Physics Commons^™

Domain-Wall Tunneling Electroresistance Effect, M. Li, L. L. Tao, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) utilizing an in-plane head-to-head ferroelectric domain wall (DW) have recently been realized, showing interesting physics and new functionalities. However, the DW state in these junctions was found to be metastable and not reversible after applying an electric field. In this work, we demonstrate that a stable and reversible head-to-head DW state can be achieved in FTJs by proper engineering of polar interfaces. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and phenomenological modeling, we explore the DW stability by varying stoichiometry of the La_1−xSr_xO=TiO₂ interfaces in FTJs with La_0.5Sr_{0.5 …}

First-Principles Study Of High-Pressure Phase Stability And Superconductivity Of Bi4i4, Shiyu Deng, Xianqi Song, Quan Li, Yu Xie, Changfeng Chen, Yanming Ma

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Bismuth iodide Bi4I4 exhibits intricate crystal structures and topological insulating states that are highly susceptible to influence by environments, making its physical properties highly tunable by external conditions. In this work, we study the evolution of structural and electronic properties of Bi4I4 at high pressure using an advanced structure search method in conjunction with first-principles calculations. Our results indicate that the most stable ambient-pressure monoclinic α−Bi4I4 phase in C2/m symmetry transforms to a trigonal P31c structure (ɛ−Bi4I4) at 8.4 GPa, then to a tetragonal P4/mmm structure (ζ−Bi4I4) above 16.6 GPa. In contrast to the semiconducting nature of ambient-pressure Bi4I4, the …

Optimizing Measurement Strengths For Qubit Quasiprobabilities Behind Out-Of-Time-Ordered Correlators, Razieh Mohseninia, José Raúl González Alonso, Justin Dressel

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) have been proposed as a tool to witness quantum information scrambling in many-body system dynamics. These correlators can be understood as averages over nonclassical multitime quasiprobability distributions (QPDs). These QPDs have more information and their nonclassical features witness quantum information scrambling in a more nuanced way. However, their high dimensionality and nonclassicality make QPDs challenging to measure experimentally. We focus on the topical case of a many-qubit system and show how to obtain such a QPD in the laboratory using circuits with three and four sequential measurements. Averaging distinct values over the same measured distribution reveals either …

Protein And Polysaccharide-Based Magnetic Composite Materials For Medical Applications., Elizabeth J Bealer, Kyril Kavetsky, Sierra Dutko, Samuel Lofland, Xiao Hu

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

The combination of protein and polysaccharides with magnetic materials has been implemented in biomedical applications for decades. Proteins such as silk, collagen, and elastin and polysaccharides such as chitosan, cellulose, and alginate have been heavily used in composite biomaterials. The wide diversity in the structure of the materials including their primary monomer/amino acid sequences allow for tunable properties. Various types of these composites are highly regarded due to their biocompatible, thermal, and mechanical properties while retaining their biological characteristics. This review provides information on protein and polysaccharide materials combined with magnetic elements in the biomedical space showcasing the materials used, …

An Analysis Of The Atmospheric Propagation Of Underground-Explosion-Generated Infrasonic Waves Based On The Equations Of Fluid Dynamics: Ground Recordings, Roberto Sabatini, Jonathan B. Snively, Michael P. Hickey, J. L. Garrison

Publications

An investigation on the propagation of underground-explosion-generated infrasonic waves is carried out via numerical simulations of the equations of fluid dynamics. More specifically, the continuity, momentum, and energy conservation equations are solved along with the Herzfeld-Rice equations in order to take into account the effects of vibrational relaxation phenomena. The radiation of acoustic energy by the ground motion caused by underground explosions is initiated by enforcing the equality, at ground level, between the component of the air velocity normal to the Earth's surface and the normal velocity of the ground layer. The velocity of the ground layer is defined semi-empirically …

The Belle Ii Physics Book, E. Kou, P. Urquijo, W. Altmannshofer, F. Beajean, G. Bell, M. Beneke, I. I. Bigi, F. Bishara, M. Blanke, C. Bobeth, M. Bona, N. Brambilla, V. M. Braun, J. Brod, A. J. Buras, H. Y. Cheng, C. W. Chiang, M. Ciuchini, G. Colangelo, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Measurement Of The Integrated Luminosity Of The Phase 2 Data Of The Belle Ii Experiment, F. Abudinén, I. Adachi, P. Ahlburg, H. Aihara, N. Akopov, A. Aloisio, F. Ameli, L. Andricek, N. Anh Ky, D. M. Asner, H. Atmacan, T. Aushev, V. Aushev, T. Aziz, K. Azmi, V. Babu, S. Baehr, S. Bahinipati, A. M. Bakich, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

From April to July 2018, a data sample at the peak energy of the Υ(4S) resonance was collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider. This is the first data sample of the Belle II experiment. Using Bhabha and digamma events, we measure the integrated luminosity of the data sample to be (469.3±0.3±3.0) pb^-1, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This work provides a basis for future luminosity measurements at Belle II.

Exploratory Measurements Of Large Winds And Shears In The Lower Thermosphere And Their Variability Using An Enhanced Sodium Lidar, Tao Yuan

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Low-Cost, Open Source Miniature Rotary Cell Culture System To Simulate Microgravity Within An Irradiated Environment, Elizabeth Vargis, Jr Dennison

Browse all Datasets

A major challenge for astronauts in long-duration space travel is combatting the hazardous spaceflight environment caused by microgravity and increased levels of ionizing radiation. Microgravity damages cellular DNA by increasing the production of harmful reactive oxygen species, while ionizing radiation damages DNA by creating double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) breaks. Cellular damage due to microgravity and radiation has been investigated using ground-based models, but most models consider microgravity and ionizing radiation alone, or asynchronously. Synchronous modeling better mimics spaceflight conditions and can be used to understand the combined effects of microgravity and ionizing radiation. However, commercially available devices to model microgravity and …

Is Contact Nucleation Caused By Pressure Perturbation?, Fan Yang, Will Cantrell, Alexander Kostinski, Raymond Shaw, Andrew M. Vogelmann

Michigan Tech Publications

The reason why ice nucleation is more efficient by contact nucleation than by immersion nucleation has been elusive for over half a century. Six proposed mechanisms are summarized in this study. Among them, the pressure perturbation hypothesis, which arose from recent experiments, can qualitatively explain nearly all existing results relevant to contact nucleation. To explore the plausibility of this hypothesis in a more quantitative fashion and to guide future investigations, this study assessed the magnitude of pressure perturbation needed to cause contact nucleation and the associated spatial scales. The pressure perturbations needed were estimated using measured contact nucleation efficiencies for …

Analytic Non-Adiabatic Derivative Coupling Terms For Spin-Orbit Mrci Wavefunctions. I. Formalism, Lachlan T. Belcher, Gary S. Kedziora, David E. Weeks

Faculty Publications

Analytic gradients of electronic eigenvalues require one calculation per nuclear geometry, compared to at least 3n + 1 calculations for finite difference methods, where n is the number of nuclei. Analytic nonadiabatic derivative coupling terms (DCTs), which are calculated in a similar fashion, are used to remove nondiagonal contributions to the kinetic energy operator, leading to more accurate nuclear dynamics calculations than those that employ the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, i.e., that assume off-diagonal contributions are zero. The current methods and underpinnings for calculating both of these quantities, gradients and DCTs, for the State-Averaged MultiReference Configuration Interaction with Singles and Doubles (MRCI-SD) …

Comparison Of Charge Storage Properties Of Prussian Blue Analogues Containing Cobalt And Copper, Amanda Rensmo, Jennifer R. Hampton

Faculty Publications

Prussian blue analogues are of great interest as alternative battery materials because of their long life cycle and potential use of earth-abundant elements. In this work, thin film mixed-metal hexacyanoferrates (HCFs) based on NiCo and NiCu alloys were fabricated in an all electrochemical process. The structure and composition of the samples were characterized, along with the charge storage capacity and kinetics of the charge transfer reaction. For both NiCo-HCF and NiCu-HCF samples, the total charge capacity increased with the substitution of Ni with more Co or Cu, and the increase was larger for Cu samples than for Co samples. On …

The Distribution Of Ultra-Diffuse And Ultra-Compact Galaxies In The Frontier Fields, Steven Janssens, Roberto Abraham, Jean Brodie, Duncan Forbes, Aaron Romanowsky

Faculty Publications

Large low-surface-brightness galaxies have recently been found to be abundant in nearby galaxy clusters. In this paper, we investigate these ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the six Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy clusters: A2744, MACS J0416.1−2403, MACS J0717.5+3745, MACS J1149.5+2223, AS1063, and A370. These are the most massive (1–3 × 1015 M ⊙) and distant (0.308 < z < 0.545) systems in which this class of galaxy has yet been discovered. We estimate that the clusters host of the order of ~200–1400 UDGs inside the virial radius (R 200), consistent with the UDG abundance–halo-mass relation found in the local universe, and suggest that UDGs may be formed in clusters. Within each cluster, however, we find that UDGs are not evenly distributed. Instead their projected spatial distributions are lopsided, and they are deficient in the regions of highest mass density as traced by gravitational lensing. While the deficiency of UDGs in central regions is not surprising, the lopsidedness is puzzling. The UDGs, and their lopsided spatial distributions, may be associated with known substructures late in their infall into the clusters, meaning that we find evidence both for formation of UDGs in clusters and for UDGs falling into clusters. We also investigate the ultra-compact dwarfs (UCDs) residing in the clusters, and find that the spatial distributions of UDGs and UCDs appear anticorrelated. Around 15% of UDGs exhibit either compact nuclei or nearby point sources. Taken together, these observations provide additional evidence for a picture in which at least some UDGs are destroyed in dense cluster environments and leave behind a residue of UCDs.

Schrödinger Evolution Of Superoscillations With Δ - And Δ′ -Potentials, Yakir Aharonov, Jussi Behrndt, Fabrizio Colombo, Peter Schlosser

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we study the time persistence of superoscillations as the initial data of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation with δ- and δ′-potentials. It is shown that the sequence of solutions converges uniformly on compact sets, whenever the initial data converge in the topology of the entire function space A₁(C). Convolution operators acting in this space are our main tool. In particular, a general result about the existence of such operators is proven. Moreover, we provide an explicit formula as well as the large time asymptotics for the time evolution of a plane wave under δ- and δ′-potentials.

Third- And Fourth-Order Virial Coefficients Of Harmonically Trapped Fermions In A Semiclassical Approximation, K. J. Morrell, Casey E. Berger, J. E. Drut

Physics: Faculty Publications

Using a leading-order semiclassical approximation, we calculate the third- A nd fourth-order virial coefficients of nonrelativistic spin-1/2 fermions in a harmonic trapping potential in arbitrary spatial dimensions, and as functions of temperature, trapping frequency, and coupling strength. Our simple, analytic results for the interaction-induced changes Δb3 and Δb4 agree qualitatively, and in some regimes quantitatively, with previous numerical calculations for the unitary limit of three-dimensional Fermi gases.

Precise Mass Determination Of Spt-Cl J2106-5844, The Most Massive Cluster At Z > 1, Jinhyub Kim, M. James Jee, Saul Perlmutter, Brian Hayden, David Rubin, Xiaosheng Huang, Greg Aldering, Jongwan Ko

Physics and Astronomy

We present a detailed high-resolution weak-lensing study of SPT-CL J2106-5844 at z = 1.132, claimed to be the most massive system discovered at z > 1 in the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev–Zel'dovich survey. Based on the deep imaging data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 on board the Hubble Space Telescope, we find that the cluster mass distribution is asymmetric, composed of a main clump and a subclump ~640 kpc west thereof. The central clump is further resolved into two smaller northwestern and southeastern substructures separated by ~150 kpc. We show that this rather complex …

Search For Physics Beyond The Standard Model In Events With Overlapping Photons And Jets, A. M. Sirunyan

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Results are reported from a search for new particles that decay into a photon and two gluons, in events with jets. Novel jet substructure techniques are developed that allow photons to be identified in an environment densely populated with hadrons. The analyzed proton-proton collision data were collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in 2016 at √s = 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb⁻¹. The spectra of total transverse hadronic energy of candidate events are examined for deviations from the standard model predictions. No statistically significant excess is observed over the expected …

Monte Carlo And Experimental Analysis Of A Novel Directional Rotating Scatter Mask Gamma Detection System, Julie V. Logan, Darren E. Holland, Larry W. Burggraf, Justin A. Clinton, Buckley E. O'Day Iii

Faculty Publications

Excerpt: This work demonstrates successful experimental operation of a prototype system to identify source direction which was modeled using a library of signals simulated using GEANT and a novel algorithm....

Relaxation Of Radiation Effects In Polymers, Alexandra Hughlett Nelson

Physics Capstone Projects

Radiation can create atomic-scale defect states in polymers, leading to changes in their optical, electrical and mechanical properties. Recent studies of polymers have shown that these defect states are sensitive to oxygen or water exposure. It is believed that oxygen cause the number of defect states to decrease and the polymers to revert to their original states. However, the time scale of this regression is not known. This experiment quantified the time that it takes five polymers to recover and the extent of said recovery; polypropylene (PP), low density polyethylene (LDPE), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), polymide (PI), and poly ether …

Search For B− → Λp⊽ ⊽ With The Babar Experiment, J. P. Lees, V. Poireau, V. Tisserand, E. Grauges, A. Palano, G. Eigen, D. N. Brown, Yu G. Kolomensky, M. Fritsch, H. Koch, T. Schroeder, R. Cheaib, C. Hearty, T. S. Mattison, J. A. Mckenna, R. Y. So, V. E. Blinov, A. R. Buzykaev, V. P. Druzhinin, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

A search for the rare flavor-changing neutral current process B− → Λp̅ νv̅ using data from the BABAR experiment has been performed. A total of 424 fb⁻¹ of e⁺e⁻ collision data collected at the center-of-mass energy of the ϒ(4S) resonance is used in this study, corresponding to a sample of (471 ± 3) × 10⁶ BB̅ pairs. Signal B− → Λp̅ νv̅ candidates are identified by first fully reconstructing a B⁺ decay in one of many possible exclusive decays to hadronic final states, then examining detector activity that is not associated with …

Quantum-Enhanced Advanced Ligo Detectors In The Era Of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy, M. Tse, Haocun Yu, N. Kijbunchoo, A. Fernandez-Galiana, P. Dupej, L. Barsotti, C. D. Blair, D. D. Brown, S. E. Dwyer, Karla E. Ramirez

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) has been directly detecting gravitational waves from compact binary mergers since 2015. We report on the first use of squeezed vacuum states in the direct measurement of gravitational waves with the Advanced LIGO H1 and L1 detectors. This achievement is the culmination of decades of research to implement squeezed states in gravitational-wave detectors. During the ongoing O3 observation run, squeezed states are improving the sensitivity of the LIGO interferometers to signals above 50 Hz by up to 3 dB, thereby increasing the expected detection rate by 40% (H1) and 50% (L1).

Growth And Characterization Of Organic Ferroelectric And Magnetic Thin Films, Xuanyuan Jiang

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

Compared to inorganic materials, organic materials are environmentally friendly, flexible, and often with low cost. Inspired by these advantages, organic materials-based electronics have been intensively studied for comparable or better functionalities to inorganic electronics.

This dissertation mainly focuses on the growth and characterizations of organic ferroelectrics and magnetic thin films. For organic ferroelectrics, we investigate the growth and ferroelectric measurements of thin film croconic acid (CA), a proton-transfer molecular ferroelectric (FE) material with a large spontaneous polarization and a small coercive field, as well as the origin of ferroelectricity in CA in terms of the photostriction effect, including the discovery …

The American Astronomical Society, Find Out More The Institute Of Physics, Find Out More Where Do Quasar Hosts Lie With Respect To The Size–Mass Relation Of Galaxies?, John D. Silverman, Tommaso Treu, Xuheng Ding, Knud Jahnke, Vardha N. Bennert, Simon Birrer, Malte Schramm, Andreas Schulze, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, David B. Sanders, Renyue Cen

Physics

The evolution of the galaxy size–mass relation has been a puzzle for over a decade. High-redshift galaxies are significantly more compact than galaxies observed today at an equivalent mass, but how much of this apparent growth is driven by progenitor bias, minor mergers, secular processes, or feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is unclear. To help disentangle the physical mechanisms at work by addressing the latter, we study the size–Mstellar relation of 32 carefully selected broad-line AGN hosts at 1.2 < z < 1.7 (7.5 < log MBH < 8.5; Lbol/LEdd ≳ 0.1). Using the Hubble Space Telescope with multiband photometry and …

Model‐Based Properties Of The Dayside Open/Closed Boundary: Is There A Ut‐Dependent Variation?, David A. Smith, Jan Josef Sojka

All Physics Faculty Publications

The open‐closed boundary (OCB) defines a region of significant transformation in Earth's protective magnetic shield. Principle among these changes is the transition of magnetic field lines from having two foot points, one in each hemisphere, to one foot point at Earth, the other mapping to the solar wind. Charged particles in the solar wind are able to follow these open field lines into Earth's upper atmosphere. The OCB also defines the polar cap boundary. Being able to identify and track the OCB allows study of several components of the geomagnetic system. Among them are the electrodynamics of the geomagnetic field …

Search For Low-Mass Quark-Antiquark Resonances Produced In Association With A Photon At √S =13 Tev, A. M. Sirunyan

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

A search for narrow low-mass resonances decaying to quark-antiquark pairs is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision events collected at 13 TeV by the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb⁻¹, recorded in 2016. The search considers the case where the resonance has high transverse momentum due to initial-state radiation of a hard photon. To study this process, the decay products of the resonance are reconstructed as a single large-radius jet with two-pronged substructure. The signal would be identified as a localized excess in the jet …

Anomalous Stranski-Krastanov Growth Of (111)-Oriented Quantum Dots With Tunable Wetting Layer Thickness, Christopher F. Schuck, Simon K. Roy, Trent Garrett, Paul J. Simmonds

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Driven by tensile strain, GaAs quantum dots (QDs) self-assemble on In_0.52Al_0.48As(111)A surfaces lattice-matched to InP substrates. In this study, we show that the tensile-strained self-assembly process for these GaAs(111)A QDs unexpectedly deviates from the well-known Stranski-Krastanov (SK) growth mode. Traditionally, QDs formed via the SK growth mode form on top of a flat wetting layer (WL) whose thickness is fixed. The inability to tune WL thickness has inhibited researchers’ attempts to fully control QD-WL interactions in these hybrid 0D-2D quantum systems. In contrast, using microscopy, spectroscopy, and computational modeling, we demonstrate that for GaAs(111)A QDs, we …

Search For Gravitational Waves From Scorpius X-1 In The Second Advanced Ligo Observing Run With An Improved Hidden Markov Model, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h₀^95% = …

The Conundrum Of Relaxation Volumes In First-Principles Calculations Of Charged Defects In Uo₂, Anuj Goyal, Kiran Mathew, Richard G. Hennig, Aleksandr V. Chernatynskiy

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The defect relaxation volumes obtained from density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of charged vacancies and interstitials are much larger than their neutral counterparts, seemingly unphysically large. We focus on UO2 as our primary material of interest, but also consider Si and GaAs to reveal the generality of our results. In this work, we investigate the possible reasons for this and revisit the methods that address the calculation of charged defects in periodic DFT. We probe the dependence of the proposed energy corrections to charged defect formation energies on relaxation volumes and find that corrections such as potential alignment remain ambiguous with …

Analytic Non-Adiabatic Derivative Coupling Terms For Spin-Orbit Mrci Wavefunctions. Ii. Derivative Coupling Terms And Coupling Angle For Khe (A2Π1/2) ⇔ Khe B2Σ1/2), Lachlan T. Belcher, Charlton D. Lewis, Gary S. Kedziora, David E. Weeks

Faculty Publications

A method for calculating the analytic nonadiabatic derivative coupling terms (DCTs) for spin-orbit multi-reference configuration interaction wavefunctions is reviewed. The results of a sample calculation using a Stuttgart basis for KHe are presented. Additionally, the DCTs are compared with a simple calculation based on the Nikitin’s 3 × 3 description of the coupling between the Σ and Π surfaces, as well as a method based on Werner’s analysis of configuration interaction coefficients. The nonadiabatic coupling angle calculated by integrating the radial analytic DCTs using these different techniques matches extremely well. The resultant nonadiabatic energy surfaces for KHe are presented.

Beam Asymmetry Σ For The Photoproduction Of Η And Ή Mesons At Eγ = 8.8gev, S. Adhikari, A. Ali, M. J. Amaryan, A. Austregesilo, F. Barbosa, J. Barlow, A. Barnes, E. Barriga, R. Barsotti, T. D. Beattie, V. V. Berdnikov, T. Black, N. Wickramaarachchi, B. Zihlmann, The Gluex Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

We report on the measurement of the beam asymmetry Σ for the reactions →γp→pη and →γp→pη′ from the GlueX experiment using an 8.2–8.8-GeV linearly polarized tagged photon beam incident on a liquid hydrogen target in Hall D at Jefferson Laboratory. These measurements are made as a function of momentum transfer −t with significantly higher statistical precision than our earlier η measurements and are the first measurements of η′ in this energy range. We compare the results to theoretical predictions based on t-channel quasiparticle exchange. We also compare the ratio of Σ_η to Σ_η′ to these models as …