Elementary Particles and Fields and String Theory Commons^™

On Resolving The Neutron Lifetime Puzzle, Polievkt Perov

College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Works

The neutron lifetime puzzle, characterized by significantly different lifetime values obtained from bottle vs beam experiments, may stem from differences in how decayed neutrons are counted. Neutron decay is a beta-decay process producing a proton, an electron, and a neutrino. In bottle experiments, the number of decayed neutrons is measured directly. In beam experiments, this number is inferred indirectly by counting the protons resulting from neutron decays. It is proposed that in beam experiments, some protons may capture electrons and form neutral hydrogen atoms, which go undetected by proton detectors. Consequently, not all neutron decay events are counted, leading to …

Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Bee!, Kobe D. Rome

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

By injecting an electron into the empty pie* molecular orbital (LUMO) of Amino Acids in gas phase, we measure the Vertical Attachment Energies (VAEs) for the formation of short-lived anion states of these species using electron transmission spectroscopy (ETS). Our ETS study, a first of its kind to measure the VAE for the simplest of proteins, Glycine-Glycine (Gly-Gly), is currently in progress. Based on our previous measurements for several Amino Acids including Glycine, we expect a common range of attachment energy (1.50 – 2.00 eV) for Gly-Gly.

Dual Energy Electron Storage Ring Cooler Design For Relativistic Ion Beams, Bhawin Dhital

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Collider experiments demand small beam emittances in order to achieve high luminosity. For light particles such as electrons, there exists a natural synchrotron radiation damping resulting in low emittance beams at equilibrium. In the case of heavy particle beams such as proton or ion beams, there is no significant synchrotron radiation damping effect and some cooling mechanism is needed to get to low emittance beams. A dual energy storage ring cooler is a novel concept proposed to cool hadron beams at higher energies. The design consists of two rings: a low energy ring and a high energy ring connected by …

Classification Of Pixel Tracks To Improve Track Reconstruction From Proton-Proton Collisions, Kebur Fantahun, Jobin Joseph, Halle Purdom, Nibhrat Lohia

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, machine learning techniques are used to reconstruct particle collision pathways. CERN (Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire) uses a massive underground particle collider, called the Large Hadron Collider or LHC, to produce particle collisions at extremely high speeds. There are several layers of detectors in the collider that track the pathways of particles as they collide. The data produced from collisions contains an extraneous amount of background noise, i.e., decays from known particle collisions produce fake signal. Particularly, in the first layer of the detector, the pixel tracker, there is an overwhelming amount of background noise that …

Temporal Coherent Control Of Resonant Two-Photon Double Ionization Of The Hydrogen Molecule Via Doubly Excited States, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We use time-delayed, counter-rotating, circularly polarized few-cycle attosecond nonoverlapping pulses to study the temporal coherent control of the resonant process of two-photon double ionization (TPDI) of hydrogen molecule via doubly excited states for pulse propagation direction along ˆk either parallel or perpendicular to the molecular axis ˆR. For ˆk ‖ ˆR and a pulse carrier frequency of 36 eV resonantly populating the Q₂ 1∏ ⁺ _u (1) doubly excited state as well as other 1∏ ⁺ _u doubly excited states, we find that the indirect ionization pathway through these doubly excited states changes the character of the kinematical vortex-shaped …

Beam Spin Asymmetry In Semi-Inclusive Electroproduction Of Hadron Pairs, M. J. Amaryan, M. Hattawy, S. E. Kuhn, Y. Prok, J. Zhang, Z. W. Zhao, Et Al., Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

A first measurement of the longitudinal beam spin asymmetry A_LU in the semi-inclusive electroproduction of pairs of charged pions is reported. A_LU is a higher-twist observable and offers the cleanest access to the nucleon twist-3 parton distribution function e(x). Data have been collected in the Hall-B at Jefferson Lab by impinging a 5.498-GeV electron beam on a liquid-hydrogen target, and reconstructing the scattered electron and the pion pair with the CLAS detector. One-dimensional projections of the A^sin_LU^ϕR moments are extracted for the kinematic variables of interest in the valence quark region. The …

First Demonstration Of The Use Of Crab Cavities On Hadron Beams, R. Calaga, A. Alekou, F. Antoniou, R. B. Appleby, L. Arnaudon, K. Artoos, G. Arduini, V. Baglin, S. Barriere, H. Bartosik, P. Baudrenghien, I. Ben-Zvi, T. Bohl, A. Boucherie, O. S. Brüning, K. Brondzinski, A. Butterworth, G. Burt, O. Capatina, S. Calvo, T. Capelli, M. Carlà, F. Carra, L. R. Carver, A. Castilla-Loeza, E. Daly, L. Dassa, J. Delayen, S. U. De Silva, A. Dexter, M. Garlasche, F. Gerigk, L. Giordanino, D. Glenat, M. Guinchard, A. Harrison, E. Jensen, C. Julie, T. Jones, F. Killing, A. Krawczyk, T. Levens, R. Leuxe, B. Lindstrom, Z. Li, A. Macewen, A. Macpherson, P. Menendez, T. Mikkola, P. Minginette, J. Mitchell, E. Montesinos, G. Papotti, H. Park, C. Pasquino, S. Pattalwar, E. C. Pleite, T. Powers, B. Prochal, A. Ratti, L. Rossi, V. Rude, M. Therasse, R. Tomás, N. Stapely, I. Santillana, N. Shipman, J. Simonin, M. Sosin, J. Swieszek, N. Templeton, G. Vandoni, S. Verdú-Andrés, M. Wartak, C. Welsch, D. Wollman, Q. Wu, B. Xiao, E. Yamakawa, C. Zanoni, F. Zimmermann, A. Zwozniak

Physics Faculty Publications

Many future particle colliders require beam crabbing to recover geometric luminosity loss from the nonzero crossing angle at the interaction point (IP). A first demonstration experiment of crabbing with hadron beams was successfully carried out with high energy protons. This breakthrough result is fundamental to achieve the physics goals of the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) and the future circular collider (FCC). The expected peak luminosity gain (related to collision rate) is 65% for HL-LHC and even greater for the FCC. Novel beam physics experiments with proton beams in CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) were performed to demonstrate several critical aspects …

Intense Monochromatic Photons Above 100 Kev From An Inverse Compton Source, Kirsten Deitrick, Georg H. Hoffstaetter, Carl Franck, Bruno D. Muratori, Peter H. Williams, Geoffrey A, Krafft, Balša Terzić, Joe Crone, Hywel Owen

Physics Faculty Publications

Quasimonochromatic x rays are difficult to produce above 100 keV, but have a number of uses in x-ray and nuclear science, particularly in the analysis of transuranic species. Inverse Compton scattering (ICS) is capable of fulfilling this need, producing photon beams with properties and energies well beyond the limits of typical synchrotron radiation facilities. We present the design and predicted output of such an ICS source at CBETA, a multiturn energy-recovery linac with a top energy of 150 MeV, which we anticipate producing x rays with energies above 400 keV and a collimated flux greater than 108 photons per second …

Minimizing The Duration Of Isolated Attosecond Pulses, Dian Peng, Anthony F. Starace, Hua-Chieh Shao, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We investigate theoretically how the duration of an isolated attosecond pulse (IAP) can be minimized by carefully selecting frequencies of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) spectra produced by ultrashort driving laser pulses. Based on numerical calculations of HHG by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a single H atom, we provide three strategies for generating shorter IAPs. First, when the high-frequency region of an HHG plateau is selected one should use frequencies below the cutoff. Second, for a wide HHG plateau the low-frequency region can produce shorter IAPs than the high-frequency region. Third, we propose a method of producing IAPs with …

Origin Of The Multiphoton-Regime Harmonic-Generation Plateau Structure, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

A physical interpretation is provided for the formation of the multiphoton-regime plateau feature in the spectra of nonlinear and correlated process of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) of two-active-electron atoms interacting with an intense linearly polarized laser field [Phys. Rev. A 88, 053412 (2013) for beryllium]. While in the strong-field tunneling regime the plateau feature is well known to be due to rescattering effects of the freed electron, its counterpart in the multiphoton regime is due to atomic resonance effects involving both singly excited states and doubly excited states. Here, we propose a strategy to uncover which kind of these states …

Attosecond-Pulse Metrology Based On High-Order Harmonic Generation, T. S. Sarantseva, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Silaev, A. A. Romanov, N. V. Vvedenskii, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An all-optical method to retrieve the temporal intensity profile of an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) attosecond pulse is proposed based on XUV-assisted high-order harmonic generation (HHG) by an intense infrared (IR) pulse. For a harmonic located on the XUV-induced high-energy plateau (beyond the IR HHG plateau), the measured harmonic yield as a function of the time delay between the XUV and IR pulses is shown to accurately map the temporal intensity profile of the XUV pulse. Single-color and two-color orthogonal, linearly polarized IR pulses are used to demonstrate the method.

Obituary: Anthony Starace (1945-2019)

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Anthony Starace, George Holmes University Professor of physics, died Sept. 5 from complications related to pancreatitis. He was 74.

Starace was born July 24, 1945, in the Queens borough of New York City. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School and earned his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1966 before moving west to the University of Chicago, where he earned his doctorate under adviser Ugo Fano in 1971. It was in Chicago that he met Katherine Fritz of Beatrice, Nebraska, his wife of 51 years.

Following a postdoctoral appointment at Imperial College London, Starace moved to Lincoln as an assistant …

Performance Of Plastic Electron Optics Components Fabricated Using A 3d Printer, Phillip Wiebe, Peter Beierle, Hua-Chieh Shao, Bret Gergely, Anthony F. Starace, Herman Batelaan

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We show images produced by an electron beam deflector, a quadrupole lens and a einzel lens fabricated from conducting and non-conducting plastic using a 3D printer. Despite the difficulties associated with the use of plastics in vacuum, such as outgassing, poor conductivity, and print defects, the devices were used successfully in vacuum to steer, stretch and focus electron beams to millimeter diameters. Simulations indicate that much smaller focus spot sizes might be possible for such 3D-printed plastic electron lenses taking into account some possible surface defects. This work was motivated by our need to place electron optical components in difficult-to-access …

Slow Light With Interleaved P-N Junction To Enhance Performance Of Integrated Mach-Zehnder Silicon Modulators, Marco Passoni, Dario Gerace, Liam O'Faolain, Lucio Claudio Andreani

Cappa Publications

Slow light is a very important concept in nanophotonics, especially in the context of photonic crystals. In this work, we apply our previous design of band-edge slow light in silicon waveguide gratings [M. Passoni et al, Opt. Express 26, 8470 (2018)] to Mach-Zehnder modulators based on the plasma dispersion effect. The key idea is to employ an interleaved p-n junction with the same periodicity as the grating, in order to achieve optimal matching between the electromagnetic field profile and the depletion regions of the p-n junction. The resulting modulation efficiency is strongly improved as compared to common modulators based on …

Analytic Generalized Description Of A Perturbative Nonparaxial Elegant Laguerre-Gaussian Phasor For Ultrashort Pulses In The Time Domain, Andrew Vikartofsky, Ethan C. Jahns, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An analytic expression for a polychromatic phasor representing an arbitrarily short elegant Laguerre-Gauss (eLG) laser pulse of any spot size and LG mode is presented in the time domain as a nonrecursive, closed-form perturbative expansion valid to any order of perturbative correction. This phasor enables the calculation of the complex electromagnetic fields for such beams without requiring the evaluation of any Fourier integrals. It is thus straightforward to implement in analytical or numerical applications involving eLG pulses.

Analytic Description Of High-Order Harmonic Generation In The Adiabatic Limit With Application To An Initial S State In An Intense Bicircular Laser Pulse, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Minina, A. A. Silaev, N. V. Vvedenskii, M. Yu. Ivanov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An analytic description of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) is proposed in the adiabatic (low-frequency) limit for an initial s state and a laser field having an arbitrary wave form. The approach is based on the two-state time-dependent effective range theory and is extended to the case of neutral atoms and positively charged ions by introducing ad hoc the Coulomb corrections for HHG. The resulting closed analytical form for the HHG amplitude is discussed in terms of real classical trajectories. The accuracy of the results of our analytic model is demonstrated by comparison with numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation …

Violation Of Centrosymmetry In Time-Resolved Coherent X-Ray Diffraction From Rovibrational States Of Diatomic Molecules, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Owing to increasing applications of time-resolved coherent x-ray scattering for the investigation of molecular reaction dynamics, we develop a theoretical model for time-dependent x-ray diffraction from molecular and/or electronic motion in molecules. Our model shows that the violation of centrosymmetry (VOC) is a general phenomenon in time-resolved diffraction patterns. We employ our theoretical model to illustrate the VOC in time-resolved coherent x-ray diffraction from two oriented diatomic molecules undergoing rovibrational motion: lithium hydride (LiD) and hydrogen (HD). Our simulations show asymmetric x-ray diffraction images that reflect the directions of the molecular motions.

Molecular Symmetry-Mixed Dichroism In Double Photoionization Of H2, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Alexei V. Meremianin, N. L. Manakov, L. B. Madsen, S. X. Hu, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Dichroism in double photoionization of H₂ molecules by elliptically polarized extreme ultraviolet pulses is formulated analytically as a sum of atomiclike dichroism (AD) and molecular symmetry-mixed dichroism (MSMD) terms. The MSMD originates from an interplay of ¹Σ⁺_u and ¹Π⁺_u continuum molecular ionization amplitudes. For detection geometries in which the AD vanishes, numerical results for the sixfold differential probabilities for opposite pulse helicities show that the MSMD is significant in the electron momentum and angular distributions and is controllable by the ellipticity.

Exploring The Structure Of The Bound Proton With Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering, M. Hattawy, N. A. Baltzell, R. Dupré, S. Bültmann, B. Torayev, G. Gavalian, F. Hauenstein, S. E. Kuhn, M. Khachatryan, M. Mayer, J. Poudel, Y. Prok, L. B. Weinstein, J. Zhang, Z. W. Zhao, Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

In the past two decades, deeply virtual Compton scattering of electrons has been successfully used to advance our knowledge of the partonic structure of the free proton and investigate correlations between the transverse position and the longitudinal momentum of quarks inside the nucleon. Meanwhile, the structure of bound nucleons in nuclei has been studied in inclusive deep-inelastic lepton scattering experiments off nuclear targets, showing a significant difference in longitudinal momentum distribution of quarks inside the bound nucleon, known as the EMC effect. In this Letter, we report the first beam spin asymmetry (BSA) measurement of exclusive deeply virtual Compton scattering …

Dynamical Electron Vortices In Attosecond Double Photoionization Of H2, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, A. V. Meremianin, N. L. Manakov, L. B. Madsen, S. X. Hu, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We study electron momentum vortices in single-photon double ionization of H2 by time-delayed, counterrotating, elliptically polarized attosecond pulses propagating along kˆ either parallel or perpendicular to the molecular axis R. For kˆ | R, kinematical vortices occur similar to those found for He. For kˆ ⊥ R, we find dynamical vortex structures originating from an ellipticity-dependent interplay of ¹∑⁺_u and ¹∏⁺_u continuum amplitudes. We propose a complete experiment to determine the magnitudes and relative phase of these amplitudes by varying pulse ellipticities and time delays.

Determination Of The Magnetic Field Dependence Of The Surface Resistance Of Superconductors From Cavity Tests, J. R. Delayen, H. Park, S. Su. De Silva, G. Ciovati, Z. Li

Physics Faculty Publications

We present a general method to derive the magnetic field dependence of the surface resistance of superconductors from the Q-curves obtained during the cryogenic tests of cavities. The results are applied to coaxial half-wave cavities, TM-like “elliptical” accelerating cavities, and cavities of more complicated geometries.

Perturbative Representation Of Ultrashort Nonparaxial Elegant Laguerre-Gaussian Fields, Andrew Vikartofsky, Anthony F. Starace, Liang-Wen Pi

Anthony F. Starace Publications

An analytical method for calculating the electromagnetic fields of a nonparaxial elegant Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) vortex beam is presented for arbitrary pulse duration, spot size, and LG mode. This perturbative approach provides a numerically tractable model for the calculation of arbitrarily high radial and azimuthal LG modes in the nonparaxial regime, without requiring integral representations of the fields. A key feature of this perturbative model is its use of a Poisson-like frequency spectrum, which allows for the proper description of pulses of arbitrarily short duration. This model is thus appropriate for simulating laser-matter interactions, including those involving short laser pulses.

High-Brilliance, High-Flux Compact Inverse Compton Light Source, K. E. Deitrick, G. A. Krafft, B. Terzić, J. R. Delayen

Physics Faculty Publications

The Old Dominion University Compact Light Source (ODU CLS) design concept is presented-a compact Inverse Compton Light Source (ICLS) with flux and brilliance orders of magnitude beyond conventional laboratory-scale sources and greater than other compact ICLS designs. This concept utilizes the physics of inverse Compton scattering of an extremely low emittance electron beam by a laser pulse of rms length of approximately two-thirds of a picosecond (2/3 ps). The accelerator is composed of a superconducting radio frequency (SRF) reentrant gun followed by four double-spoke SRF cavities. After the linac are three quadrupole magnets to focus the electron beam to the …

Compton Scattering From The Deuteron Above Pion-Production Threshold, B. Strandberg, J. R. M. Annand, W. Briscoe, J. Brudvik, F. Cividini, L. Clark, E. J. Downie, K. England, G. Feldman, K. G. Fissum, D. I. Glazier, K. Hamilton, K. Hansen, L. Isaksson, R. Al Jebali, Michael A. Kovash, S. Lipschutz, M. Lundin, M. Meshkian, D. G. Middleton, L. S. Myers, D. O'Donnell, G. O'Rielly, B. Oussena, M. F. Preston, B. Schröder, B. Seitz, I. Strakovsky, M. Taragin

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The electromagnetic polarizabilities of the nucleon are fundamental nucleon-structure observables that characterize its response to external electromagnetic fields. The neutron polarizabilities can be accessed from Compton-scattering data on light nuclear targets. Recent measurements of the differential cross section for Compton scattering on the deuteron below the pion-production threshold have decreased the uncertainties in the neutron polarizabilities, yet the proton polarizabilities remain known substantially more accurately. As the sensitivity of the cross section to the polarizabilities increases with incident photon energy, measurements above the pion threshold may offer a way for an improved determination of the neutron polarizabilities. In this Rapid …

Control Of Harmonic Generation By The Time Delay Between Two-Color, Bicircular Few-Cycle Mid-Ir Laser Pulses, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Minina, N. V. Vvedenskii, A. A. Silaev, M. Yu. Ivanov, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We study control of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) driven by time-delayed, few-cycle ω and 2ω counterrotating mid-IR pulses. Our numerical and analytical study shows that the time delay between the two-color pulses allows control of the harmonic positions, both those allowed by angular momentum conservation and those seemingly forbidden by it. Moreover, the helicity of any particular harmonic is tunable from left to right circular without changing the driving pulse helicity. The highest HHG yield occurs for a time delay comparable to the fundamental period T = 2π/ω.

Enhancing High-Order Harmonic Generation By Sculpting Waveforms With Chirp, Dian Peng, M. V. Frolov, Liang-Wen Pi, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We present a theoretical analysis showing how chirp can be used to sculpt two-color driving laser field waveforms in order to enhance high-order harmonic generation (HHG) and/or extend HHG cutoff energies. Specifically, we consider driving laser field waveforms composed of two ultrashort pulses having different carrier frequencies in each of which a linear chirp is introduced. Two pairs of carrier frequencies of the component pulses are considered: (ω, 2ω) and (ω, 3ω). Our results show how changing the signs of the chirps in each of the two component pulses leads to drastic changes in the HHG spectra. Our theoretical analysis …

Time-Resolved Electron (E,2E) Momentum Spectroscopy: Application To Laser-Driven Electron Population Transfer In Atoms, Hua-Chieh Shao, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Owing to its ability to provide unique information on electron dynamics, time-resolved electron momentum spectroscopy (EMS) is used to study theoretically a laser-driven electronic motion in atoms. Specifically, a chirped laser pulse is used to adiabatically transfer the populations of lithium atoms from the ground state to the first excited state. During this process, impact ionization near the Bethe ridge by time-delayed ultrashort, high-energy electron pulses is used to image the instantaneous momentum density of this electronic population transfer. Simulations with 100 fs and 1 fs pulse durations demonstrate the capability of EMS to image the time-varying momentum density, including …

Xuv-Assisted High-Order-Harmonic-Generation Spectroscopy, T. S. Sarantseva, M. V. Frolov, N. L. Manakov, A. A. Silaev, N. V. Vvedenskii, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

Using the analytic time-dependent effective range theory, we study two-color high-order harmonic generation (HHG) involving a weak extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse and an intense infrared laser field. Our analysis shows that XUV-assisted HHG spectra contain multiple additional plateau structures originating from absorption of one or more XUV photons at the photorecombination step of HHG. We show also that the HHG rate corresponding to the nth plateau can be presented in a factorized form involving the XUV-assisted (multiphoton) photorecombination cross section (PRCS) corresponding to absorption of n XUV photons of energy Ω and emission of a harmonic of energy Ω_{h …}

Compton Scattering From 4He At 61 Mev, M. H. Sikora, M. W. Ahmed, A. Banu, C. Bartram, B. Crowe, E. J. Downie, G. Feldman, H. Gao, H. W. Grießhammer, H. Hao, C. R. Howell, H. J. Karwowski, D. P. Kendellen, Michael A. Kovash, X. Li, D. M. Markoff, S. Mikhailov, V. Popov, R. E. Pywell, J. A. Silano, M. C. Spraker, P. Wallace, H. R. Weller, C. S. Whisnant, Y. K. Wu, W. Xiong, X. Yan, Z. W. Zhao

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The Compton scattering cross section from ⁴He has been measured with high statistical accuracy over a scattering angle range of 40^∘−159^∘ using a quasimonoenergetic 61-MeV photon beam at the High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source. The data are interpreted using a phenomenological model sensitive to the dipole isoscalar electromagnetic polarizabilities (α_s and β_s) of the nucleon. These data can be fit with the model using values of α_s and β_s that are consistent with the currently accepted values. These data will serve as benchmarks of future calculations from effective field theories and …

Doubly-Excited State Effects On Two-Photon Double Ionization Of Helium By Time-Delayed, Oppositely Circularly-Polarized Attosecond Pulses, Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

We study two-photon double ionization (TPDI) of helium by a pair of time-delayed (non-overlapping), oppositely circularly-polarized attosecond pulses whose carrier frequencies are resonant with ¹P^o doubly-excited states. All of our TPDI results are obtained by numerical solution of the two-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the six-dimensional case of circularly-polarized attosecond pulses, and they are analyzed using perturbation theory (PT). As compared with the corresponding nonresonant TPDI process, we find that the doubly-excited states change the character of vortex patterns in the two-electron momentum distributions for the case of back-to-back detection of the two ionized electrons in the polarization …