Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2020
Volume 65, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 2–6, 2020; Denver, Colorado
Session B11: Undergraduate Research IIIUndergrad Friendly
|
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: APS/SPS Chair: Midhat Farooq, American Physical Society Room: 110 |
Monday, March 2, 2020 11:15AM - 11:27AM |
B11.00001: Linear Optimum Filtering for Axion Dark Matter Search Sukhmanpreet Singh The Haloscope At Yale Sensitive To Axion CDM (HAYSTAC) Experiment is a microwave cavity search for cold dark matter (CDM) axions in the galactic halo. It attempts to detect a resonant photon signal produced by axion conversion in a magnetic field, the detection of which would provide useful insights on the nature of dark matter. Thus, the data acquisition from this experiment necessitates efficient filtering out of noise and other interfering signals, along with minimal scan times. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 11:27AM - 11:39AM |
B11.00002: Simulation of Light Propagation Through CsI for the Mu2e Experiment Victoria Lloyd The Mu2e experiment will search for charged lepton flavor violating neutrino-less conversion from a negative muon into an electron in the field of a nucleus. This reaction is extremely suppressed in the Standard Model of particle physics and an observation would be a clear sign of new physics. Mu2e plans to improve the current sensitivity on mu-to-e conversion by four orders of magnitude. The experiment relies on a crystal calorimeter to separate electrons from muons to reduce background. Using the Geant4 framework, we model the transit time taken by optical photons to reach the photomultiplier as a function of their origin for different crystal geometries. By cataloging these distributions, my project will improve the accuracy of the simulated time-of-flight data used to create the particle identification algorithms used in the experiment. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 11:39AM - 11:51AM |
B11.00003: Feasibility Study of SSTO Programs Using Thermodynamic Properties Conor McGibboney, Eric Booth The purpose of this research is to study the feasibility of Liquid Air Cycle Engines (LACE) and Air Collection and Enrichment System (ACES) for single stage to orbit (SSTO) space programs. Various thermodynamic properties such as Joule-Thomson, Para-to-Ortho with hydrogen, and general heat exchanger performance are used to determine feasibility on a fundamental theoretical level. For LACE we examined the condensation ratio (CR) kg air condensed by kg H2 coolant used, and examined how much variations in pressure, as well as para-orthohydrogen conversion would aid heat-exchanger efficiency. No matter what is done, we cannot achieve a desired CR that is close to the needed stoichiometric ratio of 34.4. For ACES we examined CR with and without precooling with excess N2. Remarkably, precooling intake air with nitrogen worsens performance dramatically. The deficiency that causes ACES to be counterproductive is that, below 165 Kelvin, the proportional rise in the constant pressure heat capacity (Cp) of air is much greater than the proportional fall in the Cp of para-H2. Additionally, masses of system components needed for precooling and heat-exchange would need to be carried to space on the vehicle thus, further reducing efficiency. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 11:51AM - 12:03PM |
B11.00004: Search for Higgsino inside Large Hadron Collider via Vector Boson Fusion Cheng Tao, Alfredo Gurrola, Andres Florez, Nathalia Cardona, Paul Douglas Sheldon, Will Johns Supersymmetry (SUSY) is a theoretical extension of the standard model (SM) of particle physics that could describe the particle nature of Dark Matter (DM). In SUSY models assuming R-parity conservation, the lightest neutralino is neutral, stable, and interacts with SM particles in the early universe to give the DM relic density observed today. A Higgs-like neutralino (Higgsino) is known to be a promising candidate for DM. Current search methods for Higgsinos at the LHC mainly rely on Drell-Yan production mechanisms, however, are experimentally difficult in cases where the mass of the DM candidate is only slightly less than the masses of other neutralinos, making these so-called compressed spectrum Higgsino scenarios important search targets using new techniques. The focus of this talk is on the development of a search methodology for Higgsino DM at LHC using Vector Boson Fusion (VBF) processes, which offers an alternative and complementary search strategy. We combine the VBF topology with a final state of one and two soft leptons and large missing momentum. The requirement of one or two soft leptons combined with jets of large dijet mass can significantly reduce SM backgrounds, resulting in enhanced Higgsino discovery potential at the LHC. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 12:03PM - 12:15PM |
B11.00005: Decoupling bosonic modes using sequential quantum transducers Shoumik Chowdhury, Mengzhen Zhang, Liang Jiang Quantum transducers are devices that can faithfully convert quantum signals from one mode to another. Building robust quantum transducers will be crucial to the development of hybrid quantum networks and scalable quantum computers. Previous studies have explored techniques to achieve perfect transduction using even imperfect transducers -- however, these methods either require infinite squeezing or apply only to the case of two modes. Here, we develop a new protocol that works for an arbitrary number of modes and requires only finite squeezing. Specifically, we show that by operating transducers in sequence, interspersed with appropriate single-mode operations, it is possible to decouple unwanted degrees of freedom and so reduce a three-mode transduction problem to the solved two-mode case. Furthermore, we investigate the dependence of the squeezing needed on the mode-coupling strength for a given transducer and propose some potential experimental setups. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 12:15PM - 12:27PM |
B11.00006: Dark Count Reduction in Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors (SNSPDs) Hyunseong Kim, Andrew Mueller, Boris Korzh, Matthew Shaw Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors are the fastest single photon detectors with high detection efficiency, record time-resolution, and ultra-low dark count rate. However, for applications in dark matter search and quantum information, the dark count rate of SNSPDs must be further improved. In order to push these limits, we implemented a cryogenic differential bias-tee circuit, which filters high frequency noise from the current source and reduces electromagnetic noise coupling into the circuit thanks to a balanced architecture. We demonstrate that this differential architecture exhibits lower dark count rates compared to a single-ended device referenced to ground. We show, using a gaussian noise model, that the difference in dark counts for these two configurations can be attributed to electromagnetic noise. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 12:27PM - 12:39PM |
B11.00007: Etaloning Laser Interference Analysis Spectrometry (ELIAS) Jason Porter, Jarom S Jackson, Dallin S. Durfee, Richard Sandberg Many fields of research require precise wavelength measurement, but commercially available wavemeters are often too expensive, too large, or too fragile to be practical. We have designed and constructed a robust, compact, and inexpensive wavelength meter that analyzes the interference patterns caused by a series of etalon-like structures. Measuring this etaloning across a range of known wavelengths provides a set of wavelength-dependent reference functions which can be used to calculate an unknown wavelength within the same range. We present data showing that this device can measure a laser's wavelength with an average error less than a picometer, and a standard deviation less than 2 picometers. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 12:39PM - 12:51PM |
B11.00008: Temperature dependence of the index of refraction of TOPAS cyclic olefin copolymer in the terahertz range Timothy Kritzell, Evan Jasper, YUFEI Li, Nicholas Crescimanno, Thuc Mai, Rebekah Smith, Daniel Heligman, Matthew T Warren, Frank C Peiris, Rolando Valdes Aguilar Past measurements on the cyclic olefin copolymer TOPAS reveal a spectrally-flat refractive index within the terahertz range, giving the material exciting potential applications in optical apparatuses. Here we use THz spectroscopy to expand the understood frequency range, and as a probe to extract information regarding the temperature dependence of the refractive index, in which we find that the index of refraction increases with decreasing temperature. In hopes to understand this counterintuitive behavior, we report the temperature dependence of the reflectivity due to vibrational modes within the C-H band via Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 12:51PM - 1:03PM |
B11.00009: Protonic Bipolar Semiconductor Melted Ice Periodic Lattice Model Explains the Abnormally High Electrical Mobility of Positive and Negative Ions in Pure Liquid Water. Cindy Tianhui Jie, Bin Jie, Chih-Tang Sah The mobility of positive and negative ions in pure liquid water are higher than impurity ions. This is not understood for 100+ years, but are accurately measured, tabulated in texts and manuals, and used in manufacturing. At the 2013 National Fall Meeting of the Chinese Physical Society, we proposed the melted-ice bipolar protonic semiconductor model to explain this high electrical mobility by drift-diffusion-generation-recombination-trapping of positive protons and negative prohols, including resolution of one protonic boson interacting with one protonic fermion. Our model extends the 1933 Bernal-Fowler Hexagonal Close Packed ice model, proven by 1935 Pauling residual entropy theory on Giauque specific heat measurements. Our 2013 idea arose from the many daily observed properties of nearly pure water, which suggest the persistent long-range-large-volume order when ice melts into liquid. This talk describes, in undergraduate language, the excellent agreement between our model and the three experimental properties of pure liquid water (the proton product or pH and the two protonic mobilities), by viewing the proton and prohol transport tracks through our atomic crystal lattice of pure water. |
Monday, March 2, 2020 1:03PM - 1:15PM |
B11.00010: Perturbation of Quantum Harmonic Oscillator and its effect on Quantum Electromagnetic Field Theory Sankarshan Sahu Here a special case of perturbation in quantum harmonic oscillator is studied. Here we assume the perturbed potential to be a Harmonic Oscillator that has been shifted in the position space.We construct the new creation and annihilation operators for the new Hamiltonian |
Monday, March 2, 2020 1:15PM - 1:27PM |
B11.00011: Revisiting the Wettability of Graphene Christina McBean, Priyanka Manchanda, Pratibha Dev Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has been the main focus of many researchers as they study its unique structure and properties. This two-dimensional, hexagonal carbon lattice has been proven to be a well-suited material for use in small molecule gas sensors, surface coatings, lubricants, etc. In studying the water wettability of graphene, studies first demonstrated that graphene is a hydrophobic material. However, more recent experiments have suggested that graphene is intrinsically hydrophilic. Based on the ambiguity of these conclusions, further studies must be done to find some clarity on the precise nature of the interactions between graphene and water. In this theoretical work, we use density functional theory to study the adsorption of water on graphene-based substrates and in the presence of ambient gases to determine surface water wettability of graphene. |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700