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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 1,153 records · Page 64
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

THE ROLE OF TURBULENCE IN NEUTRINO-DRIVEN CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS

The neutrino-heated ''gain layer'' immediately behind the stalled shock in a core-collapse supernova is unstable to high-Reynolds-number turbulent convection. We carry out and analyze a new set of 19 high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) simulations with a three-species neutrino leakage/heating scheme and compare with spherically symmetric (one-dimensional, 1D) and axisymmetric (two-dimensional, 2D) simulations carried out with the same methods. We study the postbounce supernova evolution in a 15 M {sub ☉} progenitor star and vary the local neutrino heating rate, the magnitude and spatial dependence of asphericity from convective burning in the Si/O shell, and spatial resolution. Our simulations suggest that there is a direct correlation between the strength of turbulence in the gain layer and the susceptibility to explosion. 2D and 3D simulations explode at much lower neutrino heating rates than 1D simulations. This is commonly explained by the fact that nonradial dynamics allows accreting material to stay longer in the gain layer. We show that this explanation is incomplete. Our results indicate that the effective turbulent ram pressure exerted on the shock plays a crucial role by allowing multi-dimensional models to explode at a lower postshock thermal pressure and thus with less neutrino heating than 1D models. We connect the turbulent ram pressure with turbulent energy at large scales and in this way explain why 2D simulations are erroneously exploding more easily than 3D simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

MODULES FOR EXPERIMENTS IN STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS (MESA): BINARIES, PULSATIONS, AND EXPLOSIONS

We substantially update the capabilities of the open-source software instrument Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). MESA can now simultaneously evolve an interacting pair of differentially rotating stars undergoing transfer and loss of mass and angular momentum, greatly enhancing the prior ability to model binary evolution. New MESA capabilities in fully coupled calculation of nuclear networks with hundreds of isotopes now allow MESA to accurately simulate the advanced burning stages needed to construct supernova progenitor models. Implicit hydrodynamics with shocks can now be treated with MESA, enabling modeling of the entire massive star lifecycle, from pre-main-sequence evolution to the onset of core collapse and nucleosynthesis from the resulting explosion. Coupling of the GYRE non-adiabatic pulsation instrument with MESA allows for new explorations of the instability strips for massive stars while also accelerating the astrophysical use of asteroseismology data. We improve the treatment of mass accretion, giving more accurate and robust near-surface profiles. A new MESA capability to calculate weak reaction rates “on-the-fly” from input nuclear data allows better simulation of accretion induced collapse of massive white dwarfs and the fate of some massive stars. We discuss the ongoing challenge of chemical diffusion in the strongly coupled plasma regime, and exhibit improvements in MESA that now allow for the simulation of radiative levitation of heavy elements in hot stars. We close by noting that the MESA software infrastructure provides bit-for-bit consistency for all results across all the supported platforms, a profound enabling capability for accelerating MESA's development.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Explosive nucleation and growth of Pb islands on Ge(111) below room temperature via collective diffusion

Nucleation is a fundamental process in nature controlling phase transitions and pattern formation. Classical nucleation is based on the gradual aggregation of diffusing atoms after a critical cluster size is reached. Contrary to these expectations, we have observed in real time the formation of perfect Pb(111) islands with more than 10 5 atoms emerging out of the compressed wetting layer within a few seconds during growth of Pb on Ge(111) below room temperature. Pb deposited on Ge(111) in a temperature range between −30 °C and 10 °C exhibited explosive nucleation of height-selected islands upon reaching a critical coverage of 1.33 ± 0.07 ML with respect to Ge(111). Island nucleation was fueled by the 2% compression of the Pb wetting layer at the critical coverage. The island areas grew linearly with time, exhibiting collective diffusion, where thousands of atoms follow correlated, non-random walk diffusion. The total growth rate was higher with increasing temperature. Density functional theory simulations of the chemical potential and binding sites of the Pb/Ge(111) system give insight into the role of the compression of the wetting layer and the strain within the growing Pb layers, which explain this nonclassical behavior of the system.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Meeting the Challenges of Modeling Astrophysical Thermonuclear Explosions: Castro, Maestro, and the AMReX Astrophysics Suite

We describe the AMReX suite of astrophysics codes and their application to modeling problems in stellar astrophysics. Maestro is tuned to efficiently model subsonic convective flows while Castro models the highly compressible flows associated with stellar explosions. Both are built on the block-structured adaptive mesh refinement library AMReX. Together, these codes enable a thorough investigation of stellar phenomena, including Type Ia supernovae and X-ray bursts. We describe these science applications and the approach we are taking to make these codes performant on current and future many-core and GPU-based architectures.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

MAGNETIC FIELD INTENSIFICATION BY THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL 'EXPLOSION' PROCESS

We investigate an intensification mechanism for the magnetic field near the base of the solar convection zone that does not rely on differential rotation. Such mechanism in addition to differential rotation has been suggested by studies of flux emergence, which typically require field strength in excess of those provided by differential rotation alone. We study here a process in which potential energy of the superadiabatically stratified convection zone is converted into magnetic energy. This mechanism, known as the 'explosion of magnetic flux tubes', has been previously studied in thin flux tube approximation as well as two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations; here we expand the investigation to three-dimensional MHD simulations. Our main result is that enough intensification can be achieved in a three-dimensional magnetic flux sheet as long as the spatial scale of the imposed perturbation normal to the magnetic field is sufficiently large. When this spatial scale is small, the flux sheet tends to rise toward the surface, resulting in a significant decrease of the magnetic field amplification.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

RECURRENT EXPLOSIVE ERUPTIONS AND THE ''SIGMOID-TO-ARCADE'' TRANSFORMATION IN THE SUN DRIVEN BY DYNAMICAL MAGNETIC FLUX EMERGENCE

We report on three-dimensional MHD simulations of recurrent mini coronal mass ejection (CME)-like eruptions in a small active region (AR), which is formed by the dynamical emergence of a twisted (not kink unstable) flux tube from the solar interior. The eruptions develop as a result of the repeated formation and expulsion of new flux ropes due to continuous emergence and reconnection of sheared field lines along the polarity inversion line of the AR. The acceleration of the eruptions is triggered by tether-cutting reconnection at the current sheet underneath the erupting field. We find that each explosive eruption is followed by reformation of a sigmoidal structure and a subsequent ''sigmoid-to-flare arcade'' transformation in the AR. These results might have implications for recurrent CMEs and eruptive sigmoids/flares observations and theoretical studies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

ON THE EFFECT OF EXPLOSIVE THERMONUCLEAR BURNING ON THE ACCRETED ENVELOPES OF WHITE DWARFS IN CATACLYSMIC VARIABLES

The detection of heavy elements at suprasolar abundances in the atmospheres of some accreting white dwarfs in cataclysmic variables (CVs), coupled with the high temperatures needed to produce these elements, requires explosive thermonuclear burning. The central temperatures of any formerly more massive secondary stars in CVs undergoing hydrostatic CNO burning are far too low to produce these elements. Evidence is presented that at least some CVs contain donor secondaries that have been contaminated by white dwarf remnant burning during the common envelope phase and are transferring this material back to the white dwarf. This scenario does not exclude the channel in which formerly more massive donor stars underwent CNO processing in systems with thermal timescale mass transfer. Implications for the progenitors of CVs are discussed and a new scenario for the white dwarf's accretion-nova-outburst is given.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Type Ia supernovae deflagration-to-detonation transition explosions powered by the Zel’dovich reactivity gradient mechanism

ABSTRACT Our aim in this work is to identify and explain the necessary conditions required for an energetic explosion of a Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf. We construct and analyse weakly compressible turbulence models with nuclear burning effects for carbon/oxygen plasma at a density expected for the deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) to occur. We observe the formation of carbon deflagrations and transient carbon detonations at early times. As turbulence becomes increasingly inhomogeneous, sustained carbon detonations are initiated by the Zel’dovich reactivity gradient mechanism. The fuel is suitably preconditioned by the action of compressive turbulent modes with wavelength comparable to the size of resolved turbulent eddies; no acoustic wave is involved in this process. Oxygen detonations are initiated, aided either by reactivity gradients or by collisions of carbon detonations. The observed evolutionary time-scales are found to be sufficiently short for the above process to occur in the expanding, centrally ignited massive white dwarf. The inhomogeneous conditions produced prior to the DDT might be of consequence for the chemical composition of the outer ejecta regions of Type Ia supernovae from the single degenerate channel, and offer the potential for validation of the proposed model.

Brooker, E.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nonconservation of Lepton Numbers in the Neutrino Sector Could Change the Prospects for Core Collapse Supernova Explosions

We show that interactions violating the conservation of lepton numbers in the neutrino sector could significantly alter the standard low entropy picture for the presupernova collapsing core of a massive star. A rapid neutrino-antineutrino equilibration leads to entropy generation and enhanced electron capture and, hence, a lower electron fraction than in the standard model. This would affect the downstream core evolution, the prospects for a supernova explosion, and the emergent neutrino signal. If realized by lepton-number-violating neutrino self-interactions (LNV 𝜈⁢SI), the relevant mediator mass and coupling ranges can be probed by future accelerator-based experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Multiparticle cumulant mapping for Coulomb explosion imaging: Calculations and algorithm

We present a versatile cumulant mapping algorithm for analyzing correlated particle emission, offering insights into complex electronic and nuclear dynamics. Recently, we have demonstrated the use of cumulant mapping to extract information-rich correlations between the momenta of multiple fragments produced in Coulomb explosion imaging experiments [C. Cheng et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 093001 (2023)]. We define cumulant mapping in terms of histograms, enabling fast computation of linear (additive) observables. However, applying the same algorithm to nonlinear (nonadditive) observables poses challenges, as the computation time of conventional estimators scales nonlinearly with data size. To overcome this, we develop estimators and an accompanying algorithm to enable computationally efficient estimation of the cumulant of interest. Comparisons of computation times and signal-to-noise ratios reveal the superior performance of our approach. This method is demonstrated on the (D+, D+, C+, O+) dissociation channel of CD 2 ⁢O 4+ produced in a strong-field ionization experiment. Additionally, Poisson statistics are used to simulate the two methods and provide insights into the efficiency of our algorithm. The proposed methodology unlocks efficient computation of cumulant mapping for a broader range of complex systems and observables, such as the laser pulse dependence of ionization dynamics.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Dynamic polarizability of tungsten atoms reconstructed from fast electrical explosion of fine wires in vacuum

For nanosecond electrical explosion of fine metal wires in vacuum generates calibrated, radially expanded gas cylinders of metal atoms are surrounded by low-density fast expanding plasma corona. Here, a novel integrated-phase technique, based on laser interferometry, provides the dynamic dipole polarizability of metal atoms. This data was previously unavailable for tungsten atoms. Furthermore, an extremely high melting temperature and significant pre-melt electronic emission make these measurements particularly complicated for this refractory metal.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Laser control over the ultrafast Coulomb explosion of N 2 2 + after Auger decay: A quantum-dynamics investigation

By theoretical calculation, we show the possibility to control and partially suppress the Coulomb explosion of N 2 molecules after core-level photoionization by an x-ray laser and subsequent Auger decay. This is achieved by means of a femtosecond infrared laser pulse interacting with the N 2 2 + dication produced by the x-ray pulse. Suppression of molecular fragmentation requires few-femtosecond IR pulses interacting with the system either during or shortly after the arrival of the x-ray pulse. The IR pulse suppresses fragmentation mostly by optically coupling the electronic routes to ultrafast molecular dissociation with electronic channels able to support long-lived vibrational resonances. The effect is strongly dependent on the orientation of the molecule with respect to the polarization axis of the IR field. These calculations are motivated by x-ray pump–IR probe experiments performed at an x-ray free-electron laser [J. M. Glownia et al. , Opt. Express 18 , 17620 (2010) ], where only enhancement of N 2 2 + fragmentation as a function of the pump-probe delay time was reported. The opposite effect reported here becomes apparent when the various electronic channels are considered separately. In practice, this corresponds to a coincident measurement of the energy of the ejected Auger electron

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Nonunique and nonuniform mapping in few-body Coulomb-explosion imaging

Much of our knowledge of molecular geometry and interaction dynamics comes from indirect measurements of the molecular fragments following breakup. This technique—Coulomb-explosion imaging (CEI), i.e., determining the initial molecular configuration of a system from the momenta of the resulting fragments using knowledge of the particle interactions—is one of the fundamental tools of molecular physics. Moreover, CEI has been a staple of molecular studies for decades. Here we show that one often cannot assign a unique initial configuration to the few-body breakup of a polyatomic molecule given the measurement of the resulting fragments' momenta. Specifically, multiple initial configurations can result in identical momenta for a molecule breaking into three or more parts. Finally, the nonunique and nonuniform mapping from the initial configuration to the measured momenta also significantly complicates the determination of molecular alignment at the time of breakup.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Bond rearrangement during Coulomb explosion of water molecules

Bond rearrangement, namely the dissociation of water ions into H 2 + + (q – 1)+ (q = 1–4) following fast ion-impact ionization, unexpectedly occurs following multiple ionization of water in spite of the presumably fast “Coulomb explosion” of the transient molecular ion. Furthermore, the branching ratio of bond rearrangement is found to be nearly equal for each level of ionization, q. In addition, formation of H 2 + is more than twice as likely to occur from the lighter water isotopologue H 2 O + than D 2 + from D 2 O + . Furthermore, these findings are consistent with the ground state dissociation mechanism in which a fast projection of the ground state nuclear wave function onto the vibrational continuum of the cation potential energy surface is sometimes followed by H 2 + formation.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Gravitational-wave signal of a core-collapse supernova explosion of a 15M ⊙ star

In this paper we report on the gravitational-wave signal computed in the context of a three-dimensional simulation of a core-collapse supernova explosion of a 15 M ⊙ star. The simulation was performed with our neutrino hydrodynamics code chimera . We detail the gravitational wave strains as a function of time, for both polarizations, and discuss their physical origins. We also present the corresponding spectral signatures. Gravitational wave emission in our model has two key features: low-frequency emission (less than 200 Hz) emanates from the gain layer as a result of neutrino-driven convection and the standing accretion shock instability (SASI), and high-frequency emission (greater than 600 Hz) emanates from the proto–neutron star due to Ledoux convection within it. The high-frequency emission dominates the gravitational wave emission in our model and emanates largely from the convective layer itself, not from the convectively stable layer above it, due to convective overshoot. Moreover, the low-frequency emission emanates from the gain layer itself, not from the proto–neutron star, due to accretion onto it. We provide evidence of the SASI in our model and demonstrate that the peak of our low-frequency gravitational wave emission spectrum corresponds to it. Given its origin in the gain layer, we classify the SASI emission in our model as p-mode emission and assign a purely acoustic origin, not a vortical–acoustic origin, to it. We compare the results of our three-dimensional model analysis with those obtained from the model’s two-dimensional counterpart and find a significant reduction in the strain amplitudes in the former case, as well as significant reductions in all related quantities. Our dominant proto–neutron star gravitational wave emission is not well characterized by emission from surface g modes, complicating the relationship between peak frequencies observed and the mass and radius of the proto–neutron star expressed by analytic estimates under the assumption of surface g-mode emission. We present our frequency normalized characteristic strain along with the sensitivity curves of current- and next-generation gravitational wave detectors. This simple analysis indicates that the spectrum of gravitational wave emission between approximately 20 Hz and approximately 1 kHz, stemming from neutrino-driven convection, the SASI, accretion onto the proto–neutron star, and proto–neutron star convection, will be accessible for a Galactic event.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Gravitational wave signatures of ab initio two-dimensional core collapse supernova explosion models for 12 – 25 M ⊙ stars

Here, we present the gravitational waveforms computed in ab initio two-dimensional core collapse supernova models evolved with the chimera code for progenitor masses between 12 and 25 M. For all models employ multifrequency neutrino transport in the ray-by-ray approximation, state-of-the-art weak interaction physics, relativistic transport corrections such as the gravitational redshift of neutrinos, two-dimensional hydrodynamics with the commensurate relativistic corrections, Newtonian self-gravity with a general-relativistic monopole correction, and the Lattimer-Swesty equation of state with 220 MeV compressibility, and begin with the most recent Woosley-Heger nonrotating progenitors in this mass range. All of our models exhibit robust explosions. Moreover, our waveforms capture all stages of supernova development: 1) a relatively short and weak prompt signal, 2) a quiescent stage, 3) a strong signal due to convection and standing accretion shock instability activity, 4) termination of active accretion onto the proto-neutron star, and 5) a slowly increasing tail that reaches a saturation value. Fourier decomposition shows that the gravitational wave signals we predict should be observable by AdvLIGO for Galactic events across the range of progenitors considered here. The fundamental limitation of these models is in their imposition of axisymmetry. Further progress will require counterpart three-dimensional models, which are underway.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Nonclassical “Explosive” nucleation in Pb/Si(111) at low temperatures

In this study, the onset of nucleation is defined in terms of a critical cluster of the condensed phase, which forms from the gradual aggregation of randomly diffusing adatoms. Experiments in Pb/Si(111) at low temperature have discovered a dramatically different type of nucleation, with perfect crystalline islands emerging “explosively” out of the compressed wetting layer after a critical coverage Θ c =1.22 ML is reached. The unexpectedly high island growth rates, the directional correlations in the growth of neighboring islands and the persistence in time of where mass is added in individual islands, suggest that nucleation is a result of the highly coherent motion of the wetting layer, over mesoscopic distances.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗