<p>A few years ago Westinghouse started the development of a new method for criticality calculations for spent nuclear fuel storage pools called “PHOENIX-to–MCNP” (PHX2MCNP). PHX2MCNP transfers burn-up data from the code PHOENIX to use in MCNP in order to calculate the criticality. This thesis describes a work with the purpose to further validate the new method first by validating the software MCNP5 at higher water temperatures than room temperature and, in a second step, continue the development of the method by adding a new feature to the old script. Finally two studies were made to examine the effect from decay time on criticality and to study the possibility to limit the number of transferred isotopes used in the calculations.</p><p>MCNP was validated against 31 experiments and a statistical evaluation of the results was done. The evaluation showed no correlation between the water temperature of the pool and the criticality. This proved that MCNP5 can be used in criticality calculations in storage pools at higher water temperature.</p><p>The new version of the PHX2MCNP script is called PHX2MCNP version 2 and has the capability to distribute the burnable absorber gadolinium into several radial zones in one pin. The decay time study showed that the maximum criticality occurs immediately after the takeout from the reactor as expected.</p><p>The last study, done to evaluate the possibility to limit the isotopes transferred from PHOENIX to MCNP showed that Case A, a case with the smallest number of isotopes, is conservative for all sections of the fuel element. Case A, which contains only some of the actinides and the strongest absorber of the burnable absorbers gadolinium 155, could therefore be used in future calculations.</p><p>Finally, the need for further validation of the method is discussed.</p>

A few years ago Westinghouse started the development of a new method for criticality calculations for spent nuclear fuel storage pools called “PHOENIX-to–MCNP” (PHX2MCNP). PHX2MCNP transfers burn-up data from the code PHOENIX to use in MCNP in order to calculate the criticality. This thesis describes a work with the purpose to further validate the new method first by validating the software MCNP5 at higher water temperatures than room temperature and, in a second step, continue the development of the method by adding a new feature to the old script. Finally two studies were made to examine the effect from decay time on criticality and to study the possibility to limit the number of transferred isotopes used in the calculations. MCNP was validated against 31 experiments and a statistical evaluation of the results was done. The evaluation showed no correlation between the water temperature of the pool and the criticality. This proved that MCNP5 can be used in criticality calculations in storage pools at higher water temperature. The new version of the PHX2MCNP script is called PHX2MCNP version 2 and has the capability to distribute the burnable absorber gadolinium into several radial zones in one pin. The decay time study showed that the maximum criticality occurs immediately after the takeout from the reactor as expected. The last study, done to evaluate the possibility to limit the isotopes transferred from PHOENIX to MCNP showed that Case A, a case with the smallest number of isotopes, is conservative for all sections of the fuel element. Case A, which contains only some of the actinides and the strongest absorber of the burnable absorbers gadolinium 155, could therefore be used in future calculations. Finally, the need for further validation of the method is discussed.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1967.

In this thesis, we study the low-energy effective theory for the antiferromagnetic quantum critical metal in two dimensions. The theory has been the subject of intense study for more than twenty years, due to the novel physics of non-Fermi liquid metals and its potential relevance to high-temperature superconductors and heavy-fermion compounds. In the first part of the thesis, we present the perturbative study of the theory in 3 minus epsilon space dimensions by extending the earlier one-loop analysis to higher-loop orders. We show that the expansion is not organized by the standard loop expansion, and a two-loop graph becomes as important as one-loop graphs even in the small epsilon limit due to an infrared singularity caused by an emergent quasilocality. This qualitatively changes the nature of the infrared fixed point, and the epsilon expansion is controlled only after the two-loop effect is taken into account. Furthermore, we show that a ratio between velocities emerges as a small parameter, which suppresses a large class of diagrams. We show that the critical exponents do not receive quantum corrections beyond the linear order in epsilon in the limit that the ratio of velocities vanishes. In the second part of the thesis, we present a nonperturbative solution to the theory in two dimensions based on an ansatz that is inspired by the perturbative analysis. Being a strongly coupled theory, it can still be solved reliably in the low-energy limit as quantum fluctuations are organized by the ratio of velocities that dynamically flows to zero in the low-energy limit. We predict the exact critical exponents that govern the universal scaling of physical observables at low temperatures. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis describes experiments carried out on two novel strongly correlated electron systems. The first, FeCrAs, is a new material that has not been studied before, while the second, Sr3Ru2O7, has been previously shown to have a very novel so-called ‘nematic’ phase around the metamagnetic quantum critical end point (QCEP). For these studies, a new variation on an established method for measuring the field dependence of susceptibility in a BeCu clamp cell has been developed, and is described, as is a relaxation heat capacity cell that works from 4 K down to 300 mK. A method of growing stoichiometric crystals of the hexagonal iron-pnictide FeCrAs has been developed, and transport and thermodynamic measurements carried out. The in-plane resistivity shows an unusual “non-metallic” dependence on temperature T, rising continuously with decreasing T from ∼800 K to below 100 mK. The c-axis resistivity is similar, except for a sharp drop upon entry into an antiferromagnetic state at T_N ∼ 125 K. Below 10 K the resistivity follows a non-Fermi-liquid power law, ρ(T) = ρ_0 − AT^x with x < 1, while the specific heat shows Fermi liquid behaviour with a large Sommerfeld coefficient, γ ∼ 30 mJ/molK^2. The high temperature properties are reminiscent of those of the parent compounds of the new layered iron-pnictide superconductors, however the T → 0 K properties suggest a new class of non-Fermi liquid. The metamagnetic critical end point temperature T^∗ in Sr3Ru2O7 as a function of hydrostatic pressure with H//ab has been studied using the ac susceptibility. It is found that T^∗ falls monotonically with increasing pressure, going to zero at Pc = 14±0.3 kbar. One sign of the nematic phase observed in the field-angle tuning, i.e. T^∗ rises as the novel phase emerges, has not been seen in our study. However, we see a slope change in T^∗ vs P at ∼12.8 kbar, and a shoulder at the upper field side of the peak in χ′ from ∼12.8 kbar to ∼16.7 kbar. These new features indicate that some new physics sets in near the pressure-tuned QCEP.

This thesis describes experiments carried out on two novel strongly correlated electron systems. The first, FeCrAs, is a new material that has not been studied before, while the second, Sr3Ru2O7, has been previously shown to have a very novel so-called ‘nematic’ phase around the metamagnetic quantum critical end point (QCEP). For these studies, a new variation on an established method for measuring the field dependence of susceptibility in a BeCu clamp cell has been developed, and is described, as is a relaxation heat capacity cell that works from 4 K down to 300 mK. A method of growing stoichiometric crystals of the hexagonal iron-pnictide FeCrAs has been developed, and transport and thermodynamic measurements carried out. The in-plane resistivity shows an unusual “non-metallic” dependence on temperature T, rising continuously with decreasing T from ∼800 K to below 100 mK. The c-axis resistivity is similar, except for a sharp drop upon entry into an antiferromagnetic state at T_N ∼ 125 K. Below 10 K the resistivity follows a non-Fermi-liquid power law, ρ(T) = ρ_0 − AT^x with x < 1, while the specific heat shows Fermi liquid behaviour with a large Sommerfeld coefficient, γ ∼ 30 mJ/molK^2. The high temperature properties are reminiscent of those of the parent compounds of the new layered iron-pnictide superconductors, however the T → 0 K properties suggest a new class of non-Fermi liquid. The metamagnetic critical end point temperature T^∗ in Sr3Ru2O7 as a function of hydrostatic pressure with H//ab has been studied using the ac susceptibility. It is found that T^∗ falls monotonically with increasing pressure, going to zero at Pc = 14±0.3 kbar. One sign of the nematic phase observed in the field-angle tuning, i.e. T^∗ rises as the novel phase emerges, has not been seen in our study. However, we see a slope change in T^∗ vs P at ∼12.8 kbar, and a shoulder at the upper field side of the peak in χ′ from ∼12.8 kbar to ∼16.7 kbar. These new features indicate that some new physics sets in near the pressure-tuned QCEP.

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The desire to have enhanced and increased feature sets in embedded applications has contributed to a significant increase in the computational demands of such systems over the years. To support such demand and yet maintain reasonable power/energy budgets, the industry has begun a shift to multi-core architectures even in the embedded systems domain. Embedded real-time applications such as Avionics and Automotive systems are no exception to this trend. Such systems have strict certification requirements of subsets of their functionality, which result in strict temporal constraints on those subsets, while other subsets may have less strict requirements. Migrating such {\em mixed criticality} systems from single-core to multi-core platforms is challenging because application/component isolation and freedom from interference among them must be guaranteed. Safe and efficient, architecture-aware mapping and scheduling of system components (e.g., partitions, tasks, etc. as relevant to a particular domain) on the multiple cores is at the center of any scheme to migrate such systems from single-core to multi-core platforms. In this dissertation, we propose, develop and evaluate a unified framework to automate the mapping and scheduling process with the consideration of several architectural and application level requirements/constraints (e.g., communication and cache conflicts among system components, constraints prohibiting the allocation of certain system components on the same core, etc.)

The formation of new phases close to itinerant electron quantum critical points has been observed experimentally in many compounds. We present a unified analytical model that explains the emergence of new types of phases around itinerant ferromagnetic quantum critical points. The central idea of our analysis is that certain deformations of the Fermi surface enhance the phase-space available for low-energy quantum fluctuations and so self-consistently lower the free energy. Using this quantum order-by-disorder mechanism, we find instabilities towards the formation of a spiral ferromagnet and spin-nematic phase close to an itinerant ferromagnetic quantum critical point. Further, we employ the quantum order-by-disorder mechanism to describe the partially ordered phase of MnSi. Using the simplest model of a Stoner-like helimagnetic transition, we show that quantum fluctuations naturally lead to the formation of an unusual phase near to the putative quantum critical point that shares many of the observed features of the partially ordered phase in MnSi. In particular, we predict an angular dependence of neutron scattering that is in good agreement with neutron-scattering data.