Physics Commons^™

Spectro-Polarimetric Observations Of Tev Sources (Spots): First Results, Joleen Barnard, B. Van Soelen, I. P. Van Der Westhuizen, M. Böttcher, A. Martin-Carrillo, H. M. Schutte, S. Van Der Merwe, M. Zacharias

Michigan Tech Publications

Blazars are jetted active galactic nuclei, with the jet aligned along the observer’s line of sight. Their spectral energy distributions are dominated by non-thermal emission, with an underlying thermal component at optical/ultraviolet wavelengths. However, the underlying jet magnetic field structure and particle acceleration mechanisms requirements for the non-thermal emission are still under debate. Polarization measurements can provide critical insights, and we investigate the optical polarization properties of TeV-emitting blazars using long-term optical monitoring. We present results from the first 21 months of the Spectro-Polarimetric Observations of TeV Sources campaign, using the Southern African Large Telescope, of 14 blazars. Overall, observations …

Longitudinal Spin Transfer To Λ Hyperons In Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering With The Clas12 Spectrometer, M. Mceneaney, A. Vossen, A. Acar, P. Achenbach, J. S. Alvarado, M. Amaryan, W. R. Armstrong, H. Atac, N. A. Baltzell, L. Barion, M. Bashkanov, M. Battaglieri, F. Benmokhtar, A. Bianconi, A. S. Biselli, M. Bondi, F. Bossù, S. Boiarinov, K. -Th. Brinkmann, W. J. Briscoe, V. D. Burkert, T. Cao, R. Capobianco, D. S. Carman, J. C. Carvajal, A. Celentano, P. Chatagnon, V. Chesnokov, H. Chinchay, G. Ciullo, P. L. Cole, M. Contalbrigo, A. D'Angelo, N. Dashyan, R. De Vita, M. Defurne, S. Diehl, C. Dilks, C. Djalali, R. Dupre, H. Egiyan, M. Ehrhart, A. El Alaoui, L. El Fassi, M. Farooq, S. Fegan, R. E. Ferguson, I. P. Fernando, A. Filippi, C. Fogler, K. Gates, G. Gavalian, D. I. Glazier, R. W. Gothe, Y. Gotra, B. Gualtieri, K. Hafidi, H. Hakobyan, M. Hattawy, T. B. Hayward, D. Heddle, A. Hobart, M. Holtrop, Y. Ilieva, D. G. Ireland, H. S. Jo, S. Joosten, T. Kageya, A. Kim, V. Klimenko, A. Kripko, V. Kubarovsky, L. Lanza, S. Lee, P. Lenisa, D. Marchand, V. Mascagna, D. Matamoros, B. Mckinnon, T. Mineeva, M. Mirazita, V. Mokeev, C. Munoz Camacho, P. Nadel-Turonski, T. Nagorna, K. Neupane, S. Niccolai, G. Niculescu, M. Osipenko, M. Ouillon, P. Pandey, M. Paolone, L. L. Pappalardo, R. Paremuzyan, E. Pasyuk, S. J. Paul, W. Phelps, N. Pilleux, S. Polcher Rafael, L. Polizzi, J. Poudel, Y. Prok, A. Radic, T. Reed, J. Richards, M. Ripani, P. Rossi, A. A. Rusova, C. Salgado, S. Schadmand, A. Schmidt, M. B. C. Scott, E. V. Shirokov, S. Shresstha, E. Sidoretti, D. Sokhan, N. Sparveris, M. Spreafico, I. Strakovsky, S. Strauch, J. A. Tan, R. Tyson, M. Ungaro, P. S. H. Vaishnavi, S. Vallarino, C. Velasquez, L. Venturelli, H. Voskanyan, E. Voutier, D. P. Watts, Y. Wang, U. Weerasinghe, X. Wei, N. Wickramaarachchi, M. H. Wood, L. Xu, Z. Xu, N. Zachariou, Z. W. Zhao, V. Ziegler, M. Zurek

Physics Faculty Publications

The polarization of Λ hyperons is preserved in the angular distribution of their decay products. This property allows one to study the spin structure of the Λ. In semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering where a high energy lepton interacts with a nucleon target and one or more hadrons and the scattered lepton are detected in the final state, the probability for a struck quark to impart the polarization of the lepton to the Λ may be measured. In particular, in electron-proton scattering this quantity may be related to the longitudinal light quark polarization of the Λ. Currently, limited experimental data cannot …

X-Ray Polarization Of Accreting Stellar-Mass Black Holes Through Accretion States, Nicole Rodriguez Cavero

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, X-ray polarization has opened up a new window into our understanding of astrophysical sources. Among them are accreting stellar-mass black holes, which play a key role in testing the behavior of matter in extreme gravitational environments. These sources can be observed in different states of the accretion cycle, predominantly in the soft and hard states. Every state is dominated by a combination of thermal disk, coronal, or reflected emission—each type containing different information about the environment around the black hole that can be understood through polarization. Polarimeters such as the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and XL-Calibur allow …

Polarized Positrons At Ce⁺Baf, A. Ushakov, J. Benesch, M. Bruker, L. Cardman, J. Conway, S. Covrig Dusa, P. Degtiarenko, Y. Enomoto, S. Gessner, P. Ghoshal, S. Gopinath, J. Grames, C. Gulliford, S. Habet, G. Hays, C. Hernández-García, A. Hofler, R. Kazimi, M. Kostin, V. O. Kostroun, F. Lin, V. Lizárraga-Rubio, K. Mahler, Y. Morikawa, S. Nagaitsev, S. Ogur, G. Palacios-Serrano, N. Raut, B. Rimmer, Y. Roblin, A. Seryi, K. Smolenski, M. Stutzman, R. Suleiman, A. Sy, N. Taylor, D. Turner, A. Ushakov, C. Valerio-Lizarraga, E. Voutier, S. Wang, Y. Zhang

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

A baseline concept for a continuous wave (CW) polarized positron injector was developed for the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab [1]. This concept is based on positron beam generation by a high current polarized electron beam (1 mA, 120 MeV, >85% polarization) irradiating a rotating water-cooled tungsten target or liquid metal target. The update on the development of the Ce⁺BAF injector concept including the polarized electron source, the development of high power targets, simulations of positron capture, the design of the transport line from the positron injector to the CEBAF North Linac and the planned experiment …

Preparation Of Mocvd-Grown Photocathodes Containing A Strained Gaas/Gaasp Superlattice, G. Blume, A. Masters, J. Grames, M. Stutzman, M. Grau, S. Marsillac

Physics Faculty Publications

In this work, we investigate heat cleaning options for high-polarization GaAs/GaAsP strained-superlattice (SSL) photocathodes with a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) that were grown using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). This was done using a microMott polarimeter at Jefferson Lab to optimize both quantum efficiency and polarization. The fabrication process for MOCVD-grown photocathodes does not allow for the inclusion of an arsenic cap, contrary to what is done when fabricating photocathodes using molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). Without proper preparation, the performance of MOCVD-grown photocathodes can be limited due to surface contamination. Here, we varied both duration and temperature of the heat cleaning …

The Use Of Two-Dimensional Detectors For Snapshot And High Accuracy Imaging Ellipsometry, Jeremy A. Vanderslice

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Ellipsometry is a powerful and sensitive optical technique used to characterize thin film thickness and optical properties by measuring changes in the polarization state of light upon reflection or transmission. This dissertation investigates novel ellipsometry configurations that use two-dimensional detectors to enhance measurement speed, spatial resolution, or accuracy of ellipsometry measurements. The study involves the development of three different ellipsometry configurations, encompassing mechanical prototypes, mathematical models, and test measurements to evaluate each system.

Advisor: Jeffrey Shield

Measurement Of Single Differential Cross Sections, Polarization Observables, And Beam-Spin Asymmetry In Charged Two-Pion Electroproduction Off The Proton, Christopher Andrew Mclauchlin

Theses and Dissertations

Emergent phenomena are described as such due to functional differences in paradigms based on observation scale, one of the most fundamental being the emergence of hadronic structure from bare quarks and gluons, as dictated by the strong interaction. Measurement of charged two-pion electroproduction off the proton with CLAS in run group E1-6 and the extraction of single differential cross sections, polarization observables, and beam-spin asymmetries was performed as a necessary step in illuminating the length scale currently dark to Quantum Chromodynamics within the structure of the proton. Understanding the scale-dependent nature of this hadronic structure is integral to understanding nature …

Measurement Of Transmission Efficiency Of Blue Light Blocking Devices, Jada Lee

Honors Theses

Technology and light sources have experienced a revolution in recent years leading to the production of light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. White-light LED bulbs undergo degradation over time, leading to a rise in color temperature and a proportional increase in the emission of blue light from these bulbs. The small size of LEDs makes them the optimal choice for electronic devices because of their limited screen size. This means that blue light now exists in red, green, and blue solid-state illumination systems that did not exist a decade ago. It is debated if blue light induces toxic effects on the …

The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility At 12 Gev, P. A. Adderly, S. Ahmed, T. Allison, R. Bachimanchi, K. Baggett, M. Bastaninejad, B. Bevins, M. Bevins, M. Bickley, R. M. Bodenstein, S. A. Bogacz, M. Bruker, A. Burrill, L. Cardman, J. Creel, Y. -C. Chao, G. Cheng, G. Ciovati, S. Chattopadhyay, Y. Zhang, Et Al.

Physics Faculty Publications

This review paper describes the energy-upgraded Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) accelerator. This superconducting linac has achieved 12 GeV beam energy by adding 11 new high-performance cryomodules containing 88 superconducting cavities that have operated cw at an average accelerating gradient of 20 MV/m. After reviewing the attributes and performance of the previous 6 GeV CEBAF accelerator, we discuss the upgraded CEBAF accelerator system in detail with particular attention paid to the new beam acceleration systems. In addition to doubling the acceleration in each linac, the upgrade included improving the beam recirculation magnets, adding more helium cooling capacity to …

Quest For An Optimal Spin-Polarized Electron Source For The Electron-Ion Collider, J. Biswas, E. Wang, O. Rahman, J. Sharitka, K. Kisslinger, Adam Masters, S. Marsillac, T. Lee

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Superlattice GaAs photocathodes play a crucial role as the primary source of polarized electrons in various accelerator facilities, including the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson National Laboratory and the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. To increase the quantum efficiency (QE) of GaAs/GaAsP superlattice photocathodes, a Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) is grown underneath using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). There are several challenges associated with DBR photocathodes: the resonance peak may not align with the emission threshold of around 780 nm, non-uniform doping density in the top 5 nm may significantly impact QE and spin polarization, …

Counting Linearly Polarized Gluons With Lattice Qcd, Shuai Zhao

Physics Faculty Publications

We outline an approach to calculate the transverse-momentum-dependent distribution of linearly polarized gluons inside an unpolarized hadron on the lattice with the help of large momentum effective theory. To achieve this purpose, we propose calculating a Euclidean version of the degree of polarization for a fast-moving hadron on the lattice, which is ultraviolet finite, and no soft function subtraction is needed. It indicates a practical way to explore the distribution of the linearly polarized gluons in a proton and the linearly polarized gluon effects in hadron collisions on the lattice.

Precision E- Beam Polarimetry At An E-E+ B Factory Using Tau-Pair Events, J. P. Lees, V. Poireau, V, Tisserand, E. Grauges, A. Palano, G. Eigen, D. N. Brown, Yu. G. Kolomensky, M. Fritsch, H. Koch, 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

We present a new technique, “tau polarimetry,” for measuring the longitudinal beam polarization present in an e⁺e⁻ collider through the analysis of e⁺e⁻ → τ⁺τ⁻ events. By exploiting the sensitivity of τ decay kinematics to the longitudinal polarization of the beams, we demonstrate that the longitudinal polarization can be measured with a 3 per mil systematic uncertainty at the interaction point using a technique that is independent of spin and beam transport modeling. Using 424.2 ± 1.8 fb⁻¹ of BABAR data at √ s = 10.58 GeV, the average longitudinal …

A Method To Measure Positron Beam Polarization Using Optically Polarized Atoms, Joshua Joshua Machacek, Sean Hodgman, Stephen Buckman, T. J. Gay

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We outline an experimental technique for measuring the degree of polarization of a positron beam using an optically pumped, spin-polarized Rb target. The technique is based on the production and measurement of the ortho- and para-positronium fractions through positron collisions with the Rb atoms as a function of their polarization. Using realistic estimates for the cross sections and experimental parameters involved, we estimate that a polarization measurement with an uncertainty of 3% of the measured value can be achieved in an hour

Carbon Dioxide-Induced Corrosion Of Aisi 4140 Steel In Acidified Artificial Geothermal Brine, Anawati Anawati, Rayhan Izzat, Riene Kaelamanda Pragitta, Rafli Ihsan Hernandi

Makara Journal of Science

Carbon dioxide (CO₂)-induced corrosion often occurs in the structural materials of geothermal industry. The presence of CO₂ influences the formation of various corrosion products. This research investigates the effect of dissolved CO₂ in acidic brines on the corrosion behavior of AISI 4140 steel at atmospheric pressure. The brines were the standard brine, Ca-free brine, and high-salinity brine. The corrosion behavior was studied using electrochemical and immersion tests. A cyclic polarization test showed that the corrosion rate was higher in dissolved CO₂ brine than in non-CO₂ brine, and an immersion test demonstrated a similar result. …

Fabrication And Characterisation Of Large Area, Uniform And Controllable Surface Relief Patterns In Photopolymer Material, Owen Kearney, Izabela Naydenova

Conference Papers

As the risk of antibiotic resistant pathogens increases, development of convenient point of care devices is essential. Such devices would help avoid infection – ensure cleanliness of environments and assist in bacteria analysis. The ultimate aim of the research presented here is to develop a compact, cost effective, easy to use optical device which is capable of detecting and quantifying bacteria in an aqueous sample. The surface relief patterns have a dual role, they provide a diffracted light signal, and control the adhesion of the bacteria to the surface. The strength of the diffracted signal is expected to provide a …

Measurement Of The Helicity Asymmetry E For The 𝛾p → P𝛑⁰ Reaction In The Resonance Region, C. W. Kim, N. Zachariou, M. Bashkanov, W. J. Briscoe, S. Fegan, V. L. Kashevarov, K. Nikonov, A. Sarantsev, A. Schmidt, I. I. Strakovsky, D. P. Watts, R. L. Workman, P. Achenbach, Z. Akbar, M. J. Amaryan, G. Angelini, W. R. Armstrong, H. Atac, L. Baashen, M. Zurek, Et Al., The Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

The double-spin-polarization observable E for 𝛾^→ p^→ → p𝛑⁰ has been measured with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at photon beam energies E𝛾 from 0.367 to 2.173 GeV (corresponding to center-of-mass energies from 1.240 to 2.200 GeV) for pion center-of-mass angles, cos θ^c.m._𝛑⁰, between - 0.86 and 0.82. These new CLAS measurements cover a broader energy range and have smaller uncertainties compared to previous CBELSA data and provide an important independent check on systematics. These measurements are compared to predictions as well as new global fits from The George Washington University, Mainz, and Bonn-Gatchina …

Nuclear Magnetic Quadrupole Moment Of ¹⁷⁵Lu And Parity-Violating Polarization Degree Of Levels In ¹⁷⁵Luoh⁺, Igor Kurchavov, Daniel Maison, Leonid Skripnikov, Matt Grau, Alexander Petrov

Physics Faculty Publications

A calculation is performed of the parity-violating polarizations in the external electric field, which are associated with the electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) and magnetic quadrupole moment (MQM) of the ¹⁷⁵Lu nucleus, as well as the determination of the rovibrational structure for the ¹⁷⁵LuOH⁺ cation. Beyond the bending of the molecule, the slight effect of the stretching of the distance between Lu and OH is taken into account. This study is required for the preparation of the experiment and for the extraction of the eEDM and MQM values of ¹⁷⁵Lu from future measurements.

High Figure Of Merit Spin Polarized Electron Sources Grown Via Mocvd, Benjamin Belfore, Adam Masters, Deewakar Poudel, Greg Blume, Stephen Polly, Erdong Wang, Seth M. Hubbard, Marcy Stutzman, Joseph M. Grames, Matt Poelker, Matt Grau, Sylvain Marsillac

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Spin polarized photocathodes are key to the future operation of electron accelerators such as the ones at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Currently, these photocathodes come in short supply due to limited production by molecular beam epitaxy. By developing a process to implement similar structures using metal organic chemical vapor deposition, the availability of these devices can be increased. In this paper, we detail the implementation of recent photocathode advancements via metal organic chemical vapor deposition process and show an improvement in both polarization and quantum efficiency of our devices compared to those fabricated via molecular …

The Fermilab Spinquest Experiment: Commissioning And Plans Toward Production, Nuwan Chaminda Gunawardhana Waduge

Theses and Dissertations

E1039/SpinQuest, a transversely-polarized Drell-Yan experiment at Fermilab, plans to use the 120 GeV proton beam and polarized NH3 and ND3 cryogenic targets to study azimuthal asymmetries in dimuon production to extract the magnitude as well as sign of the sea quarks Sivers functions. The SpinQuest spectrometer is optimized to detect oppositely-charged muons with a series of tracking chambers and hodoscope stations. The scope of this manuscript is to highlight the physics goals and the experimental setup with a focus on the ongoing debugging and training of one of the tracking systems, mainly drift chambers, as preparation for the upcoming commissioning …

Event-Based Imaging Polarimeter, Michael R. Hawks, Michael L. Dexter

Faculty Publications

The design and initial experimental results from an event-based, rotating-polarizer, imaging polarimeter are presented. The speed of division-of-time imaging systems is traditionally constrained by the frame rate of the focal plane sensor and the need to sample several polarization angles during rotation. The asynchronous event reporting of event-based cameras (EBCs) frees these constraints but introduces challenges. The Stokes vectors used to describe polarization are based on irradiance, but EBCs are inherently change-detection systems that struggle to estimate irradiance. Two methods of estimating the polarization state without first recovering irradiance images are presented and compared. The DAVIS 346 sensor enables simultaneous …

Beam-Recoil Transferred Polarization In K+Y Electroproduction In The Nucleon Resonance Region With Clas12, D. S. Carman, A. D'Angelo, L. Lanza, V. I. Mokeev, K. P. Adhikari, M. J. Amaryan, W. R. Armstrong, H. Atac, H. Avakian, C. Ayerbe Gayoso, N. A. Baltzell, L. Barion, M. Battaglieri, I. Bedlinskiy, B. Benkel, A. Bianconi, A. S. Biselli, M. Bondi, S. Boiarinov, V. Ziegler

Physics Faculty Publications

Beam-recoil transferred polarizations for the exclusive electroproduction of K + Λ and K + Σ⁰ final states from an unpolarized proton target have been measured using the CLAS12 spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory. The measurements at beam energies of 6.535 and 7.546 GeV span the range of four-momentum transfer Q² from 0.3 to 4.5 GeV² and invariant energy W from 1.6 to 2.4 GeV, while covering the full center-of-mass angular range of the K⁺. These new data extend the existing hyperon polarization data from CLAS in a similar kinematic range but from a significantly larger dataset. …

A Surrogate Model Of Molecular Dynamics Simulations For Polar Fluids: Supervised Learning Methods For Molecular Polarization And Unsupervised Methods For Phase Classification, Zackerie W. Hjorth

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation is a standard computational tool in soft matter physics. While very powerful, it is computationally expensive, leading to some simulations taking days or even weeks to complete depending on the size of your computer cluster. Finding computationally cheap surrogate models which can learn the output features of MD simulation is therefore highly motivated. In this report I explore the use of deep neural network ensembles as well as support vector machine regressors as surrogate models for MD simulation. From the output of the surrogate models, we can then employ unsupervised learning methods to get insight into …

Improved Neutron Lifetime Measurement With Ucn Τ, Alexander Komives, Et Al.

Physics & Astronomy Faculty publications

We report an improved measurement of the free neutron lifetime τn using the UCNτ apparatus at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. We count a total of approximately 38×106 surviving ultracold neutrons (UCNs) after storing in UCNτ’s magnetogravitational trap over two data acquisition campaigns in 2017 and 2018. We extract τn from three blinded, independent analyses by both pairing long and short storage time runs to find a set of replicate τn measurements and by performing a global likelihood fit to all data while self-consistently incorporating the β-decay lifetime. Both techniques achieve consistent results and find a value τn=877.75±0.28stat+0.22/−0.16syst  s. …

Characterization Of A Trochoidal Electron Monochromator, Jesse Kruse

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis presents a quantitative study of a trochoidal electron monochromator and attempts to observe the 2p^53p^2 resonance in neon. A detailed description of the experimental apparatus, including the electron beam system, the vacuum system, and the light analysis system, is presented first. Then, we discuss the theory of how the electron beam is monochromatized, how we measured monochomatization, and how we analyze the light being emitted from the collision cell. The light analysis system is capable of accurately measuring the relative Stokes parameters for any polarization of light, and the electron beam system is capable of producing electron beams …

A Computationally-Efficient Bound For The Variance Of Measuring The Orientation Of Single Molecules, Tingting Wu, Tianben Ding, Hesam Mazidi, Oumeng Zhang, Matthew D. Lew

Electrical & Systems Engineering Publications and Presentations

Modulating the polarization of excitation light, resolving the polarization of emitted fluorescence, and point spread function (PSF) engineering have been widely leveraged for measuring the orientation of single molecules. Typically, the performance of these techniques is optimized and quantified using the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB), which describes the best possible measurement variance of an unbiased estimator. However, CRB is a local measure and requires exhaustive sampling across the measurement space to fully characterize measurement precision. We develop a global variance upper bound (VUB) for fast quantification and comparison of orientation measurement techniques. Our VUB tightly bounds the diagonal elements of the …

Polarization Dependence Of High Order Harmonic Generation From Solids In Reflection And Transmission Geometries, Erin L. Crites

Honors Undergraduate Theses

High harmonic generation (HHG) is a process that occurs when an intense laser interacts with a material and generates new frequencies of light. HHG has many practical applications, namely as a spectroscopy technique and source for high frequency light and attosecond pulses. While HHG has been done extensively in gases, HHG in solids is a relatively new field. Solids are appealing as an HHG medium as they require much simpler equipment and are subsequently much more compact, and thus may have a variety of applications previously inaccessible to gas-phase HHG. However, the generation mechanism of HHG in solids has not …

Origin Of Single Transverse-Spin Asymmetries In High-Energy Collisions, Justin Cammarota, Leonard Gamberg, Zhong-Bo Kang, Joshua A. Miller, Daniel Pitonyak, Alexei Prokudin, Ted C. Rogers, Nobuo Sato

Physics Faculty Publications

In this paper, we perform the first simultaneous QCD global analysis of data from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, Drell-Yan, 𝑒⁺⁢𝑒⁻ annihilation into hadron pairs, and proton-proton collisions. Consequently, we are able to extract a universal set of nonperturbative functions that describes the observed asymmetries in these reactions. The outcome of our analysis indicates single transverse-spin asymmetries in high-energy collisions have a common origin. Furthermore, we achieve the first phenomenological agreement with lattice QCD on the up and down quark tensor charges.

Polarization Properties Of Airy And Ince-Gaussian Laser Beams, Sean Michael Nomoto

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The description of polarization states of laser light as linear, circular polarization within the paraxial scalar wave approximation is adequate for most applications. However, this description falls short when considering laser light as an electromagnetic wave satisfying Maxwell's equations. An electric field with a constant unit vector for direction of the field and a space dependent complex scalar amplitude in the paraxial wave approximation does not satisfy Maxwell equations which, in general, requires all three Cartesian components of electric and magnetic fields associated for a nonzero laser beam to be nonzero.

Physical observation of passing a linearly polarized laser through …

Quantifying Complex Systems Via Computational Fly Swarms, Troy Taylor

Senior Theses

Complexity is prevalent both in natural and in human-made systems, yet is not well understood quantitatively. Qualitatively, complexity describes a phenomena in which a system composed of individual pieces, each having simple interactions with one another, results in interesting bulk properties that would otherwise not exist. One example of a complex biological system is the bird flock, in particular, a starling murmuration. Starlings are known to move in the direction of their neighbors and avoid collisions with fellow starlings, but as a result of these simple movement choices, the flock as a whole tends to exhibit fluid-like movements and form …

Shaping The Far-Zone Intensity, Degree Of Polarization, Angle Of Polarization, And Ellipticity Angle Using Vector Schell-Model Sources, Milo W. Hyde Iv

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a method to control both the shape and polarization of a beam in the far field using a vector Schell-model source. Given a desired far-zone beam shape and polarization, and applying Fourier and statistical optics theory, we derive the requisite second-order moments of said source, discuss what aspects of the far-zone beam can be controlled, and develop a step-by-step procedure for synthesizing the required random vector field instances. We validate this approach with Monte-Carlo wave-optics simulations. The results are found to be in very good agreement with the desired far-zone beam characteristics. The beam-shaping technique developed in …