SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “MAGNETIC MONOPOLES”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 163 records · Page 9

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2023

Direct observation of 3D topological spin textures and their interactions using soft x-ray vector ptychography

Magnetic topological defects are energetically stable spin configurations characterized by symmetry breaking. Vortices and skyrmions are two well-known examples of 2D spin textures that have been actively studied for both fundamental interest and practical applications. However, experimental evidence of the 3D spin textures has been largely indirect or qualitative to date, due to the difficulty of quantitively characterizing them within nanoscale volumes. Here, we develop soft x-ray vector ptychography to quantitatively image the 3D magnetization vector field in a frustrated superlattice with 10 nm spatial resolution. By applying homotopy theory to the experimental data, we quantify the topological charge of hedgehogs and anti-hedgehogs as emergent magnetic monopoles and probe their interactions inside the frustrated superlattice. We also directly observe virtual hedgehogs and anti-hedgehogs created by magnetically inert voids. We expect that this new quantitative imaging method will open the door to study 3D topological spin textures in a broad class of magnetic materials. Our work also demonstrates that magnetically frustrated superlattices could be used as a new platform to investigate hedgehog interactions and dynamics and to exploit optimized geometries for information storage and transport applications.

Rana, A↗

DOE OSTI2011

Slowly balding black holes

The 'no-hair' theorem, a key result in general relativity, states that an isolated black hole is defined by only three parameters: mass, angular momentum, and electric charge; this asymptotic state is reached on a light-crossing time scale. We find that the no-hair theorem is not formally applicable for black holes formed from the collapse of a rotating neutron star. Rotating neutron stars can self-produce particles via vacuum breakdown forming a highly conducting plasma magnetosphere such that magnetic field lines are effectively ''frozen in'' the star both before and during collapse. In the limit of no resistivity, this introduces a topological constraint which prohibits the magnetic field from sliding off the newly-formed event horizon. As a result, during collapse of a neutron star into a black hole, the latter conserves the number of magnetic flux tubes N{sub B}=e{Phi}{sub {infinity}}/({pi}c({h_bar}/2{pi})), where {Phi}{sub {infinity}}{approx_equal}2{pi}{sup 2}B{sub NS}R{sub NS}{sup 3}/(P{sub NS}c) is the initial magnetic flux through the hemispheres of the progenitor and out to infinity. We test this theoretical result via 3-dimensional general relativistic plasma simulations of rotating black holes that start with a neutron star dipole magnetic field with no currents initially present outside the event horizon. The black hole's magnetosphere subsequently relaxes to the split-monopole magnetic field geometry with self-generated currents outside the event horizon. The dissipation of the resulting equatorial current sheet leads to a slow loss of the anchored flux tubes, a process that balds the black hole on long resistive time scales rather than the short light-crossing time scales expected from the vacuum no-hair theorem.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

NASA NTRS1990

Status of the MACRO experiment at Gran Sasso

The design of the MACRO (Monopole Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observatory) experiment is described, and the results achieved by the running of its first supermodule are summarized. Searches for magnetic monopoles and point sources of downward muons resulted in no detections. One upward moving muon was seen along with abundant data on muon bundles.

Ahlen, Steve↗

DOE OSTI2021

Revisiting the multi-monopole point of SU( N ) $\mathcal{N}$ = 2 gauge theory in four dimensions

Motivated by applications to soft supersymmetry breaking, we revisit the expansion of the Seiberg-Witten solution around the multi-monopole point on the Coulomb branch of pure SU(N) $\mathcal{N}$ = 2 gauge theory in four dimensions. At this point N - 1 mutually local magnetic monopoles become massless simultaneously, and in a suitable duality frame the gauge couplings logarithmically run to zero. We explicitly calculate the leading threshold corrections to this logarithmic running from the Seiberg-Witten solution by adapting a method previously introduced by D’Hoker and Phong. We compare our computation to existing results in the literature; this includes results specific to SU(2) and SU(3) gauge theories, the large-N results of Douglas and Shenker, as well as results obtained by appealing to integrable systems or topological strings. We find broad agreement, while also clarifying some lingering inconsistencies. Finally, we explicitly extend the results of Douglas and Shenker to finite N, finding exact agreement with our first calculation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2023

Anomalous magnetoresistance by breaking ice rule in Bi2Ir2O7/Dy2Ti2O7 heterostructure

Abstract While geometrically frustrated quantum magnets host rich exotic spin states with potentials for revolutionary quantum technologies, most of them are necessarily good insulators which are difficult to be integrated with modern electrical circuit. The grand challenge is to electrically detect the emergent fluctuations and excitations by introducing charge carriers that interact with the localized spins without destroying their collective spin states. Here, we show that, by designing a Bi 2 Ir 2 O 7 /Dy 2 Ti 2 O 7 heterostructure, the breaking of the spin-ice rule in insulating Dy 2 Ti 2 O 7 leads to a charge response in the conducting Bi 2 Ir 2 O 7 measured as anomalous magnetoresistance during the field-induced Kagome ice-to-saturated ice transition. The magnetoresistive anomaly also captures the characteristic angular and temperature dependence of this ice-rule-breaking transition, which has been understood as magnetic monopole condensation. These results demonstrate a novel heteroepitaxial approach for electronically probing the transition between exotic insulating spin states, laying out a blueprint for the metallization of frustrated quantum magnets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2013

The non-random walk of chiral magnetic charge carriers in artificial spin ice

The flow of magnetic charge carriers (dubbed magnetic monopoles) through frustrated spin ice lattices, governed simply by Coulombic forces, represents a new direction in electromagnetism. Artificial spin ice nanoarrays realise this effect at room temperature, where the magnetic charge is carried by domain walls. Control of domain wall path is one important element of utilizing this new medium. By imaging the transit of domain walls across different connected 2D honeycomb structures we contribute an important aspect which will enable that control to be realized. Although apparently equivalent paths are presented to a domain wall as it approaches a Y-shaped vertex from a bar parallel to the field, we observe a stark non-random path distribution, which we attribute to the chirality of the magnetic charges. These observations are supported by detailed statistical modelling and micromagnetic simulations. The identification of chiral control to magnetic charge path selectivity invites analogy with spintronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2013

Artificial Spin Ice: Controlling Geometry, Engineering Frustration

Frustration – the presence of competing interactions – is ubiquitous in the physical sciences and is a source of degeneracy and disorder, which in turn give rise to new and interesting physical phenomena. Perhaps nowhere does it occur more simply than in correlated spin systems, where it has been studied in the most detail. In disordered magnetic materials, frustration leads to spin-glass phenomena, with analogies to the behavior of structural glasses and neural networks. In structurally ordered magnetic materials, it has also been the topic of extensive theoretical and experimental studies over the past two decades. Such geometrical frustration has opened a window on a wide range of fundamentally new exotic behavior. This includes spin liquids in which the spins continue to fluctuate down to the lowest temperatures; and spin ice, which appears to retain macroscopic entropy even in the low temperature limit where it enters a topological Coulomb phase. In the past seven years a new perspective has opened in the study of frustration through the creation of artificial frustrated magnetic systems. These materials consist of arrays of lithographically fabricated single-domain ferromagnetic nanostructures that behave like giant Ising spins. The nanostructures’ interactions can be controlled through appropriate choices of their geometric properties and arrangement on a (frustrated) lattice. The degrees of freedom of the material can not only be directly tuned, but also individually observed. Experimental studies have unearthed intriguing connections to the out-of-equilibrium physics of disordered systems and non-thermal ‘granular’ materials, while revealing strong analogies to (spin) ice materials and their fractionalized magnetic monopole excitations, lending the enterprise a distinctly interdisciplinary flavor. The experimental results have also been closely coupled to theoretical and computational analyses, facilitated by connections to classic models of frustrated magnetism, whose hitherto unobserved aspects have here found an experimental realization. We review the considerable experimental and theoretical progress in this field, including connections to other frustrated phenomena, and we outline future vistas for progress in this rapidly expanding field.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Current Sheet Alignment in Oblique Black Hole Magnetospheres: A Black Hole Pulsar?

Abstract We study the magnetospheric evolution of a nonaccreting spinning black hole (BH) with an initially inclined split monopole magnetic field by means of 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. This serves as a model for a neutron star (NS) collapse or a BH–NS merger remnant after the inherited magnetosphere has settled into a split monopole field creating a striped wind. We show that the initially inclined split monopolar current sheet aligns over time with the BH equatorial plane. The inclination angle evolves exponentially toward alignment, with an alignment timescale that is inversely proportional to the square of the BH angular velocity, where higher spin results in faster alignment. Furthermore, magnetic reconnection in the current sheet leads to exponential decay of event-horizon-penetrating magnetic flux with nearly the same timescale for all considered BH spins. In addition, we present relations for the BH mass and spin in terms of the period and alignment timescale of the striped wind. The explored scenario of a rotating, aligning, and reconnecting current sheet can potentially lead to multimessenger electromagnetic counterparts to a gravitational-wave event due to the acceleration of particles powering high-energy radiation, plasmoid mergers resulting in coherent radio signals, and pulsating emission due to the initial misalignment of the BH magnetosphere.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

DOE OSTI2024

Revisiting spin ice physics in the ferromagnetic Ising pyrochlore Pr 2 Sn 2 O 7

Pyrochlore materials are characterized by their hallmark network of corner-sharing rare-earth tetrahedra, which can produce a wide array of complex magnetic ground states. Ferromagnetic Ising pyrochlores often obey the “two-in-two-out” spin ice rules, which can lead to a highly degenerate spin structure. Large moment systems, such as Ho 2 Ti 2 O 7 and Dy 2 Ti 2 O 7 , tend to host a classical spin ice state with low-temperature spin freezing and emergent magnetic monopoles. Systems with smaller effective moments, such as Pr 3+ -based pyrochlores, have been proposed as excellent candidates for hosting a “quantum spin ice” characterized by entanglement and a slew of exotic quasiparticle excitations. However, experimental evidence for a quantum spin ice state has remained elusive. Here, in this work, we show that the low-temperature magnetic properties of Pr 2 Sn 2 O 7 satisfy several important criteria for continued consideration as a quantum spin ice. We find that Pr 2 Sn 2 O 7 exhibits two distinct spin-correlation time scales of τ ≥ 10 –4 and ~10 –10 s in the spin ice regime. Our comprehensive bulk characterization and neutron scattering measurements enable us to map out the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram, producing results consistent with expectations for a ferromagnetic Ising pyrochlore. We identify key hallmarks of spin ice physics and show that the application of small magnetic fields (μ 0 H c ~0.5 T) suppresses the spin ice state and induces a field-polarized, ordered spin-ice phase. Together, our work clarifies the current state of Pr 2 Sn 2 O 7 and encourages future studies aimed at exploring the potential for a quantum spin ice ground state in this system.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Solving the Orszag–Tang vortex magnetohydrodynamics problem with physics-constrained convolutional neural networks

We study the 2D Orszag–Tang vortex magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) problem through the use of physics-constrained convolutional neural networks (PCNNs) for forecasting the density, ρ, and the magnetic field, B, as well as the prediction of B given the velocity field v of the fluid. In addition to translation equivariance from the convolutional architecture, other physics constraints were embedded: absence of magnetic monopoles, non-negativity of ρ, use of only relevant variables, and the periodic boundary conditions of the problem. The use of only relevant variables and the hard constraint of non-negative ρ were found to facilitate learning greatly. The divergenceless condition ∇·B=0 was implemented as a hard constraint up to machine precision through the use of a magnetic potential to define B=∇×A. Residual networks and data augmentation were also used to improve performance. This allowed for some of the residual models to function as surrogate models and provide reasonably accurate simulations. For the prediction task, the PCNNs were evaluated against a physics-informed neural network, which had the ideal MHD induction equation as a soft constraint. Several models were able to generate highly accurate fields, which are visually almost indistinguishable and have low mean squared error. Only methods with built-in hard constraints produced physical fields with ∇·B=0. The use of PCNNs for MHD has the potential to produce physically consistent real-time simulations to serve as virtual diagnostics in cases where inferences must be made with limited observables.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

NASA NTRS2004

Magnetocaloric Pumping of Liquid Oxygen

The field-induced force density on a magnetic fluid is proportional to the magnetic susceptibility times the gradient of the magnetic field squared. The direction of the force is towards increasing magnetic field (positive gradient). Applying a magnetic field to a magnetic fluid will result in a force from all directions towards the location of peak field. Since the magnetic field is conservative and there are no magnetic monopoles, the net field-induced force on any fluid of constant susceptibly will be zero. The only manner to obtain a nonzero net field-induced force is to vary the susceptibility of the fluid. At the gas/liquid interface of liquid oxygen, the susceptibility varies drastically, and the exploitation of the resultant large net forces. An alternative method of varying the magnetic susceptibility is to vary the temperature of the fluid. The magnetic susceptibility of paramagnetic liquid oxygen obeys the Curie-Weiss law: it is inversely proportional to temperature. By applying a temperature gradient in the presence of a symmetric magnetic field, a nonzero net force results. Much of the theory of the so-called Magnetocaloric Effect has previously been developed for and applied to ferromagnetic fluids, or ferrofluids, but is readily applied to paramagnetic liquid oxygen.

Immer, Christopher↗

DOE OSTI2020

Hidden sector monopole dark matter with matter domination

The thermal freeze-out mechanism for relic dark matter heavier than O (10 – 100 TeV) requires cross-sections that violate perturbative unitarity. Yet the existence of dark matter heavier than these scales is certainly plausible from a particle physics perspective, pointing to the need for a non-thermal cosmological history for such theories. Topological dark matter is a well-motivated scenario of this kind. Here the hidden-sector dark matter can be produced in abundance through the Kibble-Zurek mechanism describing the non-equilibrium dynamics of defects produced in a second order phase transition. We revisit the original topological dark matter scenario, focusing on hidden-sector magnetic monopoles, and consider more general cosmological histories. We find that a monopole mass of order (1–10 5 ) PeV is generic for the thermal histories considered here, if monopoles are to entirely reproduce the current abundance of dark matter. In particular, in a scenario involving an early era of matter domination, the monopole number density is always less than or equal to that in a pure radiation dominated equivalent provided a certain condition on critical exponents is satisfied. This results in a larger monopole mass needed to account for a fixed relic abundance in such cosmologies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2023

3D Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulator Trilayers of Hundred‐Nanometer Thickness

Magnetic topological states refer to a class of exotic phases in magnetic materials with the non-trivial topological property determined by magnetic spin configurations. An example of such states is the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state, which is a zero magnetic field manifestation of the quantum Hall effect. Current research in this direction focuses on QAH insulators with a thickness of less than 10 nm. Here, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is employed to synthesize magnetic TI trilayers with a thickness of up to ≈106 nm. It is found that these samples exhibit well-quantized Hall resistance and vanishing longitudinal resistance at zero magnetic field. By varying the magnetic dopants, gate voltages, temperature, and external magnetic fields, the properties of these thick QAH insulators are examined and the robustness of the 3D QAH effect is demonstrated. The realization of the well-quantized 3D QAH effect indicates that the nonchiral side surface states of the thick magnetic TI trilayers are gapped and thus do not affect the QAH quantization. The 3D QAH insulators of hundred-nanometer thickness provide a promising platform for the exploration of fundamental physics, including axion physics and image magnetic monopole, and the advancement of electronic and spintronic devices to circumvent Moore's law.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2018

Energy-momentum tensor of a ferromagnet

The energy-momentum tensor of a ferromagnet derived according to the standard prescription of Noether's theorem has a major flaw: the term originating from the spin Berry phase is gauge dependent. As a consequence, some physical quantities computed from the tensor show unphysical behavior. For example, the presence of a spin-polarized current does not affect the energy of the domain wall in the commonly accepted gauge, which implies, incorrectly, the absence of the adiabatic spin torque. In other gauges, the spin torque shows unphysical glitches occurring when the plane of magnetization crosses the Dirac string associated with a magnetic monopole in spin space. We derive a gauge-invariant energy-momentum tensor that is free from these artifacts but requires the addition of an extra spatial dimension, with the ferromagnet living on its boundary. As a result, it can be obtained most directly from the Wess-Zumino action for spins, which relies on the same extra dimension.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2022

Anomalous magnetic noise in an imperfectly flat landscape in the topological magnet Dy 2 Ti 2 O 7

Noise generated by motion of charge and spin provides a unique window into materials at the atomic scale. From temperature of resistors to electrons breaking into fractional quasiparticles, “listening” to the noise spectrum is a powerful way to decode underlying dynamics. Here, we use ultrasensitive superconducting quantum interference device (SQUIDs) to probe the puzzling noise in a frustrated magnet, the spin-ice compound Dy 2 Ti 2 O 7 (DTO), revealing cooperative and memory effects. DTO is a topological magnet in three dimensions—characterized by emergent magnetostatics and telltale fractionalized magnetic monopole quasiparticles—whose real-time dynamical properties have been an enigma from the very beginning. We show that DTO exhibits highly anomalous noise spectra, differing significantly from the expected Brownian noise of monopole random walks, in three qualitatively different regimes: equilibrium spin ice, a “frozen” regime extending to ultralow temperatures, and a high-temperature “anomalous” paramagnet. We present several distinct mechanisms that give rise to varied colored noise spectra. In addition, we identify the structure of the local spin-flip dynamics as a crucial ingredient for any modeling. Thus, the dynamics of spin ice reflects the interplay of local dynamics with emergent topological degrees of freedom and a frustration-generated imperfectly flat energy landscape, and as such, it points to intriguing cooperative and memory effects for a broad class of magnetic materials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2026

Influence of controlled disorder on the dipolar spin-ice state of Ho-based pyrochlores

Pyrochlore magnets of the form 𝑅 2 ⁢𝐵 2 ⁢O 7 , in which rare-earth ions on the 𝑅 site form a three-dimensional network of corner-sharing tetrahedra, provide a canonical setting for geometrical frustration. Ho-based pyrochlores host a dipolar spin-ice ground state, characterized by Ising moments constrained by the ice rules and elementary excitations analogous to magnetic monopoles. Here, in this work, we examine how controlled chemical disorder influences this state by introducing site mixing on the nonmagnetic 𝐵 site in two compounds. Ho 2⁢ GaSbO 7 contains only Ga 3+ /Sb 5+ charge disorder, whereas Ho 2 ⁢ScSbO 7 exhibits both charge and substantial size disorder arising from the large ionic-radius mismatch between Sc 3+ and Sb 5+ . Although both materials retain the pyrochlore structure, neutron-scattering measurements reveal a reduced correlation length for the 𝑅/𝐵-site cation ordering and enhanced local structural distortions in Ho 2 ⁢ScSbO 7 . Despite these structural differences, bulk thermodynamic measurements and magnetic diffuse scattering demonstrate that both systems exhibit the defining signatures of a dipolar spin-ice state. Low-energy inelastic neutron spectroscopy further uncovers broad magnetic excitations that develop within the dipolar spin-ice regime, a feature absent in pristine Ho pyrochlores and indicative of disorder-induced splitting of the non-Kramers ground-state doublet. Together, these results show that controlled disorder generates tunable transverse-field-driven quantum fluctuations in Ho-based pyrochlores, although the dipolar spin-ice state is remarkably robust to this disorder.

magnetic anisotropy↗

DOE OSTI2015

Evolution of the Fermi surface of Weyl semimetals in the transition metal pnictide family

Topological Weyl semimetals (TWSs) represent a novel state of topological quantum matter which not only possesses Weyl fermions (massless chiral particles that can be viewed as magnetic monopoles in momentum space) in the bulk and unique Fermi arcs generated by topological surface states, but also exhibits appealing physical properties such as extremely large magnetoresistance and ultra-high carrier mobility. Here, by performing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) on NbP and TaP, we directly observed their band structures with characteristic Fermi arcs of TWSs. Furthermore, by systematically investigating NbP, TaP and TaAs from the same transition metal monopnictide family, we discovered their Fermiology evolution with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) strength. Our experimental findings not only reveal the mechanism to realize and fine-tune the electronic structures of TWSs, but also provide a rich material base for exploring many exotic physical phenomena (for example, chiral magnetic effects, negative magnetoresistance, and the quantum anomalous Hall effect) and novel future applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2016

Bridging soft-hard transport properties of quark-gluon plasmas with CUJET3.0

A new model (CUJET3.0) of jet quenching in nuclear collisions coupled to bulk data constrained (VISH2+1D) viscous hydrodynamic backgrounds is constructed by generalizing the perturbative QCD based (CUJET2.0) model to include two complementary non-perturbative chromodynamical features of the QCD con_nement cross-over phase transition near Tc ≈ 160 MeV: (1) the suppression of quark and gluon chromo-electric-charged (cec) degrees of freedom and (2) the emergence of chromo-magnetic-monopole (cmm) degrees of freedom. Such a semi Quark Gluon Monopole Plasma (sQGMP) microscopic scenario is tested by comparing predictions of the leading hadron nuclear modification factors, R AA h (pT > 10GeV=c;√s), and their azimuthal elliptic asymmetry v 2 h (pT > 10GeV=c;√s) with available data on h =π, D;B jet fragments from nuclear collisions at RHIC (√s = 0.2 ATeV) and LHC(√s = 2.76 ATeV). The cmm degrees of freedom in the sQGMP model near T c are shown to solve robustly the long standing R AA vs v 2 puzzle by predicting a maximum of the jet quenching parameter field g(E; T)/T 3 near T c . The robustness of CUJET3.0 model to a number of theoretical uncertainties is critically tested. Moreover the consistency of jet quenching with observed bulk perfect uidity is demonstrated by extrapolating the sQGMP qˆ down to thermal energy E ~ 3T scales and showing that the sQGMP shear viscosity to entropy density ratio η/s ≈ T 3 /qˆ falls close to the unitarity bound, 1/4π, in the range (1–2)Tc. Detailed comparisons of the CUJET2.0 and CUJET3.0 models reveal the fact that remarkably different qˆ(T) dependence could be consistent with the same R AA data and could only be distinguished by anisotropy observables. Furthermore, these findings demonstrate clearly the inadequacy of focusing on the jet path averaged quantity as the only relevant medium property to characterize jet quenching, and point to the crucial roles of other essential factors beyond just the , such as the chromo electric and magnetic composition of the plasma, the screening masses and the running couplings at multiple scales which all strongly influence jet energy loss.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗