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At least 163 records · Page 9

Trends in relativistic laser–matter interaction: the promises of structured light

Time and space envelope, frequency and wavelength distributions, polarization, and phase are quantities that define the properties of laser light. Controlling them opens up strategies for manipulating the properties of atoms in various media. At relativistic intensity, matter is rapidly transformed into a plasma state, which is modifying the laser’s propagation, its absorption enabling the generation of intense magnetic and electric fields. In this context, structured light presents exciting, promising, and challenging opportunities for research. This review article aims to explain the concepts of structured light, their applications to real experiments at relativistic intensities, practical considerations, and some scientific perspectives.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Energetic Particles - microturbulence interaction thrust (EP SIWG white paper)

This white paper outlines a strategic approach to Energetic Particle (EP) research, aimed at applying the results to the future burning devices such as ITER. Our goal is to deepen the understanding of the interplay between plasma background microturbulence and diverse species of energetic ions in burning plasma devices. This strategy is poised to advance our knowledge in this crucial area of fusion science, paving the way for significant breakthroughs in plasma physics and fusion energy research. We consider the confinement of energetic ions such as auxiliary heating beams, minority ions from ICRH, and fusion product alpha particles. Recent studies have underscored the potential of EP/microturbulence interaction to enhance fusion plasma performance by stabilizing microturbulence. However, it also poses risks, such as exacerbating Alfvénic eigenmode (AE) instabilities, which could compromise the sustainability of plasma discharge by causing EP losses. The interplay between EPs and background microturbulence is evident in the phenomenon of effective pitch angle scattering, a crucial aspect of the quasilinear (QL) theory. This theory is integral to developing numerically-efficient yet comprehensive and self-consistent approaches, recently employed to investigate the relaxation of energetic particle populations in the holistic modeling of fusion-grade plasmas. The primary objectives of this white paper thrust encompass a dual focus. First is that we need to delve into the mechanisms through which microturbulence engenders effective pitch angle scattering. This investigation will entail the examination of the presence of known or self-consistently predicted spectra of modes accountable for microturbulence. In these explorations, electrostatic microturbulence serves as a logical initial stride towards achieving the trust's objectives. This endeavor is anticipated to yield formulations expressing the parametric dependencies of the effective pitch angle scattering frequency on variables such as thermal plasma electron and/or ion temperatures, as well as their respective thermal conductivities. In our second objective, we aim to delve into the intricate formation of zonal flow (ZF) structures amidst the complex interplay of microturbulence and Alfvenic eigenmodes (AEs). This endeavor poses greater challenges as we seek to unravel the macroscopic manifestations influenced by microturbulence, termed as zonal structures (ZS), stemming from microturbulence-induced ZF. Drawing from this understanding, we anticipate employing a QL approach to yield comprehensive insights into the distribution function of energetic particles (EP) within phase space. This method entails resolving the dominant multidimensional phase space diffusion processes while effectively averaging over the rapid ballistic responses. Nevertheless, substantial strides remain imperative to realize a comprehensive whole-device modeling framework. This entails meticulous verification and validation exercises against experimental observations, as well as rigorous benchmarking against theoretical frameworks and numerical simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Incoherent Thomson scattering system for PHAse space MApping (PHASMA) experiment

A new incoherent Thomson scattering system measures the evolution of electron velocity distribution functions perpendicular and parallel to the ambient magnetic field during kinking of a single flux rope and merging of two flux ropes through magnetic reconnection. The Thom-son scattering system provides sub-millimeter spatial resolution, sufficient to diagnose the several millimeters sized magnetic reconnection electron diffusion region in the PHAse Space MAppgin experiment. Due to the relatively modest plasma density ~ 10 19 m -3 and electron tem-perature ~1 eV, stray light suppression is critical for these measurements. Two volume Bragg gratings are used in series as a notch filter with a spectral bandwidth <0.1 nm in the collection branch. A CCD with a Gen III intensifier with peak quantum efficiency >47% is used as the detector in a 1.3 m spectrometer. Preliminary results of gun plasma electron temperature will be reported and compared with measurements obtained from a triple Langmuir probe.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Krylov complexity in mixed phase space

We investigate the Krylov complexity of thermofield double states in systems with mixed phase space, uncovering a direct correlation with the Brody distribution, which interpolates between Poisson and Wigner statistics. Our analysis spans two-dimensional random matrix models featuring (I) GOE-Poisson and (II) GUE-Poisson transitions and extends to higher-dimensional cases, including a stringy matrix model (GOE-Poisson) and the mass-deformed SYK model (GUE-Poisson). Krylov complexity consistently emerges as a reliable marker of quantum chaos, displaying a characteristic peak in the chaotic regime that gradually diminishes as the Brody parameter approaches zero, signaling a shift toward integrability. These results establish Krylov complexity as a powerful diagnostic of quantum chaos and highlight its interplay with eigenvalue statistics in mixed phase systems.

chaos & nonlinear dynamics↗

Reinforcement learning in discrete action space applied to inverse defect design

Abstract Reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms that include Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) have found tremendous success in computer games such as Go, Shiga and Chess. Such learning algorithms have demonstrated super-human capabilities in navigating through an exhaustive discrete action search space. Motivated by their success in computer games, we demonstrate that RL can be applied to inverse materials design problems. We deploy RL for a representative case of the optimal atomic scale inverse design of extended defects via rearrangement of chalcogen (e.g. S) vacancies in 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (e.g. MoS 2 ). These defect rearrangements and their dynamics are important from the perspective of tunable phase transition in 2D materials i.e. 2H (semi-conducting) to 1T (metallic) in MoS 2 . We demonstrate the ability of MCTS interfaced with a reactive molecular dynamics simulator to efficiently sample the defect phase space and perform inverse design—starting from randomly distributed S vacancies, the optimal defect rearrangement of defects corresponds a line defect of S vacancies. We compare MCTS performance with evolutionary optimization i.e. genetic algorithms and show that MCTS converges to a better optimal solution (lower objective) and in fewer evaluations compared to GA. We also comprehensively evaluate and discuss the effect of MCTS hyperparameters on the convergence to solution. Overall, our study demonstrates the effectives of using RL approaches that operate in discrete action space for inverse defect design problems.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Resonant Slow Extraction Simulation using Bmad

Simulations of slow extraction and transport of charged particle beams from synchrotrons requires careful modeling and experimentation. In this paper, we outline how the Bmad modeling software was adapted and developed to run third-integer resonant extraction simulations of beams at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Booster synchrotron. Further, we show experimental comparisons of the slowly extracted beams transferred to the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) transport line. In this process, beam passes through a stripping foil element at the extraction point, which, along with stripping remaining electrons from the beam ions, acts as a scatterer to modify the phase space, moving to a more Gaussian-like distribution. This modification to the beam helps generate a uniform beam at the beam line’s target location; which is necessary for the variety of experiments performed at the facility. During this work, beam energy loss and multiple scattering by foil routines were built in conjunction with the Bmad code developers and are now integrated into the software.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Available energy from diffusive and reversible phase space rearrangements

Rearranging the six-dimensional phase space of particles in plasma can release energy. The rearrangement may happen through the application of electric and magnetic fields, subject to various constraints. The maximum energy that can be released through a rearrangement of a distribution of particles can be called its available or free energy. Rearrangement subject to phase space volume conservation leads to the classic Gardner free energy. Less free energy is available when constraints are applied, such as respecting conserved quantities. Furthermore, less energy is available if particles can only be diffused in phase-space from regions of high phase-space density to regions of lower phase-space density. The least amount of free energy is available if particles can only be diffused in phase space, while conserved quantities still need to be respected.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

OPTIMIZATION OF COOLING DISTRIBUTION OF THE EIC SHC COOLER ERL

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) Hadron Storage Ring (HSR) will use strong hadron cooling to maintain the beam brightness and high luminosity during long collision ex?periments. An Energy Recovery Linac is used to deliver the high-current high-brightness electron beam for cooling. For the best cooling effect, the electron beam requires low emittance, small energy spread, and uniform longitudinal distribution. In this work, we simulate and optimize the longitudinal laser-beam distribution shaping at the photo?cathode, modeling space charge forces accurately. Machine parameters such as RF cavity phases are optimized in con?junction with the beam distribution using a genetic optimizer. We demonstrate improvement of the cooling distribution in key parameters.

Wang, N.↗

Inclusive and differential cross section measurements of $ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}}\textrm{b}\overline{\textrm{b}} $ production in the lepton+jets channel at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV

Measurements of inclusive and normalized differential cross sections of the associated production of top quark-antiquark and bottom quark-antiquark pairs, $ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}}\textrm{b}\overline{\textrm{b}} $, are presented. The results are based on data from proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{−1}$. The cross sections are measured in the lepton+jets decay channel of the top quark pair, using events containing exactly one isolated electron or muon and at least five jets. Measurements are made in four fiducial phase space regions, targeting different aspects of the $ \textrm{t}\overline{\textrm{t}}\textrm{b}\overline{\textrm{b}} $ process. Distributions are unfolded to the particle level through maximum likelihood fits, and compared with predictions from several event generators. The inclusive cross section measurements of this process in the fiducial phase space regions are the most precise to date. In most cases, the measured inclusive cross sections exceed the predictions with the chosen generator settings. The only exception is when using a particular choice of dynamic renormalization scale, $ {\mu}_{\textrm{R}}=\frac{1}{2}{\prod}_{i=\textrm{t},\overline{\textrm{t}},\textrm{b},\overline{\textrm{b}}}{m}_{\textrm{T},i}^{1/4} $, where $ {m}_{\textrm{T},i}^2={m}_i^2+{p}_{\textrm{T},i}^2 $ are the transverse masses of top and bottom quarks. The differential cross sections show varying degrees of compatibility with the theoretical predictions, and none of the tested generators with the chosen settings simultaneously describe all the measured distributions.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Synergy of coupled kink and tearing modes in fast ion transport

One aspect of the interaction between fast ions and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities is the fast ion transport. Coupled kink and tearing MHD instabilities have also been reported to cause fast ion transport. Recently, the 'kick' model has been developed to compute the evolution of the fast ion distribution from neutral beam injection using instabilities as phase-space resonance sources. Overall, the goal of this paper is to utilize the kick model to understand the physics of fast ion transport caused by the coupled kink and tearing modes. Soft x-ray diagnostics are used to identify the mode parameters in the National Spherical Torus Experiment. The comparison of neutron rates measured and computed from time-dependent TRANSP simulation with the kick model shows that the coupling of kink and tearing mode is important in determination of the fast ion transport. The numerical scan of the mode parameters shows that the relative phase of the kink and tearing modes and the overlapping of kink and tearing mode resonances in the phase space can affect the fast ion transport, suggesting that the synergy of the coupled modes may be causing the fast ion transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Suppression of bremsstrahlung losses from relativistic plasma with energy cutoff

We study the effects of redistributing superthermal electrons on Bremsstrahlung radiation from hot relativistic plasma. We consider thermal and nonthermal distribution of electrons with an energy cutoff in the phase space and explore the impact of the energy cutoff on Bremsstrahlung losses. We discover that the redistribution of the superthermal electrons into lower energies reduces radiative losses, which is in contrast to nonrelativistic plasma. Lastly, we discuss the possible relevance of our results for open magnetic field line configurations and prospects of the aneutronic fusion based on proton-Boron11 (p-B11) fuel.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Physics-constrained superresolution diffusion for six-dimensional phase space diagnostics

Adaptive physics-constrained superresolution diffusion is developed for noninvasive virtual diagnostics of the six-dimensional (6D) phase space density of charged particle beams. An adaptive variational autoencoder embeds initial beam condition images and scalar measurements to a low-dimensional latent space from which a 32 6 pixel 6D tensor representation of the beam's 6D phase space density is generated. Projecting from a 6D tensor generates physically consistent two-dimensional projections. Physics-guided superresolution diffusion transforms low-resolution images of the 6D density to high resolution 256 × 256 pixel images. Unsupervised adaptive latent space tuning enables tracking of time-varying beams without knowledge of time-varying initial conditions. The method is demonstrated with experimental data and multiparticle simulations at the HiRES UED. The general approach is applicable to a wide range of complex dynamic systems evolving in high-dimensional phase space. The method is shown to be robust to distribution shift without retraining. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Synergy of Coupled Kink and Tearing Modes in Fast Ion Transport

One aspect of the interaction between fast ions and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities is the fast ion transport. Coupled kink and tearing MHD instabilities have also been reported to cause fast ion transport. Recently, the ''kick" model has been developed to compute the evolution of the fast ion distribution from the neutral beam injection using instabilities as phase space resonance sources. The goal of this paper is to utilize the kick model to understand the physics of fast ion transport caused by the coupled kink and tearing modes. Soft X-ray diagnostics are used to identify the mode parameters in NSTX. The comparison of neutron rates measured and computed from time-dependent TRANSP simulation with the kick model shows the coupling of kink and tearing mode is important in determination of the fast ion transport. The numerical scan of the mode parameters shows that the relative phase of the kink and tearing modes and the overlapping of kink and tearing mode resonances in the phase space can affect the fast ion transport, suggesting that the synergy of the coupled modes may be causing the fast ion transpor

Energetic Particles↗

High-Throughput Automated Exploration of Phase Growth Behaviors in Quasi-2D Formamidinium Metal Halide Perovskites

Quasi-2D metal halide perovskites (MHPs) are an emerging material platform for sustainable functional optoelectronics, but the uncontrollable, broad phase distribution remains a critical challenge for applications. Nevertheless, the basic principles for controlling phases in quasi-2D MHPs remain poorly understood, due to the rapid crystallization kinetics during the conventional thin-film fabrication process. In this work, a high-throughput automated synthesis-characterization-analysis workflow is implemented to accelerate material exploration in formamidinium (FA)-based quasi-2D MHP compositional space, revealing the early-stage phase growth behaviors fundamentally determining the phase distributions. Upon comprehensive exploration with varying synthesis conditions including 2D:3D composition ratios, antisolvent injection rates, and temperatures in an automated synthesis-characterization platform, it is observed that the prominent n = 2 2D phase restricts the growth kinetics of 3D-like phases—α-FAPbI 3 MHPs with spacer-coordinated surface—across the MHP compositions. Thermal annealing is a critical step for proper phase growth, although it can lead to the emergence of unwanted local PbI 2 crystallites. Additionally, fundamental insights into the precursor chemistry associated with spacer-solvent interaction determining the quasi-2D MHP morphologies and microstructures are demonstrated. The high-throughput study provides comprehensive insights into the fundamental principles in quasi-2D MHP phase control, enabling new control of the functionalities in complex materials systems for sustainable device applications.

2D perovskites↗

Visualization of fast ion phase-space flow in plasmas well-below, near and well-above Alfvén eigenmode stability threshold in tokamak

Abstract Transport of fast ions along certain local phase space paths, referred to as fast ion phase-space flow, has been systematically measured by an imaging neutral particle analyzer (INPA) in three plasma regimes, which are well-below, near, and well-above the Alfvén eigenmode stability threshold (Du et al 2021 Phys. Rev. Lett. 127 235002). (1) In plasmas well-below the Alfvén eignenmodes (AE) stability threshold, fast ions are well-confined on passing particle orbits without noticeable transport over the phase space. The observed INPA images agree well with the synthetic INPA images, using the fast ion distribution predicted by neoclassical theory. (2) In plasmas near the AE stability threshold, INPA images in the presence of AE activity moderately deviate from those without AE activity. The image difference can be well interpreted by AE-driven, phase-space fast ion flow. Paths of this flow over the velocity space (or streamlines) are reconstructed by the intersection lines of curved E ʹ and µ surfaces, referred to as E ʹ and µ line (where E ′ ≡ E − ( ω / n ) P ζ ; E , P ζ and µ are the energy, canonical toroidal momentum and magnetic moment of ions; ω and n are the angular frequency and toroidal mode number of AEs, respectively). Resonant fast ions move radially inward by gaining energy and move radially outward by losing energy and the trajectory well aligns with the E ʹ and µ lines that pass through the mode resonances near the injection energy of neutral beams. (3) In plasmas well-above the AE stability threshold, fast ion phase-space dynamics shows additional features. Fast ions are transported out of the birth positions so promptly along the streamlines that the slowing-down process from the injection energy is not observable, exhibiting strong critical gradient behavior at local phase space. As a result, the increase of electron temperature is very small, in spite of an increase of beam power by ∼ 45 % . It should be emphasized that the directions of phase-space transport, induced by AEs with different frequencies, structures and mode numbers, do not largely differ.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Phase-space dynamics of Alfvén mode chirping

In tokamak discharges, toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes often experience complex semi-periodic frequency modulation known as chirping. These events modify the local high energy particle distribution and are expected to occur in many future fusion devices, which include energetic beams or fusion products. In this paper, we present a study of simulations of mode chirping made in order to better understand its phase-space properties in a realistic tokamak configuration. We find a mechanism that permits rapid repeated chirping with strong amplitude variation in each chirp. Each chirp is then associated with an amplitude crash to low magnitude and local manipulation of the density gradients through a shift of mode phase through π. The chirping produces high density clumps, which propagate down the fast ion density gradient and low density holes that propagate up the density gradient away from the resonance. This flow of particles across the resonance provides an energy source and local gradients for repeated chirping.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Gluon-mediated inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering from Regge to Bjorken kinematics

We revisit high energy factorization for gluon mediated inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) for which we propose a new semi-classical approach that accounts systematically for the longitudinal extent of the target in contrast with the shockwave limit. In this framework, based on a partial twist expansion, we derive a factorization formula that involves a new gauge invariant unintegrated gluon distribution which depends explicitly on the Feynman x variable. It is shown that both the Regge and Bjorken limits are recovered in this approach. We reproduce in particular the full one loop inclusive DIS cross-section in the leading twist approximation and the all-twist dipole factorization formula in the strict x = 0 limit. Although quantum evolution is not discussed explicitly in this work, we argue that the proper treatment of the x dependence of the gluon distribution encompasses the kinematic constraint that must be imposed on the phase-space of gluon fluctuations in the target to ensure stability of small-x evolution.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗