Poster Session
A student poster session will be held on Saturday January 18th from 4:00-6:00pm. All students are welcome to participate!
Submit poster titles and abstracts on your registration form. Posters should be no larger than 3' by 4'.
- Upon check-in, you will give our staff your poster and we will set it up for you
- Posters will be returned on Sunday after the Awards Ceremony
- Any poster left after 4pm on Sunday, January 19 will be removed by conference staff and discarded.
Posters to be Presented
| Number | Presenters | Title | Authors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SheKayla Love | Seasonal Variation of F2 Peak of Ionosphere | She'Kayla Love and Dr. Susmita Hazra |
| The environment in the top layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, which we call the Ionosphere, changes from hour to hour and from day to day, due to its interaction with the Sun. As a part of this research, we are studying the F2 peak of the ionosphere using ionosonde data. We are using the data from Ahmedabad (latitude 23.00 degree, longitude 72.50 degree) station and Norilsk (latitude 69.20 degree, longitude 88.00 degree) station. We will also be using predicted ionosphere data from the International Reference Ionosphere model to compare to the actual data that was collected by the digisounde. During winter time of the year 2012, Ahmedabad’s F2 peak varies around ~5 MHz to ~15 MHz and the height varies from ~220 km to ~270 km. The IRI model predicted that the frequency should have been ~13 MHz to ~14 MHz and the height’s around ~270 km to ~300 km. Norilsk’s winter time F2 peak varies between ~2 MHz to ~3 MHz with a height between ~250 km to ~350 km. The results are compared with IRI (International Reference Ionosphere) model for both F2 peak frequency and height. This research work will be important in terms of space plasma studies and space weather predictions, which play a significant role in radio and satellite communication as well as GPS navigation. | |||
| 2 | Raynise Adams | Rediscovering the Electron Through a Series of Experiments | Raynise Adams and Tiffany Barker |
| The goal of this project is to recreate two milestones in the history for the discovery of an electron: Millikan's Oil Drop experiment and J.J. Thomson’s e/m experiment. This project started with Millikan’s famous oil drop experiment, in which the small charged oil drops moving inside of an electric field can be used to measure the charge of an electron. An atomizer sprays a light mist of oil into the electric field where the oil droplets interact with free electrons produced by a radiation source, giving the oil droplets a small charge. The oil droplets’ motion can be adjusted by changing the strength and the direction of the electric field. By measuring how fast the droplet travels through the grid within the apparatus, the electric charge of the droplet we followed was calculated to be 5.77·10-18 C, which corresponds to 36 electrons. Next was J.J. Thomson’s e/m experiment which consisted of an electron moving along a circular path when introduced into an electromagnetic field. The radius of the circle can be adjusted by altering the electric and magnetic fields. Through these adjustments, the specific charge to mass ratio of an electron was determined to be 1.7551·1011 C/kg. In the future, we want to recreate the galvanic electrolysis cell experiment which first indicated the existence of the natural unit of electricity, known as the electron. | |||
| 3 | Tiffany Barker | The Development and Implementation of a Computational and Experimental Brownian Motion Study in an Undergraduate Physics Course | Raynise Adams, Tiffany Barker, Landon Clemens, Jasmine Harris, Ashlei Johnson, Veni Khamphavanh, Davis Luu, Carlos Martinez, Gueu Oulai, and Thomas Stell |
| This project was a determination of the effectiveness of including an experiment in Brownian motion in an undergraduate physics course. An experiment in Brownian motion would allow undergraduates an introduction to statistical physics which is a staple of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. The experiment was accomplished through the use of both experimental and computational methods. Polystyrene microspheres suspended in water were videotaped through microscopes and processed by Tracker software. The computational modeling was performed using Jupyter notebooks. Furthermore, this experiment was implemented in an undergraduate physics lab and evaluated for a permanent addition to the undergraduate course. | |||
| 4 | Claire Allen and Michelle Medina | A Robotic Arm to Aid a Quadriplegic Woman in Curling Her Hair | Andrew Hastings, Michelle Medina, Claire Allen, and Gregory W. Ojakangas |
| We are developing a device to assist a quadriplegic woman with the task of curling her hair. This woman was born with no legs, and with arms that terminate at the elbows. Through the use of two joysticks manipulated by her elbows, our device holds an Instawave automatic curling iron in a vertical orientation, at any desired position relative to her head, using a robotic arm with three degrees of motion freedom described by the angles φ, θ1, and θ2. The arm hangs from a platform, or roof, suspended directly above the user’s head. The angle φ rotates the roof platform about a vertical axis, such that for a given φ, the arm moves in a vertical plane, with angles θ1, θ2, and θ3 describing rotation of shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, respectively. The wrist angle θ3 is completely prescribed by the angles θ1 and θ2 through the relationship (θ1 + θ2 - θ3 = π), maintaining the curling iron in the desired vertical orientation. The shoulder and elbow joints of the arm are actuated by two simulated muscles, each consisting of a strong cord that wraps around a servo horn, and around the shoulder and/or elbow joint. One monoarticular muscle provides driving torque to the upper arm, and one biarticular muscle applies torque to both the shoulder and the elbow simultaneously. This design allows the servos for those two muscles to be situated on the roof platform. In series with the cord, each muscle will contain an elastic component, which causes the entire system to be compliant (that is, to have some “give” to it), thus eliminating the possibility of injury to the user. The two joysticks comprise four variable degrees of freedom and two push-buttons -- enough inputs to actuate our system. We are designing the device in Fusion360. | |||
| 5 | Dayna Swanson | Changing The Notation That Represents A Force Changes How Students Say It | Dr. Brant Hinrichs and Dayna Swanson |
| To facilitate both learning about forces and coordinating forces with the system schema, force symbols in University Modeling Instruction very carefully represent forces as detailed descriptions of interactions. For example, represents the gravitational force by Earth on a ball, where “g” represents gravitational (i.e. the type of interaction), “E” represents Earth, represents “by” and “on”, and “B” represents ball. Although students are taught to say as “gravitational force”, audio data from student-led whole-class discussions shows that more than 40% percent of the time was referred to as “force gravity” instead. Analogous results obtained for contact force symbols as well. Because language plays such a crucial role in learning physics, several years ago, as an experiment, the notation was changed from to to make it more closely match how it is to be read. Student use of “force gravity” and “force contact” dropped to less than 5% with this notation switch. | |||
| 6 | EmIily Koivu | Adsorption of CO2 and N2 on Graphite and Cone Grid | Emily Koivu |
| Adsorption is the phenomena that occurs when a gas is in the presence of any material, and is uniquely fit for different elements. Using molecular dynamics simulations, the adsorption of a CO2 and N2 mixture on graphite is studied at differing temperatures. Attempts to increase selectivity are made by introducing cones, inverted and upright, on top of the graphite. Results show that at molecules are more easily adsorbed at 300K than 400K, and that the presence of the cones decreases selectivity, though upright cones perform worse than inverted cones. Further study at different ranges of temperature and strengths of interactions with the inverted cones should provide useful in determining the most effective way to use adsorption to separate CO2 and N2. | |||
| 7 | Olivia Boyd | The Addition of Fumed Silica to the Acrylic Adhesive B-72 for Use in Art Conservation | Olivia Boyd and Connie Roth |
| The field of art conservation adds fumed silica (FS) to acrylic adhesives in order to improve their rheological properties during application. However, little is known about how this added FS may alter the polymer’s material properties. Since 1986, when Stephen Koob published an article on how to make the acrylic B-72 easier to work with, which included adding 0.2 wt% FS, B-72 has become very popular in the conservation community. Paraloid B-72 is is composed of 32% methyl methacrylate, 65.8% ethyl methacrylate, and 2.2% butyl methacrylate. In polymer materials engineering, nanoparticles (NPs) are often added in small quantities to increase the modulus and improve strength of the polymer material. These polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) are used today in a wide variety of applications, yet the underlying scientific mechanism by which these nanometer sized particles act to reinforce the material are unclear. While early theoretical work suggested that adding NPs to polymers such that attractive interactions between them exist should increase Tg, current experimental work often shows that the average Tg of the polymer matrix is not altered. We confirm this finding for our system via ellipsometric measurements of the glass transition temperature of neat B-72 and B-72 with 0.2 wt% FS. We also introduce in-progress research concerning the increase in stress-to-failure when FS is added to B-72. | |||
| 8 | Emmanuel Aneke | Development of Pelletron Accelerator for High Precision Caibration of Silicon Detectors. | Emmanuel Aneka |
| Neutron beta decay (NBD) is the decay of a neutron into a proton by the emission of an electron and electron antineutrino. When we measure the emitted electron, it can have any energy from 0 keV to 783 keV. The emitted electron energies are difficult to precisely measure because of bremsstrahlung, the emission of electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of an electron hitting an atomic nucleus. | |||
| 9 | Kara Gartner | Penetration beneath the convection zone of solar-like stars of different ages | Kara Gartner (GSU), Jane Pratt (GSU), Isabelle Baraffe (Exeter), and the MUSIC Team |
| Using MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics), realistic one-dimensional computational models of a three solar mass star are produced, and data about the structure of the star at different ages is then converted into input for a two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation using the MUSIC code (MUltidimensional Stellar Implicit Code). The time-dependent convection data is analyzed statistically to determine the convective velocities and the overshooting length at the different ages. Currently, the same overshooting length is used throughout the evolution of the star; determining how the overshooting length should change as a star evolves would provide a more accurate prediction of the path of a star’s evolution. | |||
| 10 | Kristin Baker | Continuing Evolution of the Outflows in NGC3783 | Kristin N. Baker, Braven Lyall, Jay P. Dunn, and D. Michael Crenshaw |
| Using archival spectra from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope over a time span of 16 years, we explore the variability of absorption troughs in lines of C IV, N V, Si IV, and Lyman α. Using templates of earlier epoch troughs, we visually determine trough structure changes. We observe changes in the optical depths and/or covering factors, which is indicative of bulk motion of material across the line-of-sight. | |||
| 11 | Inaya Molina | Polymerization of Aniline by Photosystem I Proteins | Inaya Molina, Joshua Passantino, and G. Kane Jennings |
| Photosynthesis is a process in plants which turns solar energy into chemical energy and has become a basis for biohybrid solar cells. Solar panels today are growing in demand yet the price and energy waste they create in production are still prominent problems. Photosystem I (PSI) is a protein vital for photosynthesis in oxidizing and reducing native redox species to produce NADPH. The two sites responsible for oxidation and reduction are theP700 and FB sites respectively. Polyaniline (pAni) is a conductive polymer that has been shown to work in biohybrid solar cells. If PSI can electropolymerize polyaniline from aniline monomer, a robust protein-polymer conjugate can be produced that can be used in many electrochemical applications. pAni is formed though an oxidative polymerization, which should be possible with PSI. By combining aniline and PSI in solution, aniline can polymerize at the P700 site, forming pAni attached to the protein. We show through cyclic voltammetry and FTIR that they PSI P700 site did polymerize pAni in solution. pAni formation was investigated at multiple pH’s with PSI to find the optimal pH for pAni growth without damaging the protein. pH 4 was determined to be the best pH for pAni polymerization with PSI. Our results indicate that we have produced the non-conductive leucoemeraldine form of polyaniline that can be doped in order to create more conductive forms. | |||
| 12 | Kira Williams | Synthesis of ZTO and application to perovskite solar cells | Kira Williams, Keonna Conkle, Daria Weathersby, Jinju Zheng, nd Qilin Dai |
| Perovskite solar cells are attracting much attention due to their significant potential to replace silicon solar cells. The advantages of the perovskite solar cells are low cost, flexible structure, and printable production. However, the major problems of the perovskite solar cells are low efficiency and poor stability. In our work, we developed zinc tin oxide nanocrystals by hydrothermal method, and the nanocrystals were applied to perovskite solar cells to improve the cell efficiency and stability. Zinc tin oxide nanocrystals were prepared with controllable parameters such as temperature, concentration. The composite of zinc tin oxide nanocrystals with layered carbon materials were also synthesized assisted by the similar method. The nanocrystals were studied by XRD, TEM and SEM to characterize the morphology and structure of the prepared nanocrystals. 10-50 nm nanocrystals with pure phase were obtained by our method. The films of the nanocrystals were prepared by spin coating method with the solution of nanocrystals in solvents. Perovskite solar cells with the structure of Au/SpiroOMeTAD/Perovskite/ Zn2SnO4 /FTO were fabricated by spin coating and thermal evaporation method inside the glove box. Perovskite is air sensitive and moisture sensitive. Glovebox is very necessary to carry out this research. Zinc tin oxide with appropriate energy levels can adjust the charge transport and reduce the charge recombination in the devices, leading to improved device efficiency. The device efficiency was improved from 12.5% to 17.7%. In conclusion, we use zinc tin oxide nanocrystals to improve the perovskite solar cell efficiency by adjusting the energy level alignment. We will keep working on the device efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells by structure engineering. | |||
| 13 | William Smith | Analysis of He+ Pickup Ions from Ulysses/SWICS Data | W.P Smith, N.V Pogorelov, T.K.Kim, M.Zhang, and K.Renfroe |
| Pickup ions in the solar wind often form through the process of charge exchange or through the photoionization of interstellar neutral particles. These ions, which include H, He, N, O, and Ne, reveal the characteristics of the local interstellar medium. To study the bulk properties, such as temperature and density, of He+ ions in the solar wind using data from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) onboard the Ulysses spacecraft | |||
| 14 | Anna Murphree | Monitoring AGNs with Hβ Asymmetry: A Study of Mrk704 | Anna M. Murphree, Chelsea Adelman, Zack J. Carter, Micah Oeur, Kianna A. Olson, Tom Roth, Sam J. Schonsberg, Theodora Zastrocky, Jacob N. McLane, Michael S. Brotherton, Henry A. Kobulnicky, and Daniel A. Dale |
| As part of the Monitoring AGNs with Hβ Asymmetry (MAHA) Collaboration, we present results of a long-term reverberation mapping (RM) campaign of Mrk704. Our high-fidelity data set was obtained with the Wyoming Infrared Observatory 2.3m telescope. Mrk704, a Seyfert 1 galaxy, has previously been reverberation mapped with complex results. We report a new broad-line region (BLR) time lag measurement and its corresponding black hole mass estimate. These results agree with previous measurements by De Rosa et al. 2018 and Afanasiev et al. 2019. We also present velocity-resolved time lags, which suggest a possible binary system. A close binary system may explain the complex Hβ profile and RM results, but more modeling is necessary to confirm this result. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under REU grant AST 1852289 and PAARE grant AST 1559559. | |||
| 15 | Alya Sharbaugh | Analysis of X-Class Solar Flares in the AIA 131 A Channel | Alya Sharbaugh and Mary Kidd |
| This project represents a small part of the general study by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center into how the evolution of high temperature plasma is dependent upon the morphology of solar flares. Data for this analysis was provided by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a NASA satellite launched in 2011 as part of the Living With a Star initiative. The SDO carries an instrument called the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) which uses Fe V, XX, and XXIII to focus on flaring regions of the Sun. This presentation will detail the process of filtering usable satellite data using SunPy, modeling different parameters of solar flares, and mapping images of flares to create movies. | |||
| 16 | Kaitlyn Kidwell | Comparing the Period-Luminosity Relationship to Distance for the RR Lyrae Star EZ Lyr | K. E. Kidwell, A. E. Sharbaugh, M. F. Kidd, and M. T. Fitzgerald |
| RR Lyrae stars are periodic variable stars often used as standard candles to measure intergalactic distances. Our group calculated the period-luminosity and distance-luminosity relationships for RR Lyrae star EZ Lyr for comparison with previously established results from the GAIA satellite. In collaboration with the Our Solar Siblings program, we requested images of EZ Lyr from the Las Cumbres Observatory’s (LCO) 0.4 meter SBIG telescopes on a set cadence until adequate data was acquired. EZ Lyr’s luminosity was determined by analyzing subsequent light curves from the LCO images. Using this observed luminosity in the relationship described in Caceres & Catelan 2008, distance was calculated. For the star EZ Lyr, the PL distance was consistent with GAIA observations. | |||
| 17 | Caroline Howell | Strain Localization During Slow Strain Rate of Sensitized Al-Mg Alloys | Caroline Howell, Dr. Josh Kacher, and Jordan Key |
| Aluminum is a desired commodity for building vehicles, electronics, or other miscellaneous things. However, pure aluminum is soft and not as durable as needed for certain objects such as ships. Therefore, Aluminum-Magnesium alloys were introduced as a solution. These alloys help keep the lightweight features of aluminum while increasing strength, formability, and weldability. Yet, the magnesium segregation can lead to localized corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. This research is primarily focused on applications of Al-Mg alloys in saltwater environments, such as Navy ships, which are built using Al 5xxx alloys. | |||
| 18 | Ashley Lieber and Logan Siems | Observations and Classification of the Variable Star V1719 Cyg | Dr. Julia Kennefick, Ashley Lieber, and Logan Siems. |
| The variable star, V1719 Cyg, is commonly classified as a Delta Scuti star, but there has been a debate on this subject due to its abnormal light curve. We observed the star in November 2019 using a 0.4 m SBIG telescope which is part of the Las Cumbres Observatory international telescope network. The resulting data are calibrated using stars in the field of known magnitude. We perform aperture photometry in the V-, B-, I- and Z-bands on 38 observations spanning 33 days. We will present the light curve, the estimated period with associated errors and discuss the classification of this object in light of our data collection and analysis. | |||
| 19 | Casey Carlile | Creating Cutouts of Herschel Stripe 82 Data Using Python | Casey Carlile and Allison Kirkpatrick |
| We used Python to create false color and RGB cutout images for 120 active galactic nuclei (AGN) sources that were detected in the Herschel Stripe 82 survey data. Three false color images were made for each source in the 250μm, 350μm, and 500μm bands. A color RGB image was created for each source by overlaying cutouts from the 250μm, 350μm, and 500μm bands with the same pixel size where 250μm corresponds with blue, 350μm corresponds with green, and 500μm corresponds with red. | |||
| 20 | Sharon Gary | Median SEDs of X-ray Selected AGN | Sharon Gary, Allison Kirkpatrick, and Kevin Cooke |
| Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) emit radiation in all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectral Energy Distributions, also known as SEDs, are special graphs that can tell us where in the electromagnetic spectrum the majority of this radiation is coming from. Using data from 6,792 galaxies in the Stripe 82 X survey, these galaxies were then sorted into bins and SEDs were made of each bin. To find the overall trend in energy emission amongst the survey, median SEDs were then created from each of these bins of SEDs. In order to obtain a more complete understanding of AGN within a range of different wavelengths we then compared the optically/UV bright galaxies from the survey to galaxies bright in the infrared. | |||
| 21 | Lani Chastain and Suzanne Steel | Searching for Intermediate Velocity Molecular Clouds | Lani Chastain, Joseph Froetschel, and Suzanne Steel |
| We present preliminary results from an ongoing search for Intermediate Velocity Molecular Clouds (IVMCs). Currently, only 11 of these objects are known in our Galaxy. These small molecular clouds exist at galactic latitudes |b| > 25° with Local Standard of Rest velocities in the range ±20-90 km/s. A vast majority have negative velocities, indicating that they are falling toward the disk. Thus, IVMCs may be part of a collection of gas that feeds our Galaxy, helping to maintain the current star formation rate and enrichment levels. As non-star forming molecular clouds surrounded by atomic hydrogen shells, they are also ideal for investigating the atomic-molecular transition phase of the star-gas cycle. In order to determine their prevalence and further probe the characteristics of these clouds, we search for the presence of OH 18-cm emission from 42 candidate IVMCs using the 305-m radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory. | |||
| 22 | London Willson | Analyzing SN 2012fr Spectra through SYNOW | London Willson |
| The type 1a supernova (SN) 2012fr displayed unusual features that placed it between the shallow silicon and cool areas of the branch diagram. Using the Fortran program SYNOW we are working to understand the strength, velocity, and temperature of the ions present throughout the life of the supernova. So far we have focused on the day of maximum light and 11 days prior to maximum light. So far some of the most notable things we have seen are several ions with high velocity or detached components as well as potential temperature dependence in early days. | |||
| 23 | Juliet Mitchell | A standing wave external-cavity diode laser using a transmission grating | Juliet Mitchell, Morgan Umstead, and Jianing Han |
| External-Cavity diode lasers can be used for laser cooling and trapping. An external-cavity diode laser using a transmission grating allows for an adjustment of the wavelength without changing the output direction. As the angle of the grating is tuned the wavelength or the frequency of the external-cavity laser can be adjusted. | |||
| 24 | Sabrina de Jong | Using Stochastic Simulations to Understand the Evolution of Phenotypic Variability | Sabrina de Jong, Ethan Levien, PhD., and Ariel Amir, PhD. |
| It has been observed that bacterial populations, such as Escherichia coli, exhibit persistence to antibiotics, a phenomenon whereby a small fraction of cells are able to survive the antibiotic treatment by randomly switching into a slower growing phenotype. In contrast to resistant mutants, the daughters of these persister cells do not have any genetic disposition to resisting the antibiotics. Many studies have explored how stochastic, or random, switching between phenotypes in a changing environment affects the growth rate of bacteria, but little has been done to understand the fixation probability. The population’s growth rate is the rate at which the population will proliferate once there are many cells, while the fixation probability tells us if the initial mutant population will survive. By modeling the population as a Moran process (a process by which the total population is fixed and a cell is taken out or “killed off” at random after one of the cells divides to keep the population constant), we hope to gain insight into how phenotypic variability evolves. It might be expected that the fixation probability would be higher for faster growth rates, but we have found that the fixation probability is not always determined by the population growth rate. By optimizing the fixation probability we are exploring how the temporal dynamics of the environment impact the evolution of phenotypic variability in nature. By understanding how bacteria grow we hope to inspire better techniques for administering antibiotic treatments. | |||
| 25 | Jessica Cmiel | Sensitive CH 3335 MHz Observations of a Diffuse Interstellar Cloud | Jessica Cmiel and Loris Magnani |
| Interstellar molecular clouds are composed primarily of molecular hydrogen. Because of the difficulties in observing this molecule from the ground, other tracers have to be used. One of the most useful tracers of molecular gas in the interstellar medium is methylidyne, or CH. Its ground state, hyperfine, main line transition at 3335 MHz is ubiquitous in molecular clouds. However, this transition is very weak and often requires hours of integration time for detection. We re-analyzed a set of CH observations for a diffuse, interstellar, molecular cloud (MBM 40). By summing spectra from several adjacent locations, we were able to improve the signal-to-noise ratio sufficiently to result tin new detections at the edge of the cloud. We investigate how the mass estimates for the cloud are changed by these new detections. | |||
| 26 | Grace Klausen | Lifetime Measurements in 73As | G.E Reesman, R.A Haring-Kaye, K.D Jones, K.Q.Le, S.Gowen, J.Doring, B Abromeit, R.Dungan, R.Lubna, S.L Tabor, P-L Tai, Vandana Tripathi, J.M VonMoss, S.I Morrow |
| Only two nuclei in the mass A = 70 region (67Cu and 71As) are known to exhibit large deformation as a result of a proton occupying the f7/2 orbital. So far, the experimental signature of such an occupation has not been found in 73As. Thus the goal of this work was to infer the underlying deformation of 73As by measuring as many lifetimes as possible in an attempt to understand the lack of such a structure in this nucleus. | |||
| 27 | Brandi Skipworth | Supernova Nucleosynthesis | Brandi Skipworth and Maggie Hinkston |
| 28 | Maggie Hinkston | Dimensional Analysis of Supernova Simulations with CHIMERA | M. Hinkston, J. Roberts, B. Skipworth, and W. R. Hix |
| CHIMERA is a program that models supernova explosions in 1D, 2D, and 3D. Dimensional analysis is required to ensure that the mechanisms of the explosion are modeled correctly in every model. | |||
| 29 | Hannah McCall | Study of the fluorescent lines and absorption variability in GX 301-2 with NICER | Hannah McCall and Manel Errando |
| The accretion-powered high mass X-ray binary GX 301-2 was observed during a period of increased spin frequency (spin-up) with the NICER X-ray telescope in early 2019. The energy spectrum shows a power law continuum absorbed by a large hydrogen column and a prominent Fe K-alpha flourescent emission line. The source exhibits a pulse period of ~685 s, but is otherwise highly variable and shows different states of activity. We present here an analysis of the spin-up, fluorescent lines, and the variable absorption column throughout 35 ks of exposure, concluding with a discussion of the physical interpretation of the results. We compare our findings to results from previous X-ray data taken during other periods of the orbit. | |||
| 30 | Caeley Pittman | Improving trigger efficiency for di-Higgs searches at center-of-mass energy 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector | Caeley Pittman, Suyog Shrestha, Shaun Roe, and Harris Kagan |
| The Higgs self-coupling is one of the primary properties of the Higgs remaining to be measured. If its value deviates from the Standard Model prediction, it could provide a useful route for exploring physics beyond the Standard Model. The Higgs self-coupling is correlated with the cross section of di-Higgs production, so we aim to improve the analysis method for measuring this cross section. In this study, we demonstrate that adding b-jet and missing transverse energy (MET) triggers to the standard single and di-lepton triggers increases the total trigger efficiency for the signal by around 8% in the HH -> bbllvv search. This presentation will discuss the foundational physics involved in this project, as well as the methods employed to improve the efficiency of the analysis. | |||
| 31 | Yadira S. Gaibor | The Mysterious Mechanisms of Warm Jupiter Multi Planet System Formation | Yadira S. Gaibor and Sarah J. Morrison |
| In recent years, Jupiter-sized exoplanets dubbed 'warm Jupiters' (WJ) have been discovered orbiting with periods of 10-200 days, raising questions regarding whether or not they form via similar pathways as 'hot Jupiters'. A significant fraction of them have companions, which lead to questions about their impact on formation and evolution of these type of systems. There have been many mechanisms suggested for finding giant planets at fairly short orbital periods (and orbit distances), ranging from forming giant planets in situ under special conditions to forming them further away from their star and migrating them there over time. This migration can be due to interactions within the disk as the planets grow, or from the presence of a massive, distant companion. Our work is focusing on narrowing down these possible evolutionary pathways. We have compiled WJ multi planet system constraints such as stellar and planet mass, planet radii, orbital period, and orbital eccentricity from various archives and literature. The trends in the collected data will help guide the approach for conducting dynamical simulations of these systems. They also serve as a baseline for comparison of our resulting models. | |||
| 32 | Kali Shoaf | TESS Observations of an Interesting Pulsating Subdwarf B star | K.A. Shoaf, M.D. Reed, M. Uzundag, J. Vos, P. Nemeth, A.S. Baran, R. H. Ostensen, C.S. Jeffery, and J.H. Telting |
| To understand the interesting physics occurring within stars, we use models constrained by observations. Like for the Earth, we use seismology (stellar pulsations observed as brightness variations) for our observations, which come from NASA's TESS space telescope. TESS observed CDS-28 1974 during November 2018 and from those observations we found 28 periodicities which form an ℓ= 1 asymptotic sequence. The peculiarity is that typical ℓ= 1 g-modes occur between 100 and 300μHz, while these occur between 300 and 600μHz indicating that CDS-28 1974 has an atypical structure. Seismology will be used to investigate this structure. | |||
| 33 | Meredith Vogel | How Many Planets Could Perturb Habitable Zone Planets Around Solar-Type and M Stars? | Meredith Vogel and Sarah Morrison |
| The traditional definition of the habitable zone is the range of distances from a star that includes an Earth-like planet where the climate is stable enough for water to be, and is therefore, habitable. This definition doesn’t consider the effects on habitability due to orbit perturbations from neighboring planets. The inner edge of the HZ could be sharper than the outer edge, so the planets near this edge will have more of an effect on the climate of a HZ planet. I am using semi major axes, Kepler observed hill radii, and planet and star masses to calculate different planet masses to fit within the distance between the host star and the inner edge of the habitable zone. I have found that habitable zone planets could have more perturbers around a G type/solar star compared to around lower mass, cooler M type stars. In the future I will be considering more detailed dynamics such as the orbital eccentricity evolution to investigate the effect of other planets on the climate of the HZ planet. | |||
