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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.

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At least 1,711 records · Page 95
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Simultaneous Observation of Two Isolated Proton Auroras at Subauroral Latitudes by a Highly Sensitive All-Sky Camera and Van Allen Probes

Isolated proton auroras (IPAs) appearing at subauroral latitudes are generated by energetic protons precipitating from the magnetosphere through interaction with electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves. An IPA thus indicates the spatial scale and temporal variation of wave-particle interactions in the magnetosphere. In this study, a unique event of simultaneous ground and magnetospheric satellite observations of two IPAs were conducted on March 16, 2015, using an all-sky imager at Athabasca, Canada and Van Allen Probes. The Van Allen Probes observed two isolated EMIC waves with frequencies of ~1 and 0.4 Hz at L ≈ 5.0 when the satellite footprint crossed over the two IPAs. This suggests that the IPAs were caused by localized EMIC waves. Proton flux at 5–20 keV increased locally when the EMIC waves appeared. Electron flux at energies below ~500 eV also increased. Temperature anisotropy of the energetic protons was estimated at 1.5–2.5 over a wide L-value range of 3.0–5.2. Electron density gradually decreased from L = 3.5 to 5.4, suggesting that the EMIC wave at L ≈ 5.0 was located in the gradual plasmapause. From these observations, we conclude that the localized IPAs and associated EMIC waves took place because of localized enhancement of energetic proton flux and plasma density structure near the plasmapause. Furthermore, the magnetic field observed by the satellite showed small variation during the wave observation, indicating that the IPAs were accompanied by the weak field-aligned current.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

An intense, few-cycle source in the long-wave infrared

For the last several decades, the wavelength range accessible for strong-field, few-cycle studies has remained limited to the visible, near infrared and mid-wave infrared regimes. In particular, sources in the long-wave infrared have been lacking. We report the development of a 1 kHz, few-cycle laser source with up to a 9 μm central wavelength and gigawatt peak powers. When focused, this source can ionize gas targets, which we demonstrate here through the ionization of atomic xenon at wavelengths ranging from 5 μm to 9 μm. This opens up new opportunities for fundamental atomic and molecular physics, enabling experimental tests of strong-field ionization theories in the extreme long-wavelength, few-cycle limit and the direct excitation of vibrational transitions in organic molecules.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

A one-dimensional study of the evolution of the microwave breakdown in air

The microwave breakdown in air is simulated numerically within a simple 1D model taking into account a perturbation of electromagnetic field by plasma. The simulations were performed using two qualitatively different codes. One of these codes is based on computation of Maxwell equations, whereas the other one utilizes an approximation of quasi-monochromatic electromagnetic field. There is a good agreement between simulation results obtained by using both codes. Calculations have been carried out in a wide range of air pressures and field frequencies; also varied were initial spatial distributions of plasma density. The results reveal strong dependence of the breakdown evolution on the relation between the field frequency and the gas pressure as well as on the presence of extended rarefied background plasma. At relatively low gas pressures (or high field frequencies), the breakdown process is accompanied by the stationary ionization wave propagating towards the incident electromagnetic wave. In the case of a high gas pressure (or a relatively low field frequency), the peculiarities of the breakdown are associated with a formation of plasma filament array. The extended background plasma can suppress formation of the plasma filament array completely even at high pressures (or low frequencies)

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Doping-tunable thermal emission from plasmon polaritons in semiconductor epsilon-near-zero thin films

We utilize the unique dispersion properties of leaky plasmon polaritons in epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) thin films to demonstrate thermal radiation control. Owing to its highly flat dispersion above the light line, a thermally excited leaky wave at the ENZ frequency out-couples into free space without any scattering structures, resulting in a narrowband, wide-angle, p-polarized thermal emission spectrum. We demonstrate this idea by measuring angle- and polarization-resolved thermal emission spectra from a single layer of unpatterned, doped semiconductors with deep-subwavelength film thickness (d/λ{sub 0} ∼ 6×10{sup −3}, where d is the film thickness and λ{sub 0} is the free space wavelength). We show that this semiconductor ENZ film effectively works as a leaky wave thermal radiation antenna, which generates far-field radiation from a thermally excited mode. The use of semiconductors makes the radiation frequency highly tunable by controlling doping densities and also facilitates device integration with other components. Therefore, this leaky plasmon polariton emission from semiconductor ENZ films provides an avenue for on-chip control of thermal radiation.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2012

Mechanism of heating of pre-formed plasma electrons in relativistic laser-matter interaction

The role of the longitudinal ambipolar electric field, present inside a pre-formed plasma, in electron heating and beam generation is investigated by analyzing single electron motion in the presence of one electromagnetic plane wave and 'V' shaped potential well (constant electric field) in a one dimensional slab approximation. It is shown that for the electron confined in an infinite potential well, its motion becomes stochastic when the ratio of normalized laser electric field a{sub 0}, to normalized longitudinal electric field E{sub z}, exceeds unity, i.e., a{sub 0}/E{sub z} Greater-Than-Or-Equivalent-To 1. For a more realistic potential well of finite depth, present inside the pre-formed plasma, the condition for stochastic heating of electrons gets modified to 1 Less-Than-Or-Equivalent-To a{sub 0}/E{sub z} Less-Than-Or-Equivalent-To {radical}(L), where L is the normalized length of the potential well. The energy of electron beam leaving such a potential well and entering the solid scales {approx}a{sub 0}{sup 2}/E{sub z}, which can exceed the laser ponderomotive energy ({approx}a{sub 0}) in the stochastic regime.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

OBSERVATION OF BERNSTEIN WAVES EXCITED BY NEWBORN INTERSTELLAR PICKUP IONS IN THE SOLAR WIND

A recent examination of 1.9 s magnetic field data recorded by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in transit to Jupiter revealed several instances of strongly aliased spectra suggestive of unresolved high-frequency magnetic fluctuations at 4.4 AU. A closer examination of these intervals using the highest resolution data available revealed one clear instance of wave activity at spacecraft frame frequencies from 0.2 to 1 Hz. Using various analysis techniques, we have characterized these fluctuations as Bernstein mode waves excited by newborn interstellar pickup ions. We can find no other interpretation or source consistent with the observations, but this interpretation is not without questions. In this paper, we report a detailed analysis of the waves, including their frequency and polarization, that supports our interpretation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

WISE-CASING: Seismic Experiment at Richmond Field Station, CA

This experiment is testing the tube waves reflected from the bottom of the well. We put six single-channel geophones on the surface and a 24-channel downhole hydrophone into the well. The well is about 30 meters deep. Just a steel casing in the sand formation, no cement.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Width dependent transition of quantized spin-wave modes in Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} square nanorings

We investigated optically induced ultrafast magnetization dynamics in square shaped Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} nanorings with varying ring width. Rich spin-wave spectra are observed whose frequencies showed a strong dependence on the ring width. Micromagnetic simulations showed different types of spin-wave modes, which are quantized upto very high quantization number. In the case of widest ring, the spin-wave mode spectrum shows quantized modes along the applied field direction, which is similar to the mode spectrum of an antidot array. As the ring width decreases, additional quantization in the azimuthal direction appears causing mixed modes. In the narrowest ring, the spin-waves exhibit quantization solely in azimuthal direction. The different quantization is attributed to the variation in the internal field distribution for different ring width as obtained from micromagnetic analysis and supported by magnetic force microscopy.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Propagation of Torsional Alfvén Waves from the Photosphere to the Corona: Reflection, Transmission, and Heating in Expanding Flux Tubes

It has been proposed that Alfvén waves play an important role in the energy propagation through the solar atmospheric plasma and its heating. Here we theoretically investigate the propagation of torsional Alfvén waves in magnetic flux tubes expanding from the photosphere up to the low corona and explore the reflection, transmission, and dissipation of wave energy. We use a realistic variation of the plasma properties and the magnetic field strength with height. Dissipation by ion–neutral collisions in the chromosphere is included using a multifluid partially ionized plasma model. Considering the stationary state, we assume that the waves are driven below the photosphere and propagate to the corona, while they are partially reflected and damped in the chromosphere and transition region. The results reveal the existence of three different propagation regimes depending on the wave frequency: low frequencies are reflected back to the photosphere, intermediate frequencies are transmitted to the corona, and high frequencies are completely damped in the chromosphere. The frequency of maximum transmissivity depends on the magnetic field expansion rate and the atmospheric model, but is typically in the range of 0.04–0.3 Hz. Magnetic field expansion favors the transmission of waves to the corona and lowers the reflectivity of the chromosphere and transition region compared to the case with a straight field. As a consequence, the chromospheric heating due to ion–neutral dissipation systematically decreases when the expansion rate of the magnetic flux tube increases.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Determination of many-electron basis functions for a quantum Hall ground state using Schur polynomials

A method for determining the ground state of a planar interacting many-electron system in a magnetic field perpendicular to the plane is described. The ground state wave-function is expressed as a linear combination of a set of basis functions. Given only the flux and the number of electrons describing an incompressible state, we use the combinatorics of partitioning the flux among the electrons to derive the basis wave-functions as linear combinations of Schur polynomials. The procedure ensures that the basis wave-functions form representations of the angular momentum algebra. We exemplify the method by deriving the basis functions for the (5/2) quantum Hall state with a few particles. We find that one of the basis functions is precisely the Moore–Read Pfaffian wave function.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Astrophysical constraints on extended gravity models

We investigate the propagation of gravitational waves in the context of fourth order gravity nonminimally coupled to a massive scalar field. Using the damping of the orbital period of coalescing stellar binary systems, we impose constraints on the free parameters of extended gravity models. In particular, we find that the variation of the orbital period is a function of three mass scales which depend on the free parameters of the model under consideration; we can constrain these mass scales from current observational data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Ion dynamics driven by a strongly nonlinear plasma wake

Abstract In plasma wakefield accelerators, the wave excited in the plasma eventually breaks and leaves behind slowly changing fields and currents that perturb the ion density background. We study this process numerically using the example of a Facility for Advanced aCcelerator Experimental Tests (FACET) experiment where the wave is excited by an electron bunch in the bubble regime in a radially bounded plasma. Four physical effects underlie the dynamics of ions: (1) attraction of ions toward the axis by the fields of the driver and the wave, resulting in formation of a density peak, (2) generation of ion-acoustic solitons following the decay of the density peak, (3) positive plasma charging after wave breaking, leading to acceleration of some ions in the radial direction, and (4) plasma pinching by the current generated during the wave-breaking. The interplay of these effects results in the formation of various radial density profiles, which are difficult to produce in any other way.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2020

A new field solver for modeling of relativistic particle-laser interactions using the particle-in-cell algorithm

A customized finite-difference field solver for the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm that provides higher fidelity for wave-particle interactions in intense electromagnetic waves is presented. In many problems of interest, particles with relativistic energies interact with intense electromagnetic fields that have phase velocities near the speed of light. Numerical errors can arise due to (1) dispersion errors in the phase velocity of the wave, (2) the staggering in time between the electric and magnetic fields and between particle velocity and position and (3) errors in the time derivative in the momentum advance. Errors of the first two kinds are analyzed in detail. It is shown that by using field solvers with different -space operators in Faraday’s and Ampere’s law, the dispersion errors and magnetic field time-staggering errors in the particle pusher can be simultaneously removed for electromagnetic waves moving primarily in a specific direction. Here, the new algorithm was implemented into Osiris by using customized higher-order finite-difference operators. Schemes using the proposed solver in combination with different particle pushers are compared through PIC simulation. It is shown that the use of the new algorithm, together with an analytic particle pusher (assuming constant fields over a time step), can lead to accurate modeling of the motion of a single electron in an intense laser field with normalized vector potentials, eA / mc 2 , exceeding for typical cell sizes and time steps.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Can quantum probes satisfy the weak equivalence principle?

We address the question whether quantum probes in a gravitational field can be considered as test particles obeying the weak equivalence principle (WEP). A formulation of the WEP is proposed which applies also in the quantum regime, while maintaining the physical content of its classical counterpart. Such formulation requires the introduction of a gravitational field not to modify the Fisher information about the mass of a freely-falling probe, extractable through measurements of its position. We discover that, while in a uniform field quantum probes satisfy our formulation of the WEP exactly, gravity gradients can encode nontrivial information about the particle’s mass in its wavefunction, leading to violations of the WEP. - Highlights: • Can quantum probes under gravity be approximated as test-bodies? • A formulation of the weak equivalence principle for quantum probes is proposed. • Quantum probes are found to violate it as a matter of principle.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quasi-normal mode of a Planck star

Highlights: • We have derived the Regge–Wheeler equations for a Planck star. • We have calculated the perturbed Einstein equations for a Planck star. • We have calculated the Quasi Normal Modes of a Planck star. In this work we present a calculation of the quasi-normal modes of a Planck star, a supposed state in the life of a large mass star in which quantum effects should reverse the collapse causing the star to explode. In order to solve the Regge–Wheeler equations and to calculate the quasi-normal modes, we apply the shooting method.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Urban Seismic Site Characterization by Fiber-Optic Seismology

ccurate ground motion prediction requires detailed site effect assessment, but in urban areas where such assessments are most important, geotechnical surveys are difficult to perform, limiting their availability. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) offers an appealing alternative by repurposing existing fiber-optic cables, normally employed for telecommunication, as an array of seismic sensors. We present a proof-of-concept demonstration by using DAS to produce high-resolution maps of the shallow subsurface with the Stanford DAS array, California. We describe new methods and their assumptions to assess H/V spectral ratio—a technique widely used to estimate the natural frequency of the soil—and to extract Rayleigh wave dispersion curves from ambient seismic field. These measurements are jointly inverted to provide models of shallow seismic velocities and sediment thicknesses above bedrock in central campus. The good agreement with an independent survey validates the methodology and demonstrates the power of DAS for microzonation.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗
DOE OSTI2012

Bogoliubov space of a Bose-Einstein condensate and quantum spacetime fluctuations

We analyze the role that metric fluctuations could have on the features of a Bose-Einstein condensate. Particularly, the Bogoliubov space associated to it is considered and it will be shown that the pressure and the speed of sound of the ground state define an expression allowing us to determine the average size of these fluctuations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

On the breaking of a plasma wave in a thermal plasma. I. The structure of the density singularity

The structure of the singularity that is formed in a relativistically large amplitude plasma wave close to the wave breaking limit is found by using a simple waterbag electron distribution function. The electron density distribution in the breaking wave has a typical 'peakon' form. The maximum value of the electric field in a thermal breaking plasma is obtained and compared to the cold plasma limit. The results of computer simulations for different initial electron distribution functions are in agreement with the theoretical conclusions. The after-wavebreak regime is then examined, and a semi-analytical model of the density evolution is constructed. Finally the results of two dimensional particle in cell simulations for different initial electron distribution functions are compared, and the role of thermal effects in enhancing particle injection is noted.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗