Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Spring 2015 Joint Meeting of the Texas Section of the AAPT, Texas Section of the APS and Zone 13 of the Society of Physics Students
Volume 60, Number 2
Thursday–Saturday, March 5–7, 2015; Baytown, Texas
Session B2: High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics and Optics |
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Chair: Michael Sadler, Abilene Christian University Room: Student Center Bayer Conference Room |
Friday, March 6, 2015 10:30AM - 10:42AM |
B2.00001: Visualizing the Growth of High Energy Density Mixing Layers Luke Simmons, Kumar Raman At Lawrence Livermore National Lab, we computationally modeled the mixing layer between two fluids as high energy density shock waves passed through the interface between the fluids. This modeling was done with the aim of designing a NIF target which could be imaged using X-rays on the order of 10keV in order to measure the width of the target's mixing layer. We used an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian modeling method and tested several different target designs and shock wave drives. One design which showed great potential for a successful measurement was a bifurcated target. Special consideration was given the error introduced with a bifurcated target. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 6, 2015 10:42AM - 10:54AM |
B2.00002: ABSTRACT MOVED TO F2.00007 |
Friday, March 6, 2015 10:54AM - 11:06AM |
B2.00003: Radon Plateout Studies to illuminate Background Levels in Dark Matter Experiments Mayisha Nakib, Matthew Bruemmer, Robert Calkins, Jodi Cooley, Stephen Sekula The decay of radon in the air leads to long lived radioactive daughter products that produce significant backgrounds in dark matter and double beta decay experiments. These backgrounds can mimic the desired signals. The Laboratory for Ultra-Pure Material Isotope and Neutron Assessment (LUMINA) at Southern Methodist University uses one of the first five UltraLo 1800 production model alpha counters made by XIA LLC. The instrument has an electron drift chamber with a configurable 707 or 1800 cm$^{2}$ inner counting region. The SMU team operating this device uses it to study activity rates from radon daughters that have plated-out onto material surfaces that are often used in the construction of low radioactivity~experiments. We present results from studies involving four acrylic squares obtained from the MiniCLEAN direct dark matter search that have been exposed to a $^{222}$Rn source. We monitored the $^{210}$Pb plate-out over time to evaluate the effectiveness of various cleaning methods designed to remove the Rn daughters. I will also describe on-going studies involving radon plate-out onto copper in nitrogen purged environments. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 6, 2015 11:06AM - 11:18AM |
B2.00004: Equilibration between projectile and target in heavy-ion nuclear collisions Larry May, Zachary Kohley, Giacomo Bonasera, Paul Cammarata, Leslie Galvan, Kris Hagel, Lauren Heilborn, Justin Mabiala, Paola Marini, Alan McIntosh, George Souliotis, John Vu, Sara Wuenschel, Michael Youngs, Andrew Zarrella, Sherry Yennello Understanding equilibration in heavy-ion collisions is of significant importance to nuclear physics. Since nuclei are composed of neutrons and protons, the difference in the number of neutrons and protons, or asymmetry, can be used to study equilibration processes in the nucleus. We can study the equilibration occurring between two nuclei with differing asymmetry compositions in Fermi energy heavy-ion collisions by using various observables and compare these observables to predictions from theory calculations in order to better understand the asymmetry effects on nuclear reactions. Asymmetry difference of fragments produced in reactions of Zn and Ni at 35MeV/nucleon will be examined. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 6, 2015 11:18AM - 11:30AM |
B2.00005: ABSTRACT WITHDRAWN |
Friday, March 6, 2015 11:30AM - 11:42AM |
B2.00006: A Novel Diffuse Reflecting Material for Applications in Integrating Cavity Spectroscopy Michael Cone, John Mason, Eleonora Figueroa, Joel Bixler, Brett Hokr, Chase Winkler, Vladislav Yakovlev, Edward Fry Integrating cavities are a common and indispensable tool in the modern optics laboratory. The diffuse reflecting walls of the cavity allow it to collect and spatially integrate the radiant flux emitted from a source, making them ideal for applications in radiometry and photometry. In addition, integrating cavities have also been used to make very sensitive absorption measurements. Recently, we have developed a new diffuse reflecting material with the highest diffuse reflectivity ever measured in the visible and UV portions of the spectrum. The material is a packed fumed silica powder (i.e. quartz powder), and can be used to make high-reflectivity integrating cavities. We have used these quartz powder cavities in a variety of spectroscopic applications including: the detection of organic toxins via Raman spectroscopy, the detection of water contaminants through fluorescence spectroscopy, and measurements of the absorption coefficient of pure water in the UV. Furthermore, we have developed a variation of cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) that we call integrating cavity ring-down spectroscopy (ICRDS). ICRDS allows for direct measurements of the absorption in a sample, even in the presence of strong scattering. Currently, the commercially available diffuse reflectors have insufficient reflectivity for ICRDS, but our high-reflectivity fumed silica cavities have made ICRDS a reality. [Preview Abstract] |
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