Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

True Random Number Generators, Jade Geng

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Quantum Random Number Generators(QRNGs), or True Random Number Generators, generate random numbers based on naturally unpredictable(or hard-to-predict) sources. Their unpredictability results in a broad application in cryptography and technology. Their sources range from nuclear decay gamma rays to cosmic rays, then to quantum optics. This thesis aims to explore various randomness sources and compare their efficiency by running a series of randomness tests. The specific setup for each random number generator will also be presented.

Acceptable Title Pending: Probing The Limits Of Precision Measurement And Academic Assessment, Bobby King

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This is a project in two parts. The first is an attempt to impart onto the reader the necessary mental models required to understand a scientific experiment related to the improvement of gravitational wave detectors. Part one is illustrated in collaboration with Simone River Wilding, Sohpie Foley, Roma Taitwood, and Cam Goldberg.

Part two is a technical description of efforts made to reduce speckle in measurements of scattered light. Gravitational wave detection requires extremely high precision measurement, and one source of noise in the detectors is scattering off of defects and surface roughness in optical coatings. Research into the development …

Sustainable Energy Imaginaries: Utilizing Mie Optics To Reengineer Photobioreactors And Reimagine The Socio-Spatial Conditions Of Autonomous Energy Production, Spencer Morgan Checkoway

Senior Projects Spring 2022

In order to build a more sustainable future, society must transition toward carbon negative energy production and infrastructure. Algae photobioreactors have proven to be an efficient producer of lipid rich oil which can be synthesized into carbon neutral biodiesel. However, the neutrality of such a technology rests in its ability to yield adequate algal biomass through photosynthesis. In order to reach maximum quantum efficiency of algal cells, solar flux must be transformed so that photon absorption can occur without oversaturating the constituent matter. This project looks at the scattering effects of iridocyte-like structures and their potential to create cost effective …

A Tale Of Two Lakes: An Analysis Of Lake Optics And Their Effects On Turbulence, Guillermo Rode Viesca

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This paper aims to analyze and compare the optic properties which regulate turbulence in Lake Lacawac and Lake Giles and how these conditions change as the lakes warm and darken. Lake Giles and Lake Lacawac are both strongly stratified and have very differ- ent compositions and sizes. Despite their differences, Lake Giles is evolving to resemble Lacawac’s structure and behavior. After analyzing how our two subject lakes change in response to warming and darkening, we asses what such changes are likely to follow in a whole range of lakes represented by Lacawac and Giles in terms of composition and inner …

The Complex Propagation Of Light Explained Visually: How To Make A Hologram, Bruno Ray Becher

Senior Projects Spring 2021

The complexity of light’s wave nature is shown in the paths that light takes. In this project I will show several useful ways to imagine and predict how light will travel from one place to another. Once light is produced it does not immediately fill a room, instead it undulates through free space as if the space itself was a fluid. Once we understand the way light flows and interacts with its environment not only can we predict and control its shape with a hologram, but also discover clues which give secrets about where the light has been. Telescopes and …

Production Of Entangled Photons Via Spontaneous Parametric Down-Conversion, Logan P. Kaelbling

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Quantum entanglement, a phenomenon in which the behavior of one particle is somehow immediately correlated with and informed by what is happening to a partner particle a long distance away, has been a pivotal part of the formulation of quantum theory as we know it today and is currently generating many promising avenues of research. As such, finding ways to reliably and inexpensively generate systems of entangled particles for research purposes has become crucial. For my project, I attempt to set up a system that generates energy- and polarization-entangled photons via a technique called spontaneous parametric down conversion. This method …

An Echo Of Light, Anaka Marie Wetch

Senior Projects Spring 2020

My senior project film an Echo of Light is an experimental 16mm film exploring light as both a metaphysical and physical process. I became interested in light during my studies in holography, which is a medium revolving around the interference of light. I studied holography independently and with the guidance of professionals in the field. My holographic work is oriented around the natural world and its micro-constituents. I examined and photographed substances, such as salt, pyrite, and quartz with the scanning electron microscope at Bard. These materials have striking crystalline geometry which I intend to explore through the light dependent …

Opticks:, Fyodor Andreievich Shiryaev

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Constructing The Quantum Steering Ellipsoid Using State Measurement Of Biphotons, Carter Vanderbilt

Senior Projects Spring 2015

This paper investigates a recently discovered geometric representation of two-qubit states, the Quantum Steering Ellipsoid, by exploring quantum state measurements on mixtures of polarization-entangled photons produced using spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC). Measurements of the second photon of a mixed biphoton system that are conditioned on observations of the first photon demonstrate all possible Bloch Vectors that the second photon can be collapsed to by way of ''steering,'' which is only possible due to the nonlocal nature of entangled systems. This paper examines methods to experimentally verify the Quantum Steering Ellipsoid as a geometric classification of quantum states.