Physics Commons^™

Structure And Dynamics Of High Temperature Superconductors, Jennifer Lynn Niedziela

Doctoral Dissertations

High temperature superconductivity in iron based compounds has presented a series of complex problems to condensed matter physics since being discovered in 2008. The stalwart basis of condensed matter physics is the “strength in numbers" aspect of crystalline periodicity. Perfect crystalline periodicity has made possible the reduction of the questions of structural and electronic properties to single dimensions, increasing the tractability of these problems. Nevertheless, modern complex materials stretch these assumptions to their limits, and it is at this point where our work starts. Using neutron and x-ray scattering, we have conducted a series of studies on the structural disorder …

Intrinsic Rotation Of Toroidally Confined Magnetohydrodynamics, Jorge A. Morales, Wouter J. T. T. Bos, Kai Schneider, David C. Montgomery

Dartmouth Scholarship

The spatiotemporal self-organization of viscoresistive magnetohydrodynamics in a toroidal geometry is studied. Curl-free toroidal magnetic and electric fields are imposed. It is observed in our simulations that a flow is generated, which evolves from dominantly poloidal to toroidal when the Lundquist numbers are increased. It is shown that this toroidal organization of the flow is consistent with the tendency of the velocity field to align with the magnetic field. Up-down asymmetry of the geometry causes the generation of a nonzero toroidal angular momentum.

Random Fields At A Nonequilibrium Phase Transition, Hatem Barghathi, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We study nonequilibrium phase transitions in the presence of disorder that locally breaks the symmetry between two equivalent macroscopic states. In low-dimensional equilibrium systems, such random-field disorder is known to have dramatic effects: it prevents spontaneous symmetry breaking and completely destroys the phase transition. In contrast, we show that the phase transition of the one-dimensional generalized contact process persists in the presence of random-field disorder. The ultraslow dynamics in the symmetry-broken phase is described by a Sinai walk of the domain walls between two different absorbing states. We discuss the generality and limitations of our theory, and we illustrate our …

An Item Response Curves Analysis Of The Force Concept Inventory, Gary A. Morris, Nathan Harshman, Lee Branum-Martin, Eric Mazur, Taha Mzoughi, Stephen D. Baker

Faculty and Research Publications

Several years ago, we introduced the idea of item response curves (IRC), a simplistic form of item response theory (IRT), to the physics education research community as a way to examine item performance on diagnostic instruments such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). We noted that a full-blown analysis using IRT would be a next logical step, which several authors have since taken. In this paper, we show that our simple approach not only yields similar conclusions in the analysis of the performance of items on the FCI to the more sophisticated and complex IRT analyses but also permits additional …

Search For A T-Odd, P-Even Triple Correlation In Neutron Decay, T. E. Chupp, R. L. Cooper, K. P. Coulter, S. J. Freedman, B. K. Fujikawa, A. Garcia, Gordon L. Jones, H. P. Mumm, J. S. Nico, A. K. Thompson, C. A. Trull, F. E. Wietfeldt, J. F. Wilkerson

Articles

Background: Time-reversal-invariance violation, or equivalently CP violation, may explain the observed cosmological baryon asymmetry as well as indicate physics beyond the Standard Model. In the decay of polarized neutrons, the triple correlation D⟨⃗Jn⟩/Jn⋅(⃗βe׈pν) is a parity-even, time-reversal-odd observable that is uniquely sensitive to the relative phase of the axial-vector amplitude with respect to the vector amplitude. The triple correlation is also sensitive to possible contributions from scalar and tensor amplitudes. Final-state effects contribute to D at the level of 10−5 and can be calculated with a precision of 1% or better.

Purpose: We have improved the sensitivity to T-odd, P-even …

The Dissemination And Effective Use Of Physics Education Research In Undergraduate Instruction, Trevor Stefanick

Masters Theses

Based on the results of a national survey of physics faculty, a set of interviews was conducted of 70 physics faculty from a diverse set of institutions. The interviews included questions about the dissemination and effective use of curricula and instructional strategies based on Physics Education Research (PER), focused to obtain recommendations to the PER community that might help to spread the use of these PER-based materials. Approximately half of the interviews (those with faculty who indicated knowledge about or use of Peer Instruction) have been previously analyzed. This project is the analysis of the 38 interviews that were conducted …

Adaptive Circuits Using Pfet Floating-Gate Devices, Paul Hasler, Bradley Minch, Chris Diorio

Bradley Minch

In this paper, we describe our floating-gate pFET device, with its many circuit applications and supporting experimental measurements. We developed these devices in standard double-poly CMOS technologies by utilizing many effects inherent in these processes. We add floating-gate charge by electron tunneling, and we remove floating-gate charge by hot-electron injection. With this floating-gate technology, we cannot only build analog EEPROMs, we can also implement adaptation and learning when we consider floating-gate devices to be circuit elements with important time-domain dynamics. We start by discussing non-adaptive properties of floating-gate devices and we present two representative non-adaptive applications. First, we discuss using …

Suppression Of Pair Creation Due To A Steady Magnetic Field, W Su, M Jiang, Z Q. Lv, Rainer Grobe, Qichang Su

Faculty publications – Physics

We investigate the electron-positron pair creation process in a supercritical static electric field in the presence of a static magnetic field that is perpendicular. If both fields vary spatially in one direction the dynamics can be reduced to a set of one-dimensional systems. Using a generalized computational quantum field theoretical procedure, we calculate the time dependence of the spatial density for the created electrons. In the presence of the magnetic field, a significant amount of suppression of pair creation is observed in the simulations and confirmed by an analytical analysis for the limits of short-range fields and long interaction times. …

Self-Assembly Of Helical Ribbons, Yevgeniya V. Zastavker, Neer Asherie, Aleksey Lomakin, Jayanti Pande, Joanne M. Donovan, Joel M. Schnur, George B. Benedek

Yevgeniya V. Zastavker

The self-assembly of helical ribbons is examined in a variety of multicomponent enantiomerically pure systems that contain a bile salt or a nonionic detergent, a phosphatidylcholine or a fatty acid, and a steroid analog of cholesterol. In almost all systems, two different pitch types of helical ribbons are observed: high pitch, with a pitch angle of 54 ± 2°, and low pitch, with a pitch angle of 11 ± 2°. Although the majority of these helices are right-handed, a small proportion of left-handed helices is observed. Additionally, a third type of helical ribbon, with a pitch angle in the range …

Effect Of Reduction Of Breath-Holding Time In The Single-Breath Method To Assess Carbon Monoxide Diffusing Capacity, Elsa Magro

Masters

Measurement of the diffusing capacity of the lung is part of the routine pulmonary function assessment in every patient and the single breath method is the most commonly used method. This method requires a subject to inspire a gas mixture followed by a 10 second (s) breath-hold. However dyspnoea may preclude measurement in patients with advanced pulmonary disease. We sought to determine if breath-hold time reduction had a significant effect on measured DLco values.
Forced spirometry and CO-diffusion by the single breath method were
performed by a respiratory scientist with a Jaeger master-screen PFT equipment, in duplicate with breath-holding of …

University Scholar Series: Alejandro Garcia, Alejandro Garcia

University Scholar Series

Collaborating with DreamWorks

On April 25, 2012 Professor Alejandro Garcia spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Ellen Junn at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Professor Alejandro Garcia developed and teaches Physics of Animation, a science course for visual artists. During 2011, he took a professional leave and worked in DreamWorks Animation's department of Artistic Development as a physics consultant on Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. In this seminar, Alejandro Garcia describes the animation industry from both the scientific and artistic perspectives

Breaking Glass: Exploring The Relationship Between Kinetic Energy And Radial Fracturing In Plate Glass, Andrea Hulman

Scripps Senior Theses

When glass breaks from the impact of an object, it exhibits a distinctive shattering pattern comprised of two different regions. This pattern was investigated using experimental impacts and predicted using Young’s Modulus. Results were not as expected, and it is likely that there exists error in some measurements. Further investigation of this topic is recommended.

Topics In Electronic Structure And Spectroscopy Of Cuprates, Hsin Lin

Hsin Lin

I have applied first-principles calculations to investigate several interrelated problems concerned with the electronic structure and spectroscopy of cuprates. The specific topics addressed in this thesis are as follows. 1. By properly including doping effects beyond rigid band filling, a longstanding problem of the missing Bi-O pocket in the electronic structure of Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8}$ (Bi2212) is solved. The doping effect is explained in terms of Coulombic effect between layers and is a generic property of all cuprates. 2. A systematic study for Pb/O and rare-earth doping in Bi2212 is carried out to explain the experimental phase diagrams, and a possible new …

Characterizing Electrons In Primary And Secondary Magnetic Islands During Magnetic Reconnection, Jason Shuster

Honors Theses and Capstones

The physics underlying particle-in-cell simulations that are widely employed in studying plasma dynamics are reviewed. Results from a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of fully kinetic, undriven, collisionless magnetic reconnection are studied to compare the electrons in a primary magnetic island formed from an ion current sheet and the electrons in a secondary island formed in an electron current layer. We find that the secondary island is born with a strong out-of-plane current density due to localized peaks in the electron density and out-of-plane electron velocity; the secondary island retains these features as it evolves, distinguishing it from the primary island. For …

Pair Creation Enhancement Due To Combined External Fields, M Jiang, W Su, Z Q. Lv, X Lu, Y J. Li, Rainer Grobe, Qichang Su

Faculty publications – Physics

We study the creation of electron-positron pairs from the vacuum induced by a combination of a static electric field and an alternating field. We find that the overall pair production can be increased by two orders of magnitude compared to the yields associated with each field individually. We examine the interesting case where both fields are spatially localized, permitting us to examine the time evolution of the spatial density for the created particle pairs. We find that there are a variety of competing mechanisms that contribute to the total yield.

Local And Nonlocal Spatial Densities In Quantum Field Theory, R E. Wagner, M R. Ware, E V. Stefanovich, Qichang Su, Rainer Grobe

Faculty publications – Physics

We use a one-dimensional model system to compare the predictions of two different yardsticks to compute the position of a particle from its quantum field theoretical state. Based on the first yardstick (defined by the Newton-Wigner position operator), the spatial density can be arbitrarily narrow, and its time evolution is superluminal for short time intervals. Furthermore, two spatially distant particles might be able to interact with each other outside the light cone, which is manifested by an asymmetric spreading of the spatial density. The second yardstick (defined by the quantum field operator) does not permit localized states, and the time …

Laboratory Manual For Physics, Gary Lewis

Gary C. Lewis

No abstract provided.

Interactive Learningware For Physics Vol. 1: Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Waves, James Tanner, Gary Lewis

Gary C. Lewis

Retaining the comprehensiveness and rigor of the previous edition, this sequel has been dramatically revised to be more student oriented. Definitions and issues have been improved, making them tighter and more easily understood. More than 400 sample problems have been updated and expanded to reinforce physics concepts. Formulas involving elements of calculus are better explained due to additional subsections. A wealth of animated illustrations and full-color photographs will capture today's visually-oriented students' attention.

Interactive Learningware For Physics Vol. 2: Fundamentals Of Physics, James Tanner, Gary Lewis

Gary C. Lewis

Retaining the comprehensiveness and rigor of the previous edition, this sequel has been dramatically revised to be more student oriented. Definitions and issues have been improved, making them tighter and more easily understood. More than 400 sample problems have been updated and expanded to reinforce physics concepts. Formulas involving elements of calculus are better explained due to additional subsections. A wealth of animated illustrations and full-color photographs will capture today's visually-oriented students' attention.

Optically Trapped Fluorescent Nanodiamonds, Viva Horowitz

Scholarly Projects

The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in diamond is gaining significant interest for applications in nanoscale sensing. The optical addressability of the magnetically sensitive spin states and the ability to coherently control these states at room temperature makes this system an exciting candidate for spin-based magnetometry. I constructed an optical tweezers apparatus combined with a confocal fluorescence apparatus. Using the optical apparatus, we demonstrate three-dimensional position control of nanodiamonds in solution with simultaneous readout of ground-state electron-spin resonance (ESR) transitions in an ensemble of diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers. Despite the motion and random orientation of NV centers suspended in the …

Search For Heavy Long-Lived Charged Particles In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

The result of a search for heavy long-lived charged particles produced in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV at the LHC is described. The data sample has been collected using the CMS detector and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb⁻¹. The inner tracking detectors are used to define a sample of events containing tracks with high momentum and high ionization energy loss. A second sample of events, which have high-momentum tracks satisfying muon identification requirements in addition to meeting high-ionization and long time-of-flight requirements, is analyzed independently. In both cases, the results are consistent …

Measurement Of Isolated Photon Production In Pp And Pbpb Collisions At √Snn = 2.76 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, Jamila Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, Jose Lazo-Flores, Helena Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

Isolated photon production is measured in proton–proton and lead–lead collisions at nucleon–nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |η| < 1.44 and transverse energies E_T between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured E_T spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon E_T -differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon–nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.

Search For Heavy Majorana Neutrinos In Μ±Μ± +Jets And E±E± + Jets Events In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search is performed for heavy Majorana neutrinos (N) using an event signature defined by two samesign charged leptons of the same flavour and two jets. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 fb⁻¹ of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess of events is observed beyond the expected standard model background and therefore upper limits are set on the square of the mixing parameter, |V_ℓN|², for ℓ = e,μ, as a function of heavy Majorana-neutrino …

Search For Physics Beyond The Standard Model In Events With A Z Boson, Jets, And Missing Transverse Energy In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, Jamila Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in events with a Z boson, jets, and missing transverse energy (E^miss_T ). This signature is motivated by BSM physics scenarios, including supersymmetry. The study is performed using a sample of proton–proton collision data collected at √s = 7 TeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 fb⁻¹. The contributions from the dominant standard model backgrounds are estimated from data using two complementary strategies, the jet-Z balance technique and a method based on modeling E^miss_T with …

Inclusive And Differential Measurements Of The Tt̅ Charge Asymmetry In Proton–Proton Collisions At √S= 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

The tt̅ charge asymmetry is measured in events containing a charged lepton (electron or muon) and at least four jets, one of which is identified as originating from b-quark hadronization. The analyzed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb⁻¹ collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. An inclusive and three differential measurements of the tt̅ charge asymmetry as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum, and invariant mass of the tt̅ system are presented. The measured inclusive tt̅ charge asymmetry is A_C = 0.004 ± 0.010 (stat.) ± 0.011 (syst.). This result and the three …

Jet Momentum Dependence Of Jet Quenching In Pbpb Collisions At √Snn = 2.76 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, Jose Lazo-Flores, Helena Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

Dijet production in PbPb collisions at a nucleon–nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is studied with the CMS detector at the LHC. A data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 150 μb⁻¹ is analyzed. Jets are reconstructed using combined information from tracking and calorimetry, using the anti-k_T algorithm with R = 0.3. The dijet momentum balance and angular correlations are studied as a function of collision centrality and leading jet transverse momentum. For the most peripheral PbPb collisions, good agreement of the dijet momentum balance distributions with pp data and reference calculations at the same collision …

Search For Heavy, Top-Like Quark Pair Production In The Dilepton Final State In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

The results of a search for pair production of a heavy, top-like quark, t', in the decay mode t't̅' → bW⁺ b̅W⁻ → bℓ ⁺νb̅ℓ ⁻ν̅ are presented. The search is performed with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb⁻¹ in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The observed number of events agrees with the expectation from standard model processes, and no evidence of t't̅' production is found. Upper limits on the production cross section as a function …

Search For Neutral Higgs Bosons Decaying To Tau Pairs In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, J. Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is performed using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb⁻¹ recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The search is sensitive to both the standard model Higgs boson and to the neutral Higgs bosons predicted by the minimal super symmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM). No excess of events is observed in the tau-pair invariant-mass spectrum. For a standard model Higgs boson in the mass range of 110–145 GeV upper limits at 95% confidence level (CL) on …

Search For The Standard Model Higgs Boson Decaying To Bottom Quarks In Pp Collisions At √S = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. Bose, Jamila Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A search for the standard model Higgs boson (H) decaying to bb̅ when produced in association with weak vector bosons (V) is reported for the following modes: W(μν)H, W(eν)H, Z(μμ)H, Z(ee)H and Z(νν)H. The search is performed in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb⁻¹, recorded by the CMS detector in proton–proton collisions at the LHC with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. No significant excess of events above the expectation from background is observed. Upper limits on the V H production cross section times the …

Study Of W Boson Production In Pbpb And Pp Collisions At √Snn = 2.76 Tev, Ekaterina Avdeeva, Kenneth A. Bloom, S. S. Bose, Jamila Butt, Daniel R. Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Michael Eads, P. Jindal, J. Keller, Ilya Kravchenko, J. Lazo-Flores, H. Malbouisson, Sudhir Malik, Gregory Snow

Kenneth Bloom Publications

A measurement is presented of W-boson production in PbPb collisions carried out at a nucleon–nucleon (NN) centre-of-mass energy √s_NN of 2.76 TeV at the LHC using the CMS detector. In data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 7.3 μb⁻¹, the number of W → μν_μ decays is extracted in the region of muon pseudorapidity |η^μ| < 2.1 and transverse momentum p^μ_T > 25 GeV/c. Yields of muons found per unit of pseudorapidity correspond to (159 ± 10(stat.) ± 12(syst.)) × 10⁻⁸ W⁺ and (154 ± 10(stat.) ± 12(syst.)) × 10⁻⁸ W⁻ bosons per …