Neutrinos produced as a result of cosmic-ray interactions in the earth's atmosphere offer a powerful probe into the nature of this three-membered family of low-mass, weakly-interacting particles. Ten years ago, the Super-Kamiokande Experiment has confirmed earlier indications that neutrinos undergo lepton-flavor oscillations during propagation, proving that they are massive contrary to the previous Standard Model assumptions. The Soudan Underground Laboratory, located in northern Minnesota, was host to the Soudan2 Experiment, which has made important contributions to atmospheric neutrino research. This same lab has more recently been host to the MINOS far detector, a neutrino detector which serves as the downstream element of an accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiment. This thesis has examined 418.5 live days of atmospheric neutrino data (fiducial exposure of 4.18 kton-years) collected in the MINOS far detector prior to the activation of the NuMI neutrino beam, with a specific emphasis on the investigation of electron-type neutrino interactions. Atmospheric neutrino interaction candidates have been selected and separated into showering or track-like events. The showering sample consists of 89 observed events, while the track-like sample consists of 112 observed events. Based on the Bartol atmospheric neutrino flux model of Barr et al. plus a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of interactions …

I present an analysis of b{bar b} pair production correlations, using dimuon-triggered data collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV during Run II of the TeVatron. The leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) b quark production processes are discriminated by the angular and momentum correlations between the b{bar b} pair. Track-level jets containing a muon are classified by b quark content and used to estimate the momentum vector of the progenitor b quark. The theoretical distributions given by the MC{at}NLO event generator are tested against the data.

Evidence from observational cosmology and astrophysics indicates that about one third of the universe is matter, but that the known baryonic matter only contributes to the universe at 4%. A large fraction of the universe is cold and non-baryonic matter, which has important role in the universe structure formation and its evolution. The leading candidate for the non-baryonic dark matter is Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which naturally occurs in the supersymmetry theory in particle physics. The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment is searching for evidence of a WIMP interaction off an atomic nucleus in crystals of Ge and Si by measuring simultaneously the phonon energy and ionization energy of the interaction in the CDMS detectors. The WIMP interaction energy is from a few keV to tens of keV with a rate less than 0.1 events/kg/day. To reach the goal of WIMP detection, the CDMS experiment has been conducted in the Soudan mine with an active muon veto and multistage passive background shields. The CDMS detectors have a low energy threshold and background rejection capabilities based on ionization yield. However, betas from contamination and other radioactive sources produce surface interactions, which have low ionization yield, comparable to that of …

A collocation method using cubic splines is developed and applied to simulate steady and time-dependent, including turbulent, thermally convecting flows for two-dimensional compressible fluids. The state variables and the fluxes of the conserved quantities are approximated by cubic splines in both space direction. This method is shown to be numerically conservative and to have a local truncation error proportional to the fourth power of the grid spacing. A ''dual-staggered'' Cartesian grid, where energy and momentum are updated on one grid and mass density on the other, is used to discretize the flux form of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Each grid-line is staggered so that the fluxes, in each direction, are calculated at the grid midpoints. This numerical method is validated by simulating thermally convecting flows, from steady to turbulent, reproducing known results. Once validated, the method is used to investigate many aspects of thermal convection with high numerical accuracy. Simulations demonstrate that multiple steady solutions can coexist at the same Rayleigh number for compressible convection. As a system is driven further from equilibrium, a drop in the time-averaged dimensionless heat flux (and the dimensionless internal entropy production rate) occurs at the transition from laminar-periodic to chaotic flow. This observation is …

The Delta-nucleus potential is a crucial element in the understanding of the nuclear system. Previous electroexcitation measurements in the delta region reported a Q2 dependence of the delta mass indicating that this potential is dependent on the momentum of the delta. Such a dependence is not observed for protons and neutrons in the nuclear medium. This thesis presents the experimental study of the electroexcitation of the delta resonance in 12C, performed using the high energy electron beam at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, and the near 4(pie) acceptance detector CLAS that enables the detection of the full reaction final state. Inclusive, semi inclusive, and exclusive cross sections were measured with an incident electron beam energy of 1.162GeV over the Q2 range 0.175-0.475 (GeV/c)2. A Q2 dependence of the delta mass was only observed in the exclusive measurements indicating that the delta-nucleus potential is affected by the momentum of the delta.

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have invented ARUBA (Arsenic Removal Using Bottom Ash) a material that effectively and affordably removes high concentrations of arsenic from contaminated groundwater. The technology is cost-effective because the substrate?bottom ash from coal fired power plants?is a waste material readily available in South Asia. During fieldwork in four sub-districts ofBangladesh, ARUBA reduced groundwater arsenic concentrations as high as 680 ppb to below the Bangladesh standard of 50 ppb. Key results from three trips in Bangladesh and one trip to Cambodia include (1) ARUBA removes more than half of the arsenic from contaminated water within the first five minutes of contact, andcontinues removing arsenic for 2-3 days; (2) ARUBA?s arsenic removal efficiency can be improved through fractionated dosing (adding a given amount of ARUBA in fractions versus all at once); (3) allowing water to first stand for two to three days followed by treatment with ARUBA produced final arsenic concentrations ten times lower than treating water directly out of the well; and (4) the amount of arsenic removed per gram of ARUBA is linearly related to the initial arsenic concentrationof the water. Through analysis of existing studies, observations, and informal interviews in Bangladesh, eight design …

The thesis presented here includes two parts. The first part discusses the production of endcap modules for the ATLAS SemiConductor Tracker at the University of Geneva. The ATLAS experiment is one of the two multi-purpose experiments being built at the LHC at CERN. The University of Geneva invested extensive efforts to create an excellent and efficient module production site, in which 655 endcap outer modules were constructed. The complexity and extreme requirements for 10 years of LHC operation with a high resolution, high efficiency, low noise tracking system resulted in an extremely careful, time consuming production and quality assurance of every single module. At design luminosity about 1000 particles will pass through the tracking system each 25 ns. In addition to requiring fast tracking techniques, the high particle flux causes significant radiation damage. Therefore, modules have to be constructed within tight and accurate mechanical and electrical specification. A description of the ATLAS experiment and the ATLAS Semiconductor tracker is presented, followed by a detailed overview of the module production at the University of Geneva. My personal contribution to the endcap module production at the University of Geneva was taking part, together with other physicists, in selecting components to be assembled …

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 D0 detector has recently undergone a major upgrade to maximize its potential to fully exploit Run II at the Tevatron 2 TeV proton-antiproton collider. The upgrade includes a completely new central tracking system with an outer scintillating fiber tracker and an inner silicon vertex detector. This thesis describes the development of the software to ''unpack'' the raw data from the central tracking detectors into a useful form, and the development of the Level 3 trigger algorithms to cluster the hit information from these detectors. One of the many areas of physics that is being studied by the D0 experiment is the physics of B mesons, particularly that involving CP violation. The second part of the thesis details a constrained mass fitting tool written to aid the reconstruction of B particles, and a Monte Carlo study into measuring the lifetime of B{sup +} and B{sup 0} mesons. This thesis lays the foundations for the means by which physics is extracted from the vast amount of Tevatron data--the trigger--and illustrates how analyses will proceed through the key reconstruction of heavy quarks.

Arsenic in drinking water is a major public health problem threatening the lives of over 140 million people worldwide. In Bangladesh alone, up to 57 million people drink arsenic-laden water from shallow wells. ElectroChemical Arsenic Remediation(ECAR) overcomes many of the obstacles that plague current technologies and can be used affordably and on a small-scale, allowing for rapid dissemination into Bangladesh to address this arsenic crisis. In this work, ECAR was shown to effectively reduce 550 - 580 mu g=L arsenic (including both As[III]and As[V]in a 1:1 ratio) to below the WHO recommended maximum limit of 10 mu g=L in synthetic Bangladesh groundwater containing relevant concentrations of competitive ions such as phosphate, silicate, and bicarbonate. Arsenic removal capacity was found to be approximately constant within certain ranges of current density, but was found to change substantially between ranges. In order of decreasing arsenic removal capacity, the pattern was: 0.02 mA=cm2> 0.07 mA=cm2> 0.30 - 1.1 mA=cm2> 5.0 - 100 mA=cm2. Current processing time was found to effect arsenic removal capacity independent of either charge density or current density. Electrode polarization studies showed no passivation of the electrode in the tested range (up to current density 10 mA=cm2) and ruled out oxygen …

Electron-capture delayed fission (ECDF) properties of neutron-deficient einsteinium isotopes were investigated using a combination of chemical separations and on-line radiation detection methods. {sup 242}Es was produced via the {sup 233}U({sup 14}N,5n){sup 242}Es reaction at a beam energy of 87 MeV (on target) in the lab system, and was found to decay with a half-life of 11 {+-} 3 seconds. The ECDF of {sup 242}Es showed a highly asymmetric mass distribution with an average pre-neutron emission total kinetic energy (TKE) of 183 {+-} 18 MeV. The probability of delayed fission (P{sub DF}) was measured to be 0.006 {+-} 0.002. In conjunction with this experiment, the excitation functions of the {sup 233}U({sup 14}N,xn){sup 247{minus}x}Es and {sup 233}U({sup 15}N,xn){sup 248{minus}x}Es reactions were measured for {sup 243}Es, {sup 244}Es and {sup 245}Es at projectile energies between 80 MeV and 100 MeV.

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) uses position-sensitive Germanium and Silicon crystals in the direct detection of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) believed to constitute most of the dark matter in the Universe. WIMP interactions with matter being rare, identifying and eliminating known backgrounds is critical for detection. Event-by-event discrimination by the detectors rejects the predominant gamma and beta backgrounds while Monte Carlo simulations help estimate, and subtract, the contribution from the neutrons. This thesis describes the effort to understand neutron backgrounds as seen in the two stages of the CDMS search for WIMPs. The first stage of the experiment was at a shallow site at the Stanford Underground Facility where the limiting background came from high-energy neutrons produced by cosmic-ray muon interactions in the rock surrounding the cavern. Simulations of this background helped inform the analysis of data from an experimental run at this site and served as input for the background reduction techniques necessary to set new exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross-section, excluding new parameter space for WIMPs of masses 8-20 GeV/c{sup 2}. This thesis considers the simulation methods used as well as how various event populations in the data served as checks on the simulations to …

Fermilab Experiment 866 took single muon data from 800 GeV/c ({radical}s = 38.8 GeV) p-Cu and p-Be interactions in an attempt to extract the inclusive nuclear open charm/anti-charm (D/{bar D}) differential cross sections as a function of p{sub T}. The muons were decay products from semi-leptonic decays of open charm mesons as well as decays from lighter non-charmed mesons ({pi}'s and K's). Data were taken simultaneously from two interaction regions; one of two thin nuclear targets and a copper beam dump 92 inches downstream. The open decay length for hadrons produced in the targets increased the contribution to the muon spectrum from light hadron decays, relative to those from the dump. Production cross sections for light hadrons from previous experiments were used in conjunction with parameterized open charm cross sections to produce total Monte Carlo single muon spectra that were subsequently fit to the data. The sensitivity of this measurement covered an open charm hadron p{sub T} range of approximately 2 to 7 GeV/c, center-of-mass rapidity, y{sub cm}, between 0 and 2, and x{sub F} between 0.2 and 0.8. Previous experimental results for p-p or p-A open charm production at comparable energy was limited to {radical}5 GeV/ Three functions describing …

In this dissertation, we measure the properties of the lowest-mass beauty baryon, {Lambda}{sub b}. Baryons are the bound states of three quarks. Protons and neutrons, constituents of atomic nuclei, are the most common baryons. Other types of baryons can be produced and studied in the high-energy collider environment. Three-body dynamics makes baryons composed of low mass quarks difficult to study. On the other hand, baryons with one heavy quark simplify the theoretical treatment of baryon structure, since the heavy quark can be treated the same way as the nucleus in the atom. The {Lambda}{sub b} is composed of u, d, and b quarks, where the b quark is much heavier than the other two. Although, it is accessible, little is known about {Lambda}{sub b}. In 1991, UA1 [1] reconstructed 9 {+-} 1 {Lambda}{sub b} {yields} J/{Psi}{Lambda} candidates. In 1996, ALEPH and DELPHI reconstructed the decay {Lambda}{sub b} {yields} {Lambda}{sub c}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} and found only 3-4 candidates [2, 3]. ALEPH measured a {Lambda}{sub b} mass of 5614 {+-} 21 MeV/c{sup 2}, while DELPHI measured 5668 {+-} 18 MeV/c{sup 2}, about 2 {sigma} higher. Subsequently, CDF-I observed 20 {Lambda}{sub b} {yields} J/{Psi}{Lambda} events [4], confirmed the existence of {Lambda}{sub b} unambiguously …

We calculate the exclusion region in the parameter space of {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} oscillations of the LSND type using a combined fit to the reconstructed energy distributions of neutrino candidate samples from the MiniBooNE data obtained with two different particle identification methods. The two {nu}{sub e} candidate samples are included together with a high statistics sample of {nu}{sub {mu}} events in the definition of a {chi}{sup 2} statistic which includes the correlations between the energy intervals of all three samples and handles the event overlap between the {nu}{sub e} samples. The {nu}{sub {mu}} sample is introduced to constrain the effect of systematic uncertainties. This analysis increases the exclusion limit in the region {Delta}m{sup 2} {approx}< 1eV{sup 2} when compared with the result previously published by the collaboration, which used a different technique.

A survey of employee behavior was conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of ergonomic behavior that decreased the chance of having a work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD) among employees. The null hypothesis was tested to determine if there was a significant difference in ergonomic behavior between trained and untrained employees. The LANL employees were stratified by job series and then randomly selected to participate. The data were gathered using an electronic self-administered behavior questionnaire. The study population was composed of 6931 employees, and the response rate was 48%. The null hypothesis was rejected for twelve out of fifteen questions on the questionnaire. Logistic regression results indicate that the trained participants were more likely to report the risk-avoiding behavior, which supported the rejection of the null hypothesis for 60% of the questions. There was a higher frequency that the beneficial or risk-avoiding behavior was reported by the uninjured participants. Job series analysis revealed that ergonomics is an important issue among participants from all the job series. It also identified the occupational specialist classification (an administrative job), as the job series with the most occurrences of undesired ergonomic behaviors. In conclusion, there …

INTERMITTENT TURBULENCE IN THE VERY STABLE EKMAN LAYER This study describes a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of a very stable Ekman layer in which a constant downward heat flux is applied at the lower boundary, thus cooling the fluid above. Numerical experiments were performed in which the strength of the imposed heat flux was varied. For downward heat fluxes above a certain critical value the turbulence becomes intermittent and, as the heat flux increases beyond this value, the flow tends to relaminarize because of the very strong ambient stratification. We adopt Mahrt?s (1999) definition of the very stable boundary layer as a boundary layer in which intermittent, rather than continuous turbulence, is observed. Numerical experiments were used to test various hypothesis of where in ?stability parameter space? the very stable boundary layer is found. These experiments support the findings of Howell and Sun (1999) that the boundary layer will exhibit intermittency and therefore be categorized as ?very stable?, when the stability parameter, z/L, exceeds unity. Another marker for the very stable boundary layer, Derbyshire?s (1990) maximum heat flux criterion, was also examined. Using a case study drawn from the simulations where turbulence intermittency was observed, the mechanism that causes the …

The stable boundary layer (SBL) in the atmosphere is of considerable interest because it is often the worse case scenario for air pollution studies and health effect assessments associated with the accidental release of toxic material. Traditional modeling approaches used in such studies do not simulate the non-steady character of the velocity field, and hence often overpredict concentrations while underpredicting spatial coverage of potentially harmful concentrations of airborne material. The challenge for LES is to be able to resolve the rather small energy-containing eddies of the SBL while still maintaining an adequate domain size. This requires that the subgrid-scale (SGS) parameterization of turbulence incorporate an adequate representation of turbulent energy transfer. Recent studies have shown that both upscale and downscale energy transfer can occur simultaneously, but that overall the net transfer is downscale. Including the upscale transfer of turbulent energy (energy backscatter) is particularly important near the ground and under stably-stratified conditions. The goal of this research is to improve the ability to realistically simulate the SBL. The large-eddy simulation (LES) approach with its subgrid-scale (SGS) turbulence model does a better job of capturing the temporally and spatially varying features of the SBL than do Reynolds-averaging models. The scientific objectives …

This dissertation presents the measurement of the Cp-odd fraction and time-dependent CP violation parameters for the B{sup 0} {yields} D*{sup +} D*{sup -} decay. These results are based on the full BABAR dataset of (467 {+-} 5) x 10{sup 6} B{bar B} pairs collected at the PEP-II B Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. An angular analysis finds that the CP-odd fraction of the B{sup 0} {yields} D*{sup +} D*{sup -} decay is R{sub {perpendicular}} = 0.158 {+-} 0.028 {+-} 0.006, where the first uncertainty is statistical, and the second is systematic. A fit to the flavor-tagged, time-dependent, angular decay rate yields C{sub +} = 0.02 {+-} 0.12 {+-} 0.02; C{sub {perpendicular}} = 0.41 {+-} 0.50 {+-} 0.08; S{sub +} = -0.76 {+-} 0.16 {+-} 0.04; S{sub {perpendicular}} = -1.81 {+-} 0.71 {+-} 0.16, for the CP-odd ({perpendicular}) and CP-even (+) contributions. Constraining these two contributions to be the same results in C = 0.047 {+-} 0.091 {+-} 0.019; S = -0.71 {+-} 0.16 {+-} 0.03. These measurements are consistent with the Standard Model and with measurements of sin2{beta} from B{sup 0} {yields} (c{bar c})K{sup 0} decays.

A measurement of hadron production cross-sections for the simulation of accelerator neutrino beams and a search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations in the {Delta}m{sup 2} {approx} 1 eV{sup 2} region. This dissertation presents measurements from two different high energy physics experiments with a very strong connection: the Hadron Production (HARP) experiment located at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment (Mini-BooNE) located at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois.

The resonant production of tau-lepton pairs is as interesting for the study of Standard Model (SM) physics as the production of lighter leptons pairs. For new phenomena, such as Higgs boson production or in case new particles beyond the SM would arise, the detection of (resonant) pairs of tau leptons becomes much more interesting. This is due to the fact that tau leptons are much heavier than the other leptons, which increases the chance that these new phenomena would be observed first in this channel. Unfortunately their clean detection is far more difficult than that of muons or electrons. The cross section times branching ratio {sigma}{center_dot} Br for the process p{bar p} {yields} Z {yields} {tau}{sup +}{tau}{sup -} was measured at {radical}s = 1.96 GeV using 1.0 fb{sup -1} of data collected by the D0 experiment. This measurement was performed in the channel in which one of the tau leptons decays to a muon and neutrinos, while the other decays either hadronically or to an electron and neutrinos. A set of 1511 events, of which about 20% estimated background, passed all selection criteria. The trigger and muon reconstruction efficiencies, as well as the efficiency for track reconstruction were obtained from …

The lifetimes of the B{sup -}, B{sup 0} and B{sub s}{sup 0} mesons are measured using partially reconstructed semileptonic decays. Following semileptonic decay processes and their charge conjugates are used for this analysis: B{sup -}/B{sup 0} {yields} {ell}{sup -}{nu}D{sup 0}X; B{sup -}/B{sup 0} {yields} {ell}{sup -}{nu}D*{sup +}X; B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} {ell}{sup -}{nu}D{sub s}{sup +}x, where {ell}{sup -} denotes either a muon or electron. The data are collected during 2002-2004 by the 8 GeV single lepton triggers in CDF Run II at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Corresponding integrated luminosity is about 260 and 360 pb{sup -1} used for the B{sup -}/B{sup 0} and B{sub s}{sup 0} lifetime analyses, respectively. With the single lepton triggers, events which contain a muon or electron with a transverse momentum greater than 8 GeV/c are selected. For these lepton candidates, further lepton identification cuts are applied to improve purity of the B semileptonic decay signal. After the lepton selection, three types of charm mesons associated with the lepton candidates are reconstructed. Following exclusive decay modes are used for the charm meson reconstruction: D{sup 0} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}; D*{sup +} {yields} D{sup 0}{pi}{sub s}{sup +}, followed by D{sup 0} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}; D{sub s}{sup …

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.

This thesis describes a measurement of the proper lifetime of the B{sub s}{sup 0} mesons produced in proton-antiproton collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV, collected by the CDF experiment at Fermilab. The B{sub s}{sup 0} meson lifetime is measured in its semileptonic decay mode, B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} {ell}{sup +}{nu}{sub {ell}}D{sub s}{sup -}. The D{sub s}{sup -} meson candidates are reconstructed in the decay mode D{sub s}{sup -} {yields} {phi}{pi}, with {phi} {yields} K{sup +}K{sup -}, in a trigger sample which requires a muon or an electron and another track which has a large impact parameters. The large impact parameter track is required by the silicon vertex trigger which is an innovative triggering device which has not previously been used in lifetime measurements. A total of 905 {+-} B{sub s}{sup 0} candidates are reconstructed in a sample which has an integrated luminosity of 140 pb{sup -1} using data gathered between February 2002 and August 2003. The pseudo-proper lifetime distribution of these candidates is fitted with an unbinned maximum likelihood fit. This fit takes into account the missing momentum carried by the neutrino and the bias caused by requiring a track with large impact parameter by modeling …