Elementary Particles and Fields and String Theory Commons^™

Measurement Of Theta-13 Neutrino Mixing Angle From The Disappearance Of Electron Antineutrinos At The Double Chooz Experiment, Brandon Reed White

Doctoral Dissertations

The measurement of the remaining neutrino-mixing angle, theta-130, is a critical step toward further understanding of neutrino properties and to guide future neutrino oscillation experiments. Double Chooz has a unique opportunity to perform this measurement building on the original CHOOZ reactor anti-neutrino experiment, the experience that set the previous limits on theta-13. In the first phase of Double Chooz, 101 days of data was analyzed with only the far detector operating of a two-detector plan. In this thesis I will describe the design of the low background neutrino detector and the oscillation analysis performed. From the deficiency between the expected ...

Condensed Matter From Gauge/Gravity Duality, Jason Edward Therrien

Doctoral Dissertations

Currently strongly coupled systems present the greatest challenge to theoretical physics. For years conventional methods of approach have failed to describe these systems analytically. In recent years it has been shown that there is a duality between weakly coupled and strongly coupled systems, the Gauge Theory/Gravity Duality. In this dissertation I will discuss how the AdS/CFT is used to describe strongly coupled condensed matter systems as well as present the work done by the author and collaborators.

Contributions To Background Reduction And Computer Simulations For Cuore & Cuore-0, Ivo J. Plamenac

Physics

CUORE and CUORE-0 aim to observe neutrinoless double beta decay in ¹³⁰Te; observing such this particular decay would substantiate the Majorana model for the neutrino and expand our current understanding of particle physics. This report will provide an overview of the Standard Model, our current framework for particle interactions, as well as the technical details of the CUORE experiment. Over the summers of 2010 and 2011, I contributed to the efforts of the CUORE collaboration by assisting in aspects such as background reduction, and explored detector behavior using computer simulations.

Black Holes In The Conical Ensemble, Robert A. Mcnees Iv, Daniel Grumiller

Physics: Faculty Publications & Other Works

We consider black holes in an “unsuitable box”: a finite cavity coupled to a thermal reservoir at a temperature different than the black hole’s Hawking temperature. These black holes are described by metrics that are continuous but not differentiable due to a conical singularity at the horizon. We include them in the Euclidean path integral sum over configurations, and analyze the effect this has on black hole thermodynamics in the canonical ensemble. Black holes with a small deficit (or surplus) angle may have a smaller internal energy or larger density of states than the nearby smooth black hole, but ...

Session E-4: What's Up With The Higgs Boson? Teaching Particle Physics In High School, Peter Dong

Professional Learning Day

Best-selling books, popular PBS specials, and multi-billion-dollar machines all attest to the fascination with particle physics - including many teenagers. Physics and physical science classes can capitalize on this interest by talking about high-profile results, such as last summer's Higgs Boson Discovery. This session will answer some basic questions about contemporary particle physics and suggest some ideas for lessons and projects in particle physics.

Physics Of Massive Superstrings, Wan-Zhe Feng

Physics Dissertations

In this thesis, we focus on the massive superstring states. Starting from a short review on the first massive level open string states in ten dimensions, we investigate the four-dimensional physical open string states under N=4,2,1 compactifications. We find these physical states split into certain supermultiplets by working out explicitly their supersymmetry transformations. We then focus on the universal states which are common to all compactifications, their scattering amplitudes are the most appealing and important for these scattering processes could generate model-independent stringy signals which could be tested at the Large Hadron Collider if the fundamental string ...

Building An Alpha Spectrometer For The Cuore Collaboration, David J. Miller

Physics

This paper will give the reader a brief introduction to the Standard Model, Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (0νββ), and the CUORE experiment under construction at Gran Sasso National Lab in Assergi, Italy. The remainder of the paper will describe the process of creating a working alpha spectrometry system using silicon detectors and NIM and CAMAC electronics. Extensive details of the troubleshooting and calibration period are presented as a way for the reader to better understand the concepts involved in alpha spectroscopy and to not repeat mistakes made in this development process.

Leptonic Dipole Transitions: A New Signature For Physics Beyond The Standard Model, Robin Tunley

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

In this work, we consider the addition of a single neutral massive vector boson to the Standard Model (SM). This boson, which we refer to as N⁰, induces dipolar transitions between electrons and muons. We obtain bounds on the strength of its coupling and its mass: from the scattering process e+e- to mu+mu-; from its contribution to muonium-antimuonium oscillations; and from its possible contribution to the rare muon decay mu- to e+e-e-. In particular, we examine the two cases where the mediator is both heavy and light compared with the scattering energies for, and place constraints ...

Physics Of Strings And Extra Dimensions, Allan Bayntun

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this thesis is twofold and motivated by recent developments in string theory and extra dimensional models. The first objective is to describe the development and progress in the codimension-2 brane paradigm as a potential cosmological scenario. Secondly, it presents the Antide Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) conjecture, also known as holography, as a tool for calculating physical quantities in condensed matter system and goes on to model the quantum Hall effect. We first describe the initial development of treating back-reaction in codimension-2 branes systems with a scalar and gauge field. The purpose of this is to ...

Topics In Field Theory, Alexander Patrushev

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis consists of different projects in classical and quantum field theory on a curved background which are connected by a common usage of theoretical ideas as well as cal- culation techniques. The introduction clarifies such connections. In the second chapter we apply the Dirac constraint formalism to the second and first order 1 + 1 dimensional gravitational action coupled to a scalar field. The third chapter is devoted to a calculation of the one loop effective action for a spinor field coupled to a constant background chiral vector field. In the fourth chapter we find a new expression for the ...

Neutron Stars And Black Holes In Scalar-Tensor Gravity, Michael W. Horbatsch

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

The properties of neutron stars and black holes are investigated within a class of alternative theories of gravity known as Scalar-Tensor theories, which extend General Relativity by introducing additional light scalar fields to mediate the gravitational interaction.

It has been known since 1993 that neutron stars in certain Scalar-Tensor theories may undergo ‘scalarization’ phase transitions. The Weak Central Coupling (WCC) expansion is introduced for the purpose of describing scalarization in a perturbative manner, and the leading-order WCC coefficients are calculated analytically for constant-density stars. Such stars are found to scalarize, and the critical value of the quadratic scalar-matter coupling parameter ...

A Homogeneous Solution Of The Einstein-Maxwell Equations, Charles G. Torre

Research Applications

We exhibit and analyze a homogeneous spacetime whose source is a pure radiation electromagnetic field [1]. It was previously believed that this spacetime is the sole example of a homogeneous pure radiation solution of the Einstein equations which admits no electromagnetic field (see [2] and references therein). Here we correct this error in the literature by explicitly displaying the electromagnetic source. This result implies that all homogeneous pure radiation spacetimes satisfy the Einstein-Maxwell equations.

PDF and Maple worksheets can be downloaded from the links below.

How To Create A Lie Algebra, Ian M. Anderson

How to... in 10 minutes or less

We show how to create a Lie algebra in Maple using three of the most common approaches: matrices, vector fields and structure equations. PDF and Maple worksheets can be downloaded from the links below.

The Search For Charged Massive Supersymmetric Particles At The Lhc, Aleksey Pavlov

Physics

Charged Massive Particles (CHAMPs) are predicted in the Supersymmetry (SUSY) extension of the Standard Model though they have never been ob- served. We look for CHAMPs in the ALICE Detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. While the main purpose of ALICE is to study Quark- Gluon Plasma, we take advantage of the tracking and time of flight capabilities of several sub-detectors in ALICE to look for signs of CHAMPs. These elusive particles are characterized by their slow velocity, high transverse momentum and therefore heavy mass. Our research found a small handful of candidates among a large sample size ...