Physics

In its Honors Program the Physics Department awards one level of Honors to student research projects. The projects listed below have been defended successfully, and a copy of the thesis deposited in Swem Library.

Key:

Student, "Thesis" (Honors level)
Committee Chair + Other Committee Members

2019-2020

Quinn Campagna, "Data Acquisition and Analysis for Helicity-Correlated Asymmetries in PREx-II" (Honors)
David Armstrong + Carey Bagdassarian, Keith Griffioen
Bennett Atwater, "Development and Upgrade of a Laser Cooling and Trapping System of Ultracold Potassium Atoms" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Tyler Meldrum, Keith Griffioen
Michael Cairo, "Studies in SEOP Hyperpolarized 3He: Measuring Ko and the Spatial Dependence of Alkali Polarization" (Honors)
Todd Averett + Paul Davies, Keith Griffioen
Alexander Fay, "Atomic Magnetometry for the Detection of Cardio-magnetic Fields" (Honors)
Eugeniy Mikhailov + Nahum Zobin, Keith Griffioen, Irina Novikova
Aiden Harbick, "Computational Simulations of Temperature-Dependent Dynamics in Type II Superconductors Using a Material Specific Formulation of Ginzburg Landau Theory" (Honors)
George Vahala + Richard C. Marcus, Keith Griffioen
Matthew McEneaney, "Development of Convolutional Neural Nets for Κ/π Differentiation at the GlueX Experiment" (Honors)
Justin Stevens + James M. Kaste, Keith Griffioen
Carrington Metts, "Studying and Correcting for Helicity-Correlated False Asymmetries in the PREx II and CREx Experiments" (Honors)
David Armstrong + Rachel Varra, Keith Griffioen
Jorden Smyth, "Development of Wearable Sensors for Gait Analysis" (Honors)
William Cooke + James Deverick, Keith Griffioen
Hana Warner, "Four-Wave Mixing with Orbital Angular Momentum Transfer" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Jonathan Frey, Keith Griffioen
Kangning Yang, "Conservation of Orbital Angular Momentum in Degenerate Four-wave Mixing via Rubidium Vapor" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Anya Lunden, Keith Griffioen

2018-19

Zachary Baldwin, "Exclusive neutral pion production and Compton scattering at GlueX"
Justin Stevens + Seth Aubin, Margaret Saha
Anne Blackwell, "Median Energy Imaging of Supernova Remnants with Chandra X-ray Observatory" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Marc Sher, Christopher Bailey, Anne Blackwell
Anne-Katherine Burns, "Pion Identification through Machine Learning for the MOLLER Experiment at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility"
David Armstrong & Phiala Shanahan + Daniel Runfola, Seth Aubin
Jacopo Gliozzi, "Chiral Transport in Anisotropic Materials"
Enrico Rossi + Seth Aubin, Pierre Clare
Ravn Jenkins, "Measuring Magnetic Field Gradients using Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in Rb Vapor"
Irina Novikova + Seth Aubin, Nahum Zobin, Eugeniy Mikhailov
Austin Kalasky, "Reducing Quantum Uncertainty via Spatial Optimization"
Eugeniy Mikhailov + Seth Aubin, Chi-Kwong Li
John Mitchell, "Exploring Stochastic Quantum Mechanics and Emergent Gravity"
Joshua Erlich + Seth Aubin, Chi-Kwong Li
Mary Robinson, "Machine Learning and Electron Track Reconstruction for the MOLLER Experiment" (Honors)
David Armstrong + Seth Aubin, Pierre Clare
Connor Simpson, "A Qubit Algorithm for Simulating the Nonlinear Schroedinger Equation"
George Vahala + Seth Aubin, Matthew Haug
Charles Soulen, "Construction of an Auger Microscope"
William Cooke + Seth Aubin, Hannes Schniepp
Jessica Sydnor, "MINERvA High Energy Test Beam Calibration"
Jeffrey Nelson + Seth Aubin, Heather Sasinowska

2017-18

Elena Amparo, "Counting Real Conjugacy Classes in Some Finite Classical Groups" (Honors)
Jozef Dudek + Irina Novikova, Andreas Stathopoulos
Alexandra Cramer, "Timelike Compton Scattering in the GlueX Experiment at Jefferson Lab" (Honors)
Justin Stevens + Irina Novikova, Heather Sasinowska
Benjamin Halkowski, "External Cavity Diode Laser for Ultra-cold Atom Experiments" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Timothy Costelloe, Mary Melfi, Irina Novikova
William Laney, "Continuing Improvements of the Sharkduino Animal Tag System" (Honors)
Wouter Deconinck + Kevin Weng, William Cooke, Gina Hoatson
Kevin Nelson, "Pion Charge Exchange Cross Section on Liquid Argon" (Honors)
Michael Kordosky + Irina Novikova, Michael Kordosky, Evgenia Smirni
Nathan Super, "Two-Mode Squeezing and Conservation of Optical Angular Momentum via Four-Wave Mixing in Rubidium" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Keith Griffioen, Adwait Jog
Ryan Wilmington, "Enhancing the Capabilities of Infrared Microscopy Apparatus" (Honors)
Mumtaz Qazilbash + Nathan Kidwell, Irina Novikova

2016-17

Brandon Buncher, "An Analysis of the Effects of Isocurvature Fluctuations in Dantes Inferno Multi-Field Inflation Models" (Honors)
Joshua Erlich + Gina Hoatson, Jun-Ping Shi
John Donahue, "A Numerical Study of Non-Perturbative Unification" (Honors)
Christopher Carone + Gina Hoatson, Ryan Vinroot
Karen Ficenec, "3-3-1 Models With Unique Lepton Generations and Analysis of Higgs Decays" (Honors)
Marc Sher + Gina Hoatson, Rowan Lockwood, Wouter Deconinck
Melissa Guidry, "Exploring the Multi-Mode Structure of Atom-Generated Squeezed Light" (Honors)
Eugeniy Mikhailov + Gina Hoatson, Junping Shi
Jacob Gunnarson, "Characterization of Venusian Atmospheric Dynamics using Venus Express Images and Ground-based Observations" (Honors)
Wouter Deconinck + Gina Hoatson, Joel Levine
Calvin Hensler, "Characterizing the Growth Rate of a Corrosion Layer on Stainless Steel in a Molten Salt Environment" (Honors)
William Cooke + Mainak Patel, Gina Hoatson
Michael Kopreski, "Holographic Non-perturbative Thermodynamic Systems" (Honors)
Joshua Erlich + Gexin Yu, Gina Hoatson
William Lawrence, "Examination of Noninvasive Alternatives to Blood Pressure Waveform Measurement in Preterm Infants" (Honors)
John Delos + Gina Hoatson, William Cooke, Lawrence Leemis
Stephanie Wang, "Infrared Study of Recluse Spider Silk" (Honors)
Mumtaz Qazilbash + Gina Hoatson, Hannes Schniepp
Wenqing Zhao, "Wrinkleless Mylar Cylinders: Design and Prototyping for the BONuS detector at Jefferson Lab" (Honors)
Keith Griffioen + Gina Hoatson, Victoria Costa
Dmitriy Zhigunov, "Hawking Radiation and Classical Tunneling: a Numerical Study" (Honors)
Eugene Tracy + Gina Hoatson, Nahum Zobin

2015-16

Ashna Aggarwal, "An Analysis of Optical Quantum Noise in Coherent Interactions for a Three-level Atom" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Henry Krakauer, Ryan Vinroot
Peibo An, "Studies on the DAQ System of GRINCH Detector" (Honors)
Todd Averett + Henry Krakauer, Junping Shi
Haley Bauser, "Light Entanglement Through a Rubidium Vapor Cell" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Henry Krakauer, Kristin Wustholz
Eve Chase, "Sensitivity Determination in the CHIPS Neutrino Detector" (Honors)
Patricia Vahle + Henry Krakauer, Junping Shi
Samuel Girdzis, "Corrosion in a Molten Salt Environment" (Honors)
William Cooke + Henry Krakauer, Hannes Schniepp
Ian Hage, "Development of a Digital Offset Laser Lock" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Henry Krakauer, Matthew Haug
Matthew Heffernan, "Quantifying the Sensitivity of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis to Isospin Breaking" (Honors)
Andre Walker-Loud + Henry Krakauer, Bruce Campbell
Wade Hodson, "Memory as Bayesian inference: On the connection between memory and the second law of thermodynamics" (Honors)
Eugene Tracy + Henry Krakauer, Peter Vishton, Marc Sher
Jackson Olsen, "Black Holes and Finite-Temperature Field Theory in AdS/CFT" (Honors)
Joshua Erlich + Henry Krakauer, Daniel Vasiliu
Hunter Rew, "Increasing Quantum Limited Sensitivity of Interferometers Using Electromagnetically Induced Transparency" (Honors)
Eugeniy Mikhailov + Henry Krakauer, George Rublein
Owen Wolfe, "Improving Optical Gyroscope Sensitivity Using a Fast Light Regime" (Honors)
Eugeniy Mikhailov + Henry Krakauer, Gunter Luepke

2014-15

William Bergan, "Measurements of the Lead-hydrocarbon Cross Section Ratio for Charged-current Neutrino Interactions" (Honors)
Jeffrey Nelson + Patricia Vahle, Nahrum Zobin and Gina Hoatson
David Geroski, "Persistent Population Biases in Branching Random Walk Algorithms" (Honors)
Shiwei Zhang + George Rublein and Gina Hoatson
Christopher Haufe, "GEANT4 Simulation of Detector Properties in the MOLLER Experiment" (Honors)
Wouter Deconinck + Mark Hinders and Gina Hoatson
Rachel Hyneman, "Near-Field Effects in Radio Frequency Emission from Particle Showers in a Dense Medium" (Honors)
Patricia Vahle + Gregory Smith and Gina Hoatson
Cora Karamitsos, "Verication of Medium Energy Geometries & Calibration of the Test Beam" (Honors)
Jeff Nelson + Iyabo Osiapem and Gina Hoatson
Brandon Kriesten, "A Study of the Cosmic Ray Rate in the CHIPS-M Prototype Detector" (Honors)
Patricia Vahle + Pietro Paparella and Gina Hoatson
Alice Perrin, "3D Printing Scintillating Detectors for Field Emission Detection in Niobium SRF Cavities" (Honors)
Wouter Deconinck + Elizabeth Harbron and Gina Hoatson
Andrew Smith, "Studies of Polarized 3He Cell Lifetimes" (Honors)
Todd Averett + Cary Humber and Gina Hoatson
David Specht, "Growth and Characterization of Gold Nanostructures Produced from Diatomaceous Algae" (Honors)
Bill Cooke + Randolph Chambers and Gina Hoatson
Marcus Starman, "Effect of Hyperons on Pion Asymmetries Measured in the Qweak Experiment" (Honors)
Wouter Deconinck + Larry Leemis, Joshua Erlick and Gina Hoatson
Christopher Zoghby, "Production of B Modes in the CMB from Physics Beyond the Standard Model" (Honors)
Joshua Erlich + Carey Bagdassarian and Gina Hoatson

2013-14

Jesse Evans, "Implementation and Evaluation of Four Wave Mixing in Optical Gyroscopes" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Henry Krakauer, Gunter Luepke
Arlough Hollingshad, "Spectroscopic Ellipsometry and Cryogenic Capability" (Honors)
Mumtax Qazilbash + Henry Krakauer, Robert Pike
Anne Mennen, "Clinical and Physiological Analysis of Very Long Apneas in Premature Infants" (Honors)
John Delos + Henry Krakauer, Christopher Del Negro
Timothy Milbourne, "Investigating the Use of Quadrupolar Nuclei for NMR-Based Quantum Information Processing" (Honors)
Gina K. Hoatson + Henry Krakauer, Robert L. Vold, Tyler K. Meldrum
Nicholas Penthorn, "Precision Polarimetry of Polarized ³He" (Honors)
Todd Averett + Henry Krakauer, Andreas Stathapoulos
Rachel Taverner, "Determination and Simulation of Kinematic Parameters in the Qweak Experiment" (Honors)
Wouter Deconinck + Henry Krakauer, Mary Lou Zapf
Elana Urbach, "Development of an Ultracold Rubidium-85 System for Magnetic Molecules and Feshbach Physics" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Henry Krakauer, Gunter Luepke

2012-13

Bain Bronner, "Using Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators to Accurately Track Temperature Fluctuations" (Honors)
Henry Krakauer + Eugeniy Mikhailov, Gunter Leupke
Daniel Brooker, "Infrared Reflectance of Materials at Elevated and Cryogenic Temperatures" (Honors)
Mumtaz Qazilbash + Hannes Schniepp, Henry Krakauer
Jennifer Hays, "Collider Signals of Bosonic Technicolor" (Honors)
Chris Carone + George Rublein, Henry Krakauer
Patrick King, "Generalizing Holographic Superconductors" (Honors)
Henry Krakauer + Joshua Erlich, Daniel Vasiliu
Gunhee Lee, "Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Atoms" (Honors)
Henry Krakauer + Seth Aubin, Carey Bagdassarian
Matthew Loftus, "The Investigation of Radiation Detectors with Silicon Photomultiplier Readout" (Honors)
Henry Krakauer + Michael Kordosky, Chuck Bailey
Sara Williams, "Using an Electrical Network Model to Simulate Gas Flux in Perforate and Imperforate Corals: Calculating the Time Constant of Mixing in Gastrovascular Fluid Compartments" (Honors)
Henry Krakauer + Mark Patterson, Bill Cooke

2011-12

Daniel Branagan, "Electrodynamics of Annealed and Unannealed La0.66Sr0.33MnO3 Thin Films" (Honors)
Mumtaz Qazilbash + Mark Hinders, Henry Krakauer, Ale Lukaszew
Ariel Cukierman, "Cosmic-Ray Bounds on Lepton-Flavor-Violating Dark-Matter Decays" (Honors)
Christopher Carone + Joshua Erlich, Henry Krakauer, Gexin Yu
Jacob Fry, "Three-Dimensional Magnetic Mapping using Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and the Effects of Retro-reflected Light on EIT" (Honors)
Henry Krakauer + Gunter Luepke, Eugeniy Mikhailov, Irina Novikova
Alexander Gvakharia, "Development of an Ultra-Cold Atom Atomic Clock" (Honors)
Henry Krakauer + Seth Aubin, Peter Kemper
Christine McLean, "Design, Testing of a Prototype Heavy Gas Ring-Imaging Cherenkov (GRINCH) Detector" (Honors)
Todd Averett + Mark Hinders, Henry Krakauer
Kyle Zora, "Meson Condensation and Holographic QCD" (Honors)
Henry Krakauer + Joshua Erlich, Junping Shi

2010-11

Kevin Cox, "Vector Magnetometer Using Rb Vapor" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Eugeniy Mikhailov, Charles Perdrisat, Gunter Luepke
Jeffrey Eldred, "Studies of NOvA neutrino flux with NDOS" (Honors)
Patricia Vahle + Irina Novikova, Charles Perdrisat, Ilya Spitkovsky
Ryan Laney, "Automatic Detection of Flaws in Recorded Music Using Wavelet Fingerprinting" (Honors)
Mark Hinders + John Delos, Charles Perdrisat, Greg Bowers
Joseph Palamara, "NMR Studies of the T1z Relaxation Times of the PMSN Ferroelectric" (Honors)
Gina Hoatson + Todd Averett, Charles Perdrisat, Robert Vold
Peyton Rose, "Optimization of Drift Chamber Performance for The Qweak Experiment" (Honors)
David Armstrong + Todd Averett, Charles Perdrisat, Sarah Day
Ronald Wilcox, "The Pion in Ads/QCD" (Honors)
Joshua Erlich + Chris Carone, Charles Perdrisat, Vladimir Bolotnikov

2009-10

Francesca Fornasini, "The Application of Four-Wave Mixing to Cold and Ultra-Cold Atom Imaging" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Irina Novikova, Charles Perdrisat, Hannes Schniepp
Colton O'Connor, "Scanning Early Data from the MINERvA Tracking Prototype" (Honors)
Charles Perdrisat + Jeff Nelson, Mike Kordosky, Dan Cristol
Brian Richards, "Frequency Space Measurement of the Spectrum of a Mode-Locked Diode Laser" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Charles Perdrisat, John Delos, Chi-Kwong Li

2008-09

William Ames, "Optical Filtering with Phase Singularities" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Seth Aubin, Hannes Schniepp, Gina Hoatson
Douglas Dean III, "Construction, Testing, and Characterization of Vertical Drift Chambers for Qweak" (Honors)
David Armstrong + Todd Averett, Michael Lewis, Gina Hoatson
Joseph Goldfrank, "Collisional Transfer of Atomic Coherence" (Honors)
Irina Novikova + Seth Aubin, Guenter Luepke, Gina Hoatson
Andrew Leister, "Design and Construction of the MTest Detector" (Honors)
Jeffrey Nelson + Jan Chaloupka, Akiko Fujimoto, Gina Hoatson
Sara Mohon, "Helium-3 Density Measurements Using Atomic Pressure Broadening" (Honors)
Todd Averett + Seth Aubin, Geunter Luepke, Gina Hoatson
Justin Winkler, "Agile Radio Frequency Source for Hyperfine Manipulation of Ultra-Cold Atoms" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Jan Chaloupka, C.K. Li, Gina Hoatson
Andrew Favaloro
Konstantinos Orginos + Chris Carone, Andrea Stathopoulos, Gina Hoatson

2007-08

Brian DeSalvo, "Mode-Locked Diode Laser for Precision Optical Frequency Measurements" (Honors)
Seth Aubin + Jan Chaloupka, Irina Novikova, Marylou Zapf
Lukas Osborne, "Using Type Ia Supernovae and Galaxy Clusters to Constrain Cosmology" (Honors)
Josh Erlich + Carl Carlson, Nahum Zobin
Ashwin Rastogi, "A G2 Electroweak Model1" (Honors)
Christopher Carone + Marc Sher, Josh Erlich, Nahum Zobin
Kevin Sapp, "Derivation of an Operator-Based Spatial Noncommutativity Parameter" (Honors)
Carl Carlson + Jeff Nelson, Nahum Zobin
Christopher Silkworth, "Large N Phase Transitions on the Lattice" (Honors)
Konstantinos Orginos + Josh Erlich, Andrew Stathopoulos

2006-07

Keith Bechtol, "Constraining Particle Physics Models with Supernovae Observations" (Honors)
Joshua Erlich + Chris Carone, Gina Hoatson, Nicholas Loehr
Paul Black, "Characterization of Hybrid 3He Cells Using NMR" (Honors)
Todd Averett + Gunter Lupke, Gina Hoatson
Justin Deighan, "Development of an ultrafast, time-resolved Schlieren imaging system" (Honors)
Jan Chaloupka + Gene Tracy, Gina Hoatson, Gunter Luepke
Ryan Ford, "Genetic Techniques for Spatial Modulation of a Laser Beam" (Honors)
Jan Chaloupka + Gina Hoatson, George Greenia
Kendra Letchworth, "Optimization of the Speed Dependent Line Shape Calculation" (Honors)
D. Chris Benner + Marc Sher, Gina Hoatson, Sarah Day
Alison Pouch, "Ultrasonic Classification of Emboli" (Honors)
Mark Hinders + Robert Welsh, Gina Hoatson,Christopher Del Negro
Kelly Sassin, "Assembly Processes for Scintillator Planes in the MinervA Neutrino Detector" (Honors)
Jeffrey Nelson + Gina Hoatson, Gunter Luepke
Patrick Vora, "A Fourth Generation of Fermions in the Context of the Two Higgs Doublet Model Type III" (Honors)
Marc Sher + Chris Carone, Gina Hoatson, Leiba Rodman
Nicholas Walsh, "Measuring the Transversity from Pion-Pairs using a Longitudinally Polarized Target" (Honors)
Keith Griffioen + Todd Averett, Gina Hoatson, Timothy Killingback

2005-06

Daniel Damian, "Momentum Analysis of Cosmogenic Muons in the MINOS Detectors" (Honors)
Jeffrey Nelson + John Delos, Jan Chaloupka, Nahum Zobin
Bradley DeBlois, "Monte Carlo Simulation for a New Proton Polarimeter" (Honors)
Charles Perdrisat + John Delos, Jeffrey Nelson, Michael Lewis
Peter deCastro, "Spatially Resolved Spectrometry of Laser-Ionized Matter" (Honors)
Jan Chaloupka + John Delos, Robert Vold, Jack Kossler
Nathaniel Elberfield, "Positron Lifetime Apparatus and Measurements in Materials" (Honors)
William Kossler + John Delos, Jan Chaloupka, Ed Pease
Graham Giovanetti, "Development of Front End Electronics for the Qweak Drift Chambers" (Honors)
Keith Griffioen + John Delos, Jack Kossler, Virginia Torczon
David Rose, "Results Concerning the Aluthge Transform" (Honors)
Chris Carone + John Delos, Jan Chaloupka, Ilya Spitkovsky
Brian Spencer, "An Investigation into the Analysis of TOF-SIMS Data" (Honors)
William Cooke + John Delos, Jan Chaloupka, Michael Trosset

2004-05

Loreto Alonzi
W.J. Kossler + Anne Reilly, Chris Carone, Robert Orwoll
Laurel Averett
William Cooke + Todd Averett, Chris Carone, Brian Holloway
Erin Buckley
Todd Averett + Jan Chaloupka, Chris Carone, Brian Kreydatus
Adam Holman
Jan Chaloupka _ Marc Sher, Chris Carone, John Lindberg
Jeremy McLean
Marc Sher + Carl Carlson, Chris Carone, David Feldman
Dillon Roach
William Cooke + Todd Averett, Chris Carone, Michael Como
Kelly Sullivan
Marc Sher + Gina Hoatson, Chris Carone, Larry Leemis
Dimitar Vlassarev
Anne Reilly + Willian Cooke, Chris Carone, Brian Holloway