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At least 1,045 records · Page 58
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DOE OSTI2018

Battery and backup generator sizing for a resilient microgrid under stochastic extreme events

Owing to the recent power outages caused by extreme events, installing battery energy storage and backup generators is important to improve resiliency for a grid-tied microgrid. In the design stage, the event occurrence time and duration, which are highly uncertain and cannot be effectively predicted, may affect the needed battery and backup generator capacity but are usually assumed to be pre-determined in utility planning tools. This study investigates the optimal battery and backup generator sizing problem considering the stochastic event occurrence time and duration for the grid-tied microgrid under islanded operation. The reliability requirement is quantified by the mean value of the critical customer interruption time in each stochastic islanding time window (ITW), whose length is the duration and the centre is the occurrence time. The stochastic ITW constraint is then transformed to a probability-weighted expression to derive an equivalent Mixed Integer Linear Programming model. Numerical simulations on a realistic grid-tied PV-based microgrid demonstrate that the total cost is reduced by 11.5% considering the stochastic ITW, compared with the deterministic ITW under the same reliability requirement.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2010

Structure and dynamics of sawteeth crashes in ASDEX Upgrade

The crash phase of the sawteeth in ASDEX Upgrade tokamak [Herrmann et al., Fusion Sci. Technol. 44(3), 569 (2003)] is investigated in detail in this paper by means of soft x-ray (SXR) and electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostics. Analysis of precursor and postcursor (1,1) modes shows that the crash does not affect the position of the resonant surface q=1. Our experimental results suggest that sawtooth crash models should contain two ingredients to be consistent with experimental observations: (1) the (1,1) mode structure should survive the crash and (2) the flux changes should be small to preserve the position of the q=1 surface close to its original location. Detailed structure of the reconnection point was investigated with ECE imaging diagnostic. It is shown that reconnection starts locally. The expelled core is hot which is consistent with SXR tomography results. The observed results can be explained in the framework of a stochastic model.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2010

Interpretation of the Moessbauer Spectra of the Magnetic Nanoparticles in Mouse Spleen

We have developed a stochastic model for description of relaxation effects in the system of homogeneously magnetized single-domain particles and applied the model to the analysis of Moessbauer spectra of magnetic nanoparticles (Chemicell ARA) and mouse spleen after i.v. injection into animals. We estimate that the fraction of exogenous iron in nanoparticles in the mouse spleen 3 months after injection was 0.27{+-}0.03. The spectra of the residual nanoparticles in the spleen had almost the same isomer shift but smaller mean hyperfine magnetic field values indicating decrease in the magnetic anisotropy energy (size) of the particles compared to the initial ones in the course of biodegradation. Concentration of ferritin-like iron was about three-fold higher than that in the spleen of untreated animals showing ferritin-like forms in the mouse spleen.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2010

Nonlinear Wave-Wave Interactions in Quantum Plasmas

Wave-wave interaction in plasmas is a topic of important research since the 16th century. The formation of Langmuir solitons through the coupling of high-frequency (hf) Langmuir and low-frequency (lf) ion-acoustic waves, is one of the most interesting features in the context of turbulence in modern plasma physics. Moreover, quantum plasmas, which are ubiquitous in ultrasmall electronic devices, micromechanical systems as well as in dense astrophysical environments are a topic of current research. In the light of notable interests in such quantum plasmas, we present here a theoretical investigation on the nonlinear interaction of quantum Langmuir waves (QLWs) and quantum ion-acoustic waves (QIAWs), which are governed by the one-dimensional quantum Zakharov equations (QZEs). It is shown that a transition to spatiotemporal chaos (STC) occurs when the length scale of excitation of linear modes is larger than that of the most unstable ones. Such length scale is, however, to be larger (compared to the classical one) in presence of the quantum tunneling effect. The latter induces strong QIAW emission leading to the occurrence of collision and fusion among the patterns at an earlier time than the classical case. Moreover, numerical simulation of the QZEs reveals that many solitary patterns can be excited and saturated through the modulational instability (MI) of unstable harmonic modes. In a longer time, these solitons are seen to appear in the state of STC due to strong QIAW emission as well as by the collision and fusion in stochastic motion. The energy in the system is thus strongly redistributed, which may switch on the onset of Langmuir turbulence in quantum plasmas.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2010

The Problem of Coronal Heating

The inhomogeneous coronal plasma is a perfect environment for fast growing drift waves. The omnipresence of coronal magnetic loops implies gradients of the equilibrium plasma quantities like the density, magnetic field and temperature. These gradients are responsible for the excitation of drift waves that grow both within the two-component fluid description (both in the presence of collisions and without it) and within the two-component kinetic descriptions (due to purely kinetic effects). Some aspects of these phenomena are investigated here. In particular the analysis of the particle dynamics within the growing wave is compared with the corresponding fluid analysis. While both of them predict the stochastic heating, the threshold for the heating obtained from the single particle analysis is higher. The explanation for this effect is given. Also, the effects of the density gradient in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field vector are investigated within the kinetic theory, in both electrostatic and electromagnetic regimes. The electromagnetic regime implies the coupling of the gradient-driven drift wave with the Alfven wave. The growth rates for the two cases are calculated and compared. It is found that, in general, the electrostatic regime is characterized by stronger growth rates, as compared with the electromagnetic perturbations. The released amount of energy density due to this heating should be more dependent on the magnitude of the background magnetic field than on the coupling of the drift and Alfven waves. The stochastic heating is expected to be much higher in regions with a stronger magnetic field. On the whole, the energy release rate caused by the stochastic heating can be several orders of magnitude above the value presently accepted as necessary for a sustainable coronal heating. The vertical stratification and the very long wavelengths along the magnetic loops imply that a drift-Alfven wave, propagating as a twisted structure along the loop, in fact occupies regions with different plasma-{beta} and, therefore, may have different (electromagnetic-electrostatic) properties, resulting in different heating rates within just one or two wavelengths.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Comment on ''Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes caused by neutron bursts above thunderclouds''[J. Appl. Phys. 105, 083301 (2009)]

Paiva presented in these pages an argument that terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) are created by the interaction of lightning-generated neutrons with nitrogen nuclei in air. I show that this model cannot produce the observed energy spectrum of TGFs, while the generally accepted model of bremsstrahlung from relativistic electrons fits the data well.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

The effects of self-consistent electric field on the neoclassical transport in tokamaks with stochastic magnetic fields

The presence of the magnetic stochasticity induced by resonant magnetic perturbations in fusion experiments leads to radial electron particle and heat diffusivities which are substantially different from quasilinear predictions. In this paper, using neoclassical simulation, the effects of the self-consistent electric field on the radial electron particle and heat transports are investigated. The presence of stochasticity produces positive contribution to the radial electric field, consistent with experimental observations. Bringing both radial and poloidal components of the electric field into the simulation might help recover some of the trends observed in the experiment and is currently under investigation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2010

The Cumulative Effect of Vacuum Radiation on Particle Coordinates

The action principle can predict the trajectories of a system of particles as determined by the dynamical forces acting on them. However, its predictions do not include the results of quantum fluctuations in the coordinates of the particles. It is proposed that quantum fluctuations shift the particles from one dynamical trajectory to another and that the change in action due to a root mean square shift in an individual coordinate is the same, regardless of which coordinate is shifted. This assumption, together with the uncertainty principle, implies that the cumulative effect of changes in energy and momentum varies as t{sup -1/2}, where t is time, so that these quantities tend to be conserved. However, the cumulative effect of changes in spatial coordinate varies as t{sup 1/2}, so this coordinate shows a Brownian drift over time. An example is given in which this stochastic drift, with its characteristic t{sup 1/2} dependence, could be experimentally observed at the beginning of a highly collimated particle beam.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Charge fluctuations for particles on a surface exposed to plasma

We develop a stochastic model for the charge fluctuations on a microscopic dust particle resting on a surface exposed to plasma. We find in steady state that the fluctuations are normally distributed with a standard deviation that is proportional to (CT{sub e}){sup 1/2}, where C is the particle-surface capacitance and T{sub e} is the plasma electron temperature. The time for an initially uncharged ensemble of particles to reach the steady state distribution is directly proportional to CT{sub e}.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2011

Electron heat transport from stochastic fields in gyrokinetic simulations

GYRO is used to examine the perturbed magnetic field structure generated by electromagnetic gyrokinetic simulations of the CYCLONE base case as {beta}{sub e} is varied from 0.1% to 0.7%, as investigated by J. Candy [Phys. Plasmas 12, 072307 (2005)]. Poincare surface of section plots obtained from integrating the self-consistent magnetic field demonstrates widespread stochasticity for all nonzero values of {beta}{sub e}. Despite widespread stochasticity of the perturbed magnetic fields, no significant increase in electron transport is observed. The magnetic diffusion, d{sub m}[A. B. Rechester and M. N. Rosenbluth, Phys. Rev. Lett 40, 38 (1978)], is used to quantify the degree of stochasticity and related to the electron heat transport for hundreds of time slices in each simulation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Two-point functions of quenched lattice QCD in Numerical Stochastic Perturbation Theory

We summarize the higher-loop perturbative computation of the ghost and gluon propagators in SU(3) Lattice Gauge Theory. Our final aim is to compare with results from lattice simulations in order to expose the genuinely non-perturbative content of the latter. By means of Numerical Stochastic Perturbation Theory we compute the ghost and gluon propagators in Landau gauge up to three and four loops. We present results in the infinite volume and a{yields}0 limits, based on a general fitting strategy.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Spiking computation and stochastic amplification in a neuron-like semiconductor microstructure

We have demonstrated the proof of principle of a semiconductor neuron, which has dendrites, axon, and a soma and computes information encoded in electrical pulses in the same way as biological neurons. Electrical impulses applied to dendrites diffuse along microwires to the soma. The soma is the active part of the neuron, which regenerates input pulses above a voltage threshold and transmits them into the axon. Our concept of neuron is a major step forward because its spatial structure controls the timing of pulses, which arrive at the soma. Dendrites and axon act as transmission delay lines, which modify the information, coded in the timing of pulses. We have finally shown that noise enhances the detection sensitivity of the neuron by helping the transmission of weak periodic signals. A maximum enhancement of signal transmission was observed at an optimum noise level known as stochastic resonance. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with simulations of the FitzHugh-Nagumo model. Our neuron is therefore extremely well suited to providing feedback on the various mathematical approximations of neurons and building functional networks.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2011

Universality in equilibrium and away from it: A personal perspective

In this talk/paper I discuss the concept of universality in phase transitions and the question of whether universality classes are more robust in equilibrium than away from it. In both of these situations, the main ingredients determining universality are symmetries, conservation laws, the dimension of the space and of the order-parameter and the presence of long-range interactions or quenched disorder. The existence of detailed-balance and fluctuation-dissipation theorems imposes severe constraints on equilibrium systems, allowing to define universality classes in a very robust way; instead, non-equilibrium allows for more variability. Still, quite robust non-equilibrium universality classes have been identified in the last decades. Here, I discuss some examples in which (i) non-equilibrium phase transitions are simply controlled by equilibrium critical points, i.e. non-equilibrium ingredients turn out to be irrelevant in the renormalization group sense and (ii) non-equilibrium situations in which equilibrium seems to come out of the blue, generating an adequate effective description of intrinsically non-equilibrium problems. Afterwards, I shall describe different genuinely non-equilibrium phase transitions in which introducing small, apparently innocuous changes (namely: presence or absence of an underlying lattice, parity conservation in the overall number of particles, existence of an un-accessible vacuum state, deterministic versus stochastic microscopic rules, presence or absence of a Fermionic constraint), the critical behavior is altered, making the case for lack of robustness. However, it will be argued that in all these examples, there is an underlying good reason (in terms of general principles) for universality to be altered. The final conclusions are that: (i) robust universality classes exist both in equilibrium and non-equilibrium; (ii) symmetry and conservation principles are crucial in both, (iii) non-equilibrium allows for more variability (i.e. it is less constrained).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Stochastic resonance between propagating extended attractors

The nonequilibrium Ising--Bloch (NIB) bifurcation of the FitzHugh-Nagumo (FHN) model with nondiffusing inhibitor provides a beautiful instance of an extended bistable system with counterpropagating fronts or Bloch walls (BW) as stable attractors. Moreover, these fronts are chiral and parity-related, and the barrier between them is the unstable stationary front or Ising wall (IW). Here we show by means of numerical simulation the presence of stochastic resonance in the transition between 1D BW of opposite chiralities when an additive noise is included. A scaling law of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with the distance to the critical point is numerically observed and theoretically characterized in terms of an effective nonequilibrium potential.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Optical Properties of Quantum Vacuum. Space-Time Engineering

The propagation of electromagnetic waves in the vacuum is considered taking into account quantum fluctuations in the limits of Maxwell-Langevin (ML) type stochastic differential equations. For a model of fluctuations, type of 'white noise', using ML equations a partial differential equation of second order is obtained which describes the quantum distribution of virtual particles in vacuum. It is proved that in order to satisfy observed facts, the Lamb Shift etc, the virtual particles should be quantized in unperturbed vacuum. It is shown that the quantized virtual particles in toto (approximately 86 percent) are condensed on the 'ground state' energy level. It is proved that the extension of Maxwell electrodynamics with inclusion of quantum vacuum fluctuations may be constructed on a 6D space-time continuum, where 4D is Minkowski space-time and 2D is a compactified subspace. In detail is studied of vacuum's refraction indexes under the influence of external electromagnetic fields.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Two basic Uncertainty Relations in Quantum Mechanics

In the present article, we discuss two types of uncertainty relations in Quantum Mechanics-multiplicative and additive inequalities for two canonical observables. The multiplicative uncertainty relation was discovered by Heisenberg. Few years later (1930) Erwin Schroedinger has generalized and made it more precise than the original. The additive uncertainty relation is based on the three independent statistical moments in Quantum Mechanics-Cov(q,p), Var(q) and Var(p). We discuss the existing symmetry of both types of relations and applicability of the additive form for the estimation of the total error.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Extrapolation method in the Monte Carlo Shell Model and its applications

We demonstrate how the energy-variance extrapolation method works using the sequence of the approximated wave functions obtained by the Monte Carlo Shell Model (MCSM), taking {sup 56}Ni with pf-shell as an example. The extrapolation method is shown to work well even in the case that the MCSM shows slow convergence, such as {sup 72}Ge with f5pg9-shell. The structure of {sup 72}Se is also studied including the discussion of the shape-coexistence phenomenon.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗