Session D17: Undergraduate Research III

Live

The Radio Neutrino Observatory in Greenland (RNO-G) is a pathfinder experiment designed to search for the highest energy cosmic neutrinos with energies in excess of 100 PeV. Each autonomous station searches for the radio emission produced by neutrino showers in ice. The design of the deep component of each station includes 9 vertically polarized antennas and 3 horizontally polarized antennas, both of which are required to reconstruct the polarization angle of the radio signal and therefore arrival angle of the neutrino. The deep horizontally polarized antennas for RNO-G will employ a new design, based on ferrite-less cylindrical slot antennas. Using XFDTD, an electromagnetic simulation software, we compare different models based on dual-, tri-, and quad-slot designs in terms of the bandwidth and turn-on frequency of the antenna and their gain. The gain of tri-slot antenna varies by less than 1 dB for frequencies less than 800 MHz and achieves a bandwidth of 200 MHz. For these reasons, the tri-slot has been selected as the antenna to be used in the first five stations of RNO-G to be deployed in summer 2020.   

Live

The CMS experiment has searched for vector-like T quarks decaying to bottom quarks and W bosons using proton-proton collision data collected in 2016. To analyze data collected during the full Run 2 period, we are exploring the Columnar Object Framework For Effective Analysis (COFFEA). We will present the expected sensitivity of this search using 2018 CMS data, and compare the performance of the COFFEA method to traditional "event-loop" analysis techniques.   

Live

We will present an on-going search for vector-like quarks using proton collision data collected by the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment (CMS) during Run 2. We focus on the vector-like quarks that are analogous to top and bottom quarks. This search includes events with one electron or muon, and several large-radius jets. We identify the source particles of these jets with a new deep neural network technique called DeepAK8. In addition, we expanded the effectiveness of our own deep neural network for distinguishing between signal events with vector-like quarks and two types of background events with top quarks or W bosons. These new techniques, in addition to the full Run 2 dataset from CMS, dramatically increase our sensitivity to high-mass vector-like quarks.   

Live

We present a low-cost tabletop autocollimator setup with sub-microradian sensitivity and demonstrate our setup’s capabilities using dynamic force microscopy. Our setup extends itself well to many other high precision measurements, including quasistatic electric force microscopy, simple harmonic motion, and investigations of Casimir and Van der Waals interactions. Looking ahead, we plan to use our setup to test the inverse square law of gravity.   

Live

Raman Spectroscopy has innovated the way we collect data and analyze different materials ranging from organic to inorganics. It allows us to get a quick reading of any substance due to its vibrational energy. Each vibrational signal we can detect helps us determine what its chemical composition. The Raman signal can be significantly enhanced with the help of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) on a so-called SERS substrate. The higher the intensity that we can get, the better we can determine its composition. The advantages of using SERS substrates lies in its super sensitivity that can achieve in detection and identification of chemical substances. Places where SERS devices could be useful are when a response must be taken in real time with high sensitivity. My research task was to develop a cost-effective way to create SERS substrates out of paper that can successfully retain drops of any molecule in aqueous form into a single area using wax as my barrier and that it could give a strong signal. I will demonstrate how I was able to imprint my wax molds on to office paper and then the process of adding gold nanoparticles to help enhance the readings of sample molecules.   

On Demand

This project will examine particle and photo orbits around Schwarzschild black holes and will compare them to particle and photon orbits around EUP (extended uncertainty principle) supermassive black holes. The EUP metric introduces a position uncertainty correction, L*, which is a large fundamental distance scale. This scale should be large enough that it will not affect solar system scale gravitation. Prior work has been done to derive an EUP corrected mass term which is dependent on L* and the original mass. From this we will derive the new metric’s effective potential equation. We will obtain an equation of motion from the effective potentials of these spacetime metrics and then further more examine the equations of motion for these particular space-times. We will then plot the orbits and compare this to data from the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) of black holes such as Sagittarius A*, and M87.   

On Demand

Neutrinos provide scientists with an effective way of studying unknown astrophysical objects. However, the detection of neutrinos is challenging and requires large-scale detectors such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory located at the south pole. IceCube uses photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) to collect Cherenkov light from secondary particles created via CC interactions with neutrinos. PMTs are connected to digital optical modules (DOMs) that digitize electrical signals from the PMTs for analysis. When an excessive amount of Cherenkov light is detected, the waveforms created by these DOMs can become saturated, rendering them less effective for characterizing the neutrino event. Since IceCube collects millions of events, an efficient algorithm was developed to identify saturated DOMs and aggregate them accordingly for ease of analysis. Then checks were conducted on the processed data by looking for depth dependence in the number of events. The data was used to create a distribution of waveform peaks associated with each DOM to look for variation in how the DOMs respond to saturation. This collection of aggregated data and these analyses elucidate the nature of IceCube’s DOMs, allowing for more accurate reconstruction of neutrino events.   

Sound Absorption and Acoustic Energy Harvesting of Piezoelectric Ceramic Composites

Military personnel are frequently exposed to hazardous sound pressure levels that, for long prolonged exposure, can lead to hearing loss affecting personnel performance and overall quality of life. Current hearing protection devices used by the military are not achieving proper noise attenuation. Piezoelectric materials can potentially be used to develop self-powered active noise cancelling devices or as passive noise cancelling energy harvesters. A low-cost impedance tube was designed, fabricated and validated to calculation the absorption coefficient of 1-3 PZT dice and fill polymer ceramic composites. Secondary measurements were conducted to measure the power generated by these materials. By determining the absorption coefficient for the piezoelectric ceramics and recording induced voltage, we can observe the tradeoffs in power generated and sound absorption for future device optimization.