Research and projects
This is a list of the research and projects that I have either completed or am working on. Click on the links to see any material that is associated with the project.
New limit on dark photon kinetic mixing in the 0.2–1.2 μeV mass range from the Dark E-field Radio experiment: August 2024
This paper is the basis of my PhD dissertation. It is search of RF power spectrum for a small excess that would indicate the detection of dark photon dark matter. I am the first author, wrote most of the text and generated 11/12 of the figures. It can be found at Phys. Rev. D 110, 032010
Abstract: We report new limits on the kinetic mixing strength of the dark photon spanning the mass range 0.21−1.24 μeV corresponding to a frequency span of 50–300 MHz. The Dark E-field Radio experiment is a wideband search for dark photon dark matter. In this paper we detail changes in calibration and upgrades since our proof-of-concept pilot run. Our detector employs a wide-bandwidth E-field antenna moved to multiple positions in a shielded room, a low noise amplifier, wideband analog-to-digital converter, followed by a 2^24-point fast Fourier transform. An optimal filter searches for signals with Q≈10^6. In nine days of integration, this system is capable of detecting dark photon signals corresponding to a kinetic mixing strength several orders of magnitude lower than previous limits. We find a 95% exclusion limit on over this mass range between 6 ×10^−15 and 6 ×10^−13, tracking the complex resonant mode structure in the shielded room.
Woven cutting board: Winter 2021
A cool technique that gives an impressive effect! Inspiration from this youtube video
Standing waves on a one-string guitar: Fall 2018
A partner (Kirk Williams) and I built a one-string guitar with optical pickups along its length to measure the frequency spectrum at different points on the string and wrote a manual for future use by other students. We designed and built everything from scratch and learned 3D printing/CAD for the project. I wrote a program to calculate the analytic solution and compare experimental data to theory. All code can be found in this github repo.
The preliminary data was not as expected, but we had to end due to the time constraint of the semester ending.
Wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man: Spring 2018. Revisions in progress
My model of a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man as an n-pendulum with torsion springs. Version two takes into account the inherent non-conservative nature of the system by including the effects of the fan and drag. There is also a lot of data analysis from a real life tube, and we had a custom tube donated by Look Our Way Advertising. This will make a great submission for the American Journal of Physics as soon as we reach a good stopping point. Watch my talk for more information on the project.
Computational acoustics: Fall 2017
This is a talk I gave on a two-dimensional wave equation solver I built to explore some acoustic phenomena.
Cold atoms: Spring 2017 – Summer 2017
My work summer 2017 on the construction of an external cavity diode laser. This is the first step in creating a Boas-Einstein Condensate at Chico State. The poster was presented the November 2017 regional meeting of the American Physical Society in Merced, California.
Due to time constraints I have not been involved with the team since Summer 2017, however I am planning on rejoining during the Spring 2019 semester.
Cavendish experiment: Fall 2018
Measurement of the Gravitational Constant with the Cavendish experiment for upper division physics lab
Fourier series project: Fall 2017
A really great theoretical and numeric problem for upper division Mechanics where I got to explore the power of Fourier decomposition.
χ2 assignment: Fall 2018
A clever assignment from lab on calculating χ 2 for data gathered by measuring the ratio of width to height of ellipses. The task was to find which distribution was used to generate the ellipses.
