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At least 1,747 records · Page 97

Self-consistent modeling of tokamak edge plasma transport with lithium sources

Magnetic confinement fusion devices require effective heat and particle exhaust solutions on the divertor plates to operate sustainably, especially under reactor-relevant conditions. Liquid lithium divertors have been proposed to address two major challenges: control of excessive heat flux to plasma-facing components through vapor shielding and minimization of core plasma contamination from impurities. The National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) will explore lithium as a divertor material due to its potential to meet both objectives. We present a self-consistent coupling framework between the plasma boundary transport code UEDGE and the lithium wall transport code Wall–Li to evaluate the feasibility and operational limits of lithium-based divertors. The model aims to optimize lithium sourcing levels to prevent core plasma contamination via fuel dilution while ensuring divertor protection through vapor shielding. This integrated framework, applicable to any tokamak with lithium sources, dynamically adjusts lithium sourcing based on local plasma conditions and surface temperature. The coupled model is tested using NSTX-like geometry and plasma conditions to assess its performance and reliability. Wall–Li calculates lithium fluxes from plasma-facing components, incorporating physical sputtering, thermally enhanced sputtering, and evaporation driven by surface temperature and ion flux. These fluxes are reintroduced into UEDGE as neutral lithium atoms, enabling simulation of their transport and distribution within the plasma. UEDGE computes plasma and neutral transport, surface heat flux, and iteratively feeds this information back to Wall–Li. A small time step is employed to ensure numerical stability and convergence, enabling accurate simulations over typical tokamak discharge durations. This integrated modeling approach provides a robust tool for identifying operational regimes that balance effective lithium sourcing with minimal core plasma contamination, offering critical insights for optimizing lithium-based divertor systems in current and future fusion devices.

Magnetic confinement fusion↗

Molecular ions, Rydberg spectroscopy and dynamics

Ion spectroscopy, Rydberg spectroscopy and molecular dynamics are closely related subjects. Multichannel quantum defect theory is a theoretical approach which draws on this close relationship and thereby becomes a powerful tool for the study of systems consisting of a positively charged molecular ion core interacting with an electron which may be loosely bound or freely scattering.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Simple description of odd-A nuclei around the critical point of the spherical to axially deformed shape phase transition

An analytically solvable model, X(3/2j+1), is proposed to describe odd-A nuclei near the X(3) critical point. The model is constructed based on a collective core described by the X(3) critical point symmetry coupled to a spin-j particle. A detailed analysis of the spectral patterns for cases j=1/2 and j=3/2 is provided to illustrate dynamical features of the model. By comparing theory with experimental data and results of other models, it is found that the X(3/2j+1) model can be taken as a simple yet very effective scheme to describe those odd-A nuclei with an even-even core at the critical point of the spherical to axially deformed shape phase transition.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Highly Dynamic Gamma-Ray Emissions Are Common in Tropical Thunderclouds

Thunderstorms emit fluxes of gamma rays known as gamma-ray glows, sporadically observed by aircraft, balloons and from ground. Glows are observed as increased gamma-ray emissions by tens of percent up to two orders of magnitude above the background, sometimes abruptly terminated by lightning discharges. Glows are produced by the acceleration of energetic electrons in high electric field regions within thunderclouds, and contribute to charge dissipation. Glows are considered as quasi-stationary phenomena, with durations up to a few tens of seconds and spatial scales up to 10-20 kilometers. No measurement of the full extension in space and time of a gamma ray glow region and their occurring frequency has been reported so far. Here we show that tropical thunderclouds over ocean and coastal regions commonly emit gamma rays for hours over areas up to a few thousands of square kilometers. Emission is associated with deep convective cores; it is not uniform and continuous but shows characteristic timescales of 1-10 seconds and even sub-second for individual glows. The dynamics of gamma-glowing thunderclouds starkly contradicts the quasi-stationary picture of glows, but rather resembles that of a huge gamma-glowing «boiling pot» both in pattern and behavior.

M Marisaldi↗

INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF ASTEROIDS HAVING SURFACE SHEDDING DUE TO ROTATIONAL INSTABILITY

Surface shedding of an asteroid is a failure mode where surface materials fly off due to strong centrifugal forces beyond the critical spin period, while the internal structure does not deform significantly. This paper proposes a possible structure of an asteroid interior that leads to surface shedding due to rapid rotation rates. A rubble pile asteroid is modeled as a spheroid composed of a surface shell and a concentric internal core, the entire assembly called the test body. The test body is assumed to be uniformly rotating around a constant rotation axis. We also assume that while the bulk density and the friction angle are constant, the cohesion of the surface shell is different from that of the internal core. First, developing an analytical model based on limit analysis, we provide the upper and lower bounds for the actual surface shedding condition. Second, we use a Soft-sphere Discrete Element Method (SSDEM) to study dynamical deformation of the test body due to a quasi-static spin-up. In this paper we show the consistency of both approaches. Additionally, the SSDEM simulations show that the initial failure always occurs locally and not globally. In addition, as the core becomes larger, the size of lofted components becomes smaller. These results imply that if there is a strong core in a progenitor body, surface shedding is the most likely failure mode.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Building and Breaking Carbon Composites with REACTER

Carbon composites have become indispensable for aerospace and other high-performance applications, and a detailed picture of their morphology and failure mechanisms remains difficult to obtain through experiment. REACTER is a versatile computational modeling tool for atomistic molecular dynamics designed to model chemical reactions at the speed and length scales of classical force fields.1 In this work, several recent features of REACTER were applied to the creation and subsequent mechanical testing of two classes of carbon composites, carbon-fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) and carbon nanotube (CNT) composites. Carbon fiber core morphologies were created by the method of Desai et al.,2 but using the advanced reaction constraints framework of REACTER, their proposed multistep procedure was reduced to a single uninterrupted molecular dynamics simulation. The carbon fiber filler was embedded into a polymer matrix by simulated in situ polymerization of several thermosetting resins, including bismaleimide and polyarylacetylene, to obtain the final CFRP model. To generate the second class of carbon composite, CNT networks were grown dynamically using the new ‘create atoms’ feature of REACTER, and similarly infiltrated with resin to obtain CNT composites. The resulting models were compared directly to experiment using simulated high resolution transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Failure mechanisms were elucidated by simulating mechanically induced bond breaking, as characterized by third-order DFT-based tight-binding (DFTB3) simulations, via a reaction constraint on the total potential energy of the involved atoms.

Molecular Dynamics↗

Characterization of shale using Helium and Argon at high pressures

In order to estimate the shale gas in place and the eventual recovery during shale gas operations, one of the key requirements is to accurately characterize the shale’s petrophysical and transport properties such as porosity, permeability, diffusivity, and storage capacity. Despite the many efforts reported in the technical literature aiming to provide an improved understanding of the complex pore structures and the associated fluid flow in gas shales, complete characterization of organic-rich shale samples still poses a big challenge. Here, we have characterized mass transfer and sorption in shale at different length scales using Helium (He) and Argon (Ar) as probe gases. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) with a shale cube of ~1 cm 3 in size and gas expansion experiments with a full-diameter core (3.5” in diameter) were used to measure sorption kinetics/isotherms and mass transfer, respectively. Both samples are from the same depth/location in the Marcellus shale formation. The TGA steady-state technique was initially used to generate excess sorption isotherms for Ar, while dynamic TGA experiments were used to study its sorption kinetics. The TGA experiments demonstrate that Ar, which has a similar sorption potential as Methane, but is generally assumed to be inert, adsorbs onto the surfaces of the mesoporous and microporous regions of the shale samples according to a Langmuir-type behavior. Helium expansion experiments, on the full-diameter core, were used to measure the overall porosity, on the basis that He is a non-sorbing and inert gas as compared to Ar. The He expansion experiments, furthermore, allow us to delineate the mass transfer of gas across the inherent hierarchy of pore sizes, including macropores (macro- and microcracks), mesopores and micropores. Similar expansion experiments were also performed with Ar to study the combined impact of mass transfer and sorption. A triple-porosity model (TPM) was utilized to interpret the He expansion experiments with the shale core and to extract (estimate) relevant transport parameters. We report and compare here the diffusivities and permeabilities of the whole core for both He and Ar, as calculated from the modeling and fitting of the experimental data. On the premise that the shale cube is representative of the matrix region of the core, the Ar sorption kinetics from the cube experiments were subsequently combined with the transport parameters extracted from the He experiments to predict the behavior of the Ar expansion test with the full-diameter core. An excellent agreement is observed between the model predictions and the experimental data. The experimental observations and their interpretation indicate that one must be cautious when using Ar to estimate the true porosity and permeability of shales. In addition, we demonstrate that He and Ar probe gases, when used in tandem, can be employed effectively as a tool to characterize shales in terms of mass transfer and sorption dynamics across scales.

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS↗

New Surface Radiolabeling Schemes of Super Paramagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) for Biodistribution Studies

Nanomaterial based drug delivery systems allow for the independent tuning of the surface chemical and physical properties that affect their biodistribution in vivo and the therapeutic payloads that they are intended to deliver. Additionally, the added therapeutic and diagnostic value of their inherent material properties often provides extra functionality. Iron based nanomaterials with their magnetic properties and 10 easily tailorable surface chemistry are of particular interest as model systems. In this study the core radius of the iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) was 14.08 3.92 nm while the hydrodynamic radius of the NPs, as determined by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), was between 90 110 nm. In this study, different approaches were explored to create radiolabeled NPs that are stable in solution. The NPs were functionalized with polycarboxylate or polyamine surface functional groups. Polycarboxylate 15 functionalized NPs had a zeta potential of -35 mV and polyamine functionalized NPs had a zeta potential of +40 mV. The polycarboxylate functionalized NPs were chosen for in vivo biodistribution studies and hence were radiolabeled with 14 C, with a final activity of 0.097 nCi/mg -1 of NPs. In chronic studies, the biodistribution profile is tracked using low level radiolabeled proxies of the nanoparticles of interest. Conventionally, these radiolabeled proxies are chemically similar but not chemically identical to the non-20 radiolabeled NPs of interest. This study is novel as different approaches were explored to create radiolabeled NPs that are stable, possess a hydrodynamic radius of <100 nm and most importantly they exhibit an identical surface chemical functionality as their non-radiolabeled counterparts. Identical chemical functionality of the radiolabeled probes to the non-radiolabeled probes was an important consideration to generate statistically similar biodistribution data sets using multiple imaging and 25 detection techniques. The radiolabeling approach described here is applicable to the synthesis of a large class of nanomaterials with multiple core and surface functionalities. This work combined with the biodistribution data suggests that the radiolabeling schemes carried out in this study have broad implications for use in pharmacokinetic studies for a variety of nanomaterials.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Demystifying asynchronous I/O Interference in HPC applications

With increasing complexity of HPC workflows, data management services need to perform expensive I/O operations asynchronously in the background, aiming to overlap the I/O with the application runtime. However, this may cause interference due to competition for resources: CPU, memory/network bandwidth. The advent of multi-core architectures has exacerbated this problem, as many I/O operations are issued concurrently, thereby competing not only with the application but also among themselves. Furthermore, the interference patterns can dynamically change as a response to variations in application behavior and I/O subsystems (e.g. multiple users sharing a parallel file system). Without a thorough understanding, I/O operations may perform suboptimally, potentially even worse than in the blocking case. To fill this gap, here we investigate the causes and consequences of interference due to asynchronous I/O on HPC systems. Specifically, we focus on multi-core CPUs and memory bandwidth, isolating the interference due to each resource. Then, we perform an in-depth study to explain the interplay and contention in a variety of resource sharing scenarios such as varying priority and number of background I/O threads and different I/O strategies: sendfile, read/write, mmap/write underlining trade-offs. The insights from this study are important both to enable guided optimizations of existing background I/O, as well as to open new opportunities to design advanced asynchronous I/O strategies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Dynamics of Permanent-Magnet Biased Active Magnetic Bearings

Active magnetic radial bearings are constructed with a combination of permanent magnets to provide bias forces and electromagnets to generate control forces for the reduction of cost and the operating energy consumption. Ring-shaped permanent magnets with axial magnetization are attached to a shaft and share their magnet stators with the electromagnets. The magnet cores are made of solid iron for simplicity. A simplified magnetic circuit of the combined magnet system is analyzed with linear circuit theory by approximating the characteristics of permanent magnets with a linear relation. A linearized dynamical model of the control force is presented with the first-order approximation of the effects of eddy currents. Frequency responses of the rotor motion to disturbance inputs and the motion for impulsive forces are tested in the non-rotating state. The frequency responses are compared with numerical results. The decay of rotor speed due to magnetic braking is examined. The experimental results and the presented linearized model are similar to those of the all-electromagnetic design.

Fukata, Satoru↗

Performance Evaluation of NWChem Ab-Initio Molecular Dynamics (AIMD) Simulations on the Intel® Xeon Phi™ Processor

Ab-initio Molecular Dynamics (AIMD) methods are an important class of algorithms, as they enable scientists to understand the chemistry and dynamics of molecular and condensed phase systems while retaining a first-principles-based description of their interactions. Many-core architectures such as the Intel® Xeon Phi™ processor are an interesting and promising target for these algorithms, as they can provide the computational power that is needed to solve interesting problems in chemistry. In this paper, we describe the efforts of refactoring the existing AIMD plane-wave method of NWChem from an MPI-only implementation to a scalable, hybrid code that employs MPI and OpenMP to exploit the capabilities of current and future many-core architectures. We describe the optimizations required to get close to optimal performance for the multiplication of the tall-and-skinny matrices that form the core of the computational algorithm. We present strong scaling results on the complete AIMD simulation for a test case that simulates 256 water molecules and that strong-scales well on a cluster of 1024 nodes of Intel Xeon Phi processors. We compare the performance obtained with a cluster of dual-socket Intel® Xeon® E5–2698v3 processors.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory↗

Polymer nanoparticles of N-vinylpyrrolidone loaded with an organic aminonitroxyl platinum (IV) complex. Characterization and investigation of their in vitro cytotoxicity

The conditions for obtaining stable aqueous solutions of a lipophilic aminonitroxyl platinum complex, namely, e-amine-d-(4-amino-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl)-a, f-bis(octanoato)-b, c-dichloroplatinum(IV), by means of its encapsulation into nanoparticles of copolymers of N-vinylpyrrolidone with triethylene glycol dimethacrylate with various monomer compositions and topologies were found. Aqueous solutions of the complex encapsulated into polymer particles were investigated by dynamic light scattering, the temperature dependence of nanostructure sizes was studied. Transmission electron microscopy established that the hybrid nanostructures are core—shell particles, in which the platinum complex forms small clusters (∼4 nm). The parameters of ESR spectra of aqueous dispersions indicate a high mobility of nitroxyl contained in hybrid nanostructures. Voltammetric measurements demonstrate a similarity of the redox reactions related to the free radical fragment of the aminonitroxyl Pt{sup IV} complex and of the 4-acetylamino-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl radical. Polymer products containing the platinum complex were studied by IR spectroscopy, TGA, and DSC. The cytotoxicity index (IC{sub 50}) of the free and the encapsulated complex was determined for HeLa tumor cells. The cytotoxicity of the latter (IC{sub 50} 47–205 nmol L{sup −1}) depends on the monomeric composition of the nanoparticles and the incubation time.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

Multiscale modelling of the phénix dissymmetric test benchmark

The Phenix sodium-cooled fast reactor contains two pools in which characteristic 3D effects like thermal stratification and jets play a significant role. One of the two active heat exchanger sets fails in the dissymmetric test, leading to changes in the thermal stratification and asymmetric conditions in the reactor. Therefore 3D modelling using Computational Fluid Dynamics codes (CFD) is required to model this transient in sufficient detail. However, several aspects of the reactor, like the core and the secondary side of the heat exchanger, can be modelled more efficiently by System Thermal-Hydraulics codes (STH). Therefore multiscale models are developed by coupling CFD and STH codes, exploiting the strengths of both codes in terms of modelling options and computational costs. The results provide insight in the local flow patterns and the temperature distribution during the dissymmetric transient. The results and modelling choices of the participants are compared in this paper and the main findings are discussed in the light of lessons learned from the blind phase of the benchmark and providing recommendations for future modelling of pool-type liquid metal-cooled reactors.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Electrochemical Random-Access Memory: Progress, Perspectives, and Opportunities

Non-von Neumann computing using neuromorphic systems based on analogue synaptic and neuronal elements has emerged as a potential solution to tackle the growing need for more efficient data processing, but progress toward practical systems has been stymied due to a lack of materials and devices with the appropriate attributes. Recently, solid state electrochemical ion-insertion, also known as electrochemical random access memory (ECRAM) has emerged as a promising approach to realize the needed device characteristics. ECRAM is a three terminal device that operates by tuning electronic conductance in functional materials through solid-state electrochemical redox reactions. This mechanism can be considered as a gate-controlled bulk modulation of dopants and/or phases in the channel. Early work demonstrating that ECRAM can achieve nearly ideal analogue synaptic characteristics has sparked tremendous interest in this approach. More recently, the realization that electrochemical ion insertion can be used to tune the electronic properties of many types of materials including transition metal oxides, layered two-dimensional materials, organic and coordination polymers, and that the changes in conductance can span orders of magnitude has further attracted interest in ECRAM as the basis for analogue synaptic elements for inference accelerators as well as for dynamical devices that can emulate a wide range of neuronal characteristics for implementation in analogue spiking neural networks. At its core, ECRAM shares many fundamental aspects with rechargeable batteries, where ion insertion materials are used extensively for their ability to reversibly store charge and energy. Computing applications, however, present drastically different requirements: systems will require many millions of devices, scaled down to tens of nanometers, all while achieving reliable electronic-state tuning at scaled-up rates and endurances, and with minimal energy dissipation and noise. Further, in this review, we discuss the history, basic concepts, recent progress, as well as the challenges and opportunities for different types of ECRAM, broadly grouped by their primary mobile ionic charge carrier, including Li, protons, and oxygen vacancies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Photoluminescence Enhancement, Blinking Suppression, and Improved Biexciton Quantum Yield of Single Quantum Dots in Zero Mode Waveguides

The capability of quantum dots to generate both single and multiexcitons can be harnessed for a wide variety of applications, including those that require high optical gain. Here, we use time-correlated photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to demonstrate that the isolation of single CdSeTe/ZnS core–shell, nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs) in Zero Mode Waveguides (ZMWs) leads to a significant modification in PL intensity, blinking dynamics, and biexciton behavior. QDs in aluminum ZMWs (AlZMWs) exhibited a 15-fold increase in biexciton emission, indicating a preferential enhancement of the biexciton radiative decay rate as compared to the single exciton rate. The increase in biexciton behavior was accompanied by a decrease in blinking events due to a shortening in the dark state residence time. These results indicate that plasmon mediated enhanced decay rates of QDs in AlZMWs lead to substantial changes in the photophysical properties of single quantum dots, including an increase in biexciton behavior.

photon correlation↗

ON-OFF neuromorphic ISING machines using Fowler-Nordheim annealers

We introduce NeuroSA, a neuromorphic architecture specifically designed to ensure asymptotic convergence to the ground state of an Ising problem using a Fowler-Nordheim quantum mechanical tunneling based threshold-annealing process. The core component of NeuroSA consists of a pair of asynchronous ON-OFF neurons, which effectively map classical simulated annealing dynamics onto a network of integrate-and-fire neurons. The threshold of each ON-OFF neuron pair is adaptively adjusted by an FN annealer and the resulting spiking dynamics replicates the optimal escape mechanism and convergence of SA, particularly at low-temperatures. To validate the effectiveness of our neuromorphic Ising machine, we systematically solved benchmark combinatorial optimization problems such as MAX-CUT and Max Independent Set. Across multiple runs, NeuroSA consistently generates distribution of solutions that are concentrated around the state-of-the-art results (within 99%) or surpass the current state-of-the-art solutions for Max Independent Set benchmarks. Furthermore, NeuroSA is able to achieve these superior distributions without any graph-specific hyperparameter tuning. For practical illustration, we present results from an implementation of NeuroSA on the SpiNNaker2 platform, highlighting the feasibility of mapping our proposed architecture onto a standard neuromorphic accelerator platform.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Action painting under spectroscopic light: Excited-state exchange interactions behind the vibrant blue in Jackson Pollock’s Number 1A, 1948

Number 1A, 1948 by Jackson Pollock is a quintessential example of his action painting technique where ropes of color, drips of black, and pools of white coalesce into the layered dynamism that defines his style. While past work has identified the red and yellow pigments that form part of his core palette, the vibrant blue in the painting has remained unassigned. In this study resonance Raman spectroscopy is used to assign the blue in the painting as manganese blue. This assignment offers critical context for the conservation of his works. Importantly, assignment of this pigment enables spectroscopic investigation of the electronic structure origin of the pure hue of manganese blue and the chemical phenomena that produce its color. To probe these phenomena, resonance Raman data are coupled to magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations to assign and analyze the two electronic transitions that create the blue color. This study reveals these bands are split by excited-state exchange interactions; the gap between them contains the reflected light that gives manganese blue its appearance. This sheds light on distinct advantages of molecular inorganic pigments: their ability to leverage ligand field effects in charge transfer states to create multiple intense visible absorption features and the ability to fine-tune pigment color through host lattice electrostatics.

DFT↗

M31 GLOBULAR CLUSTER STRUCTURES AND THE PRESENCE OF X-RAY BINARIES

The Andromeda galaxy, M31, has several times the number of globular clusters found in the Milky Way. It contains a correspondingly larger number of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) associated with globular clusters, and as such can be used to investigate the cluster properties that lead to X-ray binary formation. The best tracer of the spatial structure of M31 globulars is the high-resolution imaging available from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and we have used HST data to derive structural parameters for 29 LMXB-hosting M31 globular clusters. These measurements are combined with structural parameters from the literature for a total of 41 (of 50 known) LMXB clusters and a comparison sample of 65 non-LMXB clusters. Structural parameters measured in blue bandpasses are found to be slightly different (smaller core radii and higher concentrations) than those measured in red bandpasses; this difference is enhanced in LMXB clusters and could be related to stellar population differences. Clusters with LMXBs show higher collision rates for their mass compared to clusters without LMXBs, and collision rates estimated at the core radius show larger offsets than rates estimated at the half-light radius. These results are consistent with the dynamical formation scenario for LMXBs. A logistic regression analysis finds that, as expected, the probability of a cluster hosting an LMXB increases with increasing collision rate and proximity to the galaxy center. The same analysis finds that probability of a cluster hosting an LMXB decreases with increasing cluster mass at a fixed collision rate, although we caution that this could be due to sample selection effects. Metallicity is found to be a less important predictor of LMXB probability than collision rate, mass, or distance, even though LMXB clusters have a higher metallicity on average. This may be due to the interaction of location and metallicity: a sample of M31 LMXBs with a greater range in galactocentric distance would likely contain more metal-poor clusters and make it possible to disentangle the two effects.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗