Physics Undergraduate Honours Theses
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Browsing Physics Undergraduate Honours Theses by Title
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Item Open Access Analysis of palaeontological samples from the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods using computed tomography(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2020-04-06) Mitchell, JeritComputed Tomography is one of the contemporary, non-invasive tools used by Palaeontologists for studying various fossils. In particular, a technique known as Prop-agation Phase-Contrast Synchrotron Radiation Micro-tomography can be applied to high density bone samples, which produces fine structure differentiation with high resolution in three-dimensional renderings. A detailed description of this method is discussed, for two experiments at the Canadian Light Source. Four samples from the Cretaceous period are looked at, including a salamander, a coprolite, and hip and rib bones from a Tyrannosaurus rex. The rib bone features evidence for possible preserved vascular structures. Also, four insect samples from the Paleogene period were analysed in a micro-tomography experiment at McGill University. One of the insects, a beetle of family Chelonariidae, displays evidence of being an undiscovered species.Item Open Access Creating a two dimensional energy balance model to study planetary atmosphere(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2020-04-06) Palandri, JulianBased on research of various climate models and specifically of one dimensional energy balance models (1D EBM), a 2D EBM was created. This model separated the planet into zones with different latitude and longitude coordinates. Each zone's temperature was calculated by taking into account incident/outgoing solar radiation and heat transfer between adjacent zones. The global average temperature of the Earth could also be calculated. Other features like day/night cycles, seasons, and land/sea zones were also included to add complexity to the model. The final 2D EBM ended up having different temperature values than what was expected.Item Open Access Evaluation of PET positioning algorithms(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2020-03-31) Mahmood, AzizahImages reconstructed in positron emission tomography(PET) depends on determining the position of a gamma on a scintillator array from the body of interest. For this project a highly pixelated scintillator array is coupled to a significantly less pixelated photodetector array (SiPM) via a light guide that spreads that spreads a shower of scintillation photons over the latter. Most commonly, Centre-of-Gravity algorithms are used to estimate the position of the initial photon on the scintillator based off the distributed readout from the SiPM. Under this study the different variations of the centre of gravity algorithm discussed are the standard centre of gravity algorithm, the intensity-weighted centre of gravity algorithm, and the iterative-weighted centre of gravity algorithm. Success is determined by comparison of flood histograms and the ability to render scintillator crystal centres based off of information from a silicon photomultiplier array. Further evaluations are to be made by comparison of different powers of the weight in the intensity-weighted centre of gravity, and of multiples of the Gaussian width in the iterative centre of gravity. Based on the data evaluated in this project it is difficult to say whether the intensity weighted and iterative position weighted centre of gravity models are able to present a significant improvement to the standard centre of gravity based on evaluation of the flood histograms alone. For the intensity weighted centre of gravity, a weight power of 1.2 is found to be optimal. No significant difference for the gaussian width in the iterative weighted centre of gravity is found.Item Open Access In-field examination of root-microbial interactions using SPECT imaging(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2018-04-23) Henschel, ColleenA Compton camera SPECT imager was simulated using GEANT4 to determine its feasibility for imaging roots and microbes within soil. The simulated detector was composed of a polystyrene scatter detector (as an approximation of plastic scintillator) and a GAGG scintillator crystal absorber detector. Various detector configurations were explored. It was found that the detector has reasonable e ciency up to depths of 15 cm to 35 cm depending on the saturation of the soil for 511 keV photons. The optimal spacing between the scatter and absorber detectors was found to be 5 cm or less. It was also found that a scatter detector thickness of 5 cm will have a higher e ciency (by around 0:6%) than a thickness of 2 cm, but a thicker scatter detector will make the detector less portable and will also deteriorate the resolution of the detector. The calculated scattering angles using the energy deposited within the detector were compared to the truth angles that were calculated using initial momentum and scattered direction. The reconstructed angles from energy deposition appear to be similar to the true values. The energies of the scattered photons and scattered electrons for di erent scattering angles also appear to match the expected values quite closely. The Compton camera method appears to be quite promising for imaging near surface in-field roots and microbes within soil.Item Open Access A novel multi-purpose variational clustering architecture applied to neutron ID within the GlueX BCAL(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2021-04-21) Giroux, JamesParticle Identification plays a crucial role within the GlueX Barrel Calorimeter. This paper details the implementation of a novel Machine Learning architecture, which combines cutting-edge conditional generative models with clustering algorithms, capable of extracting both e cient and high purity data samples, while only relying on information from only one type of sample. We demonstrate the validity of our approach and highlight its use as a neutron detection device, emphasizing its ability to limit assumptions on background samples. This architecture is flexible and can be extended to multiple categories. Remarkably it can be deployed for a wide range of problems, e.g., anomaly detection and data quality control.Item Open Access Research thesis(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2023-04) Blatchford, Madison E.Trans Neptunian objects are icy bodies in the outer solar system which orbit at a distance from the Sun further than Neptune. Ninety four such objects, discovered in the last thirty years and observed by astronomers many times since, are the subject of this paper. Several new observations of these objects have been made over the past couple years. By incorporating these new data points, the goal is to discover whether these objects continue to exhibit behaviors characteristic of resonant Trans-Neptunian Objects. Resonant objects are objects which have an orbital period with an integer ratio to that of Neptune and a resonant angle that oscillates within 360° in orbital integrations over million year timescales. In order to classify their dynamical behavior, n-body simulations were performed by others in the LIDO research group, and then the data analyzed and summarized in this paper. It was found that 52 objects can be classified as resonant secure, 4 as resonant insecure, 6 as Kozai resonant, 29 as non-resonant, and 3 objects are unclassifiable and require further observation. Of these objects, all but 9 were found to be Plutinos.Item Open Access Simple parameterized models of resonance structures within the distant Trans-Neptunian Belt(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2021) Crompvoets, BreannaThe Outer Solar System Observation Survey (OSSOS) detected a large number of very distant (semi-major axis greater than 47.7AU) resonant objects. The distant resonances with OSSOS detections within the Trans-Neptunian Belt are modelled in three simple dif-ferent ways within this work. Simple Model 1 predicts a parameterized orbital distribution for all objects in an n : 1 resonance with Neptune, and a second, singular parameterization for all objects within the n : k, k > 1, resonances. Simple Model 2 creates parameterized orbital distributions for each n : k series, and the individual n : 1's. Simple Model 3 uses the pericentre distributions of Simple Model 2 and nds the minimum inclination width necessary to recreate the observed objects in model simulations. The OSSOS Survey Sim-ulator is used to construct unbiased orbital distributions of each resonant sub-population. In general, all distant objects are dynamically hot, and have much greater populations than those predicted by resonant sweeping or scattering-sticking models, highlighting that there is still much to be learned about the distant reaches of the Trans-Neptunian Belt.Item Open Access Simulations of Deep Exclusive πᵒ, ƞ, ρ , ω , ƞʹ , ø Meson Production at Jefferson Lab Hall C(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2018-04-23) Hladun, MichaelFor the first time,the p(e, eʹK+)Λ,Σᵒ reaction will be studied above the resonance region with the intent of extracting the separated cross sections (L/T/LT/TT) using the Rosenbluth separation technique. During the experiment, p(e, eʹp) πᵒ, ƞ, ρ , ω , ƞʹ , ø reactions will also be detected. The kinematic settings used in this experiment range from 0.40 GeV2 ≤ Q2 ≥ 5.5 GeV2 (photon virtuality) with 2.32 GeV ≤ W ≤ 3.37 GeV (hadronic invariant mass) and 0.064 GeV2 ≤ -t ≤ 0.531 GeV2 (four momentum transfer). By using these settings in the SIMC (Standard Hall C Monte Carlo package) simulations,estimates of backward-angle meson production rates were determined, and the feasibility of their measurements was studied.Item Open Access Using synchrotron radiation to search for blood vessel structures and preserved soft tissue in dinosaur bones from the Cretaceous period(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2023-04-11) Chernoff, TreyMicro-computed tomography is a method that can be used paleontologically to investigate fossils in a non-invasive manner. A technique known as Propagation Phase-Contrast Synchrotron Radiation Micro-tomography can be applied to high density bone samples, which produces finestructure bone structure differentiation with high resolution in three-dimensional renderings [4]. In past analyses, possible preserved vascular structures were discovered within a rib bone sample from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. These possible preserved vascular structures were investigated further to test and compare the automated rendering and interpolation features of various applications, including Dragonfly Pro, ImageJ’s Labkit plugin, and Biomedisa. Dragonfly Pro was then utilized to extract fine mixed-density vessel structures from the T. Rex sample and a Hadrosaur neural spine sample.Item Open Access Web based particle physics visualization using WebGL(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2020-03-06) Heinrich, NathanMeaningful visualization of multidimensional data is an important yet very di cult activity. There is no standard paradigm, due to the very nature of the problem and the restrictions of percep-tion and computer graphics to two-dimensional and three-dimensional representations, with three-dimensional ones relying on secondary attributes such as visibility, perspective or colour to deliver the three dimensions on an essentially two-dimensional computer screen. Due to the dimensional-ity restrictions it is very important that the visualization tools provide the best human-computer interaction, in order to maximize the strengths of either one in the data analysis process. This project starts the development of multidimensional visualization tools for phenomenolog-ical particle physics data sets, within the context of creating a framework for fast, available and scalable visualization. The goal of this project is to produce a proof of concept for a quick online graphing tool. The requirements for this tool were to be able to upload a file containing data from the users computer and then produce a plot of the users choosing. This was to allow for quick, accessible multidimensional data visualization. This proof of concept was produced with the ability to produce three types of plots, a one dimensional histogram, a two dimensional histogram, and a three dimensional scatter plot. This proof of concept also attempts to minimise the stress on the server running the graphing tool.