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- All Subjects: Physics
- Creators: School of Earth and Space Exploration
- Creators: Foy, Joseph
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Despite being bound by the strong force, bottomonium exhibits a rich spectrum of resonances corresponding to excited states extremely analogous to that of positronium or even familiar atomic systems. Transitions between these levels are possible via the absorption or emission of either a photon, gluon, or gluons manifesting as light hadrons. The goal of this thesis was to establish a theoretical value for the currently unmeasured partial decay width for one such transition—the electromagnetic decay channel hb -> etab gamma. To this end, two methods were utilized.
The first approach relied on the presumption of a nonrelativistic constituent quark model interacting via a simple static potential, allowing for radial wave functions and energy eigenvalues to be obtained for the states of interest via the Schrödinger equation. Upon an application of the standard electromagnetic multipole expansion followed by a utilization of the electric dipole E1 decay width formula, a value of 57.7 ± 0.4 keV was obtained.
The second approach stemmed from the effective Lagrangian describing the bottomonium P to S electromagnetic transitions and relied on the presumption that a single coupling constant could be approximated as describing all nP to mS transitions regardless of spin. A value for this coupling constant could then be extracted from the 1P to 1S spin triplet data and used to predict the width for the singlet 1P to 1S transition. The partial decay width value found in this manner was 47.8 ± 2.0 keV.
Various other methods and models have established a predicted range of 35 to 60 keV for this partial decay width. As the values determined in this thesis fall within the expected range, they agree well with our current understanding of this electromagnetic transition and place further confidence on the expected range.
This research endeavor explores the 1964 reasoning of Irish physicist John Bell and how it pertains to the provoking Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox. It is necessary to establish the machinations of formalisms ranging from conservation laws to quantum mechanical principles. The notion that locality is unable to be reconciled with the quantum paradigm is upheld through analysis and the subsequent Aspect experiments in the years 1980-1982. No matter the complexity, any local hidden variable theory is incompatible with the formulation of standard quantum mechanics. A number of strikingly ambiguous and abstract concepts are addressed in this pursuit to deduce quantum's validity, including separability and reality. `Elements of reality' characteristic of unique spaces are defined using basis terminology and logic from EPR. The discussion draws directly from Bell's succinct 1964 Physics 1 paper as well as numerous other useful sources. The fundamental principle and insight gleaned is that quantum physics is indeed nonlocal; the door into its metaphysical and philosophical implications has long since been opened. Yet the nexus of information pertaining to Bell's inequality and EPR logic does nothing but assert the impeccable success of quantum physics' ability to describe nature.
The Star Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) will be a 6U CubeSat devoted to photometric monitoring of M dwarfs in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) and near-ultraviolet (NUV) (160 and 280 nm respectively), measuring the time-dependent spectral slope, intensity and evolution of M dwarf stellar UV radiation. The delta-doped detectors baselined for SPARCS have demonstrated more than five times the in-band quantum efficiency of the detectors of GALEX. Given that red:UV photon emission from cool, low-mass stars can be million:one, UV observation of thes stars are susceptible to red light contamination. In addition to the high efficiency delta-doped detectors, SPARCS will include red-rejection filters to help minimize red leak. Even so, careful red-rejection and photometric calibration is needed. As was done for GALEX, white dwarfs are used for photometric calibration in the UV. We find that the use of white dwarfs to calibrate the observations of red stars leads to significant errors in the reported flux, due to the differences in white dwarf and red dwarf spectra. Here we discuss the planned SPARCS calibration model and the color correction, and demonstrate the importance of this correction when recording UV measurements of M stars taken by SPARCS.
With the extreme strides taken in physics in the early twentieth century, one of the biggest questions on the minds of scientists was what this new branch of quantum physics would be able to be used for. The twentieth century saw the rise of computers as devices that significantly aided in calculations and performing algorithms. Because of the incredible success of computers and all of the groundbreaking possibilities that they afforded, research into using quantum mechanics for these systems was proposed. Although theoretical at the time, it was found that a computer that had the ability to leverage quantum mechanics would be far superior to any classical machine. This sparked a wave of interest in research and funding in this exciting new field. General-use quantum computers have the potential to disrupt countless industries and fields of study, like physics, medicine, engineering, cryptography, finance, meteorology, climatology, and more. The supremacy of quantum computers has not yet been reached, but the continued funding and research into this new technology ensures that one day humanity will be able to unlock the full potential of quantum computing.
In 1757 Edmund Burke published A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. I will be extending his analysis of the sublime and beautiful, and using it to dissect quantum mechanics. Using Burke’s template on the sublime and beautiful, I can evaluate experiments in quantum mechanics, and explore a new side of Burke’s aesthetic theory. For the reader, I have outlined Burke’s aesthetic theory on the sublime and beautiful. I then used this analysis to explore quantum mechanics and assess the components of quantum mechanics that are beautiful and sublime.