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At least 1,171 records · Page 65

Single crystal growth of Yb doped NaGd(WO{sub 4}){sub 2} and structural and spectroscopic studies

High quality single crystals of NaGd(WO{sub 4}){sub 2} doped with 5 mol % Yb and oriented along <001> have been grown by the Czochralski technique in Ar atmosphere. The tetragonal space group I41/a accounts for all the reflections observed in the powder X-ray diffraction analysis. Polarized optical spectroscopy at room temperature revealed a direction dependence of absorption at different wavelength. As a novel uniaxial laser host for Yb{sup 3+}, NaGd(WO{sub 4}){sub 2} is characterized with respect to its transparency and band-edge. The emission spectrum of Yb{sup 3+} (excitation: 980-990 nm diode laser) was also recorded.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Physics-based model of irradiation creep for ferritic materials under fusion energy operation conditions

Irradiation creep is known to be an important process for structural materials in nuclear environments, potentially leading to creep failure at temperatures where thermal creep is generally negligible. While there is a great deal of data for irradiation creep in steels and zirconium alloys in light water reactor conditions, much less is known for first wall materials under fusion energy conditions. Lacking suitable fusion neutron sources for detailed experimentation, modeling, and simulation can help bridge the dose-rate and spectral-effects gap and produce quantifiable expectations for creep deformation of first wall materials under standard fusion conditions. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive model for irradiation creep created from merging a crystal plasticity representation of the dislocation microstructure and a defect evolution simulator that accounts for the entire cluster dimensionality space. Both approaches are linked by way of a climb velocity that captures dislocation-biased defect absorption and a dislocation strengthening term that reflects the accumulation of defect clusters in the system. Here, we carry out our study in Fe under first wall fusion reactor conditions, characterized by a fusion neutron spectrum with average recoil energies of 20 keV and a damage dose rate of ≈3×10 –7 dpa/s at temperatures between 300 and 800 K.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Coordinated X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, and radio observations of the PSR J1023+0038 system in a low-mass X-ray binary state

The PSR J1023+0038 binary system hosts a neutron star and a low-mass, main-sequence-like star. It switches on year timescales between states as an eclipsing radio millisecond pulsar and a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB). We present a multi-wavelength observational campaign of PSR J1023+0038 in its most recent LMXB state. Two long XMM-Newton observations reveal that the system spends ∼70% of the time in a ≈3 × 10{sup 33} erg s{sup −1} X-ray luminosity mode, which, as shown in Archibald et al., exhibits coherent X-ray pulsations. This emission is interspersed with frequent lower flux mode intervals with ≈5×10{sup 32} erg s{sup −1} and sporadic flares reaching up to ≈10{sup 34} erg s{sup −1}, with neither mode showing significant X-ray pulsations. The switches between the three flux modes occur on timescales of order 10 s. In the UV and optical, we observe occasional intense flares coincident with those observed in X-rays. Our radio timing observations reveal no pulsations at the pulsar period during any of the three X-ray modes, presumably due to complete quenching of the radio emission mechanism by the accretion flow. Radio imaging detects highly variable, flat-spectrum continuum radiation from PSR J1023+0038, consistent with an origin in a weak jet-like outflow. Our concurrent X-ray and radio continuum data sets do not exhibit any correlated behavior. The observational evidence we present bears qualitative resemblance to the behavior predicted by some existing “propeller” and “trapped” disk accretion models although none can account for key aspects of the rich phenomenology of this system.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Dynamics and inertia of a skyrmion in chiral magnets and interfaces: A linear response approach based on magnon excitations

We derive the skyrmion dynamics in response to a weak external drive, taking all the magnon modes into account. A skyrmion has rotational symmetry, and the magnon modes can be characterized by an angular momentum. For a weak distortion of a skyrmion, only the magnon modes with an angular momentum | m | = 1 govern the dynamics of skyrmion topological center. We also determine that the skyrmion inertia comes by way of the magnon modes in the continuum spectrum. For a skyrmion driven by a magnetic field gradient or by a spin transfer torque generated by a current, the dynamical response is practically instantaneous. This justifies the rigid skyrmion approximation used in Thiele's collective coordinate approach. For a skyrmion driven by a spin Hall torque, the torque couples to the skyrmion motion through the magnons in the continuum and damping; therefore the skyrmion dynamics shows sizable inertia in this case. The trajectory of a skyrmion is an ellipse for an ac drive of spin Hall torque.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Low-energy cross-section measurement of the B 10 ( α , n ) N 13 reaction and its impact on neutron production in first-generation stars

Nucleosynthesis in the first generation of massive stars offers a unique setting to explore the creation of the first heavier nuclei in an environment free of impurities from earlier stellar generations. In later generations of massive stars, hydrogen burning occurs predominantly through the CNO cycles, but without the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen to catalyze the reaction sequence, first stars would have to rely on the inefficient pp chains for their energy production. Observations of second and third generation stars show pronounced abundances of carbon and oxygen isotopes, which suggests a rapid conversion of the primordial abundances to heavier elements. While the triple-alpha-process primarily facilitates this conversion, there are alternative reaction sequences, such as 2 H(α,γ) 6 Li(α,γ) 10 B(α,n) 13 N, that may play a significant role. To study such alternate reaction pathways for production of carbon and heavier nuclei, a number of new measurements are needed. In this work, new measurements are reported for the 10 B(α,n) 13 N reaction, extending the cross section down to 575 keV incident α-particle energy. The measurements were made using a state-of-the-art deuterated liquid scintillator and a spectrum unfolding technique. An R-matrix analysis was performed in order to facilitate a comparison of the underlying nuclear structure with the reaction measurements. An unexpected upturn is observed in the low-energy S factor that indicates the presence of a new low-energy resonance. Finally, a revised reaction rate is determined that takes into account the present data as well as other previous measurements from the literature that were previously neglected.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

The wavelength dependence of phase coefficients

It is pointed out that spectral reflectance curves depend largely upon the optical constants of the surface materials. In the present study, the results of laboratory measurements are employed to investigate the wavelength dependence of disk-integrated phase coefficients of some materials, taking into account a basalt, the ordinary chondrite Bruderheim, the carbonaceous chondrite Allende, and sulfur. These materials have been selected as appropriate analogs to the surfaces of the moon, S- and C-class asteroids, and the Jovian satellite Io, respectively. It is shown that the observed wavelength dependence of phase coefficients can be predicted (at least qualitatively) once the spectrum of an object is known. Attention is given to phase variation of disk-integrated spectral reflectance curves, the wavelength dependence of phase coefficients, a comparison with observations, and the effects of surface roughness on phase coefficients.

Gradie, J.↗

Radar observations of Comet Halley

Five nights of Arecibo radar observations of Comet Halley are reported which reveal a feature in the overall average spectrum which, though weak, seems consistent with being an echo from the comet. The large radar cross section and large bandwidth of the feature suggest that the echo is predominantly from large grains which have been ejected from the nucleus. Extrapolation of the dust particle size distribution to large grain sizes gives a sufficient number of grains to account for the echo. The lack of a detectable echo from the nucleus, combined with estimates of its size and rotation rate from spacecraft encounters and other data, indicate that the nucleus has a surface of relatively high porosity.

Campbell, D. B.↗

Electron density and temperature measurement by continuum radiation emitted from weakly ionized atmospheric pressure plasmas

The electron-atom neutral bremsstrahlung continuum radiation emitted from weakly ionized plasmas is investigated for electron density and temperature diagnostics. The continuum spectrum in 450–1000 nm emitted from the argon atmospheric pressure plasma is found to be in excellent agreement with the neutral bremsstrahlung formula with the electron-atom momentum transfer cross-section given by Popović. In 280–450 nm, however, a large discrepancy between the measured and the neutral bremsstrahlung emissivities is observed. We find that without accounting for the radiative H{sub 2} dissociation continuum, the temperature, and density measurements would be largely wrong, so that it should be taken into account for accurate measurement.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

THE ORIGIN OF DOUBLE-PEAKED NARROW LINES IN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI. I. VERY LARGE ARRAY DETECTIONS OF DUAL AGNs AND AGN OUTFLOWS

We have examined a subset of 18 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) drawn from a sample of 81 galaxies that possess double-peaked narrow optical emission line spectra in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, have 2 optical AGN emission components separated by >0.″2, and are detected in the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters survey. Without follow-up observations, the sources of the double-peaked narrow emission lines are uncertain, and may be produced by kiloparsec-scale separation dual active supermassive black holes, AGN outflows, or disk rotation. In this work, we propose a new methodology to characterize double-peaked narrow emission line galaxies based on optical long-slit spectroscopy and high-resolution multi-band Very Large Array observations. The nature of the radio emission in the sample galaxies is varied. Of the 18 galaxies, we detect 2 compact flat-spectrum radio cores with projected spatial separations on the sky between 0.6 and 1.6 kpc in 3 galaxies: J1023+3243, J1158+3231, and J1623+0808. The two radio sources are spatially coincident with the two optical components of ionized gas with AGN-like line ratios, which confirms the presence of dual AGNs in these three galaxies. Dual AGNs account for only ∼15% (3/18) of the double-peaked AGNs in our sample. Gas kinematics produce ∼75% (13/18) of the double-peaked narrow emission lines, distributed in the following way: seven AGN wind-driven outflows, five radio-jet driven outflows, and one rotating narrow-line region. The remaining 10% (2/18) are ambiguous cases. Our method demonstrates the power of spatially resolved spectroscopy and high-resolution radio observations for the identification of AGN outflows and AGN pairs with angular separations as small as 0.″18.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Lensing smoothing of BAO wiggles

We study non-perturbatively the effect of the deflection angle on the BAO wiggles of the matter power spectrum in real space. We show that from redshift z ∼2 this introduces a dispersion of roughly 1 Mpc at BAO scale, which corresponds approximately to a 1% effect. The lensing effect induced by the deflection angle, which is completely geometrical and survey independent, smears out the BAO wiggles. The effect on the power spectrum amplitude at BAO scale is about 0.1 % for z ∼2 and 0.2 % for z ∼4. We compare the smoothing effects induced by the lensing potential and non-linear structure formation, showing that the two effects become comparable at z ∼ 4, while the lensing effect dominates for sources at higher redshifts. We note that this effect is not accounted through BAO reconstruction techniques.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Centrality and multiparticle production in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions

A critical analysis of methods for selecting central events in high-energy proton–nucleus (pA) and nucleus–nucleus (AA) collisions is presented. A sample of event classes in which background fluctuations associated with the dispersion of the impact parameter of each event or the number of participant nucleons are minimal is examined. At the SPS and LHC energies, the numbers of nucleon–nucleon collisions are estimated with the aid of the Monte Carlo event generators HIJING and AMPT, which take into account energy–momentum conservation, and on the basis of a non-Glauber model involving string fusion and a modified Glauber model. The results obtained in this way demonstrate the need for revising the extensively used application of the Glauber model in normalizing multiplicity yields in experimental data on pA and AA collisions in the soft region of the spectrum.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

$\mathrm{SageNet}$: Fast Neural Network Emulation of the Stiff-amplified Gravitational Waves from Inflation

Accurate modeling of the inflationary gravitational waves (GWs) requires time-consuming, iterative numerical integrations of differential equations to take into account their backreaction on the expansion history. To improve computational efficiency while preserving accuracy, we present the Stiff-amplified Gravitational-wave Emulator Network (SageNet), a deep learning framework designed to replace conventional numerical solvers (code available at https://github.com/YifangLuo/SageNet). SageNet employs a long short-term memory architecture to emulate the present-day energy density spectrum of the inflationary GWs with possible stiff amplification, Ω GW (f). Trained on a data set of 25,689 numerically generated solutions, SageNet allows accurate reconstructions of Ω GW (f) and generalizes well to a wide range of cosmological parameters; 90.9% of the test emulations with randomly distributed parameters exhibit errors of under 4%. In addition, SageNet demonstrates its ability to learn and reproduce the artificial, adaptive sampling patterns in numerical calculations, which implement denser sampling of frequencies around changes in spectral indices in Ω GW (f). The dual capability of learning both physical and artificial features of the numerical GW spectra establishes SageNet as a robust alternative to exact numerical methods. Finally, our benchmark tests show that SageNet reduces the computation time from tens of seconds to milliseconds, achieving a speedup of ∼10 4 times over standard CPU-based numerical solvers with the potential for further acceleration on GPU hardware. These capabilities make SageNet a powerful tool for accelerating Bayesian inference procedures for extended cosmological models. In a broad sense, the SageNet framework offers a fast, accurate, and generalizable solution to modeling cosmological observables whose theoretical predictions demand costly differential equation solvers.

Astronomy data modeling↗

The energy balance of wind waves and the remote sensing problem

Measurements of wave growth indicate an energy balance of the wave spectrum governed primarily by input from the atmosphere, nonlinear transfer to shorter and longer waves, and advection. The pronounced spectral peak and sharp low frequency cut-off characteristic of fetch-limited spectra are explained as a self-stabilizing feature of the nonlinear wave-wave interactions. The momentum transferred from the atmosphere to the wind waves accounts for a large part of the wind drag. These findings are relevant for remote microwave sensing of the sea surface by backscatter and passive radiometry methods.

Hasselmann, K.↗

On the nature of the nonthermal radio emission from the galactic center

Some recent observations of the galactic center appear at first sight to have made the character of the radio source Sgr A unclear. The flatness of the usually quoted spectrum, the lack of any measured polarization, the presence of hydrogen recombination lines, and the radio-infrared luminosity ratio are all consistent with Sgr A being a rather hot H II region. It is shown here, however, that when flux measurements between 80 MHz and 91000 MHz are all included and the multiple nature of the source is accounted for, the spectral index exceeds 0.4 - much too steep to be bremsstrahlung. There is, therefore, no question that Sgr A is a nonthermal source. It is further argued on the basis of a comparison of appearance, energetics and the recent results which no longer put Sgr A exactly at the center of the galaxy that Sgr A could be a supernova remnant rather than a miniature of active extragalactic radio sources.

Jones, T. W.↗

Secondary positrons and electrons in the cosmic radiation

An improved calculation of the secondary production and equilibrium spectrum of positrons and electrons in the Galaxy in the energy range from 1 MeV to 100 GeV has been performed. This has been done by obtaining an analytic representation of the accelerator data which describes accurately the invariant cross-section of pions, kaons, and their antiparticles from threshold energy to about 1500 GeV. This calculation takes into account the correct angular distribution of electrons in the decay of muons and the effect of nuclei-nuclei collisions. The contributions of beta-decay positrons and knock-on electrons have been included. A comparison of the present calculations with earlier calculations and experiment is presented.

Badhwar, G. D.↗

The structure and appearance of winds from supercritical accretion disks. I - Numerical models

Equations for the structure and appearance of supercritical accretion disks and the radiation-driven winds which emanate from them are derived and solved by a steady-state hydrodynamic computer code with a relaxation technique used in stellar structure problems. The present model takes into account the mass of the accreting star, the total accretion rate, a generalization of the disk alpha parameter which accounts for heating by processes in addition to viscosity, and the ratio of the total luminosity to the Eddington luminosity. Solutions indicate that for accretion onto a hard-surfaced star, steady, optically thick winds result for even slightly supercritical accretion, and the object will appear as a supergiant star with a high mass loss rate and a nonblackbody spectrum. Winds from black hole accretion disks are expected to depend on the form of the accretion interior to the critical radius, possibly consisting of no ejection at all, a wind similar to that of a hard-surfaced star, or a column of material ejected from a hole in the accretion disk.

Meier, D. L.↗

Ultraviolet spectroscopy of planetary nebulae: Cosmological implications

Optical spectrophotometry of PW Vulpeculae (Nova Vul 1984 no. 1) is combined with ultraviolet data to estimate electron temperatures, densities, and abundances in the ejecta of this slow classical nova. The reddening, distance, and evolution of the ultraviolet spectrum are also discussed. Abundances are nearly solar, with the exception of Nitrogen, which is substantially higher. Although Neon has been reported to be enhanced in several novae, it does not seem to be the case for PW Vul. Photoionization model calculations are presented of the ejecta that give a reasonable match of the observed emission spectrum. A strong featureless continuum shows that very hot, presumably shock heated, gas plays a major role in determining the energetics of this nova. Emission from this hot gas is responsible for the ionization of the nebular gas. A calculation of the masses of both the hot coronal gas and the cooler nebular gas shows that the former may account for most of the mass of the ejecta.

Ferland, Gary J.↗

Predictions of secondary neutrons and their importance to radiation effects inside the International Space Station

As part of a study funded by NASA MSFC to assess thecontribution of secondary particles in producing radiation damage to optoelectronics devices located on the International Space Station (IS), Monte Carlo calculations have been made to predict secondary spectra vs. shielding inside ISS modules and in electronics boxes attached on the truss (Armstrong and Colborn, 1998). The calculations take into account secondary neutron, proton, and charged pion production from the ambient galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) proton, trapped proton, and neutron albedo environments. Comparisons of the predicted neutron spectra with measurments made on the Mir space station and other spacecraft have also been made (Armstrong and Colborn, 1998). In this paper, some initial results from folding the predicted neutron spectrum inside ISS modules from Armstrong and Colborn (1998) with several types of radiation effects response functions related to electronics damage and astronaut-dose are given. These results provide an estimate of the practical importance of neutrons compared to protons in assessing radiation effects for the ISS. Also, the important neutron energy ranges for producing these effects have been estimated, which provides guidance for onboard neutron measurement requirements.

Neutrons↗