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At least 1,099 records · Page 61
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Two symmetric n-type interfaces SrTiO{sub 3}/LaAlO{sub 3} in perovskite: Electronic properties from density functional theory

The first principles study of the (001) two symmetric n-type interfaces between two insulating perovskites, the nonpolar SrTiO{sub 3} (STO), and the polar LaAlO{sub 3} (LAO) was performed. We have analyzed the formation of metallic interface states between the STO and LAO heterointerfaces by using the all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave approach based on the density functional theory, within the local density approximation, the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximation (PBE-GGA), and the Engel-Vosko GGA (EVGGA) formalism. It has been found that some bands cross the Fermi energy level (E{sub F}), forming a metallic nature of two symmetric n-type 6.5STO/1.5LAO interfaces with density of states at E{sub F}, N(E{sub F}) of about 3.56 (state/eV/unit cell), and bare electronic specific heat coefficient (γ) of about 0.62 mJ/(mol cell K{sup 2}). The electronic band stature and the partial density of states in the vicinity of E{sub F} are mainly originated from Ti1,2,3,4-3dxy orbitals. These bands are responsible for the metallic behavior and the forming of the Fermi surface of the two symmetric n-type 6.5STO/1.5LAO interfaces. To obtain a clear map of the valence band electronic charge density distribution of the two symmetric n-type 6.5STO/1.5LAO interfaces, we have investigated the bond's nature and the interactions between the atoms. It reveals that the charge is attracted towards O atoms as it is clear that the O atoms are surrounded by uniform blue spheres which indicate the maximum charge accumulation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Customizable two-species kinetic equilibria for nonuniform low-beta plasmas

Here, two methods are developed for constructing self-consistent two-species kinetic equilibria for low-beta electrostatic plasmas, in which the magnetic field is uniform and fixed in time. The first method uses Taylor series approximations to construct distribution functions that can be specified analytically. The second method relies on numerically solving a nonlinear ordinary differential equation and produces exact—to numerical precision—equilibria. In both methods, the equilibrium distribution functions for ions and electrons are expressed in terms of constants of motion and satisfy the steady-state Vlasov-Poisson equation system. Provided that the ion drift speed does not exceed the ion thermal speed, the equilibria can be specified with customizable density and electrostatic potential profiles. The methods can thereby be tailored to different applications and are successfully applied to construct kinetic equilibria for cross-field plasmas with sheared flows, large density variations, and different levels of magnetization. The equilibria are used to initialize fourth-order finite-volume Vlasov-Poisson simulations in (x, v x , v y ) coordinates and the associated temporal evolution is used to assess the accuracy of each method. Lastly, the low-amplitude deviations observed in these simulations demonstrate that the kinetic equilibria are robust and that they provide a valuable means of studying the dynamics of nonuniform magnetized plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

LUMINOSITY EVOLUTION OF GAMMA-RAY PULSARS

We investigate the electrodynamic structure of a pulsar outer-magnetospheric particle accelerator and the resulting gamma-ray emission. By considering the condition for the accelerator to be self-sustained, we derive how the trans-magnetic-field thickness of the accelerator evolves with the pulsar age. It is found that the thickness is small but increases steadily if the neutron-star envelope is contaminated by sufficient light elements. For such a light element envelope, the gamma-ray luminosity of the accelerator is kept approximately constant as a function of age in the initial 10,000 yr, forming the lower bound of the observed distribution of the gamma-ray luminosity of rotation-powered pulsars. If the envelope consists of only heavy elements, on the other hand, the thickness is greater, but it increases less rapidly than a light element envelope. For such a heavy element envelope, the gamma-ray luminosity decreases relatively rapidly, forming the upper bound of the observed distribution. The gamma-ray luminosity of a general pulsar resides between these two extreme cases, reflecting the envelope composition and the magnetic inclination angle with respect to the rotation axis. The cutoff energy of the primary curvature emission is regulated below several GeV even for young pulsars because the gap thickness, and hence the acceleration electric field, is suppressed by the polarization of the produced pairs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Does loop quantum cosmology replace the big rip singularity by a non-singular bounce?

It is stated that holonomy corrections in loop quantum cosmology introduce a modification in Friedmann's equation which prevent the big rip singularity. Recently in [1] it has been proved that this modified Friedmann equation is obtained in an inconsistent way, what means that the results deduced from it, in particular the big rip singularity avoidance, are not justified. The problem is that holonomy corrections modify the gravitational part of the Hamiltonian of the system leading, after Legendre's transformation, to a non covariant Lagrangian which is in contradiction with one of the main principles of General Relativity. A more consistent way to deal with the big rip singularity avoidance is to disregard modification in the gravitational part of the Hamiltonian, and only consider inverse volume effects [2]. In this case we will see that, not like the big bang singularity, the big rip singularity survives in loop quantum cosmology. Another way to deal with the big rip avoidance is to take into account geometric quantum effects given by the the Wheeler-De Witt equation. In that case, even though the wave packets spread, the expectation values satisfy the same equations as their classical analogues. Then, following the viewpoint adopted in loop quantum cosmology, one can conclude that the big rip singularity survives when one takes into account these quantum effects. However, the spreading of the wave packets prevents the recover of the semiclassical time, and thus, one might conclude that the classical evolution of the universe come to and end before the big rip is reached. This is not conclusive because. as we will see, it always exists other external times that allows us to define the classical and quantum evolution of the universe up to the big rip singularity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

A general reconstruction of the recent expansion history of the universe

Distance measurements are currently the most powerful tool to study the expansion history of the universe without specifying its matter content nor any theory of gravitation. Assuming only an isotropic, homogeneous and flat universe, in this work we introduce a model-independent method to reconstruct directly the deceleration function via a piecewise function. Including a penalty factor, we are able to vary continuously the complexity of the deceleration function from a linear case to an arbitrary (n+1)-knots spline interpolation. We carry out a Monte Carlo (MC) analysis to determine the best penalty factor, evaluating the bias-variance trade-off, given the uncertainties of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova combined sample (JLA), compilations of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and H(z) data. The bias-variance analysis is done for three fiducial models with different features in the deceleration curve. We perform the MC analysis generating mock catalogs and computing their best-fit. For each fiducial model, we test different reconstructions using, in each case, more than 10{sup 4} catalogs in a total of about 5× 10{sup 5}. This investigation proved to be essential in determining the best reconstruction to study these data. We show that, evaluating a single fiducial model, the conclusions about the bias-variance ratio are misleading. We determine the reconstruction method in which the bias represents at most 10% of the total uncertainty. In all statistical analyses, we fit the coefficients of the deceleration function along with four nuisance parameters of the supernova astrophysical model. For the full sample, we also fit H{sub 0} and the sound horizon r{sub s}(z{sub d}) at the drag redshift. The bias-variance trade-off analysis shows that, apart from the deceleration function, all other estimators are unbiased. Finally, we apply the Ensemble Sampler Markov Chain Monte Carlo (ESMCMC) method to explore the posterior of the deceleration function up to redshift 1.3 (using only JLA) and 2.3 (JLA+BAO+H(z)). We obtain that the standard cosmological model agrees within 3σ level with the reconstructed results in the whole studied redshift intervals. Since our method is calibrated to minimize the bias, the error bars of the reconstructed functions are a good approximation for the total uncertainty.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Multispace quantum interference in a {sup 57}Fe synchrotron Moessbauer source

A physical picture for coherent emission of {gamma} rays by a nuclear array excited with synchrotron radiation is given. The particular case of a pure nuclear Bragg reflection from the {sup 57}FeBO{sub 3} crystal is analyzed. During free de-excitation of the nuclei, a nuclear exciton polariton is developing inside the crystal and generates at the exit of the crystal a coherent {gamma}-ray beam. In the crystal the nuclear levels of {sup 57}Fe are split because of a combined magnetic and electric interaction. The rich picture of {gamma}-ray interference is described, which involves geometrical space, energy, and spin domains. In the vicinity of the Neel temperature of the crystal the magnetic splitting of nuclear levels nearly collapses. These conditions lead to drastic changes in the angular, energy, and temporal properties of the emitted radiation. The emission angular function, which in the approximation of a plane incident wave represents the emission intensity for different angular settings of the crystal near Bragg angle, strongly broadens and transforms to a double-hump structure with a central dip between the peaks. The energy and temporal distributions of the emitted radiation crucially depend upon the crystal angular setting. Beyond the central dip, the energy distribution of nuclear scattering acquires a complicated form with several satellites at various energies. In contrast, at the exact angular position of the central dip, the energy spectrum exhibits a single line shape with the line width close to the natural width of the nuclear resonance. The obtained results constitute the theoretical basis for the understanding and for the further elaboration of the {sup 57}Fe synchrotron Moessbauer source--the device that provides a collimated beam of intense and polarized {gamma} radiation in an energy bandwidth of nanoelectronvolts, the nuclear resonance natural level width.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

First-principles coupled cluster theory of the electronic spectrum of transition metal dichalcogenides

The electronic properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDs) have attracted much attention during the last decade. Here we show how a diagrammatic ab initio coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) treatment paired with a careful thermodynamic limit extrapolation in two dimensions can be used to obtain converged band gaps for monolayer materials in the MoS 2 family. We find CCSD gaps to lie in the upper range of the spread of $\textit{GW}$ approximation based on density functional theory (DFT) simulations, and also find slightly higher effective hole masses compared to previous reports. We also investigate the ability of CCSD to describe trion states, finding a reasonable qualitative structure, but poor excitation energies due to the lack of screening of three-particle excitations in the effective Hamiltonian. Our study provides an independent high-level benchmark of the role of many-body effects in 2D TMDs and showcases the potential strengths and weaknesses of diagrammatic coupled cluster approaches for realistic materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Cumulant methods for electron-phonon problems. I. Perturbative expansions

Here in this work, we investigate the ability of the cumulant expansion (CE) to capture one-particle spectral information in electron-phonon coupled systems at both zero and finite temperatures. In particular, we present a comprehensive study of the second- and fourth-order CEs for the one-dimensional Holstein model as compared with numerically exact methods. We investigate both finite sized systems as well as the approach to the thermodynamic limit, drawing distinctions, and connections between the behavior of systems in and away from the thermodynamic limit that enable a greater understanding of the ability of the CE to capture real-frequency information across the full range of wave vectors. We find that for zero electronic momentum, the spectral function is well described by the second-order CE at low and high temperatures. However, for nonzero electronic momenta, the CE is only accurate at high temperature. We analyze the fourth-order cumulant and find that while it improves the description of the short-time dynamics encoded in the one-particle Green's function, it can introduce divergences in the time domain as well as unphysical negative spectral weight in the spectral function. When well-behaved, the fourth-order CE does provide notable accurate corrections to the second-order CE. Finally, we use our results to comment on the use of the CE as a tool for calculating transport behavior in the realistic ab initio modeling of materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Cumulant methods for electron-phonon problems. II. The self-consistent cumulant expansion

Here in this paper we present a self-consistent cumulant expansion (SC-CE) and investigate its accuracy for the one-dimensional Holstein model with and without phonon dispersion. We show that for finite lattice sizes, the numerical integration of the SC-CE equations becomes unstable at long times. This defect is partially ameliorated when studying systems in the thermodynamic limit, enabling the demonstration that the SC-CE corrects many deficits of the standard perturbative CE in the (nondispersive) Holstein model. The natural phonon damping that arises in the more realistic dispersed Holstein model renders the SC-CE stable, allowing for a complete assessment of the method. Here, we find that self-consistency dramatically corrects many of the failures found in the perturbative CE, but also introduces some unphysical features. Finally, we comment on the potential use of SC-CE as a tool for calculating Green's functions in generic many-body problems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Random insights into the complexity of two-dimensional tensor network calculations

Projected entangled pair states (PEPS) offer memory-efficient representations of some quantum many-body states that obey an entanglement area law and are the basis for classical simulations of ground states in two-dimensional (2d) condensed matter systems. However, rigorous results show that exactly computing observables from a 2d PEPS state is generically a computationally hard problem. Yet approximation schemes for computing properties of 2d PEPS are regularly used, and empirically seen to succeed, for a large subclass of (“not too entangled”) condensed matter ground states. Adopting the philosophy of random matrix theory, in this work, we analyze the complexity of approximately contracting a 2d random PEPS by exploiting an analytic mapping to an effective replicated statistical mechanics model that permits a controlled analysis at a large bond dimension. Through this statistical-mechanics lens, we argue that (i) although approximately sampling wave-function amplitudes of random PEPS faces a computational-complexity phase transition above a critical bond dimension, and (ii) one can generically efficiently estimate the norm and correlation functions for any finite bond dimension. Furthermore, these results are supported numerically for various bond-dimension regimes. It is an important open question whether the above results for random PEPS apply more generally also to PEPS representing physically relevant ground states.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Thermal conductivity in large-J two-dimensional antiferromagnets: Role of phonon scattering

Motivated by the recent heat transport experiments in 2D antiferromagnets, such as La 2 CuO 4 , where the exchange coupling J is larger than the Debye energy Θ D , we discuss different types of relaxation processes for magnon heat current with a particular focus on coupling to 3D phonons. In this work, we study thermal conductivity by these in-plane magnetic excitations using two distinct techniques, Boltzmann formalism within the relaxation-time approximation and memory-function approach. Within these approaches, a close consideration is given to the scattering of magnons by both acoustic and optical branches of phonons. A remarkable accord between the two methods with regards to the asymptotic behavior of the effective relaxation rates is demonstrated. Additional scattering mechanisms, due to grain boundaries, impurities, and finite correlation length in the paramagnetic phase, are discussed and included in the calculations of the thermal conductivity κ(T). Again, we demonstrate a close similarity of the results from the two techniques of calculating κ(T). Our complementary approach strongly suggests that scattering from optical or zone-boundary phonons is important for magnon heat current relaxation in a high temperature window of Θ D ≲T$\ll$J.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Influence of interstitial Mn on local structure and magnetism in Mn 1 + δ Sb

We report x-ray total scattering and pair distribution function (PDF) studies of the structural relaxation around interstitial manganese (Mn i ) in ferromagnetic Mn 1+δ Sb (0.03 ≤ δ ≤ 0.23) alloys, guided by density functional theory (DFT). Refinements to the experimental PDF using a crystallographically constrained structural model indicate an expansion in the equatorial plane of the Mn i Sb 5 trigonal bipyramidal site, which introduces significant positional disorder in addition to the nominally random occupation of interstitial voids. Observation of a weak diffuse signal near the symmetry-forbidden (001) reflection position is indicative of correlated disorder from the clustering of Mn i . Density functional relaxation of supercells approximating the δ = 0.08, 0.15, and 0.23 compositions provides improved models that accurately describe the short-range structural distortions captured in the PDFs. Furthermore, such structural relaxation increases the DFT calculated moment on Mn i , which aligns antiparallel to the primary Mn moments, but leads to insubstantial changes in the average Mn and Sb moments and moments of Mn and Sb proximal to interstitials, thus providing a more accurate description of the observed bulk magnetic properties.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Excitation spectra of aromatic molecules within a real-space G W -BSE formalism: Role of self-consistency and vertex corrections

Here, we present first-principles calculations on the vertical ionization potentials (IPs), electron affinities (EAs), and singlet excitation energies on an aromatic-molecule test set (benzene, thiophene, 1,2,5-thiadiazole, naphthalene, benzothiazole, and tetrathiafulvalene) within the GW and Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) formalisms. Our computational framework, which employs a real-space basis for ground-state and a transition-space basis for excited-state calculations, is well suited for high-accuracy calculations on molecules, as we show by comparing against G 0 W 0 calculations within a plane-wave-basis formalism. We then generalize our framework to test variants of the GW approximation that include a local density approximation (LDA)–derived vertex function (Γ LDA ) and quasiparticle-self-consistent (QS) iterations. We find that Γ LDA and quasiparticle self-consistency shift IPs and EAs by roughly the same magnitude, but with opposite sign for IPs and the same sign for EAs. G 0 W 0 and QS GW Γ LDA are more accurate for IPs, while G 0 W 0 Γ LDA and QS GW are best for EAs. For optical excitations, we find that perturbative GW -BSE underestimates the singlet excitation energy, while self-consistent GW -BSE results in good agreement with previous best-estimate values for both valence and Rydberg excitations. Finally, our work suggests that a hybrid approach, in which G 0 W 0 energies are used for occupied orbitals and G 0 W 0 Γ LDA for unoccupied orbitals, also yields optical excitation energies in good agreement with experiment but at a smaller computational cost.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Surprising robustness of particle-hole symmetry for composite-fermion liquids

Here, we report on fixed phase diffusion Monte Carlo calculations that show that, even for a large amount of Landau level mixing, the energies of the Pfaffian and anti-Pfaffian phases remain very nearly the same, as also do the excitation gaps at 1/3 and 2/3. These results, combined with previous theoretical and experimental investigations, indicate that particle hole (PH) symmetry for composite fermion states is much more robust than a priori expected, emerging even in models that explicitly break PH symmetry. We provide insight into this fact by showing that the low energy physics of a generic repulsive 3-body interaction is captured, to a large extent and over a range of filling factors, by a mean field approximation that maps it into a PH symmetric 2-body interaction. This explains why Landau level mixing, which effectively generates such a generic 3-body interaction, is inefficient in breaking PH symmetry. As a byproduct, our results provide a systematic construction of a 2-body interaction which produces, to a good approximation, the Pfaffian wave function as its ground state.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Fractional quantum Hall systems near nematicity: Bimetric theory, composite fermions, and Dirac brackets

Here, we perform a detailed comparison of the Dirac composite fermion and the recently proposed bimetric theory for a quantum Hall Jain states near half filling. By tuning the composite Fermi liquid to the vicinity of a nematic phase transition, we discover that the two theories are equivalent to each other. We verify that the single mode approximation for the response functions and the static structure factor becomes reliable near the phase transition. We show that the dispersion relation of the nematic mode near the phase transition can be obtained from the Dirac brackets between the components of the nematic order parameter. The dispersion is quadratic at low momenta and has a magnetoroton minimum at a finite momentum, which is not related to any nearby inhomogeneous phase.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Lattice quantum chromodynamics at large isospin density

We present an algorithm to compute correlation functions for systems with the quantum numbers of many identical mesons from lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The algorithm is numerically stable and allows for the computation of n-pion correlation functions for n ϵ {1, … , N} using a single N × N matrix decomposition, improving on previous algorithms. We apply the algorithm to calculations of correlation functions with up to 6144 charged pions using two ensembles of gauge field configurations generated with quark masses corresponding to a pion mass m π = 170 MeV and spacetime volumes of (4.4 3 × 8.8) fm 4 and (5.8 3 × 11.6) fm 4 . We also discuss statistical techniques for the analysis of such systems, in which the correlation functions vary over many orders of magnitude. In particular, we observe that the many-pion correlation functions are well-approximated by log-normal distributions, allowing the extraction of the energies of these systems. Using these energies, the large-isospin-density, zero-baryon-density region of the QCD phase diagram is explored. A peak is observed in the energy density at an isospin chemical potential μ I ~ 1.5m π , signaling the transition into a Bose-Einstein condensed phase. The isentropic speed of sound, c s , in the medium is seen to exceed the ideal-gas (conformal) limit ($c^{2}_{s} ≤ 1/3)$ over a wide range of chemical potential before falling towards the asymptotic expectation at μ I ~ 15m π . These, and other thermodynamic observables, indicate that the isospin chemical potential must be large for the system to be well described by an ideal gas or perturbative QCD.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Semiconducting cubic titanium nitride in the Th 3 P 4 structure

We report the discovery of a long-sought-after phase of titanium nitride with stoichiometry Ti3N4 using diamond anvil cell experiments combined with in situ high-resolution x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy techniques, supported by ab initio calculations.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Inverse Calculation of Burden Distribution Matrix Using B-spline Model Based PDF control in Blast Furnace Burden Charging Process

The inverse calculation of burden distribution matrix (BDM) is one of the most important challenges in the blast furnace operation in iron-making processes. In general, blast furnace consumes 65% of the total energy for the whole steel-making. Focusing on this practical challenge, this article proposes a new burden distribution spatial model in calculating burden charging process, and develops a B-spline approximation-based probability density function (PDF) control algorithm to assign the expected thickness distribution of burden layer and, thus, develops a new method for the required inverse calculation of BDM. First, a novel method for the thickness distribution of burden layer is given using B-spline model to produce an expected distribution shape subjected to a desired tracking within a specific spatial constraint. Then, according to the coexistence of continuous and bounded discrete variables in BDM, a novel hybrid optimization control method by combining integer programming and PDF tracking is further established for the effective inverse calculation of BDM. Finally, the proposed PDF-based iterative inverse calculation of BDM using B-spline models are tested using various data from industrial examples. Furthermore, the simulation results show that the proposed method is well suited to solve the BDM inverse calculation problem in practice.

42 ENGINEERING↗