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Results for “AXISYMMETRIC DEFORMATION”

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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Neutron star crust can support a large ellipticity

ABSTRACT Non-axisymmetrical deformations of the crust on rapidly rotating neutron stars are one of the main targets of searches for continuous gravitational waves. The maximum ellipticity, or fractional difference in moments of inertia, which can be supported by deformations of the crust (known as ‘mountains’), provides an important upper limit on the strength of these continuous gravitational wave sources. We use the formalism developed by Gittins and Andersson, along with a deforming force that acts mainly in the transverse direction, to obtain a maximum ellipticity of 7.4 × 10−6. This is larger than the original results that Gittins and Andersson obtained but consistent with earlier calculations by Ushomirsky, Cutler, and Bildsten. This suggests that rotating neutron stars could be strong sources of continuous gravitational waves.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Anisotropic neutron star crust, solar system mountains, and gravitational waves

"Mountains" or non-axisymmetric deformations of rotating neutron stars (NS) efficiently radiate gravitational waves (GW). We consider analogies between NS mountains and surface features of solar system bodies. Both NS and moons such as Europa or Enceladus have thin crusts over deep oceans while Mercury has a thin crust over a large metallic core. Thin sheets may wrinkle in universal ways. Europa has linear features, Enceladus has "Tiger" stripes, and Mercury has lobate scarps. NS may have analogous features. The innermost inner core of the Earth is anisotropic with a shear modulus that depends on direction. If NS crust material is also anisotropic this will produce an ellipticity, when the crust is stressed, that grows with spin frequency. This yields a braking index (log derivative of spin down rate assuming only GW spin down) very different from n=5 and could explain the maximum spin observed for neutron stars and a possible minimum ellipticity of millisecond pulsars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Axisymmetric hybrid Vlasov equilibria with applications to tokamak plasmas

We derive axisymmetric equilibrium equations in the context of the hybrid Vlasov model with kinetic ions and massless fluid electrons, assuming isothermal electrons and deformed Maxwellian distribution functions for the kinetic ions. The equilibrium system comprises a Grad–Shafranov partial differential equation and an integral equation. These equations can be utilized to calculate the equilibrium magnetic field and ion distribution function, respectively, for given particle density or given ion and electron toroidal current density profiles. The resulting solutions describe states characterized by toroidal plasma rotation and toroidal electric current density. Additionally, due to the presence of fluid electrons, these equilibria also exhibit a poloidal current density component. This is in contrast to the fully kinetic Vlasov model, where axisymmetric Jeans equilibria can only accommodate toroidal currents and flows, given the absence of a third integral of the microscopic motion.

Physics↗

Asymptotic quasisymmetric high-beta three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic equilibria near axisymmetry

Quasisymmetry (QS), a hidden symmetry of the magnetic field strength, is known to support nested flux surfaces and provide superior particle confinement in stellarators. In this work, we study the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium and stability of high-beta plasma in a large-aspect-ratio stellarator. In particular, we show that the lowest-order description of a near-axisymmetric equilibrium vastly simplifies the problem of three-dimensional quasisymmetric MHD equilibria, which can be reduced to a standard elliptic Grad–Shafranov equation for the flux function. We show that any large-aspect-ratio tokamak, deformed periodically in the vertical direction, is a stellarator with approximate volumetric QS. We discuss exact analytical solutions and numerical benchmarks. Finally, we discuss the ideal ballooning and interchange stability of some of our equilibrium configurations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Effective Field Theory for the perturbations of a slowly rotating black hole

We develop the effective theory for perturbations around black holes with scalar hair, in two directions. First, we show that the scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theory, often used as an example exhibiting scalar black hole hair, can be deformed by galileon operators leading to order unity changes to its predictions. The effective theory for perturbations thus provides an efficient framework for describing and constraining broad classes of scalar-tensor theories, of which the addition of galileon operators is an example. Second, we extend the effective theory to perturbations around an axisymmetric, slowly rotating black hole, at linear order in the black hole spin. We also discuss the inclusion of parity-breaking operators in the effective theory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Improved Axisymmetric and High Temperature Material Structural Modeling in MOOSE and NEML

This report describes improvements made to the solid mechanics formulation in the MOOSE open source finite element simulation environment and the open source Nuclear Engineering Material model Library (NEML) for mechanical constitutive models. The focus of these improvements is to improve the usability and performance of simulations involving one or both pieces of software. Specifically, this work completes a new system for solid mechanics simulations in the MOOSE ecosystem providing exact linearizations and optimal (quadratic) convergence, for a variety of coordinate systems and material types, including large deformation simulations. This work then provides users a framework to build highly efficient mechanical simulations of structures or materials or to couple in additional MOOSE physics modules to build complex, scalable multiphysics simulations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗