Physics Commons^™

Part Em: Classical Electrodynamics, Konstantin Likharev

Essential Graduate Physics

Includes: Electric Charge Interaction; Charges and Conductors; Polarization of Dielectrics; DC Currents; Magnetism; Time-Dependent Electromagnetism; Electromagnetic Wave Propagation; Radiation, Scattering, Interference, and Diffraction; Special Relativity; Radiation by Relativistic Charges

Frequency Stabilization Of An Affordable Adjustable Repetition Rate Dual Frequency Comb Spectrometer, Michael Moran

Physics, Astronomy and Geophysics Honors Papers

Two affordably home-built optical frequency combs are stabilized for use in molecular spectroscopy. Each comb is paired with a multi-tiered stabilization scheme that will enable the dual-comb spectrometer to perform precision measurements. The two degrees of freedom for an optical frequency comb, the repetition rate frequency and offset frequency, are accounted for in this stabilization scheme. The repetition rate is directly stabilized through control of the laser enclosure temperature and the fiber laser cavity length. The offset frequency is controlled indirectly via the stabilization of an optical beat note, the heterodyned signal resulting from a narrow linewidth laser and the …

The Link Fantastic: Detecting And Linking Simulated, Nongravitationally-Accelerating Objects With The Rubin Observatory Pipeline, Ellie White

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is poised to revolutionize our understanding of the Solar System. After only a few months of regular operations, Rubin has already discovered over 11,000 new Solar System bodies, and is projected to discover millions more. With discoveries pouring in, and with the development of moving object detection pipelines for routine observing, one key question is: how effectively can Rubin detect and identify objects with anomalous trajectories? The answer is of interest not only for natural bodies in our Solar System, but also in the search for technosignatures, which could be identified …

Investigating The Viability Of Fully Online Asynchronous Physics Instruction In Formal Education, Clifton W. Massey-Noel

Physics Dissertations

In this dissertation we present results from two consecutive investigations into the fully online asynchronous modality in Physics Education. We first discuss the efficacy of a fully online asynchronous section of Modern Physics held in Fall 2024. The asynchronous section is compared with four prior partially-flipped sections of the same class, two of which were held in-person, and two of which were held synchronously online. Results suggest that all three modalities can be made to be about equally as effective. We also discuss the efficacy of a fully online asynchronous section of Calculus-Based Introductory Mechanics held in Fall 2025. The …

Physics Alumni Newsletter Spring 2026, Terry Goforth

Physics Alumni Newsletter

Physics Alumni Newsletter

The Physics Alumni Newsletter is produced by the SWOSU Physics Department.

Our Engineering Physics students are recruited in fields such as electronics, aerospace, mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering and software engineering. Graduates also have careers in meteorology, architecture, education and more.

Front Matter, Konstantin Likharev

Essential Graduate Physics

Includes: Copyright and License; Preface; Disclaimer; Versions, Corrections, and Acknowledgments; Solution Request Templates; Notation; General Table of Contents

Evidence For A Spectral Break Or Curvature In The Spectrum Of Astrophysical Neutrinos From 5 Tev To 10 Pev, Karen Andeen

Physics Faculty Research and Publications

We report improved measurements of the all flavor astrophysical neutrino spectrum with IceCube by combining complementary neutrino samples in two independent analyses. Both analyses show evidence of a harder spectrum at energies below  ∼30  TeV compared to higher energies where the spectrum is well characterized by a power law. The spectrum is better described by a log parabola or a broken power law, the latter being the preferred model. Both, however, reject a single power law over an energy range 5 TeV–10 PeV with a significance  >4⁢𝜎, providing new constraints on properties of cosmic neutrino sources.

Memory Effects In Many-Body Systems, Jeffrey Beckstrand

Master's Projects

This thesis investigates memory effects in many-body systems through the MoriZwanzig Formalism for projected dynamics of a Hamiltonian System which yields the Generalized Langevin Equation (GLE). The GLE is a stochastic differential equation (SDE) that studies the dynamics of observables under the effects of many other observables in the system. Although satisfying, the GLE has a term called the Memory Kernel that encodes the past of the system and introduces a computational challenge by introducing a non-Markovian property to the equation. The kernel is often approximated by introducing a delta function, which simplifies the computation, but at the loss of …

Quantum Critical Behavior Of Diluted Quasi-One-Dimensional Ising Chains, Logan Sowadski, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

(Formula presented.) (Formula presented.) is a unique magnetic material. It features bulk 3D magnetic order at low temperatures, but its quantum critical behavior in a magnetic field is well described by the 1D transverse-field Ising universality class. This behavior is facilitated by the structural arrangement of magnetic (Formula presented.) ions in nearly isolated zig-zag chains. In this work, we investigate the effect of random site dilution on the critical properties of such a quasi-1D quantum Ising system. To this end, we introduce an anisotropic site-diluted 3D transverse-field Ising model. We find that site dilution leads to unconventional activated scaling behavior …

Generation Of Wave Turbulence In Dipolar Gases Driven Across Their Phase Transitions, Georgios A. Bougas, Koushik Mukherjee, Simeon Mistakidis

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ultracold quantum gases with long-range anisotropic interactions host novel exotic phases of matter, such as super solids, exhibiting both rigid and superfluid characteristics. The impact of this interplay on the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of dipolar gases, and in particular its connection with universal turbulent behavior, remains highly unexplored. Here, upon considering a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate of dysprosium atoms being dynamically driven across the super solid-superfluid phase transition and vice versa, we unveil the emergence of a robust nonequilibrium quasi-steady state. This state displays self-similar momentum distributions exhibiting algebraic decay at large momenta, with scaling exponents supporting the existence of wave turbulence. …

Guitar Amplifier Directivity, Rachel C. Edelman, Brian E. Anderson, Samuel D. Bellows, Timothy W. Leishman

Directivity

No abstract provided.

Uncertainty Quantification, Propagation & Conjunction Assessment In Orbital Mechanics Using Generalized Polynomial Chaos Expansion & 2-Dimensional Conjunction Plane Analysis Techniques, Monalisa Karim

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Uncertainties, that are inherent to dynamic models, can be associated with state initial conditions, force modelling errors, navigation and actuation errors. In system modelling stochastic differential equations are used to represent dynamic phenomena with uncertainties, for which the solutions are probability density functions of quantities of interest characterizing the realization of the stochastic processes. In Polynomial Chaos Expansion (PCE) propagation, these solutions are represented as weighted sums of multivariate spectral polynomials that are functions of the input random variables. Generalized polynomial chaos expansion (gPC) is an extension to the original homogenous PCE which projects the random solution onto a basis …

Liutex - A Fluid Vortex, Oscar Alvarez

Mathematics Dissertations

Fluid vortices are found everywhere in our universe. A vortex can take the form of almost anything - from the classical spiral vortex to chaotic plumes. Defining a vortex physically and mathematically is absolutely necessary if we desire to study vortices and their interactions with each other as well as our physical world. Fluid vortices are incredibly important in the study of turbulent flows. From determining wear, optimizing design for better flow, efficiency, etc., to even predicting the weather on Earth or other planets, having the ability to measure vortices in fluid flow is invaluable. In this study, I investigate …

An Investigation On Downwind Impacts Of The Keweenaw Peninsula On Lake-Effect Snow Events, Thomas M. Pavell

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Lake-effect snow (LES) produces copious amounts of snow across the Great Lakes region. While mechanisms and impacts are well-understood, they remain difficult to observe and study over Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan due to a large gap in radar coverage and sparse in-situ measurements. The goal of this project aimed to characterize variables present across Lake Superior and counties on and downstream of the Keweenaw Peninsula that contribute to the formation and evolution of lake-effect snowbands. Nine different lake-effect snow events were analyzed in this project, identifying structures and features resulting from upstream passage over the Keweenaw …

Determining The Electric Field In A 10 Ns Pulsed Plasma In Fuel-Air Mixtures Using Efish, Md Ziaur Rahman, Christopher J. Kliewer, Brian D. Patterson, Chunqi Jiang

Bioelectrics Publications

Transient plasma ignition (TPI) utilizes non-equilibrium plasmas, produced by nanosecond high-voltage pulses, to improve lean-fuel combustion performance and reduce emission. It is known that the relatively high reduced electric field (E/N) in TPI plays an important role in generating energetic electrons and facilitating energy-efficient radical productions, resulting in reliable ignition for lean combustion. Determining the reduced electric field in the discharge is hence important for the understanding of the TPI process and ultimately allowing for the control of the plasma chemistry. This study reports spatiotemporally resolved measurements of the electric field (E) in a 10 ns pulsed plasma that is …

A Chandra View Of Spt-Cl J0217–5014: A Massive Galaxy Cluster At A Cosmic Intersection At Z = 0.53, Dan Hu, Shida Fan, Zhongsheng Yuan, Junjie Mao, Norbert Werner, Yuanyuan Su, François Mernier, Yuanyuan Zhao, Liyi Gu, Haiguang Xu

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Context. Galaxy clusters trace the densest regions of the cosmic web and are crucial laboratories for studying the thermodynamic and chemical evolution of the intracluster medium (ICM). The massive galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0217−5014 (z ∼ 0.53; M₅₀₀ ∼ 3 × 10¹⁴ M_⊙) is one of the Swift X-Ray Telescope serendipitous galaxy clusters with the highest reported Fe abundance (∼1.3 ± 0.4 Z_⊙ within ∼ 1_.^′7) and a potentially disturbed morphology.

Aims. SPT-CL J0217−5014 presents an intriguing opportunity to investigate ICM chemical enrichment and cool-core survival. With this study, we aim to …

A Uniform Analysis Of Gas-Phase Metallicity Evolution With 1–3 Gyr Time Sampling Over The Past 12 Gyr, Shweta Jain, Ryan L. Sanders, Ali Ahmad Khostova, Tucker Jones, Alice E. Shapley, Naveen Reddy, Alex M. Garcia, Paul Torrey, Alison L. Coil

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present a systematic investigation of the evolution of the mass–metallicity relation (MZR) and fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) using uniform metallicity diagnostics across redshifts z ∼ 0 to z ∼ 3.3. We present new Keck/Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph measurements of the [O II]λλ3726, 3729 emission line doublet for star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 1.5 with existing measurements of redder rest-optical lines from the MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field survey. These new observations enable uniform estimation of the gas-phase oxygen abundance using ratios of the [O II], Hβ, and [O III] lines for mass-binned samples of star-forming galaxies …

Energy Levels Of Multiscale Bound States From Qed Energy-Momentum Trace, Michael I. Eides, Vladimir A. Yerokhin

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Energy levels of quantum electrodynamics (QED) bound states, which depend on a number of independent mass parameters, can be calculated as matrix elements of the QED energy-momentum tensor trace. As an example of such system we consider muonic hydrogen. The leading one-loop corrections to its energy levels depend on the electron and muon masses. These corrections are calculated as matrix elements of the energy-momentum tensor trace. Respective one-loop trace diagrams are different from the standard Lamb shift diagrams. We explain analytically and diagrammatically why two different sets of diagrams lead to the same results. Similar relationships should also hold beyond …

Fe Xviii–Xxiv Kβ Inner-Shell Absorption Lines In The X-Ray Spectra Of Neutron Star And Black Hole Binaries With Xrism, Masahiro Tsujimoto, Daiki Miura, Hiroya Yamaguchi, Ehud Behar, Chris Done, María Díaz Trigo, Chamani M. Gunasekera, Peter A. M. Van Hoof, Stefano Bianchi, Maryam Dehghanian, Gary J. Ferland

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The advent of the X-ray microcalorimeter spectrometer Resolve onboard the XRISM space telescope opened a new era for high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of astrophysical plasmas. Many spectral features were newly detected, including the Kα and Kβ inner-shell transition lines of mildly ionized (F- to Li-like) Fe at 6–8 keV in the spectra of X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. The widely used atomic databases contain information on the Kα but not Kβ lines of these ions. We conducted the atomic structure calculation using FAC to derive the Fe Kα and Kβ lines and verified the …

Temperature-Dependent Dielectric Function Of Solids From Coupled Oscillators With Radiation Reaction: Application To Atom–Surface Interactions, Tuhin Kanti Das

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, we propose a uniform functional form of the dielectric function of solids that is applicable over a wide range of frequencies. We apply our model to describe the dielectric function of two technologically important materials: silicon and calcium fluoride. The temperature dependence of their dielectric functions is also described using simple analytic forms. We found that a generalized Sellmeier-type model with complex denominators (“damped oscillators”) does not lead to a satisfactory fit of experimental data for the dielectric function. In contrast, our model, which is analytically only slightly more involved (“complex oscillator strengths”, complex numerators), allows us …

Fully Differential Studies On Dissociative Capture In P + D2 Collisions And On Ionization In P + He Collisions, Shruti Majumdar

Doctoral Dissertations

Advancing our understanding of few-body dynamics in simple atomic systems is a fundamental objective in atomic scattering research. The underlying problem is that the Schrödinger equation is not analytically solvable for more than two mutually interacting particles. This involves a comprehensive exploration of various channels, such as ionization, capture, and excitation. A common theoretical approach to describe ion-atom collisions is based on perturbation theory, where the scattering amplitude is expanded in powers of the interaction potential. Here, understanding the few-body problem means accurately describing the relative importance of the higher- vs the first order terms.

In the case of ionization, …

Gpu And Pso Accelerated Low-Latency Fully-Coherent All-Sky Search For Compact Binary Coalescences, Soumya D. Mohanty

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The fully-coherent all-sky (FCAS) search, which combines data from a gravitational wave detector network into a single likelihood function, is the preferred method prescribed by statistical theory for Gaussian noise. However, so far, its exorbitant computational cost has blocked its use for compact binary coalescence searches. We introduce a solution combining Particle Swarm Optimization with Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) acceleration that is ≈ 50-fold faster than real-time analysis. This transforms the prospect of a low-latency FCAS search on all GW data into a practical reality for the first time. With large-scale simulations enabled by this speedup, we examine the issue …

Efficient Search For Detection Candidates Using A Peak Finder Strategy For All-Sky-All-Frequency Gravitational Wave Radiometer, Arindam Sharma, Deepali Agarwal, Sanjit Mitra

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The first all-sky-all-frequency (ASAF) radiometer search was conducted using data from the first three observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The significance of this search lies in its fast and unmodeled approach, leveraging a cross-correlation technique to identify common signals across the detector network. As a result, this method serves as an excellent alternative to search for unknown or poorly modeled continuous wave sources and narrow band components of the gravitational wave (GW) background. For continuous wave sources whose waveform can be modeled, this method can serve as the first stage of a hierarchical scheme by …

Pull-Out Performance Of Multiple Glued-In Rods In Sustainable Inorganic-Bonded Bamboo Composite Under Perpendicular-To-Grain Loading, Jing Ru Yao, Shaohua Yu, Qingxia Yue, Hanshu Zhang, Ernian Zhao

Physics and Engineering Science

As a sustainable bio-based material derived from bamboo crops, inorganic-bonded bamboo composite (InorgBam) exhibits excellent environmental sustainability, fire resistance, and long-term durability. To enable its broader adoption in structural applications, robust and efficient connection methods are essential. Glued-in rod (GiR) connections, characterized by high strength, stiffness, and superior fire performance, are especially well-suited for modern engineered bamboo and timber connections. The pull-out behavior of multiple GiRs in InorgBam material under perpendicular-to-grain loading was experimentally investigated using double-, triple-, and quadruple-rod specimens. The influence of anchorage length and spacing on failure modes and load-carrying capacity was systematically analyzed. Results demonstrate that …

A Novel Simulation Framework To Estimate Dynamic Response Of A Solar Panel Array Under Stationary Stochastic Wind Loads, Hanshu Zhang, You Jia Li, Matthew J. Dejong

Physics and Engineering Science

This paper presents a novel simulation framework for estimating the dynamic response of a full-scale ground-mounted solar panel array under stationary wind loads that are spatially correlated across the length of the solar panel array. Specifically, the framework uses mean pressure coefficient distributions along the length of a 1:10 prototype scale of the solar panel array from smooth inflow derived using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software The Wind Engineering with Uncertainty Quantification (WE-UQ). Note that for the CFD simulation, the input wind field across the length of the solar panel array is uniform along the horizontal direction, and …

The Scattering Algebra Of Physical Space: Squared Massive Constructive Amplitudes, Moab Croft, Neil Christensen

Faculty publications – Physics

The Algebra of Physical Space (APS) is used to explore the Constructive Standard Model (CSM) of particle physics. Namely, this paper connects the spinor formalism of the APS to massive amplitudes in the CSM. A novel equivalency between traditional CSM and APS-CSM formalisms is introduced, called the Scattering Algebra (SA), with example calculations confirming the consistency of results between both frameworks. Through this all, two significant insights are revealed: The identification of traditional CSM spin spinors with Lorentz rotors in the APS, and the connection of the CSM to various formalisms through ray spinor structure. The CSM’s results are …

Amorphous Selenium Photodetectors For Liquid Noble Detectors, Michael Rooks

Physics Dissertations - Archive

Physics offers a way to connect deeply with the mysteries that surround us. Advances in detector physics, particularly in neutrino experiments and rare-event searches, have expanded our ability to probe phenomena that challenge how we describe the universe. Each discovery brings us closer to understanding the unknown, returning us to a sense of wonder that motivates exploration. My work on detector technology was inspired by a concept paper from Professor David Nygren, in which he noted the speculative possibility of integrating photon detection into a charge readout for pixelated liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) using the photoconductor amorphous selenium …

Part Qm: Quantum Mechanics, Konstantin Likharev

Essential Graduate Physics

Includes: Introduction; 1D Wave Mechanics; Higher Dimensionality Effects; Bra-ket Formalism; Some Exactly Solvable Problems; Perturbation Theories; Open Quantum Systems; Multiparticle Systems; Introduction to Relativistic Quantum Mechanics; Making Sense of Quantum Mechanics

Part Cm: Classical Mechanics, Konstantin Likharev

Essential Graduate Physics

Includes: Review of Fundamentals; Lagrangian Formalism; A Few Simple Problems; Oscillations; From Oscillations to Waves; Rigid Body Motion; Deformations and Elasticity; Fluid Mechanics; Deterministic Chaos; A Bit More of Analytical Mechanics

In Situ Observations Of Thermal Ions In Perturbed Ionospheres: Techniques And Results, Magdalina Louise Moses

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Prediction and mitigation of space weather events are active research topics that require knowledge of the physics governing the ionosphere. Sounding rockets can be used to make in situ observations. The Lynch Rocket Lab created the Petite-Ion-Probe (PIP), a small retarding potential analyzer, to measure thermal ion parameters (i.e., ion density and temperature). A PIP's raw data consists of a series of measured anode currents as a function of screen bias voltages, called IV curves. PIPs can be integrated onto a sounding rocket’s main payload and/or be deployed from the rocket on small platforms called ``PIP-Bobs''. Note that as the …