Elementary Particles and Fields and String Theory Commons^™

Feasibility And Conceptual Design Of A C.W. Positron Source At Cebaf, Serkan Golge

Physics Theses & Dissertations

A feasibility study of a CW positron source for the 12 GeV upgrade at Jefferson Lab (JLAB) is provided. The proposed ≥ 100 nA Continuous Wave (CW) positron source at JLAB has several unique and challenging characteristics: high current incident electron beam at 126 MeV with a high beam power (up to a MW); CW e−beam and CW e+ production. The multiple scattering is a dominant process when creating e+ in a target, which results a large phase space area of the emitted positrons. An admittance study was done at CEBAF to find the maximum phase space area, which is …

The Combined Effects Of Radio Frequency And Gamma Irradiation On P-Channel Mosfets, Joshua D. Daniel

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the combined effects of continuous gigahertz radio frequency signals and gamma irradiation on the threshold voltage of metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors. The combined effects of gigahertz radio frequency waves and gamma irradiation on electronics presents a new challenge in electronic warfare and little is known of the combined effect on threshold voltage damage and recovery. The Fairchild NDS352AP, a commonly used commercial device, was irradiated by a cobalt-60 source under a +5 V bias with and without a radio frequency signal applied to the gate. The threshold voltage was measured …

Beyond The Born Approximation: A Precise Comparison Of E+P And E-P Elastic Scattering In The Cebaf Large Acceptance Spectrometer (Clas), Megh Raj Niroula

Physics Theses & Dissertations

How well we know the structure of the proton depends on our knowledge of the form factors of the proton. The ratio of the electromagnetic form factors of the proton measured by the Rosenbluth and the polarization transfer methods differ by a factor of 3 at four momentum transfer squared (Q²)=5.6 GeV². The two photon exchange (TPE) effect is the leading candidate to explain this discrepancy. The theoretical estimates of the TPE effect are model dependent so precise measurement is required to resolve this problem. The TPE effect can be measured in a model independent way by measuring …

Exclusive Π- Electro-Production From The Neutron In The Resonance Region, Jixie Zhang

Physics Theses & Dissertations

The study of baryon resonances is crucial to our understanding of nucleon structure. Although the excited states of the proton have been studied in great detail, there are very few data available for the neutron resonances because of the difficulty inherent in obtaining a free neutron target. To overcome this limitation, the spectator tagging technique was used in one of the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) collaboration experiments, Barely off-shell Nuclear Structure (BoNuS), in Hall-B at Jefferson Lab. We have constructed a radial time projection chamber (RTPC) based on the gaseous electron multiplier (GEM) technology to detect low momentum …

Thermal Neutron Point Source Imaging Using A Rotating Modulation Collimator (Rmc), Nathan O. Boyce

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis demonstrates a previously untested capability of the Rotating Modulation Collimator (RMC) to image a point-like neutron source. The encouraging results, achieved using low-energy neutrons, provide motivation for further refinement and continued research with higher-energy neutrons. The detector and the masks on an existing RMC imaging system were exchanged to function with neutrons. The source in this research produced a poly-energetic spectrum of neutrons through the reaction. The source of alpha particles was a 72.7 mCi ²³⁹Pu source. The RMC detector was located 250 cm from the bare source and operated for three hours to generate a modulation …

In-Situ, Gate Bias Dependent Study Of Neutron Irradiation Effects On Algan/Gan Hfets, Janusz K. Mikina

Theses and Dissertations

AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure Field Effect Transistors (HFETs) have come under increased study in recent years due to their highly desirable material and electrical properties and survivability even during and after exposure to extreme temperature and radiation environments. In this study, unpassivated and SiN passivated Al_0.27Ga_0.73N/GaN HFETs were subjected to neutron radiation at 120 K. The primary focus of the research was the effects of neutron irradiation on drain current, gate leakage current, threshold voltage shift, gate-channel capacitance, and the effects of biasing the gate during irradiation. In-situ measurements were conducted on transistor current, gate-channel capacitance, and gate …

Positron Annihilation Ratio Spectroscopy (Psars) Applied To Positronium Formation Studies, Robert C. Slaughter

Theses and Dissertations

A Positron Annihilation of Radiation Spectrometer (PsARS) was developed and characterized. PsARS spectroscopy as well as digital Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) was applied to measure positronium formation on gold nanoparticles deposited through an evaporative method onto a thin capillary tube. This gold coated capillary tube was designed to be used for positronium lifetime studies in local electric field experiments. High local electric fields can polarize a positron-electron pair, which may result in an extended lifetime of the positron. These fields may be created through the interaction of an external electric field with silver nanoparticles deposited onto the surface of …

Search For The Decay Ds To Omega L Nu, Jin Zhu

Wayne State University Dissertations

This analysis searches for a new type of rare decay of the charmed mesons,

which would provide direct evidence for the presence of Fock states inside

hadrons.

We use 586pb of e+e- collisions at the Cornell Electron Storage

Ring (CESR), at \sqrt{s}=4.17 GeV, recorded with the Cleo-c detector.

A limit on the branching ratio Ds to omega e nu is found, at 0.231\%

(95\% C.L.).

Low Energy Search For Physics Beyond The Standard Model, Andriy Badin

Wayne State University Dissertations

After discussion of the theoretical aspects of the Standard Model we point out experimental observations that can not be answered within its framework. Methods for the inderect detection of the heavy (electroweak scale and above) and light New Physics particles are discussed. Study of the meson mixing in the $B_s$ system is proposed as the way to indirectly probe NP. We predict that New Physics contribution to the lifetime difference of $B_s$-$\bar{B}_s$ system can be dominant in certain scenarios. As an example of the way to detect the light New Physics we considered the Dark Matter production in the heavy …

A Search For The Sm Higgs Boson In The Process Zhllbb In 4.1/Fb Of Cdf Ii Data, Shalhout Zaki Shalhout

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation presents a search for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson in the associated production process ZH → l⁺l_- bb using 4.1fb^-1 of Tevatron collision data collected with the CDF II detector.

To increase the sensitivity to a ZH signal over previous CDF searches, we implement new electron and expanded b-jet identification algorithms.

We utilize neural network classifiers enhanced with matrix element probabilities, a b-jet identifying neural network, and multivariate jet energy corrections to maximize the separation of signal from SM backgrounds.

We employ three neural network classifiers separately optimized for each of our three …

Open Heavy Flavor Measurement At Forward Angles For Cu+Cu Collisions At Center Of Mass Nn Collision Energy 200 Gev, Irakli Garishvili

Doctoral Dissertations

The main purpose of Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) program is to study the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a deconfined state of matter believed to be created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. Heavy quarks, expected to be produced during the earlier stages of heavy ion collisions, serve as an important probe of the QGP.‎

‎The following dissertation presents measurements of single muons resulting from the semileptonic decay of heavy flavor quarks in the rapidity range of $1.4 < \vert\eta\vert < 1.9$ for Cu+Cu nuclei collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV measured by the PHENIX experiment. Single muon spectra were measured for three different centrality classes (0 - 20 \% , 20 - 40 \%, 40 - 94 \%) within the $p_{T}$ range of 1.0 - 4.0 GeV/c.‎

‎To calculate single muon spectra, a full background estimate was statistically subtracted from inclusive spectra of muon candidate tracks reconstructed in the PHENIX muon …

Contributing Efforts In The Search For Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, Laura Christine Sparks

Physics

Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) will be part of the next generation of detectors used to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ). Located in Assergi, Italy at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS), CUORE will be a large cryogenic bolometer composed of 988 tellurium dioxide (TeO2) detectors with a total mass of 750 kg, and will search for 0νββ in 130Te. As the experiment will monitor the extremely rare event of 0νββ, all factors contributing to background need to be minimized to effectively increase the sensitivity. I assisted the LNGS researchers over the summer of 2008 by …

Spin Structure Of The Deuteron, Nevzat Guler

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Double spin asymmetries for the proton and the deuteron have been measured in the EG1b experiment using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. Longitudinally polarized electrons at energies 1.6, 2.5, 4.2 and 5.7 GeV were scattered from longitudinally polarized NH3 and ND3 targets. The double spin asymmetry A|| for the proton and the deuteron has been extracted from these data as a function of W and Q² with unprecedented precision. The virtual photon asymmetry A₁ and the spin structure function g1 can be calculated from these measurements by using parametrization to the world data for the virtual …

On The Stochastic Behavior Of Brownian Particles In Potential Wells, As Observed With Optical Traps, Ross Paul Brody

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When the random fluctuations of a system are viewed as energetic fluctuations, many of the unique qualities of the system become irrelevant to the fundamental behavior. Consequently, many stochastic processes are fundamentally identical and are treated mathematically as such. For this reason the study of colloidal particles in aqueous solution has been invaluable to investigations of biologically relevant stochastic processes. This work addresses the motion of a Brownian particle, in a potential well, whose random fluctuations are described by a Gaussian-Markov random variable. By performing optical trapping experiments on micron sized, non-interacting, latex spheres in aqueous solution we have shown …

Measurements Of Correlated Pair Momentum Distributions In -3he(E,E',P,P)N With Clas, Hovhannes Baghdasaryan

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Nucleon-Nucleon (NN) Short Range Correlations (SRC) represent a valuable part of the nuclear wave function. Improved knowledge of SRC will give us a better understanding of nuclear matter and nuclear interactions in extreme conditions. A study of the effects of short-range correlations using the ³He(e, e'pp)n reaction measured at Jefferson Lab is presented. Two different approaches were selected to investigate SRC. The first approach consists of the kinematics when we investigate the two active protons and neutron is the spectator (was not involved in the interaction). This kinematics dominates by Final State Interactions which are reasonably …

A Measurement Of The Top Quark Mass With A Matrix Element Method, Adam Paul Gibson '96

Doctoral Dissertations

We present a measurement of the mass of the top quark. Our event sample is selected from proton-antiproton collisions, at 1.96 TeV center-of-mass energy, observed with the CDF detector at Fermilab's Tevatron. We consider a 318 pb^-1 dataset collected between March 2002 and August 2004. We select events that contain one energetic lepton, large missing transverse energy, exactly four energetic jets, and at least one displaced vertex b tag. Our analysis uses leading-order tt and background matrix elements along with parameterized parton showering to construct event-by-event likelihoods as a function of top quark mass. From the 63 events observed …

Running Coupling Constant And Transition From Low To High Energies In Quantum Chromodynamics, Alexander Babansky

Physics Theses & Dissertations

The remarkable feature of QCD is that the coupling constant (the strength of the interaction) depends on the energy of the interacting particles. At high energies, the coupling constant vanishes and QCD becomes asymptotically free. However, at lower energy, the running coupling constant increases, leading to the confining strong-coupling theory at energies of the order of hadron masses. We study the essential effects of the running coupling constant and analyze the transition from high to low energies in different processes.

The ²H(E, E'P)N Reaction At High Four-Momentum Transfer, Hassan F. Ibrahim

Physics Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents the highest four-momentum transfer, Q², quasielastic (x_Bj = 1) results from Experiment E01-020 which systematically explored the 2H(e, e'p)n reaction ("Electro-disintegration" of the deuteron) at three different four-momentum transfers, Q² = 0.8, 2.1, and 3.5 GeV² and missing momenta, p_miss = 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 GeV including separations of the longitudinal-transverse interference response function, R_LT, and extraction of the longitudinal-transverse asymmetry, A_LT. This systematic approach will help to understand the reaction mechanism and the deuteron structure down to the short …

Vector Theory Of Spontaneous Lorentz Violation, Shu Hong Fung

Honors Theses

Classical electromagnetism predicts two massless propagating modes, which are known as the two polarizations of the photon. On the other hand, if the Lorentz symmetry of classical electromagnetism is spontaneously broken, the new theory will still have two massless Nambu-Goldstone modes resembling the photon. If the Lorentz symmetry is broken by a bumblebee potential that allows for excitations out of the minimum, then massive modes arise. Furthermore, in curved spacetime, such massive modes will be created through a process other than the usual Higgs mechanism because of the dependence of the bumblebee potential on both the vector field and the …

Inclusive And Exclusive Compton Processes In Quantum Chromodynamics, A. Psaker

Physics Theses & Dissertations

In our work, we describe two types of Compton processes. As an example of an inclusive process, we consider the high-energy photoproduction of massive muon pairs off the nucleon. We analyze the process in the framework of the QCD parton model, in which the usual parton distributions emerge as a tool to describe the nucleon in terms of quark and gluonic degrees of freedom. To study its exclusive version, a new class of phenomenological functions is required, namely, generalized parton distributions. They can be considered as a generalization of the usual parton distributions measured in deeply inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering. Generalized …

Some Aspects Of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering, Elena Kuchina

Physics Theses & Dissertations

We consider different aspects of the virtual Compton amplitude in QCD on two examples: small-x physics accessible in the Regge regime and twist-3 approximation in the description of DVCS through the general parton distributions. Using this model, we give an estimate for the cross section of deeply virtual Compton scattering for the kinematics of CEBAF at Jefferson Lab.

Searches For Neutral Higgs Bosons In Quark-Antiquark Tau-Antitau Final States Using The Opal Detector At Lep, James Andrew Hocker '91

Doctoral Dissertations

Searches for neutral Higgs bosons have been performed with the OPAL detector at LEP. Approximately 170 /pb of e+e- collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 189 GeV have been used to search for the SM process e+e- to HZ as well as for the processes e+e- to hZ and e+e- to hA which occur in extended Higgs theories. The searches are sensitive to final states containing quarks and tau leptons, for which an artificial neural network for the identification of tau leptons was designed. The results have been combined with OPAL searches for other final states to obtain a …

Precision Measurement Of The Spin Structure Of The Proton And The Deuteron, Frank R. Wesselmann

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Experiment E155 at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center measured the spin structure functions g1 and g2 of the proton and deuteron using deep inelastic scattering of 50 GeV polarized electrons from dynamically polarized, solid ¹⁵NH₃ and ⁶LiD targets. Three independent spectrometers, covering a large kinematic region, 0.014 < x_Bjorken < 0.9 and 1 < Q² < 40 (GeV /c)^2, detected 200 million events. A fully self-consistent and statistically sound approach to calculating radiative corrections was developed, providing well-defined statistical errors for the E155 data set. Also, a comprehensive fit to the global data set was created which simultaneously …

Generalized Compton Amplitudes In Quantum Chromodynamics, Ignati Grigentch

Physics Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation we describe results of our studies of generalized Compton amplitudes. We have calculated the one-loop corrections to the amplitude in the coordinate representation in terms of nonlocal string light-ray operators. We have also developed a consistent approach to the problem of constructing the gauge invariant Compton amplitude and obtained an expression for the explicitly gauge invariant amplitude which includes all the generalized target-mass corrections.

Virtual Compton Scattering Processes In Quantum Chromodynamics, Igor V. Musatov

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Applications of perturbative QCD to deeply virtual Compton scattering and hard exclusive meson electroproduction processes require a generalization of usual Parton distributions for the case when long-distance information is accumulated in nonforward matrix elements [special characters omitted] of quark and gluon light-cone operators. We consider different aspects of the investigation of the virtual Compton amplitude in the QCD on two examples: the spin dependent observables in the forward virtual Compton process (measured in the experiments on deep inelastic scattering) and the γγ* transition form factor. Then we discuss in detail evolution equations for non-forward parton distributions [special characters omitted] The …

The Use Of Operator Regularization In The Computation Of Effective Field Theories, Jeffrey M. Hersh

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Current methods of computing low-energy effective field theories while being accurate are extremely cumbersome co implement. Operator regularization provides a way to calculate any desired effective field theory avoiding the tediousness of previous methods. This technique is shown to be an effective method in explicitly calculating the 1_/mheavy corrections that match an original full theory to its low-energy effective counterpart. This is demonstrated up to two loop order for the case of a charged two field θ{4}{4} theory as well as up to one loop order for the Higgs sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Model. Additionally, the renormalization …

Electromagnetic Reaction Cross Sections In Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions, Jack Dostal

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

The goal of this project was to produce a computer program to predict the cross section of relativistic heavy ion collisions between given projectile and target nuclei. An explanation of the usefulness of relativistic heavy ion collision analysis is presented. The use of the Weiszacker-Williams method of virtual quanta for enhancing reaction cross sections of this type is discussed. Quantum-mechanical corrections to the semiclassical Weiszacker-Williams method are introduced. C++ computer code has been developed to calculate both semiclassical (as a check) and quantum-mechanical cross sections for these types of reactions. Preliminary results are given for the heavy ion reaction ( …

A Relativistic Model For Heavy Mesons, Jialin Zeng

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Motivated by the present interest in the heavy quark effective theory, we construct a model for heavy mesons based on a relativistic bound state wave equation, the Gross equation. The kernel we use is based on scalar confining and vector Coulomb potentials. Wave functions are treated to leading order and energies to order 1/_MQ in the heavy-light systems, and to order 1/_M²_Q in heavy-heavy systems. Our results are in good agreement with experimental measurements. This model may be used to study weak decay properties in the framework of the heavy quark effective theory and ultimately to …

Dynamic Phase Steepening In Alfven Waves, Stephen R. Granade

Honors Theses

Our solar system contains more activity and complexity than can be seen through a telescope. One such "invisible" phenomenon is the solar wind, created by a steady stream of particles blasted away from the sun in all directions. The sun's donut-shaped magnetic field lines channel this stream. Particles moving along the field lines perform an intricate helical dance, with ions winding one way and electrons the other.

The solar wind shapes and is shaped by the magnetic fields of the planets and the sun. If left undisturbed by outside influences, the earth's magnetic field, like the sun's, would resemble a …

Excitation Of Hydrogen Atoms By Fast Protons, Edward Ellis Fitchard

Physics Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis a theoretical study is made of excitation of hydrogenic atom by charged particles such as protons or electrons. The approximation to the cross section for an inelastic scattering process is obtained under the following radically simplifying assumptions. The projectile is represented in its initial and final state by plane waves. All distortions are neglected whether they originate in an inelastic process or an elastic deflections of the charged particle by the nucleus. The perturbation of the atomic orbits between which the projectile induces transitions is neglected. Nonrelativistic hydrogenic wave functions are used for the electronic states. In …