonly used in photoelectrochemical cells. These cells are severely impaired by poor conductivity in α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}, and resolving the conductivity issue is therefore crucial. One of the most intrinsic properties of matter, which governs conductivity, is the carrier effective masses. In this work, we investigate the carrier effective masses in α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} and other corundum oxides, including Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3}, Ga{sub 2}O{sub 3}, and In{sub 2}O{sub 3} with different theoretical constructs: density functional theory (DFT), DFT+U, hybrid DFT, and G{sub 0}W{sub 0}. We find DFT sufficiently describes the carrier masses and a quasi-particle theory is only required for accuracies better than 30% for the conduction band effective mass. Additionally, we compare the density of states (DOS) and band effective mass approximations and conclude the DOS effective mass provides poor results whenever the band structure is anisotropic. We find that the charge carriers in Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} “play the heavy” since they have large effective masses that reduce conductivity and device efficiency. Finally, we conclude that the less heavy electron effective masses of other corundum oxides studied relative to Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} could contribute to efficiency improvements in Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} upon Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, Ga{sub 2}O{sub 3}, and In{sub 2}O{sub 3} coverage.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Neutron Multiplicity Counting Moments for Fissile Mass Estimation in Scatter-Based Neutron Detection Systems

Neutron multiplicity counting (NMC) techniques are widely used for nuclear materials accountability and international safeguards applications to quantitatively evaluate characteristic properties pertaining to fissile material. Mathematical models for NMC moments have been previously derived for systems that use capture-based detectors; however, these models are not applicable when scatter-based detectors are used because of “neutron cross talk.” Neutron cross talk occurs when a single neutron scatters and deposits energy above threshold into multiple detectors causing spurious increase in multiplicity counts; this, in turn, has caused fissile mass to be overestimated when not treated. In this paper, we propose new mathematical models derived from point kinetics to correct for neutron cross-talk effects up to any arbitrary order N, where N denotes the maximum number of counts a single neutron can cause. The new models were used to estimate the fissile mass of plutonium metal and oxide samples with effective 240 Pu mass ranging from 2.5 to 250 g. The adequacy of the models was confirmed using simulations of a conceptual scatter-based neutron multiplicity counter (e.g., organic scintillators) using MCNPX v2.7e with the PoliMi fission event generating extension. The fissile mass estimates with no correction for neutron cross-talk events yielded an average relative deviation from the true 240 Pu eff mass of 55.94% and 84.56% for metal and oxide samples, respectively. When neutron cross-talk events of order N = 2 are included in the model, the fissile mass estimates yielded an average relative deviation of 11.89% for metal and 13.21% for oxide samples. Accounting for neutron cross-talk events of order N = 3 resulted in fissile mass estimates with an average relative deviation of 9.58% and 10.51% for metal and oxide samples, respectively. These mass estimates were compared to a reference case (i.e., no neutron crosstalk effects) that yielded an average relative deviation of 6.81% and 4.77% for metal and oxide samples, respectively. In conclusion, the discrepancy between the estimates from the proposed model and the reference case is attributed to the assumed value of N, which sets a finite upper bound on the order of cross-talk events the model treats (i.e., the model for N = 3 assumes that a neutron will never cause more than three counts).

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE INFLUENCE OF DARK MATTER HALOS ON DYNAMICAL ESTIMATES OF BLACK HOLE MASS: 10 NEW MEASUREMENTS FOR HIGH-{sigma} EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES

Adaptive optics assisted SINFONI observations of the central regions of 10 early-type galaxies are presented. Based primarily on the SINFONI kinematics, 10 black hole (BH) masses occupying the high-mass regime of the M{sub BH}-{sigma} relation are derived using three-integral Schwarzschild models. The effect of dark matter (DM) inclusion on the BH mass is explored. The omission of a DM halo in the model results in a higher stellar mass-to-light ratio, especially when extensive kinematic data are used in the model. However, when the diameter of the sphere of influence-computed using the BH mass derived without a dark halo-is at least 10 times the point-spread function FWHM during the observations, it is safe to exclude a DM component in the dynamical modeling, i.e., the change in BH mass is negligible. When the spatial resolution is marginal, restricting the mass-to-light ratio to the right value returns the correct M{sub BH} although a dark halo is not present in the model. Compared to the M{sub BH}-{sigma} and M{sub BH}-L relations of McConnell et al., the 10 BHs are all more massive than expected from the luminosities and 7 BH masses are higher than expected from the stellar velocity dispersions of the host bulges. Using new fitted relations, which include the 10 galaxies, we find that the space density of the most massive BHs (M{sub BH} {approx}> 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun }) estimated from the M{sub BH}-L relation is higher than the estimate based on the M{sub BH}-{sigma} relation and the latter is higher than model predictions based on quasar counts, each by about an order of magnitude.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE METALLICITY EVOLUTION OF LOW-MASS GALAXIES: NEW CONSTRAINTS AT INTERMEDIATE REDSHIFT

We present abundance measurements from 26 emission-line-selected galaxies at z {approx} 0.6-0.7. By reaching stellar masses as low as 10{sup 8} M{sub Sun }, these observations provide the first measurement of the intermediate-redshift mass-metallicity (MZ) relation below 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun }. For the portion of our sample above M > 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun} (8/26 galaxies), we find good agreement with previous measurements of the intermediate-redshift MZ relation. Compared to the local relation, we measure an evolution that corresponds to a 0.12 dex decrease in oxygen abundances at intermediate redshifts. This result confirms the trend that metallicity evolution becomes more significant toward lower stellar masses, in keeping with a downsizing scenario where low-mass galaxies evolve onto the local MZ relation at later cosmic times. We show that these galaxies follow the local fundamental metallicity relation, where objects with higher specific (mass-normalized) star formation rates (SFRs) have lower metallicities. Furthermore, we show that the galaxies in our sample lie on an extrapolation of the SFR-M{sub *} relation (the star-forming main sequence). Leveraging the MZ relation and star-forming main sequence (and combining our data with higher-mass measurements from the literature), we test models that assume an equilibrium between mass inflow, outflow, and star formation. We find that outflows are required to describe the data. By comparing different outflow prescriptions, we show that momentum, driven winds can describe the MZ relation; however, this model underpredicts the amount of star formation in low-mass galaxies. This disagreement may indicate that preventive feedback from gas heating has been overestimated, or it may signify a more fundamental deviation from the equilibrium assumption.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗