Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “PIONS”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Revisiting gauge invariance and Reggeization of pion exchange

The Reggeized pion is expected to provide the main contribution to the forward cross section in light meson photoproduction reactions with charge exchange at high energies. We discuss the Reggeization of pion exchange in charged pion photoproduction with an emphasis on consistency with current conservation. We show that the gauge-invariant amplitude for the exchange of a particle with a generic even spin J ≥ 2 in the t channel is analytic at J = 0 and that it can be interpreted in terms of the nucleon electric current. This enables us to reconcile the dynamics in the s and u channel, which involves also nucleon exchanges, with the amplitude expressed in terms of t -channel partial waves, as required by Regge theory. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Quark Mass Functions and Pion Structure in the Covariant Spectator Theory

The Covariant Spectator Theory is applied to the description of quarks and the pion. The dressed quark mass function is calculated dynamically in Minkowski space and used in the calculation of the pion electromagnetic form factor. The effects of the mass function on the pion form factor and the different quark-pole contributions to the triangle diagram then are analyzed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

First study of the nuclear response to fast hadrons via angular correlations between pions and slow protons in electron-nucleus scattering

We report on the first measurement of angular correlations between high-energy pions and slow protons in electron-nucleus (eA) scattering, providing a new probe of how a nucleus responds to a fast-moving quark. The experiment employed the CLAS detector with a 5-GeV electron beam incident on deuterium, carbon, iron, and lead targets. For heavier nuclei, the pion-proton correlation function is more spread-out in azimuth than for lighter ones, and this effect is more pronounced in the πp channel than in earlier ππ studies. The proton-to-pion yield ratio likewise rises with nuclear mass, although the increase appears to saturate for the heaviest targets. These trends are qualitatively reproduced by state-of-the-art eA event generators, including BeAGLE, eHIJING, and GiBUU, indicating that current descriptions of target fragmentation rest on sound theoretical footing. At the same time, the precision of our data exposes model-dependent discrepancies, delineating a clear path for future improvements in the treatment of cold-nuclear matter effects in eA scattering.

Correlations↗
DOE OSTI2019

Comparison of heavy-ion transport simulations: Collision integral with pions and Δ resonances in a box

Simulations by transport codes are indispensable for extracting valuable physical information from heavy-ion collisions. Pion observables such as the π - /π + yield ratio are expected to be sensitive to the symmetry energy at high densities. To evaluate, understand, and reduce the uncertainties in transport-code results originating from different approximations in handling the production of Δ resonances and pions. We compare ten transport codes under controlled conditions for a system confined in a box, with periodic boundary conditions, and initialized with nucleons at saturation density and at a temperature of 60 MeV. The reactions NN↔NΔ and Δ↔Nπ are implemented, but the Pauli blocking and the mean-field potential are deactivated in the present comparison. Thus, these are cascade calculations including pions and Δ resonances. Results are compared to those from the two reference cases of a chemically equilibrated ideal gas mixture and of the rate equation. For the numbers of Δ and π, deviations from the reference values are observed in many codes, and they depend significantly on the size of the time step. These deviations are tied to different ways in ordering the sequence of reactions, such as collisions and decays, that take place in the same time step. Better agreements with the reference values are seen in the reaction rates and the number ratios among the isospin species of Δ and π. Both the reaction rates and the number ratios are, however, affected by the correlations between particle positions, which are absent in the Boltzmann equation, but are induced by the way particle scatterings are treated in many of the transport calculations. The uncertainty in the transport-code predictions of the π - /π + ratio, after letting the existing Δ resonances decay, is found to be within a few percent for the system initialized at n/p=1.5. In conclusion, the uncertainty in the final π - /π + ratio in this simplified case of particles in a box is sufficiently small so that it does not strongly impact constraining the high-density symmetry energy from heavy-ion collisions. Most of the sources of uncertainties have been understood, and individual codes may be further improved in future applications. This investigation will be extended in the future to heavy-ion collisions to ensure the problems identified here remain under control.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Pion gravitational form factors in the QCD instanton vacuum. I

The pion form factors of the QCD energy-momentum tensor (EMT) are studied in the instanton liquid model (ILM) of the QCD vacuum. In this approach, the breaking of conformal symmetry is encoded in the form of stronger-than-Poisson fluctuations in the number of instantons. For the trace of the EMT, it is shown that the gluonic trace anomaly term contributes half the pion mass, with the other half coming from the quark-mass-dependent σ term. The Q 2 dependence of the form factors is governed by glueball and scalar meson exchanges. For the EMT, the spin-0 (trace) and spin-2 (traceless rank-2 tensor) form factors are computed at next-to-leading order in the instanton density using effective quark operators. Relations between the gluon and quark contributions to the EMT form factors are derived. The form factors are also expressed in terms of the pion light-front wave functions in the ILM. The results at the low resolution scale of the inverse instanton size are evolved to higher scales using the renormalization group equation. The ILM results compare well with those of recent lattice QCD calculations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

First Measurement of $𝜈_𝑒$ and $\bar{𝜈}_𝑒$ Charged-Current Single Charged-Pion Production Differential Cross Sections on Argon Using the MicroBooNE Detector

Understanding electron neutrino interactions is crucial for measurements of neutrino oscillations and searches for new physics in neutrino experiments. We present the first measurement of the flux-averaged $𝜈_𝑒$ + $\bar{𝜈}_𝑒$ charged-current single charged-pion production cross section on argon using the MicroBooNE detector and data from the NuMI neutrino beam. The total cross section is measured to be [0.93 ± 0.13⁢(stat) ± 0.27⁢(syst)] × 10 −39 cm 2 /nucleon at a mean $𝜈_𝑒$ + $\bar{𝜈}_𝑒$ energy of 730 MeV. Differential cross sections are also reported in electron energy, electron and pion angles, and electron-pion opening angle.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Study of Pion Transverse Momentum Distributions in Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions: A USTFM Approach

The mid-rapidity (|y| < 0.5) transverse momentum distributions of identified charged pions produced in different collision systems at different centre-of-mass energies (√S{sub NN}) ranging from RHIC to LHC have been studied using our early proposed unified statistical thermal freeze-out model (USTFM). We have also studied the effect of different collision centralities on the mid-rapidity (|y| < 0.5) production of pions. Our model results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. Different thermal freeze-out conditions which include transverse flow, thermal freeze-out temperature, and velocity profile have been extracted by providing the best fit to the experimental data points. We have incorporated the effects of transverse as well as longitudinal flow in this analysis. The effects of heavier decay resonances are also taken into account. Moreover, the strangeness conservation criteria have also been imposed in this analysis of pion distributions. The calculated freeze-out parameters indicates that the freeze-out temperature increases with decreasing centrality, while the transverse flow velocity increases by increase in the centrality of the colliding system.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Experimental investigation of ρ{sup 0} photoproduction on the pion in the H1 experiment

Experimental results on quasielastic photoproduction of the ρ{sup 0} meson in association with a neutron, obtained at the HERA collider, are presented. The total and differential cross sections of the γp → ρ{sup 0}nπ{sup +} reaction at the positron–proton center-of-mass energy of √s =319 GeV are measured. The data collected with the H1 detector in 2006 and 2007 correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.16 pb{sup −1}. The kinematic region of the photon–proton cms energy of 20 < W{sub γp} <100 GeV, photon virtuality of Q{sup 2} < 2 GeV{sup 2}, and the ρ{sup 0} transverse momentum below 1 GeV/c is analyzed. Secondary neutrons with energies x{sub L} > 0.35 (in proton-energy units) and emission angles below 0.75 mrad are selected. The model of double peripheral exchange, in which the ρ{sup 0} is elastically produced via the photon interaction with the virtual pion from the proton–neutron vertex, is employed for interpreting the results. The cross section for the ρ{sup 0} elastic photoproduction on the pion, γπ{sup +}→ ρ{sup 0}π{sup +}, is extracted in the one-pion-exchange approximation. The magnitude of the cross section suggests that the γp → ρ{sup 0}nπ{sup +} reaction is significantly affected by absorption.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Deep Learning for Pion Identification and Energy Calibration with the ATLAS Detector

Separating charged and neutral pions as well as calibrating the pion energy response is a core component of reconstruction in the ATLAS calorimeter. This note presents an investigation of deep learning techniques for these tasks, representing the signal in the ATLAS calorimeter layers as pixelated images. Deep learning approaches outperform the classification applied in the baseline local hadronic calibration and are able to improve the energy resolution for a wide range in particle momenta, especially for low energy pions. This work demonstrates the potential of deep-learning-based low-level hadronic calibrations to significantly improve the quality of particle reconstruction in the ATLAS calorimeter.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Two-pion contribution to hadronic vacuum polarization

We present a detailed analysis of e + e - → π + π - data up to \( \sqrt{s}=1 \) GeV in the framework of dispersion relations. Starting from a family of ππ P -wave phase shifts, as derived from a previous Roy-equation analysis of ππ scattering, we write down an extended Omnès representation of the pion vector form factor in terms of a few free parameters and study to which extent the modern high-statistics data sets can be described by the resulting fit function that follows from general principles of QCD. We find that statistically acceptable fits do become possible as soon as potential uncertainties in the energy calibration are taken into account, providing a strong cross check on the internal consistency of the data sets, but preferring a mass of the ω meson significantly lower than the current PDG average. In addition to a complete treatment of statistical and systematic errors propagated from the data, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the systematic errors in the dispersive representation and derive the consequences for the two-pion contribution to hadronic vacuum polarization. In a global fit to both time- and space-like data sets we find a ππ μ | ≤ 1 GeV = 495.0(1.5)(2.1) × 10 -10 and a ππ μ | ≤ 0.63 GeV = 132.8(0.4)(1.0) × 10 -10 . While the constraints are thus most stringent for low energies, we obtain uncertainty estimates throughout the whole energy range that should prove valuable in corroborating the corresponding contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. As side products, we obtain improved constraints on the ππ P -wave, valuable input for future global analyses of low-energy ππ scattering, as well as a determination of the pion charge radius, $\langle$$r^{2}_{π}$$\rangle$ = 0 . 429(1)(4) fm 2 .

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Thermal energy of a charm-meson molecule in a pion gas

The thermal corrections to the propagator of a loosely bound charm-meson molecule in a pion gas are calculated to next-to-leading order in the heavy-meson expansion using a zero-range effective field theory. Ultraviolet divergences in the charm-meson-pair self energy are canceled by corrections to the charm-meson-pair contact vertex. Terms that are singular at the charm-meson-pair threshold can be absorbed into thermal corrections to the rest energies and kinetic masses of the charm-meson constituents. The remaining terms reduce to a thermal correction to the binding momentum that is proportional to the pion number density and suppressed by the pion/charm-meson mass ratio. The correction gives a tiny decrease in the binding energy of the charm-meson molecule relative to the charm-meson-pair threshold in the pion gas and a change in its thermal width that is small compared to the thermal widths of the charm-meson constituents. These results are encouraging for the prospects of observing X(3872) and $T$$^{+}_{cc}$ (3875) in the expanding hadron gas produced by heavy-ion collisions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Three-dimensional imaging of pion using lattice QCD: generalized parton distributions

In this work, we report a lattice calculation of x-dependent valence pion generalized parton distributions (GPDs) at zero skewness with multiple values of the momentum transfer −t. The calculations are based on an N f = 2 + 1 gauge ensemble of highly improved staggered quarks with Wilson-Clover valence fermion. The lattice spacing is 0.04 fm, and the pion valence mass is tuned to be 300 MeV. We determine the Lorentz-invariant amplitudes of the quasi-GPD matrix elements for both symmetric and asymmetric momenta transfers with similar values and show the equivalence of both frames. Then, focusing on the asymmetric frame, we utilize a hybrid scheme to renormalize the quasi-GPD matrix elements obtained from the lattice calculations. After the Fourier transforms, the quasi-GPDs are then matched to the light-cone GPDs within the framework of large momentum effective theory with improved matching, including the next-to-next-to-leading order perturbative corrections, and leading renormalon and renormalization group resummations. We also present the 3-dimensional image of the pion in impact-parameter space through the Fourier transform of the momentum transfer −t.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Exclusive production of a pair of high transverse momentum photons in pion-nucleon collisions for extracting generalized parton distributions

We show that exclusive production of a pair of high transverse momentum photons in pion-nucleon collisions can be systematically studied in QCD factorization approach if the photon’s transverse momentum q T with respect to the colliding pion is much greater than Λ QCD . We demonstrate that the leading power non-perturbative contributions to the scattering amplitudes of this exclusive process are process-independent and can be systematically factorized into universal pion’s distribution amplitudes (DAs) and nucleon’s generalized parton distributions (GPDs), which are convoluted with corresponding infrared safe and perturbatively calculable short-distance hard parts. The correction to this factorized expression is suppressed by powers of 1/q T . We demonstrate quantitatively that this new type of exclusive processes is not only complementary to existing processes for extracting GPDs, but also capable of providing an enhanced sensitivity to the dependence of both DAs and GPDs on the active parton’s momentum fraction x. We also introduce additional, but the same type of exclusive observables to enhance our capability to explore GPDs, in particular, their x-dependence.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Hidden zeros for particle/string amplitudes and the unity of colored scalars, pions and gluons

Recent years have seen the emergence of a new understanding of scattering amplitudes in the simplest theory of colored scalar particles — the Tr(Φ 3 ) theory — based on combinatorial and geometric ideas in the kinematic space of scattering data. In this paper we report a surprise: far from the toy model it appears to be, the “stringy” Tr(Φ 3 ) amplitudes secretly contains the scattering amplitudes for pions, as well as non-supersymmetric gluons, in any number of dimensions. The amplitudes for the different theories are given by one and the same function, related by a simple shift of the kinematics. This discovery was spurred by another fundamental observation: the tree-level Tr(Φ 3 ) field theory amplitudes have a hidden pattern of zeros when a special set of non-planar Mandelstam invariants is set to zero. These zeros are not manifest in Feynman diagrams but are made obvious by the connection of these amplitudes to the new understanding of associahedra arising from “causal diamonds” in kinematic space. Furthermore, near these zeros, the amplitudes simplify, by factoring into a non-trivial product of smaller amplitudes. Remarkably the amplitudes for pions and gluons are observed to also vanish in the same kinematical locus. These properties for Tr(Φ 3 ) amplitudes hold and further generalize to the “stringy” Tr(Φ 3 ) amplitudes. The “kinematic causal diamond” picture suggests a unique shift of the kinematic data that preserves the zeros, and this shift is precisely the one that unifies colored scalars, pions, and gluons into a single object. We will focus in this paper on explaining the hidden zeros and factorization properties and the connection between all the colored theories, working for simplicity at tree level. Subsequent works will describe this new formulation for the Non-linear Sigma Model and non-supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, at all loop orders.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Relevance of Pion-Exchange Contributions Versus Contact Terms in the Chiral Effective Field Theory Description of Nucleon–Nucleon Scattering

The standard way to demonstrate the relevance of chiral symmetry for the NN interaction is to consider higher partial waves of NN scattering which are controlled entirely by chiral pion-exchanges (since contacts vanish). However, in applications of NN-potentials to nuclear structure and reactions, the lower partial waves are the important ones, making the largest contributions. Lower partial waves are sensitive to the short-range potential, and so, when the short-range contacts were to dominate over the chiral pion contributions in lower partial waves, then the predictions from chiral potentials would have little to do with chiral symmetry. To address this issue, we investigate systematically the role of the (chiral) one- and two-pion exchanges, on the one hand, and the effect of the contacts, on the other hand, in the lower partial waves of NN scattering. We are able to clearly identify the signature of chiral symmetry in lower partial waves. Furthermore, our study has also a pedagogical spinoff as it demonstrates in detail how the reproduction of the lower partial-wave phase shifts comes about from the various ingredients of the theory.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Single neutral pion production by charged-current ν ¯ μ interactions on hydrocarbon at 〈 E ν 〉 = 3.6 GeV

We studied single neutral pion production via muon antineutrino charged-current interactions in plastic scintillator (CH) using the MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI low-energy, wideband antineutrino beam at Fermilab. Measurement of this process constrains models of neutral pion production in nuclei, which is important because the neutral-current analog is a background for appearance oscillation experiments. Furthermore, the differential cross sections for π 0 momentum and production angle, for events with a single observed π 0 and no charged pions, are presented and compared to model predictions. These results comprise the first measurement of the π 0 kinematics for this process.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Collins function for pion-in-jet production in polarized pp collisions: a test of universality and factorization

We present an updated study of the Collins azimuthal asymmetries for pion-in-jet production in polarized pp collisions. To this aim, we employ a recent extraction of the transversity and Collins fragmentation functions from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering and e + e - annihilation into hadron pairs processes, obtained within a simplified transverse momentum dependent (TMD) approach at leading order in the strong coupling constant α s . In the present case we adopt a collinear configuration for the initial state, keeping transverse momentum effects only in the fragmentation mechanism. Our theoretical estimates, when compared against 200 GeV and 510 GeV data from the STAR Collaboration, show a generally good agreement for the distributions in the transverse momentum of the jet, the pion longitudinal momentum fraction and its transverse momentum with respect to the jet direction. While not being a proof, due the assumptions and limitations behind the entire approach, these findings corroborate the hypothesis of TMD factorization for such processes as well as of the universality of the Collins function and, once again, of a reduced impact of the proper TMD evolution on azimuthal asymmetries. We will also present predictions based on an extraction of the Collins and transversity distributions where information from data on single spin asymmetry for inclusive pion production in p ↑ p collisions is included through a Bayesian reweighting procedure.

Azimuthal asymmetries↗
DOE OSTI2022

Superradiant pion clouds around primordial black holes

Here, we show that highly spinning primordial black holes of mass M ~ 10 12 kg, potentially born in a matter-dominated era after inflation, can produce clouds of pions in their vicinity via the superradiant instability, with densities up to that of nuclear matter. We discuss the electromagnetic signatures of this process, via neutral pion decay and charged pion annihilation into photons, computing in particular their contribution to the isotropic gamma-ray background. This allows us to place upper bounds on the abundance of such primordial black holes that are comparable to the ones obtained from Hawking evaporation. We also discuss the possibility of directly observing such clouds in high-redshift superclusters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗