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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Radioactive beams and inverse kinematics: Probing the quantal texture of the nuclear vacuum

The properties of the quantum electrodynamic (QED) vacuum in general, and of the nuclear vacuum (ground) state in particular, are determined by virtual processes implying the excitation of a photon and of an electron-positron pair in the first case and of, for instance, the excitation of a collective quadrupole surface vibration and a particle-hole pair in the nuclear case. Signals of these processes can be detected in the laboratory in terms of what can be considered a nuclear analogue of Hawking radiation. An analogy which extends to other physical processes involving QED vacuum fluctuations like the Lamb shift, pair creation by \(\gamma\) -rays, van der Waals forces and the Casimir effect, to the extent that one concentrates on the eventual outcome resulting by forcing a virtual process to become real, and not on the role of the black hole in defining the event horizon. In the nuclear case, the role of this event is taken over at a microscopic and fully quantum mechanical level, by nuclear probes (reactions) acting on virtual particles of the zero point fluctuations (ZPF) of the nuclear vacuum in a similar irreversible, no-return, fashion as the event horizon does, letting the other particle, entangled with the first one, escape to infinity, and eventually be detected. With this proviso in mind one can posit that the reactions 1 H( 11 Be, 10 Be(2 + ;3.37MeV)) 2 H and 1 H( 11 Li, 9 Li(1/2 - ;2.69MeV)) 3 H together with the associated \( \gamma\) -decay processes suggest a possible nuclear analogy of Hawking radiation.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Detailed Characterization of Nuclear Recoil Pulse Shape Discrimination in the DarkSide-50 Direct Dark Matter Experiment

While evidence of non-baryonic dark matter has been accumulating for decades, its exact nature continues to remain a mystery. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are a well motivated candidate which appear in certain extensions of the Standard Model, independently of dark matter theory. If such particles exist, they should occasionally interact with particles of normal matter, producing a signal which may be detected. The DarkSide-50 direct dark matter experiment aims to detect the energy of recoiling argon atoms due to the elastic scattering of postulated WIMPs. In order to make such a discovery, a clear understanding of both the background and signal region is essential. This understanding requires a careful study of the detector's response to radioactive sources, which in turn requires such sources may be safely introduced into or near the detector volume and reliably removed. The CALibration Insertaion System (CALIS) was designed and built for this purpose in a j oint effort between Fermi National Laboratory and the University of Hawaii. This work describes the design and testing of CALIS, its installation and commissioning at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) and the multiple calibration campaigns which have successfully employed it. As nuclear recoils produced by WIMPs are indistinguishable from those produced by neutrons, radiogenic neutrons are both the most dangerous class of background and a vital calibration source for the study of the potential WIMP signal. Prior to the calibration of DarkSide-50 with radioactive neutron sources, the acceptance region was determined by the extrapolation of nuclear recoil data from a separate, dedicated experiment, ScENE, which measured the distribution of the pulse shape discrimination parameter, $f_{90}$, for nuclear recoils of known energies. This work demonstrates the validity of the extrapolation of ScENE values to DarkSide-50, by direct comparison of the $f_{90}$ distributio n of nuclear recoils from ScENE and an AmBe calibration sour! ce. The combined acceptance as defined by ScENE and the \textit{in-situ} AmBe calibration were used to establish the best WIMP exclusion limit on an argon target. Unfortunately, radioactive sources used for the calibration of DarkSide-50 are universally accompanied by gamma decays, which obscure the low energy region where most WIMP interactions are expected to occur and seem to make continuing dependence on an external measurement such as ScENE inevitable. However, this work presents a novel method of nuclear recoil calibration employing event selection, unique to the design of DarkSide-50, which produces a nearly pure sample of nuclear recoils. Further, it describes the execution of a neutron calibration campaign, from planning to analysis, which yielded a valuable data set for defining the acceptance region. Together with the event selection techniques, this allows for the definition of the acceptance region independent of ScENE values. Two analytical models of the $f_{90 }$ distribution are described and their results for nuclear recoils are compared. Finally, a detailed study of integrated noise in nuclear and electron recoil

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Validation Study of the Spacecraft Background Activation using RHESSI Data

This document serves as a brief writeup of the work done to validate CINDER2008 and the Activation Analysis Tools in the Activation in Accelerator Radiation Environments (AARE) distribution that are used to calculate the activation of spacecraft material while in orbit [1{3]. The validation study involves replicating the decay gamma spectrum as observed onboard the RHESSI spacecraft in the high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors after crossing the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) [4]. The tools involved are a suite of Python scripts, the transmutation code CINDER2008 accompanied with a suite of scripts distributed with AARE,MCNPX, and MCNP6.2 [2,5{7]. Figure 1 shows the gamma ray spectrum this study replicates as the spectrum designated \Difference".

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Prototype Stilbene Neutron Collar II

A neutron collar using stilbene organic scintillator cells for fast neutron counting is described for the assay of fresh low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel assemblies. The prototype stilbene collar has a form factor similar to standard He-3 based collars and uses an AmLi interrogation neutron source. This report describes the simulation, using a custom LLNL developed MCNPX, of list mode neutron correlation data on various fuel assemblies. Some of these fuel assemblies have neutron absorbers (burnable Gd poisons) and partial defect s (DU, Fe, Pb pins). Calibration curves (doubles vs 235 U linear mass density) are presented for fast (with Cd lining) mode of operation. The modeling incorporates LLNL developed neutron crosstalk correction algorithms and stilbene light output detector response quench function. Pileup issues are addressed using the LLNL code GamGen / RadSrc to estimate the flux of alpha decay gammas from the fuel assemblies on the stilbene cells with and without Pb shielding. One panel of the prototype collar using 10 high-efficiency 4”x2” stilbene cells from Inrad Optics, using LLNL developed technology, has been constructed and calibrated for optimal PSD and data acquisition electronics. Several sources (AmLi, AmBe, Cf, DD, and DT) have been measured with the single panel and the measured data is consistent with the modeling. A novel part of our work was to determine the light output (LO) quench function for the Inrad 4” x 2” stilbene crystals through a LLNL-MCNPX simulation based optimized fitting of the measured LO data.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Second Target Station High-Fidelity Target Activation Comparison

The development of the Second Target Station (STS) target system at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is well underway. The target system at STS consists of a rotating target disk that contains 21 segments of tungsten clad in tantalum clad in steel. A key aspect of the design of the target system is to account for the delayed heating and material damage caused by the delayed dose from decaying radionuclides. These radionuclides are a product of either spallation reactions or transmutation of the nuclei in the target system. These radionuclides build up in the target system components over the lifetime of the facility, and the radiation that is emitted can deposit energy in the components causing significant component heating and material damage. Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) Version 6.2 transports the various particle species and calculates the spallation products and neutron fluxes throughout the target system. These spallation products and neutron fluxes along with the material definition of each component are relayed to the CINDER2008 transmutation code to calculate the radionuclide inventories and the corresponding decay gamma emission spectra. MCNP6.2 coupled with CINDER2008 is the computational method-of-choice for the analysis discussed in the following sections of this report. The analysis focuses on validating major assumptions in calculating the radionuclide inventory in the STS target system: all of the target segments are fresh, unirradiated material when the protons are incident on the segment, the average of the 21 segments of the target is sufficient to represent a single segment, and that averaging the proton pulse structure over time does not significantly affect the radionuclide inventory. The position-averaged, high-fidelity, and single-tally computational methods are used to validate the assumptions and provide a point of comparison to evaluate how the assumptions impact the radionuclide inventories. A more detailed explanation of the three computational methods is provided in Section 2. The position-averaged and single-tally methods are less computationally expensive when compared with the high-fidelity method where 54,000 individual calculations are needed to calculate 1 hr of STS operation. Section 3 details the comparison of the three methods to show that the assumptions made in the position-averaged method do not significantly impact the radionuclide inventory after 1 hr of operation. The discussions and results in this report are for 1 hr of operation. Due to the computational cost associated with calculating the transmutation and activation using the high-fidelity method, only 1 hr of operation has been calculated. The discrepancies observed after 1 hr of operation are not extrapolated out to longer operational times, and this report does not address how the discrepancies between the computational methods may manifest for longer operational periods.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

CINDER90 and CINDER2008 Comparison for Second Target Station Analysis

A preliminary target activation analysis for the Second Target Station (STS) at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was preformed using Monte Carlo N-Particle X (MCNPX), CINDER90, and the corresponding multi-group cross section libraries distributed with CINDER90. This preliminary analysis has been used to guide some design decisions of the STS target design. Using the MCNPX output files from this preliminary analysis, a comparison of the activation analysis using CINDER90 and CINDER2008 was performed. While the CINDER90 code has been validated for use in spallation source activation and transmutation calculations, and compares well with measurements, the transition to the modernized version of the code (CINDER2008) and the updated cross section libraries is desirable. The goal of this comparison is to evaluate the differences and implications for the STS activation analysis. Overall, the total activity differs between CINDER2008 and CINDER90 by no more than 20% for the materials evaluated in this report. The largest discrepancies were observed in the decay gamma intensity densities with CINDER90 calculating a factor of 2 higher than CINDER2008.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

New MeV-Scale Capabilities in Large Neutrino LArTPCs Using Ambient Radiogenic and Cosmogenic Activity in MicroBooNE

Large neutrino liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) experiments can broaden their physics reach by reconstructing and interpreting MeV-scale energy depositions present in their data. We use data from MicroBooNE, an 85 tonnes LArTPC exposed to Fermilab neutrino beams from 2015 until 2021, to demonstrate new calorimetric and particle discrimination capabilities for isolated $\sim \mathrm{O}(1 \mathrm{MeV})$ energy depositions referred to as blips. We observe a concentration of low energy ( $<3$ MeV ) blips around fiberglass mechanical support struts along the TPC edges with energy spectrum features consistent with the Compton edge of 2.614 MeV Tl-208 decay gamma rays. These features are used to verify proper calibration of electron energy scales in MicroBooNE's data to few percent precision and to measure the specific activity of Tl-208 in the fiberglass composing these struts. Cosmogenicallyproduced blips above 3 MeV in reconstructed energy are used to showcase the ability of large LArTPCs to distinguish between low-energy proton and electron energy depositions.

Andrade Aldana, Diego Armando↗
DOE OSTI2018

Fast-timing Measurements in $^{100}$Zr Using LaBr$_{3}$(Ce) Detectors Coupled with Gammasphere

In order to investigate the evolution of nuclear deformation in the region of the chart of nuclides around mass numbers A similar or equal to 110 and A similar or equal to 150, an experiment was performed at the Argonne National Laboratory where the gamma-decay radiation emitted from the fission fragments of Cf-252 was measured using 51 Gammasphere detectors coupled with 25 LaBr3 (Ce) detectors. In this work, a short description of the experimental setup is presented together with some preliminary results from the fast-timing analysis of the 4(+) state of the nucleus Zr-100. A lifetime value of tau = 50(28) ps was obtained using the Generalized Centroid Shift Method. This result agrees with the literature value of tau = 53(4) ps within one standard deviation.

Gamba, E. R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Linearly polarized radiation from astrophysical masers due to magnetic fields of intermediate strength

Previous solutions for polarization of astrophysical maser radiation due to closed-shell molecules in a magnetic field have potentially serious limitations. These solutions are mostly based on the approximation that the Zeeman frequency g-Omega is much greater than the rate for stimulated emission R and the rate for decay Gamma of the molecular state. Others are asymptotic solutions obtained for an angular momentum J = 1-0 transition. It has been unclear whether the polarizations due to plausible Zeeman splittings are adequately represented by the solutions obtained for g-Omega/Gamma much greater than 1 and g-Omega/R much greater than 1. Actual masing transitions tend to involve molecular states with angular momenta that are higher than J = 1 and 0. Numerical solutions for the linear polarization are presented here which do not have the foregoing restrictions on the g-Omega and which are not limited to a J = 1-0 transition.

Nedoluha, Gerald E.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of an In Situ Fission Gas Release Instrument for Fuel Sample Irradiations in the High Flux Isotope Reactor

Experimental measurement of gaseous fission product release with respect to temperature and burnup is a critical aspect of understanding nuclear fuel performance, validating predictive models, and qualifying new fuels. To measure this phenomenon in real-time, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed an instrument for measuring in situ fission gas release from small-scale fuel samples irradiated in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). The instrument uses a continuous flow of Heover the fuel samples to sweep gaseous fission products from a sealed capsule in the HFIR Be reflector to an instrument station adjacent to the reactor. The instrument station houses two high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors that measure decay gamma rays from fission products passing through a room temperature dwell chamber placed over the detector crystal. The sealed capsules in the reactor are designed to modulate fuel sample temperatures between 700 and 1,100°C by changing the Ar/He gas mixture surrounding the capsules during irradiation. N-type thermocouples are incorporated into the capsule housing to record real-time fuel temperatures. The capsules are heated primarily by prompt gamma rays emitted from the HFIR core with minimal heat contributions from fission in the fuel samples to minimize temperature gradients in the specimens for separate-effects characterization of the material. This paper describes modeling of time-dependent nuclear heating and fission product formation in fuel samples, thermal characteristics of the in-core capsules, and expected gaseous fission product gamma spectra at the HPGe instrument station.

Mulligan, Padhraic L [ORNL] (ORCID:000000025826540↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reaching For New Physics With MeV-scale Reconstruction In The MicroBooNE LArTPC Neutrino Detector

Large neutrino liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) experiments can broaden their physics reach by reconstructing MeV-Scale energy depositions, or blips, in their data. We demonstrate new calorimetric and particle discrimination capabilities at the MeV scale using reconstructed blips in MicroBooNE LArTPC data at Fermilab. A concentration of low-energy ($<$3 MeV) blips is observed around fiberglass mechanical support struts along the TPC edges, with spectral features consistent with the Compton edge of the 2.614 MeV $^{208}$Tl decay $\gamma$ ray. With these features we perform the electron energy scale calibration to few-percent precision and yield the specific activity of $^{208}$Tl in the struts, $(11.7 \pm 0.2 \text{(stat)} \pm 2.8 \text{(syst)})$ Bq/kg. Using cosmogenic blips above 3 MeV, we demonstrate the ability of large LArTPCs to discriminate low-energy proton and electron depositions. An enriched low-energy proton sample selected with this technique is smaller in data than in dedicated CORSIKA simulations, pointing to possible mismodeling in CORSIKA incident cosmic fluxes or Geant4 particle transport. These methods are applied to MicroBooNE's inclusive single-photon search, which reported a 2.2$\sigma$ excess below 600 MeV in shower energy for events with no reconstructed protons. By identifying and classifying blips near single-photon events selected by the WireCell reconstruction framework, a more comprehensive labeling of nearby hadronic activity is established: blips upstream of the shower axis indicate previously unidentified final-state protons, while elevated blip counts at wide angles signal final-state neutrons. Taken together with MiniBooNE's long-standing low-energy excess (LEE) and MicroBooNE electron-like and sterile neutrino searches disfavored as possible explanations of the MiniBooNE anomaly, this analysis motivates an expanded exploration of the single-photon channel in Fermilab's short-baseline LArTPC program. This thesis documents the current status of this enhanced analysis, which will form a key part of MicroBooNE's final low-energy-excess results.

Andrade Aldana, Diego Armando [IIT, Chicago (main)↗
DOE OSTI2013

Improved Limits on $B^{0}$ Decays to Invisible $(+gamma)$ Final States

We establish improved upper limits on branching fractions for B{sup 0} decays to final states where the decay products are purely invisible (i.e., no observable final state particles) and for final states where the only visible product is a photon. Within the Standard Model, these decays have branching fractions that are below the current experimental sensitivity, but various models of physics beyond the Standard Model predict significant contributions for these channels. Using 471 million B{bar B} pairs collected at the {Upsilon} (4S) resonance by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II e{sup +}e{sup -} storage ring at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, we establish upper limits at the 90% confidence level of 2.4 x 10{sup -5} for the branching fraction of B{sup 0} {yields} invisible and 1.7 x 10{sup -5} for the branching fraction of B{sup 0} {yields} invisible + {gamma}.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Gamma-ray bounds from EAS detectors and heavy decaying dark matter constraints

The very high energy Galactic γ-ray sky is partially opaque in the (0.1–10) PeV energy range. In the light of the recently detected high energy neutrino flux by IceCube, a comparable very high energy γ-ray flux is expected in any scenario with a sizable Galactic contribution to the neutrino flux. Here we elaborate on the peculiar energy and anisotropy features imposed upon these very high energy γ-rays by the absorption on the cosmic microwave background photons and Galactic interstellar light. As a notable application of our considerations, we study the prospects of probing the PeV-scale decaying DM scenario, proposed as a possible source of IceCube neutrinos, by extensive air shower (EAS) cosmic ray experiments. In particular, we show that anisotropy measurements at EAS experiments are already sensitive to τ{sub DM}∼O(10{sup 27}) s and future measurements, using better gamma/hadron separation, can improve the limit significantly.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Search for anomalous gauge couplings in semi-leptonic decays of $WW\gamma$ and $WZ\gamma$ in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 8 TeV

A study of the Standard Model (SM) three electroweak boson production, $WV\gamma$ where V = W or Z gauge boson, is presented concerning events with a leptonically decaying W boson accompanied by a photon and two or more jets. We are using the full 2012 dataset, of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 19.3 fb${}^{-1}$, collected by the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). $WV\gamma$ production final states may be sensitive to anomalous $WW\gamma\gamma$ and $WWZ\gamma$ quartic couplings. In light of the recent discovery of a Higgs-like particle, we investigate, in a model independent way, any deviation of gauge boson couplings with respect to the SM prediction by setting limits on the anomalous quartic gauge couplings (aQGC) for $WW\gamma\gamma$ and $WWZ\gamma$. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are obtained, with and without a form factor.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Investigation of Radiation Cross-Talk Effects on Biological Dose Rates in Maintenance Areas Inside the ITER Tokamak - Paper 107

The intense plasma neutron source of ITER requires careful consideration of radiation safety during the design of the machine, its operation plan and licensing process. One important issue is that of occupational radiation exposure (ORE) during in-situ maintenance activities inside the cryostat, and particularly in the port inter-space area (PI) where up keeping of port systems should take place (diagnostics, tritium breeding test modules, heating antennas). ITER ports and port plugs (PP) become activated by neutron irradiation during plasma operation; from the subsequent decay and gamma emission of irradiated materials, the so-called shutdown dose rate field (SDR) appears. A project requirement of 100 uSv/h after 12 days exists for the SDR in the PI in order to limit exposure during maintenance and meet ORE regulatory limits. This requirement is particularly challenging for equatorial ports (EP) due to, among others, background neutron radiation and activation from/by neighbouring components (a.k.a. 'cross-talk'), and particularly the lower ports (LP). For a particular port inter-space, the SDR field is a combination of: (i) the gamma dose due to the activation of components local to the PI, typically referring to the PI itself plus the port plug, port duct and bellows, vessel extension and blankets in its vicinity; (ii) the gamma dose due to activation of components far away from the PI, a.k.a. the cross-talk, which typically refers to other ports, cryostat and rest of the vacuum vessel and blankets. The situation is complicated to some extent by the fact that both these components can arise from a combination of irradiation by local neutrons, i.e. those permeating through the vicinity of the port itself, and by cross-talk neutrons, i.e. those permeating via other paths. In simple terms, the so-called 'neutron cross-talk' refers to neutron leakage through other ports and components producing activation, decay gammas and dose locally in the PI of interest, whereas the 'gamma cross-talk' refers to activation and decay gammas in other ports producing dose in the PI from far away. The study reported here focuses on the evaluation of the effect of radiation cross-talk from a torus cryopump (TCP) LP located directly underneath a generic diagnostics equatorial port plug (DEPP) in the equatorial port itself. This is considered the worst case scenario, as the TCP-LP has a large aperture and has to be mostly empty in order to meet TCP pumping requirements. For the reference case and R1, the neutron cross-talk from the LP activating the EP is responsible for 109 uSv/h. In addition, a gamma cross-talk of 51 uSv/h from LP activation has been found. The total cross-talk contribution is therefore responsible for 160 uSv/h of SDR at EP PI. The local SDR contribution, i.e. that from activation of the EP with 'local-only' neutrons, is 166 uSv/h. The total SDR at R1 is 360 uSv/h, including some minor contributions from the UP, lateral EPs, cryostat and bio-shield. The total SDR at R2 is 349 uSv/hr, with a cross-talk contribution of 203 uSv/h. In R2 the gamma cross-talk is more intense, as it is closer to the highly activated TCPH. These results illustrate how the SDR field produced by radiation cross-talk through a TCP-LP is comparable in magnitude with that produced by neutron leakage and activation local to the EP. Shielding options are currently under consideration. Local gamma shielding at the EP PI is found to be effective in reducing gamma cross-talk from the LP and TCPH, and also in reducing the local contribution from the port duct and bellows. (authors)

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Identification and elimination of anomalous thermal decay in gamma-ray microcalorimeters

Microcalorimeter detectors rely on superconducting components and cryogenic temperatures to provide over an order-of-magnitude improvement in energy resolution compared to semiconducting sensors. Resolution improvements impact fields from gamma-ray astrophysics to nuclear safeguards. The temporal response of these detectors has been much slower than predicted from the known device parameters. This discrepancy has been attributed to the dynamics of quasiparticles and phonons in the bulk absorber used for absorbing photons. We will show that long-lived states in the glue used for absorber attachment have been the dominant cause of the slow response. Also, we have fabricated microcalorimeters using metal-to-metal diffusion bonding to attach the absorber. These detectors show a significant improvement in their recovery after gamma-ray events and will now enable study of the internal scattering dynamics of the bulk absorber.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗