Using Frequency Noise Feedback to Satabilize Extended Cavity Diode Lasers for Use in Atomic Physics

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Pugh, McKinley Using Frequency Noise Feedback to Stabilize Extended Cavity Diode Lasers for Use in Atomic Physics Faculty Mentor: Dallin Durfee, Physics Introduction Diode lasers in particular are useful in atomic physics because they are durable, compact, and relatively inexpensive. Unfortunately diode lasers also have linewidths that are much wider than atomic transitions. One common […]

A Photometric Approach to the Redshift of Galaxies

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Bohman, John A Photometric Approach to the Redshift of Galaxies Faculty Mentor: Joseph Moody, Astronomy It is necessary to study the distribution of matter to better understand the universe. There are many difficulties associated with this task however, one of the most basic being that that the universe is an extremely large space, and it […]

Statistical Spectral Fitting of Brown Dwarf Binary Systems

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Statistical Spectral Fitting of Brown Dwarf Binary Systems Leanne Lunsford and Faculty Mentors: Denise Stephens, Eric Hintz – Physics & Astronomy Introduction Brown dwarfs are an intermediary classification between stars and planets. They are too small to sustain hydrogen fusion because core temperature directly proportional to gravitational pressure, of which they have not enough, yet […]

Characterizing the Design Space of Oscillatory Biological Networks

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Characterizing the Design Space of Oscillatory Biological Networks Strom Truman Clark strom.clark@gmail.com stromtc Dr. Mark Transtrum, Department of Physics and Astronomy Introduction Characterizing the relevant parameters of a design space in order to satisfy a specific behavior criterion is an important problem throughout all of science and engineering. In this project we proposed to apply […]

Fabrication of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells Using Native and Non-Native Nanocrystals in Ferritin as the Dye

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Alessandro Perego and John Colton, Physics and Astronomy Introduction Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) present a valuable and sustainable alternative to silicon solar cells. These cells present numerous advantages compered to inorganic photovoltaic systems, such as ability of absorb more sunlight per surface area than standard silicon-based solar panels, DSSCs are also able to work even […]

Reverse-Engineering Gene Networks that can Remember Using the Manifold Boundary Approximation Method

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Andrew  White and Mark Transtrum, Department of Physics and Astronomy Introduction Observable biological behaviors result from the interactions of microscopic elements, which form complex systems that we can model mathematically. Ideally, mechanistic models should predict a biological system’s behavior without misrepresenting the system’s biochemistry. The method of model reduction known as the Manifold Boundary Approximation […]

Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance of silicon vacancies in SiC: Predicting resonance of cylindrical cavities

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Kyle Miller and Faculty Mentor: John Colton, Physics and Astronomy Introduction: Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance is one method of performing Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) on a material. ESR is used to determine the electron spin lifetime of a material, an important parameter for use in quantum computing. Resonant cavities are conducting containers that are frequently […]

High Resolution Shock Capturing on GPUs

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Forrest Glines and Faculty Mentor: David Neilsen, Physics Department This research project concerns the development simulation code to confirm neutron star mergers as the progenitors of Short Hard Gamma Ray Bursts. Short Hard Gamma Ray Bursts (SHGBs) are short (less than 2 second) high energy bursts that we observe with satellites. Their exact cause has […]

Determining the Size of a Light Source Using the Hanbury Brown and Twiss Effect

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Adam Kingsley and Faculty Mentor: Dallin Durfee, Physics and Astronomy I. Introduction In 1956, Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) published a paper1 on a method of determining the angular size of a star by comparing the intensities gathered from two detectors. They used this effect by using two photomultiplier tubes and by increasing the distance […]