Inclusion of Scatter in HADES: Final Report

Covert nuclear attack is one of the foremost threats facing the United States and is a primary focus of the War on Terror. The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO), within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is chartered to develop, and improve domestic systems to detect and interdict smuggling for the illicit use of a nuclear explosive device, fissile material or radiologica1 material. The CAARS (Cargo Advanced Automated Radiography System) program is a major part of the DHS effort to enhance US security by harnessing cutting-edge technologies to detect radiological and nuclear threats at points of entry to the United States. DNDO has selected vendors to develop complete radiographic systems. It is crucial that the initial design and testing concepts for the systems be validated and compared prior to the substantial efforts to build and deploy prototypes and subsequent large-scale production. An important aspect of these systems is the scatter which interferes with imaging. Monte Carlo codes, such as MCNP (X-5 Monte Carlo Team, 2005 Revision) allow scatter to be calculatied, but these calculations are very time consuming. It would be useful to have a fast scatter estimation algorithm in a fast ray tracing code. We have been extending the HADES ray-tracing radiographic simulation code to model vendor systems in a flexible and quick fashion and to use this tool to study a variety of questions involving system performance and the comparative value of surrogates. To enable this work, HADES has been linked to the BRL-CAD library (BRL-CAD Open Source Project, 2010), in order to enable the inclusion of complex CAD geometries in simulations, scanner geometries have been implemented in HADES, and the novel detector responses have been included in HADES. A major extension of HADES which has been required by this effort is the inclusion of scatter in these radiographic simulations. Ray tracing codes generally do not easily allow the inclusion of scatter, because these codes define a source and a grid of detector pixels and only compute the attenuation along rays between these points. Scatter is an extremely complex set of processes which can involve rays which change directions many times between the source and detector. Scatter from outside the field of view of the imaging system, as well as within the field of view, can have an important role in image formation. In this report, we will describe how we implemented a treatment of scatter in HADES. We begin with a discussion of how we define scatter in Section 2, followed by a description of how single Compton scatter is now included in HADES in Section 3. In Section 4 we report a set of verification tests against MCNP and tests of how the technique scales with image size, number of scatters allowed and number of processors used in the calculations. In Section 5, we describe how we plan to extend this approach to other forms of scatter and conclude in Section 6. It should be emphasized that the purpose of this report is to show that a form of scatter has been implemented in HADES and has been verified against MCNP. Validation, the process of comparing simulation and experiment, is a future task

Electron capture on iron group nuclei

We present Gamow-Teller strength distributions from shell model Monte Carlo studies of fp-shell nuclei that may play an important role in the pre-collapse evolution of supernovae. We then use these strength distributions to calculate the electron-capture cross sections and rates in the zero-momentum transfer limit. We also discuss the thermal behavior of the cross sections. We find large differences in these cross sections and rates when compared to the naive single-particle estimates. These differences need to be taken into account for improved modeling of the early stages of type II supernova evolution

Gamow-Teller strength distributions in fp-shell nuclei

We use the shell model Monte Carlo method to calculate complete 0f1p-shell response functions for Gamow-Teller (GT) operators and obtain the corresponding strength distributions using a Maximum Entropy technique. The approach is validated against direct diagonalization for 48Ti. Calculated GT strength distributions agree well with data from (n,p) and (p,n) reactions for nuclei with A=48-64. We also calculate the temperature evolution of the GT+ distributions for representative nuclei and find that the GT+ distributions broaden and the centroids shift to lower energies with increasing temperature

The Role of Electron Captures in Chandrasekhar Mass Models for Type Ia Supernovae

The Chandrasekhar mass model for Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) has received increasing support from recent comparisons of observations with light curve predictions and modeling of synthetic spectra. It explains SN Ia events via thermonuclear explosions of accreting white dwarfs in binary stellar systems, being caused by central carbon ignition when the white dwarf approaches the Chandrasekhar mass. As the electron gas in white dwarfs is degenerate, characterized by high Fermi energies for the high density regions in the center, electron capture on intermediate mass and Fe-group nuclei plays an important role in explosive burning. Electron capture affects the central electron fraction Y_e, which determines the composition of the ejecta from such explosions. Up to the present, astrophysical tabulations based on shell model matrix elements were only available for light nuclei in the sd-shell. Recently new Shell Model Monte Carlo (SMMC) and large-scale shell model diagonalization calculations have also been performed for pf-shell nuclei. These lead in general to a reduction of electron capture rates in comparison with previous, more phenomenological, approaches. Making use of these new shell model based rates, we present the first results for the composition of Fe-group nuclei produced in the central regions of SNe Ia and possible changes in the constraints on model parameters like ignition densities and burning front speeds.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Ap

Presupernova collapse models with improved weak-interaction rates

Improved values for stellar weak interaction rates have been recently calculated based upon a large shell model diagonalization. Using these new rates (for both beta decay and electron capture), we have examined the presupernova evolution of massive stars in the range 15-40 Msun. Comparing our new models with a standard set of presupernova models by Woosley and Weaver, we find significantly larger values for the electron-to-baryon ratio Ye at the onset of collapse and iron core masses reduced by approximately 0.1 Msun. The inclusion of beta-decay accounts for roughly half of the revisions, while the other half is a consequence of the improved nuclear physics. These changes will have important consequences for nucleosynthesis and the supernova explosion mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Analytical in vitro approach for studying cyto- and genotoxic effects of particulate airborne material

In the field of inhalation toxicology, progress in the development of in vitro methods and efficient exposure strategies now offers the implementation of cellular-based systems. These can be used to analyze the hazardous potency of airborne substances like gases, particles, and complex mixtures (combustion products). In addition, the regulatory authorities require the integration of such approaches to reduce or replace animal experiments. Although the animal experiment currently still has to provide the last proof of the toxicological potency and classification of a certain compound, in vitro testing is gaining more and more importance in toxicological considerations. This paper gives a brief characterization of the CULTEX® Radial Flow System exposure device, which allows the exposure of cultivated cells as well as bacteria under reproducible and stable conditions for studying cellular and genotoxic effects after the exposure at the air–liquid or air–agar interface, respectively. A commercial bronchial epithelial cell line (16HBE14o-) as well as Salmonella typhimurium tester strains were exposed to smoke of different research and commercial available cigarettes. A dose-dependent reduction of cell viability was found in the case of 16HBE14o- cells; S. typhimurium responded with a dose-dependent induction of revertants. The promising results recommend the integration of cellular studies in the field of inhalation toxicology and their regulatory acceptance by advancing appropriate validation studies

Spectral Distribution Studies of fp shell nuclei with modified Kuo--Brown Interaction

The structure of nuclei in the lower half of fp shell is investigated by the spectral distribution method using the modified Kuo-Brown interaction. This interaction recently showed success in reproducing observed properties through detailed shell model studies. Spectral distribution studies avoid explicit diagonalization and hold promise for applications to astrophysics.Comment: Latex, 19 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Physical Review

Half-lives and pre-supernova weak interaction rates for nuclei away from the stability line

A detailed model for the calculation of beta decay rates of the $fp$ shell nuclei for situations prevailing in pre-supernova and collapse phases of evolution of the core of massive stars leading to supernova explosion has been extended for electron-capture rates. It can also be used to determine the half-lives of neutron-rich nuclei in the $fp/fpg$ shell. The model uses an averaged Gamow-Teller (GT) strength function. But it can also use the experimental log ft values and GT strength function from $(n,p)$ reaction studies wherever available. The calculated rate includes contributions from each of the low-lying excited states of the mother including some specific resonant states ("back resonance") having large GT matrix elements.Comment: 11 pages; Latex; no figs; version to appear in J. Phys.

HADES, A Radiographic Simulation Code

We describe features of the HADES radiographic simulation code. We begin with a discussion of why it is useful to simulate transmission radiography. The capabilities of HADES are described, followed by an application of HADES to a dynamic experiment recently performed at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. We describe quantitative comparisons between experimental data and HADES simulations using a copper step wedge. We conclude with a short discussion of future work planned for HADES