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Articles 31 - 60 of 157

Full-Text Articles in Physics

The Impact Of Initial Abundances On Modeling The Weak S-Process, Lev S. Serxner May 2022

The Impact Of Initial Abundances On Modeling The Weak S-Process, Lev S. Serxner

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

No abstract provided.


The Survey Of Hi In Extremely Low-Mass Dwarfs: New Results From Vla Imaging, Francesco Pecere, John M. Cannon, Damen Beverlin, Jackson Codd May 2022

The Survey Of Hi In Extremely Low-Mass Dwarfs: New Results From Vla Imaging, Francesco Pecere, John M. Cannon, Damen Beverlin, Jackson Codd

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

We present new HI spectral line imaging of 19 galaxies in the “Survey of HI in Extremely Low-mass Dwarfs” (SHIELD) acquired for Large Program VLA/ 20A-330. Using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in the C configuration, we produce images of the neutral interstellar medium (HI) on angular scales of 15 to 20 arcseconds (corresponding to physical resolutions of 200 to 1100 parsecs). The three-dimensional cubes probe the morphology and kinematics of the gas at a range of spatial and spectral resolutions. The cubes were collapsed to produce two-dimensional moment maps (representing HI mass …


Hunting For Fast Radio Bursts From Messier 82: Exploring The Frb--Magnetar Connection, Susie Paine May 2022

Hunting For Fast Radio Bursts From Messier 82: Exploring The Frb--Magnetar Connection, Susie Paine

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are short-duration radio pulses of cosmological origin. Among the most common sources predicted to explain this phenomenon are bright pulses from a class of extremely highly magnetized neutron stars known as magnetars. In 2020, a Galactic magnetar produced an FRB-like burst, allowing researchers to constrain the Galactic magnetar burst rate. We assume that the magnetar burst rate scales with star formation rate and test an important prediction for similar bursts in nearby galaxies. Messier 82 (M82) has a star formation rate 40 times that of the Milky Way, implying that the magnetar burst rate would be …


Molecular Line Search In Archival Alma Imaging Of M87, Xueyi Li May 2022

Molecular Line Search In Archival Alma Imaging Of M87, Xueyi Li

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

We present a molecular line search in spectral imaging of the elliptical galaxy M87 using archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA). The primary goal of this project is to verify and characterize possible CO transition lines, which can be used for future studies to determine the dynamics of the system, or the mass of the supermassive black hole (BH) in the center of the galaxy. After performing extensive atmospheric modeling, we found that most of the absorption features have a corresponding atmospheric ozone transition, so it is unlikely that these features are either Galactic or extragalactic. We …


Lie Algebras And The Poincare Group, Jack Hempel Costello May 2022

Lie Algebras And The Poincare Group, Jack Hempel Costello

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

This paper will discuss my research with
Professor Tonnis ter Veldhuis on the Poincare Group
and other similar algebraic approaches based on the
Minkowski Metric. This paper will begin with an
introduction discussing group theory and expand on its
specific applications in theoretical physics.


Simulating Interactions Between Coronal Mass Ejections, Damen S. Beverlin, Tatiana Niembro May 2022

Simulating Interactions Between Coronal Mass Ejections, Damen S. Beverlin, Tatiana Niembro

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launch large amounts of plasma and magnetic fields into the interplanetary medium. Under the right initial conditions, this ejecta can reach Earth and cause issues with electronic devices. As such, we would like to have an accurate model that depicts how these CMEs propagate as they leave the sun. By using fluid dynamics and one-minute resolution in-situ solar wind data, we sought to simulate CME plasma propagation with analytical and numerical models. Because the interstellar medium contains other material and other events happen on the sun simultaneously, CMEs can interact with each other and other ejecta, …


Custom Calibration And Correction Of Photoemission Electron Microscope Images Using Graphene, Henry Bell May 2022

Custom Calibration And Correction Of Photoemission Electron Microscope Images Using Graphene, Henry Bell

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The Photoemission Electron Microscope (PEEM) is a full-field electron microscope that utilizes the photoelectric effect to image a surface. Due to a spatial resolution on the order of 10 nanometers and its ability to image both the morphology of a surface and its band structure, it is a useful tool for understanding the properties of materials for use in electronic devices. To correct for random sample misalignment and the experimental frame of reference in the spectroscopy mode of the PEEM, the 3D dataset must be rotated in both the momentum and energy coordinates which requires pixel calibration and energy alignment. …


Virtual Experiments In Astrophysics, Chris Fragile Feb 2022

Virtual Experiments In Astrophysics, Chris Fragile

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.


Intramolecular Friedel-Crafts Addition Of Indoles To Tertiary Allylic Alcohols, Bryan H. Wakefield, Romie Barnes, Traeannah Brown, Ashley M. Jones, Victoria A. Knotts, Christina Martinetti Feb 2022

Intramolecular Friedel-Crafts Addition Of Indoles To Tertiary Allylic Alcohols, Bryan H. Wakefield, Romie Barnes, Traeannah Brown, Ashley M. Jones, Victoria A. Knotts, Christina Martinetti

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

An intermolecular Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indole and tertiary allylic alcohols has been developed. The allylic alcohols were synthesized using a two-step procedure, then exposure of these alcohols to diphenyl phosphate facilitated the desired annulation reaction. This reaction tolerated a variety of indole substitutions to yield 1H,2H,3H,4H-pyrido[1,2-a]indoles.


Table Of Contents Aug 2021

Table Of Contents

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.


2021 Scas Annual Meeting Program And Bulletin Aug 2021

2021 Scas Annual Meeting Program And Bulletin

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.


Using Methanol Masers To Probe High Mass Star Forming Regions, Naomi S. Shechter, Anuj P. Sarma Aug 2021

Using Methanol Masers To Probe High Mass Star Forming Regions, Naomi S. Shechter, Anuj P. Sarma

DePaul Discoveries

Compared to low mass stars, the formation of high mass stars is not well understood. To understand better how high mass stars form, we can utilize masers, naturally amplified point sources of microwave radiation. One example is the methanol maser, which falls into two categories. Class I methanol masers form in the bipolar outflows from the protostar, and Class II masers form in the accretion disk. Their compact size and intensity make them an excellent source of information about the process of high mass star formation. We compiled a modest database of Class I and II methanol masers through a …


An Investigation Of Water Masers In High Mass Star Forming Regions, Eleanor A. Webb Aug 2021

An Investigation Of Water Masers In High Mass Star Forming Regions, Eleanor A. Webb

DePaul Discoveries

Within deep space are massive molecular clouds and within these molecular clouds, stars form. In these regions of star formation, masers can occur. I studied the presence of water masers within these high mass star forming regions. This was done in order to ascertain whether or not there is a correlation between the intensity of water masers versus the star formation activity within the molecular clouds. My findings provide answers to my specific research questions and includes information on the location of the water masers I observed with the star-forming regions. These findings provide information on water masers and sets …


The Effects Of Water Ice Sublimation On Slope Failures Of Icy Regolith, Christopher Cox, Madison Weinberg, Trisha Joseph Jun 2021

The Effects Of Water Ice Sublimation On Slope Failures Of Icy Regolith, Christopher Cox, Madison Weinberg, Trisha Joseph

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The frost line in a planetary system represents the distance from the central star inside of which conditions are too warm for ice to form, while beyond this line it will be stable. When an icy object passes that line heading toward the Sun it will begin to sublimate and outgas, potentially causing mass loss and surface changes. One example is surface failures, which can lead to material being removed from the object. Evidence of this has been seen on cometary surfaces, where surfaces often show structures that appear to have suffered various mechanical failures like cracking and landslides. By …


Sampling Candidate Reionization Galaxies Using Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting, Nicholas J. Velikonja, Michael Rutkowski May 2021

Sampling Candidate Reionization Galaxies Using Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting, Nicholas J. Velikonja, Michael Rutkowski

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The process of reionization is one of the major pieces of galaxy evolution which remain to be un- derstood. With new observational tools like JWST on the horizon, imaging reionization-era galaxies will soon be possible. However, because the ionizing radiation is absorbed by the neutral hydrogen it ionizes, observers need some other parameter by which to identify those galaxies capable of reionizing. The search for ionizing emission via related parameters is well underway, and has come up with some tentative correlations, yet a consistent indicator or set of indicators remains to be discovered. New data in the Low-Redshift Lyman Continuum …


Carrier Lifetime And Carrier Mobility Of Gaasn With Changing Nitrogen Concentration, Sun Gyu Park May 2021

Carrier Lifetime And Carrier Mobility Of Gaasn With Changing Nitrogen Concentration, Sun Gyu Park

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

In this work, we conducted Ultrafast Conductivity Measurements, using THz Spectroscopy to characterize the carrier mobility and the carrier lifetime of gallium arsenide nitride (GaAsN) thin films with a range of Nitrogen concentrations. The photoexcitation of semiconductor samples excites free charges by promoting electrons from the valence band to the conduction band. We then measure the change in conductivity by measuring the transmission of a THz electromagnetic pulse after photoexcitation and comparing with the signal that was measured without photoexcitation. The values of transmission are then converted into conductivity, from which we derive the carrier concentration and scattering time of …


Renewing The Paradigm: Simulating The Miso Region Electrical Grid Using Renewable Energy Generation With Implementation Of Long-Term Hydrogen Storage, Jackson C. Henningfield May 2021

Renewing The Paradigm: Simulating The Miso Region Electrical Grid Using Renewable Energy Generation With Implementation Of Long-Term Hydrogen Storage, Jackson C. Henningfield

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The current electrical grid regime is not optimized to include renewable sources of power generation such as wind and solar. Electrical storage, as of now, is primarily established through the short-term generation and demand-meeting consumption leaving much of the grid susceptible to inefficiencies and power loss during natural events that leave grids out of commission. Delineating a new type of long-term storage, a hydrogen fuel cell, would ensure a reliable source of power to the masses regardless of the physical and climatic geography. The MISO region provides a perfect case study to introduce the ideas of diverse energy generation and …


Electrical Grid Energy Storage Using Hydrogen: A Feasibility Study, Elizabeth M. Curtiss May 2021

Electrical Grid Energy Storage Using Hydrogen: A Feasibility Study, Elizabeth M. Curtiss

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

In this project, we studied the possibility of implementing hydrogen as energy storage. With the focus being on decarbonizing the grid, we looked at studies that were powered by renewable sources. In addition to utilizing renewable sources, we decided to study electrolysis as a way to produce hydrogen. Electrolysis is the splitting of water to obtain hydrogen and oxygen, which is a carbon free technique. Pulling from two different papers, we were able to construct an equation that modeled the levelized cost of producing hydrogen. We also calculated the levelized cost of a fuel cell too, with hydrogen as fuel. …


Supercdms: Energy Calibration Of A Ge Hv Particle Detector, Salamong Xiong, Vuk Mandic, Matthew Fritts, Nicholas Mast, Jacob Nelson May 2020

Supercdms: Energy Calibration Of A Ge Hv Particle Detector, Salamong Xiong, Vuk Mandic, Matthew Fritts, Nicholas Mast, Jacob Nelson

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The goal of the SuperCDMS collaboration is to directly detect dark matter. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are potential candidates. To detect WIMPs, it is important to be able to predict how a Ge/Si particle detector will respond to a dark matter signal. In particular, it is necessary to calibrate the recoil energy measured by these detectors. This paper presents evidence for dark matter, a description of the detector operation, and procedures used to analyze measured data from a SuperCDMS-HV Ge particle detector using Am-241 and a PuBe neutron source. Due to high event rate, criteria were developed to remove …


The Leoncino Dwarf: A Neutral Hydrogen Analysis Of Agc 198691 And Its Extremely Metal-Poor Environment, Tylyn Page May 2020

The Leoncino Dwarf: A Neutral Hydrogen Analysis Of Agc 198691 And Its Extremely Metal-Poor Environment, Tylyn Page

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

Studies of low-mass galaxies are important for populating the low-mass ends of funda- mental physical relations. Extremely metal-poor (XMP) galaxies are low-mass galaxies with gas-phase oxygen abundances of 12+log(O/H) ≤ 7.35 ( 1/20 Z⊙), and are especially interesting as proxies for studying the distant past, as their chemical makeup resembles those of galaxies in the early universe. AGC 198691, referred to as the Leoncino Dwarf, was discovered through the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey and found to have an oxygen abundance of less than 3% Z⊙. Presented here are the results of recent Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array …


Large Scale Grid Integration Of Wind And Solar Power With Storage, Nicholas Moore May 2020

Large Scale Grid Integration Of Wind And Solar Power With Storage, Nicholas Moore

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The current energy grid in the United States is dominated by carbon intense energy generation methods that are based on production when and where it is required. However, solar and wind power have proved themselves as the most promising carbon free energy generation sources. Due to the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of energy production from solar and wind, large scale integration of these resources into the electric grid will require robust storage capacity. In this project, we model the energy grid of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) energy region with high concentrations of solar and wind power to analyze …


Probing The Magnetic Fields In Cosmic Web Filaments, Andrew L. Mizener May 2020

Probing The Magnetic Fields In Cosmic Web Filaments, Andrew L. Mizener

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

We present a project to constrain the properties of magnetic fields in Cosmic Web filaments. We first perform rotation measure (RM) synthesis on 24 S-band Karl G Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of moderate-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGN). These observations are combined with an existing catalog of Cosmic Web filaments in order to determine the number of filaments a given sight-line passes near or through. By tracking how observables such as rotation measure and polarization fraction change as a function of the number of intervening cosmic web filaments, we take the first steps towards providing observational constraints on the …


Shape Model Of Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 1981 Midas From Radar And Lightcurve Observations, Riley Mcglasson May 2020

Shape Model Of Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 1981 Midas From Radar And Lightcurve Observations, Riley Mcglasson

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

We report observations of potentially hazardous, Apollo-class asteroid 1981 Midas, which passed 0.090 au from Earth (35 lunar distances) on March 21, 2018. During this close approach, Midas was observed by radar both from the Arecibo Observatory on March 21 through 25 (five nights), and from NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex on March 19 and 21. These radar observations yielded one-dimensional continuous-wave spectra and two-dimensional delay-Doppler images. In addition, there have been optical lightcurve observations of Midas during four apparitions (1987, 1992, 2004, and 2018), which showed a rotation period of 5.22 hours. Midas has an absolute magnitude of …


A Search For Pulsars Towards The Galactic Center, Jacob W. Hetrick, Kunal Mooley, Preshanth Jagannathan May 2020

A Search For Pulsars Towards The Galactic Center, Jacob W. Hetrick, Kunal Mooley, Preshanth Jagannathan

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

We present observations from two separate methods for observing the Galactic Center in an attempt to characterize its pulsar and neutron star populations. A persistent puzzle of the past 20 years has been the lack of pulsar detections towards the Galactic Center, specifically within a few parsecs of the central supermassive black hole Sgr A*. This object is bright in the total intensity of its polarized emission, but is very weakly linearly polarized. We take advantage of these circumstances in an experimental search technique where we utilize the Faraday effect in an attempt to detect high rotation measure (RM) point …


Modeling Scavenging For A Hydraulic Free-Piston Engine, Nathan Davies May 2020

Modeling Scavenging For A Hydraulic Free-Piston Engine, Nathan Davies

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The hydraulic free-piston engine at the University of Minnesota offers a solution to improve the hydraulic efficiency and reduce emission output of off-road vehicles. We developed a MATLAB Simulink model to track the pressure, temperature, and mass profile of the fuel within the cylinder during operation. By varying different initial conditions of our model, we found that a higher intake manifold pressure and larger bottom dead center location results in higher scavenging efficiency. These results can be used to improve the controller of this engine and better maintain stable operation.


Electrical Measurement Of Sram Cell Variation And Sensitivity To Singe-Event Upsets By Low-Energy Protons, James M. Cannon May 2020

Electrical Measurement Of Sram Cell Variation And Sensitivity To Singe-Event Upsets By Low-Energy Protons, James M. Cannon

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

With the rise of the transistor in the 1970s, electronics shifted from analog circuitry, where values are stored on a continuum, to digital, in which ones and zeros are the law of the land. Transistors, as a class circuit element, can be affected by radiation and cosmic rays which then cause temporary or permanent failures, depending on the specifics of the situation. On Earth, this poses little risk with all electronics shielded by the magnetosphere, however for space bound electronics, the risks from these extraterrestrial particles are not so negligible. The first step in designing a mission to be able …


Design And Modal Analysis Of An Ultra-Wideband Receiver For Green Bank Observatory, Alyssa Bulatek May 2020

Design And Modal Analysis Of An Ultra-Wideband Receiver For Green Bank Observatory, Alyssa Bulatek

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The next generation of radio receivers for astronomy will be marked by tenfold improvements in sensitivity. These sensitive receivers will be useful for the detection of broadband fast radio bursts and other transients as well as the efficient discovery of radio recombination lines among many other scientific pursuits. One contribution to these improvements is an increase to decade receiver bandwidths. The Green Bank Observatory (GBO) is currently in the process of fabricating a new ultra-wideband (UWB; 0.7 to 4.2 GHz) receiver for the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). The UWB receiver will be used by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for …


Alfalfa Harvest: Hi Imaging And 3d Modeling Of Candidate Local Group Dwarf Galaxies, Lilly Bralts-Kelly, Susie Paine, Elizabeth A. K. Adams, John M. Cannon May 2020

Alfalfa Harvest: Hi Imaging And 3d Modeling Of Candidate Local Group Dwarf Galaxies, Lilly Bralts-Kelly, Susie Paine, Elizabeth A. K. Adams, John M. Cannon

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

Isolated neutral hydrogen (HI) clouds, or "ultra-compact high-velocity clouds" (UCHVCs), form a small subset of detections by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) blind extragalactic survey. These systems, if located within ~1 Mpc, would populate the lowest-mass end of the HI mass function. Subsequent optical imaging has revealed that some of these UCHVCs harbor associated (thought sparse) stellar populations, suggesting that they may be some of the most extreme galaxies known in the Local Volume, with properties akin to ultra-faint dwarf galaxies but with significant neutral gas reservoirs. In this work, we investigate the neutral hydrogen properties of six UCHVC …


Leoncino And Ugc 5186, Josh Bartz May 2020

Leoncino And Ugc 5186, Josh Bartz

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

AGC 198691 is commonly known as the Leoncino Dwarf and is one of the most metal poor galax- ies known. An Arecibo observation in 2011 first suggested that Leoncino could be gravitationally interacting with its neighbor UGC 5186. In this paper new VLA data is used to examine the H I com- ponent of both galaxies to determine their gravitational relationship. Although the VLA could not confirm intragalactic gas seen by Aricebo, the H I density and velocity components are strong indirect evidence of gravitational interaction. UGC 5186 has a large gaseous arm reaching in the direction of Leoncino. Additionally …


Table Of Contents Aug 2019

Table Of Contents

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.