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At least 955 records · Page 53

Quantum simulations of nuclear resonances with variational methods

Background: The many-body nature of nuclear physics problems poses significant computational challenges. These challenges become even more pronounced when studying the resonance states of nuclear systems, which are governed by the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Quantum computing, particularly for quantum many-body systems, offers a promising alternative, especially within the constraints of current noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. Purpose: This work aims to simulate nuclear resonances using quantum algorithms by developing a variational framework compatible with non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and implementing it fully on a quantum simulator. Methods: We employ the complex scaling technique to extract resonance positions classically and adapt it for quantum simulations using a two-step algorithm. First, we transform the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian into a Hermitian form by using the energy variance as a cost function within a variational framework. Second, we perform 𝜃-trajectory calculations to determine optimal resonance positions in the complex energy plane. To address resource constraints on NISQ devices, we utilize Gray code (GC) encoding to reduce qubit requirements. Results: We first validate our approach using a schematic potential model that mimics a nuclear potential, successfully reproducing known resonance energies with high fidelity. We then extend the method to a more realistic 𝛼−𝛼 nuclear potential and compute the 𝐷- and 𝐺-wave resonance energies with a basis size of 𝑁=16, using only four qubits. The quantum simulation results closely match the classical values, demonstrating the feasibility of our approach. Conclusions: This study demonstrates, for the first time, that the complete 𝜃-trajectory method can be implemented on a quantum computer without relying on any classical input beyond the Hamiltonian. The results establish a scalable and efficient quantum framework for simulating resonance phenomena in nuclear systems. This work represents a significant step toward quantum simulations of open quantum systems and lays the foundation for future investigations into resonance structures in nuclear, atomic, and molecular physics.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A Hybrid Lagrangian/Eulerian Collocated Velocity Advection and Projection Method for Fluid Simulation

Abstract We present a hybrid particle/grid approach for simulating incompressible fluids on collocated velocity grids. Our approach supports both particle‐based Lagrangian advection in very detailed regions of the flow and efficient Eulerian grid‐based advection in other regions of the flow. A novel Backward Semi‐Lagrangian method is derived to improve accuracy of grid based advection. Our approach utilizes the implicit formula associated with solutions of the inviscid Burgers’ equation. We solve this equation using Newton's method enabled by C 1 continuous grid interpolation. We enforce incompressibility over collocated, rather than staggered grids. Our projection technique is variational and designed for B‐spline interpolation over regular grids where multiquadratic interpolation is used for velocity and multilinear interpolation for pressure. Despite our use of regular grids, we extend the variational technique to allow for cut‐cell definition of irregular flow domains for both Dirichlet and free surface boundary conditions.

Gagniere, S.↗

Joint physics-based and data-driven time-lapse seismic inversion: Mitigating data scarcity

In carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), developing rapid and effective imaging techniques is crucial for real-time monitoring of the spatial and temporal dynamics of CO 2 propagation during/after injection. With continuing improvements in computational power and data storage, data-driven techniques based on machine learning (ML) have been effectively applied to seismic inverse problems. In particular, ML helps alleviate the ill-posedness and high computational cost of full-waveform inversion (FWI). However, such data-driven inversion techniques require massive high-quality training data sets to ensure prediction accuracy, which hinders their application to time-lapse monitoring of CO 2 sequestration. We propose an efficient “hybrid” time-lapse workflow that combines physics-based FWI and data-driven ML inversion. The scarcity of the available training data is addressed by developing a new data-generation technique with physics constraints. The method is vali dated on a synthetic CO 2 -sequestration model based on the Kimberlina storage reservoir in California. The proposed approach is shown to synthesize a large volume of high-quality, physically realistic training data, which is critically important in accurately characterizing the CO 2 movement in the reservoir. In conclusion, the developed hybrid methodology can also simultaneously predict the variations in velocity and saturation and achieve high spatial resolution in the presence of realistic noise in the data.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Are coupled renewable-battery power plants more valuable than independently sited installations?

Coupled renewable-battery powerplants differ from the traditional concept of independent siting of electricity resources within transmission networks. Prior research on the value proposition and cost savings from coupling did not consider the geographic constraint of co-location. This paper fills the gap by assessing how pricing volatility differences between nodes within electricity markets impact the system value of coupled renewable-battery projects as compared to independent VRE and battery installations. We use wholesale power market prices from 2012–2019 across the seven main U.S. independent system operators (ISOs) with a linear optimization program to compare the electricity market value of coupled projects to the value of the same underlying sub-components, deployed separately. We find that additional value from adding a 4-hour battery sized to 50% of renewable-plant nameplate capacity is $\$$10/MWh across ISOs on average. The highest boost occurs in California ($\$$15/MWh), where the value of adding storage to solar rises over time in tandem with increased solar penetration in the region. If renewables and batteries are deployed independently, we estimate that $\$$12.5/MWh of additional value could be achieved because of more flexibility on battery siting and operation. The $\$$12.5/MWh coupling penalty is reduced to $\$$1.6/MWh when considering alternative approaches to integrating battery storage. This result implies that renewable-battery power plants will play an increasing role in electricity systems if they can be built for $\$$2–$\$$13/MWh less than independent projects of comparable size. However, the wide regional variation in coupling penalties, along with the importance of conditions captured in our sensitivity cases, suggests the tradeoff between coupling penalties and savings will vary by situation. Therefore, roles exist for independent and coupled projects from a system optimization perspective.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Coupling Thermal-Hydraulics with Reactor Pressure Vessel Fracture Models

Because of the importance of maintaining the integrity of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in light-water reactors, significant effort has been devoted over the last several decades to understand the potential failure mechanisms, characterize how material properties evolve due to environmental conditions, and develop tools to assess the probability of fracture in aged RPVs during potential transient events. One important aspect of this problem that has not yet been fully addressed is the effects of nonuniform cooling on the RPV inner wall due to the way low-temperature water injected into the primary coolant system is distributed within the RPV during potential loss-of-coolant accident transients. Colder temperatures are expected in the regions near the inlets, causing a “cold-plume” effect. Rapid cooling of the RPV wall increases the likelihood of fracture initiation, and localized cooling due to cold-plume effects could potentially exacerbate this problem. The Grizzly code can perform a three-dimensional simulation of the RPV thermomechanical response as well as the probabilistic assessment of fracture for a population of pre-existing flaws, which is necessary to account for spatial variations in coolant temperature. This report documents a first effort to couple Grizzly RPV fracture models with computational fluid dynamics models performed using the Cardinal code, which allows for a realistic representation of the temperature distribution. This report demonstrates this coupling approach on two test cases: a simplified proof-of-concept scenario and a realistic small-break loss-of-coolant accident scenario. In both cases, the effects of the spatially varying temperature are evident; although, because the small-break loss-of-coolant accident scenario was far from challenging the RPV’s margins, it is still inconclusive how important cold-plume effects are in realistic accident scenarios. However, this effort represents an important step toward performing realistic analyses to determine to what extent spatially nonuniform cooling might affect RPV integrity under more aggressive accident scenarios.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Investigating lab-scaled offshore wind aerodynamic testing failure and developing solutions for early anomaly detections

As offshore wind systems become more complex, the risk of human error or equipment malfunction increases during experimental testing. This study investigates a lab-scale incident involving a 1 : 50 scale 5 MW wind turbine, where a generator failure led to rotor overspeed and a blade–tower strike. To improve early fault detection, we propose a data-driven method based on multivariate long short-term memory (LSTM) models. High-frequency measurements are projected onto principal components, and anomalies are identified using reconstruction error and its time derivative. Two models are trained on different healthy datasets and tested using single- and multi-principal component (1PC and MPC) variations. Results show that combining both error and error derivative improves detection accuracy. The 1PC model detects faults faster, has a higher recall rate, and achieves a 43 % improvement in anomaly detection accuracy, while the MPC model yields higher precision. This approach provides a simple and effective tool for early anomaly detection in lab-scale experiments, helping to reduce the risk of future failures during the testing of new technologies.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Mapping Post-Climate Change Biogeographical Regions with Deep Latent Variable Models

Forecasting future changes to biodiversity due to shifts in climate is challenging due to nonlinear interactions between species as recorded in their presence/absence data. This work proposes using variational autoencoders with environmental covariates to identify low-dimensional structure in species’ joint co-occurrence patterns and leveraging this simplified representation to provide multivariate predictions of their habitat extent under future climate scenarios. We pursue a latent space clustering approach to map biogeographical regions of frequently co-occurring species and apply this methodology to a dataset from northern Belgium, generating predictive maps illustrating how these regions may expand or contract with changing temperature under a future climate scenario.

Krapu, Chris↗

Decoding the shift-invariant data: applications for band-excitation scanning probe microscopy *

A shift-invariant variational autoencoder (shift-VAE) is developed as an unsupervised method for the analysis of spectral data in the presence of shifts along the parameter axis, disentangling the physically-relevant shifts from other latent variables. Using synthetic data sets, we show that the shift-VAE latent variables closely match the ground truth parameters. The shift VAE is extended towards the analysis of band-excitation piezoresponse force microscopy data, disentangling the resonance frequency shifts from the peak shape parameters in a model-free unsupervised manner. The extensions of this approach towards denoising of data and model-free dimensionality reduction in imaging and spectroscopic data are further demonstrated. This approach is universal and can also be extended to analysis of x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, Raman spectra, and other data sets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Developing occupant archetypes within urban low-income housing: A case study in Mumbai, India

Rapid urbanization pressure and poverty have created a push for affordable housing within the global south. The design of affordable housing can have consequences on the thermal (dis)comfort and behaviour of the occupants, hence requiring an occupant-centric approach to ensure sustainability. This paper investigates occupant behaviour within the urban poor households of Mumbai, India and its impact on their thermal comfort and energy use. This study is a first-of-its-kind attempt to explore the socio-demographic characteristics and energy-related behaviour of low-income occupants within Indian context. Three occupant archetypes, Indifferent Consumers; Considerate Savers; and Conscious Conventionals, were identified from the behavioural and psychographic characteristics gathered through a transverse field survey. A two-step clustering approach was adopted for occupant segmentation that highlighted considerable diversity in occupants’ adaptation measures, energy knowledge, energy habits, and their pro-environmental behaviour within similar socio-economic group. Building energy simulation of the representative archetype behaviour estimated up to 37% variations for air-conditioned and up to 8% variation for fan-assisted naturally ventilated housing units during peak summer months. The results from this study establish the significance of occupant factors in shaping energy demand and thermal comfort within low-income housing and pave way for developing occupant-centric building design strategies to serve this marginalized population. The developed low-income occupant archetypes would be useful for architects and energy modelers to generate realistic energy use profiles and improve building performance simulation results.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Development of window scheduler algorithm exploiting natural ventilation and thermal mass for building energy simulation and smart home controls

Building energy simulations often rely on abstract assumptions when it comes to natural ventilation, such as ‘windows always open [or closed]’ or ‘windows open when outdoor temperature is below a certain threshold.’ However, simulations based on these assumptions fail to fully exploit the cooling potential of natural ventilation, as its effectiveness can be enhanced or diminished by various factors, including the presence of thermal mass. This issue also extends to smart home controls, where determining the window schedule becomes challenging without information about the building's response to outdoor conditions. To address these issues, this study has developed an analytical model for window operation schedules that leverages the passive cooling from natural ventilation. The analytical model was validated against a Modelica simulation. A case study utilizing the BESTEST model of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140 underwent validation with EnergyPlus simulations, showing strong concordance. The algorithm provides window schedule recommendations adapted to various airflow rates, thermal masses, and climate variations. Notably, the case study demonstrated that proper window scheduling could reduce indoor temperature by up to 8 °C under the given simulation settings, thereby improving resilience and indicating potential energy savings. Furthermore, the paper explores the potential opportunities and challenges this approach presents, especially for building simulation and smart home applications.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Two-dimensional patterning of mesoscale fibers using acoustophoresis

The performance of functional composites can rely critically on the arrangement of secondary phases; for example, patterned networks of conductive particles can impart anisotropic thermal, electric or ionic conductivity while preserving flexibility in the matrix. We demonstrate the use of standing acoustic waves to generate periodic patterns of short fibers. We extend the range of possible patterns with the first demonstration of both rectangular grids and arrays of octagons interspersed with rectangles. These newly demonstrated patterns are rationalized using theoretical models of acoustic forces and torques on fibers that account for two-dimensional spatial variations arising from applied acoustic fields. The models enable simulations of fiber motion, which are used to (i) map out final fiber positions as a function of initial position and orientation, and (ii) corroborate experiments visualizing fiber motion and final patterns. This approach provides a fast and accurate way to predict emergent fiber patterns as a function of excitation modality and fiber length. The theory and experiments clearly indicate strong coupling between the length of the fibers and the spacing of the acoustic nodes. Furthermore, this coupling is used to estimate reductions in percolation thresholds associated with the ratio of fiber length and acoustic wavelength.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

High-resolution national mapping of natural gas composition substantially updates methane leakage impacts

Methane is emitted from oil and gas operations alongside heavier hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbon gases, shaping emissions management decision-making, including air quality impacts. Yet, most assessments assume fixed gas composition, overlooking significant spatial and temporal variations. Here, we generate a high-resolution, data-driven map of natural gas composition across the United States, reconstructing methane, heavier hydrocarbons, and non-hydrocarbon species using spatio-temporal interpolation and oil-and-gas production patterns. Our approach is able to reduce composition prediction errors by 39% in terms of Mean Absolute Error (MAE) compared to standard techniques and reveals that methane loss rates have been underestimated by more than 50% in some regions. Beyond methane, we uncover substantial variability in co-emitted gases, exposing blind spots in current emissions inventories and emissions management frameworks. Our work enables more accurate emissions assessments, guides targeted measurement strategies, and informs emissions management decision-making. It also provides a general framework for prediction in environmental applications that integrate sparse measurements with auxiliary variables.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

b b ¯ kinematic correlations in cold nuclear matter

Background: The LHCb Collaboration has studied a number of kinematic correlations between B -hadron pairs through their subsequent decays to J / ψ pairs in p + p collisions at 7 and 8 TeV for four minimum values of the J / ψ p T . Purpose: In this work, these measurements are compared to calculations of b b ¯ pairs and their hadronization and inclusive decays to J / ψ J / ψ are compared to the same observables. Potential cold matter effects on the b b ¯ pair observables are discussed to determine which are most likely to provide insights about the system and why. Methods: The calculations, employing the exclusive HVQMNR code, assume the same intrinsic k T -broadening and fragmentation as in prior work. The pair distributions presented by LHCb are calculated in this approach, both for the parent b b ¯ and the J / ψ J / ψ pairs produced in their decays. The sensitivity of the results to the intrinsic k T broadening is shown. The theoretical uncertainties due to the b quark mass and scale variations on both the initial b b ¯ pairs and the resulting J / ψ pairs are also shown, as is the dependence of the results on the rapidity range of the measurement. Possible effects due to the presence of the nucleus are studied by increasing the size of the k T broadening and modifying the fragmentation function. Results: Good agreement with the LHCb data is found for all observables. The parent b b ¯ distributions are more sensitive to the k T broadening than are the final-state J / ψ pairs. Conclusions: Next-to-leading order calculations with k T broadening, as in prior work, can describe all correlated observables. Multiple measurements of correlated observables are sensitive to different nuclear effects which can help distinguish between them.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Development of High-Performance Ni-base Alloys for Gas Turbine Wheels Using a Coprecipitation Approach (Final Technical Report)

In this project, a synergistic approach involving experiments informed by modelling was used to develop γ'/γ'' coprecipitation-strengthened Ni-base superalloys for land-based gas turbine wheels. In thick sections of such turbine wheels, the slow cooling rate normally observed, as well as variations in cooling rate could potentially result in drastically inhomogeneous and coarsened microstructure. Thus, ten alloy compositions were selected based on coprecipitation and sluggish γ’ growth and coarsening during three iterations of alloy development, assisted by extensive CALPHAD modeling. Phase equilibrium calculations, informed by the characterization of early alloys, were successful in predicting suitable aging treatments to obtain bimodal coprecipitate distribution in several alloys. These aging treatments were applied to the subsequent round of alloys and the resulting microstructures were characterized in detail. Two different cooling rates were used during each of these heat treatments to simulate the range of cooling rates observed in a thick section forging. The microstructures were used to calibrate a multi-phase field model (MPF), which was used to study the formation mechanisms of various coprecipitate morphologies observed in the experiments. Following this, the most promising alloys in each round were selected and studied using high temperature tensile and creep tests. Considering that a slower cooling rate would lead to a strength debit, while a faster cooling rate might lead to a decline in creep rupture life of a full-scale wheel, tensile tests were carried out for slower cooled samples, while creep tests were carried out for faster cooled samples. The deformation microstructures were then characterized using advanced characterization techniques such as Diffraction Contrast-Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (DC-STEM) and Electron Channeling Contrast Imaging (ECCI). Further, a mean-field creep model was developed and calibrated using these experimental findings to predict long-term creep behavior of these coprecipitation-strengthened alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Keep it short: Exploring the impacts of configuration choices on the recent economics of solar-plus-battery and wind-plus-battery hybrid energy plants

Coupled renewable-battery powerplants differ from the traditional concept of independent siting of electricity resources within transmission networks. Prior research on the value proposition and cost savings from coupling did not consider the geographic constraint of co-location. This paper fills the gap by assessing how pricing volatility differences between nodes within electricity markets impact the system value of coupled renewable-battery projects as compared to independent VRE and battery installations. We use wholesale power market prices from 2012–2019 across the seven main U.S. independent system operators (ISOs) with a linear optimization program to compare the electricity market value of coupled projects to the value of the same underlying sub-components, deployed separately. We find that additional value from adding a 4-hour battery sized to 50% of renewable-plant nameplate capacity is $\$10$/MWh across ISOs on average. The highest boost occurs in California ($\$15$/MWh), where the value of adding storage to solar rises over time in tandem with increased solar penetration in the region. If renewables and batteries are deployed independently, we estimate that $\$12.5$/MWh of additional value could be achieved because of more flexibility on battery siting and operation. The $\$12.5$/MWh coupling penalty is reduced to $\$1.6$/MWh when considering alternative approaches to integrating battery storage. This result implies that renewable-battery power plants will play an increasing role in electricity systems if they can be built for $\$2$–$\$13$/MWh less than independent projects of comparable size. However, the wide regional variation in coupling penalties, along with the importance of conditions captured in our sensitivity cases, suggests the tradeoff between coupling penalties and savings will vary by situation. Therefore, roles exist for independent and coupled projects from a system optimization perspective.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Carbon Isotope Composition and the NDVI as Phenotyping Approaches for Drought Adaptation in Durum Wheat: Beyond Trait Selection

High-throughput phenotyping platforms provide valuable opportunities to investigate biomass and drought-adaptive traits. We explored the capacity of traits associated with drought adaptation such as aerial measurements of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and carbon isotope composition (δ13C) determined at the leaf level to predict genetic variation in biomass. A panel of 248 elite durum wheat accessions was grown at the Maricopa Phenotyping platform (US) under well-watered conditions until anthesis, and then irrigation was stopped and plot biomass was harvested about three weeks later. Globally, the δ13C values increased from the first to the second sampling date, in keeping with the imposition of progressive water stress. Additionally, δ13C was negatively correlated with final biomass, and the correlation increased at the second sampling, suggesting that accessions with lower water-use efficiency maintained better water status and, thus, performed better. Flowering time affected NDVI predictions of biomass, revealing the importance of developmental stage when measuring the NDVI and the effect that phenology has on its accuracy when monitoring genotypic adaptation to specific environments. The results indicate that in addition to choosing the optimal phenotypic traits, the time at which they are assessed, and avoiding a wide genotypic range in phenology is crucial.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Constraining AGN Torus Sizes with Optical and Mid-infrared Ensemble Structure Functions

We propose a new method to constrain the size of the dusty torus in broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using optical and mid-infrared (MIR) ensemble structure functions (SFs). Because of the geometric dilution of the torus, the MIR response to optical continuum variations has suppressed variability with respect to the optical that depends on the geometry (e.g., size, orientation, opening angle) of the torus. More extended tori have steeper MIR SFs with respect to the optical SFs. We demonstrate the feasibility of this SF approach using simulated AGN light curves and a geometric torus model. While it is difficult to use SFs to constrain the orientation and opening angle due to the insensitivity of the SF on these parameters, the size of the torus can be well determined. Applying this method to the ensemble SFs measured for 587 SDSS quasars, we measure a torus R–L relation of $\mathrm{log}\,{R}_{\mathrm{eff}}(\mathrm{pc})={0.51}_{-0.04}^{+0.04}\times \mathrm{log}({{L}}_{\mathrm{bol}}/{10}^{46}\,\mathrm{erg}\ {{\rm{s}}}^{-1})-{0.38}_{-0.01}^{+0.01}$ in the WISE W1 band and sizes ~1.4 times larger in the W2 band, which are in good agreement with dust reverberation mapping measurements. Compared with the reverberation mapping technique, the SF method is much less demanding in data quality and can be applied to any optical+MIR light curves for which a lag measurement may not be possible, as long as the variability process and torus structure are stationary. While this SF method does not extract all information contained in the light curves (i.e., the transfer function), it provides an intuitive interpretation for the observed trends of AGN MIR SFs compared with optical SFs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Reconnaissance with JWST of the J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch in Distance Ladder Galaxies: From Irregular Luminosity Functions to Approximation of the Hubble Constant

Abstract We study stars in the J-regions of the asymptotic giant branch (JAGB) of near-infrared color–magnitude diagrams in the maser host NGC 4258 and four hosts of six Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia): NGC 1448, NGC 1559, NGC 5584, and NGC 5643. These clumps of stars are readily apparent near 1.0 < F150W − F277W < 1.5 andm F150W = 22–25 mag with James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam photometry. Various methods have been proposed to assign an apparent reference magnitude to this recently proposed standard candle, including the mode, median, sigma-clipped mean, or a modeled luminosity function parameter. We test the consistency of these by measuring intrahost variations, finding differences of up to ∼0.2 mag that significantly exceed statistical uncertainties. Brightness differences appear intrinsic, and are further amplified by the nonuniform shape of the JAGB luminosity function, also apparent in the LMC and SMC. We follow a “many methods” approach to measure consistently JAGB magnitudes and distance moduli to the SN Ia host sample calibrated by NGC 4258. We find broad agreement with distance moduli measured from Cepheids, tip of the red giant branch, and Miras. However, the SN host mean distance modulus estimated via the JAGB method necessary to estimateH 0 differs by ∼0.19 mag among the above definitions, the result of different levels of luminosity function asymmetry. The methods yield a full range of 71−78 km s −1 Mpc −1 , i.e., a fiducial result ofH 0 = 74.7 ± 2.1(stat) ± 2.3(sys, ±3.1 if combined in quadrature) km s −1 Mpc −1 , with systematic errors limited by the differences in methods. Future work may seek to standardize and refine this promising tool further, making it more competitive with established distance indicators.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗