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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Complex angular momentum approximation to hard-core scattering

The complex angular momentum (CAM) approximation for nonrelativistic quantum scattering by a hard sphere - a union of the recently developed CAM uniform approximation with a semiclassical WKB-like approximation valid at large angles - is shown to be remarkably accurate over the complete range of scattering angles and down to size parameters (circumference to de Broglie wavelength ratios) of order unity. The best approximations previously derivable (Fock-type) cannot reach large scattering angles where semiclassical approximations are useful; even at angles where Fock-type approximations are valid, they are typically two or more orders of magnitude less accurate than CAM. The crucial new feature responsible for the high accuracy of the CAM approximation is the treatment of large-angle diffraction associated with (1) tunneling near the edge of the scatterer, and (2) anomalous reflection.

Nussenzveig, H. M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

QCD-motivated description of very high energy particle interactions

Cross sections for the production of secondaries with large transverse momentum can become comparable to the total cross section in the TeV energy range. It is argued that the onset of this effect is observed at sub TeV energies via an increase of the rapidity distribution near y = 0, an increase of p sub T with energy and, most directly, via a correlation between p sub T and multiplicity. If indeed scaling violations are associated with the hard scattering of partons, then scaling violations are largely confined to the central region and have little effect on cosmic ray data which are sensitive to the forward fragmentation region.

Gaisser, T. K.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Physics of Hard Sphere Experiment: Scattering, Rheology and Microscopy Study of Colloidal Particles

The Physics of Hard Sphere Experiment has two incarnations: the first as a scattering and rheology experiment on STS-83 and STS-94 and the second as a microscopy experiment to be performed in the future on LMM on the space station. Here we describe some of the quantitative and qualitative results from previous flights on the dynamics of crystallization in microgravity and especially the observed interaction of growing crystallites in the coexistance regime. To clarify rheological measurements we also present ground based experiments on the low shear rate viscosity and diffusion coefficient of several hard sphere experiments at high volume fraction. We also show how these experiments will be performed with confocal microscopy and laser tweezers in our lab and as preparation for the phAse II experiments on LMM. One of the main aims of the microscopy study will be the control of colloidal samples using an array of applied fields with an eye toward colloidal architectures. Temperature gradients, electric field gradients, laser tweezers and a variety of switchable imposed surface patterns are used toward this control.

Z D Cheng↗
NASA NTRS1991

A review of the kinetic detail required for accurate predictions of normal shock waves

Several aspects of the kinetic models used in the collision phase of Monte Carlo direct simulations have been studied. Accurate molecular velocity distribution function predictions require a significantly increased number of computational cells in one maximum slope shock thickness, compared to predictions of macroscopic properties. The shape of the highly repulsive portion of the interatomic potential for argon is not well modeled by conventional interatomic potentials; this portion of the potential controls high Mach number shock thickness predictions, indicating that the specification of the energetic repulsive portion of interatomic or intermolecular potentials must be chosen with care for correct modeling of nonequilibrium flows at high temperatures. It has been shown for inverse power potentials that the assumption of variable hard sphere scattering provides accurate predictions of the macroscopic properties in shock waves, by comparison with simulations in which differential scattering is employed in the collision phase. On the other hand, velocity distribution functions are not well predicted by the variable hard sphere scattering model for softer potentials at higher Mach numbers.

Muntz, E. P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

A hard X-ray polarimeter utilizing Compton scattering

The paper describes a 50-cm-diam prototype of a novel Compton-scattering-type polarimeter for hard X-rays in the energy range 30-100 keV. The characteristics of the prototype polarimeter were investigated for various conditions. It was found that, with polarized X-rays from a simple polarizer, the detection efficiency and the modulation factor of the polarimeter with a 40-mm thick scatterer were 3.2 percent and 0.57 percent, respectively, at about 60 keV.

Sakurai, H.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The generalized diffusion-convection equation

Starting from the Boltzmann equation, a transport equation is derived for energetic particles in a moving magnetized plasma in which the scattering centers that keep the particles quasi-isotropic are moving with a velocity that is not necessarily the same as that of the plasma. The scattering is characterized by three very loose constraints: (1) there is a rest frame for each scatterer in which the particles scatter elastically; (2) in this frame the scattering will not disturb an isotropic distribution; and (3) the momentum transfer in an average collision may be described by a tensor operating on the particles original momentum. Since the strength of the scattering is not specified, the derivation should be as valid for plasma microturbulence as for hard-sphere scattering. The results show clearly which phenomena are responsible for tying the particles to the plasma in the transport equation.

Jones, Frank C.↗
NASA NTRS2002

The Kinetics of Crystallization of Colloids and Proteins: A Light Scattering Study

Hard-sphere colloidal systems serve as model systems for aggregation, nucleation, crystallization and gelation as well as interesting systems in their own right. Similar colloidal systems have important technological uses such as paints and pharmaceuticals. There is a strong current interest in using colloidal systems to form photonic crystals. A number of colloidal experiments have flown on the space shuttle and a suite of experiments is currently active on the ISS A major scientific thrust of NASA's microgravity research is the crystallization of proteins for structural determination. The crystallization of proteins is a complicated process that requires a great deal of trial and error experimentation. In spite of a great deal of work, "better" protein crystals cannot always be grown in microgravity and conditions for crystallization are not well understood. Crystallization of colloidal systems interacting as hard spheres and with an attractive potential induced by entropic forces have been studied in a series of static light scattering experiments. Additionally, aggregation of a protein as a function of pH has been studied using dynamic light scattering.

Jim McClymer↗
NASA NTRS2020

Timing of the Accreting Millisecond Pulsar IGR J17591-2342: Evidence of Spin-down during Accretion

We report on the phase-coherent timing analysis of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J17591–2342, using Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) data taken during the outburst of the source between 2018 August 15 and 2018 October 17. We obtain an updated orbital solution of the binary system. We investigate the evolution of the neutron star spin frequency during the outburst, reporting a refined estimate of the spin frequency and the first estimate of the spin frequency derivative ( ˙ν ∼ −7 × 10−14 Hz s−1), confirmed independently from the modelling of the fundamental frequency and its first harmonic. We further investigate the evolution of the X-ray pulse phases adopting a physical model that accounts for the accretion material torque as well as the magnetic threading of the accretion disc in regions where the Keplerian velocity is slower than the magnetosphere velocity. From this analysis we estimate the neutron star magnetic field Beq = 2.8(3) × 108 G. Finally, we investigate the pulse profile dependence on energy finding that the observed behaviour of the pulse fractional amplitude and lags as a function of energy is compatible with the down-scattering of hard X-ray photons in the disc or the neutron star surface.

A Sanna↗
NASA NTRS1990

Global effects of thermal conduction on two-phase media

The evolution of two-phase systems of astrophysical gases which change mass between the phases is studied to see whether a steady state is ever reached. The criterion for thermal instability in a cloudy medium is derived. The evolution of the pressure and density of the intercloud medium under the combined effects of heating and radiative cooling of the intercloud gas on the one hand and evaporation and condensation of the clouds on the other is determined. The equilibrium density to which the system evolves is determined for the case when the pressure is fixed. The theory is illustrated by the case in which the intercloud gas is heated by Compton scattering in a hard radiation field and cooled by bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton scattering.

Begelman, Mitchell C.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Electron pitch angle scattering and the impulsive phase microwave and hard X-ray emission from solar flares

Observations and theoretical considerations have led to a model for impulsive phase flare emission involving the heating and acceleration of thermal electrons in the coronal part of a magnetic loop. The bulk of the heated gas is confined between conduction fronts, but particles with velocities a few times greater than the thermal velocity can escape into the lower part of the loop. It is shown that, when the electron gyrofrequency exceeds the plasma frequency, the escaping electrons are unstable to the generation of electrostatic plasma waves which scatter the particles in pitch angle to a nearly isotropic distribution. It is also shown that this scattering can (1) enhance the microwave emission from the upper part of the loop, and (2) due to the Landau damping of both low and high phase velocity waves, can lead to one or two breaks in the impulsive-phase hard X-ray spectrum.

Holman, G. D.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Low-energy electron-atom bremsstrahlung

This paper extends recent work providing an elementary calculation of bremsstrahlung and opacity associated with the scattering of low-energy electrons by neutral atoms and molecules. The method applies when the scattering potential is 'hard' or when the collision time is short, applying the classical soft-photon emission probability formula for arbitrary bremsstrahlung photon energy. However, now, in addition to correcting the probability factor for finite bremsstrahlung photon energy, another factor corrects for the reduced phase space available to the outgoing electron. The bremsstrahlung cross section and opacity are then computed directly from the elastic scattering cross section, determined experimentally or calculated; a small (approximately 10 percent) correction is computed from the anisotropic term in the elastic scattering cross section. The opacity is evaluated for electron scattering by H, He, and H2 using experimentally determined values for the elastic scattering cross section, and is compared with more elaborate calculations. The agreement is good (within 10 percent), indicating an accuracy for the general method comparable to variations among the results of different elaborate theoretical computations. The agreement seems to validate the basic approximation of short collision time even at large bremsstrahlung photon energy for electron energies and temperatures up to a few eV.

Gould, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Acoustic performance of inlet suppressors on an engine generating a single mode

Three single degree of freedom liners with different open area ratio face sheets were designed for a single spinning mode in order to evaluate an inlet suppressor design method based on mode cutoff ratio. This mode was generated by placing 41 rods in front of the 28 blade fan of a JT15D turbofan engine. At the liner design this near cutoff mode has a theoretical maximum attenuation of nearly 200 dB per L/D. The data show even higher attenuations at the design condition than predicted by the theory for dissipation of a single mode within the liner. This additional attenuation is large for high open area ratios and should be accounted for in the theory. The data show the additional attenuation to be inversely proportional to acoustic resistance. It was thought that the additional attenuation could be caused by reflection and modal scattering at the hard to soft wall interface. A reflection model was developed, and then modified to fit the data. This model was checked against independent (multiple pure tone) data with good agreement.

Heidelberg, L. J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Acoustic performance of inlet suppressors on an engine generating a single mode

As part of a program to evaluate an inlet suppressor design method based on mode cutoff ratio, three single degree of freedom liners with different open area ratio face sheets were designed for a single spinning mode. This mode was generated by placing 41 rods in front of the 28 blade fan of a JT15D turbofan engine. At the liner design this near cutoff mode has a theoretical maximum attenuation of nearly 200 dB per L/D. The data show even higher attenuations at the design condition than predicted by the theory for dissipation of a single mode within the liner. This additional attenuation is large for high open area ratios and should be accounted for in the theory. The data shows the additional attenuation to be inversely proportional to acoustic resistance. It was thought that the additional attenuation could be caused by reflection and modal scattering at the hard to soft wall interface. A reflection model was developed, and then modified to fit the data. This model was checked against independent (multiple pure tone) data with good agreement.

Heidelberg, L. J.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Does the Inner Disk Boundary of a Black Hole X-Ray Binary move During an Outburst?

Comptonization in the corona of an X-ray binary may reduce significantly the flux in the observed soft component of its X-ray spectrum. There fore the apparent inner disk radius inferred from the observed soft component may change in accordance to the fraction of the disk emission scattered into the hard component. We have developed a simple numerical model for carrying out the radiative transfer correction, in order to determine the original disk emission before the Comptonization in the hot corona. Applying this model to the extensive monitoring data of several black hole X-ray binaries with RXTE, we have found that most of the previous 1 y reported inner disk radius variations may be explained as due to this radiative transfer effect in the corona. We thus conclude that there is currently no evidence for significant inner disk boundary movement during the outbursts of these black hole X-ray binaries we have studied with the RXTE data.: GROJ1655-40, XTEJ1550-564, XTEJ1748-288 and XTEJ2012+381.

Zhang, S. N.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The effects of mixing of the ejecta on the hard X-ray emissions from SN 1987A

The X-ray and gamma-ray emissions expected from SN 1987A have been calculated, taking into account mixing of material in the ejecta. Nuclear gamma rays emitted by Co-56 are scattered down to the hard X-ray band by multiple Compton scatterings. Nomoto's 11E1Y6 model for the ejecta of SN 1987A is used. X-ray light curves in the 10-30 keV band and spectra above 20 keV calculated with an inner mixed region of 5 + or - 1 solar mass are consistent with the observations performed with the Ginga satellite and the Kvant/Roentgen mission. On the basis of this comparison, further evolutions of the hard X-ray, gamma-ray, and optical/infrared emissions are discussed.

Ebisuzaki, Toshikazu↗