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At least 1,207 records · Page 67
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

137 Ba Double Gamma Decay Measurement with GAMMASPHERE

The study of the electromagnetic moments (EM), and decay probability, provides detailed information about nuclear wave functions. The well-know properties of EM interactions are good for extracting information about the motion of nucleons. Higher order EM processes always occur, but are usually too weak to be measured. In the case of a 0 + → 0 + transitions, where a single gamma transition is forbidden, the simultaneous emission of two γ-rays has been studied. An interesting opportunity to further investigate 2-photon emission phenomena is by using a standard 137 Cs source populating, via β-decay, the J π = 11/2 - isomeric state at 662 keV in 137 Ba. In this case, two photon process can have contributions from quadrupole-quadrupole or dipole-octupole multipolarities in direct competition with the high multipolarity M4 decay. Since the yield of the double gamma decay is around six orders of magnitude less than the first order transition, very good statistics are needed in order to observe the phenomena and great care must be taken to suppress the first-order decay. The Gammasphere array is ideal since its configuration allows a good coverage of the angular distribution and the Compton events can be suppressed. Nevertheless the process to understand and eliminate the Compton background is a challenge. Geant4 simulations were carried out to help understand and correct for those factors.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Urca Cooling in Neutron Star Crusts and Oceans: Effects of Nuclear Excitations

We report the excited-state structure of atomic nuclei can modify nuclear processes in stellar environments. In this Letter, we study the influence of nuclear excitations on Urca cooling (repeated back-and-forth β decay and electron capture in a pair of nuclear isotopes) in the crust and ocean of neutron stars. We provide for the first time an expression for Urca process neutrino luminosity which accounts for a thermal Boltzmann distribution of excited states in both members of an Urca pair. We use our new formula with state-of-the-art nuclear structure inputs to compute neutrino luminosities of candidate Urca cooling pairs. Our nuclear inputs consist of the latest experimental data supplemented with calculations using the projected shell model. We show that, in contrast to previous results that only consider the ground states of both nuclei in the pair, our calculated neutrino luminosities for different Urca pairs vary sensitively with the environment temperature and can be radically different from those obtained in the one-transition approximation. We find that nuclear excitations can lead to an enhancement in total Urca neutrino luminosities in the accreted neutron star crust by about 5 times as compared with the previous Urca results, which is expected to cause significant observational effects.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Higgs production in association with a top-antitop pair in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory at NLO in QCD

We present the results of the computation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the production cross section of a Higgs boson in association with a top-antitop pair at the LHC, including the three relevant dimension-six operators (O tφ , O φG , O tG ) of the standard model effective field theory. These operators also contribute to the production of Higgs bosons in loop-induced processes at the LHC, such as inclusive Higgs, Hj and HH production, and modify the Higgs decay branching ratios for which we also provide predictions. We perform a detailed study of the cross sections and their uncertainties at the total as well as differential level and of the structure of the effective field theory at NLO including renormalisation group effects. Finally, we show how the combination of information coming from measurements of these production processes will allow to constrain the three operators at the current and future LHC runs. Finally, our results lead to a significant improvement of the accuracy and precision of the deviations expected from higher-dimensional operators in the SM in both the top-quark and the Higgs-boson sectors and provide a necessary ingredient for performing a global EFT fit to the LHC data at NLO accuracy.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Rhizosphere and detritusphere habitats modulate expression of soil N-cycling genes during plant development

Interactions between plant roots and rhizosphere bacteria modulate nitrogen (N)-cycling processes and create habitats rich in low molecular weight compounds (exudates) and complex organic molecules (decaying root litter) compared to those of bulk soil. Microbial N-cycling is regulated by edaphic conditions and genes from many interconnected metabolic pathways, but most studies of soil N-cycling gene expression have focused on single pathways. Currently, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between soil N-cycling gene regulation, spatial habitat, and time. We present results from a replicated time series of soil metatranscriptomes; we followed gene expression of multiple N transformations in four soil habitats (rhizosphere, detritusphere, rhizo-detritusphere, and bulk soil) during active root growth for the annual grass, Avena fatua. The presence of root litter and living roots significantly altered the trajectories of N-cycling gene expression. Upregulation of assimilatory nitrate reduction in the rhizosphere suggests that rhizosphere bacteria were actively competing with roots for nitrate. Simultaneously, ammonium assimilatory pathways were upregulated in both rhizosphere and detritusphere soil, which could have limited N availability to plants. The detritusphere supported dissimilatory processes DNRA and denitrification. Expression of nitrification genes was dominated by three phylotypes of Thaumarch aeota and was upregulated in bulk soil. Unidirectional ammonium assimilation and its regulatory genes (GS/GOGAT) were upregulated near relatively young roots and highly decayed root litter, suggesting N may have been limiting in these habitats (GS/GOGAT is typically activated under N limitation). In conclusion, our comprehensive analysis indicates that differences in carbon and inorganic N availability control contemporaneous transcription of N-cycling pathways in soil habitats.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

EM reconstruction of dual isotope PET using staggered injections and prompt gamma positron emitters

Purpose: The aim of dual isotope positron emission tomography (DIPET) is to create two separate images of two coinjected PET radiotracers. DIPET shortens the duration of the study, reduces patient discomfort, and produces perfectly coregistered images compared to the case when two radiotracers would be imaged independently (sequential PET studies). Reconstruction of data from such simultaneous acquisition of two PET radiotracers is difficult because positron decay of any isotope creates only 511 keV photons; therefore, the isotopes cannot be differentiated based on the detected energy. Methods: Recently, the authors have proposed a DIPET technique that uses a combination of radiotracer A which is a pure positron emitter (such as{sup 18}F or {sup 11}C) and radiotracer B in which positron decay is accompanied by the emission of a high-energy (HE) prompt gamma (such as {sup 38}K or {sup 60}Cu). Events that are detected as triple coincidences of HE gammas with the corresponding two 511 keV photons allow the authors to identify the lines-of-response (LORs) of isotope B. These LORs are used to separate the two intertwined distributions, using a dedicated image reconstruction algorithm. In this work the authors propose a new version of the DIPET EM-based reconstruction algorithm that allows the authors to include an additional, independent estimate of radiotracer A distribution which may be obtained if radioisotopes are administered using a staggered injections method. In this work the method is tested on simple simulations of static PET acquisitions. Results: The authors’ experiments performed using Monte-Carlo simulations with static acquisitions demonstrate that the combined method provides better results (crosstalk errors decrease by up to 50%) than the positron-gamma DIPET method or staggered injections alone. Conclusions: The authors demonstrate that the authors’ new EM algorithm which combines information from triple coincidences with prompt gammas and staggered injections improves the accuracy of DIPET reconstructions for static acquisitions so they reach almost the benchmark level calculated for perfectly separated tracers.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Methodology to Generate the Decay Gamma Source for a Second Target Station Target Wedge

This report details the specifics of applying the Position-Averaged Method methodology for the calculation of the rotating lasagna-style target wedge activation and the resulting decay gamma source terms. The methodology uses MCNP® Code Version 6.2.0 with the RNUCS patch coupled with CINDER2008 from the AARE V1.0 package. The process begins with model preparations that include ensuring impurities are included in the materials in the regions of interest along with segmentation of the geometry in order to capture the decay gamma source gradients. This report also details the physics models and other MCNP®, CINDER2008, and ADVANTG 3.2.0 related options used to calculate the decay gamma source terms. ADVANTG 3.2.0 is used to generate a weight window set to aid in convergence of the neutron fluxes in the initial MCNP® protons-on-target particle transport calculation to calculate the neutron fluxes and spallation products in the regions of interest. The neutron fluxes and spallation products are then used in the CINDER2008 transmutation calculation, and the decay gamma sources are generated by the AARE_GAMMA_SOURCE_SCRIPT as a part of the AARE V1.0 package. These decay gamma sources include the energy distributions as well as the necessary distributions to sample the location of the source using the cell rejection method. The gamma sources that are produced using the methodology may be used for a wide variety of analysis involving the target wedge. This report includes the material specifications, physics options, proton source term description, geometrical configuration, and post-processing details.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Total absorption spectroscopy of two isomers in 70 Cu influencing nucleosynthesis signatures

Isomers have long been known to be important for astrophysical nucleosynthesis processes, yet they are often neglected in network calculations due to computational limitations or lack of data. "Astromers" are astrophysically metastable nuclear states that can greatly impact nucleosynthesis pathways. In this work we show that astromers further impact the time-dependent electromagnetic signal during heavy element nucleosynthesis. In an experiment performed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, three 𝛽-decaying states of 70 Cu (6 − ground state, and two isomeric states: 3 − and 1 + ) were produced. 𝛽-feeding values were extracted from experimental spectra and compared to shell-model and QRPA+PVC calculations. Here, average 𝛾-ray energies from the 𝛽-decay events were incorporated into simulations of heavy element nucleosynthesis and were found to exhibit different energy release profiles over time, which may impact, in aggregate, time-dependent observable signals.

59 ≤ A ≤ 89↗
DOE OSTI2017

Delayed charge recovery discrimination of passivated surface alpha events in P-type point-contact detectors

The Majorana Demonstrator searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76 Ge using arrays of high-purity germanium detectors. If observed, this process would demonstrate that lepton number is not a conserved quantity in nature, with implications for grand-unification and for explaining the predominance of matter over antimatter in the universe. A problematic background in such large granular detector arrays is posed by alpha particles. In the Majorana Demonstrator, events have been observed that are consistent with energy- degraded alphas originating on the passivated surface, leading to a potential background contribution in the region-of-interest for neutrinoless double-beta decay. However, it is also observed that when energy deposition occurs very close to the passivated surface, charges drift through the bulk onto that surface, and then drift along it with greatly reduced mobility. This leads to both a reduced prompt signal and a measurable change in slope of the tail of a recorded pulse. In this contribution we discuss the characteristics of these events and the development of a filter that can identify the occurrence of this delayed charge recovery, allowing for the efficient rejection of passivated surface alpha events in analysis.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Thermalization of the Kerr index of refraction in acetone and methanol using femtosecond pump-probe scattering spectroscopy

Femtosecond time-resolved pump-probe scattering is used to temporally investigate the index thermalization Δn(t) of the molecular motions associated with the Kerr nonlinear index n 2 . This is done using an intense 300 fs 1034 nm pump pulse and temporally probed by a 517 nm and supercontinuum pulse in acetone and methanol. The optically pumped molecular states change the index of refraction and through the processes of Raman and Rayleigh scattering are shown to engage in a 4-step energy relaxation process. Here, the pump first initiates the Kerr effect as well as populate resonant vibrational molecular motions, which act as a “mother” energy state. The electronic component of the Kerr effect is shown to couple with these vibrational modes through the process of Born-Oppenheimer coupling, which can be measured through the Raman scattering of the probe. The “mother” coupled state then decays into “daughter” anharmonic non-resonant states, which then further decay into “granddaughter” and thermal bath states. The population of these states alter the index of refraction in time, Δn(t), and can be measured through the changing in the probe beam’s Rayleigh scattering. This thermalization process takes ~5.5 ps in acetone and ~3.7 ps in methanol. The scattering signals from each Δn(t) thermalization stage in the localized region, (“mother”, to “daughter”, to “granddaughter”, to the bath states, to the ground state), are fitted to theoretical decay equations that show the rise and fall times of the energy decay routes.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Pulse shape discrimination of Cs 2 LiYCl 6 :Ce 3+ detectors at high count rate based on triangular and trapezoidal filters

Cs 2 LiYCl 6 :Ce 3+ (CLYC) detectors have demonstrated the capability to simultaneously detect γ-rays and thermal and fast neutrons with medium energy resolution, reasonable detection efficiency, and substantially high pulse shape discrimination performance. In this work, a disadvantage of CLYC detectors is the long scintillation decay times, which causes pulse pile-up at moderate input count rate. Pulse processing algorithms were developed based on triangular and trapezoidal filters to discriminate between neutrons and γ-rays at high count rate. The algorithms were first tested using low-rate data. They exhibit a pulse-shape discrimination performance comparable to that of the charge comparison method, at low rate. Then, they were evaluated at high count rate. Neutrons and γ-rays were adequately identified with high throughput at rates of up to 375 kcps. The algorithm developed using the triangular filter exhibits discrimination capability marginally higher than that of the trapezoidal filter based algorithm irrespective of low or high rate. The algorithms exhibit low computational complexity and are executable on an FPGA in real-time. Finally, they are also suitable for application to other radiation detectors whose pulses are piled-up at high rate owing to long scintillation decay times.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Measurement of the VH,H → ττ process with the ATLAS detector at 13 TeV

A measurement of the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a W or Z boson and decaying into a pair of τ-leptons is presented. This search is based on proton-proton collision data collected at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb -1 . For the Higgs boson candidate, only final states with at least one τ-lepton decaying hadronically (τ→hadrons+ν τ ) are considered. For the vector bosons, only leptonic decay channels are considered: Z→ℓℓ and W→ℓν ℓ , with ℓ=e,μ. An excess of events over the expected background is found with an observed (expected) significance of 4.2 (3.6) standard deviations, providing evidence of the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson and decaying into a pair of τ-leptons. The ratio of the measured cross-section to the Standard Model prediction is μ$_{VH}^{ττ}$=1.28$_{-0.29}^{+0.30}$(stat.)$_{-0.21}^{+0.25}$(syst.). This result represents the most accurate measurement of the VH(ττ) process achieved to date.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Non-thermal production of minimal dark matter via right-handed neutrino decay

Minimal Dark Matter (MDM) stands as one of the simplest dark matter scenarios. In MDM models, annihilation and co-annihilation processes among the members of the MDM multiplet are usually very efficient, pushing the dark matter mass above O(10) TeV in order to reproduce the observed dark matter relic density. Motivated by this little drawback, in this paper we consider an extension of the MDM scenario by three right-handed neutrinos. Two specific choices for the MDM multiplet are studied: a fermionic SU(2){sub L} quintuplet and a scalar SU(2){sub L} septuplet. The lightest right-handed neutrino, with tiny Yukawa couplings, never reaches thermal equilibrium in the early universe and is produced by freeze-in. This creates a link between dark matter and neutrino physics: dark matter can be non-thermally produced by the decay of the lightest right-handed neutrino after freeze-out, allowing to lower significantly the dark matter mass. We discuss the phenomenology of the non-thermally produced MDM and, taking into account significant Sommerfeld corrections, we find that the dark matter mass must have some specific values in order not to be in conflict with the current bounds from gamma-ray observations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Interatomic Coulombic decay following resonant core excitation of Ar in argon dimer

A scheme utilizing excitation of core electrons followed by the resonant-Auger – interatomic Coulombic decay (RA-ICD) cascade was recently proposed as a means of controlling the generation site and energies of slow ICD electrons. This control mechanism was verified in a series of experiments in rare gas dimers. In this article, we present fully ab initio computed ICD electron and kinetic energy release spectra produced following 2p{sub 3/2} → 4s, 2p{sub 1/2} → 4s, and 2p{sub 3/2} → 3d core excitations of Ar in Ar{sub 2}. We demonstrate that the manifold of ICD states populated in the resonant Auger process comprises two groups. One consists of lower energy ionization satellites characterized by fast interatomic decay, while the other consists of slow decaying higher energy ionization satellites. We show that accurate description of nuclear dynamics in the latter ICD states is crucial for obtaining theoretical electron and kinetic energy release spectra in good agreement with the experiment.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Search for new hadronic decays of $h_c$ and observation of $h_c$ → $p\overline{p}η$

A search for the hadronic decays of the $h_c$ meson to the final states $p\overline{p}π^+π^-π^o$, $p\overline{p}η$, and $p\overline{p}π^o$ via the process $\psi$(3686) → $π^oh_c$ is performed using (4.48 ± 0.03) x 10 8 $\psi$(3686) events collected with the BESIII detector. The decay channel $h_c$ → $p\overline{p}η$ is observed for the first time with a significance greater than 5σ and a branching fraction of (6.41 ± 1.74 ± 0.53 ± 1.00) x 10 -4 , where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and that from the branching fraction of $\psi$(3686) → $π^oh_c$. Strong evidence for the decay $h_c$ → $p\overline{p}π^+π^-π^o$ is found with a significance of 4.9σ and a branching fraction of (3.84 ± 0.83 ± 0.69 ± 0.58) x 10 -3 . The significances include systematic uncertainties. No clear signal of the decay $h_c$ → $p\overline{p}π^o$ is found, and an upper limit of 6.59 x 10 -4 on its branching fraction is set at the 90% confidence level.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Sensitivity Coefficients Calculated for the Prompt Neutron Decay Constant at or Near Delayed Critical [Abstract]

Experimenters at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) measure the prompt neutron decay constant for many experiments at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) to infer reactivity and the effective neutron multiplication factor. These quantities are very important for nuclear criticality safety and validating nuclear data. Uncertainty in measures of criticality of an experimental configuration can be determined prior to physically performing the experiment by applying first order perturbation theory to Monte Carlo codes, such as MCNP®. The first order perturbation theory produces first derivatives of some nuclear parameter to nuclear data (e.g., cross section data). This first derivative is commonly referred to as a sensitivity coefficient. Currently, the MCNP® software has the capability of computing effective neutron multiplication factor sensitivity coefficients to cross section data. This work builds off of this MCNP® capability and the first order perturbation theory to provide a method of calculating sensitivity coefficients for the prompt neutron decay constant at or near delayed critical to cross section data. The prompt neutron decay constant sensitivity coefficient calculated in this work does not depend on any modification of the MCNP® source code. Prompt neutron decay constant sensitivity coefficient calculations can be used to infer reactivity and effective neutron multiplication factor sensitivity coefficient values as well. By investigating the trends of prompt neutron decay constant sensitivity coefficients for nuclide-reaction pairs across energy spectra, experiments can be designed to maximize or minimize the uncertainty in the prompt neutron decay constant in a particular energy region, which can lead to further optimization studies. Prompt neutron decay constant sensitivity coefficients will be calculated for the Jezebel benchmark. Subsequently, these sensitivity coefficients will be used in a data assimilation process to determine if there is or are optimal experiments that can be performed to provide insight into adjustments of uncertain/inaccurate cross section data. Specifically, the effect of the prompt neutron decay constant sensitivity coefficients on the nuclear data-induced uncertainty in the effective neutron multiplication factor will be examined

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Exploring 𝛽 decay and 𝛽-delayed neutron emission in exotic 46,47 Cl isotopes

In this paper, 𝛽 − and 𝛽-delayed neutron decays of 46,47 Cl are reported from an experiment carried out at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory using the Beta Counting System. The half-lives of both 46 Cl and 47 Cl were extracted. Based on the delayed 𝛾-ray transitions observed, the level structure of 𝑁=28 46 Ar was determined. Completely different sets of excited states above the first 2 + state in 46 Ar were populated in the 46 Cl 𝛽⁢0⁢𝑛 and 47 Cl 𝛽⁢1⁢𝑛 decay channels. Two new 𝛾-ray transitions in 47 Ar were identified from the very weak 47 Cl 𝛽⁢0⁢𝑛 decay. Furthermore, 46 Cl 𝛽⁢1⁢𝑛 and 47 Cl 𝛽⁢2⁢𝑛 were also observed to yield different population patterns for levels in 45 Ar, including states of different parities. Here, the experimental results allow us to address some of the open questions related to the delayed neutron emission process. For isotopes with large neutron excess and high 𝑄 𝛽 values, delayed neutron emission remains an important decay mode and can be utilized as a powerful spectroscopic tool. Experimental results were compared with shell-model calculations using the FSU and 𝑉 MU effective interactions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Milestone Report - M4FT-15OR03120218 - A Literature Search on the Effects of the Decay of 85 Kr to 85 Rb on Long-term Storage Options

Reprocessing of UNF that has been out of the reactor for less than about 50 y requires the removal of 85 Kr from the process off-gas streams. This is needed despite the relatively small amount of that isotope in the combined Xe and Kr inventory (Table 1). The decay of 85 Kr to 85 Rb presents challenges to the materials that will potentially be used to remove and store the Kr recovered from the off-gas. To address some of these problems, a thorough literature survey was completed, and the results of that analysis are summarized in this document.

Bruffey, Stephanie H.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for the production of a Higgs boson in association with a single top quark in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the production of a Higgs boson in association with a single top quark, tH, is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb −1 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search targets Higgs-boson decays into $b\bar{b}$, WW * , ZZ * , and ττ, accompanied by an isolated lepton (electron or muon) from the top-quark decay. Multivariate techniques are employed to enhance the separation between signal and background processes. The observed signal strength, μ tH , defined as the ratio between the measured cross-section and the predicted Standard Model value, is μ tH = 8.1 ± 2.6 (stat.) ± 2.0 (syst.). The significance of the observed (expected) signal above the background-only expectation is 2.8 (0.4) standard deviations. The corresponding observed (expected) upper limit at the 95% confidence level on the tH cross-section is found to be 13.9 (6.1) times the value predicted by the Standard Model. An interpretation with an inverted sign of the top-quark Yukawa coupling is performed, and the signal strength and corresponding limit are reported.

Hadron-Hadron Scattering↗