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A Search For The Z -> b anti-b Process at The D-Zero Experiment (open access)

A Search For The Z -> b anti-b Process at The D-Zero Experiment

In 2001, the D0 experiment entered a new era. Run II of the Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory began, and the collider became the highest energy particle accelerator in the world. Accordingly, the D0 detector had already undergone a series of upgrades in order to fully exploit the physics now within reach. These included improvements to the tracking, calorimetry, muon detection and triggering capabilities. In the Standard Model, the Higgs boson is the last piece of the puzzle that remains to be discovered. The Higgs mechanism and consequently the Higgs boson is thought to be the fundamental ingredient by which particles acquire mass, and its existence (or lack of existence) is one of the most pressing issues in particle physics today. As such, one of the main goals of the Run II physics programme at D0 is to search for it. Armed with new accelerator capabilities, D0 will be able to impose tighter constraints on the mass of the Higgs, and perhaps even detect this elusive particle. If the Higgs does exist, it will be extremely difficult to find. One of the main challenges at a hadron-hadron collider is to reduce the large QCD background that masks the …
Date: November 1, 2006
Creator: Jenkins, Amber Helen
System: The UNT Digital Library
Grid Development and a Study of B-flavour tagging at D� (open access)

Grid Development and a Study of B-flavour tagging at D�

Run IIa of the D0 experiment at the Tevatron took place between Spring 2002 and Spring 2006, collecting approximately 1.2 fb{sup -1} of data. A fundamental principal of the D0 computing model is the utilization of globally distributed computing resources as part of a grid. In particular use is made of the 'SAMGrid'. The first part of this thesis describes the work undertaken at Imperial College on several D0 distributed computing projects. These included the deployment and development of parts of the SAMGrid software suite, and participation in the Winter 2003/2004 data reprocessing effort. One of the major goals of the D0 experiment is the observation of mixing in the B{sub s}{sup 0}-meson system. The measurement of the mixing frequency is important as it can be used to constrain the CKM matrix, which describes CP violation in the Standard Model. The second part of this thesis describes the development of an opposite side flavour tagging algorithm and its calibration using B{sup +} and B{sub d}{sup 0} meson decays. The application of this algorithm to an analysis of the B{sub s}{sup 0} meson system is then described, which lead to the world's first two-sided limit on the B{sub s}{sup 0} meson …
Date: September 1, 2006
Creator: Lewis, Philip William
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jet Energy Scale Studies and the Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson in the Channel ZH -> nu anti-nu b anti-b at D� (open access)

Jet Energy Scale Studies and the Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson in the Channel ZH -> nu anti-nu b anti-b at D�

The D0 experiment is based at the Tevatron, which is currently the world's highest-energy accelerator. The detector comprises three major subsystems: the tracking system, the calorimeter and the muon detector. Jets, seen in the calorimeter, are the most common product of the proton-proton interactions at 2TeV. This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on jets and describes the derivation of a jet energy scale using p{bar p} {yields} (Z + jets) events as a cross-check of the official D0 jet energy scale (Versions 4.2 and 5.1) which is derived using p{bar p} {yields} {gamma} + jets events. Closure tests were also carried out on the jet energy calibration as a further verification. Jets from b-quarks are commonly produced at D0, readily identified and are a useful physics tool. These require a special correction in the case where the b-jet decays via a muon and a neutrino. Thus a semileptonic correction was also derived as an addition to the standard energy correction for jets. The search for the Higgs boson is one of the largest physics programs at D0. The second part of this thesis describes a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the ZH …
Date: November 1, 2006
Creator: Lobo, Lydia Mary Isis
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nanocrystal Solar Cells (open access)

Nanocrystal Solar Cells

This dissertation presents the results of a research agenda aimed at improving integration and stability in nanocrystal-based solar cells through advances in active materials and device architectures. The introduction of 3-dimensional nanocrystals illustrates the potential for improving transport and percolation in hybrid solar cells and enables novel fabrication methods for optimizing integration in these systems. Fabricating cells by sequential deposition allows for solution-based assembly of hybrid composites with controlled and well-characterized dispersion and electrode contact. Hyperbranched nanocrystals emerge as a nearly ideal building block for hybrid cells, allowing the controlled morphologies targeted by templated approaches to be achieved in an easily fabricated solution-cast device. In addition to offering practical benefits to device processing, these approaches offer fundamental insight into the operation of hybrid solar cells, shedding light on key phenomena such as the roles of electrode-contact and percolation behavior in these cells. Finally, all-inorganic nanocrystal solar cells are presented as a wholly new cell concept, illustrating that donor-acceptor charge transfer and directed carrier diffusion can be utilized in a system with no organic components, and that nanocrystals may act as building blocks for efficient, stable, and low-cost thin-film solar cells.
Date: December 15, 2006
Creator: Gur, Ilan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Search for New Physics in the Jets + Missing ET topology (open access)

Search for New Physics in the Jets + Missing ET topology

Although the standard model of particle physics agrees perfectly with experimental data, it is unlikely the final theory describing particles and their interactions. New phenomena has been searched in the jets and missing transverse energy topology. Such phenomena may be due to the pair production of leptoquarks decaying into a quark and a neutrino or the pair production of stops decaying into a charm and a neutralino which is assumed to be the lightest supersymmetric particle. These searches have been performed with the D0 detector at hadronic collider TeVatron with a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. This kind of search needs a good understanding of the jet energy calibration. The determination of the relative jet energy scale has allowed them to reduce the systematic uncertainties on the jet energy measurement when comparing the data and the simulation. Moreover a new method has been developed in order to correct simulated jets for the differences observed in the jet energy scale, the jet energy resolution and the jet reconstruction efficiency between the data and the simulation. The data analysis, performed with an integrated luminosity of 310 pb{sup -1}, has not observed any excess. This result is interpreted in terms of …
Date: May 1, 2006
Creator: Makovec, Nikola Michel & /Orsay
System: The UNT Digital Library
QCD fits to neutrino-iron structure functions at NuTeV (open access)

QCD fits to neutrino-iron structure functions at NuTeV

This thesis presents a new determination of {Lambda}{sub QCD} from Next-to-Leading Order QCD fits to the Q{sup 2} dependence of neutrino-iron structure functions. This is the first measurement of {Lambda}{sub QCD} which uses a theoretical model that fully accounts for heavy quark production. Compared with previous neutrino measurements, the result has improved understanding of the largest systematic uncertainties on the muon and hadron energy scales. These improvements lead to one of the most precise determination of {alpha}{sub S} at moderate Q{sup 2}. NuTeV is a neutrino-iron deep inelastic scattering (DIS) experiment that collected data during 1996-97 at Fermilab. The key features of NuTeV include its sign-selected beam which produced separate high purity neutrino and antineutrino beams, and its continuous calibration beam which enabled NuTeV to considerably improve the knowledge of energy scales which have dominated uncertainties in the previous measurements.
Date: August 1, 2006
Creator: Radescu, Voica A. & U., /Pittsburgh
System: The UNT Digital Library
Habilitation Thesis on STT and Higgs searches in WH Rroduction (open access)

Habilitation Thesis on STT and Higgs searches in WH Rroduction

The detector of the D0 experiment at the proton anti-proton collider Tevatron in Run II is discussed in detail. The performance of the collider and the experiment is presented. Standard model Higgs searches with integrated luminosities between 260 pb{sup -1} and 950 pb{sup -1} and their combination are performed. No deviation from SM background expectation has been observed. Sensitivity prospects at the Tevatron are shown.
Date: December 1, 2006
Creator: Sonnenschein, Lars
System: The UNT Digital Library
Search for Higgs boson production in proton-antiproton collisions at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV (open access)

Search for Higgs boson production in proton-antiproton collisions at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV

We performed a search for Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with W boson (p{bar p} {yields} W{sup {+-}}H {yields} {ell}{nu}b{bar b}) in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. The search uses the data collected between February 2002 and February 2006 at Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 1 fb{sup -1}. The experimental final state of WH {yields} {ell}{nu}b{bar b} process is lepton (e{sup {+-}}/{mu}{sup {+-}}), missing transverse energy and two jets. The largest background in lepton+jets events is W+light flavor process, therefore the identification of jets as b-jets reduces this kind of background significantly. We used displaced SECondary VerTeX b-tagging (SECVTX) technique, which utilizes the signature that b-jets have secondary vertex displaced away from primary vertex because of the long life time of B-mesons. However, there is still much contamination in SECVTX b-tagged jets. Finite resolution of secondary vertex tracking measurements results in false tags, and c-jets are also identified as b-jets due to the long life time of D-mesons frequently. For the purpose of increasing the purity of the SECVTX b-tagged jets, we applied Neural Network to SECVTX tagged jets for the first time by using secondary vertex …
Date: December 1, 2006
Creator: Kusakabe, Yoshiaki & U., /Waseda
System: The UNT Digital Library
Diffractive processes in antiproton-proton collision at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV in the D0 experiment (open access)

Diffractive processes in antiproton-proton collision at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV in the D0 experiment

A first study of single diffractive central high-p{sub T} dijet events in p{bar p} collisions at center-of-mass energy {radical}s = 1.96 TeV is presented, using data recorded by the D0 detector at the Tevatron during RunIIa in 2002-2004. The total integrated luminosity corresponding to the data sample is 398 pb{sup -1}. A diffractive sample is selected using a rapidity gap approach. A precise definition of the rapidity gap constitutes the first part of the thesis. The rapidity gap is defined by means of two parts of the D0 detector--luminosity detectors and calorimeter. Luminosity detectors serve as a basic indicators of diffractive candidates and the calorimeter is used to confirm the low energy activity in the forward region (a rapidity gap). Presented studies of energy deposited in forward part of calorimeter by various types of events yield two rapidity gap definitions. Both of them use a fixed rapidity interval in calorimeter |{eta}| {element_of} [2.6,5.2] and introduce an upper limit on the energy deposited in this region. First definition, which corresponds to the lowest systematical errors, uses a limit of 10 GeV, an energy limit in the second definition is set to 3 GeV. This alternative definition corresponds to the lowest contamination …
Date: September 1, 2006
Creator: Otec, Roman & /Prague, Tech. U.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The ^2H(e,e'p)n Reaction at High Four-Momentum Transfer (open access)

The ^2H(e,e'p)n Reaction at High Four-Momentum Transfer

This dissertation presents the highest four-momentum transfer, Q^2,quasielastic (x_Bj = 1) results from Experiment E01-020 which systematically explored the 2He(e,e'p)n reaction ("Electro-disintegration" of the deuteron) at three different four-momentum transfers, Q^2 = 0.8, 2.1, and 3.5 GeV^2 and missing momenta, P_miss = 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 GeV including separations of the longitudinal-transverse interference response function, R_LT, and extractoin of the longitudinal-transverse asymmetry, A_LT. This systematic approach will help to understand the reaction mechanism and the deuteron structure down to the short range part of the nucleon-nucleon interaction which is one of the fundamental missions of nuclear physics. By studying the very short distance structure of the deuteron, one may also determine whether or to what extent the description of nuclei in terms of nucleon/meson degrees of freedom must be supplemented by inclusion of explicit quark effects. The unique combination of energy, current, duty factor, and control of systematics for Hall A at Jefferson Lab made Jefferson Lab the only facility in the world where these systematic studies of the deuteron can be undertaken. This is especially true when we want to understand the short range structure of the deuteron where high energies and high luminosity/duty factor are …
Date: December 31, 2006
Creator: Ibrahim, Hassan
System: The UNT Digital Library
First observation of the Bs->K+K- decay mode, and measurement of the B0 and Bs mesons decay-rates into two-body charmless final states at CDF (open access)

First observation of the Bs->K+K- decay mode, and measurement of the B0 and Bs mesons decay-rates into two-body charmless final states at CDF

The authors searched for decays of the type B{sub (s)}{sup 0} {yields} h{sup +}h{prime}{sup -} (where h, h{prime} = K or {pi}) in a sample corresponding to 180 pb{sup -1} of p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV, collected by the upgraded Collider Detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. A total signal of approximately 900 events was reconstructed, and the relative branching fractions ({Beta}) of each decay mode were determined with a likelihood fit.
Date: November 1, 2006
Creator: Tonelli, Diego & /Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Search for the Production of Technicolor Particles at the D-Zero Detector (open access)

A Search for the Production of Technicolor Particles at the D-Zero Detector

A search for the Technicolor processes p{bar p} {yields} {rho}{sub T}{sup {+-}} {yields} W{sup {+-}}{pi}{sub T}{sup 0} {yields} {mu}{nu}b{bar b} and p{bar p} {yields} {rho}{sub T}{sup 0} {yields} W{sup {+-}}{pi}{sub T}{sup {+-}} {yields} {mu}{nu}b{bar c} is conducted at the D0 detector. Selection requirements are individually optimized for each of twenty mass hypotheses by means of a random grid search. No excess is seen in a 291 pb{sup -1} data set and 95% confidence level upper limits are set on the Technicolor production cross section. The mass combinations M{sub {rho}} = 195 GeV/c{sup 2}, M{sub {pi}} = 100 GeV/c{sup 2} and M{sub {rho}} = 200 GeV/c{sup 2}, M{sub {pi}} = 105 GeV/c{sup 2} are excluded for the choice of the Technicolor scale parameter M{sub V} = 500 GeV.
Date: July 1, 2006
Creator: Desai, Satish Vijay
System: The UNT Digital Library
Design of a boron neutron capture enhanced fast neutron therapy assembly (open access)

Design of a boron neutron capture enhanced fast neutron therapy assembly

The use of boron neutron capture to boost tumor dose in fast neutron therapy has been investigated at several fast neutron therapy centers worldwide. This treatment is termed boron neutron capture enhanced fast neutron therapy (BNCEFNT). It is a combination of boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) and fast neutron therapy (FNT). It is believed that BNCEFNT may be useful in the treatment of some radioresistant brain tumors, such as glioblastoma multiform (GBM). A boron neutron capture enhanced fast neutron therapy assembly has been designed for the Fermilab Neutron Therapy Facility (NTF). This assembly uses a tungsten filter and collimator near the patient's head, with a graphite reflector surrounding the head to significantly increase the dose due to boron neutron capture reactions. The assembly was designed using Monte Carlo radiation transport code MCNP version 5 for a standard 20x20 cm{sup 2} treatment beam. The calculated boron dose enhancement at 5.7-cm depth in a water-filled head phantom in the assembly with a 5x5 cm{sup 2} collimation was 21.9% per 100-ppm {sup 10}B for a 5.0-cm tungsten filter and 29.8% for a 8.5-cm tungsten filter. The corresponding dose rate for the 5.0-cm and 8.5-cm thick filters were 0.221 and 0.127 Gy/min, respectively; about …
Date: August 1, 2006
Creator: Wang, Zhonglu & Tech, /Georgia
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Measurement of the Top Quark Mass in the Dilepton Decay Channel at CDF II (open access)

A Measurement of the Top Quark Mass in the Dilepton Decay Channel at CDF II

The top quark, the most recently discovered quark, is the most massive known fundamental fermion. Precision measurements of its mass, a free parameter in the Standard Model of particle physics, can be used to constrain the mass of the Higgs Boson. In addition, deviations in the mass as measured in different channels can provide possible evidence for new physics. We describe a measurement of the top quark mass in the decay channel with two charged leptons, known as the dilepton channel, using data collected by the CDF II detector from p{bar p} collisions with {radical}s = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The likelihood in top mass is calculated for each event by convolving the leading order matrix element describing q{bar q} {yields} t{bar t} {yields} b{ell}{nu}{sub {ell}}{bar b}{ell}'{nu}{sub {ell}'} with detector resolution functions. The presence of background events in the data sample is modeled using similar calculations involving the matrix elements for major background processes. In a data sample with integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb{sup -1}, we observe 78 candidate events and measure M{sub t} = 164.5 {+-} 3.9(stat.) {+-} 3.9(syst.) GeV/c{sup 2}, the most precise measurement of the top quark mass in this channel to date.
Date: August 1, 2006
Creator: Jayatilaka, Bodhitha A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nanolithographic Fabrication and Heterogeneous Reaction Studies ofTwo-Dimensional Platinum Model Catalyst Systems (open access)

Nanolithographic Fabrication and Heterogeneous Reaction Studies ofTwo-Dimensional Platinum Model Catalyst Systems

In order to better understand the fundamental components that govern catalytic activity, two-dimensional model platinum nanocatalyst arrays have been designed and fabricated. These catalysts arrays are meant to model the interplay of the metal and support important to industrial heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Photolithography and sub-lithographic techniques such as electron beam lithography, size reduction lithography and nanoimprint lithography have been employed to create these platinum nanoarrays. Both in-situ and ex-situ surface science techniques and catalytic reaction measurements were used to correlate the structural parameters of the system to catalytic activity.
Date: May 20, 2006
Creator: Contreras, A.M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ligand Rearrangements of Organometallic Complexes inSolution (open access)

Ligand Rearrangements of Organometallic Complexes inSolution

Many chemical reactions utilize organometallic complexes as catalysts. These complexes find use in reactions as varied as bond activation, polymerization, and isomerization. This thesis outlines the construction of a new ultrafast laser system with an emphasis on the generation of tunable mid-infrared pulses, data collection, and data analysis.
Date: May 8, 2006
Creator: Shanoski, Jennifer E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Resolution Improvement and Pattern Generator Development for theMaskless Micro-Ion-Beam Reduction Lithography System (open access)

Resolution Improvement and Pattern Generator Development for theMaskless Micro-Ion-Beam Reduction Lithography System

The shrinking of IC devices has followed the Moore's Law for over three decades, which states that the density of transistors on integrated circuits will double about every two years. This great achievement is obtained via continuous advance in lithography technology. With the adoption of complicated resolution enhancement technologies, such as the phase shifting mask (PSM), the optical proximity correction (OPC), optical lithography with wavelength of 193 nm has enabled 45 nm printing by immersion method. However, this achievement comes together with the skyrocketing cost of masks, which makes the production of low volume application-specific IC (ASIC) impractical. In order to provide an economical lithography approach for low to medium volume advanced IC fabrication, a maskless ion beam lithography method, called Maskless Micro-ion-beam Reduction Lithography (MMRL), has been developed in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The development of the prototype MMRL system has been described by Dr. Vinh Van Ngo in his Ph.D. thesis. But the resolution realized on the prototype MMRL system was far from the design expectation. In order to improve the resolution of the MMRL system, the ion optical system has been investigated. By integrating a field-free limiting aperture into the optical column, reducing the electromagnetic interference …
Date: May 18, 2006
Creator: Jiang, Ximan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Search for supersymmetric Higgs bosons at the Tevatron with the D0 experiment (open access)

Search for supersymmetric Higgs bosons at the Tevatron with the D0 experiment

None
Date: September 1, 2006
Creator: Michaut, Marine & /Orsay
System: The UNT Digital Library
Study of collisons of supersymmetric top Quark in the channel stop anti-stop -> e+- mu-+ sneutrino anti-sneutrino b anti-b with the experience of D0 at the Tevatron. Callibration of the electromagnetic calorimeter at D0. (open access)

Study of collisons of supersymmetric top Quark in the channel stop anti-stop -> e+- mu-+ sneutrino anti-sneutrino b anti-b with the experience of D0 at the Tevatron. Callibration of the electromagnetic calorimeter at D0.

Supersymmetry is one of the most natural extensions of the Standard Model. At low energy it may consist in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model which is the framework chosen to perform the search of the stop with 350 pb{sup -1} of data collected by D0 during the RunIIa period of the TeVatron. They selected the events with an electron, a muon, missing transverse energy and non-isolated tracks, signature for the stop decay in 3-body ({bar t} {yields} bl{bar {nu}}). Since no significant excess of signal is seen, the results are interpreted in terms of limit on the stop production cross-sections, in such a way that they extend the existing exclusion region in the parameter space (m{sub {bar t}},m{sub {bar {nu}}}) up to stop masses of 168 (140) GeV for sneutrino masses of 50 (94) GeV. Finally because of the crucial role of the electromagnetic calorimeter, a fine calibration was performed using Z {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -} events, which improved significantly the energy resolution.
Date: October 1, 2006
Creator: Mendes, Aurelien & /Marseille U., Luminy
System: The UNT Digital Library
Excited State Structural Dynamics of Carotenoids and ChargeTransfer Systems (open access)

Excited State Structural Dynamics of Carotenoids and ChargeTransfer Systems

This dissertation describes the development andimplementation of a visible/near infrared pump/mid-infrared probeapparatus. Chapter 1 describes the background and motivation ofinvestigating optically induced structural dynamics, paying specificattention to solvation and the excitation selection rules of highlysymmetric molecules such as carotenoids. Chapter 2 describes thedevelopment and construction of the experimental apparatus usedthroughout the remainder of this dissertation. Chapter 3 will discuss theinvestigation of DCM, a laser dye with a fluorescence signal resultingfrom a charge transfer state. By studying the dynamics of DCM and of itsmethyl deuterated isotopomer (an otherwise identical molecule), we areable to investigate the origins of the charge transfer state and provideevidence that it is of the controversial twisted intramolecular (TICT)type. Chapter 4 introduces the use of two-photon excitation to the S1state, combined with one-photon excitation to the S2 state of thecarotenoid beta-apo-8'-carotenal. These 2 investigations show evidencefor the formation of solitons, previously unobserved in molecular systemsand found only in conducting polymers Chapter 5 presents an investigationof the excited state dynamics of peridinin, the carotenoid responsiblefor the light harvesting of dinoflagellates. This investigation allowsfor a more detailed understanding of the importance of structuraldynamics of carotenoids in light harvesting.
Date: September 1, 2006
Creator: Van Tassle, Aaron Justin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Measurement of the tt, WW and Z -> tautau Production Cross Sections in p anti-p collisions at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV (open access)

Measurement of the tt, WW and Z -> tautau Production Cross Sections in p anti-p collisions at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV

In this thesis we present a new technique to analyze events containing two highly energetic leptons, as a probe of the Standard Model. The philosophy is to consider the data in a more global way, as opposed to the more traditional process dependent approach of extracting a given signal over the expected backgrounds by using various kinematical requirements. We use our global technique to simultaneously measure the cross sections of the main Standard Model processes; the t{bar t}, WW and Z {yields} {tau}{tau} production from p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV in the CDF detector at Fermilab. We select events by requiring they contain two highly energetic leptons (e{mu}, ee, or {mu}{mu}), and make no other kinematic requirements, except for the ee and {mu}{mu} channels. We then use a likelihood fit of the data in the two-dimensional phase space defined by the missing transverse energy (E{sub T}) and the number of jets in the event (N{sub jet}), to the expected Standard Model distributions, to simultaneously extract the production cross-sections of the main process contributing to our dilepton sample.
Date: November 1, 2006
Creator: Carron Montero, Sebastian Fernando & U., /Duke
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nanoscale chemical and mechanical characterization of thin films:sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy at buriedinterfaces (open access)

Nanoscale chemical and mechanical characterization of thin films:sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy at buriedinterfaces

Sum frequency generation (SFG) surface vibrational spectroscopy was used to characterize interfaces pertinent to current surface engineering applications, such as thin film polymers and novel catalysts. An array of advanced surface science techniques like scanning probe microscopy (SPM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), gas chromatography (GC) and electron microscopy were used to obtain experimental measurements complementary to SFG data elucidating polymer and catalyst surface composition, surface structure, and surface mechanical behavior. Experiments reported in this dissertation concentrate on three fundamental questions: (1) How does the interfacial molecular structure differ from that of the bulk in real world applications? (2) How do differences in chemical environment affect interface composition or conformation? (3) How do these changes correlate to properties such as mechanical or catalytic performance? The density, surface energy and bonding at a solid interface dramatically alter the polymer configuration, physics and mechanical properties such as surface glass transition, adhesion and hardness. The enhanced sensitivity of SFG at the buried interface is applied to three systems: a series of acrylates under compression, the compositions and segregation behavior of binary polymer polyolefin blends, and the changes in surface structure of a hydrogel as a function of hydration. In addition, a catalytically active thin …
Date: May 19, 2006
Creator: Kweskin, S.J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Messung der B_s Oszillation mit dem semileptonischen Zerfall B0_s -> D-_s(phi pi-) mu+ neutrino (open access)

Messung der B_s Oszillation mit dem semileptonischen Zerfall B0_s -> D-_s(phi pi-) mu+ neutrino

None
Date: November 1, 2006
Creator: Ay, Cano & /Mainz U., Inst. Phys.
System: The UNT Digital Library
M dwarfs in the Local Milky Way: The Field Low-Mass Stellar Luminosity and Mass Functions (open access)

M dwarfs in the Local Milky Way: The Field Low-Mass Stellar Luminosity and Mass Functions

Modern sky surveys, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Two-Micron All Sky Survey, have revolutionized how Astronomy is done. With millions of photometric and spectroscopic observations, global observational properties can be studied with unprecedented statistical significance. Low-mass stars dominate the local Milky Way, with tens of millions observed by SDSS within a few kpc. Thus, they make ideal tracers of the Galactic potential, and the thin and thick disks. In this thesis dissertation, I present my efforts to characterize the local low-mass stellar population, using a collection of observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). First, low-mass stellar template spectra were constructed from the co-addition of thousands of SDSS spectroscopic observations. These template spectra were used to quantify the observable changes introduced by chromospheric activity and metallicity. Furthermore, the average ugriz colors were measured as a function of spectral type. Next, the local kinematic structure of the Milky Way was quantified, using a special set of SDSS spectroscopic observations. Combining proper motions and radial velocities (measured using the spectral templates), along with distances, the full UVW space motions of over 7000 low-mass stars along one line of sight were computed. These stars were also separated …
Date: June 1, 2006
Creator: Bochanski, John J., Jr. & /Washington U., Seattle, Astron. Dept.
System: The UNT Digital Library