The Joint Texas APS meeting (TSAPS) at UTA 2020 Nov. 12-14 (Virtual Event)
Update: Extension for abstract submission to Nov. 5th.
Information for student presentations: 10 minutes for presentation and 2 minutes for discussion.
Schedules for Friday Nov. 13, 2020
| 8:30 AM-12:00 Noon Keynote Plenary Session |
| Speakers | Hosts |
| Jim Grover grover@uta.edu | Wei Chen weichen@uta.edu |
| Rene Bellwied rbellwie@central.uh.edu | Wei Chen weichen@uta.edu |
| Nygren, David nygren@uta.edu | Andrew White AWHITE@uta.edu |
| Steve Long slong@illinois.edu | Wei Chen weichen@uta.edu |
| Kotov, Nick kotov@umich.edu | Alex Weiss weiss@uta.edu |
| Zhifeng Ren zren2@central.uh.edu | Rene Bellwied rbellwie@central.uh.edu |
| Swinney, Harry L swinney@chaos.utexas.edu | Rene Bellwied rbellwie@central.uh.edu |
| Walter Wilcox Walter_Wilcox@baylor.edu |
| 12:00 (noon) to 12:45 pm Lunch Meeting for Society of Physics Students (SPS) Chair: Larry Isenhower Come hear about opportunities available to you through the SPS National Office and also join in some fun social time getting to know the other SPS chapters of Zone 13. We’ll have some time to introduce your chapter, talk about what we would like to do as Zone 13 in the spring, and then do a Physics Jeopardy Challenge to see which chapter gets to claim to be the best in Zone 13. |
| Parallel Session 1 1:00-5:00 PM | Parallel Session 2 1:00-5:30 PM | Parallel Session 3 1:00-4:00 PM | Parallel Session 4 1:00-5:00 PM | Parallel Session 5 1:00-6:00 PM | Parallel Session 6 1:00-6:00 PM |
| Condensed Matter Physics | Medical Physics I | Data Science | Space Physics | Astrophysics | High Energy Physics |
| Hosts & Emails Host: M. Huda; huda@uta.edu Co-host: S. Barman: sajib@uta.edu | Hosts & Emails 1:00 – 3:30 PM Huang, Juyang Juyang.Huang@ttu.edu Das, Mini mdas@Central.UH.EDU 3:35 – 5:26 PM Naumov, Anton a.naumov@tcu.edu Jin, Mingwu mingwu@uta.edu | Hosts & Emails | Hosts & Emails | Hosts & Emails | Hosts & Emails |
November 13th Agenda
Agenda for the Morning Opening and Plenary Sessions – Nov. 13
| Time/Date | Activity | Titles | Speakers | Chairs |
| 8:30-9:00 AM Nov. 13 | Opening and welcome | TSAPS Opening and Welcome | Dr. Wei Chen Conference Chair Dr. Rene Bellwied TSAPS Chair Dr. James Grover VPR, UTA | Wei Chen |
| 9:00-9:35 AM Nov. 13 | Keynote Presentation | The Strange and Noble Roles of Xenon in Modern Particle Physics | Dr. David Robert Nygren UT Arlington | Andy White |
| 9:35-10:10 AM Nov. 13 | Keynote Presentation | Increasing photosynthetic efficiency through genetic modification for sustainable and future-proofed crop yield improvement | Dr. Steve Long University of Illinois Lancaster University | James Coleman |
| 10:10-10:45 AM Nov. 13 | Keynote Presentation | Emergence of Complexity in Chiral Nanoscale Assemblies and Graph Theory of Nanostructures | Dr. Nicholas A. Kotov University of Michigan | Alex Weiss |
| 10:45-11:20 AM Nov. 13 | Keynote Presentation | How Can Physicist Solve Real World Challenging Problems? -Two case Studies | Dr. Zhifeng Ren University of Houston | Rene Bellwied |
| 11:20-11:55 AM Nov. 13 | Distinguished Service Award Presentation | Fractal Universality in Nature | Dr. Harry Swinney University of Texas Austin | Rene Bellwied |
| Parallel Session 1 – Condensed Matter Physics, Nov. 13, Friday, 2020 |
| Time slot | Speaker | Title | Affiliations |
| 1:00 – 1:25 pm | Jakoah Brgoch | The Ultimate Balancing Act: A Path Towards High Hardness Materials with Unexpected Ductility | University of Houston |
| 1:25-1:50 pm | Joe Ngai | Charge Transfer and Built-in Electric Fields at Semiconductor – Crystalline Oxide Heterojunctions | University of Texas at Arlington |
| 1:50 -2:15 pm | Oliviero Andreussi | Multiscale screening of two-dimensional materials for electro-catalysis | University of North Texas |
| 2:15-2:40 pm | Feliciano Giustino | Polarons from first principles | University of Texas at Austin |
| 2:40 – 5:10 PM | 12 contributed talks | ||
| 2:40 -2:52 PM | Rauf Giwa | Fermi arc criterion for surface Majorana modes in superconducting time-reversal symmetric Weyl semimetals | University of Houston |
| 2:52 – 3:04 PM | Hori Pada Sarker | Polaron Induced Photovoltage Limitation in BiVO4 for PEC H2O Splitting | University of Texas at Arlington |
| 3:05 – 3:10 PM | Break | ||
| 3:10 – 3:22 PM | Alex Fairchild | Previously unexplored source of genotoxic low-energy electrons from oxygen | University of Texas at Arlington |
| 3:22 -3:34 PM | Alexander Johnson | Self-Interaction Correction in f-Electron Systems | University of Texas at El Paso |
| 3:34 – 3:46 PM | Shruti Hariyani | Local structure distortion induced broad band emission in the all-inorganic BaScO$_{\mathrm{2}}$F:Eu$^{\mathrm{2+}}$ perovskite | University of Houston |
| 3:46 – 3:58 PM | Ian Reyes | Magnetic Properties of Frustrated Triangular Copper Based Qubits | University of Texas at El Paso |
| 3:58 – 4:10 PM | Martin Rodriguez-Vega | Group theory study of the vibrational modes and magnetic order in the topological antiferromagnet MnBi2Te4 | University of Texas at Austin |
| 4:10 -4:22 PM | Karma Dema | Modeling Harmonic and Anharmonic Spin-Vibron Coupling in the Fe$^{\mathrm{3+\thinspace }}$ Molecular Magnetic | University of Texas at El Paso |
| 4:22 – 4:34 PM | Noura Alkhaldi | First principle calculations of Copper-Cysteamine with Chlorine | University of Texas at Arlington |
| 4:34 – 4:46 PM | Eric Amador | White Luminescent solids using POPOP scintillator, PbBr2/CsBr nanocluster and copper cysteamine | University of Texas at Arlington |
| 4:46 – 4:58 PM | Xurui Zhang | Crossover between weak antilocalization and weak localization in few-layer WTe$_{\mathrm{2}}$: Role of electron-electron interactions | University of Texas at Dallas |
| 4:58 – 5:10 PM | Justin Edwards | Trends in magnetism and magnetic anisotropy of RCo5 materials | Texas Tech University |
| 5:10-5:22 PM | Prabuddha Madusanka | Characterization and Suppression of Low Frequency Noise in Si MOSFETs | The University of Texas at Dallas |
| 5:22-5:34 PM | Lauren Henderson | Altering Magnetic Properties of Iron Filament PLA Using Magnetic Field Assisted Additive Manufacturing | Texas State University |
| 5:34 -5:46 PM | Michael Espinosa | Electrostatic Field around a Neutral Current Element | Weatherford College |
| 5:46 – 5:58 PM | James Espinosa | Electrostatic Field Created by an Infinite Current Sheet | Weatherford College |
| Parallel Session 2 – Medical Physics I |
| Program for Day 2, Nov. 13, Friday, 2020 |
| Invited talks (1:00 – 3:30 PM) Chair: Juyang Huang, Mini Das |
| Time slot | Speaker | Title | Affiliation |
| 1:00 – 1:25 PM | Xiankai Sun | A Brief Introduction to Nuclear Imaging | UT Southwestern Medical Center |
| 1:25 – 1:50 PM | Juyang Huang | Isoflurane Increases Cell Membrane Fluidity Significantly at Clinical Concentrations | Texas Tech University |
| 1:50 – 2:15 PM | Mini Das | Advances in Spectral and Phase Contrast X-Ray Imaging | University of Houston |
| 2:15 – 2:40 PM | Lloyd Lumata | Dynamic Nuclear Polarization: Supercharging MRI Signals by Making Nuclear Spins Align Like Electrons | University of Texas at Dallas |
| 2:40 – 3:05 PM | Anton Naumov | Biocompatible graphene quantum dots for biomedical imaging, drug delivery and biosensing | Texas Christian University |
| 3:05 – 3:30 PM | Mingwu Jin | The Role of Physics Principles and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging | University of Texas at Arlington |
| Break (3:30 – 3:35 PM) |
| Contributed talks (3:35 – 5:26 PM) Chair: Anton Naumov, Mingwu Jin |
| Time slot | Speaker | Title | Affiliation |
| 3:35 – 3:50 PM | Benjamin Tayo | DFT Studies of Finite-Size Nanomaterials from Phosphorene and Silicene for DNA Sequencing | University of Central Oklahoma |
| 3:50 – 4:02 PM | Matthew Henry | DNA Base Detection Using Phosphorene Nanomaterials: First Principle Studies | University of Central Oklahoma |
| 4:02 – 4:14 PM | Ahmad Khayyat Jafari | Effects of Polar Dielectrics on the Absorption Spectrum of Metal-Insulator-Metal Nanoantennas | Texas Tech University |
| 4:14 – 4:26 PM | Yu-Chern Wong | Investigating Bacterial Deformation Upon Surface Attachment Using Finite Element Modeling | University of Texas at Austin |
| 4:29 – 4:41 PM | Andrew Renshaw | Xenon-Doped Liquid Argon Scintillation for Positron Emission Tomography | University of Houston |
| 4:41 – 4:53 PM | Elizabeth Campbell | Graphene Quantum Dot Formulation for Cancer Imaging and Redox-Based Drug Delivery | Texas Christian University |
| 4:53 – 5:05 PM | Ryan McKinney | Graphene Quantum Dots as Intracellular Imaging-Based Temperature Sensors | Texas Christian University |
| 5:05 – 5:17 PM | Shiwei Zhou | Low-Dose CT Image Denoising Using Supervised and Unsupervised Deep Learning Methods | University of Texas at Arlington |
| 5:17 – 5:29 PM | John Femi-Oyetoro | Multi-Layer Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Encapsulation of Reactive Van der Waals Materials for Stable Heterostructure Devices | University of North Texas |
| Parallel Session 3 – Data Science |
| Program for Day 2, Nov. 13, Friday, 2020 |
| Invited talks (1:00 – 4:00 PM) Chair: Amir Shahmoradi |
| Time slot | Speaker | Title |
| 1:00 – 1:35 PM | Scott Aaronson University of Texas at Austin | Quantum Computational Supremacy and Its Applications |
| 1:35 – 2:10 PM | Krishna Garikipati University of Michigan | Data-driven physics discovery in materials |
| 2:10 – 2:50 PM | Xaq Pitkow Baylor College of Medicine | Algorithmic symmetry in the brain |
| 2:50 – 3:25 PM | Jing Wu University of Rhode Island | Modern Statistical Methods with Application to Radiation Therapy using Nanoparticles |
| 3:25 – 4:00 PM | Mohammed AlQuraishi Columbia University | End-to-end differentiable learning of protein structure |
| Break (4:00 – 4:15 PM) |
| Contributed talks (4:15 – 5:00 PM) Chair: Christopher Bryant |
| Time slot | Speaker | Title |
| 4:15 – 4:30 PM | Kusal Khandal | Symmetry and Group Theory for Density-Functional Methods |
| 4:00 – 4:45 PM | Shashank Kumbhare | ParaMonte::ParaDRAM – A Parallel Adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo Sampler in C, C++, Fortran, MATLAB, Python, and R |
| 4:45 – 5:00 PM | Yang Pan | Global Total Electron Contents Map Reconstruction using Machine Learning |
| Parallel Session 4 – Space Physics |
| Invited Speakers (Space Physics) for TSAPS 2020, Nov. 13, UT Arlington |
| Name Time | Title | Institution | Area |
| Yue Deng 1:00-1:25 PM | Professor | Department of Physics The University of Texas at Arlington | Ionosphere & Thermosphere Physics |
| William “Trey” Cade 1:25-1:50PM | Professor Director, Baylor Institute for Air Science | Institute for Air Science Baylor University | Space Weather |
| Fredrick “Rick” Wilder 1:50 -2:15PM | Assistant Professor | Department of Physics The University of Texas at Arlington | Plasma physics, magnetospheric physics |
| Patricia Reiff 2:15-2:40PM | Professor | Department of Physics and Astronomy Rice University | Magnetospheric & ionospheric physics; space weather |
| Jorg-Micha Jahn 2:40-3:05PM | Principal Scientist Adjoint Associate Professor | Space Science Department, Southwest Research Associates Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio | Space plasma physics, spacecraft instrumentation |
| 3:05-3:10 pm | Break |
| Student Presentations (Space Physics) for TSAPS 2020, Nov. 13, UT Arlington |
| Time | Name | Institution | Title |
| 3:10-3:22 pm | Yang Pan | UTA | Global Total Electron Contents Map Reconstruction using Machine Learning |
| 3:22-3:34 pm | Pauline Dredger | UTA | Location of B_y Rotation Across the Magnetopause |
| 3:34-3:46 pm | Talon Weaver | Lamar | Dynamics and evolution of interplanetary magnetic clouds propagating from the Sun to the Earth. |
| 3:46-3:58 pm | Fatemeh Bagheri | UTA | Energy Dissipation in Storms with Low Solar Wind Magnetosonic Mach Number |
| 3:58-4:10 pm | Tre’Shunda James | UTA | Estimate of Interhemispheric Conductivity Differences Using SuperMag Electroject Index and Interplanetary Magnetic Field Bz |
| 4:10-4:22 pm | Christina Xing | UTA | A case study of pressure balance and motion of magnetopause |
| 4:22-4:34 pm | Michelle Bui | UTA | Comparing Approximate Total Current of the Dayside Magnetopause and the Force to Solar Wind Pressure |
| 4:34-4:46 pm | Yu Hong | UTA | Inter-hemispheric asymmetries of high-latitude electrodynamic forcing and their impact on the Ionosphere-Thermosphere system: GITM simulations |
| 4:46-4:58 pm | Katrina Vermillion | Baylor | Examining Stability of Dust Chain Formation in Inhomogeneous Plasma |
| Parallel Session 5 – Astrophysics |
Schedule of Invited Talks in Astronomy and Astrophysics – Nov. 13
| Time | Speakers | Institution | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:00 PM – 1:25 PM | Dr. M. C. Diaz | University of Texas Rio Grande Valley | Five years of Gravitational Wave Astronomy: what have we learned? |
| 1:25 PM – 1:50 PM | Dr. Lorin S. Matthews | Baylor University | Dust as a Diagnostic Device |
| 1:50 PM – 2:15 PM | Dr. Bao-An Li | Texas A&M University – Commerce | Probing the Equation of State of Super-Dense Matter in Neutron Stars |
| 2:15 PM – 2:40 PM | Dr. S. Goderya | Tarleton State University | Computational Modelling of Mass Transfer in Binary Stars |
| 2:40 PM – 3:05 PM | Dr. M. Kesden | University of Texas at Dallas | Observational signatures of binary black-hole spin precession |
| Student Speakers | |||
| 3:12 PM | Anish Agashe, Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki | University of Texas at Dallas | An Almost-FLRW Universe as the Averaged Geometry in Macroscopic Gravity |
| 3:24 PM | Brandon Mattingly, Abinash Kar, Matthew Gorban, William Julius, Cooper Watson, MD Ali, Andrew Baas, Caleb Elmore, Jeff Lee, Bahram Shakerin, Eric Davis, Gerald Cleaver | Baylor University | Curvature Invariants for Warp Drives |
| 3:36 PM | Peter Ferguson, Louis Strigari | Texas A&M University | Using RR Lyrae to explore the three-dimensional structure of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal core |
| 3:48 PM | Priyadarshini Rajkumar, Shreya Anand, Michael Coughlin | Texas Tech University | Constraining the Properties of Kilonovae based on the Zwicky Transient Facility Searches for 13 Neutron Star Mergers |
| 4:00 PM | Hong-Yi Zhang, Mustafa Amin, Edmund Copeland, Paul Saffin, Kaloian Lozanov | Rice University | Classical decay rates of oscillons |
| 4:12 PM | Ryan Staten | Southern Methodist University | Effects of Radial Observational Systematics on Luminous Red Galaxy BAO Measurements |
| 4:24 PM | Addy Evans, Louis Strigari | Texas A&M University | Searching for dark matter in Omega-Centauri |
| 4:36 PM | Joshua Osborne, Fatemeh Bagheri, Amir Shahmoradi | University of Texas at Arlington | On the Existence of Radio-Loud and Radio-Quiet GRBs |
| 4:48 PM | Eske Pedersen, Mustapha Ishak | University of Texas at Dallas | First detection of the GI-type of intrinsic alignments of galaxies using the self-calibration method in a photometric galaxy survey |
| 5:00 PM | Emily Engelthaler, Sarah Evans, Jacob Moldenhauer | University of Dallas | Comparing Cosmological Models to Recent Cosmological Data using CosmoEJS |
| 5:12 PM | Tanazza Khanam (on behalf of a team) | Texas Tech University | Post-Merger Gravitational Wave Search of GW170817 using the Cross Correlation Algorithm (CoCoA) |
| 5:24 PM | Noah Pearson | Southern Methodist University | Searching for Gravitational Waves with Strongly Lensed Repeating Fast Radio Bursts |
| 5:36 PM | Sarah Evans, Emily Engelthaler, Dr. Jacob Moldenahe | University of Dallas | Using Non Standard Cosmological Models to Relieve HUbble Tension with CosmoEJS |
| 5:48 PM | Arvid Balasubramanian (on behalf of a large collaboration) | Texas Tech University | GW170817 – An overview |
| Parallel Session 6 – High Energy Physics |
| HEP Schedule – Nov. 13th |
| Start Time | Stop Time | Speaker | Talk Title | Affiliation |
| 1:00 | 1:12 | Juan Cardenas | Decay Mode Neural Networks for Tau Jet Classification in ATLAS | University of Texas at Arlington |
| 1:14 | 1:26 | Spencer Ellis | Potential for discovery of new particles resulting from an extended Higgs sector, including a new dark matter candidate | Texas A\&M University |
| 1:28 | 1:40 | Xiaoxian Jing | Parton distributions, nuclear deeply inelastic scattering, and electroweak precision measurements at the LHC | Department of Physics, Southern Methodist University |
| 1:42 | 1:54 | Amber Roepe | Optimization of Track Reconstruction for Long-Lived Particle Searches with the ATLAS Detector | Univ of Oklahoma |
| 1:56 | 2:08 | Devin Aebi | Track-based muon system alignment for CMS GEM detector | Texas A&M University |
| 2:10 | 2:22 | Jacob Piasecki | Study of a new heavy neutral gauge boson (Z′) via top-quark fusion at the LHC | Texas A&M University |
| 2:24 | 2:36 | Jordan Damgov | Energy Reconstruction using Convolutional Neutral Networks in High Energy Calorimetry | Texas Tech Univ |
| 2:38 | 2:50 | Amy Rewoldt | Search for Supersymmetry at the LHC – Charged Higgs to SUSY with Three Leptonic Final State Particles | UT Arlington |
| 2:52 | 3:04 | Raquel Quishpe | Event by event fluctuations of pseudorapidity distributions in heavy-ion collisions | University of Houston |
| 3:06 | 3:18 | Nicholas Summerfield | Investigating nature's most perfect fluid using ultra-relativistic Xe-Xe collisions at the LHC | University of Houston |
| 3:20-3:32 Break |
| 3:34 | 3:46 | Santosh Parajuli | Search for Higgs Boson Pair Production in the Multi-lepton Final State Using Proton-Proton Collision Data at √s = 13 TeV from the ATLAS Detector | Southern Methodist University |
| 3:48 | 4:00 | Caleb James Smith | Search for Supersymmetric Top Quarks in the CMS Run 2 Data Set | Baylor University |
| 4:02 | 4:14 | Evan Van de Wall | Search for pair production of vector-like quarks in the Wb+X final state with the full Run 2 ATLAS dataset | Oklahoma State University |
| 4:16 | 4:28 | Mateo Gomez | Higgs-mediated spin-independent scattering in a multicomponent dark matter scenario with two coexisting WIMPs | Texas A\&M University |
| 4:30 | 4:42 | Anindya Sengupta | Eleven-dimensional Supergravity with Four Off-shell Supersymmetries | Texas A&M University |
| 4:44 | 4:56 | John Rogers | Blocks-in-Conduit: REBCO cable for a 20T@20k toroid for compact fusion tokamaks | Texas A&M University |
| 4:58 | 5:10 | Paul Lashomb | Polynomial Noise Subtraction in Lattice QCD | Baylor University |
| 5:12 | 5:24 | Christian Ratcliff | Development of Multi-Filament Textured Powder Bi-2212/Ag Wire with Enhanced LAR | Texas A&M University |
| 5:26 | 5:38 | Logan Norman | Effect of High Pressures on DC Voltage Breakdown | UT Arlington |
| 5:40 | 5:52 | Ben Smithers | LeptonInjector and LeptonWeighter: Neutrino event generation and weighting for neutrino observatories | UT Arlington |
| 5:54 | 6:06 | Angel Nava | Strangeness-Neutral Equation of State with a Critical Point | U. Houston |
| 6:08 | 6:20 | Jamie Stafford | Hadronic resonances and thermal properties of strongly-interacting matter | U. Houston |