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Physics

Kennesaw State University

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Art As A Tool In Quantum Mechanics, Zachary Vealey Oct 2016

Art As A Tool In Quantum Mechanics, Zachary Vealey

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

Revolutions in scientific thought often have substantial societal consequences, however, cultural assimilation of the new idea is contingent on a widespread understanding. Historically recent developments in modern physics, such as quantum mechanics and general relativity, suffer from their notoriously perceived difficulty, thus hindering cultural assimilation. To address this issue, art can serve as a useful complement to a student studying quantum mechanics - especially through its interpretation of delocalized electron density. A cross-disciplinary approach affords a greater diversity in participation and consequently results in a broader scientific outreach.

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Models Of Time Travel And Their Consequences, Antonio M. Mantica Jun 2015

Models Of Time Travel And Their Consequences, Antonio M. Mantica

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

How do we travel through time? We know that we can move forward in it (we have no choice), but can we jump forward in time? Can we go backward in time? It also gives rise to other troubling questions: is time measurable in distinct increments, or does it flow continuously? In "Models of Time Travel and their Consequences," Antonio Mantica walks the reader through current understandings of how time functions in Einstein's universe and proposes three distinct models to explain it. Following that, he provides a list of experiments to credit or discredit the models. Appropriate for audiences of …

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Shadows In Time: A Study Of Temporal Metaphysics Through Hard Science Fiction And Its Restrictions On The Past And Future, Lindsey E. Mitchell Aug 2013

Shadows In Time: A Study Of Temporal Metaphysics Through Hard Science Fiction And Its Restrictions On The Past And Future, Lindsey E. Mitchell

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

Through a series of essays, this body of work explores the varying theories concerning the nature of time and how each theory affects the possibility and outcome of time travel. Following these essays, a collection of short stories focuses on what the author considers the most probable theories concerning time and expands on how they might affect a time traveler's decisions and fate.

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An Item Response Curves Analysis Of The Force Concept Inventory, Gary A. Morris, Nathan Harshman, Lee Branum-Martin, Eric Mazur, Taha Mzoughi, Stephen D. Baker Sep 2012

An Item Response Curves Analysis Of The Force Concept Inventory, Gary A. Morris, Nathan Harshman, Lee Branum-Martin, Eric Mazur, Taha Mzoughi, Stephen D. Baker

Faculty and Research Publications

Several years ago, we introduced the idea of item response curves (IRC), a simplistic form of item response theory (IRT), to the physics education research community as a way to examine item performance on diagnostic instruments such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). We noted that a full-blown analysis using IRT would be a next logical step, which several authors have since taken. In this paper, we show that our simple approach not only yields similar conclusions in the analysis of the performance of items on the FCI to the more sophisticated and complex IRT analyses but also permits additional …

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Pre-Service Physics Teachers And Physics Education Research, David Rosengrant Oct 2010

Pre-Service Physics Teachers And Physics Education Research, David Rosengrant

Faculty and Research Publications

Training pre-service teachers requires, among other things, content knowledge, pedagogical skills and pedagogical content knowledge. Teacher preparation programs have little, if any spare time to add more courses/activities to their program. However, I argue in this paper that we, as educators, must enhance the amount of physics education research in our pre-service physics teacher training programs. In this study, I analyze the results of two different types of exposure to physics education research (PER) from two different groups of pre-service physics teachers in our masters of arts and teaching program. The preliminary results show, for example that the PER helped …

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Two-Loop Soft Anomalous Dimensions For Single Top Quark Associated Production With A W- Or H-, Nikolaos Kidonakis Sep 2010

Two-Loop Soft Anomalous Dimensions For Single Top Quark Associated Production With A W- Or H-, Nikolaos Kidonakis

Faculty and Research Publications

I present results for the two-loop soft anomalous dimensions for associated production of a single top quark with a W boson or a charged Higgs boson. The calculation uses expressions for the massive cusp anomalous dimension, which are presented in different forms, and it allows soft-gluon resummation at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm (NNLL) accuracy. From the NNLL resummed cross section I derive approximate NNLO cross sections for bg→tW- and bg→tH- at LHC energies of 7, 10, and 14 TeV.

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Comparing Experts And Novices In Solving Electrical Circuit Problems With The Help Of Eye-Tracking, David Rosengrant, Colin Thomson, Taha Mzoughi Nov 2009

Comparing Experts And Novices In Solving Electrical Circuit Problems With The Help Of Eye-Tracking, David Rosengrant, Colin Thomson, Taha Mzoughi

Faculty and Research Publications

In order to help introductory physics students understand and learn to solve problems with circuits, we must first understand how they differ from experts. This preliminary study focuses on problem-solving dealing with electrical circuits. We investigate difficulties novices have with circuits and compare their work with those of experts. We incorporate the use of an eye-tracker to investigate any possible differences or similarities on how experts and novices solve electrical circuit problems. Our results show similarities in gaze patterns among all subjects on the components of the circuit. We further found that experts would look back at the circuit while …

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Two-Loop Soft Anomalous Dimensions And Next-To-Next-To-Leading-Logarithm Resummation For Heavy Quark Production, Nikolaos Kidonakis Jun 2009

Two-Loop Soft Anomalous Dimensions And Next-To-Next-To-Leading-Logarithm Resummation For Heavy Quark Production, Nikolaos Kidonakis

Faculty and Research Publications

I present results for two-loop soft anomalous dimensions for heavy quark production which control soft-gluon resummation at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm accuracy. I derive an explicit expression for the exact result and study it numerically for top quark production via e(+) e(-) -> t (t) over bar t, and I construct a surprisingly simple but very accurate approximation. I show that the two-loop soft anomalous dimensions with massive quarks display a simple proportionality relation to the one-loop result only in the limit of vanishing quark mass. I also discuss the extension of the calculation to single top and top pair production in hadron …

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Theoretical Top Quark Cross Section At The Fermilab Tevatron And The Cern Lhc, Nikolaos Kidonakis, Ramona Vogt Oct 2008

Theoretical Top Quark Cross Section At The Fermilab Tevatron And The Cern Lhc, Nikolaos Kidonakis, Ramona Vogt

Faculty and Research Publications

We present results for the top quark pair cross section at the Tevatron and the LHC. We use the resummed double differential cross section, employing the fully kinematics-dependent soft-anomalous-dimension matrices, to calculate the soft-gluon contributions at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). We improve and update our previous estimates by refining our methods, including further subleading terms, and employing the most recent parton distribution function sets. The NNLO soft corrections significantly enhance the NLO cross section while considerably reducing the scale dependence. We provide a detailed discussion of all theoretical uncertainties in our calculation, including kinematics, scale, and parton distribution uncertainties, and clarify …

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Soft And Collinear Enhancements To Top Quark And Higgs Cross Sections, Nikolaos Kidonakis Jul 2008

Soft And Collinear Enhancements To Top Quark And Higgs Cross Sections, Nikolaos Kidonakis

Faculty and Research Publications

I present calculations of soft and collinear corrections to the cross-sections for single top quark production, and for Higgs production via bb H at the Tevatron and the LHC. I show that the corrections provide significant enhancements to the cross-sections in both cases. For single top production the soft gluon corrections dominate the cross-section, particularly in the s-channel and in tW production. For Higgs production it is shown that purely collinear terms have to be included as well to provide an accurate calculation.

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Engaging Physics Students Using Environmental Lab Modules, John M. Pratte May 2006

Engaging Physics Students Using Environmental Lab Modules, John M. Pratte

Faculty and Research Publications

Discusses multi-week activity modules that use civic engagement to increase student interest and learning in physics. Components of the modules; Activities included in the modules; Assessment of student learning and interest using the modules.

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