Please click the titles to see a poster summarizing each student's research.

Posters can be downloaded (PDF format).

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Jack Carlton - Modeling Quantum Waves and Probability

Over the course of six weeks, I researched established wave function models. These models have already made large impacts on technology today. I used a couple of simulations in order to “look into” the quantum world. As a result, I am now able to comprehend the nature of particles and their waveforms.

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Tatiana Davidson Bajandas - Modeling the Milky Way Rotation Curve with No Dark Matter

I constructed a model of the rotation of the galaxy using a simple bulge model. This model yields the curve expected without the gravitational effects of dark matter. Two mathematical models were used, one for the rotation of an object inside the bulge of the galaxy and one of an object outside of it. Distinctly lower rotational speeds for objects with large radii are observed, an attribute which conflicts with collected data, strongly supporting the existence of dark matter in the outer reaches of our Milky Way Galaxy.

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Kyle Dickerson - Radio Astronomy with Pulsars

Pulsars are the rotating beams of electromagnetic radiation emitted from a neutron star.  I have researched the proposal, discovery, function, and importance of pulsars using primary source documents.  I have collected data from multiple pulsars and non pulsars by using the Greenbank-20 radio telescope through the Pulsar Search Collaboratory.  Pulsars may be used to collect data concerning astrophysical phenomena.

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Simon Liu - Modeling the Milky Way Rotation Curve

The purpose of this project was to construct a rotation velocity curve of the Milky Way Galaxy. Using Johns Hopkins University's Small Radio Telescope, I collected data on the radio frequencies of different parts of the galaxy and successfully recreated a rotation curve with a domain up to 8 kiloparsecs (kpc). By doing this, I hoped to find empirical evidence for unobservable matter in the galaxy. Because of the large deviation of the constructed rotation curve and the expected Newtonian rotation curve, I can conclude that there is indeed a large amount of matter that is undetectable by modern instruments.

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Jason Zhao - Reconstructing Cosmic Ray Events With Muon Data

Isabelle Zhou - Characterizing Radio Galaxy Evolution Using the K-Z Relation

Using data from different sources and previous cosmological studies, I analyzed the relationships between redshift (z) and luminosity (K) in radio galaxies. After comparing my results to those of previous papers, I reaffirmed the conclusions scientists had previously predicted about the evolution of radio galaxies and made my own predictions as well.

For anyone who wants / needs the files for the cosmic ray detector, here they are in one handy zip file (zip is in .rar format). Included are the following:

1) EQUIP (user interface for the detector) as zip file - no installation required; just unzip and go.

2) rxtxserial.dll - a small file needed for people running 64 bit Java on their computer - replace the old file in the EQUIP folder with this one.

2) SiLabs software driver for the DAQ USB connection - installation required; you may need administrator privileges for this.  Both Windows 7/8/10 and Windows XP versions are included.

3) Plateauing Instructions - both the PPT instructions and the Excel spreadsheet for entering data are included.

Teachers may want to request an elab account (for use with the CRMDs as well as the CMS elab and LIGO elabs) or a QuarkNet account. We use the latter to post and share documents within the group and for all of QuarkNet.

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Monday 25 July  

9:00-10:00 Introduction to QuarkNet (Jeremy Smith, Hereford HS)

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10:00-11:00 Special Relativity in a LIGO Context  (Dr. Bruce Barnett, JHU)

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11:00-12:00 Resonances ("Bumps") at the LHC (Dr. Andrei Gritsan, JHU) 

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Tuesday 29 July

9:00-10:00

General Relativity in a LIGO Context  (Dr. Bruce Barnett, JHU)

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10:00-11:00

Did LIGO Detect Dark Matter? (Dr. Marc Kamionkowski, JHU)

(link to paper on arXiv)

(link to primary author Simeon Bird's talk at STScI on 20 July 2016)

(youtube videos: laser interferometer basics; publicity video from original discovery; second discovery including "chirp" sound of the merger!)

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11:00-12:00 

Accelerator Physics (Dr. Morris Swartz, JHU)

Some youtube videos: the one that Morris showed; a slightly longer one with more details)

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Wednesday 30 July

9:00-10:00 Modeling the Frictional Force (Dr. Mark Robbins, JHU)

Link to online version of a 2005 talk at Kitt Peak

Webcast of a Public talk at Kitt Peak

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10:00-11:00 ISE Workshop in Greece; or, "My Quarknet Junket." (Mr. John Pisanic, Damascus HS)

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11:00-12:00 The Role of Muon Lifetime (updated) in the Standard Model Dr. Morris Swartz, JHU)

Andrei Gritsan gave a talk about Higgs stuff 2 years ago; talks more about "metastable universe" and Higgs potential stuff.

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Thursday 31 July

9:00-10:00 Summer Students: Summary of Research 

Click here for their posters (PDF) and summary abstracts.

(Hereford HS: Jack, Kyle)

(Richard Montgomery HS: Tatiana, Simon, Jason, Isabelle)

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10:00-11:00

Radio Astronomy in the classroom (Kevin Martz, Richard Montgomery HS)

Histograms in the classroom (Jeremy Smith, Hereford HS)

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11:00-12:00 Nanotechnology (Dr. Joan Hoffmann, APL) (link pending Dr. Hoffmann's approval)

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Miscellanea

Rick Dower provided a parts list for the interferometer he showed us yesterday. (Word Docx)

He also has an activity for showing diffraction patterns from a spring, to show similarity to DNA X-ray diffraction pattern!

Tim Durkin has a worksheet he uses with the Powers of Ten videos/animations (Word Doc)

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Friday 1 August

9:00-10:00 Status of the CLASS experiment (Dr. Joseph Eimer, JHU)

Bonus: What does the word "flat" mean in cosmology? (Physicsgirl on YouTube)

Bonuss: Watch our "map" of the cosmic microwave background improve in resolution from COBE to WMAP to Planck. (YouTube)

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10:00-11:00 Brightly Shining Black Holes (Dr. Julian Krolik, JHU)

Bonus: Watch some animations of the stars orbiting the Milky Way's center!

Bonuss: Dr. Krolik and his team's NASA -published simulation of a black hole accretion disk

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11:00-12:00 M83 Supernova Remnants (Dr. Bill Blair)

Bonus: Dr. Blair's 2010 talk about the survey (PPT); another by his colleague Knox Long (PDF)

Bonuss: Dr. Blair's "How Big is a Billion?" talk

Here is a link to download SAOImage DS9, a free software package for viewing telescope images that has Chandra X-ray images pre-loaded into it. And here is the Chandra Education page that explains how to use it. Main Chandra Ed page here has lots more!

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Click here for the agenda and list of talks for the day.

Click here for the summer student research posters and abstracts.

QuarkNet Annual Report 2015

JHU Center

The JHU QuarkNet center had another successful year, involving both high school teachers and students in its activities.  The one-week teacher workshop took place from 20-24 July, and the six-week student internship ran from 30 June to 9 August.  We had several teachers from the JHU center use their cosmic ray muon detectors throughout the year, and our center also participated in the 2015 CMS Masterclass.

1. Teacher Workshop

During the first morning, teachers and students listened to a variety of talks from professors from the Physics & Astronomy department of JHU, as well as a talk from co-lead teacher Kevin Martz. A list of talks, with links, follows:

Dr. Morris Swartz - History of Particle Physics Discoveries

Mr. Kevin Martz - Neutron Diffraction Physics

Dr. Andrei Gristan - Matter in Space & Time 

For the rest of the week, teachers participated in two QuarkNet-hosted workshops: the CMS Data Workshop and the CMS e-lab. Both of these workshops entailed using real data from the LHC CMS experiment to infer properties about particles produced in the proton-proton collisions. See here for a link to the agenda for the week's activities.

In both of the workshops, teachers took advantage of the resources available in the QuarkNet Data Portfolio, an ever-growing set of student-centered activities and curricular resources that are intended to help teachers incorporate particle physics concepts into their classrooms.

2. Student Research
    

9 students (4 from Damascus HS; 5 from Hereford HS) participated in a 6-week summer research internship beginning on 29 June and running to 7 August.  After a short series of introductory activities, students were set loose to pursue research topics of their own choosing.  Alongside this theoretical research, students also designed and conducted experiments with the QuarkNet muon detectors: one group attempted to determine a correlation between muon flux and time of day; another group attempted to determine the mean lifetime of the muon once brought to rest inside the scintillating material.

See our Drupal page for a list of topics, the research abstracts, and PDFs of the summary posters:

Posters:/document/research-posters-2015