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At least 1,621 records · Page 90
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Barium isotopic composition of mainstream silicon carbides from Murchison: Constraints for s-process nucleosynthesis in asymptotic giant branch stars

We present barium, carbon, and silicon isotopic compositions of 38 acid-cleaned presolar SiC grains from Murchison. Comparison with previous data shows that acid washing is highly effective in removing barium contamination. Strong depletions in δ({sup 138}Ba/{sup 136}Ba) values are found, down to –400‰, which can only be modeled with a flatter {sup 13}C profile within the {sup 13}C pocket than is normally used. The dependence of δ({sup 138}Ba/{sup 136}Ba) predictions on the distribution of {sup 13}C within the pocket in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) models allows us to probe the {sup 13}C profile within the {sup 13}C pocket and the pocket mass in AGB stars. In addition, we provide constraints on the {sup 22}Ne(α, n){sup 25}Mg rate in the stellar temperature regime relevant to AGB stars, based on δ({sup 134}Ba/{sup 136}Ba) values of mainstream grains. We found two nominally mainstream grains with strongly negative δ({sup 134}Ba/{sup 136}Ba) values that cannot be explained by any of the current AGB model calculations. Instead, such negative values are consistent with the intermediate neutron capture process (i process), which is activated by the very late thermal pulse during the post-AGB phase and characterized by a neutron density much higher than the s process. These two grains may have condensed around post-AGB stars. Finally, we report abundances of two p-process isotopes, {sup 130}Ba and {sup 132}Ba, in single SiC grains. These isotopes are destroyed in the s process in AGB stars. By comparing their abundances with respect to that of {sup 135}Ba, we conclude that there is no measurable decay of {sup 135}Cs (t {sub 1/2} = 2.3 Ma) to {sup 135}Ba in individual SiC grains, indicating condensation of barium, but not cesium into SiC grains before {sup 135}Cs decayed.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Search for anomalous production of events with three or more leptons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV

A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying tau leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t to c H), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, lambda[H, tc] and lambda[H, ct], respectively, of sqrt(abs(lambda[H, tc])^2 + abs(lambda[H, ct])^2) < 0.21.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Collisionless adiabatic afterglow

In this work, we study, by numerical and analytical means, the evolution of a collisionless plasma initiated between absorbing walls. The ensuing flow is described by rarefaction waves that travel inward from the boundaries, interact, and eventually vanish after crossing through, leading up to the asymptotic stage of the decay. Particle simulations indicate that the kinetic evolution strongly resembles one found in isentropic gas dynamics. Namely, a very gradual density profile forms in the expanding central region where the rarefaction waves interact, with an accompanying linear velocity profile. Asymptotically, the density falls off as 1/t. The density and the flux at the boundary show little variation over the period when rarefaction waves still exist. Plasma potential, on the other hand, drops quite rapidly (on the underlying ion-acoustic timescale) to less than initial electron temperature Te when over 70% of the particles still remain in the system. This is due to electron kinetics being governed by conservation of adiabatic invariant in a slowly varying potential well. Analytical model of the velocity distribution is presented to explain the simulations. The results have implications for afterglow plasmas used in material processing and also for ion-extraction devices. One property of potential interest is good uniformity of the decaying plasma that occurs after approximately one ion-acoustic time.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Formation of Superheavy Elements in Nature

It is shown that superheavy elements may also be formed in the main r process responsible for the formation of the heaviest elements observed in nature. Under conditions of a high neutron density, the nucleosynthesis region lies close to the neutron drip line, so that the r process may circumvent the region where nuclei undergo spontaneous fissions and therefore have short lifetimes. However, a high induced-fission rate, which increases with the charge number, may prevent the nucleosynthesis wave from overcoming the region of isotopes heavier than curium, and the beta-decay chain leading to an increase in the charge number of product elements inevitably results in the spontaneous fission of the majority of product nuclei. Calculations of nucleosynthesis that were performed with available nuclear data within the scenario of a neutron-star merger reveal that only Z < 106 superheavy elements are formed. Their abundance at the end of the r process is commensurate with the abundance of uranium, but their lifetime does not exceed several years, so that they fast undergo decay.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Search for heavy bottom-like quarks in 4.9 fb-1 of pp collisions at $ \sqrt {s} = 7 $ TeV

Results are presented from a search for heavy bottom-like quarks, pair-produced in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, undertaken with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The b' quarks are assumed to decay exclusively to tW. The b' anti-b' to t W(+) anti-t W(-) process can be identified by its distinctive signatures of three leptons or two leptons of same charge, and at least one b-quark jet. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 inverse femtobarns, observed events are compared to the standard model background predictions, and the existence of b' quarks having masses below 611 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

An electroweak basis for neutrinoless double β decay

Here, a discovery of neutrinoless double-β decay would be profound, providing the first direct experimental evidence of ΔL = 2 lepton number violating processes. While a natural explanation is provided by an effective Majorana neutrino mass, other new physics interpretations should be carefully evaluated. At low-energies such new physics could man-ifest itself in the form of color and SU(2) L × U(1)Y invariant higher dimension operators. Here we determine a complete set of electroweak invariant dimension-9 operators, and our analysis supersedes those that only impose U(1) em invariance. Imposing electroweak invariance implies: 1) a significantly reduced set of leading order operators compared to only imposing U(1) em invariance; and 2) other collider signatures. Prior to imposing electroweak invariance we find a minimal basis of 24 dimension-9 operators, which is reduced to 11 electroweak invariant operators at leading order in the expansion in the Higgs vacuum expectation value. We set up a systematic analysis of the hadronic realization of the 4-quark operators using chiral perturbation theory, and apply it to determine which of these operators have long-distance pion enhancements at leading order in the chiral expansion. We also find at dimension-11 and dimension-13 the electroweak invariant operators that after electroweak symmetry breaking produce the remaining ΔL = 2 operators that would appear at dimension-9 if only U(1) em is imposed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Search for direct production of winos and higgsinos in events with two same-charge leptons or three leptons in $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry targeting the direct production of winos and higgsinos is conducted in final states with either two leptons (e or μ) with the same electric charge, or three leptons. The analysis uses 139 fb -1 of pp collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed. Simplified and complete models with and without R-parity conservation are considered. In topologies with intermediate states including either Wh or WZ pairs, wino masses up to 525 GeV and 250 GeV are excluded, respectively, for a bino of vanishing mass. Higgsino masses smaller than 440 GeV are excluded in a natural R-parity-violating model with bilinear terms. Upper limits on the production cross section of generic events beyond the Standard Model as low as 40 ab are obtained in signal regions optimised for these models and also for an R-parity-violating scenario with baryon-number-violating higgsino decays into top quarks and jets. The analysis significantly improves sensitivity to supersymmetric models and other processes beyond the Standard Model that may contribute to the considered final states.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons A and H in the $t\bar{t}$Z channel in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV

A direct search for new heavy neutral Higgs bosons A and H in the $t\bar{t}$Z channel is presented, targeting the process pp → A → ZH with H → $t\bar{t}$. For the first time, the channel with decays of the Z boson to muons or electrons in association with all-hadronic decays of the $t\bar{t}$ system is targeted. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data collected at the CERN LHC with the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{𝑠}$ = 13 TeV, which correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb −1 . No signal is observed. Upper limits on the product of the cross section and branching fractions are derived for narrow resonances A and H with masses up to 2100 and 2000 GeV, respectively, assuming A boson production through gluon fusion. The results are also interpreted within two-Higgs-doublet models, where A and H are CP-odd and CP-even states, respectively, complementing and substantially extending the reach of previous searches.

2HDM↗
DOE OSTI2018

Direct measurements of channel specific rate constants in OH + C 3 H 8 illuminates prompt dissociations of propyl radicals

OH + molecules are an important class of reactions in combustion and atmospheric chemistry. Consequently, numerous studies have measured rate constants for these processes over an extended temperature range. A large majority of these experimental studies have utilized the decay of [OH] profiles (monitored either by absorption or laser-induced fluorescence) to obtain total rate constants. However, there are limited direct measurements of channel specific rate constants in this important class of reactions, particularly at combustion relevant temperatures. In the present experiments, we have directly measured site-specific rate constants for abstraction of the secondary C–H bond in OH + C 3 H 8 at high temperatures. Atomic resonance absorption spectrometry (ARAS) was used to monitor the formation of H-atoms from shock-heated mixtures of tert-butylhydroperoxide and C 3 H 8 at high temperatures. Simulations for the experimental H-atom profiles are sensitive only to abstraction of the secondary C–H bond leading to unambiguous measurements of the rate constants for this reaction. Over the T-range, 921 K < T < 1146 K, rate constants from the present experiments for OH + C 3 H 8 →H 2 O + i-C 3 H 7 can be represented by the Arrhenius expression, k = (3.935 ± 1.387) × 10-11 exp(-1681 ± 362 K/T )cm 3 molecule -1 s -1 Simulations of the lower temperature data (T < 1000 K) indicate that the H-atom profiles are also influenced to a minor extent by the thermal dissociation of iso-propyl, i-C 3 H 7 →H + C 3 H 6 , at short time-scales.

Shock Tube, H-ARAS, Prompt Dissociation, Bimolecul↗
DOE OSTI2024

Unraveling the mechanism of tip-enhanced molecular energy transfer

Electronic Energy Transfer (EET) between chromophores is fundamental in many natural light-harvesting complexes, serving as a critical step for solar energy funneling in photosynthetic plants and bacteria. The complicated role of the environment in mediating this process in natural architectures has been addressed by recent scanning tunneling microscope experiments involving EET between two molecules supported on a solid substrate. These measurements demonstrated that EET in such conditions has peculiar features, such as a steep dependence on the donor-acceptor distance, reminiscent of a short-range mechanism more than of a Förster-like process. By using state of the art hybrid ab initio/electromagnetic modeling, here we provide a comprehensive theoretical analysis of tip-enhanced EET. In particular, we show that this process can be understood as a complex interplay of electromagnetic-based molecular plasmonic processes, whose result may effectively mimic short range effects. Therefore, the established identification of an exponential decay with Dexter-like effects does not hold for tip-enhanced EET, and accurate electromagnetic modeling is needed to identify the EET mechanism.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

An investigation of Ar metastable state density in low pressure dual-frequency capacitively coupled argon and argon-diluted plasmas

An tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy has been used to determine the Ar*({sup 3}P{sub 2}) and Ar*({sup 3}P{sub 0}) metastable atoms densities in dual-frequency capacitively coupled plasmas. The effects of different control parameters, such as high-frequency power, gas pressure and content of Ar, on the densities of two metastable atoms and electron density were discussed in single-frequency and dual-frequency Ar discharges, respectively. Particularly, the effects of the pressure on the axial profile of the electron and Ar metastable state densities were also discussed. Furthermore, a simple rate model was employed and its results were compared with experiments to analyze the main production and loss processes of Ar metastable states. It is found that Ar metastable state is mainly produced by electron impact excitation from the ground state, and decayed by diffusion and collision quenching with electrons and neutral molecules. Besides, the addition of CF{sub 4} was found to significantly increase the metastable destruction rate by the CF{sub 4} quenching, especially for large CF{sub 4} content and high pressure, it becomes the dominant depopulation process.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

A CR-HYDRO-NEI MODEL OF MULTI-WAVELENGTH EMISSION FROM THE VELA JR. SUPERNOVA REMNANT (SNR RX J0852.0-4622)

Based largely on energy budget considerations and the observed cosmic-ray (CR) ionic composition, supernova remnant (SNR) blast waves are the most likely sources of CR ions with energies at least up to the 'knee' near 10{sup 15} eV. Shocks in young shell-type TeV-bright SNRs are surely producing TeV particles, but the emission could be dominated by ions producing {pi}{sup 0}-decay emission or electrons producing inverse Compton gamma rays. Unambiguously identifying the GeV-TeV emission process in a particular SNR will not only help pin down the origin of CRs, it will also add significantly to our understanding of the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) mechanism and improve our understanding of supernovae and the impact SNRs have on the circumstellar medium. In this study, we investigate the Vela Jr. SNR, an example of TeV-bright non-thermal SNRs. We perform hydrodynamic simulations coupled with nonlinear DSA and non-equilibrium ionization near the forward shock to confront currently available multi-wavelength data. We find, with an analysis similar to that used earlier for SNR RX J1713.7-3946, that self-consistently modeling the thermal X-ray line emission with the non-thermal continuum in our one-dimensional model strongly constrains the fitting parameters, and this leads convincingly to a leptonic origin for the GeV-TeV emission for Vela Jr. This conclusion is further supported by applying additional constraints from observation, including the radial brightness profiles of the SNR shell in TeV gamma rays, and the spatial variation of the X-ray synchrotron spectral index. We will discuss implications of our models on future observations by the next-generation telescopes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

RADIOACTIVE POSITRON EMITTER PRODUCTION BY ENERGETIC ALPHA PARTICLES IN SOLAR FLARES

Measurements of the 0.511 MeV positron-annihilation line from solar flares are used to explore the flare process in general and ion acceleration in particular. In flares, positrons are produced primarily by the decay of radioactive positron-emitting isotopes resulting from nuclear interactions of flare-accelerated ions with ambient solar material. Kozlovsky et al. provided ion-energy-dependent production cross sections for 67 positron emitters evaluated from their threshold energies (some <1 MeV nucleon{sup –1}) to a GeV nucleon{sup –1}, incorporating them into a computer code for calculating positron-emitter production. Adequate cross-section measurements were available for proton reactions, but not for α-particle reactions where only crude estimates were possible. Here we re-evaluate the α-particle cross sections using new measurements and nuclear reaction codes. In typical large gamma-ray line flares, proton reactions dominate positron production, but α-particle reactions will dominate for steeper accelerated-ion spectra because of their relatively low threshold energies. With the accelerated-{sup 3}He reactions added previously, the code is now reliable for calculating positron production from any distribution of accelerated-ion energies, not just those of typical flares. We have made the code available in the online version of the Journal. We investigate which reactions, projectiles, and ion energies contribute to positron production. We calculate ratios of the annihilation-line fluence to fluences of other gamma-ray lines. Such ratios can be used in interpreting flare data and in determining which nuclear radiation is most sensitive for revealing acceleration of low-energy ions at the Sun.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Polynomial chaotic inflation in supergravity

We present a general polynomial chaotic inflation model in supergravity, for which the predicted spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio can lie within the 1σ region allowed by the Planck results. Most importantly, the predicted tensor-to-scalar ratio is large enough to be probed in the on-going and future B-mode experiments. We study the inflaton dynamics and the subsequent reheating process in a couple of specific examples. The non-thermal gravitino production from the inflaton decay can be suppressed in a case with a discrete Z{sub 2} symmetry. We find that the reheating temperature can be naturally as high as O(10{sup 9−10}) GeV, sufficient for baryon asymmetry generation through (non-)thermal leptogenesis.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Reliable noise measure in time-gated NMR data

Time gating is a commonly used approach in the pre-processing of nuclear magnetic resonance data before inversion. Gating suppresses spurious signals that can degrade recovered decay time distributions and therefore often stabilizes inversion. However, care must be taken in applying this technique when assumptions of uncorrelated Gaussianity break down and reduce stacking efficiency. If not properly accounted for, unreliable noise estimates introduce inversion artefacts through over- or underfitting of the data. Block-bootstrap resampling of noise realization proxies obtained through data phasing can be used to generate reliable noise estimates for the windows. Benefits of the approach are demonstrated through inversion of synthetic and borehole data. Finally, analysis confirms that bootstrapped noise metrics are more reliable under variable noise conditions and result in more stable inversion results.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Observation of J / ψ decays to e + e − e + e − and e + e − μ + μ −

Using a data sample of 4.481 × 10 8 ψ ( 3686 ) events collected with the BESIII detector, we report the first observation of the four-lepton-decays J / ψ → e + e − e + e − and J / ψ → e + e − μ + μ − utilizing the process ψ ( 3686 ) → π + π − J / ψ . The branching fractions are determined to be [ 5.48 ± 0.31 ( stat ) ± 0.45 ( syst ) ] × 10 − 5 and [ 3.53 ± 0.22 ( stat ) ± 0.13 ( syst ) ] × 10 − 5 , respectively. The results are consistent with theoretical predictions. No significant signal is observed for J / ψ → μ + μ − μ + μ − , and an upper limit on the branching fraction is set at 1.6 × 10 − 6 at the 90% confidence level. A C P asymmetry observable is constructed for the first two channels, which is measured to be ( − 0.012 ± 0.054 ± 0.010 ) and ( 0.062 ± 0.059 ± 0.006 ) , respectively. No evidence for C P violation is observed in this process. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Off-shell pion properties: Electromagnetic form factors and light-front wave functions

The off-shell pion electromagnetic form factors are explored with corresponding off-shell light-front wave functions modeled by constituent quark and antiquark. We apply the Mandelstam approach for the microscopic computation of the form factors relating the model parameters with the pion decay constant and charge radius. Analyzing the existing data on the cross sections for the Sullivan process, 1 H(e,e',π + )⁢n, Charged pion form factor between Q 2 = 0.60, and 2.45 GeV 2 . I. Measurements of the cross section for the 1 H⁡(e,e'⁢π + )⁢n reaction, we extract the off-shell pion form factor using the relation derived from the generalized Ward-Takahashi identity for the pion electromagnetic current. They are compared with our previous results from exactly solvable manifestly covariant model of a (3+1)-dimensional fermion field theory. We find that the adopted constituent quark model reproduces the extracted off-shell form factor F 1 ⁡(Q 2 ,t) from the experimental data within a few percent difference and matches well with our previous theoretical simulation which exhibits a variation of about 10% for the extracted off-shell pion form factor g(Q 2 ,t). We also identify the pion valence parton distribution function (PDF) and transverse momentum distribution (TMD) in terms of the light-front wave function and discuss their off-shell properties.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗