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At least 1,189 records · Page 66
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1976

Modal density function and number of propagating modes in ducts

Often raised questions in duct sound propagation studies involve the total number of propagating modes, the number of propagating radial modes for a particular spinning lobe number, and the number of modes possible between two given values of cutoff ratio or eigenvalue. These questions can be answered approximately by using the modal distribution function which is the integral of the modal density function for ducts in a manner similar to that previously published for architectural acoustics. The modal density functions are derived for rectangular and circular ducts with a uniform steady flow. Results from this continuous theory are compared to the actual (discrete) modal distributions.

Rice, E. J.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Forward production of prompt neutrinos from charm in the atmosphere and at high energy colliders

The high-energy atmospheric neutrino flux is dominated by neutrinos from the decays of charmed hadrons produced in the forward direction by cosmic ray interactions with air nuclei. We evaluate the charm contributions to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux as a function of the center-of-mass energy √s of the hadronic collision and of the center-of-mass rapidity y of the produced charm hadron. Uncertainties associated with parton distribution functions are also evaluated as a function of y. We find that the y coverage of LHCb for forward heavy-flavour production, complemented by the angular coverage of present and future forward neutrino experiments at the LHC, bracket the most interesting y regions for the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux. At √s = 14 TeV foreseen for the HL-LHC phase, nucleon collisions in air contribute to the prompt neutrino flux prominently below E ν ~ 10 7 GeV. Measurements of forward charm and/or forward neutrinos produced in hadron collisions up to √s = 100 TeV, which might become possible at the FCC, are relevant for the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux up to E ν = 10 8 GeV and beyond.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Machine Learning Approach to Modeling of Neutral Particles Transport in Plasma

A propagator‐based approach is investigated for Monte‐Carlo (MC) modeling of neutral particle transport in fusion boundary plasmas. The propagator is based on a Green's function for the neutral kinetic equation, which depends on the plasma profiles. A neural network (NN)‐based model for the propagator provides a fast and accurate solution for the neutral distribution function in plasma. Preliminary results from a small 1D test problem look encouraging. The proposed approach, a propagator‐based NN model for neutral transport in plasma, has potential for generalization to higher dimensions and efficient coupling with plasma models.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measurement of the top quark pole mass using $ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}} $+jet events in the dilepton final state in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV

A measurement of the top quark pole mass $\mathcal{m}^\text{pole}_\text{t}$ in events where a top quark-antiquark pair ($\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}$) is produced in association with at least one additional jet ($\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}$ +jet) is presented. This analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 36.3 fb -1 . Events with two opposite-sign leptons in the final state (e + e – , μ + μ – , e ± μ ∓ ) are analyzed. The reconstruction of the main observable and the event classification are optimized using multivariate analysis techniques based on machine learning. The production cross section is measured as a function of the inverse of the invariant mass of the $\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}$ +jet system at the parton level using a maximum likelihood unfolding. Given a reference parton distribution function (PDF), the top quark pole mass is extracted using the theoretical predictions at next-to-leading order. For the ABMP16NLO PDF, this results in $\mathcal{m}^\text{pole}_\text{t}$ = 172.93 ± 1.36 GeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Z-boson production in p-Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} $ = 8.16 TeV and Pb-Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} $ = 5.02 TeV

Measurement of Z-boson production in p-Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} $ = 8 . 16 TeV and Pb-Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} $ = 5 . 02 TeV is reported. It is performed in the dimuon decay channel, through the detection of muons with pseudorapidity - 4 < η μ < - 2 . 5 and transverse momentum $ {p}_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mu } $ > 20 GeV/ c in the laboratory frame. The invariant yield and nuclear modification factor are measured for opposite-sign dimuons with invariant mass 60 < m μμ < 120 GeV/ c 2 and rapidity 2 . 5 < $ {y}_{\mathrm{cms}}^{\mu \mu} $ < 4. They are presented as a function of rapidity and, for the Pb-Pb collisions, of centrality as well. The results are compared with theoretical calculations, both with and without nuclear modifications to the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs). In p-Pb collisions the center-of-mass frame is boosted with respect to the laboratory frame, and the measurements cover the backward ( - 4 . 46 < $ {y}_{\mathrm{cms}}^{\mu \mu} $ < - 2 . 96) and forward (2 . 03 < $ {y}_{\mathrm{cms}}^{\mu \mu} $ < 3 . 53) rapidity regions. For the p-Pb collisions, the results are consistent within experimental and theoretical uncertainties with calculations that include both free-nucleon and nuclear-modified PDFs. For the Pb-Pb collisions, a 3 . 4 σ deviation is seen in the integrated yield between the data and calculations based on the free-nucleon PDFs, while good agreement is found once nuclear modifications are considered.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Determination of proton PDF uncertainties with Markov chain Monte Carlo

We present an analysis of parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. The MCMC approach naturally implements Bayes’ theorem and, thus, provides a means to directly sample the underlying probability distribution—in this case, the probability distribution of the PDF parameters. This allows for a straightforward propagation of the resulting uncertainties into any PDF-dependent observable, preserving their simple probabilistic interpretation. In our analysis we include a broad set of deep inelastic scattering data from HERA, BCDMS and NMC experiments along with the Drell-Yan, 𝑊 and 𝑍 boson data from LHC and Tevatron experiments, which combined with theoretical calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD allow for realistic determination of PDFs. The main focus of this analysis is to explore alternative methods for PDF uncertainty estimation that are more firmly grounded in statistical principles. We show that the flexibility of the Bayes framework, allowing one, e.g., to account for non-Gaussianity or inconsistencies of datasets, is crucial to extract realistic uncertainties when such assumptions are not fulfilled. We also demonstrate that MCMC allows one to determine the Δ⁢𝜒 2 value corresponding to a given confidence level in the sample, which can, in turn, be used as a statistically well-founded tolerance criterion used in the Hessian method, thus addressing one of its main long-standing drawbacks.

Risse, Peter Clemens [Universität Münster (Germany↗
NASA NTRS1994

Transverse particle acceleration and diffusion in a planetary magnetic field

A general model of particle acceleration by plasma waves coupled with adiabatic radial diffusion in a planetary magnetic field is developed. The model assumes that a spectrum of lower hybird waves is present to resonantly accelerate ions transverse to the magnetic field. The steady state Green's function for the combined radial diffusion and wave acceleration equation is found in terms of a series expansion. The results provide a rigorous demonstration of how a quasi-Maxwellian distribution function is formed in the absence of particle collisons and elucidate the nature of turbulent heating of magnetospheric plasmas. The solution is applied to the magnetosphere of Neptune for which a number of examples are given illustrating how the spectrum of pickup N(+) ions from Triton evolves.

Barbosa, D. D.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Large-momentum effective theory

Since the parton model was introduced by Feynman more than 50 years ago, much has been learned about the partonic structure of the proton through a large body of high-energy experimental data and dedicated global fits. However, limited progress has been made in calculating partonic observables such as the parton distribution function (PDFs) from the fundamental theory of strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Recently some advocated for a formalism, large-momentum effective theory (LaMET), through which one can extract parton physics from the properties of the proton traveling at a moderate boost factor such as γ ~ 2 – 5 . The key observation behind this approach is that Lorentz symmetry allows the standard formalism of partons in terms of light-front operators to be replaced by an equivalent one with large-momentum states and time-independent operators of a universality class. With LaMET, the PDFs, generalized PDFs or generalized parton distributions, transverse-momentum-dependent PDFs, and light-front wave functions can all be extracted in principle from lattice simulations of QCD (or other nonperturbative methods) through standard effective field theory matching and running. Future lattice QCD calculations with exascale computational facilities could help one to understand the experimental data related to the hadronic structure, including those from the upcoming electron-ion colliders dedicated to exploring the partonic landscape of the proton. In this work, the progress made in the past few years in the development of the LaMET formalism and its applications is reviewed, with an emphasis on a demonstration of its effectiveness from initial lattice QCD simulations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Testing the neutrino content of the muon at muon colliders

Collinear emission of W bosons off a high-energy muon induces a large muon-neutrino component among the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) of a muon. In this paper we study the phenomenology related to the ν$_{μ}$ PDF at future high-energy muon colliders. We examine total rates and differential distributions of the $ e{\overline{\nu}}_e $ and Wγ production processes, which receive a large, and often dominant, contribution from this PDF, allowing for a detailed experimental study. As a demonstration of the impact the ν$_{μ}$ PDF could have for searches of new physics, we study the charged-current pair production of a couple of heavy states, components of a SU(2)$_{L}$ doublet. In both $ e{\overline{\nu}}_e $ production and charged-current pair production of heavy states, we compare results obtained using PDFs with those of a fixed-order simulation.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Final Report: A Multi-Channel Fusion Product

The goal of this project was to measure charged fusion products from the d(d,p)t reaction in MAST-U plasmas as a function of time and position with good energy resolution using a system of up to six charged particle detectors. The data from this new diagnostic will make it possible to determine the neutral beam ion density profile as a function of R, z, and t with reduced model dependency and contribute new information to a global analysis of fast ion diagnostic data needed for the determination of the fast ion distribution function (velocity space tomography).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1971

Resonant diffusion in the presence of strong plasma turbulence

The diffusion equation which describes the evolution of the average one particle distribution function for an ensemble of strongly turbulent plasmas is derived. The diffusion tensor is a time integral of the autocorrelation tensor of the fluctuations as observed by particles moving along statistically distributed orbits. These orbits contain the effects of fluctuations and thus differ from those encountered in weak turbulence theory. The plasma trajectory equations are used to relate each to the diffusion tensor itself when the turbulence is electrostatic. The diffusion tensor is explicity evaluated for a strongly turbulent unmagnetized plasma.

Birmingham, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Resonant diffusion in the presence of strong plasma turbulence.

The diffusion equation which describes the evolution of the average one-particle distribution function for an ensemble of strongly turbulent plasmas is derived. The diffusion tensor is a time integral of the autocorrelation tensor of the fluctuations as observed by particles moving along statistically distributed orbits. These orbits contain the effects of fluctuations and thus differ from those encountered in weak turbulence theory. Two statistical orbit effects quadratic in the strength of the fluctuations affect the magnitude of the diffusion: (a) modification of the ensemble average orbits by the fluctuations, and (b) statistical dispersion in particle orbits about the average. The plasma trajectory equations are used to relate each to the diffusion tensor itself when the turbulence is electrostatic. The diffusion tensor is explicitly evaluated for a strongly turbulent unmagnetized plasma.

Birmingham, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Electron velocity distributions near the earth's bow shock

New information is presented on the general characteristics of electron distribution functions upstream, within, and downstream of the earth's bow shock, thereby providing new insights into the instabilities in collisionless shocks. The results presented are from a survey of electron velocity distributions measured near the earth's bow shock between October 1977 and December 1978 using the Los Alamos/Garching plasma instrumentation aboard ISEE 2. A wide variety of distribution shapes is found within the different plasma regions in close proximity to the bow shock. It is found that these shapes can be classified into general types that are characteristic of three different plasma regions, namely the upstream region or electron foreshock, the shock proper where most of the heating occurs, and the downstream region or the magnetosheath. Evidence is provided that field-aligned, rather than cross-field, instabilities are the major source of electron dissipation in the earth's bow shock.

Feldman, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Quasar evolution and the growth of black holes

A 'minimalist' model of AGN evolution is analyzed that links the measured luminosity function to an elementary description of black hole accretion. The observed luminosity function of bright AGN is extrapolated and simple prescriptions for the growth and luminosity of black holes are introduced to infer quasar birth rates, mean fueling rates, and relict black hole distribution functions. It is deduced that the mean accretion rate scales as (M exp -1./5)(t exp -6.7) and that, for the most conservative model used, the number of relict black holes per decade declines only as M exp -0.4 for black hole masses between 3 x 10 exp 7 and 3 x 10 exp 9 solar masses. If all sufficiently massive galaxies pass through a quasar phase with asymptotic black hole mass a monotonic function of the galaxy mass, then it is possible to compare the space density of galaxies with estimated central masses to that of distant quasars.

Small, Todd A.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Constraints on Black Hole Spin in a Sample of Broad Iron Line AGN

We present a uniform X-ray spectral analysis of nine type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGN) that have been previously found to harbor relativistically broadened iron emission lines. We show that the need for relativistic effects in the spectrum is robust even when one includes continuum "reflection" from the accretion disk. We then proceed to model these relativistic effects in order to constrain the spin of the supermassive black holes in these AGN. Our principal assumption, supported by recent simulations of geometrically-thin accretion disks, is that no iron line emission (or any associated Xray reflection features) can originate from the disk within the innermost stable circular orbit. Under this assumption, which tends to lead to constraints in the form of lower limits on the spin parameter, we obtain non-trivial spin constraints on five AGN. The spin parameters of these sources range from moderate (a approximates 0.6) to high (a > 0.96). Our results allow, for the first time, an observational constraint on the spin distribution function of local supermassive black holes. Parameterizing this as a power-law in dimensionless spin parameter (f(a) varies as absolute value of (a) exp zeta), we present the probability distribution for zeta implied by our results. Our results suggest 90% and 95% confidence limits of zeta > -0.09 and zeta > -0.3 respectively.

Brenneman, Laura W.↗
NASA NTRS2016

System Assessment of a High Power 3-U CubeSat

The Advanced eLectrical Bus (ALBus) CubeSat project is a technology demonstration mission of a 3-UCubeSat with an advanced, digitally controlled electrical power system capability and novel use of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) technology for reliable deployable solar array mechanisms. The objective of the project is to, through an on orbit demonstration, advance the state of power management and distribution (PMAD) capabilities to enable future missions requiring higher power, flexible and reliable power systems. The goals of the mission include demonstration of: 100 Watt distribution to a target electrical load, efficient battery charging in the orbital environment, flexible power system distribution interfaces, adaptation of power system control on orbit, and reliable deployment of solar arrays and antennas utilizing re-settable SMA mechanisms. The power distribution function of the ALBus PMAD system is unique in the total power to target load capability of 100 W, the flexibility to support centralized or point-to-load regulation and ability to respond to fast transient power requirements. Power will be distributed from batteries at 14.8 V, 6.5 A to provide 100 W of power directly to a load. The deployable solar arrays utilize NASA Glenn Research Center superelastic and activated Nitinol(Nickel-Titanium alloy) Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) technology for hinges and a retention and release mechanism. The deployable solar array hinge design features utilization of the SMA material properties for dual purpose. The hinge uses the shape memory properties of the SMA to provide the spring force to deploy the arrays. The electrical conductivity properties of the SMA also enables the design to provide clean conduits for power transfer from the deployable arrays to the power management system. This eliminates the need for electrical harnesses between the arrays and the PMAD system in the ALBus system design. The uniqueness of the SMA retention and release mechanism design is the ability to reset the mechanism, allowing functional tests of the mechanisms prior to flight with no degradation of performance. The project is currently in preparation at the NASA Glenn Research Center for a launch in late calendar year of 2017. The 100 Watt power distribution and dual purpose, re-settable SMA mechanisms introduced several system level challenges due to the physical constraints in volume, mass and surface area of 3-U CubeSats. Several trade studies and design cycles have been completed to develop a system which supports the project objectives. This paper is a report on the results of the system level trade studies and assessments. The results include assessment of options for thermal control of 100 Watts of power dissipation, data from system analyses and engineering development tests, limitations of the 3-U system and extensibility to larger scale CubeSat missions.

CubeSat↗
DOE OSTI2025

Basis light-front quantization for the Λ b and Σ b baryons

Within the basis light-front quantization framework, we compute the masses and light-front wave functions of the Λ b baryon and its isospin triplet counterparts Σ b + , Σ b 0 , and Σ b − using a light-front effective Hamiltonian in the leading Fock sector. These wave functions are obtained as eigenstates of the effective Hamiltonian, which incorporates the one-gluon exchange interaction with fixed coupling and a three-dimensional confinement potential. With the quark masses and the couplings as adjustable parameters, the computed masses are set within the experimental range. The resulting predictions for their electromagnetic properties align well with other theoretical calculations. Additionally, the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of these baryons are obtained for the first time, with gluon and sea quark distributions dynamically generated through QCD evolution of the valence quark PDFs. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Meng, Lingdi (ORCID:0009000096439904)↗
NASA NTRS1987

Systematic properties of CO emission from galaxies. I - Luminosity function

A sensitive survey of normal galaxies covering a wide range of luminosities and morphological types is combined with galaxy observations in the literature to provide a sample for statistical study. The global CO emission of these galaxies is extrapolated by modeling the galaxies with an exponential radial profile. The maximum-likelihood distribution functions of CO luminosity and CO/H I flux ratio are similar in behavior. Both have long tails of bright galaxies. However, the typical galaxy has a CO luminosity of about 10 to the 6th Jy km/s Mpc-squared or less and a CO/H I ratio of the order of 10 or less. Averages of the distributions of CO luminosity and CO/H I flux ratio are higher for galaxies of Hubble type Sb-Sbc than for groups of earlier or later types. Quantitative estimates of the possible error sources in the conversion of CO luminosity to molecular mass indicates that the peaking of CO emission at intermediate types is a fairly confident result.

Verter, Frances↗