News and Events

Wed, Oct 21, 4 pm (C215 ESC)
Advances in Laser-Based Radiography for Nondestructive Evaluation

X-ray radiography is the main pillar of the nondestructive testing program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. We inspect thousands of parts per year, analyzing them for internal structural anomalies that could affect performance. Standard commercially available X-ray systems at MeV energies are based on small linear electron accelerators. The main drawback of this method is the large spot size at which the X-rays are emitted, because in a CT scan, the spot size of the system is directly related to the size of the anomalies that are detectable. A radiography system based on optical lasers can achieve X-ray spot sizes that are an order of magnitude smaller. However, laser-based radiography presents its own set of challenges, which must be evaluated, understood, and mitigated before deployment. This talk summarizes several years of work at multiple laser facilities worldwide to perfect laser-based radiography techniques for Los Alamos National Laboratory.

What causes the swirl in the Shrimp Nebula? Its high speed is likely. What is sure is that Sh2-188 is one of the larger planetary nebulas on the night sky, by angular size, spanning about half the diameter of the Moon. Moreover, the white-dwarf core -- leftover from the Sun-like star that shed its outer atmosphere -- is moving unusually fast through interstellar space, creating a bow shock most visible on the upper left that is similar to a boat plowing through water. Although faint, the Shrimp Nebula glows also by compressing and brightening gas on its leading edge. The featured image was taken in the light of hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen by a backyard telescope in Krakow, Poland and then digitally adjusted to approximate the nebula's true colors. APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions APOD's main NASA site has moved: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
Temp:  62 °FN2 Boiling:76.1 K
Humidity: 41%H2O Boiling:   368.9 K
Pressure:87 kPaSunrise:7:37 AM
Wind:1 m/s   Sunset:6:47 PM
Precip:0 mm   Sunlight:163 W/m²  
Meet our department's new Part-Time Instructor, Hunter Standring
Celebrating Dr. Allred's retirement from 4 decades of teaching.
41 years of launches, demos, and unforgettable labs: Celebrating Dr. Grant Hart

Selected Publications

Sean Titensor, Joshua L. Ebbert, David Camacho, Karen A. Della Corte, and Dennis Della Corte (et al.)

Background: Understanding how different modeling strategies affect associations in nutritional epidemiology is critical, especially given the temporal complexity of dietary and health data.

Objective: To compare how different modeling frameworks—including isotemporal versus time-lagged designs and frequentist versus Bayesian inference—affect estimated associations between carbohydrate subtypes and adiposity.

Methods: Longitudinal data of 415 adults from the NoHoW Study were used to investigate associations between four carbohydrate predictors (free sugars, intrinsic sugars, starch, and dietary fiber) and three indices of adiposity (body fat percentage, BMI, and waist circumference) as outcomes. Four statistical approaches were used contrasting frequentist and Bayesian methods across both isotemporal (concurrent measurement) and time-lagged (6-month temporal shift) frameworks. To specifically evaluate change in adiposity outcomes over time, we implemented additional baseline-adjusted longitudinal models.

Results: Isotemporal and time-lagged models showed directional agreement for nearly all associations; in all but one case, the models either aligned in the direction of the association or differed only in relation to the null. However, time-lagged models identified statistically significant associations and produced larger effect sizes for body fat outcomes and for starch and fiber predictors. Other associations, including intrinsic and free sugars, were weaker and varied with model specification, losing statistical support under time-lagged models. Frequentist models exhibited greater variation across temporal frameworks, including one directional shift among significant associations. Effect estimates were substantially attenuated after adjustment for baseline adiposity.

Discussion: Time-lagged modeling shifted associations between carbohydrate intake and anthropometric outcomes, with increased effect sizes and additional significant associations for starch and fiber, and fewer statistically significant associations for intrinsic and extrinsic sugars. In contrast to frequentist models, Bayesian models yielded more stable and consistent estimates across time-lagged and isotemporal frameworks, showing no differences in the directions of associations across temporal frameworks. Models unadjusted for baseline adiposity overstate dietary impacts; including baseline adiposity is essential to isolate true diet-change effects from initial weight.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that incorporating temporal structure, especially through Bayesian models, can uncover relevant relationships that concurrent models may overlook. This study demonstrates that model specification, both in temporal framework and statistical approach, meaningfully influences both the detection and interpretations of associations in nutritional epidemiology.

Benjamin Proudfoot and Darin Ragozzine (et al.)

We present a detailed dynamical analysis of the Quaoar–Weywot system based on nearly 20 yr of high-precision astrometric data, including new Hubble Space Telescope observations and stellar occultations. Our study reveals that Weywot’s orbit deviates significantly from a purely Keplerian model, requiring the inclusion of Quaoar’s nonspherical gravitational field and center-of-body–center-of-light (COB-COL) offsets in our orbit models. We place a robust upper limit on Weywot’s orbital eccentricity (e < 0.02), substantially lower than previous estimates, which has important implications for the strength of mean-motion resonances acting on Quaoar’s ring system. Under the assumption that Quaoar’s rings lie in its equatorial plane, we detect Quaoar’s dynamical oblateness, J2, at ∼2σ confidence. The low J2 value found under that assumption implies that Quaoar is differentiated, with a total bulk density of 1751 ± 13 (stat.) kg m−3. Additionally, we detect significant COB-COL offsets likely arising from latitudinal albedo variations across Quaoar’s surface. These offsets are necessary to achieve a statistically robust orbit fit and highlight the importance of accounting for surface heterogeneity when modeling the orbits of dwarf planet moons. These findings improve our understanding of Quaoar’s interior and surface while providing key insights into the stability and confinement mechanisms of its rings.

J. Nicholas Porter, Joshua Miller, Nash Karrington, Andres Herrera, and Richard L. Sandberg (et al.)

Recent advances in Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) experimental techniques permit routine measurement of multiple Bragg peaks from a single crystalline grain. The resulting images contain the full lattice distortion vector field which can be differentiated to provide lattice strain and rotation. With the advent of fourth-generation synchrotron light sources, such multi-peak datasets are produced at high rates, facilitating the need for rapid phase retrieval of the multiple peaks and subsequent image analysis. Here we describe and demonstrate a new implementation of a coupled phase retrieval technique for multi-peak BCDI which simultaneously treats each Bragg peak of the dataset and produces a three-dimensional image of the crystal's morphology and lattice distortion field. In addition, this method uses the redundant information contained in the various Bragg diffraction patterns to detect and suppress spurious signal appearing on the detector in a subset of the measurements. Compared with manual data editing, adaptive coupling produces a more consistent phase profile in reciprocal space and sharper surfaces in direct space, with no significant difference in computational cost. These improvements reduce the need for manual preprocessing and enable robust high-throughput analysis of multi-peak BCDI data, supporting near-real-time strain microscopy at modern synchrotron facilities.

Sabrina R. Hatt and Benjamin A. Frandsen (et al.)

Metallic delafossite oxides are of exceptional interest due to their ultraclean metallic transport. In the case of PdCrO2, this arises in a triangular-lattice antiferromagnet, creating a unique opportunity to study frustrated magnetism in a very clean metal. Here, we combine a chemical vapor transport crystal growth approach with magnetic, thermodynamic, magnetotransport, and neutron scattering measurements to elucidate the striking anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in antiferromagnetic PdCrO2. The unconventional AHE (with anomalous Hall conductivity ~105 Ω−1cm−1) and a large positive magnetoresistance effect (>1,000%) are shown to exhibit complex temperature dependencies, persisting to almost seven times the Néel temperature (~250 K). These effects are directly compared to elastic neutron scattering, inelastic neutron scattering, and neutron magnetic pair distribution function data, establishing unambiguous links between anomalous magnetotransport properties and directly probed short-range spin fluctuations. The latter occur over a notably broad temperature range due to geometrical magnetic frustration. Connecting to recent experimental and theoretical developments, these findings are discussed in terms of a temperature-dependent interplay between chiral spin order and chiral spin fluctuations, significantly elucidating the high-temperature anomalous magnetotransport in such compounds.

Henry D. Davis, James G. Harkness, David K. Hayes, Brian D. Jensen, Richard Vanfleet, Nathan B. Crane, and Robert C. Davis

Interfacing is a consistent weak point in the manufacturing of microscale gas chromatography columns. Current techniques for interfacing with microfluidic systems often degrade under high temperatures and thermal cycling and suffer from dead volumes. To address these challenges, we fabricated all-metal interfaces that connect 3D-printed microchannels (500 µm diameter) to industry-standard stainless-steel (SS) capillaries. Our fabrication process uses SS binder-jet printing and bronze infiltration to fuse the capillary to the printed part and reduce dead volumes at the interface while utilizing pressure control to prevent the infiltrant from filling the channel or capillary. These interfaces withstood pressures greater than 100 PSI and showed no leakage after thermal cycling to 350 °C. Cross-sections of the interfaces show smooth connections between the channel and capillary with minimal dead volume.

The hierarchy between the mass parameter of the Higgs boson and larger mass scales becomes ever more puzzling as experiments explore higher energies. Neutral naturalness is the umbrella term for symmetry-based explanations for these hierarchies whose quark symmetry partners are not charged under the SU(3)

 color gauge group of the Standard Model. Though the first manifestations of this idea predate the physics runs of the Large Hadron Collider, since the Higgs discovery this paradigm has grown and developed to include a wide variety of concrete realizations with connections to intriguing collider signals. Determining the phenomenology of such models often requires the characterization—typically relying on lattice calculations—of a new confining gauge symmetry. This presents additional motivation to further develop our understanding of nonperturbative field theory as well as to pursue specific lattice studies. The wide range of suggested hidden sectors also produces a variety of dark matter candidates, intersections with astrophysics and cosmology, and ties to neutrinos and flavor. In this review, we orient the reader within both this growing collection of specific models and the physical phenomena they produce. We also survey the often less familiar dynamics of hidden-sector glueballs and quirks. In addition to providing a guide to past efforts, we reveal interesting directions for further study.