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 …

Results are reported on the reaction {gamma}p {yields} p{bar p}p with beam energy in the range 4.8-5.5 GeV. The data were collected at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in CLAS experiment E01-017(G6C). The focus of this study is an understanding of the mechanisms of photoproduction of proton-antiproton pairs, and to search for intermediate resonances, both narrow and broad, which decay to p{bar p}. The total measured cross section in the photon energy range 4.8-5.5 GeV is {sigma} = 33 {+-} 2 nb. Measurement of the cross section as a function of energy is provided. An upper limit on the production of a narrow resonance state previously observed with a mass of 2.02 GeV/c{sup 2} is placed at 0.35 nb. No intermediate resonance states were observed. Meson exchange production appears to dominate the production of the proton-antiproton pairs.

I have performed a search for t-channel single top quark production in p{bar p} collisions at 1.96 TeV on a 366 pb{sup -1} dataset collected with the D0 detector from 2002-2005. The analysis is restricted to the leptonic decay of the W boson from the top quark to an electron or muon, tq{bar b} {yields} lv{sub l}b q{bar b} (l = e,{mu}). A powerful b-quark tagging algorithm derived from neural networks is used to identify b jets and significantly reduce background. I further use neural networks to discriminate signal from background, and apply a binned likelihood calculation to the neural network output distributions to derive the final limits. No direct observation of single top quark production has been made, and I report expected/measured 95% confidence level limits of 3.5/8.0 pb.

The work presented in this thesis is mainly focused on the application in a {Delta}m{sub s} measurement. Chapter 1 starts with a general theoretical introduction on the unitarity triangle with a focus on the impact of a {Delta}m{sub s} measurement. Chapter 2 then describes the experimental setup, consisting of the Tevatron collider and the CDF II detector, that was used to collect the data. In chapter 3 the concept of parameter estimation using binned and unbinned maximum likelihood fits is laid out. In addition an introduction to the NeuroBayes{reg_sign} neural network package is given. Chapter 4 outlines the analysis steps walking the path from the trigger level selection to fully reconstructed B mesons candidates. In chapter 5 the concepts and formulas that form the ingredients to an unbinned maximum likelihood fit of {Delta}m{sub s} ({Delta}m{sub d}) from a sample of reconstructed B mesons are discussed. Chapter 6 then introduces the novel method of using neural networks to achieve an improved signal selection. First the method is developed, tested and validated using the decay B{sup 0} {yields} D{pi}, D {yields} K{pi}{pi} and then applied to the kinematically very similar decay B{sub s} {yields} D{sub s}{pi}, D{sub s} {yields} {phi}{pi}, {phi} {yields} …

Studies of colloidal nanocrystals and their assemblies are presented. Two of these studies concern the atomic-level structural characterization of the surfaces, interfaces, and interiors present in II-VI semiconductor nanorods. The third study investigates the crystallographic arrangement of cobalt nanocrystals in self-assembled aggregates. Crystallographically-aligned assemblies of colloidal CdSe nanorods are examined with linearly-polarized Se-EXAFS spectroscopy, which probes bonding along different directions in the nanorod. This orientation-specific probe is used, because it is expected that the presence of specific surfaces in a nanorod might cause bond relaxations specific to different crystallographic directions. Se-Se distances are found to be contracted along the long axis of the nanorod, while Cd-Se distances display no angular dependence, which is different from the bulk. Ab-initio density functional theory calculations upon CdSe nanowires indicate that relaxations on the rod surfaces cause these changes. ZnS/CdS-CdSe core-shell nanorods are studied with Se, Zn, Cd, and S X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). It is hypothesized that there are two major factors influencing the core and shell structures of the nanorods: the large surface area-to-volume ratio, and epitaxial strain. The presence of the surface may induce bond rearrangements or relaxations to minimize surface energy; epitaxial strain might cause the core and shell lattices …

This thesis describes the first Run II measurement of b quark fragmentation into {bar B}{sup 0}, B{sup -}, and {bar B}{sub s}{sup 0} mesons and {Lambda}{sub b}{sup 0} baryons using semileptonic B decays. The result is based on 360 pb{sup -1} of data collected with the CDF detector in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1,960 GeV at the Tevatron Collider at Fermilab. The fragmentation fractions are measured for an effective {bar B} hadron p{sub T} threshold of 7 GeV/c to be f{sub u}/f{sub d} = 1.054 {+-} 0.018(stat){sub -0.045}{sup +0.025}(syst) {+-} 0.058(BR), f{sub s}/(f{sub u} + f{sub d}) = 0.160 {+-} 0.005(stat){sub -0.010}{sup +0.011}(syst){sub -0.034}{sup +0.057}(BR), and f{sub {Lambda}{sub b}}/(f{sub u} + f{sub d}) = 0.281 {+-} 0.012(stat){sub -0.056}{sup +0.058}(syst){sub -0.086}{sup +0.128}(BR). f{sub s}/(f{sub u} + f{sub d}) agrees both with previous CDF measurements and the world averages, dominated by the LEP measurements, with {approx} 1{sigma}. However, f{sub {Lambda}{sub b}}/(f{sub u} + f{sub d}) is approximately twice the value which has been measured at LEP and in CDF Run I and disagrees with the LEP results by approximately 2 {sigma}.