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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 991 records · Page 55
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

Radial profile measurement of electron temperature in edge stochastic magnetic field layer of LHD using intensity ratio of extreme ultraviolet line emissions

Vertical profile of neon line emissions in 30-650 A wavelength range has been observed in horizontally elongated plasma cross section of Large Helical Device (LHD). Intensity ratio between the neon line emissions is studied to measure the radial profile of electron temperature in the edge stochastic magnetic field layer of LHD. The edge temperature profile successfully obtained from the line ratio of NeVIII 2s-3p to 2p-3s transitions is compared with the simulation based on three-dimensional edge transport code. The result shows a reasonably good agreement with the edge temperature profile analyzed from atomic data and analysis structure code. The electron temperature at last closed flux surface measured from the intensity ratio is also in good agreement with that measured from Thomson scattering.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2012

Multi-point, high-speed passive ion velocity distribution diagnostic on the Pegasus Toroidal Experiment

A passive ion temperature polychromator has been deployed on Pegasus to study power balance and non-thermal ion distributions that arise during point source helicity injection. Spectra are recorded from a 1 m F/8.6 Czerny-Turner polychromator whose output is recorded by an intensified high-speed camera. The use of high orders allows for a dispersion of 0.02 A/mm in 4th order and a bandpass of 0.14 A ({approx}13 km/s) at 3131 A in 4th order with 100 {mu}m entrance slit. The instrument temperature of the spectrometer is 15 eV. Light from the output of an image intensifier in the spectrometer focal plane is coupled to a high-speed CMOS camera. The system can accommodate up to 20 spatial points recorded at 0.5 ms time resolution. During helicity injection, stochastic magnetic fields keep T{sub e} low ({approx}100 eV) and thus low ionization impurities penetrate to the core. Under these conditions, high core ion temperatures are measured (T{sub i} Almost-Equal-To 1.2 keV, T{sub e} Almost-Equal-To 0.1 keV) using spectral lines from carbon III, nitrogen III, and boron IV.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2012

The discharge mode transition and O({sup 5}p{sub 1}) production mechanism of pulsed radio frequency capacitively coupled plasma

The discharge mode transition from uniform plasma across the gas gap to the {alpha} mode happens at the rising phase of the pulsed radio frequency capacitively coupled plasma (PRF CCP). This transition is attributed to the fast increasing stochastic heating at the edge of sheath. In the second stage with the stable current and voltage amplitude, the consistency between experimental and numerical spatial-temporal 777 nm emission profile suggests that He* and He{sub 2}* dominate the production of O({sup 5}p{sub 1}) through dissociation and excitation of O{sub 2}. Finally, the sterilization efficiency of PRF CCP is found to be higher than that of plasma jet.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Effect of stochasticity in mean field dynamo models

We present a comprehensive investigation into the effect of choosing the stochastic control parameters in a simplified-Parker dynamo model. Through considering the manifold of marginal stability, i.e., the region of parameter space where the mean growth rate is zero, we show that stochastic fluctuations are not prohibitive to dynamo. Furthermore, by directly comparing results obtained by periodic and Gaussian coloured noise alpha with identical characteristic time-scales and fluctuating amplitudes, we find that the transition to dynamo is significantly eased for stochastically fluctuating alpha. The effect of stochasticity in magnetic diffusion is also investigated, highlighting the importance of resonance between poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields on the growth rate. Furthermore, we show that probability density functions of the growth-rate, magnetic field, and magnetic energy can provide a wealth of useful information regarding the dynamo behaviour/intermittency. Finally, the statistical properties of the dynamo such as temporal correlation and fluctuating amplitude are found to be dependent on the distribution of the fluctuations in stocastic parameters.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Matrix models and stochastic growth in Donaldson-Thomas theory

We show that the partition functions which enumerate Donaldson-Thomas invariants of local toric Calabi-Yau threefolds without compact divisors can be expressed in terms of specializations of the Schur measure. We also discuss the relevance of the Hall-Littlewood and Jack measures in the context of BPS state counting and study the partition functions at arbitrary points of the Kaehler moduli space. This rewriting in terms of symmetric functions leads to a unitary one-matrix model representation for Donaldson-Thomas theory. We describe explicitly how this result is related to the unitary matrix model description of Chern-Simons gauge theory. This representation is used to show that the generating functions for Donaldson-Thomas invariants are related to tau-functions of the integrable Toda and Toeplitz lattice hierarchies. The matrix model also leads to an interpretation of Donaldson-Thomas theory in terms of non-intersecting paths in the lock-step model of vicious walkers. We further show that these generating functions can be interpreted as normalization constants of a corner growth/last-passage stochastic model.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Analytical description of nonlinear particle transport in slab turbulence: High particle energies and stochastic acceleration

Pitch-angle scattering, parallel spatial diffusion, and stochastic acceleration of cosmic rays are investigated analytically. Based on a second-order quasilinear theory, we derive analytical expressions for the aforementioned transport parameters for all possible magnetic field strengths and particle energies. This work complements previous work where only parallel diffusion for low energetic particles was considered. Furthermore, we compute the first time the momentum diffusion coefficient. It is also shown that the relation between the momentum diffusion coefficient and the parallel spatial diffusion coefficient is more complicated than assumed in previous work.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Stochastic approach to correlations beyond the mean field with the Skyrme interaction

Large-scale calculation based on the multi-configuration Skyrme density functional theory is performed for the light N=Z even-even nucleus, {sup 12}C. Stochastic procedures and the imaginary-time evolution are utilized to prepare many Slater determinants. Each state is projected on eigenstates of parity and angular momentum. Then, performing the configuration mixing calculation with the Skyrme Hamiltonian, we obtain low-lying energy-eigenstates and their explicit wave functions. The generated wave functions are completely free from any assumption and symmetry restriction. Excitation spectra and transition probabilities are well reproduced, not only for the ground-state band, but for negative-parity excited states and the Hoyle state.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Switching of bound vector solitons for the coupled nonlinear Schroedinger equations with nonhomogenously stochastic perturbations

We investigate the dynamics of the bound vector solitons (BVSs) for the coupled nonlinear Schroedinger equations with the nonhomogenously stochastic perturbations added on their dispersion terms. Soliton switching (besides soliton breakup) can be observed between the two components of the BVSs. Rate of the maximum switched energy (absolute values) within the fixed propagation distance (about 10 periods of the BVSs) enhances in the sense of statistics when the amplitudes of stochastic perturbations increase. Additionally, it is revealed that the BVSs with enhanced coherence are more robust against the perturbations with nonhomogenous stochasticity. Diagram describing the approximate borders of the splitting and non-splitting areas is also given. Our results might be helpful in dynamics of the BVSs with stochastic noises in nonlinear optical fibers or with stochastic quantum fluctuations in Bose-Einstein condensates.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Coupling of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of surface reactions to transport in a fluid for heterogeneous catalytic reactor modeling

We have developed a method to couple kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of surface reactions at a molecular scale to transport equations at a macroscopic scale. This method is applicable to steady state reactors. We use a finite difference upwinding scheme and a gap-tooth scheme to efficiently use a limited amount of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. In general the stochastic kinetic Monte Carlo results do not obey mass conservation so that unphysical accumulation of mass could occur in the reactor. We have developed a method to perform mass balance corrections that is based on a stoichiometry matrix and a least-squares problem that is reduced to a non-singular set of linear equations that is applicable to any surface catalyzed reaction. The implementation of these methods is validated by comparing numerical results of a reactor simulation with a unimolecular reaction to an analytical solution. Furthermore, the method is applied to two reaction mechanisms. The first is the ZGB model for CO oxidation in which inevitable poisoning of the catalyst limits the performance of the reactor. The second is a model for the oxidation of NO on a Pt(111) surface, which becomes active due to lateral interaction at high coverages of oxygen. This reaction model is based on ab initio density functional theory calculations from literature.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2013

Magnetic stochasticity and transport due to nonlinearly excited subdominant microtearing modes

Subdominant, linearly stable microtearing modes are identified as the main mechanism for the development of magnetic stochasticity and transport in gyrokinetic simulations of electromagnetic ion temperature gradient driven plasma microturbulence. The linear eigenmode spectrum is examined in order to identify and characterize modes with tearing parity. Connections are demonstrated between microtearing modes and the nonlinear fluctuations that are responsible for the magnetic stochasticity and electromagnetic transport, and nonlinear coupling with zonal modes is identified as the salient nonlinear excitation mechanism. A simple model is presented, which relates the electromagnetic transport to the electrostatic transport. These results may provide a paradigm for the mechanisms responsible for electromagnetic stochasticity and transport, which can be examined in a broader range of scenarios and parameter regimes.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

On numerical turbulence generation for test-particle simulations

A modified method is presented to generate artificial magnetic turbulence that is used for test-particle simulations. Such turbulent fields are obtained from the superposition of a set of wave modes with random polarizations and random directions of propagation. First, it is shown that the new method simultaneously fulfils requirements of isotropy, equal mean amplitude and variance for all field components, and vanishing divergence. Second, the number of wave modes required for a stochastic particle behavior is investigated by using a Lyapunov approach. For the special case of slab turbulence, it is shown that already for 16 wave modes the particle behavior agrees with that shown for considerably larger numbers of wave modes.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Studies of the fast ion energy spectra in TJ-II

The dynamics of the neutral beam injection fast ions in the TJ-II stellarator is studied in this paper from both the theoretical and experimental points of view. The code Integrator of Stochastic Differential Equations for Plasmas (ISDEP) is used to estimate the fast ion distribution function in 3D:1D in real space and 2D in velocity space, considering the 3D structure of TJ-II, the electrostatic potential, non turbulent collisional transport, and charge exchange losses. The results of ISDEP are compared with the experimental data from the compact neutral particle analyzer, which measures the outgoing neutral flux spectra in the energy range E Element-Of (1-45) keV.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Stochastic Lagrangian dynamics for charged flows in the E-F regions of ionosphere

We develop a three-dimensional numerical model for the E-F region ionosphere and study the Lagrangian dynamics for plasma flows in this region. Our interest rests on the charge-neutral interactions and the statistics associated with stochastic Lagrangian motion. In particular, we examine the organizing mixing patterns for plasma flows due to polarized gravity wave excitations in the neutral field, using Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS). LCS objectively depict the flow topology-the extracted attractors indicate generation of ionospheric density gradients, due to accumulation of plasma. Using Lagrangian measures such as the finite-time Lyapunov exponents, we locate the Lagrangian skeletons for mixing in plasma, hence where charged fronts are expected to appear. With polarized neutral wind, we find that the corresponding plasma velocity is also polarized. Moreover, the polarized velocity alone, coupled with stochastic Lagrangian motion, may give rise to polarized density fronts in plasma. Statistics of these trajectories indicate high level of non-Gaussianity. This includes clear signatures of variance, skewness, and kurtosis of displacements taking polarized structures aligned with the gravity waves, and being anisotropic.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Coupling of laser energy into hot-electrons in high-contrast relativistic laser-plasma interactions

We use particle-in-cell simulations to explain the mechanisms responsible for the coupling of laser energy into relativistic electrons for the case of sharp interface, solid density metal targets free of pre-plasma. For perfectly flat interfaces, the accelerated electron trajectories are dominated by the standing-wave (SW) field structure formed by interference between incident and reflected pulses. We find that quasi-static magnetic fields that develop near the interface play only a minor role in perturbing the relativistic electron trajectories but can contribute to enhanced absorption. Target surfaces that are structured exhibit enhanced absorption, and the acceleration mechanism deviates from the clean standing-wave acceleration mechanism leading to more stochastic electron heating and larger divergence angles.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Closure and transport theory for high-collisionality electron-ion plasmas

Systems of algebraic equations for a high-collisionality electron-ion plasma are constructed from the general moment equations with linearized collision operators [J.-Y. Ji and E. D. Held, Phys. Plasmas 13, 102103 (2006) and J.-Y. Ji and E. D. Held, Phys. Plasmas 15, 102101 (2008)]. A systematic geometric method is invented and applied to solve the system of equations to find closure and transport relations. It is known that some closure coefficients of Braginskii [S. I. Braginskii, Reviews of Plasma Physics (Consultants Bureau, New York, 1965), Vol. 1] are in error up to 65% for some finite values of x (cyclotron frequency Multiplication-Sign electron-ion collision time) and have significant error in the large-x limit [E. M. Epperlein and M. G. Haines, Phys. Fluids 29, 1029 (1986)]. In this work, fitting formulas for electron coefficients are obtained from the 160 moment (Laguerre polynomial) solution, which converges with increasing moments for x{<=}100 and from the asymptotic solution for large x-values. The new fitting formulas are practically exact (less than 1% error) for arbitrary x and Z (the ion charge number, checked up to Z = 100). The ion coefficients for equal electron and ion temperatures are moderately modified by including the ion-electron collision operator. When the ion temperature is higher than the electron temperature, the ion-electron collision and the temperature change terms in the moment equations must be kept. The ion coefficient formulas from 3 moment (Laguerre polynomial) calculations, precise to less than 0.4% error from the convergent values, are explicitly written.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Functional Wigner representation of quantum dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensate

We develop a method of simulating the full quantum field dynamics of multi-mode multi-component Bose-Einstein condensates in a trap. We use the truncated Wigner representation to obtain a probabilistic theory that can be sampled. This method produces c-number stochastic equations which may be solved using conventional stochastic methods. The technique is valid for large mode occupation numbers. We give a detailed derivation of methods of functional Wigner representation appropriate for quantum fields. Our approach describes spatial evolution of spinor components and properly accounts for nonlinear losses. Such techniques are applicable to calculating the leading quantum corrections, including effects such as quantum squeezing, entanglement, EPR correlations, and interactions with engineered nonlinear reservoirs. By using a consistent expansion in the inverse density, we are able to explain an inconsistency in the nonlinear loss equations found by earlier authors.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗