Images of the Bullet Cluster of galaxies in visible light, X-rays, and through gravitational lensing confirm that most of the matter in the universe is not composed of any known form of matter. The combined evidence from the dynamics of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, the cosmic microwave background, big bang nucleosynthesis, and other observations indicates that 80% of the universe's matter is dark, nearly collisionless, and cold. The identify of the dar, matter remains unknown, but weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are a very good candidate. They are a natural part of many supersymmetric extensions to the standard model, and could be produced as a nonrelativistic, thermal relic in the early universe with about the right density to account for the missing mass. The dark matter of a galaxy should exist as a spherical or ellipsoidal cloud, called a 'halo' because it extends well past the edge of the visible galaxy. The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) seeks to directly detect interactions between WIMPs in the Milky Way's galactic dark matter halo using crystals of germanium and silicon. Our Z-sensitive ionization and phonon ('ZIP') detectors simultaneously measure both phonons and ionization produced by particle interactions. In order to find …

The WARP code is a robust electrostatic particle-in-cell simulation package used to model charged particle beams with strong space-charge forces. A fundamental operation associated with seeding detailed simulations of a beam transport channel is to generate initial conditions where the beam distribution is matched to the structure of a periodic focusing lattice. This is done by solving for periodic, matched solutions to a coupled set of ODEs called the Kapchinskij-Vladimirskij (KV) envelope equations, which describe the evolution of low-order beam moments subject to applied lattice focusing, space-charge defocusing, and thermal defocusing forces. Recently, an iterative numerical method was developed (Lund, Chilton, and Lee, Efficient computation of matched solutions to the KV envelope equations for periodic focusing lattices, Physical Review Special Topics-Accelerators and Beams 9, 064201 2006) to generate matching conditions in a highly flexible, convergent, and fail-safe manner. This method is extended and implemented in the WARP code as a Python package to vastly ease the setup of detailed simulations. In particular, the Python package accommodates any linear applied lattice focusing functions without skew coupling, and a more general set of beam parameter specifications than its predecessor. Lattice strength iteration tools were added to facilitate the implementation of problems with …

The cross section for WW production is measured and limits on anomalous WW{gamma} and WWZ trilinear gauge couplings are set using WW {yields} ee/e{mu}/{mu}{mu} events collected by the Run II D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider corresponding to 1 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. Across the three final states, 108 candidate events are observed with 40.8 {+-} 3.8 total background expected, consistent with {sigma}(p{bar p} {yields} WW) = 11.6 {+-} 1.8(stat) {+-} 0.7(syst) {+-} 0.7(lumi) pb. Using a set of SU(2){sub L} {direct_product} U(1){sub Y} conserving constraints, the one-dimensional 95% C.L. limits on trilinear gauge couplings are -0.63 < {Delta}{kappa}{sub {gamma}} < 0.99, -0.15 < {lambda}{sub {gamma}} < 0.19, and -0.14 < {Delta}g{sub 1}{sup Z} < 0.34.

We present a search for the production of neutral Higgs bosons in association with bottom quarks in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. The cross section for this process is enhanced in many extensions of the Standard Model (SM), such as in its Minimal Supersymmetric extension (MSSM) at large tan {beta}. The data, corresponding to a recorded integrated luminosity of 1 fb{sup -1}, were collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. In the absence of a signal a 95% C.L. limit is set on the production cross section times branching ratio, and the results are also interpreted in the MSSM.

The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment based at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) in Chicago, Illinois. MINOS measures neutrino interactions in two large iron-scintillator tracking/sampling calorimeters; the Near Detector on-site at FNAL and the Far Detector located in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota. The Near Detector has recorded a large number of neutrino interactions and this high statistics dataset can be used to make precision measurements of neutrino interaction cross sections. The cross section for charged-current quasi-elastic scattering has been measured by a number of previous experiments and these measurements disagree by up to 30%. A method to select a quasi-elastic enriched sample of neutrino interactions in the MINOS Near Detector is presented and a procedure to fit the kinematic distributions of this sample and extract the quasi-elastic cross section is introduced. The accuracy and robustness of the fitting procedure is studied using mock data and finally results from fits to the MINOS Near Detector data are presented.

This Ph.D. thesis presents the measurement of inclusive jet cross sections in Z/{gamma}* {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -} events using 1.7 fb{sup -1} of data collected by the upgraded CDF detector during the Run II of the Tevatron. The Midpoint cone algorithm is used to search for jets in the events after identifying the presence of a Z/{gamma}* boson through the reconstruction of its decay products. The measurements are compared to next-to-LO (NLO) pQCD predictions for events with one and two jets in the final state. The perturbative predictions are corrected for the contributions of non-perturbative processes, like the underlying event and the fragmentation of the partons into jets of hadrons. These processes are not described by perturbation theory and must be estimated from phenomenological models. In this thesis, a number of measurements are performed to test different models of underlying event and hadronization implemented in LO plus parton shower Monte Carlo generator programs. Chapter 2 is devoted to the description of the theory of strong interactions and jet phenomenology at hadron colliders. Chapter 3 contains the description of the Tevatron collider and the CDF detector. The analysis is described in detail in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 shows the measurement of …

We present the first evidence for electroweak single top quark production using nearly 1 fb{sup -1} of Tevatron Run II data at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. We select single-top-like data events in the lepton+jets decay channel and separate them from backgrounds using the matrix element analysis method. This technique uses leading order matrix elements to compute an event probability for both signal and background hypotheses. Using the expected signal acceptance, background, and observed data we measure the single top quark cross section: {sigma}(p{bar p} {yields} tb + tqb + X) = 4.6{sub -1.5}{sup +}1.8 pb. The probability for the background to have fluctuated up to give at least the cross section measured in this analysis is 0.21%, which corresponds to a Gaussian equivalent significance of 2.9{sigma}.

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.

This thesis presents the results on a search for the neutral MSSM Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs, with least one of these taus decays leptonically. The search was performed with a sample of 1.8 fb{sup -1} of proton-antiproton collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV provided by the Tevatron and collected by CDF Run II. No significant excess over the Standard Model prediction was found and a 95% confidence level exclusion limit have been set on the cross section times branching ratio as a function of the Higgs boson mass. This limit has been translated into the MSSM Higgs sector parameter plane, tan{beta} vs. M{sub A}, for the four different benchmark scenarios.

This thesis presents the first measurement of the differential production cross section of a heavy flavor (bottom or charm) jet and direct photon at the Fermilab Tevatron. These measurements were performed using data recorded with the D0 detector from proton-antiproton collisions at a center of mass energy of {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. These results probe a kinematic range for the photon transverse momentum of 30 < p{sub T}{sup {gamma}} < 150 GeV and rapidity of |y{sup {gamma}}| < 1.0 and for jet transverse momentum p{sub T}{sup jet} > 15 GeV and rapidity of |y{sup jet}| < 0.8. These results are compared to next-to-leading-order theoretical calculations.

The past decade is one of the most exciting period in the history of physics and astronomy. The discovery of cosmic acceleration dramatically changed our understanding about the evolution and constituents of the Universe. To accommodate the new acceleration phase into our well established Big Bang cosmological scenario under the frame work of General Relativity, there must exist a very special substance that has negative pressure and make up about 73% of the total energy density in our Universe. It is called Dark Energy. For the first time people realized that the vast majority of our Universe is made of things that are totally different from the things we are made of. Therefore, one of the major endeavors in physics and astronomy in the coming years is trying to understand, if we can, the nature of dark energy. Understanding dark energy cannot be achieved from pure logic. We need empirical evidence to finally determine about what is dark energy. The better we can constrain the energy density and evolution of the dark energy, the closer we will get to the answer. There are many ways to constrain the energy density and evolution of dark energy, each of which leads to …

SUBMITTED AS A DOCTORAL DISSERTATION IN COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF ED.D THROUGH WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY. The overall purpose of this action research study was to explore the experiences of ten middle school science teachers involved in a three-year partnership program between scientists and teachers at a Department of Energy national laboratory, including the impact of the program on their professional development, and to improve the partnership program by developing a set of recommendations based on the study’s findings. This action research study relied on qualitative data including field notes recorded at the summer academies and data from two focus groups with teachers and scientists. Additionally, the participating teachers submitted written reflections in science notebooks, participated in open-ended telephone interviews that were transcribed verbatim, and wrote journal summaries to the Department of Energy at the end of the summer academy. The analysis of the data, collaboratively examined by the teachers, the scientists, and the science education specialist acting as co-researchers on the project, revealed five elements critical to the success of the professional development of science teachers. First, scientist-teacher partnerships are a unique contribution to the professional development of teachers of science that is not replicated in other …

The goal of Jefferson Lab experiment E01-004 (F?-2) was the measurement of the longitudinal and transverse cross sections via pion electroproduction from hydrogen and deuterium for the purpose of extracting the charged pion form factor using pole dominance. The data were taken at two values of Q2 (1.60 and 2.45 GeV/c)2. In order to attain full coverage in R?, charged pions were detected in parallel kinematics (along the direction of momentum transfer, q), and at ±3 degrees off the direction of momentum transfer. For each Q2 data were taken for two values of the virtual photon polarization, ?, respectively. All data were taken at a fixed center of mass energy, W=2.22 GeV. The longitudinal and transverse pieces of the cross section were separated using the Rosenbluth separation method.

We describe studies of the decays of B mesons to final states {eta}K{sup *}(892), {eta}K{sup *}{sub 0}(S-wave), {eta}K{sup *}{sub 2}(1430), and {eta}'K based on data collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} collier at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. We measure branching fractions and charge asymmetries for the decays B {yields} {eta}K{sup *}, where K{sup *} indicates a spin 0, 1, or 2 K{pi} system, making first observations of decays to final states {eta}K{sup *0}{sub 0}(S-wave), {eta}K{sup *+}{sub 0} (S-wave), and {eta}K{sup *0}{sub 2}(1430). We measure the time-dependent CP-violation parameters S and C for the decays B{sup 0} {yields} {eta}'K{sup 0}, observing CP violation in a charmless B decay with 5{sigma} significance considering both statistical and systematic uncertainties..

The analysis presented in this thesis focuses on kinematic distributions in the t{bar t} system and studies in detail selected differential cross sections of top quarks as well as the reconstructed t{bar t} pair, namely the top quark transverse momentum and the t{bar t} system mass. The structure of the thesis is organized as follows: first the Standard Model of the particle physics is briefly introduced in Chapter 1, with relevant aspects of electroweak and strong interactions discussed. The physics of the top quark and its properties are then outlined in Chapter 2, together with the motivation for measuring the transverse top quark momentum and other kinematic-related variables of the t{bar t} system. The concepts of present-day high energy physics collider experiments and the explicit example of Fermilab Tevatron collider and the D0 detector in Chapters 3 and 4 are followed by the description of basic detector-level objects, i.e. tracks, leptons and jets, in Chapter 5; their identification and calibration following in next chapter with the emphasis on the jet energy scale in Chapter 6 and jet identification at the D0. The analysis itself is outlined in Chapter 7 and is structured so that first the data and simulation samples …

This study was undertaken to determine if strontium chloride could be used to create a trans-generational otolith mark in steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss). I completed two strontium injection trials and a survey of juvenile steelhead from various steelhead hatcheries. The two trials measured Sr:Ca ratios in otoliths in response to injections and the survey measured the natural variation in Sr:Ca ratios in otoliths of juvenile hatchery steelhead in response to the natural variation. In 2003, adult female Wallowa River, Oregon O. mykiss, were captured at the hatchery and evenly divided between a control group and two treatment groups. These females received an intraperitoneal injection of 1cc/500 g of body weight of a physiologically isotonic solution (0.9% saline) containing concentrations of 0 (control), 1000, or 5000 parts per million (ppm) of strontium chloride hexahydrate (SrCl{sub 2}* 6H{sub 2}O). Females were housed in a single outdoor tank until spawned artificially, and a distinct external tag identified each female within each treatment group. In 2004, female steelhead were captured throughout the duration of the adult returns to the Umatilla River basin and injected with 0, 1000, 5000, or 20,000-ppm strontium. In both trials, progeny of fish treated with strontium had significantly higher Sr:Ca ratios …

This work focuses on the design and evaluation of the inverted-F, meandering-monopole, and loop antenna geometries. These printed antennas are studied with the goal of identifying which is suitable for use in a miniaturized transceiver design and which has the ability to provide superior performance using minimal Printed Circuit Board (PCB) space. As a result, the main objective is to characterize tradeoffs and identify which antenna provides the best compromise among volume, bandwidth and efficiency. For experimentation purposes, three types of meandering-monopole antenna are examined resulting in five total antennas for the study. The performance of each antenna under study is evaluated based upon return loss, operational bandwidth, and radiation pattern characteristics. For our purposes, return loss is measured using the S11-port reflection coefficient which helps to characterize how well the small antenna is able to be efficiently fed. Operational bandwidth is measured as the frequency range over which the antenna maintains 2:1 Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) or equivalently has 10-dB return loss. Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) is used to simulate expected resonant frequency, bandwidth, VSWR, and radiation pattern characteristics. Ansoft HFSS simulation is used to provide a good starting point for antenna design before actual prototype …

Ozone, an ambient pollutant, is transformed into other airborne pollutants in the indoor environment. In this dissertation, the type and amount of byproducts that result from ozone reactions with common indoor surfaces, surface residues, and vapors were determined, pollutant concentrations were related to occupant exposure, and frameworks were developed to predict byproduct concentrations under various indoor conditions. In Chapter 2, an analysis is presented of secondary organic aerosol formation from the reaction of ozone with gas-phase, terpene-containing consumer products in small chamber experiments under conditions relevant for residential and commercial buildings. The full particle size distribution was continuously monitored, and ultrafine and fine particle concentrations were in the range of 10 to>300 mu g m-3. Particle nucleation and growth dynamics were characterized.Chapter 3 presents an investigation of ozone reactions with aircraft cabin surfaces including carpet, seat fabric, plastics, and laundered and worn clothing fabric. Small chamber experiments were used to determine ozone deposition velocities, ozone reaction probabilities, byproduct emission rates, and byproduct yields for each surface category. The most commonly detected byproducts included C1?C10 saturated aldehydes and skin oil oxidation products. For all materials, emission rates were higher with ozone than without. Experimental results were used to predict byproduct exposure …

This dissertation presents a search for {mu}{sub {nu}} and {bar {mu}{sub {nu}}} disappearance with the MiniBooNE experiment in the {Delta}m{sup 2} region of a few eV{sup 2}. Disappearance measurements in this oscillation region constrain sterile neutrino models and CPT violation in the lepton sector. Fits to the shape of the {mu}{sub {nu}} and {bar {mu}{sub {nu}}} energy spectra reveal no evidence for disappearance in either mode. This is the first test of {bar {mu}{sub {nu}}} disappearance between {Delta}m{sup 2} = 0:1 -- 10 eV2. In addition, prospects for performing a joint analysis using the SciBooNE detector in conjunction with MiniBooNE are discussed.

The existence of the Higgs boson is required by the Standard Model of particle physics, yet it has not been observed. The precise nature of the Higgs boson is unknown and the mechanism by which it interacts with known Standard Model particles is also not known. Long-lived, electrically neutral hadrons have recently been proposed in hidden-valley models and could constitute a pathway through which the Higgs boson communicates with the Standard Model. Such a scenario may provide a novel path to Higgs discovery at the Tevatron. This thesis describes a search for a neutral, long-lived particle produced in decays of Higgs bosons in p{bar p} collisions at a center-of-mass energy of {radical}s = 1.96 TeV, which decays to b-jets and lives long enough to travel at least 1.6 cm before decaying. This analysis uses 3.65 fb{sup -1} of data recorded with the Run II D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider from April 2002 to August of 2008. We perform a search for eight possible hidden-valley scenarios resulting from a Higgs decay. No significant excess over background is observed and cross-section limits are placed at 95% CL.

In this thesis we present the measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross section with a total integrated luminosity of 2.5 fb{sup -1} of data collected with the CDF Run II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The prompt photon cross section is a classic measurement to test perturbative QCD (pQCD) with potential to provide information on the parton distribution function (PDF), and sensitive to the presence of new physics at large photon transverse momentum. Prompt photons also constitute an irreducible background for important searches such as H {yields} {gamma}{gamma}, or SUSY and extra-dimensions with energetic photons in the final state. The Tevatron at Fermilab (Batavia, U.S.A.) is currently the hadron collider that operates at the highest energies in the world. It collides protons and antiprotons with a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The CDF and the D0 experiments are located in two of its four interaction regions. In Run I at the Tevatron, the direct photon production cross section was measured by both CDF and DO, and first results in Run II have been presented by the DO Collaboration based on 380 pb{sup -1}. Both Run I and Run II results show agreement with the theoretical predictions except …

Scientific computing makes use of very large, multidimensional numerical arrays - typically, gigabytes to terabytes in size - much larger than can fit on even the largest single compute node. Such arrays must be distributed across a "cluster" of nodes. Global Arrays is a cluster-based software system from Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that enables an efficient, portable, and parallel shared-memory programming interface to manipulate these arrays. Written in and for the C and FORTRAN programming languages, it takes advantage of high-performance cluster interconnections to allow any node in the cluster to access data on any other node very rapidly. The "numpy" module is the de facto standard for numerical calculation in the Python programming language, a language whose use is growing rapidly in the scientific and engineering communities. numpy provides a powerful N-dimensional array class as well as other scientific computing capabilities. However, like the majority of the core Python modules, numpy is inherently serial. Our system, GAiN (Global Arrays in NumPy), is a parallel extension to Python that accesses Global Arrays through numpy. This allows parallel processing and/or larger problem sizes to be harnessed almost transparently within new or existing numpy programs.

During the last decades, particle physicists have studied the tiniest building blocks of matter--the quarks and the leptons--and the forces between them in great detail. From these experiments, a theoretical framework has been built that describes the observed results with high precision. The achievement of this theory, which is referred to as the Standard Model of elementary particle physics, was the elaboration of a unified description of the strong, weak and electromagnetic forces in the framework of quantum gauge-field theories. Moreover, the Standard Model combines the weak and electromagnetic forces in a single electroweak gauge theory. The fourth force which is realized in nature, gravity, is too weak to be observable in laboratory experiments carried out in high-energy particle physics and is not part of the Standard Model. Although the Standard Model has proven highly successful in correlating a huge amount of experimental results, a key ingredient is as yet untested: the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking. Currently, the only viable ansatz that is compatible with observation is the Higgs mechanism. It predicts the existence of a scalar particle, called the Higgs boson, and the couplings to the fundamental Standard Model particles, however not its mass. An upper limit on …

Search engines, such as Google, assign scores to news articles based on their relevancy to a query. However, not all relevant articles for the query may be interesting to a user. For example, if the article is old or yields little new information, the article would be uninteresting. Relevancy scores do not take into account what makes an article interesting, which would vary from user to user. Although methods such as collaborative filtering have been shown to be effective in recommendation systems, in a limited user environment there are not enough users that would make collaborative filtering effective. I present a general framework for defining and measuring the ''interestingness'' of articles, called iScore, incorporating user-feedback including tracking multiple topics of interest as well as finding interesting entities or phrases in a complex relationship network. I propose and have shown the validity of the following: 1. Filtering based on only topic relevancy is insufficient for identifying interesting articles. 2. No single feature can characterize the interestingness of an article for a user. It is the combination of multiple features that yields higher quality results. For each user, these features have different degrees of usefulness for predicting interestingness. 3. Through user-feedback, a …