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At least 109 records · Page 6

$|V_{ub}|$ from $B\to\pi\ell\nu$ decays and (2+1)-flavor lattice QCD

We present a lattice-QCD calculation of the B → πℓν semileptonic form factors and a new determination of the CKM matrix element |V ub |. We use the MILC asqtad (2+1)-flavor lattice configurations at four lattice spacings and light-quark masses down to 1/20 of the physical strange-quark mass. We extrapolate the lattice form factors to the continuum using staggered chiral perturbation theory in the hard-pion and SU(2) limits. We employ a model-independent z parametrization to extrapolate our lattice form factors from large-recoil momentum to the full kinematic range. We introduce a new functional method to propagate information from the chiral-continuum extrapolation to the z expansion. We present our results together with a complete systematic error budget, including a covariance matrix to enable the combination of our form factors with other lattice-QCD and experimental results. To obtain |V ub |, we simultaneously fit the experimental data for the B → πℓν differential decay rate obtained by the BABAR and Belle collaborations together with our lattice form-factor results. We find |V ub |=(3.72±0.16) × 10 –3 , where the error is from the combined fit to lattice plus experiments and includes all sources of uncertainty. Our form-factor results bring the QCD error on |V ub | to the same level as the experimental error. We also provide results for the B → πℓν vector and scalar form factors obtained from the combined lattice and experiment fit, which are more precisely determined than from our lattice-QCD calculation alone. Lastly, these results can be used in other phenomenological applications and to test other approaches to QCD.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Is ExacTrac x-ray system an alternative to CBCT for positioning patients with head and neck cancers?

Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of a six-degrees-of freedom (6D) correction using ExacTrac robotics system in patients with head-and-neck (HN) cancer receiving radiation therapy.Methods: Local setup accuracy was analyzed for 12 patients undergoing intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Patient position was imaged daily upon two different protocols, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), and ExacTrac (ET) images correction. Setup data from either approach were compared in terms of both residual errors after correction and punctual displacement of selected regions of interest (Mandible, C2, and C6 vertebral bodies).Results: On average, both protocols achieved reasonably low residual errors after initial correction. The observed differences in shift vectors between the two protocols showed that CBCT tends to weight more C2 and C6 at the expense of the mandible, while ET tends to average more differences among the different ROIs.Conclusions: CBCT, even without 6D correction capabilities, seems preferable to ET for better consistent alignment and the capability to see soft tissues. Therefore, in our experience, CBCT represents a benchmark for positioning head and neck cancer patients.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

An unstructured-mesh finite-volume MPDATA for compressible atmospheric dynamics

An advancement of the unstructured-mesh finite-volume MPDATA (Multidimensional Positive Definite Advection Transport Algorithm) is presented that formulates the error-compensative pseudo-velocity of the scheme to rely only on face-normal advective fluxes to the dual cells, in contrast to the full vector employed in previous implementations. This is essentially achieved by expressing the temporal truncation error underlying the pseudo-velocity in a form consistent with the flux-divergence of the governing conservation law. The development is especially important for integrating fluid dynamics equations on non-rectilinear meshes whenever face-normal advective mass fluxes are employed for transport compatible with mass continuity—the latter being essential for flux-form schemes. In particular, the proposed formulation enables large-time-step semi-implicit finite-volume integration of the compressible Euler equations using MPDATA on arbitrary hybrid computational meshes. Furthermore, it facilitates multiple error-compensative iterations of the finite-volume MPDATA and improved overall accuracy. The advancement combines straightforwardly with earlier developments, such as the nonoscillatory option, the infinite-gauge variant, and moving curvilinear meshes. A comprehensive description of the scheme is provided for a hybrid horizontally-unstructured vertically-structured computational mesh for efficient global atmospheric flow modelling. The proposed finite-volume MPDATA is verified using selected 3D global atmospheric benchmark simulations, representative of hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic flow regimes. Besides the added capabilities, the scheme retains fully the efficacy of established finite-volume MPDATA formulations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Sensor Drift Estimation for Reactor Systems by Fusing Multiple Sensor Measurements

A nuclear power plant is instrumented with a variety of sensors that monitor its variables to estimate the state and initiate safety actions, if needed. We address the problem of estimating drifts or errors in sensor measurements due to factors such as calibration changes. We propose an information fusion method that uses measurements from other sensors to generate an estimate of a sensor measurement, and its difference from an actual measurement provides an error estimate. We present two fusers based on the ensemble of trees and support vector machine that are trained using sensor measurements collected at an emulated test loop of a pressurized water reactor under no-drift conditions. We present error estimates for a differential pressure sensor of the heat exchanger of the primary coolant system, under twenty controlled scenarios using the test loop. Both positive and negative errors are captured by both methods in scenarios involving calibration drifts, blocking, air gap and electromagnetic interference. The root mean square errors of estimated drifts are typically within 2% percent of the maximum.

Rao, Nageswara↗

Consistent Feature Extraction From Vector Fields: Combinatorial Representations and Analysis Under Local Reference Frames

This dissertation presents research on addressing some of the contemporary challenges in the analysis of vector fields—an important type of scientific data useful for representing a multitude of physical phenomena, such as wind flow and ocean currents. In particular, new theories and computational frameworks to enable consistent feature extraction from vector fields are presented. One of the most fundamental challenges in the analysis of vector fields is that their features are defined with respect to reference frames. Unfortunately, there is no single “correct” reference frame for analysis, and an unsuitable frame may cause features of interest to remain undetected, thus creating serious physical consequences. This work develops new reference frames that enable extraction of localized features that other techniques and frames fail to detect. As a result, these reference frames objectify the notion of “correctness” of features for certain goals by revealing the phenomena of importance from the underlying data. An important consequence of using these local frames is that the analysis of unsteady (time-varying) vector fields can be reduced to the analysis of sequences of steady (timeindependent) vector fields, which can be performed using simpler and scalable techniques that allow better data management by accessing the data on a per-time-step basis. Nevertheless, the state-of-the-art analysis of steady vector fields is not robust, as most techniques are numerical in nature. The residing numerical errors can violate consistency with the underlying theory by breaching important fundamental laws, which may lead to serious physical consequences. This dissertation considers consistency as the most fundamental characteristic of computational analysis that must always be preserved, and presents a new discrete theory that uses combinatorial representations and algorithms to provide consistency guarantees during vector field analysis along with the uncertainty visualization of unavoidable discretization errors. Together, the two main contributions of this dissertation address two important concerns regarding feature extraction from scientific data: correctness and precision. The work presented here also opens new avenues for further research by exploring more-general reference frames and more-sophisticated domain discretizations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Tensor-based flow reconstruction from optimally located sensor measurements

Reconstructing high-resolution flow fields from sparse measurements is a major challenge in fluid dynamics. Existing methods often vectorize the flow by stacking different spatial directions on top of each other, hence confounding the information encoded in different dimensions. Here, we introduce a tensor-based sensor placement and flow reconstruction method which retains and exploits the inherent multidimensionality of the flow. We derive estimates for the flow reconstruction error, storage requirements and computational cost of our method. We show, with examples, that our tensor-based method is significantly more accurate than similar vectorized methods. Furthermore, the variance of the error is smaller when using our tensor-based method. While the computational cost of our method is comparable to similar vectorized methods, it reduces the storage cost by several orders of magnitude. The reduced storage cost becomes even more pronounced as the dimension of the flow increases. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method on three examples: a chaotic Kolmogorov flow, in situ and satellite measurements of the global sea surface temperature and three-dimensional unsteady simulated flow around a marine research vessel.

Mechanics↗

Signatures of anisotropic sources in the trispectrum of the cosmic microwave background

Soft limits of N-point correlation functions, in which one wavenumber is much smaller than the others, play a special role in constraining the physics of inflation. Anisotropic sources such as a vector field during inflation generate distinct angular dependence in all these correlators, and introduce a fix privileged direction in our sky. In this paper we focus on the four-point correlator (the trispectrum T). We adopt a parametrization motivated by models in which the inflaton φ is coupled to a vector field through a I{sup 2}(φ)F{sup 2} interaction, namely T{sub ζ}(k{sub 1},k{sub 2},k{sub 3},k{sub 4})≡∑{sub n}d{sub n}[P{sub n}( k-circumflex {sub 1}⋅ k-circumflex {sub 3})+P{sub n}( k-circumflex {sub 1}⋅ k-circumflex {sub 12})+P{sub n}( k-circumflex {sub 3}⋅ k-circumflex {sub 12})]P{sub ζ}(k{sub 1})P{sub ζ}(k{sub 3})P{sub ζ}(k{sub 12})+(23perm), where P{sub n} denotes the Legendre polynomials. This shape is enhanced when the wavenumbers of the diagonals of the quadrilateral are much smaller than the sides, k{sub i}. The coefficient of the isotropic part, d{sub 0}, is equal to τ{sub NL}/6 discussed in the literature. A I{sup 2}(φ)F{sup 2} interaction generates d{sub 2} = 2d{sub 0} which is, in turn, related to the quadrupole modulation parameter of the power spectrum, g{sub *}, as d{sub 2} ≈ 14|g{sub *}|N{sup 2} with N ≈ 60. We show that d{sub 0} and d{sub 2} can be equally well-constrained: the expected 68% CL error bars on these coefficients from a cosmic-variance-limited experiment measuring temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background up to ℓ{sub max} = 2000 are δd{sub 2} ≈ 4δd{sub 0} = 105. Therefore, we can reach |g{sub *}| = 10{sup −3} by measuring the angle-dependent trispectrum. The current upper limit on τ{sub NL} from the Planck temperature maps yields |g{sub *}| < 0.02 (95% CL)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Commissioning of SRF Cavity Analyzer System

Research and development in Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) cavities manufacturing, surface treatment, preparation, and doping techniques for the improvement of cavities performance necessitate reliable cavities’ intrinsic quality factor measurement with accurate and repeatable results. Fermilab Vertical Test Stand facility (VTS) performs ~270 cavities tests per year, including R&D cavities as well as production cavities at each step of their preparation for the placement in accelerator’s cryomodules. Current Fermilab VTS testing system is based on the scalar approach of power measurement, which neglects potential error factors of the RF networks with distributed parameters, hence the assessed measurement errors of such a system might be slightly underestimated. Alternative approach, utilizing a vector measurement (amplitude and phase) of RF signals in the setup with a cavity as a device under test, promises an enhanced accuracy and results traceability. New cavity an alyser system based on this approach (Vector VTS) was developed by D. Frolov et al. and currently undergoes a commissioning process. Basic underlying principles of the system will be presented with the methods of quality factor extraction from S-parameters measurement of multiport cavities and brief error analysis will be discussed. The system architecture will be shown with main components parameters and ensuing testing capabilities. Multiple tests results will be discussed with a cross-check comparison of the results obtained with a conventional testing method. System advantages such as automated calibration process and additional features as a built- in microphonics measurement capability will be presented.

Netepenko, A.↗

Decoding and optimized implementation of SECDED codes over GF(q)

A plurality of columns for a check matrix that implements a distance d linear error correcting code are populated by providing a set of vectors from which to populate the columns, and applying to the set of vectors a filter operation that reduces the set by eliminating therefrom all vectors that would, if used to populate the columns, prevent the check matrix from satisfying a column-wise linear independence requirement associated with check matrices of distance d linear codes. One of the vectors from the reduced set may then be selected to populate one of the columns. The filtering and selecting repeats iteratively until either all of the columns are populated or the number of currently unpopulated columns exceeds the number of vectors in the reduced set. Columns for the check matrix may be processed to reduce the amount of logic needed to implement the check matrix in circuit logic.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Design, decoding and optimized implementation of SECDED codes over GF(q)

A plurality of columns for a check matrix that implements a distance d linear error correcting code are populated by providing a set of vectors from which to populate the columns, and applying to the set of vectors a filter operation that reduces the set by eliminating therefrom all vectors that would, if used to populate the columns, prevent the check matrix from satisfying a column-wise linear independence requirement associated with check matrices of distance d linear codes. One of the vectors from the reduced set may then be selected to populate one of the columns. The filtering and selecting repeats iteratively until either all of the columns are populated or the number of currently unpopulated columns exceeds the number of vectors in the reduced set. Columns for the check matrix may be processed to reduce the amount of logic needed to implement the check matrix in circuit logic.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Decoding and optimized implementation of SECDED codes over GF(q)

A plurality of columns for a check matrix that implements a distance d linear error correcting code are populated by providing a set of vectors from which to populate the columns, and applying to the set of vectors a filter operation that reduces the set by eliminating therefrom all vectors that would, if used to populate the columns, prevent the check matrix from satisfying a column-wise linear independence requirement associated with check matrices of distance d linear codes. One of the vectors from the reduced set may then be selected to populate one of the columns. The filtering and selecting repeats iteratively until either all of the columns are populated or the number of currently unpopulated columns exceeds the number of vectors in the reduced set. Columns for the check matrix may be processed to reduce the amount of logic needed to implement the check matrix in circuit logic.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Combining Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing and Galaxy Clustering

Combining galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering is a promising method for inferring the growth rate of large scale structure, a quantity that will shed light on the mechanism driving the acceleration of the Universe. The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a prime candidate for such an analysis, with its measurements of both the distribution of galaxies on the sky and the tangential shears of background galaxies induced by these foreground lenses. By constructing an end-to-end analysis that combines large-scale galaxy clustering and small-scale galaxy-galaxy lensing, we also forecast the potential of a combined probes analysis on DES datasets. In particular, we develop a practical approach to a DES combined probes analysis by jointly modeling the assumptions and systematics affecting the different components of the data vector, employing a shared halo model, HOD parametrization, photometric redshift errors, and shear measurement errors. Furthermore, we study the effect of external priors on different subsets of these parameters. We conclude that DES data will provide powerful constraints on the evolution of structure growth in the universe, conservatively/ optimistically constraining the growth function to 8%/4.9% with its first-year data covering 1000 square degrees, and to 4%/2.3% with its full five-year data covering 5000 square degrees.

Park, Youngsoo↗

First Clinical Release of an Online, Adaptive, Aperture-Based Image-Guided Radiotherapy Strategy in Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy to Correct for Inter- and Intrafractional Rotations of the Prostate

Purpose: We developed and evaluated a correction strategy for prostate rotations using direct adaptation of segments in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Method and Materials: Implanted fiducials (four gold markers) were used to determine interfractional translations, rotations, and dilations of the prostate. We used hybrid imaging: The markers were automatically detected in two pretreatment planar X-ray projections; their actual position in three-dimensional space was reconstructed from these images at first. The structure set comprising prostate, seminal vesicles, and adjacent rectum wall was transformed accordingly in 6 degrees of freedom. Shapes of IMRT segments were geometrically adapted in a class solution forward-planning approach, derived within seconds on-site and treated immediately. Intrafractional movements were followed in MV electronic portal images captured on the fly. Results: In 31 of 39 patients, for 833 of 1013 fractions (supine, flat couch, knee support, comfortably full bladder, empty rectum, no intraprostatic marker migrations >2 mm of more than one marker), the online aperture adaptation allowed safe reduction of margins clinical target volume-planning target volume (prostate) down to 5 mm when only interfractional corrections were applied: Dominant L-R rotations were found to be 5.3 Degree-Sign (mean of means), standard deviation of means {+-}4.9 Degree-Sign , maximum at 30.7 Degree-Sign . Three-dimensional vector translations relative to skin markings were 9.3 {+-} 4.4 mm (maximum, 23.6 mm). Intrafractional movements in 7.7 {+-} 1.5 min (maximum, 15.1 min) between kV imaging and last beam's electronic portal images showed further L-R rotations of 2.5 Degree-Sign {+-} 2.3 Degree-Sign (maximum, 26.9 Degree-Sign ), and three-dimensional vector translations of 3.0 {+-}3.7 mm (maximum, 10.2 mm). Addressing intrafractional errors could further reduce margins to 3 mm. Conclusion: We demonstrated the clinical feasibility of an online adaptive image-guided, intensity-modulated prostate protocol on a standard linear accelerator to correct 6 degrees of freedom of internal organ motion, allowing safe and straightforward implementation of margin reduction and dose escalation.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

A Particle-in-Cell Method for Plasmas with a Generalized Momentum Formulation, Part II: Enforcing the Lorenz Gauge Condition

In a previous paper Christlieb et al. (A particle-in-cell method for plasmas with a generalized momentum formulation, part I: Model formulation, 2024), we developed a new particle-in-cell (PIC) method for the relativistic Vlasov–Maxwell system in which the electromagnetic fields and the equations of motion for the particles were cast in terms of scalar and vector potentials through a Hamiltonian formulation. This new method evolved the potentials under the Lorenz gauge using integral equation methods. New methods to construct spatial derivatives of the potentials that converge at the same rates as the fields were also presented. The new particle method was compared against standard explicit discretizations, including the well-known FDTD-PIC method, for a range of applications involving sheaths and particle beams. Here, this paper extends this new class of methods by focusing on the enforcement the Lorenz gauge condition in both exact and approximate forms using co-located meshes. A time-consistency property of the proposed field solver for the vector potential form of Maxwell’s equations is established, which is shown to preserve the equivalence between the semi-discrete Lorenz gauge condition and the analogous semi-discrete continuity equation. Using this property, we present three methods to enforce a semi-discrete gauge condition. The first method introduces an update for the continuity equation that is consistent with the discretization of the Lorenz gauge condition. Both the finite difference and spectral implementations satisfy this discrete gauge condition to machine precision. The second approach we propose enforces a semi-discrete continuity equation using the boundary integral solution to the field equations. The potential benefit of this approach is that it eliminates spatial derivatives that appear on the particle data, namely the current density, which is often calculated by linear combinations of low-order spline basis functions. This method is ideally suited to boundary integral equation methods that invert multi-dimensional operators without dimensional splitting techniques and will be the subject of future work. The third approach introduces a gauge correcting method that makes direct use of the gauge condition to modify the scalar potential and uses local maps for both the charge and current densities. This results in a gauge error, as the maps do not enforce the continuity equation. The vector potential coming from the current density is taken to be exact, and using the Lorenz gauge, we compute a correction to the scalar potential that makes the two potentials satisfy the gauge condition. This method also enforces the gauge condition to machine precision. We demonstrate two of the proposed methods in the context of periodic domains. Problems defined on bounded domains, including those with complex geometric features remain an ongoing effort. However, this work shows that it is possible to design computationally efficient methods that can effectively enforce the Lorenz gauge condition in a non-staggered PIC formulation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Volumetric Image Guidance Using Carina vs Spine as Registration Landmarks for Conventionally Fractionated Lung Radiotherapy

Purpose: To compare the relative accuracy of 2 image guided radiation therapy methods using carina vs spine as landmarks and then to identify which landmark is superior relative to tumor coverage. Methods and Materials: For 98 lung patients, 2596 daily image-guidance cone-beam computed tomography scans were analyzed. Tattoos were used for initial patient alignment; then, spine and carina registrations were performed independently. A separate analysis assessed the adequacy of gross tumor volume, internal target volume, and planning target volume coverage on cone-beam computed tomography using the initial, middle, and final fractions of radiation therapy. Coverage was recorded for primary tumor (T), nodes (N), and combined target (T+N). Three scenarios were compared: tattoos alignment, spine registration, and carina registration. Results: Spine and carina registrations identified setup errors {>=}5 mm in 35% and 46% of fractions, respectively. The mean vector difference between spine and carina matching had a magnitude of 3.3 mm. Spine and carina improved combined target coverage, compared with tattoos, in 50% and 34% (spine) to 54% and 46% (carina) of the first and final fractions, respectively. Carina matching showed greater combined target coverage in 17% and 23% of fractions for the first and final fractions, respectively; with spine matching, this was only observed in 4% (first) and 6% (final) of fractions. Carina matching provided superior nodes coverage at the end of radiation compared with spine matching (P=.0006), without compromising primary tumor coverage. Conclusion: Frequent patient setup errors occur in locally advanced lung cancer patients. Spine and carina registrations improved combined target coverage throughout the treatment course, but carina matching provided superior combined target coverage.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Low-rank separated representation surrogates of high-dimensional stochastic functions: Application in Bayesian inference

This study introduces a non-intrusive approach in the context of low-rank separated representation to construct a surrogate of high-dimensional stochastic functions, e.g., PDEs/ODEs, in order to decrease the computational cost of Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations in Bayesian inference. The surrogate model is constructed via a regularized alternative least-square regression with Tikhonov regularization using a roughening matrix computing the gradient of the solution, in conjunction with a perturbation-based error indicator to detect optimal model complexities. The model approximates a vector of a continuous solution at discrete values of a physical variable. The required number of random realizations to achieve a successful approximation linearly depends on the function dimensionality. The computational cost of the model construction is quadratic in the number of random inputs, which potentially tackles the curse of dimensionality in high-dimensional stochastic functions. Furthermore, this vector-valued separated representation-based model, in comparison to the available scalar-valued case, leads to a significant reduction in the cost of approximation by an order of magnitude equal to the vector size. The performance of the method is studied through its application to three numerical examples including a 41-dimensional elliptic PDE and a 21-dimensional cavity flow.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Second-Order Time-Stepping Scheme for Simulating Ensembles of Parameterized Flow Problems

Abstract We consider settings for which one needs to perform multiple flow simulations based on the Navier–Stokes equations, each having different initial condition data, boundary condition data, forcing functions, and/or coefficients such as the viscosity. For such settings, we propose a second-order time accurate ensemble-based method that to simulate the whole set of solutions, requires, at each time step, the solution of only a single linear system with multiple right-hand-side vectors. Rigorous analyses are given proving the conditional stability and establishing error estimates for the proposed algorithm. Numerical experiments are provided that illustrate the analyses.

Mathematics↗