Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Historical Milestones In Astronomy: As Shown Through The Byu Special Collections Archives, Dan Broadbent

Faculty Publications

Science Research: The “Long Conversation”

• Ideas in science can take a long time to develop.
• How do they develop?

• These books document a part of a conversation that began 447 years ago and spanned a 153 year period… documenting:
• how the overall nature of the universe was worked out,
• the establishment of the scientific method, and the boundaries of religious authority,
• and culminated in Isaac Newton’s book that presented his three laws of motion that allow us to explore the universe to this day.

Long-Range Electroweak Amplitudes Of Single Hadrons From Euclidean Finite-Volume Correlation Functions, Raúl A. Briceño, Zohreh Davoudi, Maxwell T. Hansen, Matthias R. Schindler, Alessandro Baroni

Physics Faculty Publications

A relation is presented between single-hadron long-range matrix elements defined in a finite Euclidean spacetime and the corresponding infinite-volume Minkowski amplitudes. This relation is valid in the kinematic region where any number of two-hadron states can simultaneously go on shell, so that the effects of strongly coupled intermediate channels are included. These channels can consist of nonidentical particles with arbitrary intrinsic spins. The result accommodates general Lorentz structures as well as nonzero momentum transfer for the two external currents inserted between the single-hadron states. The formalism, therefore, generalizes the work by Christ et al. [Phys. Rev. D 91, 114510 …

Significance Of Gravitational Nonlinearities On The Dynamics Of Disk Galaxies, Alexandre Deur, Corey Sargent, Balša Terzić

Physics Faculty Publications

The discrepancy between the visible mass in galaxies or galaxy clusters and that inferred from their dynamics is well known. The prevailing solution to this problem is dark matter. Here we show that a different approach, one that conforms to both the current standard model of particle physics and general relativity (GR), explains the recently observed tight correlation between the galactic baryonic mass and the measured accelerations in the galaxy. Using direct calculations based on GR's Lagrangian and parameter-free galactic models, we show that the nonlinear effects of GR make baryonic matter alone sufficient to explain this observation. Our approach …

Extreme Ultraviolet Quasar Colours From Galex Observations Of The Sdss Dr14q Catalogue, Daniel E. Vanden Berk, Sarah C. Wesolowski, Mary J. Yeckley, Joseph M. Marcinik, Jean M. Quashnock, Lawrence M. Machia, Jian Wu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The rest-frame far to extreme ultraviolet (UV) colour–redshift relationship has been constructed from data on over 480,000 quasars carefully cross-matched between SDSS Data Release 14 and the final GALEX photometric catalogue. UV matching and detection probabilities are given for all the quasars, including dependencies on separation, optical brightness, and redshift. Detection limits are also provided for all objects. The UV colour distributions are skewed redward at virtually all redshifts, especially when detection limits are accounted for. The median GALEX far-UV minus near-UV (FUV − NUV) colour–redshift relation is reliably determined up to z ≈ 2.8, corresponding to rest-frame wavelengths as …

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (Gama): Properties And Evolution Of Red Spiral Galaxies, Smriti Mahajan, Kriti Kamal Gupta, Rahul Rana, M. J.I. Brown, S. Phillipps, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, M. N. Bremer, S. Brough, Benne W. Holwerda, A. M. Hopkins, J. Loveday, Kevin Pimbblet, Lingyu Wang

Faculty Scholarship

We use multiwavelength data from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to explore the cause of red optical colours in nearby (0.002 < z < 0.06) spiral galaxies. We show that the colours of red spiral galaxies are a direct consequence of some environment-related mechanism(s) that has removed dust and gas, leading to a lower star formation rate. We conclude that this process acts on long time-scales (several Gyr) due to a lack of morphological transformation associated with the transition in optical colour. The specific star formation rate (sSFR) and dust-to-stellar mass ratio of red spiral galaxies is found to be statistically lower than blue spiral galaxies. On the other hand, red spirals are on average 0.9 dex more massive, and reside in environments 2.6 times denser than their blue counterparts. We find no evidence of excessive nuclear activity, or higher inclination angles to support these as the major causes for the red optical colours seen in ≳47 per cent of all spirals in our sample. Furthermore, for a small subsample of our spiral galaxies that are detected in H I, we find that the SFR of gas-rich red spiral galaxies is lower by ∼1 dex than their blue counterparts.

Nature Inspired Solid–Liquid Phase Amphibious Adhesive, Alin Cristian Chipara, Gustavo Brunetto, Sehmus Ozden, Henrik Haspel, Partha Kumbhakar, Ákos Kukovecz, Zoltán Kónya, Robert Vajtai, Mircea Chipara, Douglas S. Galvao

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Here we report a new class of bio-inspired solid–liquid adhesive, obtained by simple mechanical dispersion of PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) (solid spheres) into PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) (liquid). The adhesive behavior arises from strong solid–liquid interactions. This is a chemical reaction free adhesive (no curing time) that can be repeatedly used and is capable of instantaneously joining a large number of diverse materials (metals, ceramic, and polymer) in air and underwater. The current work is a significant advance in the development of amphibious multifunctional adhesives and presents potential applications in a range of sealing applications, including medical ones.

A Simple Graphical Method For Calculating The Standing Wave Frequencies On A Rectangular Membrane, Joseph D. Romano, Richard H. Price

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In introductory physics courses, simple arguments based on traveling waves on a string are used to relate the frequency of standing waves to boundary conditions, e.g., the fixed ends of the string. Here, we extend that approach to two-dimensional waves such as the oscillations of a rectangular membrane with edges fixed at the boundary. This results in a graphical method that uses only simple geometry and is suitable for explaining two-dimensional standing-wave oscillations to non-science majors, e.g., in a physics of sound and music class.

Constant Intensity Conical Diffraction In Discrete One-Dimensional Lattices With Charge-Conjugation Symmetry, Mojgan Dehghani, Cem Yuce, Tsampikos Kottos, Hamidreza Ramezani

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We engineer anomalous conical diffraction (CD), occurring in discrete one-dimensional lattices with chargeconjugation symmetry when an exceptional point is in the proximity of the modes that compose the initial excitation. The evolving waveform propagates ballistically, acquiring a constant intensity profile within the boundaries of the spreading cone. The linear increase in the total intensity along the propagation direction is responsible for the generation of constant intensity CD.

A Guide To Ligo–Virgo Detector Noise And Extraction Of Transient Gravitational-Wave Signals, Tiffany Summerscales, Ligo Scientific Collaboration And The Virgo Collaboration

Faculty Publications

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration have cataloged eleven confidently detected gravitational-wave events during the first two observing runs of the advanced detector era. All eleven events were consistent with being from well-modeled mergers between compact stellarmass objects: black holes or neutron stars. The data around the time of each of these events have been made publicly available through the gravitationalwave open science center. The entirety of the gravitational-wave strain data from the first and second observing runs have also now been made publicly available. There is considerable interest among the broad scientific community in understanding the data …

Quantum Correlations Between The Light And Kilogram-Mass Mirrors Of Ligo, Haocun Yu, L. Mcmuller, M. Tse, L. Barsotti, N. Mavalvala, J. Betzwieser, C. D. Blair, S. E. Dwyer, A. Effler, K. E. Ramirez

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Measurement of minuscule forces and displacements with ever greater precision encounters a limit imposed by a pillar of quantum mechanics: the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. A limit to the precision with which the position of an object can be measured continuously is known as the standard quantum limit (SQL) [1–4]. When light is used as the probe, the SQL arises from the balance between the uncertainties of photon radiation pressure imposed on the object and of the photon number in the photoelectric detection. The only possibility surpassing the SQL is via correlations within the position/momentum uncertainty of the object and the …

A Guide To Ligo–Virgo Detector Noise And Extraction Of Transient Gravitational-Wave Signals, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, K. E. Ramirez, Satzhan Sitmukhambetov, Robert Stone, D. Tuyenbayev, W. H. Wang, A. K. Zadrozny

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration have cataloged eleven confidently detected gravitational-wave events during the first two observing runs of the advanced detector era. All eleven events were consistent with being from well-modeled mergers between compact stellar-mass objects: black holes or neutron stars. The data around the time of each of these events have been made publicly available through the gravitational-wave open science center. The entirety of the gravitational-wave strain data from the first and second observing runs have also now been made publicly available. There is considerable interest among the broad scientific community in understanding the data …

Model Comparison From Ligo–Virgo Data On Gw170817’S Binary Components And Consequences For The Merger Remnant, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, K. E. Ramirez, Satzhan Sitmukhambetov, Robert Stone, D. Tuyenbayev, W. H. Wang, A. K. Zadrozny

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

GW170817 is the very first observation of gravitational waves originating from the coalescence of two compact objects in the mass range of neutron stars, accompanied by electromagnetic counterparts, and offers an opportunity to directly probe the internal structure of neutron stars. We perform Bayesian model selection on a wide range of theoretical predictions for the neutron star equation of state. For the binary neutron star hypothesis, we find that we cannot rule out the majority of theoretical models considered. In addition, the gravitational-wave data alone does not rule out the possibility that one or both objects were low-mass black holes. …

Electrochemically Desulfurized Molybdenum Disulfide (Mos2) And Reduced Graphene Oxide Aerogel Composites As Efficient Electrocatalysts For Hydrogen Evolution, Sanju Gupta, Taylor Robinson, N. Dimakis

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent developments in graphene related materials including molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) is gaining popularity as efficient and cost-effective nanoscale electrocatalyst essential for hydrogen production. These “clean” energy technologies require delicate control over geometric, morphological, chemical and electronic structure affecting physical and electrochemical catalytic properties. In this work, we prepared three-dimensional hierarchical mesoporous aerogels consisting of two-dimensional functionalized graphene and MoS₂ nanosheets of varying ratio of components under hydrothermal–solvothermal conditions (P <20 >bar, T <200 >°C). We systematically characterized these hybrid aerogels in terms of surface morphology, microstructure, understand heterointerfaces interaction through electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, optical absorption and emission …

Wallaby – An Ska Pathfinder Hisurvey, B. S. Koribalski, L. Stavely-Smith, Tobias Westmeier, P. Serra, K. Spekkens, O. I. Wang, C. D. P. Lagos, D. Obreschkow, E. V. Ryan-Webber, Juan P. Madrid

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind surveY (WALLABY) is a next-generation survey of neutral hydrogen (HI) in the Local Universe. It uses the widefield, high-resolution capability of the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a radio interferometer consisting of 36 x 12-m dishes equipped with Phased-Array Feeds (PAFs), located in an extremely radio-quiet zone in Western Australia. WALLABY aims to survey three-quarters of the sky (-90 degr < Dec < +30 degr) to a redshift of z < 0.26, and generate spectral line image cubes at ~30 arcsec resolution and ~1.6 mJy/beam per 4 km/s channel sensitivity. ASKAP's instantaneous field of view at 1.4 GHz, delivered by the PAF's 36 beams, is about 30 sq deg. At an integrated signal-to-noise ratio of five, WALLABY is expected to detect over half a million galaxies with a mean redshift of z ~ 0.05 (~200 Mpc). The scientific goals of WALLABY include: (a) a census of gas-rich galaxies in the vicinity of the Local Group; (b) a study of the HI properties of galaxies, groups and clusters, in particular the influence of the environment on galaxy evolution; and (c) the refinement of cosmological parameters using the spatial and redshift distribution of low-bias gas-rich galaxies. For context we provide an overview of previous large-scale HI surveys. Combined with existing and new multi-wavelength sky surveys, WALLABY will enable an exciting new generation of panchromatic studies of the Local Universe. - First results from the WALLABY pilot survey are revealed, with initial data products publicly available in the CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Archive (CASDA).

A Joint Fermi-Gbm And Ligo/Virgo Analysis Of Compact Binary Mergers From The First And Second Gravitational-Wave Observing Runs, R. Hamburg, C. Fletcher, E. Burns, A. Aich, G. Bissenbayeva, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, K. E. Ramirez, P. K. Roy, W. H. Wang, Adam Zadrozny

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present results from offline searches of Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) data for gamma-ray transients coincident with the compact binary coalescences observed by the gravitational-wave (GW) detectors Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo during their first and second observing runs. In particular, we perform follow-up for both confirmed events and low significance candidates reported in the LIGO/Virgo catalog GWTC-1. We search for temporal coincidences between these GW signals and GBM-triggered gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We also use the GBM Untargeted and Targeted subthreshold searches to find coincident gamma-rays below the onboard triggering threshold. This work implements a refined statistical approach by …

Gw190814: Gravitational Waves From The Coalescence Of A 23 Solar Mass Black Hole With A 2.6 Solar Mass Compact Object, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, A. Aich, G. Bissenbayeva, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report the observation of a compact binary coalescence involving a 22.2 - 24.3 M⊙ black hole and a compact object with a mass of 2.50 - 2.67 M⊙ (all measurements quoted at the 90% credible level). The gravitational-wave signal, GW190814, was observed during LIGO's and Virgo's third observing run on August 14, 2019 at 21:10:39 UTC and has a signal-to-noise ratio of 25 in the three-detector network. The source was localized to 18.5 deg2 at a distance of 241+41−45 Mpc; no electromagnetic counterpart has been confirmed to date. The source has the most unequal mass ratio yet measured with …

Gw190412: Observation Of A Binary-Black-Hole Coalescence With Asymmetric Masses, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, S. Abraham, A. Aich, G. Bissenbayeva, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov, K. E. Ramirez, P. K. Roy

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report the observation of gravitational waves from a binary-black-hole coalescence during the first two weeks of LIGO’s and Virgo’s third observing run. The signal was recorded on April 12, 2019 at 05∶30∶44 UTC with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 19. The binary is different from observations during the first two observing runs most notably due to its asymmetric masses: a ∼30 M⊙ black hole merged with a ∼8 M⊙ black hole companion. The more massive black hole rotated with a dimensionless spin magnitude between 0.22 and 0.60 (90% probability). Asymmetric systems are predicted to emit gravitational waves with stronger …

Characterizing The Quantum Phase Transition Using A Flat Band In Circuit Qed Lattices, Gui-Lei Zhu, Xin-You Lü, Hamidreza Ramezani

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We show the superradiant phase transition (SPT) can control the existence of flat band in an extended Dicke-Hubbard lattice [1]