Radiative Stability Research Articles

Scenario optimization for the tokamak ramp-down phase in RAPTOR: Part A. Analysis and model validation on ASDEX Upgrade

We discuss how the combination of experimental observations and rapid modeling has enabled to improve understanding of the tokamak ramp-down phase in ASDEX Upgrade. A series of dedicated experiments has been performed, to disentangle the effect of individual actuators like plasma current, auxiliary heating and plasma shaping. Optimized discharge termination strategies with increased margin with respect to radiative and vertical stability limits are proposed and tested in experiment. Radiative collapse of the edge Te profile after the HL back-transition is avoided by initially maintaining auxiliary heating during L-mode, showing beneficial effects even after the auxiliary heating is turned off. The capability of the RAPTOR code to model the time evolution of the internal inductance has been validated, including the effect of a change in the Ip ramp-down rate and the HL transition timing. The reduction of caused by rapid compression of the plasma cross-section has been quantitatively recovered in simulations. Successful modeling of the time evolution is essential to optimize ramp-down scenarios for future fusion reactors, for which vertical stability and power balance control will be more challenging.

The birth and early evolution of a low-mass protostar

Context. Understanding the collapse of dense molecular cloud cores to stellar densities and the subsequent evolution of the protostar is of importance to model the feedback effects such an object has on its surrounding environment, as well as describing the conditions with which it enters the stellar evolutionary track. This process is fundamentally multi-scale, both in density and in spatial extent, and requires the inclusion of complex physical processes such as self-gravity, turbulence, radiative transfer, and magnetic fields. As such, it necessitates the use of robust numerical simulations. Aims. We aim to model the birth and early evolution of a low-mass protostar. We also seek to describe the interior structure of the protostar and the radiative behavior of its accretion shock front. Methods. We carried out a high resolution numerical simulation of the collapse of a gravitationally unstable 1 M⊙ dense molecular cloud core to stellar densities using 3D radiation hydrodynamics under the gray flux-limited diffusion approximation. We followed the initial isothermal phase, the first adiabatic contraction, the second gravitational collapse triggered by the dissociation of H2 molecules, and ≈247 days of the subsequent main accretion phase. Results. We find that the subcritical radiative behavior of the protostar’s shock front causes it to swell as it accretes matter. We also find that the protostar is turbulent from the moment of its inception despite its radiative stability. This turbulence causes significant entropy mixing inside the protostar, which regulates the swelling. Furthermore, we find that the protostar is not fully ionized at birth, but the relative amount of ionized material within it increases as it accretes matter from its surroundings. Finally, we report in the appendix the results of the first 3D calculations involving a frequency-dependent treatment of radiative transfer, which has not produced any major differences with its gray counterpart.

NANOGrav signal from double-inflection-point inflation and dark matter

The NANOGrav collaboration has published a suspected stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background signal in its analysis of 12.5 years PTA data, so in this work, we investigate the possibility to explain the signal by the inflationary models with double-inflection-point. We calculate the energy spectrum of GWs induced by scalar perturbations, and show that the curve lies in the 2sigma region of the NANOGrav constraints. In addition, we analyze the reheating process and dark matter production by assuming that the inflaton is coupled with the standard model (SM) Higgs boson and singlet fermionic dark matter field. We discuss the radiative stability of the inflationary potential under one-loop corrections, calculate the reheating temperature, the dark matter production, and constraints on the coupling parameters using the bounds of BBN, Lyman-alpha , etc.

Study on the calibration of full polarization imager

Polarization is one of the fundamental properties of light, which has a wide range of applications and is developing rapidly. To meet the needs of polarization detection, different types of polarization instruments came into being. The precision of the polarization detection instruments is vital to the result analysis. In this paper, a full polarization imager is designed, and the radiometric calibration and polarization calibration of this instrument are studied. In radiometric calibration, the different numbers lights are set to verify the light intensity response of the imager. The mathematical model was constructed for numerical fitting, and the correlation between the fitted values and the measured values in the 490 nm, 550 nm, and 670 nm bands was above 0.99. Fixed the radiance of the integrating sphere, and adjusted exposure times. The correlation of the three bands is above 0.99, which verifies that the radiative stability of the imager is good. The polarimetric calibration system adopts the adjustable degree of polarization reference light source (APOL). The theoretical and measured values of the degree of polarization of reference light sources in three different bands are analyzed. The results show that the measurement accuracy of the 490 nm band is less than 2%. The precision of polarization measurement in the 550 nm band is less than 1.5%, and the precision of polarization calibration in the 670 nm band is less than 1%. The imager is verified to have high polarization calibration accuracy and meets the requirements of high-precision polarization detection.

Tunable smart mid infrared thermal control emitter based on phase change material VO2 thin film

Thermal radiation is one of the three ways of heat transfer, among which the mid-infrared thermal radiation has attracted much attention. At present, static control of thermal emissivity has been unable to meet the practical application, the device of dynamic control of thermal radiation is expected. In this paper, we study an intelligent thermal controlled radiation emitter based on a layered structure formed by phase change material Vanadium Dioxide. The transition denaturation of Vanadium Dioxide can realize the switching process from heat dissipation at high temperature to heat preservation at low temperature. In the mid-infrared wavelength range of 5–13 μm, significant differences in emission characteristics are observed due to variations in the imaginary part of the dielectric constant of Vanadium Dioxide. When it is in the high temperature metallic state, the optimal structural parameters, from top to bottom, are 10 nm, 350 nm, 320 nm, and 200 nm. With these parameters, the structure exhibits an emissivity of 0.78 and a full width at half maximum of 8.03 μm. This configuration achieves effective thermal radiation dissipation, as governed by the Stefan-Boltzmann’s law. On the other hand, when the structure is in the low temperature dielectric state, it exhibits a low absorption effect with an emissivity of 0.10, thus avoiding excessive heat loss. The radiative modulation capability and thermal stability were achieved through the use of thermochromic material Vanadium Dioxide which exhibits temperature switchable behavior. Additionally, the thermal control emitter, utilizing its resonant cavity, enables tunability of peak wavelength and demonstrates a certain degree of independence with respect to polarization and incident angle. The designed emitter structure is simple and easy to fabricate, holding significant prospects for applications in engineering insulation materials, infrared camouflage, and thermal management.

Improved performance of CsPbBr3 light-emitting diodes based on zinc bromide passivated quantum dots

Metal halide perovskite quantum dots (Pe QDs) have aroused tremendous interest in the past several years for their promising applications in display and lighting. However, an inevitable precipitation and purification process has to be conducted to clear away redundant uncoordinated organic ligands during the synthesis of QDs, leading to the formation of surface vacancy defects. Herein, an ion replenishment process has been demonstrated to passivate cesium lead bromide QDs (CsPbBr3 QDs) with zinc bromide (ZnBr2) without cosolvent. This technology does not introduce any more process of QDs synthesis, ZnBr2 has been utilized as the inorganic additive dispersed in antisolvent ethyl acetate during the precipitation and purification. The formation of both lead ions (Pb2+) and bromide ions (Br−) vacancy defects could be suppressed. Improved radiative recombination and stability were achieved. As a result, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on the CsPbBr3 QDs with ZnBr2 exhibited an maximum luminance of 96392 cd m−2, current efficiency of 21.1 cd A−1 and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of. Compared with the devices fabricated from Pe QDs without passivation, the enhancement of maximum luminance and EQE is up to 200% and 100%. This work provides a simple and effective strategy to passivate the surface vacancy defects of CsPbBr3 QDs.

Radiative stability of tiny cosmological constant from the swampland and quantized compactification

We address a quantization mechanism that can allow us to understand why the cosmological constant is not large under the quantum corrections from studying the circle compactification solution of the Standard Model coupled to Einstein gravity which is subject to the constraint of the Swampland conjectures. A novel result in the present work compared to the previous investigations in the literature is that the radius of the compactified dimension and the 4D cosmological constant $\Lambda_4$ must in fact be quantized. The quantization rule of the cosmological constant is given by $\Lambda_4\propto n^2$ with $n=1,2,3,4,\ldots$, which means that the values of $\Lambda_4$ are not arbitrary but only its specific values are allowed. In general, the quantum corrections as well as other effects would break this quantization rule. Hence, it could prevent the quantum fluctuations from generating zero-point energy contributions to the cosmological constant.

Large field polynomial inflation: parameter space, predictions and (double) eternal nature

Simple monomial inflationary scenarios have been ruled out by recent observations. In this work we revisit the next simplest scenario, a single-field model where the scalar potential is a polynomial of degree four which features a concave “almost” saddle point. We focus on trans-Planckian field values. We reparametrize the potential, which greatly simplifies the procedure for finding acceptbale model parameters. This allows for the first comprehensive scan of parameter space consistent with recent Planck and BICEP/Keck 2018 measurements. Even for trans-Planckian field values the tensor-to-scalar ratio r can be as small as \U0001d4aa(10-8), but the model can also saturate the current upper bound. In contrast to the small-field version of this model, radiative stability does not lead to strong constraints on the parameters of the inflaton potential. For very large field values the potential can be approximated by the quartic term; as well known, this allows eternal inflation even for field energy well below the reduced Planck mass M Pl, with Hubble parameter H ∼ 10-2 M Pl. More interestingly, we find a region of parameter space that even supports two phases of eternal inflation. The second epoch only occurs if the slope at the would-be saddle point is very small, and has H ∼ 10-5 M Pl; it can only be realized if r ∼ 10-2, within the sensitivity range of next-generation CMB observations.

Wintertime Saharan dust transport towards the Caribbean: an airborne lidar case study during EUREC<sup>4</sup>A

Abstract. Wintertime Saharan dust plumes in the vicinity of Barbados are investigated by means of airborne lidar measurements. The measurements were conducted in the framework of the EUREC4A (Elucidating the Role of Cloud-Circulation Coupling in Climate) field experiment upstream the Caribbean island in January–February 2020. The combination of the water vapor differential absorption and high spectral resolution lidar techniques together with dropsonde measurements aboard the German HALO (High Altitude and Long-Range) research aircraft enable a detailed vertical and horizontal characterization of the measured dust plumes. In contrast to summertime dust transport, mineral dust aerosols were transported at lower altitudes and were always located below 3.5 km. Calculated backward trajectories affirm that the dust-laden layers have been transported in nearly constant low-level altitude over the North Atlantic Ocean. Only mixtures of dust particles with other aerosol species, i.e., biomass-burning aerosol from fires in West Africa and marine aerosol, were detected by the lidar. No pure mineral dust regimes were observed. Additionally, all the dust-laden air masses that were observed during EUREC4A came along with enhanced water vapor concentrations compared with the free atmosphere above. Such enhancements have already been observed during summertime and were found to have a great impact on radiative transfer and atmospheric stability.

Small field polynomial inflation: reheating, radiative stability and lower bound

We revisit the renormalizable polynomial inflection point model of inflation, focusing on the small field scenario which can be treated fully analytically. In particular, the running of the spectral index is predicted to be α = -1.43 × 10-3 +5.56 × 10-5(NCMB-65 ), which might be tested in future. We also analyze reheating through perturbative inflaton decays to either fermionic or bosonic final states via a trilinear coupling. The lower bound on the reheating temperature from successful Big Bang nucleosynthesis gives lower bounds for these couplings; on the other hand radiative stability of the inflaton potential leads to upper bounds. In combination this leads to a lower bound on the location ϕ0 of the near inflection point, ϕ0 > 3 · 10-5 in Planckian units. The Hubble parameter during inflation can be as low as Hinf∼ 1 MeV, or as high as ∼ 1010 GeV. Similarly, the reheating temperature can lie between its lower bound of ∼ 4 MeV and about 4 · 108 (1011) GeV for fermionic (bosonic) inflaton decays. We finally speculate on the “prehistory” of the universe in this scenario, which might have included an epoch of eternal inflation.

Administration of the D-A structure and steric hindrance effect to construct efficient red emitters for high-performance OLEDs with low efficiency roll-off

Restricted by the energy-gap law and π-π stacking, developing highly efficient red emitting materials and corresponding organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) having the emission over 600 nm is a formidable challenge. Three red emitters, namely DPABz-TPA, 2DPABz-TPA, and 3DPABz-TPA, are developed bearing mono-, bis-, and tri-[2,1,3]benzothiadiazole (Bz) substituted triphenylamine (TPA) as the emissive core and bulky diphenylamine (DPA) as the steric protection units. All compounds display strong red emission with peaks at 645 nm and high efficiency up to 38%. Compared with reference molecule DPABz-TPA, both 2DPABz-TPA and 3DPABz-TPA exhibit higher radiative transition rate and thermal stability. The OLEDs based on 2DPABz-TPA and 3DPABz-TPA thus show superior EL efficiencies of the maximum current efficiency of 2.5 and 2.4 cd A−1, and external quantum efficiency of 2.9% and 3.2% compared with those of DPABz-TPA (1.9 cd A−1 and 2.1%). More importantly, the efficiency roll-off of OLED based on sterically protected 3DPABz-TPA obviously decreases owing to limited intermolecular packing. These results indicate that the strategy combined multiple donor-acceptor units and steric hindrance effect is favorable for constructing robust red emitters for efficient OLEDs.

Inhibited radiation transmittance and enhanced thermal stability of silica aerogels under very-high temperature

Silica aerogels are applied extensively in thermal insulation due to their extra-low density and thermal conductivity. However, this can be heavily undermined under high temperature, especially beyond 700–800 °C, due to not only a high transparency for radiation heat transfer, but also an instability caused by nanoparticle collapse. The present study demonstrated a solution to this problem by two steps. Firstly, the size effect of nanoparticles is explored by experimentally preparing unconventional samples composed of large-diameter particles (larger than 20 nm). The prepared sample microstructures and radiative characteristics are investigated by SEM apparatus and FTIR measurements, respectively. Additionally, based on the fractal structures reconstructed using the Diffusion-Limited Colloid Aggregation (DLCA) method, the effects of particle size on thermal stability of silica aerogels are theoretically investigated and the light shielding performance is numerically analyzed by the Generalized Multiparticle Mie-solution (GMM) method. The simulation and experimental results indicate that the enhanced size of nanoparticles can improve the radiative inhibition and thermal stability property under high temperature significantly. However, the ideal above should be refined as it brings an increasing contribution of conduction heat transfer. Thus, a novel structure of core-mantle nanoparticle is proposed to retain the excellent resistance in radiation but avoid an increased thermal conduction. The present work may pave a new direction for developing aerogels under extreme temperature conditions, compared with the widely-used opacifier addition.

The scalar chemical potential in cosmological collider physics

Non-analyticity in co-moving momenta within the non-Gaussian bispectrum is a distinctive sign of on-shell particle production during inflation, presenting a unique opportunity for the “direct detection” of particles with masses as large as the inflationary Hubble scale (H). However, the strength of such non-analyticity ordinarily drops exponentially by a Boltzmann-like factor as masses exceed H. In this paper, we study an exception provided by a dimension-5 derivative coupling of the inflaton to heavy-particle currents, applying it specifically to the case of two real scalars. The operator has a “chemical potential” form, which harnesses the large kinetic energy scale of the inflaton, {overset{cdot }{phi}}_0^{1/2}approx 60H , to act as an efficient source of scalar particle production. Derivative couplings of inflaton ensure radiative stability of the slow-roll potential, which in turn maintains (approximate) scale-invariance of the inflationary correlations. We show that a signal not suffering Boltzmann suppression can be obtained in the bispectrum with strength fNL ∼ mathcal{O} (0.01–10) for an extended range of scalar masses lesssim {overset{cdot }{phi}}_0^{1/2} , potentially as high as 1015 GeV, within the sensitivity of upcoming LSS and more futuristic 21-cm experiments. The mechanism does not invoke any particular fine-tuning of parameters or breakdown of perturbation-theoretic control. The leading contribution appears at tree-level, which makes the calculation analytically tractable and removes the loop-suppression as compared to earlier chemical potential studies of non-zero spins. The steady particle production allows us to infer the effective mass of the heavy particles and the chemical potential from the variation in bispectrum oscillations as a function of co-moving momenta. Our analysis sets the stage for generalization to heavy bosons with non-zero spin.

Quantum stability of generalized Proca theories

We establish radiative stability of generalized Proca effective field theories. While standard power-counting arguments would conclude otherwise, we find non-trivial cancellations of leading order corrections by explicit computation of divergent one-loop diagrams up to four-point. These results are crosschecked against an effective action based generalized Schwinger–DeWitt method. Further, the cancellations are understood as coming from the specific structure of the theory through a decoupling limit analysis which at the same time allows for an extension of the results to higher orders.

Radiative stability and observational constraints on dark energy and modified gravity

We investigate the radiative stability of Horndeski scalar-tensor theories with luminally propagating gravitational waves (as extensively discussed in the wake of GW170817) and show that in general there is a tension between obtaining observable deviations from General Relativity (GR) in cosmology and the requirement of radiative stability. Using this as a constraint, we discuss the subsets of theories that are capable of evading this conclusion and yielding observable, radiatively stable departures from GR. We find several classes of theories that can do so, recovering known cases and identifying several additional radiatively stable cases. Finally, we also extract the cosmological signatures of two particularly well-motivated radiatively stable classes of theories: shift-symmetric theories and theories with a conformal coupling between the scalar and gravity. We find that cosmological parameter constraints on dark energy and modified gravity parameters for both of these two classes, which we explicitly compute using data from the Planck, SDSS/BOSS and 6dF surveys, are significantly tightened with respect to generic Horndeski theories.

Horndeski under the quantum loupe

With recent constraints on the propagation speed of gravitational waves, the class of scalar-tensor theories has significantly been reduced. We consider one of the surviving models still relevant for cosmology and investigate its radiative stability. The model contains operators with explicit breaking of the Galileon symmetry and we study whether they harm the re-organization of the effective field theory. Within the regime of validity we establish a non-renormalization theorem and show explicitly that the quantum corrections, to one-loop, do not detune the classical Lagrangian generating suppressed counterterms. This is striking since the non-renormalization theorem is established in the presence of a genuine Galileon symmetry breaking term.

Purely triplet seesaw and leptogenesis within cosmological bound, dark matter, and vacuum stability

In a novel standard model extension it has been suggested that, even in the absence of right-handed neutrinos and type-I seesaw, purely triplet leptogenesis leading to baryon asymmetry of the universe can be realized by two heavy Higgs triplets which also provide type-II seesaw ansatz for neutrino masses. In this work we discuss this model predictions for hierarchical neutrino masses in concordance with recently determined cosmological bounds and oscillation data including θ23 in the second octant and large Dirac CP phases. We find that for both normal and inverted orderings, the model fits the oscillation data with the sum of the three neutrino masses consistent with current cosmological bounds determined from Planck satellite data. In addition, using this model ansatz for CP-asymmetry and solutions of Boltzmann equations, we also show how successful predictions of baryon asymmetry emerges in the cases of both unflavoured and two-flavoured leptogeneses. With additional Z2 discrete symmetry, a minimal extension of this model is further shown to predict a scalar singlet WIMP dark matter in agreement with direct and indirect observations which also resolves the issue of vacuum instability persisting in the original model. Although the combined constraints due to relic density and direct detection cross section allow this scalar singlet dark matter mass to be mξ=750 GeV, the additional vacuum stability constraint pushes this limiting value to mξ=1.3 TeV which is verifiable by ongoing experiments. We also discuss constraint on the model parameters for the radiative stability of the standard Higgs mass.

Inflation in motion: unitarity constraints in effective field theories with (spontaneously) broken Lorentz symmetry

During inflation, there is a preferred reference frame in which the expansion of the background spacetime is spatially isotropic. In contrast to Minkowski spacetime, observables can depend on the velocity of the system with respect to this cosmic rest frame. We derive new constraints from radiative stability and unitarity on effective field theories with such spontaneously broken Lorentz symmetry. In addition to a maximum energy scale, there is now also a critical velocity at which the theory breaks down. The theory therefore has different resolving power in time and in space, and we show that these can only coincide if cubic Lorentz-violating interactions are absent. Applying these bounds to the Effective Field Theory of Inflation, we identify the region of parameter space in which inflation can be both single-field and weakly coupled on subhorizon scales. This can be implemented as a theoretical prior, and we illustrate this explicitly using Planck observational constraints on the primordial bispectrum.

In-situ passivation perovskite targeting efficient light-emitting diodes via spontaneously formed silica network

Perovskite materials are attractive candidates as emitting layers in light-emitting diodes due to their excellent optical and electrical properties. Effective charge radiative recombination is a key to target high-efficiency perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs). State-of-the-art effective passivation chemicals in PeLEDs mostly belong to organic chelating molecules, associated with like molecular detachment in the device operation, which simultaneously degrades the performance especially the operational stability of the devices. Here, a silane material tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), which can be crosslinkable to avoid any likely detachment from perovskite film, is incorporated into the perovskite film to enhance film radiative recombination and stability. An oxo-bridged silica network anchored with perovskite is formed after the TEOS in-situ crosslinking process. It is found that the lone pair electrons in TEOS network can coordinate with the undercoordinated Pb2+ of perovskite. Consequently, defect states in perovskite film are dramatically diminished, which enhances radiative recombination. The photoluminescence intensity of resultant perovskite-TEOS film is enhanced by 40% over that of the pristine one. The average photoluminescence lifetime of perovskite-TEOS film reaches 58 ns, enhanced by 65% over that of the pristine perovskite film of 35 ns.. As a result, a green PeLED achieved an external quantum efficiency of 16.6% with improved working stability. This work presents a facile strategy targeting efficient and stable perovskite devices via utilizing detachment-free self-crosslinked ligands.

Addressing RD(*) , RK(*) , muon g−2 and ANITA anomalies in a minimal R -parity violating supersymmetric framework

We analyze the recent hints of lepton flavor universality violation in both charged-current and neutral-current rare decays of $B$-mesons in an $R$-parity violating supersymmetric scenario. Motivated by simplicity and minimality, we had earlier postulated the third-generation superpartners to be the lightest (calling the scenario "RPV3") and explicitly showed that it preserves gauge coupling unification and of course has the usual attribute of naturally addressing the Higgs radiative stability. Here we show that both $R_{D^{(*)}}$ and $R_{K^{(*)}}$ flavor anomalies can be addressed in this RPV3 framework. Interestingly, this scenario may also be able to accommodate two other seemingly disparate anomalies, namely, the longstanding discrepancy in the muon $(g-2)$, as well as the recent anomalous upgoing ultra-high energy ANITA events. Based on symmetry arguments, we consider three different benchmark points for the relevant RPV3 couplings and carve out the regions of parameter space where all (or some) of these anomalies can be simultaneously explained. We find it remarkable that such overlap regions exist, given the plethora of precision low-energy and high-energy experimental constraints on the minimal model parameter space. The third-generation superpartners needed in this theoretical construction are all in the 1-10 TeV range, accessible at the LHC and/or next-generation hadron collider. We also discuss some testable predictions for the lepton-flavor-violating decays of the tau-lepton and $B$-mesons for the current and future $B$-physics experiments, such as LHCb and Belle II. Complementary tests of the flavor anomalies in the high-$p_T$ regime in collider experiments such as the LHC are also discussed.