Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2018
Volume 63, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2018; Columbus, Ohio
Session C10: Undergraduate Research IIUndergraduate Students
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Sponsoring Units: APS SPS Chair: James Merrick, Society of Physics Students Room: A216 |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 1:30PM - 1:42PM |
C10.00001: Ionized hydrogen survey for supermassive black hole detection Samuel Montgomery, David Westpfahl, Daniel Klinglesmith III Central regions of several nearby spiral galaxies are completely void of atomic hydrogen. Using a telescope at the Etscorn Observatory fitted with a charge coupled device (CCD) with several different filters, direct observations of spiral galaxies have been made. The detection of ionized hydrogen is expected to take the place of the absent atomic hydrogen. Ionized hydrogen is observed as the recombination of protons with freed electrons in an ionized soup of hydrogen atoms. This recombining of particles triggers the emission of a specific wavelength photon in a process known as H$\alpha $ emission. The galaxies M81 and NGC2903 show the presence of ionized hydrogen, glowing strongly in the images produced using an H$\alpha $ filter. Ionized hydrogen resides in galactic environments with energy sources high enough to strip electrons from their host protons. The primary ionization energy source being the supermassive black holes located at the centers of M81 and NGC2903. When matter forms an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole it forms a quasar. Quasars emit a powerful amount of electromagnetic radiation, which is hypothesized as the source for the energy needed to ionize the surrounding atomic hydrogen. Data will be collected from several more spiral galaxies. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 1:42PM - 1:54PM |
C10.00002: Stable Orbits for Exomoons in Earth’s Cousin (Kepler-452b) Orbiting a Sun-like Star Niyousha Davachi, Marialis Rosario-Franco, Sergio Garza, Zdzislaw Musielak Kepler 452b, also nicknamed Earth’s cousin, was discovered orbiting the habitable zone (HZ) of a G2 Star (Jenkins et al. 2015). This exoplanet is considered a super Earth, with a mass of 5 ±2 Mass of Earth and a radius of 1.11 Radius of Earth; and is arguably the first rocky, habitable exoplanet to orbit a sun-like star. With a period of 385 days, conditions are prompt to be similar to those of Earth, and while Kepler-452b orbits the HZ of its parent star, its habitability could also be affected by the presence of an exomoon. Motivated by the need to understand conditions of habitability and orbital stability of Kepler-45b, we have performed a series of N-body integrations to examine the possibility of the exoplanet hosting an exomoon(s). Our results give a range of physical parameters leading to stable orbits for exomoons around this habitable super Earth. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 1:54PM - 2:06PM |
C10.00003: Background Studies for an Accelerator-Based Dark Matter Search Nan Ma The unknown composition of dark matter has always been one of the most intriguing problems in physics. Absence of experimental support for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) has focused attention to another dark matter candidate, Light Dark Matter at Accelerators (LDMA). The Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks (DRIFT) project has developed highly sensitive detectors to detect the directionally sensitive ionization created by recoils, an ideal detector for low energy recoils by LDMA. Recoils due to cosmic-ray induced neutrons are one of the most important backgrounds for DRIFT at surface level accelerators. We have been exploring the backgrounds in DRIFT-IIf, the current detector, under different shielding conditions. Experiments are compared with simulations on GEANT4. Our results show that DRIFT is only sensitive to neutron recoils despite large muon and gamma backgrounds from cosmic rays on the surface. Neutron recoil results will be presented for a detector unshielded, under various thickness of concrete and a lead shield exposed to cosmic rays at the surface. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 2:06PM - 2:18PM |
C10.00004: Strange Particle Production in ALICE at the LHC Donielle Miller, Travante Thompson, Edmundo Garcia-Solis, Austin Harton Heavy Ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies produce a very hot, dense medium known as Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Hard parton (quarks and gluons) scattering occurring during these collisions generates high momentum partons that traverse the QGP which then fragment into sprays of particles called jets. The production of jets composed of strange particles can be useful in gaining insight into the nature of the QCP medium. Additionally, strange particle generation provides useful information about parton fragmentation. Our research at the LHC focuses on strange particles and strange particle jets that occur during proton-proton and lead- lead collisions. In this presentation, the ALICE experiment will be discussed, strange particles and strange jets will be examined and the proposed techniques for analyzing collision data will be presented. This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants PHYS- 1613118 and PHY-1719759. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 2:18PM - 2:30PM |
C10.00005: Structural Differences between Cold Dark Matter and Self-Interacting Dark Matter Models Throughout Time Renata Koontz, Peter Creasey, Hai-Bo Yu We investigate fundamental structural differences as a function of time between the Cold Dark Matter and Self-Interacting Dark Matter $\sigma_{x} = 1$ models of dark matter halos using N-body simulations at scales of 30 Mpc. To examine differences in structural formation of dark matter halos for both models, we compare the time $t_{\frac{1}{2}}$ at which a dark matter halo achieves half of it's mass for masses ranging from $10^8 \sim 10^{12}$ $M_{\odot}$. Furthermore, we also compare mass-concentration parameter $c$ with $t_{\frac{1}{2}}$ and $z_{\frac{1}{2}}$ for these same masses ranges to find statistically significant differences. Once these differences are statistically significant, we investigate dark matter halo density and velocity dispersion profiles closest to the median using the Navarro-Frenk-White Profile. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
C10.00006: Search for Supersymmetry With Razor Variables in Higgs to Diphoton Decays Produced in Association with Leptons and Jets in Proton-Proton Collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV Stephanie Kwan, Jiajing Mao, Cristian Pena, Si Xie, Maria Spiropulu Supersymmetry (SUSY) is one of the most promising extensions of the standard model of particle physics. In SUSY models that conserve R-parity, the Lightest SUSY Particle (LSP) is stable and is a viable dark matter candidate. We present a search for SUSY with 13 TeV proton-proton collision data recorded in 2016 by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. The final states under study include Higgs to diphoton decays produced in association with jets and leptons. SUSY scenarios are studied, in which the lightest neutralino has Higgsino-, bino-, or wino-like components, resulting in decays to photons and gravitinos, where the gravitinos escape undetected. We are currently pursuing a more inclusive approach by integrating the lepton categories into the existing search and thus increasing the sensitivity of CMS for electroweak SUSY production. Preliminary results show that the lepton search produces more stringent limits compared to the existing search. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 2:42PM - 2:54PM |
C10.00007: Construction and Operation of Multi-Wire Proportional Chambers Michael Reynolds The Society of Physics Students (SPS) at Kennesaw State University is building a series of Multi-Wire Proportional Chambers as a tool to detect cosmic ray muons, measure muon flux, and do muon tomography. Chamber construction is simple and efficient, consisting of a wire array between two cathode planes. The wire array is under high voltage while the cathodes are grounded to create a potential gap inside the chamber. The array has alternating field-shaping and anode wires serving to further isolate the anode wires from each other for better resolution. To operate the chamber it is filled with an ionizing gas. We have chosen to use an Ar/CO2 mix in an 80:20 ratio. High energy muons that pass through strip electrons from gas molecules, which then avalanche towards the anode wire in a cascade of secondary ionization. This avalanche induces a current in the anode which we will detect with amplifier electronics. The electronics will be described in detail at another talk. Further, we will stack four chambers perpendicular to each other allowing us to calculate muon trajectory for the purposes of muography, which is our intended final goal. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 2:54PM - 3:06PM |
C10.00008: Signal Detection Electronics for a Multi-Wire Proportional Chamber Jacob Barron The Society of Physics Students (SPS) at Kennesaw State University is building a Multi-Wire Proportional Chamber (MWPC) as a tool to detect cosmic ray muons, measure muon flux, and do muon tomography. In order for the multi-wire chamber to function properly, the anode wires must be at a high DC voltage. To detect the output signal with an amplifier a capacitor is used to uncouple the high dc voltage from the rest of the circuitry so the high voltage will not damage the electronics and that current can only pass through in conjunction with a muon passing through. Current passes through the amplifier and then the circuit passes the detection of the muon on to the data collection system. The main purpose of the amplifier is to magnify the current received to levels common electronics can detect and record. The SPS is designing and building these detectors from the ground up using existing literature as reference. The goal is to develop stable hands-free devices and electronics that can detect exactly which wire muons passed through and send the information to a data collection system. [Preview Abstract] |
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