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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

A New Polyethylene Scattering Law Determined Using Inelastic Neutron Scattering

Monte Carlo neutron transport codes such as MCNP rely on accurate data for nuclear physics cross-sections to produce accurate results. At low energy, this takes the form of scattering laws based on the dynamic structure factor, S (Q, E). High density polyethylene (HDPE) is frequently employed as a neutron moderator at both high and low temperatures, however the only cross-sections available are for T =300 K, and the evaluation has not been updated in quite some time. In this paper we describe inelastic neutron scattering measurements on HDPE at 5 and 300 K which are used to improve the scattering law for HDPE. We describe the experimental methods, review some of the past HDPE scattering laws, and compare computations using these models to the measured S (Q, E). The total cross-section is compared to available data, and the treatment of the carbon secondary scatterer as a free gas is assessed. We also discuss the use of the measurement itself as a scattering law via the 1 phonon approximation. We show that a scattering law computed using a more detailed model for the Generalized Density of States (GDOS) compares more favorably to this experiment, suggesting that inelastic neutron scattering can play an important role in both the development and validation of new scattering laws for Monte Carlo work.

Lavelle, Christopher M↗
DOE OSTI2014

Supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. II. The correlation with near-infrared luminosity revisited

We present an investigation of the scaling relations between supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses, M {sub •}, and their host galaxies' K-band bulge (L {sub bul}) and total (L {sub tot}) luminosities. The wide-field WIRCam imager at the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope was used to obtain the deepest and highest resolution near-infrared images available for a sample of 35 galaxies with securely measured M {sub •}, selected irrespective of Hubble type. For each galaxy, we derive bulge and total magnitudes using a two-dimensional image decomposition code that allows us to account, if necessary, for large- and small-scale disks, cores, bars, nuclei, rings, envelopes, and spiral arms. We find that the present-day M {sub •}-L {sub bul} and M {sub •}-L {sub tot} relations have consistent intrinsic scatter, suggesting that M {sub •} correlates equally well with bulge and total luminosity of the host. Our analysis provides only mild evidence of a decreased scatter if the fit is restricted to elliptical galaxies. The log-slopes of the M {sub •}-L {sub bul} and M {sub •}-L {sub tot} relations are 0.75 ± 0.10 and 0.92 ± 0.14, respectively. However, while the slope of the M {sub •}-L {sub bul} relation depends on the detail of the image decomposition, the characterization of M {sub •}-L {sub tot} does not. Given the difficulties and ambiguities of decomposing galaxy images into separate components, our results indicate that L {sub tot} is more suitable as a tracer of SMBH mass than L {sub bul}, and that the M {sub •}-L {sub tot} relation should be used when studying the co-evolution of SMBHs and galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1990

Satellite measurements of large-scale air pollution - Measurements of forest fire smoke

The transport, optical properties, total mass, and removal of smoke produced by forest fires in western Canada during late July and early August 1982 are studied using NOAA 7 AVHRR data. Color composite imagery is produced to track the movement of the smoke over Canada and the U.S. as the smoke traveled thousands of km from the source region. Smoke optical thickness, particle size, and single scattering albedo are computed using radiances measured by AVHRR bands 1 and 2. Results show that smoke optical thickness ranged from less that 0.1 to greater than 3.7 and the geometric mean mass radii ranged from 300 to 900 nm. The smoke single scattering albedo ranged from 0.9 to nearly 1.0. The total smoke mass over the eastern U.S. ranged from 0.1 to 0.5 Tg, which is close to the 0.5 Tg estimated from the forest fuel content. The smoke lifetime is estimated to be between 15 and 20 days.

Ferrare, Richard A.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Total thermal neutron cross section measurements of hydrogen dense polymers from 0.0005–20 eV

Hydrogen dense polymers, specifically polyethylene, polystyrene, and Plexiglas, have served as neutron moderator and reflector materials in hundreds of separate critical benchmark experiments because of their low cost and abundance of hydrogen. In order to accurately model and simulate these critical benchmarks, the thermal scattering law (TSL) evaluation that governs how neutrons will thermalize must be well understood and rigorously validated. To support this validation, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute performed total neutron cross section measurements for high-density polyethylene & polystyrene over the energy range 0.0005–20 eV and for Plexiglas G & Plexiglas G-UVT over the energy range 0.0005–3 eV. Comparisons were made between the measured cross section and that predicted by the ENDF/B-VIII.0 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory/European Spallation Source/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute TSL evaluations for polyethylene, Plexiglas, and polystyrene, as available. These experiments represent the first total neutron cross section measurements for polystyrene.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Robust Optical Richness Estimation with Reduced Scatter

Reducing the scatter between cluster mass and optical richness is a key goal for cluster cosmology from photometric catalogs. We consider various modifications to the red-sequence matched filter richness estimator of Rozo et al. (2009b), and evaluate their impact on the scatter in X-ray luminosity at fixed richness. Most significantly, we find that deeper luminosity cuts can reduce the recovered scatter, finding that {sigma}{sub ln L{sub X}|{lambda}} = 0.63 {+-} 0.02 for clusters with M{sub 500c} {approx}> 1.6 x 10{sup 14} h{sub 70}{sup -1} M{sub {circle_dot}}. The corresponding scatter in mass at fixed richness is {sigma}{sub ln M|{lambda}} {approx} 0.2-0.3 depending on the richness, comparable to that for total X-ray luminosity. We find that including blue galaxies in the richness estimate increases the scatter, as does weighting galaxies by their optical luminosity. We further demonstrate that our richness estimator is very robust. Specifically, the filter employed when estimating richness can be calibrated directly from the data, without requiring a-priori calibrations of the red-sequence. We also demonstrate that the recovered richness is robust to up to 50% uncertainties in the galaxy background, as well as to the choice of photometric filter employed, so long as the filters span the 4000 {angstrom} break of red-sequence galaxies. Consequently, our richness estimator can be used to compare richness estimates of different clusters, even if they do not share the same photometric data. Appendix A includes 'easy-bake' instructions for implementing our optimal richness estimator, and we are releasing an implementation of the code that works with SDSS data, as well as an augmented maxBCG catalog with the {lambda} richness measured for each cluster.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Diffractive and total pp cross sections at the LHC and beyond

Results on factorization breaking in soft and hard hadron-hadron collisions, photo-production and deep inelastic scattering exhibit a universal behavior in a renormalization model where diffraction is mediated by a saturated colorless exchange with vacuum quantum numbers. Using this model, diffractive and total cross sections are predicted for LHC energies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

MICROX-2 cross section library based on ENDF/B-VII

New cross section libraries of a neutron transport code MICROX-2 have been generated for advanced reactor design and fuel cycle analyses. A total of 386 nuclides were processed, including 10 thermal scattering nuclides, which are available in ENDF/B-VII release 0 nuclear data. The NJOY system and MICROR code were used to process nuclear data and convert them into MICROX-2 format. The energy group structure of the new library was optimized for both the thermal and fast neutron spectrum reactors based on Contributon and Point-wise Cross Section Driven (CPXSD) method, resulting in a total of 1173 energy groups. A series of lattice cell level benchmark calculations have been performed against both experimental measurements and Monte Carlo calculations for the effective/infinite multiplication factor and reaction rate ratios. The results of MICROX-2 calculation with the new library were consistent with those of 15 reference cases. The average errors of the infinite multiplication factor and reaction rate ratio were 0.31% {delta}k and 1.9%, respectively. The maximum error of reaction rate ratio was 8% for {sup 238}U-to-{sup 235}U fission of ZEBRA lattice against the reference calculation done by MCNP5. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Positron impact excitations of hydrogen atom embedded in dense quantum plasmas: Formation of Rydberg atoms

Formation of Rydberg atoms due to 1 s → nlm excitations of hydrogen by positron impact, for arbitrary n, l, m, in dense quantum plasma has been investigated using a distorted wave theory which includes screened dipole polarization potential. The interactions among the charged particles in the plasma have been represented by exponential cosine-screened Coulomb potentials. Making use of a simple variationally determined hydrogen wave function, it has been possible to obtain the distorted wave scattering amplitude in a closed analytical form. A detailed study has been made to explore the structure of differential and total cross sections in the energy range 20–300 eV of incident positron. For the unscreened case, our results agree nicely with some of the most accurate results available in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, such a study on the differential and total cross sections for 1 s → nlm inelastic positron-hydrogen collisions in dense quantum plasma is the first reported in the literature.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Proton scattering by a hydrogen atom in an effectively two-body model

It is assumed that the total potential of proton interaction with a hydrogen atom is the sum of the short-range nuclear soft-core Reid potential and the long-range Thomas-Fermi potential. A quantum mechanical analysis of low-energy features of the phase shift and cross section for elastic proton scattering on a hydrogen atom is given for the case of zero total angular momentum. The calculations performed in the present study within a nonlinear version of the variable-phase approach ultimately revealed that, because of a long-range character of the asymptotic behavior of the Thomas-Fermi potential, the respective cross section at low energies oscillates but has a finite number of zeros.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Asymptotic scenarios for the proton’s central opacity: An empirical study

We present a model-independent analysis of the experimental data on the ratio X between the elastic and total cross-sections from pp and p{sup ¯}p scattering in the c.m. energy interval 5 GeV - 8 TeV. Using a novel empirical parametrization for that ratio as a function of the energy and based on theoretical and empirical arguments, we investigate three distinct asymptotic scenarios: either the black-disk (BD) limit or scenarios above and below that limit. Our analysis favors a scenario below the BD, with asymptotic ratio X = 0.36 ± 0.08.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SCATTER BROADENING OF FAST RADIO BURST PULSES AND ASTROPHYSICAL IMPLICATIONS

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been identified as extragalactic sources that can probe turbulence in the intergalactic medium (IGM) and their host galaxies. To account for the observed millisecond pulses caused by scatter broadening, we examine a variety of possible electron density fluctuation models in both the IGM and the host galaxy medium. We find that a short-wave-dominated power-law spectrum of density, which may arise in highly supersonic turbulence with pronounced local dense structures of shock-compressed gas in the host interstellar medium (ISM), can produce the required density enhancements at sufficiently small scales to interpret the scattering timescale of FRBs. This implies that an FRB residing in a galaxy with efficient star formation in action tends to have a broadened pulse. The scaling of the scattering time with the dispersion measure (DM) in the host galaxy varies in different turbulence and scattering regimes. The host galaxy can be the major origin of scatter broadening, but contributes to a small fraction of the total DM. We also find that the sheet-like structure of the density in the host ISM associated with folded magnetic fields in a viscosity-dominated regime of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence cannot give rise to strong scattering. Furthermore, valuable insights into the IGM turbulence concerning the detailed spatial structure of density and magnetic field can be gained from the observed scattering timescale of FRBs. Our results favor the suppression of micro-plasma instabilities and the validity of the collisional-MHD description of turbulence properties in the collisionless IGM.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Astrophysical S-Factor of p{sup 7}Bе Capture at Low Energies

In the modified potential cluster model, the possibility of describing the astrophysical S-factor of radiative p{sup 7}Ве→{sup 8}Bγ capture to the ground state of the {sup 8}B nucleus at energies from 10 keV to 1 MeV is considered. Potentials of intercluster interactions, matched to the spectra of the {sup 8}B nucleus for scattering processes, and the potential of the bound 3Р2 ground state in the p7Ве cluster channel are constructed. The resonance in the 3P1 scattering wave at the energy 0.722 MeV, which leads to an М1-transition to the ground state, is considered. Total cross sections and the reaction rate of p7Ве capture are calculated in the temperature range from 0.01·Т9 to 5·Т9.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1981

Elastic scattering and rotational excitation of a polyatomic molecule by electron impact - Acetylene

Differential, integral, momentum transfer, and partial cross sections have been calculated for elastic scattering and rotational excitation of C2H2 by 10-eV electrons. The effective potential includes static, exchange, and polarization interactions calculated by the INDOX/1s method and the semiclassical exchange approximation with adiabatic polarization at large electron-molecule distances. The scattering is treated by well converged rotational close coupling using the centrifugal dominant scheme to select the channels included and including up to 32 coupled channels for a given total angular momentum. The calculated integral cross sections for pure elastic scattering and rotation excitation are 54.5 and 41.4 a(0)squared, respectively. These are much larger than the values (34.4 and 18.6 a(0)squared) previously (Onda and Truhlar, 1979) calculated for the isoelectronic molecule N2, at this energy. This illustrates how the greater spatial extent of C2H2 greatly increases the cross sections for pure elastic and rotationally inelastic scattering.

Thirumalai, D.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Structural characterization of ZnSO 4 -K 2 SO 4 -NaCl glasses

Glasses with compositions xNaCl-(50-x/2)K 2 SO 4 -(50-x/2)ZnSO 4 , x = 0 to 30 (in mol%), were characterized via vibrational spectroscopy and X-ray pair distribution function (xPDF) analysis. The xPDF's were modeled using Empirical Potential Structure Refinement (EPSR). From the modeled xPDF, the deconvoluted xPDFs were obtained along with cation-anion coordination numbers. The sulfate environment was elucidated through analysis of the vibrational spectroscopy paired with xPDFs. As determined via these techniques, the SO 4 2– oxyanions remain as distinct tetrahedra and dominate the overall structure of these ionic glasses, even with up to 30 mol% addition of NaCl. Addition of NaCl lowers the glass transition temperature (T g ) of these materials and increases the temperature between T g and the first crystallization temperature upon heating, as determined by differential thermal analysis (DTA). As a result, the composition-dependent xPDFs indicate that chloride ions are distributed equally and increasingly around Zn, K, and Na cations as x increases.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Thickness-Dependent Cross-Plane Thermal Conductivity Measurements of Exfoliated Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Submicrometer-thick layers of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) exhibit high in-plane thermal conductivity and useful optical properties, and serve as dielectric encapsulation layers with low electrostatic inhomogeneity for graphene devices. Despite the promising applications of hBN as a heat spreader, the thickness dependence of its cross-plane thermal conductivity is not known, and the cross-plane phonon mean free paths (MFPs) have not been measured. We measure the cross-plane thermal conductivity of hBN flakes exfoliated from bulk crystals. We find that submicrometer thick flakes exhibit thermal conductivities up to 8.1 ± 0.5 W m –1 K –1 at 295 K, which exceeds previously reported bulk values by more than 60%. Surprisingly, the average phonon mean free path is found to be several hundred nanometers at room temperature, a factor of 5 larger than previous predictions. When planar twist interfaces are introduced into the crystal by mechanically stacking multiple thin flakes, the cross-plane thermal conductivity of the stack is found to be a factor of 7 below that of individual flakes with similar total thickness, thus providing strong evidence that phonon scattering at twist boundaries limits the maximum phonon MFPs. These results have important implications for hBN integration in nanoelectronics and improve our understanding of thermal transport in twodimensional materials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

The role of surfaces in flexoelectricity

We develop the relationship between the strain derivative of the mean-inner potential and surface contributions to flexoelectricity, identifying the true surface-specific component of the flexoelectric response of finite samples. Density functional theory calculations on a range of experimentally observed, low energy SrTiO 3 , MgO, and Si surfaces demonstrate that the mean-inner potential and its contributions to flexoelectricity are sensitive to small differences in surface structure, chemistry, and adsorbates. We also introduce a method to estimate mean-inner potential contributions to flexoelectricity using electron scattering factors and use this approximation to predict total flexoelectric responses for a variety of insulators. Strategies to experimentally disentangle bulk and surface flexoelectric terms are also discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Atomic structure and Mott nature of the insulating charge density wave phase of 1T-TaS 2

Here, using x-ray pair distribution function (PDF) analysis and computer modeling, we explore structure models for the complex charge density wave (CDW) phases of layered 1T-TaS 2 that both well capture their atomic-level features and are amenable to electronic structure calculations. The models give the most probable position of constituent atoms in terms of 3D repetitive unit cells comprising a minimum number of Ta–S layers. Structure modeling results confirm the emergence of star-of-David (SD) like clusters of Ta atoms in the high-temperature incommensurate (IC) CDW phase and show that, contrary to the suggestions of recent studies, the low-temperature commensurate (C) CDW phase expands upon cooling thus reducing lattice strain. The C-CDW phase is also found to preserve the stacking sequence of Ta–S layers found in the room temperature, nearly commensurate (NC) CDW phase to a large extent. DFT based on the PDF refined model shows that bulk C-CDW 1T-TaS 2 also preserves the insulating state of individual layers of SD clusters, favoring the Mott physics description of the metal-to-insulator (NC-CDW to C-CDW) phase transition in 1T-TaS 2 . Our work highlights the importance of using precise crystal structure models in determining the nature of electronic phases in complex materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nonreciprocal Frequency Domain Beam Splitter

The canonical beam splitter—a fundamental building block of quantum optical systems—is a reciprocal element. It operates on forward- and backward-propagating modes in the same way, regardless of direction. The concept of nonreciprocal quantum photonic operations, by contrast, could be used to transform quantum states in a momentum- and direction-selective fashion. In this study, we demonstrate the basis for such a nonreciprocal transformation in the frequency domain through intermodal Bragg scattering four-wave mixing (BSFWM). Since the total number of idler and signal photons is conserved, the process can preserve coherence of quantum optical states, functioning as a nonreciprocal frequency beam splitter. We explore the origin of this nonreciprocity and find that the phase-matching requirements of intermodal BSFWM produce an enormous asymmetry ( 76 × ) in the conversion bandwidths for forward and backward configurations, yielding ~ 25 dB of nonreciprocal contrast over several hundred GHz. We also outline how the demonstrated efficiencies ( ~ 10 – 4 ) may be scaled to near-unity values with readily accessible powers and pumping configurations for applications in integrated quantum photonics.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗