Physics Commons^™

Design And Optimization Of Four-Dimensional Cone-Beam Computed To Mography In Image-Guided Radiation Therapy, Moiz Ahmad

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The influence of respiratory motion on patient anatomy poses a challenge to accurate radiation therapy, especially in lung cancer treatment. Modern radiation therapy planning uses models of tumor respiratory motion to account for target motion in targeting. The tumor motion model can be verified on a per-treatment session basis with four-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography (4D-CBCT), which acquires an image set of the dynamic target throughout the respiratory cycle during the therapy session. 4D-CBCT is undersampled if the scan time is too short. However, short scan time is desirable in clinical practice to reduce patient setup time. This dissertation presents the …

Evaluation Of Polymer Gel Dosimeters For Measurements Of Dose And Let In Proton Beams, Kevin M. Vredevoogd

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

This project assessed the effectiveness of polymer gel dosimeters as tools for measuring the dose deposited by and LET of a proton beam. A total of three BANG® dosimeter formulations were evaluated: BANG®-3-Pro-2 BANGkits™ for dose measurement and two BANG®-3 variants, the LET-Baseline and LET-Meter dosimeters, for LET measurement. All dosimeters were read out using an OCT scanner. The basic characteristics of the BANGkits™ were assessed in a series of photon and electron irradiations. The dose-response relationship was found to be sigmoidal with a threshold for response of approximately 15 cGy. The active region of the dosimeter, the volume in …

Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources In Andromeda Galaxy: Two Recent Discoveries And Their Implications, Amanpreet Kaur

All Theses

Ultraluminous X-ray sources are believed to be associated with X-ray binaries, in which an accreting black hole generates X-ray luminosities in excess of 10 39 erg/s. The nature of the companion star and the underlying physics of the accretion process is not yet established with certainty. In particular, whether or not the accretion is super/sub Eddington is an open question, as is the mass of the companion star. We discuss the first two ULXs recently discovered in M31 and investigate the nature of their underlying sources. We present the X-ray observations for ULX-1 in detail and discuss its implications for …

The Application Of Tomographic Reconstruction Techniques To Ill-Conditioned Inverse Problems In Atmospheric Science And Biomedical Imaging, Vern Philip Hart Ii

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Tomography is an imaging technique in which 3D models of objects are created from several 2D projections viewed at different angles. When the number of available projections is limited, the resulting data are said to be sparse. This restriction is often a direct result of the imaging geometry used to acquire the data. One-sided views and a small number of receivers can reduce the range of available projections, which makes the object more difficult to reconstruct. Approximate solutions to difficult imaging problems can be obtained using a class of iterative algorithms known as the algebraic reconstruction techniques (ARTs). The presented …

Jitter Impact On Clock Distribution In Lhc Experiments, S. Baron, Themis Mastoridis, J. Troska, P. Baudrenghien

Physics

The LHC Bunch Clock is one of the most important accelerator signals delivered to the experiments. Being directly derived from the Radio Frequency driving the beams in the accelerator by a simple division of its frequency by a factor of 10, the Bunch Clock signal represents the frequency at which the bunches are crossing each other at each experiment. It is thus used to synchronize all the electronics systems in charge of event detection. Its frequency is around 40.079 MHz, but varies with beam parameters (energy, particle type, etc) by a few hundreds of Hz. The present paper discusses the …

The Harmonica As A Blues Instrument, Gordon Ramsey, Christopher Banaszak, Joseph Wiseman

Physics: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The modern harmonica,or harp, has been around since the early 19th century. It is typically used in blues, country, rock and roll and folk music. These musical genres are somewhat similar in structure and form, and often borrow ideas from each other. The harmonica is appropriate as a back up to the main vocal melody and instruments due to its rich harmonic structure and subdued intensity. The ability to apply vibrato and gradual slurs make it a perfect instrument to achieve a ``bluesy" sound. Our harp research group has investigated the physical properties of harmonica structure to illustrate how different …

Plasmonic And Photonic Designs For Light Trapping In Thin Film Solar Cells, Liming Ji

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thin film solar cells are promising to realize cheap solar energy. Compared to conventional wafer cells, they can reduce the use of semiconductor material by 90%. The efficiency of thin film solar cells, however, is limited due to insufficient light absorption. Sufficient light absorption at the bandgap of semiconductor requires a light path more than 10x the thickness of the semiconductor. Advanced designs for light trapping are necessary for solar cells to absorb sufficient light within a limited volume of semiconductor. The goal is to convert the incident light into a trapped mode in the semiconductor layer.

In this dissertation, …

Spectroscopic Signature For Bundling, Edge States And Impurities In 1d And 0d Materials, Kiran Kumar Lingam

All Dissertations

Study of nanomaterials has gained interest of researchers from various fields of science and technology due to their unique electronic and vibrational properties as compared to their bulk counterparts. In particular, carbon nanotechnology has evolved rapidly over the past few decades and nowadays, carbon nanotubes are used in various fields such as energy storage, electronics etc. However, the quest for new properties of this material is never ending and the invention of graphene generated enormous interest in the scientific community due to its excellent properties such as strength, high electron mobility, thermal conductivity etc. In this thesis, I aim at …

Effects Of Sn Doping On The Morphology And Properties Of Fe-Doped In2o3 Epitaxial Films, Tie Zhou, Lin Wei, Yanru Xie, Qinghao Li, Guoxiang Hu, Yanxue Chen, Shishen Yan, Guolei Liu, Liangmo Mei, Jun Jiao

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

(Sn, Fe)-codoped In₂O₃ epitaxial films were deposited on (111)-oriented Y-stabilized ZrO₂ substrates by pulsed laser deposition with constant Fe concentration and different Sn concentrations. The influence of Sn concentration on the crystal structure and properties of Fe-doped In₂O₃ ferromagnetic semiconductor films has been investigated systematically. Experimental results indicate that Sn doping can effectively reduce the surface roughness and suppresses breakup of the films into separated islands. At the same time, the optical band gap increases and the electrical properties improve correspondingly. However, although the carrier density increases dramatically with the Sn doping, no obvious change of the ferromagnetism is observed. …

Threshold Effects In Strong-Field Ionization: Energy Shifts And Rydberg Structures, Katarzyna Krajewska, Ilya I. Fabrikant, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The behavior of strong-field ionization rates of neutral atoms in the vicinity ofmultiphoton ionization thresholds is analyzed using formal collision theory.Our approach,which accounts nonperturbatively for effects of an intense laser field, shows that the ionization rates have a nearly constant behavior below and above each multiphoton threshold and that between such thresholds there are an apparently finite number of rapid oscillations due to resonances with laser-field-modified Rydberg states. This pattern is typical for any atomic target, as we illustrate specifically for hydrogen and neon atoms. The flat behavior of the ionization yield near multiphoton thresholds gives the appearance of an …

Two-Component Structure Of The HΒ Broad-Line Region In Quasars. I. Evidence From Spectral Principal Component Analysis, Chen Hu, Jian-Min Wang, Luis C. Ho, Gary J. Ferland, Jack A. Baldwin, Ye Wang

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We report on a spectral principal component analysis (SPCA) of a sample of 816 quasars, selected to have small Fe II velocity shifts with spectral coverage in the rest wavelength range 3500-5500 Å. The sample is explicitly designed to mitigate spurious effects on SPCA induced by Fe II velocity shifts. We improve the algorithm of SPCA in the literature and introduce a new quantity, the fractional-contribution spectrum, that effectively identifies the emission features encoded in each eigenspectrum. The first eigenspectrum clearly records the power-law continuum and very broad Balmer emission lines. Narrow emission lines dominate the second eigenspectrum. The …

Random Coil To Globular Thermal Response Of A Protein (H3.1) With Three Knowledge-Based Coarse-Grained Potentials, Ras B. Pandey, Barry L. Farmer

Faculty Publications

The effect of temperature on the conformation of a histone (H3.1) is studied by a coarse-grained Monte Carlo simulation based on three knowledge-based contact potentials (MJ, BT, BFKV). Despite unique energy and mobility profiles of its residues, the histone H3.1 undergoes a systematic (possibly continuous) structural transition from a random coil to a globular conformation on reducing the temperature. The range over which such a systematic response in variation of the radius of gyration (R_g) with the temperature (T) occurs, however, depends on the potential, i.e. ΔT_MJ ≈ 0.013–0.020, ΔT_BT ≈ 0.018–0.026 …

Triaxial Deformation And Nuclear Shape Transition In 192Au, Y. Oktem, D. L. Balabanski, B. Akkus, L. Amon Susam, L. Atanasova, C. W. Beausang, R. Cakirli, R. F. Casten, M. Danchev, M. Djongolov, E. Ganioglu, K. A. Gladnishki, J. Tm. Goon, D. J. Hartley, A. A. Hecht, R. Krucken, J. R. Novak, G. Rainovski, L. L. Riedinger, T. Venkova, I. Yigitoglu, N. V. Zamfir, O. Zeidan

Physics Faculty Publications

Background: Nuclei in the A≈190 mass region show gradual shape changes from prolate through nonaxial deformed shapes and ultimately towards spherical shapes as the Pb region is approached. Exploring how this shape evolution occurs will help us understand the evolution of collectivity in this region.

Purpose: The level scheme of the ¹⁹²Au nucleus in A ≈ 190 region was studied in order to deduce its deformations.

Methods: High-spin states of ¹⁹²Au have been populated in the ¹⁸⁶W(¹¹B, 5n) reaction at a beam energy of 68 MeV and their γ decay was studied …

Electron–Phonon Coupling And Structural Phase Transitions On Au/Mo(112), Keisuke Fukutani

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The electronic structures, many-body interactions and Fermi surface topologies of Au/Mo(112) were investigated in detail and were found to play important roles in the newly discovered order-disorder structural phase transition of the system. First, the high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy was utilized to characterize the electronic band structure of Mo(112) in far greater details than before. This elucidated the existence of several surface-derived states and their dispersion relations in high precisions near the Fermi level, as well as the symmetries of the bulk and surface electronic states, which are in good quantitative agreement with the ab-initio calculations. Such thorough understanding of …

Influence Of Line Tension On Spherical Colloidal Particles At Liquid-Vapor Interfaces, Sean P. Mcbride, Bruce M. Law

Physics Faculty Research

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging of isolated submicron dodecyltrichlorosilane coated silica spheres, immobilized at the liquid polystyrene- (PS-) air interface at the PS glass transition temperature, Tg , allows for determination of the contact angle θ versus particle radius R . At Tg , all θ versus R measurements are well described by the modified Young’s equation for a line tension τ=0.93  nN . The AFM measurements are also consistent with a minimum contact angle θmin and minimum radius Rmin , below which single isolated silica spheres cannot exist at the PS-air interface.

Defect-Driven Dynamic Model Of Electrostatic Discharge And Endurance Time Measurements Of Polymeric Spacecraft Materials, Alec Sim, John R. Dennison, Matthew Stormo

All Physics Faculty Presentations

Charge buildup on insulating materials in the space environment can produce long exposure to electric fields, which can lead to Electrostatic Discharge (ESD). Charge buildup is the leading cause of spacecraft failure due to space environment interactions. ESD can be thought of as the point at which the buildup of charge in localized defects, found in polymeric insulating materials, leads to a catastrophic change in electrical conductivity, which can cause the materials to structurally breakdown. Defects produced by radiation, or prolonged exposure to electric fields, significantly alter the endurance time, the time it takes to produce enough defects to generate …

The Characterization Of Volatiles Associated With Young Stellar Objects, Kari Anne Wojtkowski

Dissertations

In the first portion of this work, we searched for differences in volatiles within a single star forming region, Rho Ophiuchi. We determined the amount, temperature, and composition of two ice features, the bending modes of CO2 and H2O at 15 μm and 6 μm, respectively, toward 28 Young Stellar Objects (YSOs). We found that more than 50% of the YSOs studied contained a portion of crystalline CO2 ice. We also found that some sources with Flat or borderline Class II Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) have a larger abundance of CO2 ice with respect to H2O ice. In addition to …

Defect-Driven Dynamic Model Of Electrostatic Discharge And Endurance Time Measurements Of Polymeric Spacecraft Materials, Charles Sim, Alec Sim, Jr Dennison, Matthew Stormo

Posters

Charge buildup on insulating materials in the space environment can produce long exposure to electric fields, which can lead to Electrostatic Discharge (ESD). Charge buildup is the leading cause of spacecraft failure due to space environment interactions. ESD can be thought of as the point at which the buildup of charge in localized defects, found in polymeric insulating materials, leads to a catastrophic change in electrical conductivity, which can cause the materials to structurally breakdown. Defects produced by radiation, or prolonged exposure to electric fields, significantly alter the endurance time, the time it takes to produce enough defects to generate …

Crystallography Open Database (Cod): An Open-Access Collection Of Crystal Structures And Platform For World-Wide Collaboration, Saulius Gražulis, Adriana Daškevič, Andrius Merkys, Daniel Chateigner, Luca Lutterotti, Miguel Quirós, Nadezhda R. Serebryanaya, Peter Moeck, Robert T. Downs, Armel Le Bail

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using an open-access distribution model, the Crystallography Open Database (COD, http://www.crystallography.net) collects all known 'small molecule / small to medium sized unit cell' crystal structures and makes them available freely on the Internet. As of today, the COD has aggregated ~150,000 structures, offering basic search capabilities and the possibility to download the whole database, or parts thereof using a variety of standard open communication protocols. A newly developed website provides capabilities for all registered users to deposit published and so far unpublished structures as personal communications or pre-publication depositions. Such a setup enables extension of the COD database by many …

Focusing On Size And Energy Dependence Of Electron Microbursts From The Van Allen Radiation Belts, Harlan E. Spence, J. B. Blake, A. B. Crew, S. Driscoll, D. M. Klumpar, B. A. Larsen, Jason S. Legere, S. Longworth, E. Mosleh, T. P. O'Brien, Sonya S. Smith, L. Springer, W. Widholm

Physics & Astronomy

No abstract provided.

Radar Signal Delay In The Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati Gravity In The Vicinity Of The Sun, Ioannis Haranas, Omiros Ragos, Ioannis Gkigkitzis

Physics and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this paper we examine the recently introduced Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) gravity model. We use the space time metric in which the local gravitation source dominates the metric over the contributions from the cosmological flow. Anticipating ideal possible solar system effects we derive expressions for the signal time delays in the vicinity of the sun, and for various angles of the signal approach. We use the corresponding numerical value for the parameter r₀ to be equal to 5 Mpc, and from that we calculate that the time contribution due to DGP correction to the metric is proportional to b^{3/2 …}

Lamination Of Inverted Organic Photovoltaics And Associated Physical Properties, Brian A. Bailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is the result of a series of studies involving hot press lamination of inverted organic photovoltaics. It first gives background and develops a lamination process for fabrication. Then, the process is used to answer fundamental questions about organic photovoltaics and to fabricate previously impossible or overly complicated devices. Finally, the author examines the scientific theory which describes the process and aligns that theory with related measurements.

The field of organic photovoltaics is introduced and the lamination process is developed and optimized. In the lamination process, part of the solar cell is deposited onto a rigid substrate, and the …

Photocatalytic Activity Of Core/Shell Semiconductor Nanocrystals Featuring Spatial Separation Of Charges, Dimuthu Perera, Ryan Lorek, Rony S. Khnayzer, Pavel Moroz, Timothy O’Connor, Dmitry Khon, Geoffrey Diederich, Erich Kinder, Scott Lambright, Felix N. Castellano, Mikhail Zamkov

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The present study investigates the photocatalytic activity of ZnSe/CdS core/shell semiconductor nanocrystals. These nanoparticles exhibit a spatial separation of photoinduced charges between the core and the shell domains, which makes them potentially viable for photocatalytic applications. Unfortunately, one of the excited charges remains inside the core semiconductor and thus cannot efficiently react with the external environment. Here, we explore this issue by investigating the mechanisms of hole extraction from the ZnSe core to the surface of the CdS shell. In particular, the effect of shell thickness in ZnSe/CdS core/shell nanocrystals on the ability of core-localized charges to perform oxidative reactions …

Swift Follow-Up Observations Of Candidate Gravitational-Wave Transient Events, P. A. Evans, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present the first multi-wavelength follow-up observations of two candidate gravitational-wave (GW) transient events recorded by LIGO and Virgo in their 2009-2010 science run. The events were selected with low latency by the network of GW detectors (within less than 10 minutes) and their candidate sky locations were observed by the Swift observatory (within 12 hr). Image transient detection was used to analyze the collected electromagnetic data, which were found to be consistent with background. Off-line analysis of the GW data alone has also established that the selected GW events show no evidence of an astrophysical origin; one of them …

Quantum Dynamics In Atomic-Fountain Experiments For Measuring The Electric Dipole Moment Of The Electron With Improved Sensitivity, Benedikt J. Wundt, Charles T. Munger, Ulrich D. Jentschura

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

An improved measurement of the electron electric dipole moment (EDM) appears feasible using groundstate alkali atoms in an atomic fountain in which a strong electric field, which couples to a conceivable EDM, is applied perpendicular to the fountain axis. In a practical fountain, the ratio of the atomic tensor Stark shift to the Zeeman shift is a factor μ ~ 100.We expand the complete time-evolution operator in inverse powers of this ratio; complete results are presented for atoms of total spin F = 3, 4, and 5. For a specific set of entangled hyperfine sublevels (coherent states), potential systematic errors …

Search For New Physics With Long-Lived Particles Decaying To Photons And Missing Energy In Pp Collisions At S√=7 Tev, The Cms Collaboration, S. Chatrchyan, V. Khachatryan, Marc M. Baarmand, B. Dorney, Marcus Hohlmann, Himali Kalakhety, Igor Vodopiyanov

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

A search is performed for long-lived neutral particles decaying into a photon and invisible particles. An example of such a signature is the decay of the lightest neutralino with nonzero lifetime into a gravitino and a photon in gauge-mediated supersymmetry, with the neutralino as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and the gravitino as the lightest. The search uses events containing photons, missing transverse energy, and jets. The impact parameter of the photon relative to the beam-beam collision point can be reconstructed using converted photons. The method is sensitive to lifetimes of the order of 0.1 to 1 ns. The data sample …

Spectral Engineering Of Optical Fiber Preforms Through Active Nanoparticle Doping, T. Lindstrom, E. Garber, D. Edmonson, T. Hawkins, Y. Chen, G. Turri, M. Bass, J. Ballato

Publications

Europium doped alkaline earth fluoride [Eu:AEF2 (AE = Ca, Sr, Ba)] nanoparticles were synthesized and systematically incorporated into the core of modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD)-derived silica-based preforms by solution doping. The resulting preforms were examined to determine the impact of the nanoparticles chemistry on the spectroscopic behavior of the glass. The dominant existence of Eu3+ was demonstrated in all preforms, which is in contrast to conventional solution doped preforms employing dissolved europium salts where Eu2+ is primarily observed. Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence lifetime measurements indicated that the nanoparticles composition is effective in controlling, at a local chemical and structural …

Inclusive-Jet Photoproduction At Hera And Determination Of Α S, H. Abramowicz, I. Abt, L. Adamczyk, M. Adamus, R. Aggarwal, S. Antonelli, P. Antonioli, A. Antonov, M. Arneodo, V. Aushev, Y. Aushev, O. Bachynska, A. Bamberger, A. N. Barakbaev, G. Barbagli, G. Bari, F. Barreiro, N. Bartosik, D. Bartsch, M. Basile, O. Behnke, J. Behr, U. Behrens, L. Bellagamba, A. Bertolin, S. Bhadra, M. Bindi, C. Blohm, V. Bokhonov, T. Bołd, K. Bondarenko

Faculty Publications

Inclusive-jet cross sections have been measured in the reaction ep→e+jet+X for photon virtuality Q 2γp centre-of-mass energies in the region 142γp-1. Jets were identified using the k T, anti-k T or SIScone jet algorithms in the laboratory frame. Single-differential cross sections are presented as functions of the jet transverse energy, ETjet, and pseudorapidity, jet, for jets with ETjet>17 GeV and -1< jet

Theory Of High Harmonic Generation For Probing Time-Resolved Large-Amplitude Molecular Vibrations With Ultrashort Intense Lasers, Anh-Thu Le, Toru Morishita, R. R. Lucchese, C. D. Lin

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present a theory that incorporates the vibrational degrees of freedom in a high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process with ultrashort intense laser pulses. In this model, laser-induced time-dependent transition dipoles for each fixed molecular geometry are added coherently, weighted by the laser-driven time-dependent nuclear wave packet distribution. We show that the nuclear distribution can be strongly modified by the HHG driving laser. The validity of this model is first checked against results from the numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a simple model system. We show that in combination with the established quantitative rescattering theory this model is …

Monte Carlo Simulations Of The Clean And Disordered Contact Process In Three Dimensions, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The absorbing-state transition in the three-dimensional contact process with and without quenched randomness is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. In the clean case, a reweighting technique is combined with a careful extrapolation of the data to infinite time to determine with high accuracy the critical behavior in the three-dimensional directed percolation universality class. In the presence of quenched spatial disorder, our data demonstrate that the absorbing-state transition is governed by an unconventional infinite-randomness critical point featuring activated dynamical scaling. The critical behavior of this transition does not depend on the disorder strength, i.e., it is universal. Close to …