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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 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

The LArIAT experiment at Fermilab

The LArIAT experiment at Fermilab is part of the International Neutrino program recently approved in the US. LArIAT aims to measure the main features of charged particles interactions in argon in the energy range (0.2 - 2.0 GeV) corresponding to the energy spectrum of the same particles when produced in a neutrino-argon interaction (neutrino energies of few GeV) typical of the short- and long-baseline neutrino beams of the Neutrino Program. Data collected from the 1 st Run are being analyzed for both Physics studies and a technical characterization of the scintillation light collection system. Furthermore, two analysis topics are reported: the method developed for charged pion cross section measurement, based on the specific features of the LArTPC, and the development and test of the LArIAT custom-designed cold front-end electronics for SiPM devices to collect LAr scintillation light.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Changes in a suite of indicators of extreme temperature and precipitation under 1.5 and 2 degrees warming

Following the 2015 Paris agreement, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was tasked with assessing climate change impacts and mitigation options for a world that limits warming to 1.5 °Cina special report. To aid the scientific assessment process three low-warming ensembles were generated over the 21st century based on the Paris targets using NCAR-DOE community model, CESM1-CAM5. This study used those simulation results and computed ten extreme climate indices, from deinitions created by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices, to determine if the three different scenarios cause different intensity and frequency of extreme precipitation or temperature over the 21 st century. After computing the indices, statistical tests were used to determine if significant changes affect their characteristics. It was found that at the grid point level significant changes emerge in all scenarios, for nearly all indices. The temperature indices show widespread significant change, while the behavior of precipitation indices reflects the larger role that internal variability plays, even by the end of the century. Nonetheless differences can be assessed, in substantial measure for many of these indices: changes in nearly all indices have a strong correlation to global mean temperature, so that scenarios and times with greater temperature change experience greater index changes for many regions. This is particularly true of the temperature-related indices, but can be assessed for some regions also for the indices related to precipitation intensity. These results thus show that even for scenarios that are separated by only half of a degree in global average temperature, the statistics of extremes are significantly different.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Non-growing season plant nutrient uptake controls Arctic tundra vegetation composition under future climate

Abstract Plant growth and distribution in high-latitude tundra ecosystems is strongly limited by nutrient availability and is critical for quantifying centennial-scale carbon-climate interactions. However, land model representations of plant–nutrient interactions are uncertain, leading to poor comparisons with high-latitude observations. Although it has been recognized for decades in the observational community that plants continue to acquire nutrients well past when aboveground activity has ceased, most large-scale land models ignore this process. Here we address the role tundra plant nutrient acquisition during the non-growing season (NGS) has on centennial-scale vegetation growth and dynamics, with a focus on shrub expansion. We apply a well-tested mechanistic model of coupled plant, microbial, hydrological, and thermal dynamics that explicitly represents nutrient acquisition based on plant and microbial traits, thereby allowing a prognostic assessment of NGS nutrient uptake. We first show that the model accurately represents observed seasonality of NGS plant nutrient uptake in a northern Alaskan tundra site. Applying the model across the North America tundra indicates that NGS nutrient uptake is consistent with observations and ranges between ∼5% and 50% of annual uptake, with large spatial variability and dependence on plant functional type. We show that NGS plant nutrient acquisition strongly enhances modeled 21 st century tundra shrub growth and expansion rates. Our results suggest that without NGS nutrient uptake, total shrub aboveground dominance would be ∼50% lower, limited primarily by their inability to grow tall enough to maximize their inherent capacity for light competition. Evergreen shrubs would be more strongly affected because of their relatively lower capacity for nutrient remobilization and acquisition compared to deciduous shrubs. Our results highlight the importance of NGS plant and soil processes on high-latitude biogeochemistry and vegetation dynamics and motivate new observations and model structures to represent these dynamics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Bridging Place-Based Astrobiology Education with Genomics, Including Descriptions of Three Novel Bacterial Species Isolated from Mars Analog Sites of Cultural Relevance

Democratizing genomic data science, including bioinformatics, can diversify the STEM workforce and may, in turn, bring new perspectives into the space sciences. In this respect, the development of education and research programs that bridge genome science with “place” and world-views specific to a given region are valuable for Indigenous students and educators. Through a multi-institutional collaboration, we developed an ongoing education program and model that includes Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing, free bioinformatic platforms, and teacher training workshops to address our research and education goals through a place-based science education lens. High school students and researchers cultivated, sequenced, assembled, and annotated the genomes of 13 bacteria from Mars analog sites with cultural relevance, 10 of which were novel species. Students, teachers, and community members assisted with the discovery of new, potentially chemolithotrophic bacteria relevant to astrobiology. This joint education-research program also led to the discovery of species from Mars analog sites capable of producing N-acyl homoserine lactones, which are quorum-sensing molecules used in bacterial communication. Whole genome sequencing was completed in high school classrooms, and connected students to funded space research, increased research output, and provided culturally relevant, place-based science education, with participants naming three novel species described here. Students at St. Andrew's School (Honolulu, Hawai‘i) proposed the name Bradyrhizobium prioritasuperba for the type strain, BL16A T , of the new species (DSM 112479 T = NCTC 14602 T ). The nonprofit organization Kauluakalana proposed the name Brenneria ulupoensis for the type strain, K61 T , of the new species (DSM 116657 T = LMG = 33184 T ), and Hawai‘i Baptist Academy students proposed the name Paraflavitalea speifideiaquila for the type strain, BL16E T , of the new species (DSM 112478 T = NCTC 14603 T ).

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Clonality, local population structure, and gametophyte sex ratios in cryptic species of the Sphagnum magellanicum complex

Sphagnum (peatmoss) comprises a moss (Bryophyta) clade with approximately 300-500 species. The genus has unparalleled ecological importance because Sphagnum-dominated peatlands store almost a third of the terrestrial carbon pool and peatmosses engineer the formation and microtopography of peatlands. Genomic resources for Sphagnum are being actively expanded, but many aspects of their biology are still poorly known. Among these are the degree to which Sphagnum species reproduce asexually, and the relative frequencies of male and female gametophytes in these haploid-dominant plants. Here, we assess clonality and gametophyte sex ratios and test hypotheses about the local-scale distribution of clones and sexes in four North American species of the S. magellanicum complex. These four species are difficult to distinguish morphologically and are very closely related. We also assess microbial communities associated with Sphagnum host plant clones and sexes at two sites. 405 samples of the four species, representing 57 populations, were subjected to RADseq. Analyses of population structure and clonality based on the molecular data utilized both phylogenetic and phenetic approaches. Multi-locus genotypes (genets) were identified using the RADseq data. Sexes of sampled ramets were determined using a molecular approach that utilized coverage of loci on the sex chromosomes after the method was validated using a sample of plants that expressed sex phenotypically. Sex ratios were estimated for each species, and populations within species. Differences in fitness between genets was estimated as the numbers of ramets each genet comprised. Degree of clonality (numbers of genets/numbers of ramets [samples]) within species, among sites, and between gametophyte sexes were estimated. Sex ratios were estimated for each species, and populations within species. Sphagnum-associated microbial communities were assessed at two sites in relation to Sphagnum clonality and sex. All four species appear to engage in a mixture of sexual and asexual (clonal) reproduction. A single ramet represents most genets but 2-8 ramets were detected for some genets. Only one genet is represented by ramets in multiple populations; all other genets are restricted to a single population. Within populations ramets of individual genets are spatially clustered, suggesting limited dispersal even within peatlands. Sex ratios are male-biased in S. diabolicum but female-biased in the other three species, although significantly so only in S. divinum. Neither species nor males/females differ in levels of clonal propagation. At St. Regis Lake (NY) and Franklin Bog (VT), microbial community composition is strongly differentiated between the sites, but differences between species, genets, and sexes were not detected. Within S. divinum, however, female gametophytes harbored 2-3 times the number oi of microbial taxa as males. These four Sphagnum species all exhibit a similar reproductive patterns that result from a mixture of sexual and asexual reproduction. The spatial patterns of clonally replicated ramets of genets suggest that these species fall between the so-called phalanx patterns where genets abut one another but do not extensively mix, because of limited ramet fragmentation, and the guerrilla patterns where extensive genet fragmentation and dispersal results in greater mixing of different genets. Although sex ratios in bryophytes are most often female-biased, both male and female biases occur in this complex of closely related species. The association of far greater microbial diversity for female gametophytes in S. divinum, which has a female-biased sex ratio, suggests additional research to determine if levels of microbial diversity are consistently correlated with differing patterns of sex ratio biases.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Planetary waves can activate resonant drag instabilities in 3D dusty gaseous discs

Resonant drag instabilities (RDIs) in protoplanetary discs are driven by the aerodynamic back-reaction of dust on gas and occur when the relative dust-gas motion resonate with a wave mode intrinsic to the gas fluid. Axisymmetric models indicate that the RDI generates filamentary perturbations, leading to grain clumping and planetesimal formation. Motivated by these findings, we investigate the dust–gas interaction in a non-axisymmetric inviscid protoplanetary disc with an embedded low-mass planet ($M_{\mathrm{p}}\in [0.3, 3] \, \rm M_{\oplus }$, here $\, \rm M_{\oplus }$ is the Earth mass). We conduct global 3D high-resolution two-fluid simulations, with the dust being parametrized by the Stokes number $\mathrm{St}\in [0.01,0.5]$. We find that planetary waves (PWs; also known as Rossby waves), which propagate along the downstream separatrices of the horseshoe region, resonate with the streaming motion and trigger the RDI. The consequent development of a global-scale filamentary dust distribution does not sensitively depend on the Stokes number, nor does it depend on the fast dust settling that takes place in an inviscid disc. The rapid onset of this instability, which is comparable to the dynamical orbital time-scale, suppresses the formation of asymmetric structures in the dust in the vicinity of the planet (such as dust voids and filaments). Additionally, we find that the dust feedback enables buoyancy resonances in an otherwise non-buoyant (globally isothermal) disc. Therefore, our results provide the first numerical evidence of RDIs generation driven by planetary waves.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

PDB Structure Data Impacted Discovery and Development of Recently FDA‐Approved Drugs

Protein Data Bank (PDB) was established in 1971 as the 1 st open access digital data resource in biology and medicine. Today, the PDB currently houses >145,000 atomic level biomolecular structures determined by crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and 3D electron microscopy. Managed by the Worldwide Protein Data Bank partnership (wwPDB; wwpdb.org ), PDB data are used by researchers and educators to understand the role molecules play in health and disease of humans, animals, and plants, food and energy production, and other topics of concern to global prosperity and sustainability. RCSB PDB operates the US data center for the global PDB archive, and makes PDB data available at no charge to all data consumers without limitations on usage. During calendar 2017, >679 million structure data files were downloaded from the PDB by Data Consumers working worldwide. RCSB PDB served >1 million RCSB.org users worldwide with PDB data integrated with ~40 external data resources providing rich structural views of fundamental biology, biomedicine, and energy sciences, and supported >600,000 PDB101.rcsb.org educational website users around the globe. RCSB PDB examined the impact of PDB archiving and open access availability on the discovery of 210 new molecular entities (NMEs or drugs) approved by the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 2010 and 2016. Biological targets for 90% of NMEs are known. Approximately 6,000 PDB structures containing one of these drug targets and/or one approved NME were identified, providing 85% coverage of known targets and 88% coverage of 2010–2016 approved NMEs. Coverage was comparable across all therapeutic areas. Most structures were both published and freely accessible from the PDB long before the NMEs were approved. Additional analyses revealed these PDB structures were cited by more than 200,000 PubMed‐indexed publications reporting pre‐competitive research on the would‐be drug targets. PDB structures and citing publications contributed substantially to understanding of the target biology, and led to biopharmaceutical company investment in successful drug discovery/development programs. Overall, access to PDB data contribute to patent applications, drug discovery and development, publication of scientific studies, innovations that can lead to new product development and company formation, and STEM education. Support or Funding Information RCSB PDB is funded by a grant (DBI‐1338415) from the National Science Foundation , the National Institutes of Health , and the US Department of Energy . This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .

Zardecki, Christine↗
DOE OSTI2014

Characterization of a novel insect-specific flavivirus from Brazil: Potential for inhibition of infection of arthropod cells with medically important flaviviruses.

In the past decade, there has been an upsurge in the number of newly described insect-specific flaviviruses isolated pan-globally. We recently described the isolation of a novel flavivirus (tentatively designated ‘Nhumirim virus’; NHUV) that represents an example of a unique subset of apparently insect-specific viruses that phylogenetically affiliate with dual-host mosquito-borne flaviviruses despite appearing to be limited to replication in mosquito cells. We characterized the in vitro growth potential and 3' untranslated region (UTR) sequence homology with alternative flaviviruses, and evaluated the virus’s capacity to suppress replication of representative Culex spp.-vectored pathogenic flaviviruses in mosquito cells. Only mosquito cell lines were found to support NHUV replication, further reinforcing the insect-specific phenotype of this virus. Analysis of the sequence and predicted RNA secondary structures of the 3' UTR indicated NHUV to be most similar to viruses within the yellow fever serogroup and Japanese encephalitis serogroup, and viruses in the tick-borne flavivirus clade. NHUV was found to share the fewest conserved sequence elements when compared with traditional insect-specific flaviviruses. This suggests that, despite apparently being insect specific, this virus probably diverged from an ancestral mosquito-borne flavivirus. Co-infection experiments indicated that prior or concurrent infection of mosquito cells with NHUV resulted in a significant reduction in virus production of West Nile virus (WNV), St Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) and Japanese encephalitis virus. As a result, the inhibitory effect was most effective against WNV and SLEV with over a 106-fold and 104-fold reduction in peak titres, respectively.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Low-energy scattering properties of ground-state and excited-state positronium collisions

Low-energy elastic and inelastic scattering in the Ps(1s)-Ps(2s) channel is treated in a four-body hyperspherical coordinate calculation. Adiabatic potentials are calculated for triplet-triplet, singlet-singlet, and singlet-triplet spin symmetries in the spin representation of coupled electrons and coupled positrons, with total angular momentum L = 0 and parity equal to +1. The s-wave scattering lengths for the asymptotic Ps(1s)-Ps(2s) channel are calculated for each spin configuration. Results obtained for the s-wave scattering lengths are a TT = 7.3(2)a 0 – i0.02(1) a 0 , a SS = 13.2(2) a 0 – i0.9 (2) a 0 , and a ST = 9.7(2) a 0 for each spin configuration. Spin recoupling is implemented to extract the scattering lengths for collisions of Ps in different spin configurations through properly symmetrized unitary transformations. Furthermore, calculations of experimentally relevant scattering lengths and cross sections are carried out for Ps atoms initially prepared in different uncoupled spin states.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Thermodynamic properties of ε -Fe with thermal electronic excitation effects on vibrational spectra

The thermodynamic properties of hexagonal-close-packed iron (ε–Fe) are essential for investigating the internal structure and dynamic properties of planetary cores. Despite their importance to planetary sciences, experimental investigations of ε–Fe at relevant conditions are still challenging. Therefore, ab initio calculations are crucial to elucidating the thermodynamic properties of this system. Here, we use a free energy calculation scheme based on the phonon gas model compatible with temperature-dependent phonon frequencies. We investigate the effects of electronic thermal excitations, which introduces a temperature dependence on phonon frequencies, and the implication for the thermodynamic properties of ε–Fe at extreme pressure (P) and temperature (T) conditions. We disregard phonon-phonon interactions, i.e., anharmonicity and their effect on phonon frequencies. Nevertheless, the current scheme is also applicable to T -dependent anharmonic frequencies. We conclude that the impact of thermal electronic excitations on vibrational properties is not significant up to ~4000 K at 200 GPa but should not be ignored at higher temperatures or pressures. However, the static free energy F st must always include the effect of thermal excitation fully in a continuum of T. Furthermore, our results for isentropic equations of state show good agreement with data from recent ramp compression experiments up to 1400 GPa conducted at the National Ignition Facility.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Unconventional spin-orbit torques from sputtered MoTe 2 films

Materials with strong spin-orbit coupling and low crystalline symmetry are promising for generating large unconventional spin-orbit torques (SOTs), such as in-plane fieldlike (FL) torques and out-of-plane dampinglike (DL) torques, which can effectively manipulate and deterministically switch an out-of-plane magnetization without the need for additional external in-plane magnetic fields. Here, we report SOTs generated by magnetron-sputtered 1⁢T' MoTe 2 /Permalloy (Py; Ni 80 ⁢Fe 20 )/MgO heterostructures using both spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) and second harmonic Hall measurements. We observed unconventional FL and DL torques in our samples due to spins polarized normal to the interface of MoTe 2 and Py layers, and studied the influence of crystallographic order and MoTe 2 layer thickness on the SOTs. By comparing the Raman spectra of 1⁢T' MoTe 2 samples prepared in different ways, we found a tensile strain in sputtered MoTe 2 films, which might further enhance the generation of unconventional torques by reducing the symmetry of 1⁢T' MoTe 2 .

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Structure classification and melting temperature prediction in octet AB solids via machine learning

Machine learning methods are being increasingly used in condensed matter physics and materials science to classify crystals structures and predict material properties. However, the reliability of these methods for a given problem, especially when large data sets are unavailable, has not been well studied. By addressing the tasks of classifying crystal structure and predicting melting temperatures of the octet subset of AB solids, we performed such a study and found potential problems with using machine learning methods on relatively small data sets. At the same time, however, we can reaffirm the potential power of such methods for these tasks. In particular, we uncovered an important new material feature, the excess Born effective charge, that significantly increased the accuracy of the predictions for the classification problem we defined. This discovery leads us to propose a new scale for the degree of ionicity and covalency in these solids. More specifically, we partitioned the crystal structures of a set of 75 octet solids into those that are ionic and covalent bonded and thus performed a binary classification task. We found that using the standard indices (r σ ,r π ), suggested by St. John and Bloch several decades ago, enabled an average success in classification of 92%. Using just r σ and the excess Born effective charge ΔZ A of the A atom enabled an average success of 97%, but we also found relatively large variations about these averages that were dependent on how certain machine learning methods were used and for which a standard deviation was not a proper measure of the degree of confidence we can place in either average. Instead, we calculated and report with 95 % confidence that the traditional classification pair predicts an accuracy in the interval [ 89%, 95%] and the accuracy of the new pair lies in the interval [96 %, 99%]. For melting temperature predictions, the size of our data set was 46. We estimate the root-mean-squared error of our resulting model to be 11% of the mean melting temperature of the data, but we note that if the accuracy of this predicted error is itself measured, our estimated fitting error itself has a root-mean-square error of 50%. In short, what we illustrate is that classification and regression predictions can vary significantly, depending on the details of how machine learning methods are applied to small data sets. This variation makes it important, if not essential, to average the predictions and compute confidence intervals about these averages to report results meaningfully. However, when properly used, these statistical methods can advance our understanding and improve predictions of material properties even for small data sets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Nucleon and nucleon-pair momentum distributions in A≤12 nuclei

We report variational Monte Carlo calculations of single-nucleon momentum distributions for A≤12 nuclei and nucleon-pair and nucleon-cluster momentum distributions for A≤8. The wave functions have been generated for a Hamiltonian containing the Argonne ν 18 two-nucleon and Urbana X three-nucleon potentials. The single-nucleon and nucleon-pair momentum distributions exhibit universal features attributable to the one-pion-exchange tensor interaction The single-nucleon distributions are broken down into proton and neutron components and spin-up and spin-down components where appropriate. The nucleon-pair momentum distributions are given separately for pp and pn pairs. The nucleon-cluster momentum distributions include dp in 3 He, tp and dd in S 4 He, αd in 6 Li,αt in 7 Li, and αα in 8 Be. Detailed tables are provided on-line for download.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Modal analysis of the behavior of inertial particles in turbulence subjected to Stokes drag

The clustering of small heavy inertial particles subjected to Stokes drag in turbulence, which is the concern of present study, is known to be minimal at small and large Stokes number and substantial at St = $\textit{O}$(1). This nonmonotonic trend, which has been shown computationally and experimentally, is yet to be explained analytically. In this study, we obtain an analytical expression for the Lyapunov exponents that quantitatively predicts this trend. The sum of the exponents, which is the normalized rate of change of the signed volume of a small cloud of particles, is correctly predicted to be negative and positive at small and large Stokes numbers, respectively, asymptoting to $\textit{τQ}$ as $\textit{τ}$ → 0 and $τ^{–1/2}|Q|^{1/4}$ as $\textit{τ} → ∞$, where $\textit{τ}$ is the particle relaxation time and $\textit{Q(τ)}$ is the difference between the norm of the rotation- and strain-rate tensors computed along the particle trajectory, which remains negative at all $\textit{τ}$ in turbulent flows. Additionally, the trajectory crossing is predicted only in hyperbolic flows where Q < 0 for sufficiently inertial particles with a $\textit{τ}$ that scales with $|Q|^{–1/2}$. Following the onset of crossovers, a transition from clustering to dispersion is predicted correctly. We show these behaviors are not unique to three-dimensional isotropic turbulence and can be reproduced closely by a one-dimensional mono-harmonic flow, which appears as a fundamental canonical problem in the study of particle clustering. Analysis of this one-dimensional canonical flow shows that the rate of clustering, quantified as the product of the Lyapunov exponent and particle relaxation time, is bounded by –1/2, behaving with extreme nonlinearity in the hyperbolic flows and always remaining positive in the elliptic flows. Finally, this model problem also confirms that dispersion in a hyperbolic flow will occur only if particles' trajectory cross. These findings, which stem from our analysis, are corroborated by the direct numerical simulations.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Voltage measurements at the vacuum post-hole convolute of the Z pulsed-power accelerator

Presented are voltage measurements taken near the load region on the Z pulsed-power accelerator using an inductive voltage monitor (IVM). Specifically, the IVM was connected to, and thus monitored the voltage at, the bottom level of the accelerator’s vacuum double post-hole convolute. Additional voltage and current measurements were taken at the accelerator’s vacuum-insulator stack (at a radius of 1.6 m) by using standard D-dot and B-dot probes, respectively. During postprocessing, the measurements taken at the stack were translated to the location of the IVM measurements by using a lossless propagation model of the Z accelerator’s magnetically insulated transmission lines (MITLs) and a lumped inductor model of the vacuum post-hole convolute. Across a wide variety of experiments conducted on the Z accelerator, the voltage histories obtained from the IVM and the lossless propagation technique agree well in overall shape and magnitude. However, large-amplitude, high-frequency oscillations are more pronounced in the IVM records. It is unclear whether these larger oscillations represent true voltage oscillations at the convolute or if they are due to noise pickup and/or transit-time effects and other resonant modes in the IVM. Results using a transit-time-correction technique and Fourier analysis support the latter. Regardless of which interpretation is correct, both true voltage oscillations and the excitement of resonant modes could be the result of transient electrical breakdowns in the post-hole convolute, though more information is required to determine definitively if such breakdowns occurred. Despite the larger oscillations in the IVM records, the general agreement found between the lossless propagation results and the results of the IVM shows that large voltages are transmitted efficiently through the MITLs on Z. These results are complementary to previous studies [R. D. McBride et al ., Phys. Rev. ST Accel . Beams 13, 120401 (2010)] that showed efficient transmission of large currents through the MITLs on Z. Altogether, the two studies demonstrate the overall efficient delivery of very large electrical powers through the MITLs on Z.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Conceptual designs of two petawatt-class pulsed-power accelerators for high-energy-density-physics experiments

Here, we have developed conceptual designs of two petawatt-class pulsed-power accelerators: Z 300 and Z 800. The designs are based on an accelerator architecture that is founded on two concepts: single-stage electrical-pulse compression and impedance matching [Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 10, 030401 (2007)]. The prime power source of each machine consists of 90 linear-transformer-driver (LTD) modules. Each module comprises LTD cavities connected electrically in series, each of which is powered by 5-GW LTD bricks connected electrically in parallel. (A brick comprises a single switch and two capacitors in series.) Six water-insulated radial-transmission-line impedance transformers transport the power generated by the modules to a six-level vacuum-insulator stack. The stack serves as the accelerator’s water-vacuum interface. The stack is connected to six conical outer magnetically insulated vacuum transmission lines (MITLs), which are joined in parallel at a 10-cm radius by a triple-post-hole vacuum convolute. The convolute sums the electrical currents at the outputs of the six outer MITLs, and delivers the combined current to a single short inner MITL. The inner MITL transmits the combined current to the accelerator’s physics-package load. Z 300 is 35 m in diameter and stores 48 MJ of electrical energy in its LTD capacitors. The accelerator generates 320 TW of electrical power at the output of the LTD system, and delivers 48 MA in 154 ns to a magnetized-liner inertial-fusion (MagLIF) target [Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010)]. The peak electrical power at the MagLIF target is 870 TW, which is the highest power throughout the accelerator. Power amplification is accomplished by the centrally located vacuum section, which serves as an intermediate inductive-energy-storage device. The principal goal of Z 300 is to achieve thermonuclear ignition; i.e., a fusion yield that exceeds the energy transmitted by the accelerator to the liner. 2D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations suggest Z 300 will deliver 4.3 MJ to the liner, and achieve a yield on the order of 18 MJ. Z 800 is 52 m in diameter and stores 130 MJ. This accelerator generates 890 TW at the output of its LTD system, and delivers 65 MA in 113 ns to a MagLIF target. The peak electrical power at the MagLIF liner is 2500 TW. The principal goal of Z 800 is to achieve high-yield thermonuclear fusion; i.e., a yield that exceeds the energy initially stored by the accelerator’s capacitors. 2D MHD simulations suggest Z 800 will deliver 8.0 MJ to the liner, and achieve a yield on the order of 440 MJ. Z 300 and Z 800, or variations of these accelerators, will allow the international high-energy-density-physics community to conduct advanced inertial-confinement-fusion, radiation-physics, material-physics, and laboratory-astrophysics experiments over heretofore-inaccessible parameter regimes.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Photocurrent Nanoscopy of Quantum Hall Bulk

Understanding nanoscale electronic and thermal transport of two-dimensional (2D) electron systems in the quantum Hall regime, particularly in the bulk insulating state, poses considerable challenges. One of the primary difficulties arises from the presence of chiral edge channels, whose transport behavior obscures the investigation of the insulating bulk. Using near-field optical and photocurrent nanoscopy, we probe real-space variations of the optical and thermal dynamics of graphene in the quantum Hall regime without relying on complex sample or electrode geometries. Near the charge-neutrality point, we detect strong optical and photothermal signals from resonant inter-Landau-level (LL) magnetoexciton excitations between the zeroth and ± 1 st LLs, which gradually weaken with increasing doping due to Pauli blocking. Interestingly, at higher doping levels and full-integer LL fillings, photothermal signals reappear across the entire sample over an approximately 10 − μ m scale, indicating unexpectedly long cooling lengths and nonlocal photothermal heating through the insulating bulk. This observation suggests that thermal conductivity persists for the localized states even as electronic transport is suppressed—a clear violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law. Our experiments provide novel insights into nanoscale thermal and electronic transport in incompressible 2D gases, highlighting the roles of magnetoexcitons and chiral edge states in the thermo-optoelectric dynamics of the Dirac quantum Hall state. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Road Network State Estimation Using Random Forest Ensemble Learning

Network-scale travel time prediction not only enables traffic management centers (TMC) to proactively implement traffic management strategies, but also allows travelers make informed decisions about route choices between various origins and destinations. In this paper, a random forest estimator was proposed to predict travel time in a network. The estimator was trained using two years of historical travel time data for a case study network in St. Louis, Missouri. Both temporal and spatial effects were considered in the modeling process. The random forest models predicted travel times accurately during both congested and uncongested traffic conditions. The computational times for the models were low, thus useful for real-time traffic management and traveler information applications.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗