Digital Commons Network^™

Supersymmetry And The Tunneling Problem In An Asymmetric Double Well, Asim Gangopadhyaya, Prasanta Panigrahi, Uday Sukhatne

Asim Gangopadhyaya

The techniques of supersymmetric quantum mechanics are applied to the calculation of the energy difference between the ground state and the first excited state of an asymmetric double well. This splitting, originating from the tunneling effect, is computed via a systematic, rapidly converging perturbation expansion. Perturbative calculations to any order can be easily carried out using a logarithmic perturbation theory. Our approach yield substantially better results than alternative widely used semiclassical analyses.

Solar Modulation Of The Cosmic Ray Intensity And The Measurement Of The Cerenkov Reemission In Nova’S Liquid Scintillator, Philip James Mason

Doctoral Dissertations

The NOνA (NuMI Off-axis electron neutrino Appearance) experiment is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Its purpose is to observe the oscillation of ν_μ (muon neutrino) to ν_e (electron neutrino) and to investigate the neutrino mass hierarchy and CP violation in the neutrino sector. Two detectors have been built for this purpose, a Near Detector 300 feet underground at Fermilab, and a Far Detector, on the surface at Ash River, Minnesota.

The completion of NOνA’s Far Detector in October 2014 enabled not only the recent measurement of neutrino oscillations, but an array of …

Thinking Nature, "Pierre Maupertuis And The Charge Of Error Against Fermat And Leibniz", Richard Samuel Lamborn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to defend Pierre Fermat and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz against the charge of error made against them by Pierre Maupertuis that they errantly applied final causes to physics. This charge came in Maupertuis’ 1744 speech to the Paris Academy of Sciences, later published in different versions, entitled Accord Between Different Laws Which at First Seemed Incompatible. It is in this speech that Maupertuis lays claim to one of the most important discoveries in the history of physics and science, The Principle of Least Action. From the date of this speech up until the end …

Fostering Preservice Teachers' "Nature Of Science" Understandings In A Physics Course, Ehsan Kattoula, Geeta Verma, Lisa Martin-Hansen

Geeta Verma

In this paper, the authors examine an algebra-based physics course designed for preservice teachers and explore how the course integrated two pedagogical strategies to bridge the gap between inquiry-learning experiences and the teachers' nature of science (NOS) understandings. The results of this research show that the explicit, reflective process allowed participants to examine their NOS understandings, which thereby fostered changes in their understanding.

Geometry And Thermodynamics Of Filament Bundles, Isaac Bruss

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I present a study of the geometry and energetics of bundles composed of flexible cohesive filaments. This is a general class of materials, both biological and artificial, existing across many length scales. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the interdependence between the 2D organization of filaments in a bundle’s cross section, and the 3D structure, with an emphasis on the twisting mode of deformation. First we present a model of filament contacts and interactions, which we employ in numerical simulations to study the connection between the ground state energies of constant-pitch bundles and their interior …

Serum Proteins Enhance Dispersion Stability And Influence The Cytotoxicity And Dosimetry Of Zno Nanoparticles In Suspension And Adherent Cancer Cell Models, Catherine B. Anders, Jordan J. Chess, Denise G. Wingett, Alex Punnoose

Biomolecular Research Center Publications and Presentations

Agglomeration and sedimentation of nanoparticles (NPs) within biological solutions is a major limitation in their use in many downstream applications. It has been proposed that serum proteins associate with the NP surface to form a protein corona that limits agglomeration and sedimentation. Here, we investigate the effect of fetal bovine serum (FBS) proteins on the dispersion stability, dosimetry, and NP-induced cytotoxicity of cationic zinc oxide nanoparticles (nZnO) synthesized via forced hydrolysis with a core size of 10 nm. Two different in vitro cell culture models, suspension and adherent, were evaluated by comparing a phosphate buffered saline (PBS) nZnO dispersion (nZnO/PBS) …

Superhalogens Beget Superhalogens: A Case Study Of (Bo2)N Oligomers, Anil K. Kandalam, Boggavarapu Kiran, P. Jena, S. Pietsch, G. Gantefo¨R

Anil K. Kandalam

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Physics, Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Jeffrey Linek

Physics and Astronomy Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Introduction to Physics was created under a Round Two ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

College Of Science And Mathematics Newsletter, Fall 2015, College Of Science And Mathematics, Wright State University

College of Science and Mathematics Newsletters

This 6 page newsletter discusses various happenings within the College of Science and Mathematics. It begins with a letter from the dean, and continues on with news, events, alumni news, and other community news.

Physics Discipline Assessment Report 2015, Physics Discipline

Assessment of Student Learning Reports

No abstract provided.

Effective Microscopic Models For Sympathetic Cooling Of Atomic Gases, Roberto Onofrio, Bala Sundaram

Dartmouth Scholarship

Thermalization of a system in the presence of a heat bath has been the subject of many theoretical investigations especially in the framework of solid-state physics. In this setting, the presence of a large bandwidth for the frequency distribution of the harmonic oscillators schematizing the heat bath is crucial, as emphasized in the Caldeira-Leggett model. By contrast, ultracold gases in atomic traps oscillate at well-defined frequencies and therefore seem to lie outside the Caldeira-Leggett paradigm. We introduce interaction Hamiltonians which allow us to adapt the model to an atomic physics framework. The intrinsic nonlinearity of these models differentiates them from …

Stealth Assessment In Video Games, Val Shute

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Games can be powerful vehicles to support learning, but their success in education hinges on getting the assessment part right. In this presentation, I will explore how games can use stealth assessment to measure and support the learning of competencies critical for the future. I will discuss what stealth assessment is, why it is important, and how to develop and accomplish it. I will also provide examples within the context of a game called Physics Playground that I designed and developed with my team. I’ll share what has been learned by recent research on stealth assessments in games, including: Does …

Toward Analog Quantum Computing: Simulating Designer Atomic Systems, Jacob L. Bigelow, Veronica L. Sanford

Physics and Astronomy Summer Fellows

We use a magneto-optical trap to cool rubidium atoms to temperatures in the _µK range. On the _µs timescales of our experiment, the atoms are moving slowly enough that they appear stationary. We then excite them to a Rydberg state, where the outer electron is loosely bound. In these high energy states, the atoms can exchange energy with each other. Since the energy exchange depends on the separation and the relative orientation of the atoms, we can potentially control their interactions by controlling the spatial arrangements of the atoms. We model this system using simulations on a supercomputer …

Improving The Selective Cancer Killing Ability Of Zno Nanoparticles Using Fe Doping, Aaron Thurber, Denise Wingett, John Rasmussen, Janet Layne, Lydia Johnson, Dmitri Tenne, Jianhui Zhang, Charles Hanna, Alex Punnoose

Lydia Johnson

This work reports a new method to improve our recent demonstration of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) selectively killing certain human cancer cells, achieved by incorporating Fe ions into the NPs. Thoroughly characterized cationic ZnO NPs (∼6 nm) doped with Fe ions (Zn(1-x )Fe (x) O, x = 0-0.15) were used in this work, applied at a concentration of 24 μg/ml. Cytotoxicity studies using flow cytometry on Jurkat leukemic cancer cells show cell viability drops from about 43% for undoped ZnO NPs to 15% for ZnO NPs doped with 7.5% Fe. However, the trend reverses and cell viability increases with …

The Role Of Blowing Snow In The Activation Of Bromine Over First-Year Antarctic Sea Ice, R. M. Lieb-Lappen, R. W. Obbard

Dartmouth Scholarship

It is well known that during polar springtime halide sea salt ions, in particular Br^-, are photochemically activated into reactive halogen species (e.g., Br and BrO), where they break down tropospheric ozone. This research investigated the role of blowing snow in transporting salts from the sea ice/snow surface into reactive bromine species in the air. At two different locations over first-year ice in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, collection baskets captured blowing snow at different heights. In addition, sea ice cores and surface snow samples were collected throughout the month-long campaign. Over this time, sea ice and surface snow …

Torque And Rotational Motion (11th Grade), Connor Gorman, Leslie Salazar

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

The creation of the new AP Physics 1 course has introduced quite a few changes into the curriculum which have proven challenging for students. In particular, AP Physics 1 requires that students possess a deep, working knowledge of algebraic processes along with a sharp understanding of physics concepts which can be utilized in tandem to solve a wide array of problems given from many different perspectives. Within the angular dynamics unit, students must incorporate what has proven to be an incredibly difficult series of physics concepts into this repertoire. This unit was written to help with the process students must …

Models Of Time Travel And Their Consequences, Antonio M. Mantica

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

How do we travel through time? We know that we can move forward in it (we have no choice), but can we jump forward in time? Can we go backward in time? It also gives rise to other troubling questions: is time measurable in distinct increments, or does it flow continuously? In "Models of Time Travel and their Consequences," Antonio Mantica walks the reader through current understandings of how time functions in Einstein's universe and proposes three distinct models to explain it. Following that, he provides a list of experiments to credit or discredit the models. Appropriate for audiences of …

Electron Transmission Through Micrometer Sized Funnelshaped Tapered Glass Capillaries And Electron Micro-Beam Production, Samanthi Jayamini Wickramarachchi

Dissertations

The prime motivation of this work is to understand the fundamental transmission process of an electron beam through a funnel-shaped capillary taking into account its shape together with the energy, angular and time dependence of the transmitted electrons produce a microsized electron beam. The utilized capillaries had inlet/outlet diameters of 800/16 μm, 800/100 μm and lengths of 35 mm. Considerable transmission of 800 and 1000 eV electrons for tilt angles up to 1.5^o and only small transmission for 500 eV electrons was observed for the capillary with the smaller outlet diameter of 16 μm. Incident electrons with energies of …

Measuring Charge Carrier Mobility Of Graphene, Christina A. Harmon

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

This research reports measurements of electron mobility in liquid-gated graphene. Graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) biosensors are more sensitive to changes in external fields when the mobility is high; therefore increasing mobility will improve sensitivity. Mobility can be calculated from the ratio of sheet conductivity to carrier density. Sheet conductivity was measured using van der Pauw geometry and carrier density was determined from measurements of the liquid-gate capacitance. It is shown that mobility improves after the graphene surface is cleaned by an annealing process.

Measuring Strain In Trusses, Spencer Metzsch

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

Strain is an important quantity in engineering and materials science that relates the deformation of a material to its original length as a percent. Different materials exhibit particular qualities under loading, for example the amount of strain due to a certain magnitude of force, or the amount of strain that can be borne before failure. This experiment aims to compare the relative strengths of three common truss configurations by measuring the strain in their members under loading.

Does A Simple Lattice Protein Exhibit Self-Organized Criticality?, Alissa A. Runyon, Dana M. Gibbon, Arun Bajracharya

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

There are many unanswered questions when it comes to protein folding. These questions are interesting because the tertiary structure of proteins determines its functionality in living organisms. How do proteins consistently reach their final tertiary structure from the primary sequence of amino acids? What explains the complexity of tertiary structures? Our research uses a simple hydrophobic-polar lattice-bound computational model to investigate self-organized criticality as a possible mechanism for generating complexity in protein folding and protein tertiary structures.

The Use Of Piezoelectric Actuators In An Energy-Efficient Noise Reduction System, Ian J.M. Johnson

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

The piezoelectric effect allows for conversion between mechanical stress and electrical impulses. By utilizing this phenomenon, a novel method of sound attenuation was explored and tested in which a piezoelectric plate absorbs part of an incoming sound wave. Reversing the process allows a second plate to produce a phase-inverted wave using the absorbed energy, achieving further reduction through destructive interference.

Capacitance Measurements Of Defects In Solar Cells: Checking The Model Assumptions, Justin R. Davis, Thaddeus Cox

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

Capacitance measurements of solar cells are able to detect minute changes in charge in the material. For that reason, capacitance is used in many methods to electrically characterize defects in the solar cell. Standard interpretations of capacitance rely on many assumptions, which, if wrong can skew the results. We explore possible alternate explanations for capacitance transitions, which may not be linked directly to defects, such as a non-ideal back contact, and series resistance.

Comparison Of Raised And Flat-Seam Baseballs, Joseph S. Carroll

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

The difference in seam-height between raised and flat-seam baseballs leads to different different drag and spin forces when the balls are thrown by a pitcher. The goal of this experiment is to measure the difference in vertical deflection of curveball pitches, caused by the different seam-heights.

The Skatepark Mathematics Extravaganza, William H. Robertson

William H. Robertson

Literatures Of Stress: Thermodynamic Physics And The Poetry And Prose Of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Mapes

English Dissertations

This dissertation examines two of the various literatures of energy in Victorian Britain: the scientific literature of the North British school of energy physics, and the poetic and prose literature of Gerard Manley Hopkins. As an interdisciplinary effort, it is intended for several audiences. For readers interested in science history, it offers a history of two terms – stress and strain – central to modern physics. As well, in discussing the ideas of various scientific authors (primarily William John Macquorn Rankine, William Thomson, P.G. Tait, and James Clerk Maxwell), it indicates several contributions these figures made to larger culture.

For …

Jam Tomorrow, Tim Glenn Boothe

Theses

These poems are filled with a concern for identity, sometimes leading the reader into the subconscious realm, or the realm of the muse. In this effort, a few of these poems journey back to childhood to relive images and icons from the 70s. The “Alice” poems delve into the subconscious and question the insanity of existence. Yet the bulk of the poems explore the many facets of love and relationships, conveying a sense of unending desire to be shackled and enslaved by emotion, bordering on obsession. And interspersed throughout, there are poems that reflect on psychoanalysis, physics, and ponder on …

Schwarzschild Spacetime And Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker Cosmology, Zachary Cohen

Honors Scholar Theses

The advent of General Relativity via Einstein's field equations revolutionized our understanding of gravity in our solar system and universe. The idea of General Relativity posits that gravity is entirely due to the geometry of the universe -- that is, the mass distribution throughout the universe results in the "curving" of spacetime, which gives us the physics we see on a large scale. In the framework of General Relativity, we find that the universe behaves differently than was predicted in the model of gravitation developed by Newton. We will derive the general relativistic model for a simple system near a …

Integrating Formative Assessment Into Physics Instruction: The Effect Of Formative Vs. Summative Assessment On Student Physics Learning And Attitudes, Chaiphat Plybour

Dissertations

Of many instructional strategies used to improve teaching and learning in science, formative assessment is potentially one of the most effective. A central feature is timely feedback during learning, giving students the opportunity to benefit and improve while also enabling teachers to adjust instruction to learner needs. By contrast, conventional assessment tends to be mostly summative, assigning point scores, grading and ranking students, and providing extrinsic motivation. For maximum effectiveness in enhancing learning, formative assessment should be designed into instruction from the start rather than being an add-on. This project comprised development, teaching, and research aspects. Two physics topic modules, …

Gravitational Wave Background In The Quasi-Steady State Cosmology, Sree Ram Valluri, Sayantan Auddy, J V. Narlikar, S V. Dhurandhar, R G. Vishwakarma

Physics and Astronomy Publications

This paper calculates the expected gravitational wave background (GWB) in the quasi-steady state cosmology (QSSC). The principal sources of gravitational waves in the QSSC are the mini-creation events (MCE). With suitable assumptions the GWB can be computed both numerically and with analytical methods. It is argued that the GWB in QSSC differs from that predicted for the standard cosmology and a future technology of detectors will be able to decide between the two predictions. We also derive a formula for the flux density of a typical extragalactic source of gravitational waves.