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Strategies For Large Dynamic Range, Entanglement-Enhanced Quantum Metrology With Experimentally Demonstrated Resources, Tyler G. Thurtell

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Quantum metrology studies the use of quantum mechanical systems as measurement devices or sensors. Surprisingly, preparing a sensor in an entangled state can enhance measurement precision. The simplest protocols for entanglement enhancement sense only small changes in a quantity. The range of values over which a measurement protocol works is called its dynamic range. For many types of sensors we require end-to-end protocols that describe how to use entanglement to achieve enhanced precision over a large dynamic range. In this dissertation, we describe two approaches to achieving entanglement-enhanced sensing over a large dynamic range. The first approach uses entangling resources …

Quantum Control Of Qubits And Qudits In Neutral Atom Systems, Sri Datta Vikas Buchemmavari

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

This dissertation explores control of neutral atom quantum systems across multiple levels of abstraction, from atomic physics to system-level fault tolerance, using optimal control to improve performance. First, we propose a Rydberg entangling gate based on dressing with only the qubit control field; an interaction energy near the Rabi frequency benefits both gate speed and Rydberg decay. Second, with Sandia National Laboratories, we show that leakage errors in neutral atom systems can be converted to atom loss errors and detected using two entangling gates with an auxiliary atom, where a SWAP-based leakage detection unit outperforms the standard design. Next, we …

Naturalistic Aided Language Intervention For Children Who Have Multiple Disabilities Including Visual Impairment, Naomi Nattress

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

ABSTRACT

This dissertation examined aided AAC interventions for individuals with multiple disabilities, including visual impairment, across three original studies. Chapter 2, a meta-analysis, found limited rigorous research for this population while showing that individuals at early symbolic stages with diverse visual profiles can successfully engage with AAC when appropriate adaptations are provided. The pilot study in Chapter 3 indicated that caregivers and graduate student clinicians can learn and implement naturalistic AAC techniques and VI accommodations with high fidelity through structured coaching. The mixed methods study in Chapter 4 introduced the ImPAACT-VI program, showing strong outcomes in educator performance, students’ symbolic …

Understanding The Long-Run Effect Of Historical Redlining Practices, Yujian Lu

Geography ETDs

Historical redlining practices initiated by Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s have produced enduring persistent socioeconomic and environmental disparities in U.S. cities. This dissertation examines their long-term impacts on social vulnerability, urban flood risk, along with public discourse about redlining practices. Results indicate that neighborhoods with HOLC grade A (greenlined) exhibit the lowest overall social vulnerability, while those graded D (redlined) face the highest across U.S. cities. In Chicago, associations between redlining practices and flood risk disparities are stronger than in Los Angeles, reflecting place-specific characteristics among environmental, socioeconomic, and demographic factors shaping flood risk disparities in long …

How Forest Structure And Climate Influence Snowpack For Water Resources In The Southwestern United States, Lindsey L. Rotche

Geography ETDs

Climate change, declining snowpack, and increasing wildfire risk have profound impacts on water availability in the southwestern United States. Because the southwestern United States is a global hotspot for freshwater vulnerability, and snowpack provides much of the region’s freshwater, understanding how climate and forest structure influence snowpack dynamics is increasingly important. In this dissertation I aim to better understand and communicate these dynamics through empirical data collection and the development of a simple vegetation driven temperature-index snow model: SNOW-17(VEG). I then implement the model at a watershed scale using remotely sensed imagery to create vegetation zones and climate simulations to …

Reading The Martian Surface: Impact Crater Distributions And Geochemical Signatures In Gale Crater As Recorded By The Curiosity Rover, Megan E. Hoffman

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Curiosity rover has been exploring Gale crater, a large impact basin near the Mars equator since 2012. This mission has greatly improved our ability to explore the surface of Mars with a suite of geologic tools and cameras and has revealed that Mars likely once resembled present-day Earth. In this dissertation, I utilize measurements and data taken by Curiosity to analyze the distribution and preservation of small impact craters at meter scales, I quantify the formation characteristics of a small impact crater cluster, and I examine the presence of barium in a geologic unit with high-Si to constrain sediment …

Pebble Accretion: Compositions And Water Origins Of Terrestrial Planets, Susmita Garai

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Two leading models of planet formation invoke either stochastic collisions among km-sized planetesimals, or pebble accretion of sub-mm-cm solids regulated by gas drag. While collision based models typically require tens to hundreds of millions of years to assemble terrestrial planets, pebble accretion can produce Mars to Jupiter-mass bodies within the lifetime of the protoplanetary disk. Although widely accepted for the rapid growth of giant planet cores, the role of pebble accretion in forming terrestrial planets, including Earth, remains debated. Here, we investigate the consequences of pebble accretion for Earth’s origin. Here, I combine numerical models and laboratory experiments to find …

Helmholtz Reciprocity In Bidirectional Y-Junction Couplers, Hosuk Lee

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

This thesis explores the light propagation characteristics in Y-junction couplers based on the Helmholtz reciprocity principle. The Helmholtz reciprocity principle is a crucial concept in optical system design, and it has primarily been understood based on input-output symmetry. However, this study emphasizes reciprocity needs to consider the entire system, beyond the traditional input-output symmetry reciprocity interpretation. For this study, we specifically examined the direction-dependent asymmetrical outputs, in the Whistle-geometry Ring Laser (WRL) structure. And the WRL results cannot be fully explained by simple input-output symmetry for reciprocity. The Y-junction coupler in the WRL structure makes different output characteristics based on …

Algorithmic Sculpting Of Complex Fused Silica Surfaces For Nondestructive, Mode-Matched Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics: Adaptive Co2 Milling And Simulation-Guided Ultrafast Inscription, From Fiber Fabry-Perot Cavities To Monolithic Architectures, Meagan E. Parker

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Quantum sensors achieve exceptional measurement sensitivity through coherent, well-isolated quantum systems, but practical deployment is hindered by destructive readouts that require repeated state preparation and create long system dead times. Optical cavities enable continuous, nondestructive measurements with minimal back-action, yet integrating high-finesse cavities into scalable quantum devices remains limited by existing fabrication methods. To overcome these constraints, an adaptive CO₂ laser-milling platform was developed. Guided by glass thermodynamics and melt dynamics, this closed-loop system uses in-situ phase-shifting interferometry to sculpt complex fused-silica surfaces with sub-nanometer root-mean-square roughness. The platform was validated by fabricating extended-length fiber Fabry–Pérot cavities and monolithic micro-cavity …

Non-Traditional Rare-Earth-Doped Oxide Glass As A Gain Medium, Jared S. Tolliver

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

There is a need for mid-infrared(MIR) lasers in defense, medical, and environmental monitoring. A large part of this technological development is the study of gain media. One class of materials of special interest is glasses with a low maximum phonon energy. These have the fiberization and broad spectral features of glass, whereas glasses with high maximum phonon energy exhibit higher rates of multi-phonon relaxation and can be opaque in the MIR, both of which are detrimental to laser operation. Recent advances in container-less processing have allowed for the study of new glasses that aren’t possible with conventional fabrication techniques. One …

Keeping Communities Safe Through An Alternative First Response Model: Predictors Of Civilian First Responders’ Self-Efficacy In Handling Crisis Situations, Jasmine Desiderio

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The expansion of civilian alternative first responder models reflects a national shift toward community-based approaches to crisis intervention. Grounded in Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, this study examined the extent to which demographic characteristics are associated with crisis self-efficacy, explored how perceptions of the responder role relate to confidence, and identified supports necessary for effective crisis response. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed with civilian first responders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Quantitative data were collected with the Crisis Self-Efficacy Scale, and semi-structured interviews gathered qualitative data. Exploratory regression analyses (n=31) were not reliably associated with crisis self-efficacy, while role …

Transforming Faculty Development: Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Arts-Based Design, And Communities Of Transformation In Stem Education, Kristen L. Ferris

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

This dissertation investigates the relational conditions enabling institutional transformation and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) within STEM higher education. Despite needs for systemic change, sustaining faculty engagement remains difficult due to entrenched power dynamics, lack of pedagogical training, and political repression. To address these barriers this research introduces Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB) as an analytic lens and functional infrastructure for change.

Through three papers, this study 1) establishes OCB via a systemic literature review as an actionable metric for faculty development; 2) details the design of a cross-institutional Community of Transformation (CoT) as a design case; and 3) Presents …

3d Electromagnetic Simulations Of A 1.6 Cell S-Band Photoinjector: Emittance Studies For Electron Microscopy, Trudy Bolin

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Modern beam-based materials research demands electron sources with increasingly precise time resolution, high brightness, and stability. For example, there are various instruments across the U.S. dedicated to ultrafast electron diffraction (UED), but fewer are dedicated to ultrafast electron microscopy (UEM), which demands beam stability. Modeling femtosecond electron bunches with ultra-low emittance < 50 nm-rad inside a 1.6-cell S-band (2856 MHz) rf photoinjector with full 3D electromagnetic simulations can require high-performance computing (HPC) environments due to the scale disparity between the macroscopic cavity geometry and the femtosecond-scale bunch kinematics. To enable optimization in a desktop computing environment, this work presents a streamlined 3D electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation framework optimized for 400-femtosecond bunch regimes. The covariance method was employed to study emittance properties for electron bunch counts ranging from thousands to millions and has successfully resolved highly transient, pure rf phase-space rotations, such as a localized energy-spread minimum occurring at the gun exit iris. To overcome the computational cost of these simulations, a machine-learning-based Bayesian optimization approach was deployed to construct multi-objective Pareto fronts from sparse datasets. Because the simulation software is scalable from desktop to HPC facilities, the framework is ready for experiments at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

Real-Time Waveform Synthesis For Rfsoc-Based Quantum Control Systems, Tiamike I. Dudley

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

RFSoCs are gaining adoption in many labs for quantum control systems thanks to their compactness and affordability. Making full use of the many components on an RFSoC evaluation board is a challenging engineering problem that must be solved to realize scalable control systems. In this dissertation, I evaluate the performance of various RFSoC components in the context of quantum information science. I present two custom FPGA engines that accelerate and parallelize arbitrary waveform generation. The first engine can be instantiated many times to power low-speed DACs for ion-shuttling trap electrodes. The second engine synthesizes CPMG-XY8n dynamical decoupling pulse sequences on …

Modeling For You: A Personalized Approach To Residential Energy Simulation And Distributional Reinforcement Learning, Nestor Gabriel Pereira

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The growing complexity and uncertainty of residential energy use, driven by electric

vehicles and renewable technologies, demand more intelligent and robust

management systems. Traditional methods often fail when faced with unpredictable

electricity prices and user behavior. This dissertation addresses this gap by presenting

a novel personalized framework combining detailed household energy modeling with

a risk-aware reinforcement learning agent for appliance scheduling.

The first contribution is a probabilistic, bottom-up simulation model that captures

the interdependent behaviors of occupants, appliances, and electric vehicles to

generate realistic, high-fidelity load profiles. The second contribution is a lightweight,

tabular Distributional Q-Learning (D-QL) algorithm that schedules …

Measurements And Studies For Rare Event Searches Using Directional Detectors, Elizabeth Tilly

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Measuring topology and initial direction of low-energy (keV-MeV) particle tracks is interesting to rare-event searches. While directional dark matter searches have been one of the largest drivers for R&D for low-energy directional detectors, this work is interested in its application to Migdal searches. The Migdal effect—a nuclear recoil and an electron recoil sharing a vertex—has been used as a detection channel for low-mass dark matter but has only recently been measured. Low-energy directional detectors are ideal to measure the canonic Migdal topology. This dissertation discusses 3D reconstruction algorithms developed for the Migdal In Galactic Dark mAtter expLoration (MIGDAL) experiment and …

Exploring The Role Of A Mushy, Crustal Compliant Region In Volcano Deformation, Grant A. Block

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Volcanoes are both creative and destructive forces that have shaped and continue to shape our world from early geologic time to the present day. Continued study of volcanic processes not only better prepares us for monitoring volcanic hazards but also allows us to better understand processes fundamental to Earth as we know it, such as the generation of the atmosphere and accretion of the continents. This dissertation focuses on an integral part of volcanic processes: the trans-crustal magmatic transport system. Specifically, we investigate regions of these transport systems where magma pools in melt-rich lenses within broader regions of low melt-fraction, …

Enhanced Computational Modeling Of Photoionization And Streamer Formation, Anahita Alibalazadeh

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Photoionization is a key mechanism governing the formation and propagation of streamer discharges in air by generating electron-ion pairs ahead of the streamer front. Accurate and computationally efficient modeling of this non-local process is essential for reliable plasma simulations. However, the widely used Zheleznyak photoionization model relies on empirical assumptions and requires computationally expensive domain-wide integration.

This dissertation advances photoionization modeling in three ways. First, the classical integral model is enhanced by incorporating experimentally measured vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) emission spectra together with photoabsorption and photoionization cross-section data, enabling direct calculation of the photoionization source term as a function of pressure …

A Significant Moment In The Colorado River Water Supply Crisis, Jack Schmidt, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, Katherine Tara

The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River

On Sunday, July 12, the surface of Lake Powell was 3524.32 feet above sea level, and the surface of Lake Mead was at 1042.77 ft.7 These elevations equated to 5,505,869 and 7,169,640 acre feet (af), respectively, of live storage in the two reservoirs. The combined total live storage of these reservoirs was 12,675,509 af. The last time the combined total live storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead was this small was May 23, 1957, during construction of Glen Canyon Dam when the entire amount of 12,668,000 af was stored in Lake Mead.

Systematic Errors In Judging The Performance Of Others, Michael J. Benson

Psychology ETDs

The well-documented tendency of people to be poor estimators of their relative abilities can be problematic in real life. These errors in are highly asymmetric: the worst performers dramatically overestimate their relative ability, whereas the best performers underestimate theirs (Kruger & Dunning, 1999). There are two possible causes of this misjudgment of relative ability: 1) participants are poor estimators of their own performance, or 2) participants are poor estimators of the comparison group’s performance. Kruger and Dunning (1999) attributed overestimation in the worst performers to the former problem but attributed the underestimation in the best performers to the latter problem. …

Internal Neutrosophic Spiral Dynamics: Connecting Human Neutrosophic Evolution With The Law Of Internal Breakdown Of Dynamic Systems, Florentin Smarandache, Andrusa R. Vatuiu

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

An Approach To Bilevel Multi-Objective Linear Fractional Probabilistic Optimization In Neutrosophic Environments With Applications, Agegnehu Tesfaye Janka, Demmelash Mollalign Moges, Berhanu Guta Wordofa

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Neutrosemigroups Generated By Upside-Down Logic, Aykut Emniyet, Memet S¸Ahin

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

The Domain Of A Neutrosophic Metric Spaces Of Tribonacci Matrix Defined By Triple Sequence Spaces, Kavipriya Arumugam, Srikanth Raghavendran, Subramanian Nagarajan

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Neutrosophic Estimation Of Population Variance Using Two Auxiliary Variables In Simple Random Sampling, Anoop Kumar, Priya Priya, Vrijesh Tripathi, Ravinder Singh

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Neutrosophic Temperaments And Personality Evolution: A Conceptual Framework Of Evolution, Indeterminacy And Involution, Akbar Jadidi Mohammadabadi, Akbar Rezaei, Florentin Smarandache

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Neutrosophic N-Structures On Sheffer Stroke Bg-Algebras, Tahsin Oner, Neelamegarajan Rajesh, Akbar Rezaei, Ibrahim Senturk

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

A Customer-Driven Supplier Evaluation Model Under Indeterminacy For Customizated Production, Çağrı Kuram, Özge Nalan Bi̇li̇şi̇k

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

A Linguistic Neutrosophic Topsis Framework For Sustainable Biomass Composite Selection, Kathirvel Ayyaswamy, Rajendra Thilahar Chelladurai, Gobinath Vellapalayam Manoharan

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Foundations Of Neutrosophic N-Semirings Theory And Structural Properties, Raja Muhammad Hashim, Muhammad Gulistan, Muhammad Shahzad

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.