Nuclear Commons^™

Deformed No-Core Shell Model And Symplectic Effective Field Theory, David Kekejian

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Most nuclei are deformed! This simple fact has been established since Bohr and Mot- telson, and successfully demonstrated from first principles by nuclear structure calculations carried out using the ab-initio Symmetry-Adapted No-Core Shell Model (SA-NCSM) us- ing realistic interactions. This simple fact has been the main driver towards understanding the underlying physics; namely, that symplectic symmetry describes deformation and is a dominant symmetry in all nuclei independent of A (nucleon number) and of the realistic interaction used. These two simple observations laid the foundation of this thesis work to explore the applications of symplectic symmetry towards defining a deformed symplectic …

Development Of Advanced Machine Learning Models For Analysis Of Plutonium Surrogate Optical Emission Spectra, Ashwin P. Rao, Phillip R. Jenkins, John D. Auxier Ii, Michael B. Shattan, Anil Patnaik

Faculty Publications

This work investigates and applies machine learning paradigms seldom seen in analytical spectroscopy for quantification of gallium in cerium matrices via processing of laser-plasma spectra. Ensemble regressions, support vector machine regressions, Gaussian kernel regressions, and artificial neural network techniques are trained and tested on cerium-gallium pellet spectra. A thorough hyperparameter optimization experiment is conducted initially to determine the best design features for each model. The optimized models are evaluated for sensitivity and precision using the limit of detection (LoD) and root mean-squared error of prediction (RMSEP) metrics, respectively. Gaussian kernel regression yields the superlative predictive model with an RMSEP of …

Development And Characterization Of Germanium Detectors For Searching Rare-Event Physics, Rajendra Panth

Dissertations and Theses

High-purity germanium (HPGe) detector has an excellent energy resolution and low-energy detection threshold ideal for searching rare-event physics such as dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay searches. Understanding the electrical contact properties and the Ge detector properties is key to enhancing the use of Ge detectors for a wide range of applications. Amorphous Ge (a-Ge) is one of the passivation materials used to passivate Ge detectors, which also provides the barrier height to the charge injection. Several a-Ge contact Ge detectors were fabricated and tested at the University of South Dakota (USD) and Max-Planck-Institut (MPI) für Physik in Munich …

Design Of An Accelerator-Based Shielding Experiment At The Nasa Space Radiation Laboratory Relevant To Enclosed, Shielded Environments In Space, Lawrence H Heilbronn, Michael Sivertz, Adam Rusek, Charlie Pearson, Martha Clowdsley, Luis Castellanos, Natalie Mcgirl, Ashwin Srikrishna, Cary Zeitlin

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Nuclear Engineering

Recent calculations indicate that the dose equivalent in an enclosed, shielded environment in a galactic cosmic ray field will increase or remain unchanged when shielding thickness increases beyond 20 to 30 g/cm2. This trend is seen out to 100 g/cm2, beyond which calculations were not run since depths greater than this are not envisioned for human missions in deep space. If these calculations are accurate, then an optimal shielding thickness (or narrow range of thicknesses) exists, with important implications for spacecraft and habitat design. Crucially, the calculation reveals a minimum dose equivalent value that cannot be reduced with added shielding, …

Correlations And Dynamic Fluctuations In High Energy Collisions, Zoulfekar Mazloum

Wayne State University Dissertations

Is thermalization necessary for hydrodynamic flow in nuclear collisions? The discovery of flow-like azimuthal correlations in pA and high-multiplicity pp collisions raises profound questions about the onset of collective flow and its relation to hydrodynamics. We seek independent experimental information on the degree of thermalization in order to identify those hydrodynamic collision systems in which flow is sensitive to equilibrium QCD properties. We aim to develop a protocol for identifying the degree of thermalization using a combination of momentum and multiplicity correlation. To study the effect ofthermalization on these correlations, we use Boltzmann equation in the relaxation time approximation with …

Jet Substructure Measurements In Proton-Proton And Proton-Gold Collisions, Isaac Arthur Mooney

Wayne State University Dissertations

Observing a modification of high-energy probes in the hot nuclear environment created by ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions is critical for understanding the microscopic structure of the QCD medium. However, before a modification can be observed, the probes must be calibrated. For this reason, measurements of jet observables in vacuum (pp collisions) and in the presence of cold nuclear matter (pAu collisions) are presented, which will allow for future comparison of jet substructure measurements in AuAu to these baseline measurements. \parData from the STAR detector on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory are used for both analyses. The pp …

Energy Integrated Ratio Analysis Of The Anomalous Precession Frequency In The Fermilab Muon G-2 Experiment, Ritwika Chakraborty

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

The muon’s anomalous magnetic moment, a_μ, provides a unique way for probing physics beyond the standard model experimentally as it gathers contributions from all the known and unknown forces and particles in nature. The theoretical prediction of a_μ has been in greater than 3 σ tension with the experimental measurement since the results of the Muon g-2 Experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (E-821) were published in the early 2000s with a precision of 540 ppb. To settle this tension, the new Fermilab Muon g - 2 Experiment (E-989) is currently taking data with the aim of …

Point Cloud-Based Mapper For Qcd Analysis, Tareq Alghamdi, Yasir Alanazi, Manal Almaeen, Nobuo Sato, Yaohang Li

The Graduate School Posters

In many scientific applications, Inverse problems are challenging. An inverse problem is the process of inferring unknown parameters from observable ones. In this poster, we present our prototype using Point Cloud-based Variational Autoencoder mapping. Data that connects parameters to detector level events is used to train the proposed model. A point cloud is used to describe a series of events that keeps the permutation invariant property and geometric correlations of the events while being flexible with the number of events in the input. The trained Point Cloud-based Variational Autoencoder functions as an effective inverse function from detector level events to …

Data-Driven Methods For Low-Energy Nuclear Theory, Jordan M.R. Fox

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The term data-driven describes computational methods for numerical problem solvingwhich have been developed by the field of data science; these are at the intersection of computer science,mathematics, and statistics. When applied to a domain science like nuclear physics, especially with the goalof deepening scientific insight, data-driven methods form a core pillar of the computational science endeavor.In this dissertation I explore two problems related to theoretical nuclear physics: one in the framework of numerical statistics, and the other in the framework of machine learning. I) Historically our understanding of the structure of the atomic nucleus, the quantum many-body problem, has been …

Cross-Section Measurement Of Virtual Photoproduction Of Iso-Triplet Three-Body Hypernucleus, ⋀Nn, T. Gogami, K. N. Suzuki, B. Pandey, K. Itabashi, S. Nagao, K. Okuyama, S. N. Nakamura, L. Tang, D. Abrams, T. Akiyama, D. Androic, K. Aniol, C. Ayerbe Gayoso, J. Bane, S. Barcus, J. Barrow, V. Bellini, H. Bhatt, D. Bhetuwal, D. Biswas, A. Camsonne, J. Castellanos, J-P. Chen, J. Chen, S. Covrig, D. Chrisman, R. Cruz-Torres, R. Das, E. Fuchey, K. Gnanvo, F. Garibaldi, T. Gautam, J. Gomez, P. Gueye, T.J. Hague, O. Hansen, W. Henry, F. Hauenstein, D. W. Higinbotham, C. E. Hyde, M. Kaneta, C. Keppel, T. Kutz, N. Lashley-Colthirst, S. Li, H. Liu, J. Mammei, P. Markowitz, R. E. Mcclellan, F. Meddi, D. Meekins, R. Michaels, M. Mihovilovic, A. Moyer, D. Nguyen, M. Nycz, V. Owen, C. Palatchi, S. Park, T. Petkovic, S. Premathilake, P.E. Reimer, J. Reinhold, S. Riordan, V. Rodriguez, C. Samanta, S. N. Santiesteban, B. Sawatzky, S. Širca, K. Slifer, T. Su, Y. Tian, Y. Toyama, K. Uehara, G. M. Urciuoli, D. Votaw, J. Williamson, B. Wojtsekhowski, S. A. Wood, B. Yale, Z. Ye, J. Zhang, X. Zheng

Physics Faculty Publications

Missing-mass spectroscopy with the ³H(e, e′K⁺) reaction was carried out at Jefferson Lab’s (JLab) Hall A in Oct–Nov, 2018. The differential cross section for the ³H(γ^∗, K⁺)Λnn was deduced at ω = Ee − E_e′ = 2.102 GeV and at the forward K⁺-scattering angle (0^° ≤ θ_γ∗K ≤ 5^°) in the laboratory frame. Given typical predicted energies and decay widths, which are (B_Λ, Γ) = (−0.25, 0.8) and (−0.55, 4.7) MeV, the cross sections were found …

Particle Swarm Optimization For Critical Experiment Design, Cole Michael Kostelac

Masters Theses

“Critical experiments are used by nuclear data evaluators and criticality safety engineers to validate nuclear data and computational methods. Many of these experiments are designed to maximize the sensitivity to a certain nuclide-reaction pair in an energy range of interest. Traditionally, a parameter sweep is conducted over a set of experimental variables to find a configuration that is critical and maximally sensitive. As additional variables are added, the total number of configurations increases exponentially and quickly becomes prohibitively computationally expensive to calculate, especially using Monte Carlo methods.

This work presents the development of a particle swarm optimization algorithm to design …

The Cross-Section Measurement For The 3H (E, E', K+) Nnλ Reaction, K. N. Suzuki, T. Gogami, B. Pandey, Florian Hauenstein, Charles E. Hyde, Z. Ye, J. Zhang, X. Zheng, Et Al.

Physics Faculty Publications

The small binding energy of the hypertriton leads to predictions of the non-existence of bound hypernuclei for isotriplet three-body systems such as nnΛ. However, invariant mass spectroscopy at GSI has reported events that may be interpreted as the bound nnΛ state. The nnΛ state was sought by missing-mass spectroscopy via the (e, e′K+) reaction at Jefferson Lab’s experimental Hall A. The present experiment has higher sensitivity to the nnΛ-state investigation in terms of better precision by a factor of about three. The analysis shown in this article focuses on the derivation of the reaction cross-section for …

Cosmogenically-Induced Backgrounds In Legend, Clay Douglas Barton

Dissertations and Theses

Neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) is a hypothetical nuclear decay mode. 0νββ searches are a high priority in nuclear physics. Discovery would ascertain the nature of the neutrino as the first known fundamental Majorana particle, and have far-reaching implications for physics beyond the Standard Model, including a lower bound on the effective neutrino mass scale, first direct evidence of a lepton number violating process, and insight into the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. The next-generation LEGEND (Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutrinoless ββ Decay) project will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge. LEGEND builds on infrastructure and technical expertise of …

Verification Of Electron Beam Production For Radiation Dosimetry Experimentation, Henri J. Lemieux

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Radiation is a natural phenomenon in which energy is emitted in the form of waves or particles through a given medium. Radiation dosimetry is the method of analyzing and assessing this deposited emitted energy. How this emitted energy effects a given object when deposited has been a topic of interest in the fields of science and medicine. In this paper, a novel method is proposed for the verification of electrons in air and determining their delivered dose rate. Using a linear accelerator which had its polarity flipped from producing positive ions to producing electrons, work to verify the production of …

Deep Learning Based Superconducting Radio-Frequency Cavity Fault Classification At Jefferson Laboratory, Lasitha Vidyaratne, Adam Carpenter, Tom Powers, Chris Tennant, Khan M. Iftekharuddin, Md. Monibor Rahman, Anna S. Shabalina

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This work investigates the efficacy of deep learning (DL) for classifying C100 superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavity faults in the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab. CEBAF is a large, high-power continuous wave recirculating linac that utilizes 418 SRF cavities to accelerate electrons up to 12 GeV. Recent upgrades to CEBAF include installation of 11 new cryomodules (88 cavities) equipped with a low-level RF system that records RF time-series data from each cavity at the onset of an RF failure. Typically, subject matter experts (SME) analyze this data to determine the fault type and identify the cavity of …

New Measurements Of The Beam-Normal Single Spin Asymmetry In Elastic Electron Scattering Over A Range Of Spin-0 Nuclei, Prex And Crex Collaborations, D. Adhikari, H. Albataineh, D. Androic, F. Hauenstein, M.N.H. Rashad, W. Zhang, J. Zhang, X. Zheng, Et Al.

Physics Faculty Publications

We report precision determinations of the beam-normal single spin asymmetries (A_n) in the elastic scattering of 0.95 and 2.18 GeV electrons off ¹²C, ⁴⁰Ca, ⁴⁸Ca, and ²⁰⁸Pb at very forward angles where the most detailed theoretical calculations have been performed. The first measurements of A_n for ⁴⁰Ca and ⁴⁸Ca are found to be similar to that of ¹²C, consistent with expectations and thus demonstrating the validity of theoretical calculations for nuclei with Z ≤ 20. We also report A_n for ²⁰⁸Pb at two …

Searching For An Enhanced Signal Of The Onset Of Color Transparency In Baryons With D(E,E′P)N Scattering, Shujie Li, Carlos Yero, Jennifer Rittenhouse West, Clare Bennett, Wim Cosyn, Douglas Higinbotham, Misak Sargsian, Holly Szumila-Vance

Physics Faculty Publications

Observation of the onset of color transparency in baryons would provide a new means of studying the nuclear strong force and would be the first clear evidence of baryons transforming into a color-neutral point-like size in the nucleus as predicted by quantum chromodynamics. Recent C (e, e′p) results from electron-scattering did not observe the onset of color transparency (CT) in protons up to spacelike four-momentum transfers squared, Q² = 14.2 GeV ² . The traditional methods of searching for CT in (e, e′p) scattering use heavy targets favoring kinematics with already initially reduced final state interactions (FSIs) such that …

Neutrino Energy Reconstruction From Semi-Inclusive Samples, R. González-Jiménez, M. B. Barbaro, J. A. Caballero, T. W. Donnelly, N. Jachowicz, G.D. Megias, K. Niewczas, A. Nikolakopoulos, J.W. Van Orden, J. M. Udías

Physics Faculty Publications

We study neutrino-nucleus charged-current reactions on finite nuclei for the situation in which an outgoing muon and a proton are detected in coincidence; i.e., we focus on semi-inclusive cross sections. We limit our attention to one-body current interactions (quasielastic scattering) and assess the impact of different nuclear effects in the determination of the neutrino energy. We identify the regions in phase space where the neutrino energy can be reconstructed relatively well and study whether the cross section in those regions is significant. Our results indicate that it is possible to filter more than 50% of all events according to the …

X17 Boson And The ³H(P, E⁺E⁻) ⁴He And ³He(N,E⁺E⁻) ⁴He Processes: A Theoretical Analysis, M. Viviani, E. Filandri, C. Gustavino, A. Kievsky, L. E. Marcucci, Rocco Schiavilla

Physics Faculty Publications

The present work deals with e⁺−e⁻ pair production in the four-nucleon system. We first analyze the process as a purely electromagnetic one in the context of a state-of-the-art approach to nuclear strong-interaction dynamics and nuclear electromagnetic currents, derived from chiral effective field theory (χEFT). Next, we examine how the exchange of a hypothetical low-mass boson would impact the cross section for such a process. We consider several possibilities, that this boson is either a scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, or axial particle. The ab initio calculations use exact hyperspherical-harmonics methods to describe the bound state and low-energy spectrum of …

Polarized Structure Function ΣLt' From 𝜋⁰P Electroproduction Data In The Resonance Region At 0.2 Gev² < Q² < 1.0 Gev², E. L. Isupov, V. D. Burkert, A. A. Golubenko, K. Joo, N. S. Markov, V. I. Mokeev, L. C. Smith, N. Zachariou, W. R. Armstrong, H. Atac, Et Al

Physics Faculty Publications

The first results on the σ_LT′ structure function in exclusive π⁰p electroproduction at invariant masses of the final state of 1.5GeV < W < 1.8 GeV and in the range of photon virtualities 0.4 GeV² < Q² < 1.0 GeV² were obtained from data on beam spin asymmetries and differential cross sections measured with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. The Legendre moments determined from the σ_LT′ structure function have demonstrated sensitivity to the contributions from the nucleon resonances in the second and third resonance regions. These new data on the beam spin asymmetries in π⁰p electroproduction extend the opportunities for the extraction of the nucleon resonance electro-excitation amplitudes in …