Emerging Minds Journal for Student Research

Predicting Super Massive Black Hole Collisions Using LISA

Chris Warden — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0300

LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is due for launch in the 2030s. Its goal is to observe gravitational waves in the 10^-4 to 10^-1 Hz band. This frequency band contains signals from colliding Super Massive Black Holes, objects with masses in the range of millions, even billions, that of our own suns mass. These SMBHs are thought to lie at the heart of most, if not all galaxies. By understanding the physics of the underlying processes, and what LISA 'sees', we can predict when these mergers will occur. This would allow us to observe the merger directly in the EM spectrum, observing the light emitted from the merging accretion discs. This could yield a potentially vast amount of information about the composition and formation of these huge objects. In this project we explore some of the potential variations of the signals detected, and show that we can detect the merger several days prior to it occurring.

Multi-Colour Photometric Observations of Transiting Exoplanets to Verify Binary Star Systems

Thomas Franklin — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Within this paper, we report the observation of transiting exoplanets, K2-29b, TrES-3b, WASP-36b, and HAT-P54b, with a focused comparison of the well defined binary system K2-29b to the proposed binary WASP-36b. Performing multicolour photometry, debayering images to three distinct colour channels, a comparison of the detrended light curves of each target is used to define parameters to identify the presence of any discrepancy between the observation, defined system models or past observations. The exoplanet system K2-29b, observed in separate red and blue filters, produced minimal deviation from expected R_P /R_∗ values with R_P /R_∗ = 0.1404 +0.0040/-0.0042 and R_P /R_∗ = 0.1468 +0.0082/-0.0088 respectively. In contrast to this, we observe a significant deviation in the blue debayered value of R_P /R_∗ for WASP-36b, with the expected radius ratio defined to be ±R_P /R_∗ = 0.1368±0.0006. Initial airmass detrending model fitting for the blue debayered channel produced a value of R_P /R_∗ = 0.1162+0.0098/ -0.0102, with R_P /R_∗ Drift = 3.01σ, this later being reduced through a quadratic detrending scheme to R_P /R_∗ Drift = 2.11σ. Despite this model being an improved representation, this measure of R_P /R_∗ drift is significantly beyond the tolerance of ±1σ and as such motivates further study as this effect has been denoted in concordant research to suggest presence of a secondary star in this system.

Domestic Applicability of Solid-State Cooling

Michael Bailey — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0300

The global surge in energy consumption and the consequential environmental challenges have spurred an escalating demand for innovative, eco-friendly alternatives to current modern technology, and refrigeration systems are no different. With most households today owning a refrigerator amongst other appliances, there is a constant need for energy that is only growing by the year, in 2013 it was found that there was roughly 1.4 billion cold appliances in use within household globally, causing 450 million tons of CO2, using approximately 650 TWh, which is 1.2 times the total electricity consumption of Germany that same year, with a 27% increase to the number of cold appliances, [1]. Even with the efficiency of technology being improved over the years, there is still the ever-increasing demand for energy. Due to their complex crystal structures and the delicate balance required between their attributes, challenges do occur when attempting to identify suitable multiferroic materials, ongoing research aims to optimize their properties. Though harnessing the potential of these multiferroic materials and their intrinsic characteristics, may offer a sustainable solution for both industrial and residential refrigeration.

Effect of Gene Knockout of CEP290 using CRISPR-Cas 9 Technology on Xenopus tropicalis

Nourin Shamnad — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Modelling human diseases using the Xenopus species is an increasingly popular method to study vertebrate embryology and development, basic cell and molecular biology, genomics, neurobiology, and toxicology. This allows for the elucidation of the regulation mechanisms and interactive networks that affect the direct development of embryos, the adaptation process, and disease and malformation-causing dysregulations. Here we aim to analyze the possible kidney defects during the gene-knockout of CEP290 in X. tropicalis species. Our objectives are to produce sgRNA via de-novo synthesis from the constructed DNA template, to microinject synthesized sgRNA into embryos of Xenopus tropicalis, and to determin the success of the genome editing via T7-Endonuclease I assay and observation of genetically modified tadpoles for identifying any physical symptoms produced due to gene knockout. The data obtained from the embryos of X. tropicalis suggests that complete knock-out of the gene cep290 results in severe mutation that causes death.

Phylodynamics and Phylogenetic Analysis of Recent SARS CoV 2 Viral Strains from Pune, Maharashtra

Nourin Shamnad — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0300

In December 2019, medical practitioners from China identified a novel strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV (SARS-CoV). The disease was allotted a zoonotic origin and the spillover event is associated with Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID- 19 as an international public-health emergency concern. In India, the index case was reported on 30^th January in the district of Thrissur, state of Kerala and by 25^th March 2020, the country was lockdown. This research aims to analyze the viral phylogenetic and phylodynamics of strains from Pune, Maharashtra, followed by a comparison against real time data and an analysis of the potency of government prevention strategies. Publicly available SARS-CoV-2 sequences, specific to Pune, Maharashtra, were downloaded from GISAID during the time frame of the epidemics. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences, including Maximum Likelihood trees and the nucleotide substitution model, were done using IQ-TREE software. Phylodynamic tools available as part of the BEAST2 software was used to estimate the evolution of R number through time. GTR+F+I was found to be the best-fit nucleotide substitution model for the data acquired. ML trees constructed reported a log likelihood of 44842.9931. Analysis of trace estimates reported R number with an average of 1, indicating transmission of virus. The data contains controversial elements which can only be clarified upon further sequencing of the SARS- CoV-2 strains, however, the results obtained are parallel to real time statistics.

Radio Observations of Tidal Disruption Events Around Direct Collapse Black Holes at Cosmic Dawn

Nathan Herbert — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Primordial haloes immersed within intermediate Lyman-Werner (LW) UV backgrounds are theorised
to be the seeds of supermassive primordial stars (SMSs) that could be the origin of the first quasars in our universe. Only extreme levels of LW fluxes however will destroy the molecular hydrogen H2 in these haloes, resulting in much less massive stars in the early stages of our universe. This investigation considers the collapse in haloes within weaker LW background that were much more common in the primordial universe, and allowed for the survival of some H2 within these haloes. The survival of H2 along with Tvir ∼ 104 K allows the atomic cooling of H2 to begin, triggering the baryonic collapse within these haloes. These flows are predicted to result in SMSs on the order of a few × 105 M⊙ before collapsing to a DCBH due to general relativistic instabilities within their cores. The stars formed through these mechanisms could be the origin seeds of intermediate mass black holes found within dwarf galaxies today, or even create a secondary tier of less massive but still highly luminous quasars at a redshift z > 7. Some of these stars form in binaries and small clusters, raising the possibility of future detections of gravitational waves from BH mergers by LISA. This investigation considers the tidal disruption events (TDEs) of lower mass Pop III stars that form within the nuclear accretion disc of these DCBHs, the potential observation of these TDE afterglows in the radio, and the
subsequent identification of their host DCBHs. We find that the radio observation of the afterglow of 15 M⊙ and 40 M⊙ TDEs due to 104 M⊙ DCBHs would be visible up to z = 20 by SKA and ngVLA.

The Equivalence Circuit Model For Lithium-ion Batteries

Aysha Fathe-Aldeen — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0300

This study analyzes equivalent circuit models for lithium-ion batteries to simulate voltage behavior under various C-rates. Starting with a simple SOC to voltage model and progressing to Thevenin and PNGV models, it finds that more complex models perform better. Implemented in Python using Dandeliion , the study compares simulated outputs with experimental data, discussing accuracy, complexity, and computational cost. It aims to identify the simplest model that effectively captures voltage dynamics, provide suggestion based on C-rate and desired accuracy, and emphasise the validation of simplified models against experimental data.

Investigation of the Lindemann criterion and the melting point in complex alloys

Ryan Warren — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Despite various theories, the understanding of melting points remains incomplete. This project extends the Lindemann melting criterion to A_1-x B_x alloys in an attempt to predict the melting temperatures of complex alloys. Frederick Lindemann developed a theory to predict melting temperatures over 100 years ago, with the assumption that melting occurs when a critical fraction of root-mean-square displacement of a crystal and interatomic spacing, known as the Lindemann coefficient, η, is exceeded. 100 years
later, Melvin Vopson developed a relationship between element groups and this coefficient, assigning a different value of this coefficient to 12 element groups on the periodic table. Presented here is an extension of this generalised Lindemann melting
criterion to extend to binary alloys, finding fair agreement with experimental data by applying effective parameters for atomic mass, Lindemann coefficient, interatomic spacing and Debye temperature, assuming these parameters take weighted averages and
applying a correction to the resulting plot.

Modelling the Sea Surface of Cardigan Bay

Benjamin Churchill, Rebecca Caves, Chloe Peet, Bill Dawber — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0300

The aim of this project was to model the sea surface of Cardigan Bay, to be able to expand upon QinetiQ’s current wave models, used within their radar assurance activities. The sea surface can cause unwanted detections, which is referred to as clutter. The sea is not the only source of clutter such as litter and birds, have an impact on the returns detected by the radar. This project explored two different approaches, modelling the propagation of waves and modelling the distribution of energy across the sea surface. The first approach explored two open source models, WAVEWATCH III and SWAN, and after having technical errors, two real world, existing examples of where these models were implemented were researched. This research showed a lot of promise, and would be worth expanding upon. The second approach looked into two recognised equations for calculating the energy density of the waves, and then calculating the significant wave height. Overall, modelling the propagation of waves would produce more representative results, particularly SWAN which was a model designed for coastal waters, however to set up the wave models fell outside of the scope of this project.