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Description
Monte Carlo methods often used in nuclear physics, such as auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo and Green's function Monte Carlo, have typically relied on phenomenological local real-space potentials containing as few derivatives as possible, such as the Argonne-Urbana family of interactions, to make sampling simple and efficient. Basis set methods such as no-core shell model or coupled-cluster techniques typically use softer non-local potentials because of their more rapid convergence with basis set size. These non-local potentials are typically defined in momentum space and are often based on effective field theory. Comparisons of the results of the two types of methods are complicated by the use of different potentials. This thesis discusses progress made in using such non-local potentials in quantum Monte Carlo calculations of light nuclei. In particular, it shows methods for evaluating the real-space, imaginary-time propagators needed to perform quantum Monte Carlo calculations using non-local potentials and universality properties of these propagators, how to formulate a good trial wave function for non-local potentials, and how to perform a "one-step" Green's function Monte Carlo calculation for non-local potentials.
ContributorsLynn, Joel E (Author) / Schmidt, Kevin E (Thesis advisor) / Alarcon, Ricardo (Committee member) / Lebed, Richard (Committee member) / Shovkovy, Igor (Committee member) / Shumway, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The theory of quantum electrodynamics predicts that beta decay of the neutron into a proton, electron, and anti-neutrino should be accompanied by a continuous spectrum of photons. A recent experiment, RDK I, reported the first detection of radiative decay photons from neutron beta decay with a branching ratio of (3.09 ± 0.32) × 10-3 in the energy range of 15 keV to 340 keV. This was achieved by prompt coincident detection of an electron and photon, in delayed coincidence with a proton. The photons were detected by using a single bar of bismuth germanate scintillating crystal coupled to an avalanche photodiode. This thesis deals with the follow-up experiment, RDK II, to measure the branching ratio at the level of approximately 1% and the energy spectrum at the level of a few percent. The most significant improvement of RDK II is the use of a photon detector with about an order of magnitude greater solid angle coverage than RDK I. In addition, the detectable energy range has been extended down to approximately 250 eV and up to the endpoint energy of 782 keV. This dissertation presents an overview of the apparatus, development of a new data analysis technique for radiative decay, and results for the ratio of electron-proton-photon coincident Repg to electron-proton coincident Rep events.
ContributorsO'Neill, Benjamin (Author) / Alarcon, Ricardo (Thesis advisor) / Drucker, Jeffery (Committee member) / Lebed, Richard (Committee member) / Comfort, Joseph (Committee member) / Chamberlin, Ralph (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Quark matter at sufficiently high density and low temperature is expected to be a color superconductor, and may exist in the interior of neutron stars. The properties of two simplest possible color-superconducting phases, i.e., the color-flavor-locked (CFL) and two-flavor superconducting (2SC) phases, are reviewed. The effect of a magnetic field on the pairing dynamics in two-flavor color-superconducting dense quark matter is investigated. A universal form of the gap equation for an arbitrary magnetic field is derived in the weakly coupled regime of QCD at asymptotically high density, using the framework of Schwinger-Dyson equation in the improved rainbow approximation. The results for the gap in two limiting cases, weak and strong magnetic fields, are obtained and discussed. It is shown that the superconducting gap function in the weak magnetic field limit develops a directional dependence in momentum space. This property of the gap parameter is argued to be a consequence of a long-range interaction in QCD.
ContributorsYu, Lang (Author) / Shovkovy, Igor A. (Thesis advisor) / Lunardini, Cecilia (Committee member) / Schmidt, Kevin (Committee member) / Alarcon, Ricardo (Committee member) / Lebed, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In this thesis a new method based on the Tight-Binding Linear Muffin Tin Orbital (TB-LMTO) formalism and the Quasiparticle Self-consistent GW (QSGW) approximation is proposed. The method is capable of generating accurate electronic bands structure of large supercells necessary to model alloys structures. The strategy consist in building simple and small hamiltonian from linear Muffin-tin-orbitals (LMTO). Parameters in this hamiltonian are then used to fit the difference in QSGW self-energies and LDA exchange-correlation potentials. The parameter are assumed to transfer to new environments --- a procedure we check carefully by comparing our predicted band to QSGW bands for small supercells. The method possess both the accuracy of the QSGW approximation, (which is the most reliable way to determine energy bands accurately, and yet too expensive for the large supercells required here), and the efficiency of the TB-LMTO method. The accurate and highly efficient hamiltonian is used to predict the electronic and optical transitions of Si1-xGex alloys and SnxSiyGe1-x-y alloys. The goal is to engineer direct band gap material compatible with the silicon technology. The results obtained are compared to available experimental data.
ContributorsDonfack, Hermann Azemtsa (Author) / Van Schilfgaarde, Mark (Thesis advisor) / Dow, John D. (Thesis advisor) / Ponce, Fernando (Committee member) / Ritchie, Barry (Committee member) / Chamberlin, Ralph (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The current observable universe is made of matter due to baryon/antibaryon asymmetry. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is an international experiment through the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory that will study neutrinos. In this study, the detection efficiency for low energy supernova neutrinos was examined in order to improve energy reconstruction for neutrino energies less than 40 MeV. To do this, supernova neutrino events were simulated using the LarSoft simulation package with and without background. The ratios between the true data and reconstructed data were compared to identify the deficiencies of the detector, which were found to be low energies and high drift times. The ratio between the true and reconstructed data was improved by applying the physical limits of the detector. The efficiency of the improved ratio of the clean data was found to be 93.2% and the efficiency of the improved ratio with the data with background was 82.6%. The study suggests that a second photon detector at the far wall of the detector would help improve the resolutions at high drift times and low neutrino energies.
ContributorsProcter-Murphy, Rachel Grace (Co-author) / Procter-Murphy, Rachel (Co-author) / Ritchie, Barry (Thesis director) / LoSecco, John (Committee member) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
In this project, we created a code that was able to simulate the dynamics of a three site Hubbard model ring connected to an infinite dissipative bath and driven by an electric field. We utilized the master equation approach, which will one day be able to be implemented efficiently on a quantum computer. For now we used classical computing to model one of the simplest nontrivial driven dissipative systems. This will serve as a verification of the master equation method and a baseline to test against when we are able to implement it on a quantum computer. For this report, we will mainly focus on classifying the DC component of the current around our ring. We notice several expected characteristics of this DC current including an inverse square tail at large values of the electric field and a linear response region at small values of the electric field.
ContributorsJohnson, Michael (Author) / Chamberlin, Ralph (Thesis director) / Ritchie, Barry (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
A search is underway to find baryon resonances that have been predicted, but yet remain unobserved. Nucleon resonances, due to their broad energy widths, overlap and must be disentangled in order to be identified. Meson photoproduction observables related to the orientation of the spin of the incoming photon and the spin of the target proton are useful tools to deconvolve the nucleon resonance spectrum. These observables are particularly sensitive to interference between phases of the complex amplitudes. A set of these observables has been measured using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Lab with linearly-polarized photons having energies from 725 to 1575 MeV with polar angle values of cos(theta) between -0.8 and 0.9 and transversely-polarized protons in the Jefferson Lab FRozen Spin Target (FROST). By fitting neutron yields from gamma p -> pi^+ n over azimuthal scattering angle, the observables \H and P have been extracted. These observables manifest as azimuthal modulations in the yields for the double-polarization experiment. Preliminary results for these observables will be presented and compared with predictions provided by the SAID Partial-Wave Analysis Facility.
ContributorsLee, Robert John (Author) / Dugger, Michael (Thesis director) / Ritchie, Barry (Committee member) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In the first part of this thesis, we use the generalized Landau-level represen-
tation to study the effect of screening on the properties of the graphene quantum Hall states with integer filling factors. The analysis is performed in the low-energy Dirac model in the mean-field approximation, in which the long-range Coulomb in- teraction is modified by the one-loop static screening effects. The solutions demon- strate that static screening leads to a substantial suppression of the gap parameters in the quantum Hall states with a broken U (4) flavor symmetry. The results of the temperature dependence of the energy gaps mimic well the temperature dependence of the activation energies measured in experiment. The Landau-level running of the quasiparticle dynamical parameters could be tested via optical studies of the integer quantum Hall states.
In the second part, by using the generalized Landau-level representation, we study the interaction induced chiral asymmetry in cold QED plasma beyond the weak-field approximation. The chiral shift and the parity-even chiral chemical potential function are obtained numerically and are found peaking near the Fermi surface and increases and decreases with the Landau level index, respectively. The results are used to quantify the chiral asymmetry of the Fermi surface in dense QED matter. The chiral asymmetry appears to be rather small even in the strongest mag- netic fields and at the highest stellar densities. However, the analogous asymmetry can be substantial in the case of dense quark matter.
tation to study the effect of screening on the properties of the graphene quantum Hall states with integer filling factors. The analysis is performed in the low-energy Dirac model in the mean-field approximation, in which the long-range Coulomb in- teraction is modified by the one-loop static screening effects. The solutions demon- strate that static screening leads to a substantial suppression of the gap parameters in the quantum Hall states with a broken U (4) flavor symmetry. The results of the temperature dependence of the energy gaps mimic well the temperature dependence of the activation energies measured in experiment. The Landau-level running of the quasiparticle dynamical parameters could be tested via optical studies of the integer quantum Hall states.
In the second part, by using the generalized Landau-level representation, we study the interaction induced chiral asymmetry in cold QED plasma beyond the weak-field approximation. The chiral shift and the parity-even chiral chemical potential function are obtained numerically and are found peaking near the Fermi surface and increases and decreases with the Landau level index, respectively. The results are used to quantify the chiral asymmetry of the Fermi surface in dense QED matter. The chiral asymmetry appears to be rather small even in the strongest mag- netic fields and at the highest stellar densities. However, the analogous asymmetry can be substantial in the case of dense quark matter.
ContributorsXia, Lifang, Ph.D (Author) / Shovkovy, Igor (Thesis advisor) / Lebed, Richard (Committee member) / Schmidt, Kevin (Committee member) / Damien, Easson (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Spin-orbit interactions are important in determining nuclear structure. They lead to a shift in the energy levels in the nuclear shell model, which could explain the sequence of magic numbers in nuclei. Also in nucleon-nucleon scattering, the large nucleon polarization observed perpendicular to the plane of scattering needs to be explained by adding the spin-orbit interactions in the potential. Their effects change the equation of state and other properties of nuclear matter. Therefore, the simulation of spin-orbit interactions is necessary in nuclear matter.
The auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo is an effective and accurate method for calculating the ground state and low-lying exited states in nuclei and nuclear matter. It has successfully employed the Argonne v6' two-body potential to calculate the equation of state in nuclear matter, and has been applied to light nuclei with reasonable agreement with experimental results. However, the spin-orbit interactions were not included in the previous simulations, because the isospin-dependent spin-orbit potential is difficult in the quantum Monte Carlo method. This work develops a new method using extra auxiliary fields to break up the interactions between nucleons, so that the spin-orbit interaction with isospin can be included in the Hamiltonian, and ground-state energy and other properties can be obtained.
The auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo is an effective and accurate method for calculating the ground state and low-lying exited states in nuclei and nuclear matter. It has successfully employed the Argonne v6' two-body potential to calculate the equation of state in nuclear matter, and has been applied to light nuclei with reasonable agreement with experimental results. However, the spin-orbit interactions were not included in the previous simulations, because the isospin-dependent spin-orbit potential is difficult in the quantum Monte Carlo method. This work develops a new method using extra auxiliary fields to break up the interactions between nucleons, so that the spin-orbit interaction with isospin can be included in the Hamiltonian, and ground-state energy and other properties can be obtained.
ContributorsZhang, Jie (Author) / Schmidt, Kevin E (Thesis advisor) / Alarcon, Ricardo (Committee member) / Lebed, Richard (Committee member) / Shumway, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The OLYMPUS experiment measured the two-photon exchange contribution to elastic electron-proton scattering, over a range of four-momentum transfer from \(0.6 < Q^2 < 2.2\) \((\mathrm{GeV/c})^2\). The motivation for the experiment stemmed from measurements of the electric-to-magnetic form factor ratio of the proton \(\mu G_E/G_M\) extracted from polarization observables in polarized electron-proton scattering. Polarized electron-proton scattering experiments have revealed a significant decrease in \(\mu G_E/G_M\) at large \(Q^2\), in contrast to previous measurements from unpolarized electron-proton scattering. The commonly accepted hypothesis is that the discrepancy in the form factor ratio is due to neglected higher-order terms in the elastic electron-proton scattering cross section, in particular the two-photon exchange amplitude.
The goal of OLYMPUS was to measure the two-photon exchange contribution by measuring the positron-proton to electron-proton elastic scattering cross section ratio, \(\sigma_{e^+p}/\sigma_{e^-p}\). The two-photon exchange contribution is correlated to the deviation of the cross section ratio from unity.
In 2012, the OLYMPUS experiment collected over 4 fb\(^{-1}\) of \(e^+p\) and \(e^-p\) scattering data using electron and positron beams incident on a hydrogen gas target. The scattered leptons and protons were measured exclusively with a large acceptance spectrometer. OLYMPUS observed a slight rise in \(\sigma_{e^+p}/\sigma_{e^-p}\) of at most 1-2\% over a \(Q^2\) range of \(0.6 < Q^2 < 2.2\) \((\mathrm{GeV/c})^2\). This work discusses the motivations, experiment, analysis method, and the preliminary results for the cross section ratio as measured by OLYMPUS.
The goal of OLYMPUS was to measure the two-photon exchange contribution by measuring the positron-proton to electron-proton elastic scattering cross section ratio, \(\sigma_{e^+p}/\sigma_{e^-p}\). The two-photon exchange contribution is correlated to the deviation of the cross section ratio from unity.
In 2012, the OLYMPUS experiment collected over 4 fb\(^{-1}\) of \(e^+p\) and \(e^-p\) scattering data using electron and positron beams incident on a hydrogen gas target. The scattered leptons and protons were measured exclusively with a large acceptance spectrometer. OLYMPUS observed a slight rise in \(\sigma_{e^+p}/\sigma_{e^-p}\) of at most 1-2\% over a \(Q^2\) range of \(0.6 < Q^2 < 2.2\) \((\mathrm{GeV/c})^2\). This work discusses the motivations, experiment, analysis method, and the preliminary results for the cross section ratio as measured by OLYMPUS.
ContributorsIce, Lauren (Author) / Alarcon, Ricardo O (Thesis advisor) / Dugger, Michael (Committee member) / Lebed, Richard (Committee member) / Ritchie, Barry (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016