In March 2001 the Tevatron accelerator entered its Run II phase, providing colliding proton and anti-proton beams with an unprecedented center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The Tevatron is currently the only accelerator to produce {Lambda}{sub b} baryons, which provides a unique opportunity to measure the properties of these particles. This thesis presents a measurement of the mean lifetime of the {Lambda}{sub b} baryon in the semileptonic channel {Lambda}{sub b}{sup 0} {yields} {Lambda}{sub c}{sup +} {mu}{sup -} {bar {nu}}{sub {mu}}. In total 186 pb{sup -1} of data were used for this analysis, collected with the CDF detector between February 2002 and September 2003. To select the long-lived events from b-decays, the secondary vertex trigger was utilized. This significant addition to the trigger for Run II allows, for the first time, the selection of events with tracks displaced from the primary interaction vertex at the second trigger level. After the application of selection cuts this trigger sample contains approximately 991 {Lambda}{sub b} candidates. To extract the mean lifetime of {Lambda}{sub b} baryons from this sample, they transverse decay length of the candidates is fitted with an unbinned maximum likelihood fit under the consideration of the missing neutrino momentum and the bias introduced …

The author presents a search for excited or exotic electrons decaying to an electron and a photon with high transverse momentum. An oppositely charged electron is produced in association with the excited electron, yielding a final state dielectron + photon signature. The discovery of excited electrons would be a first indication of lepton compositeness. They use {approx} 202 pb{sup -1} of data collected in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV with the Collider Detector at Fermilab during March 2001 through September 2003. The data are consistent with standard model expectations. Upper limits are set on the experimental cross-section {sigma}({bar p}p {yields} ee* {yields} ee{gamma}) at the 95% confidence level in a contact-interaction model and a gauge-mediated interaction model. Limits are also presented as exclusion regions in the parameter space of the excited electron mass (M{sub e*}) and the compositeness energy scale ({Lambda}). In the contact-interaction model, for which there are no previously published limits, they find M{sub e*} < 906 GeV is excluded for M{sub e*} = {Lambda}. In the gauge-mediated model, the exclusion region in the M{sub e*} versus the phenomenological coupling f/{Lambda} parameter space is extended to M{sub e*} < 430 GeV for f/{Lambda} {approx} 10{sup …

The authors have studied the W + {ge} n jets process in Tevatron Run II experiment. The data used correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 72 pb{sup -1} taken from March 2002 through January 2003. The lowest order QCD predictions have been tested with a new prescription of the parton-jet matching, which allows to construct the enhanced LO phase space. According to this procedure, one gets unique results which do not depend on unphysical bias of kinematical cuts to avoid the collinear/infrared divergence in calculation. Namely, one can get the meaningful results in the lowest order prediction. The controllable event samples of the W boson plus jets events by the enhanced lowest order prediction will lead smaller systematic uncertainty than the naive prediction without any cares of the collinear/infrared divergence. They expect their method will be also useful to make systematically small samples as the background estimates in the top quark analysis. They found a good agreement between data and theory in typical kinematics distributions. The number of events for each inclusive sample up to 3 jets are compared with Monte Carlo calculations. A comparison with Run I results is also presented. This is the first result for the …

The measurement of B{sub s}{sup 0} mixing is one of the flagship analyses for the Run II B physics program. The sensitivity of the measurement to the frequency of B{sub s}{sup 0} oscillations strongly depends on the number of reconstructed B{sub s}{sup 0} mesons. They present the measurement of the ratio of branching fractions Br(B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -}{pi}{sup +})/Br(B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup -}{pi}{sup +}), which directly influences the number of B{sub s}{sup 0} events available for the measurement of B{sub s}{sup 0} mixing at CDF-II. They analyze 115 pb{sup -1} of data collected with the CDF-II detector in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using a novel displaced track trigger. They reconstruct 78 {+-} 11 B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -}{pi}{sup +} decays at 1153 {+-} 45 B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup -}{pi}{sup +} decays with good signal to background ratio. This is the world's largest sample of fully reconstructed B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -}{pi}{sup +} decays. They find the ratio of production fractions multiplied by the ratio of branching fractions to be: f{sub s}/f{sub d} {center_dot} Br(B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -}{pi}{sup +})/Br(B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup -}{pi}{sup +}) = 0.325 {+-} …

A preliminary measurement of the t{bar t} production cross section at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV is presented. The {mu}-plus-jets final state is analyzed in a data sample of 94 pb{sup -1} and a total of 14 events are selected with a background expectation of 11.7 {+-} 1.9 events. The measurement yields: {sigma}{sub p{bar p} {yields} t{bar t} + X} = 2.4{sub -3.5}{sup +4.2}(stat.){sub -2.6}{sup +2.5}(syst.) {+-} 0.3(lumi.) pb. The analysis, being part of a larger effort to re-observe the top quark in Tevatron Run II data and to measure the production cross section, is combined with results from all available analyses channels. The combined result yields: {sigma}{sub p{bar p}} {yields} t{bar t} + X = 8.1{sub -2.0}{sup +2.2}(stat.){sub -1.4}{sup +1.6}(syst.) {+-} 0.8(lumi.) pb.

The theory that describes the fundamental particle interactions is called the Standard Model, which is a gauge field theory that comprises the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam model [1, 2, 3] of the weak and electromagnetic interactions and quantum chromodynamics (QCD) [4, 5, 6], the theory of the strong interactions. The discovery of the W [7, 8] and Z [9, 10] bosons in 1983 by the UA1 and UA2 collaborations at the CERN p{bar p} collider provided a direct confirmation of the unification of the weak and electromagnetic interactions. Since then, many experiments have refined our understanding of the characteristics of the W and Z bosons.

Experiments and direct numerical simulations have been performed to examine the effects of initial conditions on the dynamics of a Rayleigh-Taylor mixing layer. Experiments were performed on a water channel facility to quantify the interfacial and velocity perturbations initially present at the two-fluid interface in a small Atwood number mixing layer. The measurements have been parameterized for implementation in numerical simulations of the experiment, and two- and three-dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the experiment have been performed. It is shown that simulations implemented with initial velocity perturbations are required to match experimentally-measured statistics. Data acquired from both the experiment and numerical simulations are used to elucidate the role of initial conditions on the evolution of integral-scale, turbulence, and mixing statistics. Early-time turbulence and mixing statistics will be shown to be strongly dependent upon the early-time transition of the initial perturbation from a weakly- to a strongly-nonlinear flow.

The authors performed a search for the pair production of first-generation leptoquarks using 191 pb{sup -1} of proton-antiproton collision data recorded by the CDF experiment during Run II of the Tevatron. The leptoquarks are sought via their decay into a neutrino and quark, which yields missing transverse energy and several high-E{sub T} jets. Several control regions were studied to check the background estimation from Standard Model sources, with good agreement observed in data. In the leptoquark signal region, 124 events were observed with 118.3 {+-} 14.5 expected from background. Therefore, no evidence for leptoquark production was observed, and limits were set on the cross section times the squared branching ratio. Using the next-to-leading order cross section for leptoquark production, they excluded the mass interval 78 to 117 GeV/c{sup 2} at the 95% confidence level for 100% branching ratio into neutrino plus quark.

In the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab protons and antiprotons are collided at a 1.96 TeV center of mass energy. CDF and D0 are the two experiments currently operating at the Tevatron. At these energies top quark is mostly produced via strong interactions as a top anti-top pair (t{bar t}). The top quark has an extremely short lifetime and according to the Standard Model it decays with {approx} 100% probability into a b quark and a W boson. In the ''lepton+jets'' channel, the signal from top pair production is detected for those events where one of the two W bosons decays hadronically in two quarks which we see as jets in the detector, and the other W decays into an electrically charged lepton and a neutrino. A relatively unambiguous identification in the detector is possible when we require that the charged lepton must be an electron or muon of either charge. The neutrino does not interact in the detector and its presence is inferred from an imbalance in the transverse energy of the event. They present a measurement of the top pair production cross section in p{bar p} collisions at 1.96 TeV, from a data sample collected at CDF between March …

We present results on a search for Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry in the di-photon final state using Run II data collected by the D0 Experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We discuss event selection, Standard Model backgrounds, and the lower limits on the lightest neutralino and chargino masses resulted from this analysis.

The Higgs mechanism preserves the gauge symmetries of the Standard Model while giving masses to the W, Z bosons. Supersymmetry, which protects the Higgs boson mass scale from quantum corrections, predicts at least 5 Higgs bosons, none of which has been directly observed. This thesis presents a search for neutral Higgs bosons, produced in association with bottom quarks. The production rate is greatly enhanced at large values of the Supersymmetric parameter tan {beta}. High-energy p{bar p} collision data, collected from Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron using the D0 detector, are analyzed. In the absence of a signal, values of tan {beta} > 80-120 are excluded at 95% Confidence Level (C.L.), depending on the (CP-odd) neutral Higgs boson mass (studied from 100 to 150 GeV/c{sup 2}).

The authors present a measurement of the {bar p}p {yields} W{gamma} + X {yields} e{nu}{gamma} + X production cross section using data form the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The p{bar p} collisions were provided by the Tevatron Collider at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. Electroweak theory includes the trilinear vector boson coupling, WW{gamma}, which contributes to the e{nu}{gamma} final state. The electron decay channel of the W provides a clean sample to study the production of diboson pairs. The measurement of the production cross section tests the structure of the non-Abelian character of Electroweak theory.

A measurement of the t{bar t} pair production cross section is presented using 162 pb{sup -1} of data collected by the CDF experiment during Run II at the Tevatron. t{bar t} events in the lepton+jets channel are isolated by identifying electrons and muons, reconstructing jets and transverse missing energy, and identifying b jets with a secondary vertex tagging algorithm. The efficiency of the algorithm is measured in a control sample using a novel technique that is less dependent on the simulation. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV/c{sup 2}, a cross section of {sigma}{sub t{bar t}} = 5.6{sub -1.1}{sup +1.2}(stat.){sub -0.6}{sup +0.9}(syst.)pb is measured.

A measurement of the t{bar t} production cross section in the lepton+jets channels with the D0 detector at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV using the lifetime-tagging techniques is presented. The t{bar t} cross section is estimated from the combination of the e+jets and {mu}+jets channels. The obtained result {sigma}{sub t{bar t}} = 7.47{sub -1.14}{sup +1.22}(stat){sub -1.03}{sup +1.65}(syst) {+-} 0.49(lumi) pb is consistent with the Standard Model expectation.

This document presents a measurement of the top quark mass using the CDF run II detector at Fermilab. Colliding beams of protons and anti-protons at Fermilab's Tevatron ({radical}s = 1.96 TeV) produce top/anti-top pairs, which decay to W{sup +}W{sup -} b{bar b}; events are selected where one W decays hadronically, and one W decays to either e or {mu} plus a neutrino. The data sample was collected between March 2002 and September 2003, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of approximately 162 pb{sup -1}. Thirty-seven candidate t{bar t} events are found with at least one b jet identified by its displaced vertex. In each event, the best fit top quark invariant mass is determined by minimizing a {chi}{sup 2} for the overconstrained kinematic system. A likelihood fit of the reconstructed masses in the data sample to distributions from simulated signal and background events gives a top mass of 174.9{sub -7.7}{sup +7.1}(stat.) {+-} 6.5(syst.) GeV/c{sup 2}. The dominant systematic error is due to uncertainties in the jet energy measurements.

The D0 experiment, located at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory in the US, is used to study proton-anti-proton collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The experiment's data acquisition system is based on a sophisticated trigger system used to select potentially interesting events. The Level 2 Silicon Track Trigger (L2STT) is part of the trigger system that provides precise reconstruction of charged particle tracks allowing the selection of events that contain the decays of long lived particles. For example, such particles appear in the decay of the Higgs boson into a pair of bottom quarks. The design of the L2STT preprocessor has greatly benefited from recent advances in electronics technology. The preprocessor has been recently installed and will be used to further optimize the triggering strategy of the experiment. Leptoquarks would mediate hypothetical new interactions between the quarks and leptons of the Standard Model. The existence of such particles would be evidence for physics beyond that model. In this thesis, a direct search for leptoquarks is performed in the jets and missing transverse energy final state. For this analysis, a trigger had to be developed along with a tool to precisely determine its efficiency. An analysis of …

Better devices are needed for the detection of aerosolized biological warfare agents. Advances in the ongoing development of one such device, the BioAerosol Mass Spectrometry (BAMS) system, are described here in detail. The system samples individual, micrometer-sized particles directly from the air and analyzes them in real-time without sample preparation or use of reagents. At the core of the BAMS system is a dual-polarity, single-particle mass spectrometer with a laser based desorption and ionization (DI) system. The mass spectra produced by early proof-of-concept instruments were highly variable and contained limited information to differentiate certain types of similar biological particles. The investigation of this variability and subsequent changes to the DI laser system are described. The modifications have reduced the observed variability and thereby increased the usable information content in the spectra. These improvements would have little value without software to analyze and identify the mass spectra. Important improvements have been made to the algorithms that initially processed and analyzed the data. Single particles can be identified with an impressive level of accuracy, but to obtain significant reductions in the overall false alarm rate of the BAMS instrument, alarm decisions must be made dynamically on the basis of multiple analyzed particles. …

The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) is a multi-purpose detector designed to study proton-antiproton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 1.96 TeV/c{sup 2}. One of the most importatn components of CDF is the silicon tracking detector. A detailed description of the testing and construction of the CDF silicon tracker is presented. Measurements of the tracking efficiency of the completed detector are also provided. Using 36 pb{sup -1} of the J/{psi} data sample collected by CDF between February and October 2002, the inclusive B {yields} J/{psi} X cross-section is measured in p{bar p} interactions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV/c{sup 2}. The fraction of J/{psi} events arising from the decay of b hadrons is extracted using an unbinned maximum likelihood fit to the decay length of the J/{psi} candidates. The p{sub T} dependent differential cross section for inclusive B {yields} J/{psi} X events with rapidity |y| < 0.6 is obtained by combining the B-fraction result with a measurement of the J/{psi} differential cross-section. For 2.0 < p{sub T}(J/{psi}) < 17.0 GeV/c, the integrated B {yields} J/{psi} X cross-section is measured to be {sigma}(J/{psi}, B) {center_dot} {Beta}(J/{psi} {yields} {mu}{mu}) = 16.02 {+-} 0.24(stat){sub -2.20}{sup +2.26}(syst) nb.

Microscopic quantum phenomena such as interference or phase coherence between different quantum states are rarely manifest in macroscopic systems due to a lack of significant correlation between different states. An exciton system is one candidate for observation of possible quantum collective effects. In the dilute limit, excitons in semiconductors behave as bosons and are expected to undergo Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at a temperature several orders of magnitude higher than for atomic BEC because of their light mass. Furthermore, well-developed modern semiconductor technologies offer flexible manipulations of an exciton system. Realization of BEC in solid-state systems can thus provide new opportunities for macroscopic quantum coherence research. In semiconductor coupled quantum wells (CQW) under across-well static electric field, excitons exist as separately confined electron-hole pairs. These spatially indirect excitons exhibit a radiative recombination time much longer than their thermal relaxation time a unique feature in direct band gap semiconductor based structures. Their mutual repulsive dipole interaction further stabilizes the exciton system at low temperature and screens in-plane disorder more effectively. All these features make indirect excitons in CQW a promising system to search for quantum collective effects. Properties of indirect excitons in CQW have been analyzed and investigated extensively. The experimental results …

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) uses cryogenically-cooled detectors made of germanium and silicon in an attempt to detect dark matter in the form of Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The expected interaction rate of these particles is on the order of 1/kg/day, far below the 200/kg/day expected rate of background interactions after passive shielding and an active cosmic ray muon veto. Our detectors are instrumented to make a simultaneous measurement of both the ionization energy and thermal energy deposited by the interaction of a particle with the crystal substrate. A comparison of these two quantities allows for the rejection of a background of electromagnetically-interacting particles at a level of better than 99.9%. The dominant remaining background at a depth of {approx} 11 m below the surface comes from fast neutrons produced by cosmic ray muons interacting in the rock surrounding the experiment. Contamination of our detectors by a beta emitter can add an unknown source of unrejected background. In the energy range of interest for a WIMP study, electrons will have a short penetration depth and preferentially interact near the surface. Some of the ionization signal can be lost to the charge contacts there and a decreased ionization signal relative …

The realization of tunable, ultrashort pulse x-ray sources promises to open new venues of science and to shed new light on long-standing problems in condensed matter physics and chemistry. Fundamentally new information can now be accessed. Used in a pump-probe spectroscopy, ultrashort x-ray pulses provide a means to monitor atomic rearrangement and changes in electronic structure in condensed-matter and chemical systems on the physically-limiting time-scales of atomic motion. This opens the way for the study of fast structural dynamics and the role they play in phase transitions, chemical reactions and the emergence of exotic properties in materials with strongly interacting degrees of freedom. The ultrashort pulse x-ray source developed at the Advanced Light Source at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is based on electron slicing in storage rings, and generates {approx}100 femtosecond pulses of synchrotron radiation spanning wavelengths from the far-infrared to the hard x-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The tunability of the source allows for the adaptation of a broad range of static x-ray spectroscopies to useful pump-probe measurements. Initial experiments are attempted on transition metal complexes that exhibit relatively large structural changes upon photo-excitation and which have excited-state evolution determined by strongly interacting structural, electronic and magnetic degrees …

This dissertation consists of two closely related parts: theory development and coding of correlation effects in a model potential for solvation, and study of solvent effects on chemical reactions and processes. The effective fragment potential (EFP) method has been re-parameterized, using density functional theory (DFT), more specifically, the B3LYP functional. The DFT based EFP method includes short-range correlation effects; hence it is a first step in incorporating the treatment of correlation in the EFP solvation model. In addition, the gradient of the charge penetration term in the EFP model was derived and coded. The new method has been implemented in the electronic structure code GAMESS and is in use. Formulas for the dynamic dipole polarizability, C{sub 6} dispersion coefficient and dispersion energy were derived and coded as a part of a treatment of the dispersion interactions in the general solvation model, EFP2. Preliminary results are in good agreement with experimental and other theoretical data. The DFT based EFP (EFP1/DFT) method was used in the study of microsolvation effects on the S{sub N}2 substitution reaction, between chloride and methyl bromide. Changes in the central barrier, for several lowest lying isomers of the systems with one, two, three and four waters, were …

This thesis is written in an alternate format. The thesis is composed of a general introduction, two original manuscripts, and a general conclusion. References cited within each chapter are given at the end of each chapter. The general introduction starts with the driving force behind this research, and gives an overview of previous work on boron doped molybdenum silicides, Nb/Nb{sub 5}Si{sub 3} composites, boron modified niobium silicides and molybdenum niobium silicides. Chapter 2 focuses on the oxidation behavior of Nb-Mo-Si-B alloys. Chapter 3 contains studies on a novel chlorination technique to improve the oxidation resistance of Nb-Mo-Si-B alloys. Chapter 4 summarizes the important results in this study.

The tert-butylimines of o-(1-alkynyl)benzaldehydes and analogous pyridinecarbaldehydes have been cyclized under very mild reaction conditions in the presence of I{sub 2}, ICl, PhSeCl, PhSCl and p-O{sub 2}NC{sub 6}H{sub 4}SCl to give the corresponding halogen-, selenium- and sulfur-containing disubstituted isoquinolines and naphthyridines, respectively. Monosubstituted isoquinolines and naphthyridines have been synthesized by the metal-catalyzed ring closure of these same iminoalkynes. This methodology accommodates a variety of iminoalkynes and affords the anticipated heterocycles in moderate to excellent yields. The Pd(II)-catalyzed cyclization of 2-(1-alkynyl)arylaldimines in the presence of various alkenes provides an efficient way to synthesize a variety of 4-(1-alkenyl)-3-arylisoquinolines in moderate to excellent yields. The introduction of an ortho-methoxy group on the arylaldimine promotes the Pd-catalyzed cyclization and stabilizes the resulting Pd(II) intermediate, improving the yields of the isoquinoline products. Highly substituted naphthalenes have been synthesized by the palladium-catalyzed annulation of a variety of internal alkynes, in which two new carbon-carbon bonds are formed in a single step under relatively mild reaction conditions. This method has also been used to synthesize carbazoles, although a higher reaction temperature is necessary. The process involves arylpalladation of the alkyne, followed by intramolecular Heck olefination and double bond isomerization. This method accommodates a variety of functional groups …