Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Open Access Articles

Simulation Of Light Scattering From Brownian Particles, Raymond Mullen

Physics

This project is a computational exploration of the light scattering from Brownian particles. We simulate laser light scattering to produce fluctuating light intensity at a detector located in the far-field. By analyzing the statistical properties of this intensity fluctuation, and knowing physical parameters of the system, we can deduce the size of the scattering particles. The computer simulation is in excellent agreement with theory.

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An Extremum Principle For Charged Black Holes, Shaker Von Price Funkhouser

Physics

There is a well known static condition that characterizes how two or more charged black holes stay in place: this condition is |qi |=mi , where a black hole (labeled by i) has electric charge qi and mass mi . For nearly half a century, this static condition has eluded a simple physical interpretation, without appealing to forces. I provide the first proof that the static condition, |qi |=mi , corresponds to an extremum of the black holes’ total energy. My approach uses geometry and calculus in the context of general relativity. For the non-specialist, this work draws upon one’s …

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Detecting Learning Styles In Video Games, Benjamin Cooley

Master's Theses

Video games are increasingly becoming more intelligent, able to adapt themselves to the individual gamer. Learning styles are a set of models used to categorize people into different types of learners to explain why some people learn better through different methods. Since learning and exploration are such fundamental parts of the video game experience, it is interesting to consider the possibility of applying these learning style models to video games, allowing the video game to adapt to its player, providing a better experience. To consider such adaptation, the game must first be able to detect that learning style from how …

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Semantic Search Using A Similarity Graph, Lubomir Stanchev

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Given a set of documents and an input query that is expressed in a natural language, the problem of document search is retrieving the most relevant documents. Unlike most existing systems that perform document search based on keywords matching, we propose a search method that considers the meaning of the words in the query and the document. As a result, our algorithm can return documents that have no words in common with the input query as long as the documents are relevant. For example, a document that contains the words “Ford”, “Chrysler” and “General Motors” multiple times is surely relevant …

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Cosmic Evolution Of Black Holes And Spheroids. V. The Relation Between Black Hole Mass And Host Galaxy Luminosity For A Sample Of 79 Active Galaxies, Daeseong Park, Jong-Hak Woo, Vardha N. Bennert, Tommaso Treu, Matthew W. Auger, Matthew A. Malkan

Physics

We investigate the cosmic evolution of the black hole (BH) mass–bulge luminosity relation using a sample of 52 active galaxies at z ∼ 0.36 and z ∼ 0.57 in the BH mass range of 107.4–109.1 M0. By consistently applying multicomponent spectral and structural decomposition to high-quality Keck spectra and high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images, BH masses (MBH) are estimated using the Hβ broad emission line combined with the 5100 Å nuclear luminosity, and bulge luminosities (Lbul ) are derived from surface photometry. Comparing the resulting MBH − Lbul relation to local active galaxies and taking into account selection effects, we …

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Role Of Disorder In Finite-Amplitude Shear Of A 2d Jammed Material, Nathan C. Keim, Paulo E. Arratia

Physics

A material’s response to small but finite deformations can reveal the roots of its response to much larger deformations. Here, we identify commonalities in the responses of 2D soft jammed solids with different amounts of disorder. We cyclically shear the materials while tracking their constituent particles, in experiments that feature a stable population of repeated structural relaxations. Using bidisperse particle sizes creates a more amorphous material, while monodisperse sizes yield a more polycrystalline one. We find that the materials’ responses are very similar, both at the macroscopic, mechanical level and in the microscopic motions of individual particles. However, both locally …

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Chloroamino Acids As A Chemical Explanation For Viking Labeled Release Soil Activity On Mars, John C. Hironimus

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Viking missions to Mars, which took place in the 1970’s, performed several experiments on martian soil in an attempt to discern if there was microbial life present. In one set of experiments, a nutrient solution containing amino acids and organic substrates tagged with carbon-14 was injected into sample cells containing martian soil, and the evolution of labeled CO2 was monitored. The evolution of labeled CO2 indicated that there was a process occurring that broke down the nutrients in solution and released CO2 as a byproduct. Cellular metabolism releases CO2, so this result supported the idea of microbial life on …

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Stability Of Lidocaine Tested By Forced Degradation And Its Interactions With Serum Albumin, Lindsay Nichols

STAR Program Research Presentations

A concern for future long-term manned space expeditions is the ability to treat illnesses with appropriate pharmaceuticals. However, pharmaceuticals degrade faster in space than on Earth presumably due to an abundance of space radiation. The stability of Lidocaine was investigated because it is a common pain reliever currently used on the International Space Station. One of the most common proteins in blood is serum albumin, which acts as a carrier to distribute drugs throughout the body. It is important to know how well the drug binds to serum albumin so that the rate of distribution of Lidocaine-bound protein in blood …

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Fabrication And Characterization Of A Vertically-Oriented Graphene Supercapacitor, Patrick R. Rice, Jiaxin Cui, Ahmad Badr, Michael M. Oye, Jessica E. Koehne, Meyya Meyyappan

STAR Program Research Presentations

Supercapacitors, otherwise known as electrical double layer capacitors, are a new type of electrochemical capacitor whose storage capacity is governed by two principals: the electrostatic storage achieved by a separation of charge at the interface of an electrode with an electrolytic solution, and pseudocapacitance, whose electrical energy is achieved by faradaic redox reactions. This project reports the synthesis and characterization of vertically-oriented graphene grown on copper substrates as electrodes in electric double-layer capacitor. Graphene is a two-dimensional pure carbon material with a high potential for energy storage. With vertically-grown graphene, an exponentially-larger surface area is made available, allowing an increase …

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Searching For Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Of 130te With Cuore, D.R. Artusa, F.T. Avignone Iii, O. Azzolini, M. Balata, T.I. Banks, G. Bari, J. Beeman, F. Bellini, A. Bersani, M. Biassoni, C. Brofferio, C. Bucci, X.Z. Cai, A. Camacho, L. Canonica, X.G. Cao, S. Capelli, L. Carbone, L. Cardani, M. Carrettoni, N. Casali, D. Chiesa, N. Chott, M. Clemenza, S. Copello, C. Cosmelli, O. Cremonesi, R.J. Creswick, I. Dafinei, A. Dally, V. Datskov, A. De Biasi, M.M. Deninno, S. Di Domizio, M.L. Di Vacri, L. Ejzak, D.Q Fang, H.A. Farach, M. Faverzani, G. Fernandes, E. Ferri, F. Ferroni, E. Fiorini, M.A. Franceschi, S.J. Freedman, B.K. Fujikawa, A. Giachero, L. Gironi, A. Giuliani, J. Goett, P. Gorla, C. Gotti, T.D. Gutierrez, E.E. Haller, K. Han, K.M. Heeger, R. Hennings-Yeomans, H.Z. Huang, R. Kadel, K. Kazkaz, G. Keppel, Yu. G. Kolomensky, Y.L. Li, C. Ligi, X. Liu, Y.G. Ma, C. Maiano, M. Maino, M. Martinez, R.H. Maruyama, Y. Mei, N. Moggi, S. Morganti, T. Napolitano, S. Nisi, C. Nones, E.B. Norman, A. Nucciotti, T. O'Donnell, F. Orio, D. Orlandi, J.L. Ouellet, M. Pallavicini, V. Palmieri, L. Pattavina, M. Pavan, M. Pedretti, G. Pessina, V. Pettinacci, G. Piperno, C. Pira, S. Pirro, E. Previtali, V. Rampazzo, C. Rosenfeld, C. Rusconi, E. Sala, S. Sangiorgio, N.D. Scielzo, M. Sisti, A.R. Smith, L. Taffarello, M. Tenconi, F. Terranova, W.D. Tian, C. Tomei, S. Trentalange, G. Ventura, M. Vignati, B.S. Wang, H.W. Wang, L. Wielgus, J. Wilson, L.A. Winslow, T. Wise, A. Woodcraft, L. Zanotti, C. Zarra, B.X. Zhu, S. Zucchelli

Physics

Neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay is a hypothesized lepton-number-violating process that offers the only known means of asserting the possible Majorana nature of neutrino mass. The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is an upcoming experiment designed to search for 0νββ decay of 130Te using an array of 988 TeO2 crystal bolometers operated at 10 mK. The detector will contain 206 kg of 130Te and have an average energy resolution of 5 keV; the projected 0νββ decay half-life sensitivity after five years of livetime is 1.6 × 1026 y at 1σ (9.5 × 1025 y at the 90% confidence level), …

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Characterizing Double And Triple Laser Beam Interference Patterns In The Context Of Trapping Atoms For Quantum Computing, Ian E. Powell

Physics

We propose two optical neutral atom traps for quantum computing involving the intersection of two or three laser beams. We simulate both the intensity and the potential energy of the interference pattern. From these simulations we create animations of how the potential energy and intensity change with varying angles of separation between the laser beams in the system. We parameterize lines through our interference pattern and fit simple harmonic oscillator potential energies to the potential energy wells calculated to characterize our interference pattern’s atom trapping capabilities. Finally, we investigate a possible quantum entanglement routine by observing how the geometry of …

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Evidence Of Attenuation Of Vhe Blazar Spectra By Extragalactic Background Light, Cameron Allen

Physics

The spectrum of two blazar objects, 1ES 1959+650 and 1ES 2344+514, are analyzed for evidence of interactions with the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL), using combined data from the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, By analyzing the distinct curvature across the combined spectrum, we infer that the very-high energy (VHE) gamma-rays must be attenuated by interactions with the EBL. We also find that the measured 1ES 1959+650 spectrum is sensitive to the intrinsic blazar model, with a preference for a power-law with an exponential cutoff (EPWL). The measured curvature is a combination of …

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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Simulation Of Light Scattering From Brownian Particles, Raymond Mullen

Physics

An Extremum Principle For Charged Black Holes, Shaker Von Price Funkhouser

Physics

Detecting Learning Styles In Video Games, Benjamin Cooley

Master's Theses

Semantic Search Using A Similarity Graph, Lubomir Stanchev

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Cosmic Evolution Of Black Holes And Spheroids. V. The Relation Between Black Hole Mass And Host Galaxy Luminosity For A Sample Of 79 Active Galaxies, Daeseong Park, Jong-Hak Woo, Vardha N. Bennert, Tommaso Treu, Matthew W. Auger, Matthew A. Malkan

Physics

Role Of Disorder In Finite-Amplitude Shear Of A 2d Jammed Material, Nathan C. Keim, Paulo E. Arratia

Physics

Chloroamino Acids As A Chemical Explanation For Viking Labeled Release Soil Activity On Mars, John C. Hironimus

STAR Program Research Presentations

Stability Of Lidocaine Tested By Forced Degradation And Its Interactions With Serum Albumin, Lindsay Nichols

STAR Program Research Presentations

Fabrication And Characterization Of A Vertically-Oriented Graphene Supercapacitor, Patrick R. Rice, Jiaxin Cui, Ahmad Badr, Michael M. Oye, Jessica E. Koehne, Meyya Meyyappan

STAR Program Research Presentations

Physics

Characterizing Double And Triple Laser Beam Interference Patterns In The Context Of Trapping Atoms For Quantum Computing, Ian E. Powell

Physics

Evidence Of Attenuation Of Vhe Blazar Spectra By Extragalactic Background Light, Cameron Allen

Physics