Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2019
Volume 64, Number 2
Monday–Friday, March 4–8, 2019; Boston, Massachusetts
Session F67: Undergraduate Research VIUndergraduate Students
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Sponsoring Units: APS/SPS Chair: Cortney Bougher, American Physical Society Room: BCEC 050 |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 11:15AM - 11:27AM |
F67.00001: Fabrication of Sensitive MEMS-based Magnetometer for Biomagnetic Applications Zainab Batool, Ralitsa Mihaylova, Andy Clark, Josh Javor, Xuemei Cheng, David John Bishop The electrocardiogram (ECG) is the standard method of heart disease detection but is inconveniently sized and susceptible to conductive tissue noise and signal attenuation by filtering. Additionally, the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) systems operate in vacuum, are expensive and large, and are rivaled by atomic magnetometers (AMs), which are compact and sensitive but limited by spin relaxation. Here we report the development and fabrication of a MEMS-based, 100pT/cm sensitive, inexpensive magnetometer device, which may overcome the mentioned limitations. The device measures gradient fields by detecting magnetic force exerted on a commercial MEMS capacitive accelerometer through the coupled micro-sized, permanent magnet. Present limitations of this device are fabrication throughput and magnet characterization. Here we discuss characterization by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and obstacles in a custom micro-gluing technique. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 11:27AM - 11:39AM |
F67.00002: Low-Frequency Vibration Isolation for Atom Interferometry Nina Inman, Fong En Oon, Rainer Dumke, Michael Lim The isolation of low-frequency vibrational noise must be applied in most gravimeters to allow for accurate measurement of Earth’s local gravitational acceleration. Optimal performance of a gravimeter can be achieved by mitigating the effects of vibration on inertial acceleration measurement. A seismometer is used to detect vibrational noise and produce a voltage signal from which the magnitude and frequency of vibrations can be calculated. A system was constructed to record vibrational noise and compute its Fourier Transform. The output is low-pass filtered and can be fed back to a voice coil to correct residual noise detected on a vibration isolation platform. The next steps include determining the appropriate cut-off frequency range and benchmarking the performance in various environments. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 11:39AM - 11:51AM |
F67.00003: Quantization of the Vibrations of a Thin Elastic Plate Eliot Heinrich, Dennis Clougherty Suspended thin films have been successfully used as high-Q mechanical oscillators in hybrid optomechanical systems to study fundamental quantum mechanical effects. Motivated by these experiments, we consider a Hamiltonian description of the vibrations of a clamped, elastic circular plate. The Hamiltonian of this system features a potential energy with two distinct contributions: one that depends on the local mean curvature of the plate, and a second one that depends on its Gaussian curvature. We quantize this model using a complete, orthonormal set of eigenfunctions for the clamped, vibrating plate. The resulting quanta are the flexural phonons of the thin circular plate. As an application, we use this quantized description to calculate the rms displacement of the plate's center for arbitrary temperature. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 11:51AM - 12:03PM |
F67.00004: Measuring Viscosity with A Damped Harmonic Oscillator Donavan Ebersole, Ty Naquin, James Sanders The damped harmonic oscillator is a staple of undergraduate physics education, and the Stokes’ Law drag is often used as an example of such damping. This force has the required form of F = -bv; however, the coefficient b is dependent on the fluid viscosity, which is itself a function of the fluid’s temperature. We attached a spherical mass to the end of spring that was suspended in the liquid; the other end of the spring was attached to a force sensor. After slightly displacing the mass, we used Pasco software to record the Hooke’s Law force during the motion. A graph of force versus time yields the damping coefficient, from which we could measure the fluid’s viscosity. By comparing the viscosity to a table of known values, we could then determine the fluid’s temperature. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 12:03PM - 12:15PM |
F67.00005: Nonlinear resonance for a generalized parametric oscillator Yao Luo Multiple discrete stationary solutions, namely “amplitude quantization”, found in kick-excited pendulums have not been well understood over decades. We show that these discrete solutions are subharmonic resonance originated from the nonlinear |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 12:15PM - 12:27PM |
F67.00006: Exploring Resonance Effects on Ferromagnetic Microwire Solenoid Sensitivity for Motion Tracking Applications Jake Poler, Valery J Ortiz, Tatiana M Eggers, Manh-Huong Phan The high frequency GMI effect is a sensitive phenomenon found in amorphous, soft ferromagnetic materials. The GMI effect has potential to introduce a new class of long range, contact-free small field magnetic sensing[1]. GMI sensors allow for low-cost, robust systems capable of a wide range of motion tracking applications. A challenge these sensors present to applications comes from the quick decay of magnetic field lines, restricting their sensing distance. In an attempt to achieve better sensitivity and longer ranges, Cobalt-based microwires have been wound into solenoids around Plexiglas molds with various lengths of wire. Further, the number of turns used, affects the magnitude and frequency of transmission line resonance. GMI responses were measured around resonance to determine the optimal operating frequency for each sensor and to observe the relation to the circuit’s current nodes. Of the solenoids constructed, the 12 turn, 203 mm solenoid had the highest sensitivity. The optimal operating frequency was 32.4 MHz, which allowed for a range of 250 mm. For comparison, GMR sensors have a detection range of 190 mm[2]. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 12:27PM - 12:39PM |
F67.00007: Building time-dependent temperature field in a multi-field coupling system Jiahao Dong Solving time-dependent field remains challenging in most situations due to convergence difficulty. In this paper, we systematically research the solving method of the time-dependent temperature field in case of a multi-field coupling system, including mesh partition methods, decoupling strategies, iterative algorithms, etc. We apply our method to an apparatus called “Curie Point Engine”. In the example, a nickel disc located in an inhomogeneous magnetic field is heated asymmetrically, and then is driven to rotate around the axle by the asymmetrical magnetic force. In this case, the temperature field, magnetic field and the motion of the disc are all time-dependent and coupled. We apply the dynamic mesh method due to the motion of the disk. The validity of our method is confirmed by comparing the simulation results to our experimental images of a Curie Point Engine recorded by a thermal imager. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 12:39PM - 12:51PM |
F67.00008: A statistical comparison of OAR doses between Helical Tomotherapy and VMAT plans Michael Taylor, Dawn Gintz, Jimmy Caudell, Vladimir Feygelman, Kujtim Latifi, Eduardo Moros Head & neck cancer patients have a high risk of nutritional problems caused by both their cancer and the toxic side effects of radiotherapy. The feasibility dose-volume histogram (fDVH) algorithm available in the PlanIQ software (Sun Nuclear Corporation, Melbourne, FL) has been validated to optimally aid in the sparing of certain organs-at-risk (OAR's) in head & neck volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans. This study evaluates the met or missed opportunities for limiting dose to OAR's by applying the fDVH tool to head & neck Helical Tomotherapy plans and compare them to VMAT plans of similar dose and staging. Head & neck cancer patients treated in 2014 were selected. All patients had the following OAR's reviewed in an imaging handling software (Mirada Medical, Oxford, UK): larynx, inferior pharyngeal constrictor, submandibular glands, and parotids. Any missing or inadequate contours were edited. Only patients treated with a 70 Gray Simultaneous Integrated Boost Tomotherapy/VMAT plan with a bilateral elective neck were analyzed. Patients with the same or a similar cancer stage as defined by the American Joint Committee on Cancer were grouped, and the differences in areas under the fDVH's and actual DVH's were statistically compared. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 12:51PM - 1:03PM |
F67.00009: Symmetry Breaking and Iterated-Map Networks Houssemeddine Mhiri, Moyi Tian, Lars Q English The logistic map is a simple mathematical model commonly used to explore discrete-time systems. L’Her, et al. [1] implemented an electronic circuit that mimics the behavior of coupled logistic maps to great precision. While L'Her’s circuit provides the basis for our experimental exploration of logistic map networks, it lacks practical control of initial conditions. We reproduced L’Her’s circuit and introduced automated manipulation of the initial conditions and of the coupling voltage through an Arduino Uno Microcontroller. This additional control allows for a close exploration of symmetric states and symmetry-broken states that the coupled logistic maps exhibit under specific conditions. Indeed, for fixed values of the growth rate, the manipulation of initial conditions produces an array of symmetric and symmetry-broken states. We will use this data to generate basins of attraction for the corresponding growth parameters. Conversely, if we fix the growth rate and iteratively increment the coupling strength, we experimentally observe interesting bifurcation behavior involving the symmetric, symmetry-broken, as well as phase-shifted solutions. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 1:03PM - 1:15PM |
F67.00010: Comparing Classical And Quantum Finite Automata Kaitlin Gili, Rudy Raymond, Rodney Van Meter, Kohei M Itoh Quantum computers offer advantages that motivate the exploration of quantum algorithms and models with the expectation that they can solve many more complex problems than classical computers. Here, we are exploring one of the simplest models of computation by comparing Deterministic Finite Automata and Quantum Finite Automata (Ambainis and Freivalds, 1998). This research focuses on applying quantum principles to the following problem: Consider a string ai with i letters. We want to determine whether the string is in the language L where L = {ai | i divides p} and p is a given prime number. If i divides p, we accept the string into the language with a 0 qubit state, and if not, we reject it with a qubit state of 1. Classically, using the highest known prime integer, this algorithm requires a minimum of 77,232,917 bits, whereas the quantum finite automata only requires 27 qubits. Using Python’s Quantum Information Software Kit (Qiskit), I have implemented a program [1] that can determine if the length of a string is divisible by a large prime number with exponentially fewer qubits. |
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 1:15PM - 1:27PM |
F67.00011: Modelling Leaf Temperatures during Parabolic Flights John Koptur-Palenchar, Jordan B Callaham, Anna-Lisa Paul, Robert J Ferl, Mark Meisel A code was generated in MATLAB to model the temperature of plant (Arabidopsis) leaves (T) during 25 s periods of hypo- (μg) and hyper- (2g) gravity (g) produced by parabolic flights. Temporal data T(t) vary inversely with g(t) and are reproduced by a model that accounts for heat transfer across the boundary layer (BL) between the leaf and air [1,2], conduction through the stem into the growth media, and heat from the plant metabolism. While the BL and stem conduction terms are analytically known, the metabolic power is approximated as a function of T to simulate the T(t) data. Extending the metabolic power term to include time dependent dose-response mechanisms requires comparison of model predictions to T(t) data from longer periods of low-g. Thus, analysis of T(t) data from parabolic flights simulating lunar gravity over longer times will check the fully adaptive T(t) at low-g. Sub-orbital flights with 5 min periods of μg will test further extensions of the model. |
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