Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Matter'

In mathematics education, teacher knowledge matters. However, the amount, type and nature of knowledge required for quality mathematics teaching is remains unclear. This may be due to the ways in which teachers’ subject matter knowledge has been measured. This study explored relationships between three aspects of teacher knowledge: knowledge for designing mathematical tasks; knowledge for solving mathematical problems; and knowledge for making judgements of student learning. Positivism was applied to establish expectations for objective, context-free generalisations throughout the research and used to attach corresponding methodologies and tools. Examining relationships between aspects of teacher knowledge required the selection, testing, development and use of instruments to gain insights into aspects of teacher knowledge before correlations among them could be tested. This necessitated the selection of content that could illuminate conceptual, rather than procedural, knowledge. All data were gathered in a single day from a group of 64 participants teaching 10 to 12 year old students in a large metropolitan schooling system in New South Wales. Relationships between aspects of teacher knowledge were identified and tested using measures of statistical association before correlations among all three aspects were studied simultaneously. Strong correlations were identified between teachers’ understandings of mathematics, the level of challenge in the tasks they designed and their noticing of higher levels of student achievement. Stronger subject matter knowledge, to the extent that teachers could solve more complex, unfamiliar, non-routine problems, was predictive of higher levels of pedagogical knowledge. Australia aspires to increase the proportion of students studying higher levels of mathematics. It is argued that teachers’ understandings of mathematical content are foundational to their development of aspects of pedagogical content knowledge essential for effective teaching. Without increasing the knowledge of the key stakeholders responsible for student learning, changing the syllabus, raising professional standards and testing students may not lead to higher levels of achievement in mathematics.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Cincinnati, 2007.
Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed July 18, 2007). Includes abstract. Keywords: Physicalism; Hempel's Dilemma; Physics Includes bibliographical references.

This essay have collected texts from the philosophers Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, science anthropologist and professor Bruno Latour and science biologist writer Janine Benyus, focused on bio mimicry. The essay is called “Moving Matter” and is focused on how these writers relate to materials and how it connects to nature and furthermore to ecology. In the first part of my study I connect, through a personal reading, these writers because I found shared views on materials , nature, as active, trans-disciplinary, related to science and part of a big collective. I divided the text by chapters of each writer where I try to build my case with examples from each author. What I try to conclude is that for these writers materials are not only a single matter waiting but to be formed, it is an active moving agent which contains complex chemical and biological structures, connects to history, have a social, cultural and political role. All this complex relations could be said to form a kind of science related material culture of materials, a moving matter. By using this method an implicit ethical relations to nature and ecology is created, a Geo philosophy In the second part, “Connecting the Material”, I wish to conclude and summarize how this theories discussed in the first part could be relevant working and treating materials both as makers ,consumers, wearer of jewelry. I wish to use the so called functions of jewelry by adapting the thoughts from the first part of the essay and also by including works from different jewelry artists. By this I am posing the question: -What could it mean when we say that materials are active and intelligent in the context of Jewelery and Jewelery art?

The process of obtaining the Master of Fine Arts degree led me to probe the aims and methods of my artmaking. What emerged and became uppermost was the issue of form and content or perhaps form versus content. While highly concerned with the formal aspects of art, content (subject matter) would not fade from my intentions or cease to occupy my mind. Through much "soul searching" and inquiries into numerous materials both familiar and new to me, I concluded that my intended content was about my experience of being. I further distilled my conclusion and focused on my ontological experience in terms of the self (subject) as contained by the body (matter). I realized that the successful and specific translation of my intentions into my artistic works had become one of the core issues in my artmaking endeavors. Thus, clarification of subject matter emerged as a core issue from the two year process and focused my attention. The many mediums I worked with helped to increase my sensitivity to the inherent nature, characteristics, and behaviors of materials. The body of work exhibited in the Autzen Gallery m Neuberger Hall from June 5th through the 20th reflects the preliminary residuals of this process.

Physical systems composed of a large number of reciprocally interacting constituents provide the natural context for the rise of emergent phenomena. Despite the intrinsic difficulty in providing a mathematical definition of what is meant for ‘emergence’ (see [Baas, in Langton, Alife III, Santa Fe Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Proc. Volume XVII, Addison-Wesley, (1994)]), the intuitive notion of emergent property is that of a collection of interact- ing objects showing a novel collective behavior, qualitatively different from and not immediately attributable to the behaviors of the individual components. Non-linear interactions among elements of the system, or interactions between the system and the environment, or merely the large number of constituents are usually the motivations addressed to be responsible for emergent behavior. It is important to remark that emergent properties can only be inferred from a comprehension of the collective properties of the microscopic constituents [Kivelson et al, npj Quant. Mater. 1, 16024 (2016)]. In this regard, computer simulations provide a unique tool to support experimental observation, develop abstract models and investigate systems’ properties at a microscopic level. In general, condensed matter, particularly soft matter but also the complex systems studied in Physics, are necessarily described via simplified models, which include the key features of the corresponding real systems. On the one hand, this certainly represents a powerful approach when it finds its roots in the concept of universality, connected with critical phenomena, but this also turns into a limiting factor for the realistic description of the considered phenomena. On the other hand, it makes the properties of such abstract simulated systems calculable and investigable via computer simulations. As a consequence, the simulations assume a key role in complementing the comparison between experiments and theory [Frenkel and Smit, Understanding Molecular Simulations, Academic Press (2002); Allen and Tildesley, Computer simulation of liquids, Oxford University Press (2017)]. In this sense, simulations are often regarded as being computer experiments, in which materials properties and novel phases of matter can be investigated. The present PhD thesis is a collection of the main results coming from four different research lines which I have been involved into in the last 3 years. The topics could appear to be rather diverse but they are all connected by the presence of emergent phenomena which were studied via computer simulations (Molecular Dynamics and Monte Carlo methods, mainly). Three of these four research lines are related to collaborations with as many experimental groups. The first group I started collaborating with is led by dr. R. Grisenti, at the University of Frankfurt (https://www.atom. uni-frankfurt.de/hhng-grisenti/index.html). As reported in Chapter 1 and in a recent paper which I contributed to as first co-author [Schottelius, Mambretti et al., Nat. Mat. (2020)], we studied the crystal growth of supercooled Ar–Kr liquid mixtures by means of a micro–jet experiment, Molecular Dynamics simulation and thermodynamic analysis. The second ongoing collaboration is with the group of prof. P. Milani, which is the leader of the CIMaINa laboratories (http://cimaina.unimi.it/) at the Università degli Studi di Milano. We developed an abstract stochastic model of resistive switching devices that they are characterizing for neuromorphic applications (see Chapter 3). More recently, I started a collaboration with the group led by prof. T. Bellini at the Università degli Studi di Milano (https://sites.google.com/site/unimisoft/), in order to investigate the spinodal decomposition of mixtures of DNA nanostars via light scattering experiments and Monte Carlo simulations, as described in Chapter 4. I will now provide a brief overview of the contents of each Chapter, where each Chapter corresponds to a different research line. Crystal growth from a supercooled melt is of fundamental theoretical and practical importance in many fields, ranging from materials science to the production of phase–change memories. To date, the temperature dependence of the growth rates of many materials, including pure metals, metallic alloys, colloids and many others are still under intense scrutiny (see e.g. Tang et al., Nat. Mat. (2013) and Sun et al., Nat. Mat. (2018)). The majority of systems display a maximum growth rate at a temperature located between the melting point and the glass transition [Orava et al., J. Chem. Phys. (2014)]. Several materials are characterized by a range of many orders of magnitude between this maximum value and the crystal growth rates measured in other regimes. We still lack a deep comprehension of the mechanism underlying this phenomenology, which emerges from experiments and simulations both. Classical models of crystal growth from a melt hypothesize either a diffusion-limited process, or a collision–limited one, but for a lot of materials them both fail to fit the available data. This situation claims for further investigation about the key elements that tune the crystal growth rates from supercooled liquids, extending the current theoretical framework. Jointly with the experimental group of dr. Grisenti (which performed measurements at the EU-XFEL facility https://www.xfel.eu/), we studied the crystallization of supercooled mixtures of argon and krypton via Molecular Dynamics. Our results showed that their crystal growth rates (obtained from the analysis of simulated configurations exploiting Steinhardt angular order parameters) can be reconciled with existing crystal growth models only by explicitly accounting for the non–ideality of the mixtures. Our theoretical and computational contribution aided in highlighting the importance of thermodynamic aspects in describing the crystal growth kinetics, yielding a substantial step towards a more sophisticated theory of crystal growth. A second project concerns the study of soft matter systems in one dimension (1D), detailed in Chapter 2. Soft matter systems are made of particles which can overlap by paying a finite energy cost and they are renowned for being able to display complex emerging phenomena. Some of them, for example, are characterized by the presence of clustering phases [Prestipino, Phys. Rev. E (2014)]. Recently, a surprising quantum phase transition has been revealed in a 1D system composed of bosons interacting via a pairwise soft potential in the continuum. It was shown that the spatial coordinates undergoing two-particle clustering could be mapped into quantum spin variables of a 1D transverse Ising model [Rossotti et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (2017)]. Extending the description and the results provided in a very recent paper I contributed to as first author [Mambretti et al., Phys. Rev. E (2020)], in the second Chapter we investigate the manifestation of an analogous critical phenomenon in 1D classical fluids of soft particles in the continuum. In particular, we studied the low–temperature behavior of three different classical models of 1D soft matter, whose inter–particle interactions allow for cluster- ing. The two–particle cluster phase is largely explored, by simulating the systems at the commensurate density via Monte Carlo and Simulated Annealing methods. The same string variables exploited in the aforementioned quantum case highlight that, at the right commensurate density, the peculiar pairing of neighboring soft particles can be nontrivially mapped onto a 1D discrete classical Ising model. We also observe a related phenomenon, i.e. the presence of an anomalous peak in the low–temperature specific heat, thus indicating the emergence of Schottky phenomenology in a non–magnetic fluid. The third Chapter presents the case of an electrical resistor network featuring novel emergent properties, such as memristivity and the possibility to be used as a self–assembled logic gate; an article on this topic is currently in preparation. The growing difficulties arising in the improvement of the performance of standard computing architectures encouraged the quest for different approaches aiming at reproducing the computational capability and energy efficiency of the human brain, by mimicking neurons and synapses as probabilistic computing units [Markovic et al., Nat. Rev. Phys. 2, 499–510 (2020)]. Networks based on the bottom–up assembling of nanoscale building blocks and characterized by resistive switching (RS) activities are becoming increasingly popular as possible solutions for a straightforward fabrication of complex architectures with neuromorphic features [Wang et al., Nat. Rev. Mat. 5, 173-195 (2020)]. Specifically, it has recently been demonstrated that metallic nanostructured Au films, under certain conditions show a non–ohmic electrical behavior and complex and reproducible resistive switching, which can be exploited for the innovative realization of logic gates. In these devices, the nonlinear dynamic switching behavior resulting from an applied input voltage can be exploited for developing hardware for reservoir computing applications. In Chapter 3, I show how it is possible to simulate a complex model (Stochastic Resistor Network Model, SRNM) able to imi- tate the phenomenology and give hints for the development of experiments ongoing at the CIMaINa research laboratories, regarding the electrical current passage through nanostructured cluster gold films [Mirigliano et al., Nanotechnology, 31, 23, (2020)]. To this purpose, I personally contributed to develop from scratch a C++ code, parallelized via the Armadillo library (http://arma.sourceforge.net/). To study the electrical transport properties of this system, we modeled the experimental sample as a network of interconnected resistors whose effective resistance under a given voltage can be determined using spectral graph theory. The network state evolves stochastically via random physically–inspired update moves, and its effective total resistance (and the related Power Spectral Density) has been analyzed. The structure and the topology of the network were studied via the investigation of the shortest path connecting the source and the sink of the system, thus exploring the possible paths in which the current could flow. Moreover, we also applied Information Theory entropy–based tools to investigate the time evolution of network resistance at a local, coarse–grained, scale. We observed that specific input signals corresponding to 2 logical ‘bits’ pro- duce rich outputs associable to a logical NAND gate, which posses functional completeness. Given that relevant differences could be detected between the behavior of the network at low voltage before and after the so called ‘writing’ step (where the system is under a high applied voltage), memristive effects naturally emerge in the study of network properties. These results encourage further investigations, both experimental and via the innovative SRNM approach we developed, in order to exploit these RS devices in hardware computing applications as self–assembled logic gates. Last, in Chapter 4 I focus on another soft matter system, that I have started to investigate during my PhD research activity, regarding Monte Carlo simulations of low valence DNA–based colloidal particles. This last Chapter is mainly devoted to the description of the simulation method I have been developing during my more recent PhD research activities, while the preliminary results presented obviously need to be confirmed and extended by further studies. Particles with a limited number of attractive spots (patches) on their surface are generally characterized by non–crystalline low energy states; they rather generate a disordered 3D network in which all the sticky sites are engaged in (mutually exclusive) patch–patch bonds [Bianchi et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (2006)]. One of the most promising experimental realizations of such peculiar colloids is extremely recent: laboratory synthesized DNA nanostars (NS) with fixed valence [Bi et al., PNAS (2013)]. In this field the landmark is represented by our collaborators from the group led by prof. T. Bellini. Recently, they started to investigate the behavior of mixtures of nanostars with leftwise or rightwise chirality of the DNA strands, characterized by a merely repulsive interspecies interaction. To date, our contribution mainly consisted in the development of an abstract model of these DNA nanostars, schematized as limited valence soft patchy particles, whose equilibrium configurations are sampled via a canonical Monte Carlo program. Their different chirality is represented by a mixed interaction which only comprises excluded volume terms. Our goal in this project is twofold: on the one hand, we aim to reconstruct the temperature–density phase diagram of such mixtures, also depending on the mixing ratio. Experiments revealed a critical behavior and a phase separation processes for dilute mono–component DNA solutions; the properties of a mixture of two components, each found in critical conditions, are studied in this work. In this Chapter, after a detailed overview of the experimental, computational and theoretical studies regarding low valence particles, the simulation code is described and it is presented a comparison between the simulation results and the experimental measurements at equilibrium. The peculiar structures found in the patchy particles network claim for further analysis, as well as the interesting behavior near the critical point for mono–component and bi–component systems both. The second perspective of this research regards the unexplored aggregation and cluster growth process of such particles. In this concern, part of the future research effort will be devoted to the transformation of our custom code into a Brownian Monte Carlo in order to unveil the mechanisms underlying the dynamics of such particles during their aggregation stages. The conclusions and further perspectives concerning each of the four topics addressed in this work can be retrieved at the end of each Chapter.

Thesis (M.F.A.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2003.
Thesis research directed by: Creative Writing. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

Swedish: Det här kandidatarbetet undersöker om karaktärer med icke-normativ sexualitet finns representerade i digitala spel och hur dessa framställs. Arbetet har även fokus på de reaktioner samhället har visat i samband med att spel som behandlar ämnet icke-normativ sexualitet kommit ut på marknaden. Syftet är att uppmärksamma och ge insikt om icke-normativ sexualitet som ämne och hur diskussionen av detta kan leda till en utveckling inom spelmediet. Informationen som användes för att undersöka ämnet och dess reaktioner finns sammanställt under ett forskningsmomentet, vilket sedan utvecklas till flera noveller. Dessa noveller har sedan användes i en undersökning som genomfördes av 11 stycken deltagare. English: This bachelor thesis investigates if characters with non-normative sexuality are represented in digital games and how these are portrayed. The thesis' focus is also to study the reactions games dealing with the subject of non-normative sexuality have received from society, and how the discussion about this can lead to a growth for games as a medium. The information used to analyze this subject and its reactions is collected from a time of researching, which later was developed into a number of short stories. These short stories were then used to conduct a survey answered by 11 respondents. Keywords: Homosexuality, bisexuality, digital games, non-normative sexuality, interpretation, game medium.

I defend the claim that some things genuinely matter to human beings. This involves overcoming a series of arguments which suggest that the things that matter to us are arbitrary. These arguments arise out of Nagel’s claim (in Mortal Questions) that life is absurd. The thesis also discusses different senses in which life can be said to have meaning. I put religious accounts of the meaning of life to one side. Instead, I focus on outlining how someone can experience their own life (and the world) as meaningful. My main aim is to show that some things genuinely matter. I argue that some things genuinely matter from the perspective of the individual in virtue of the fact that they can become conscious of their own needs. So, there are facts about human nature (we are self-consciousness and have needs) that, taken together, show that some things genuinely matter to us (non-arbitrarily). These include our vital needs, our happiness and positive relationships with others. I argue that these things matter to us not simply in virtue of the fact that we happen to think that they matter (although this is certainly true). Rather, they genuinely matter to us given our nature.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2012.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-150).
N-body simulations have revealed a wealth of information about dark matter halos but their results are largely empirical. Here we attempt to shed light on simulation results by using a combination of analytic and numerical methods. First we generalize an analytic model of halo formation, known as Secondary Infall, to include the effects of tidal torque. Given this model we compare its predictions for halo profiles to simulation results and infer that angular momentum plays an important role in setting the structure of dark matter profiles at small radii. Next, we focus on explaining the origin of universality in halos. We find evidence that diffusion -- which can potentially lead to universality -- occurs during halo evolution and is partially sourced by external torques from large scale structure. This is surprising given that the halo is nonlinear and typically thought to be unaffected by neighboring structures. Last, we describe promising ways to analytically describe the evolution of nonlinear halos using a Fokker-Planck formalism.
by Phillip Gregory Zukin.
Ph.D.

In this thesis we present some phenomenological investigations of freeze-in models of dark matter and also a numerical calculation of the particle flux produced by dark matter annihilations around a rotating black hole. Freeze-in is an alternative dark matter production mechanism in which an out of equilibrium very weakly coupled particle is produced in the early universe. We consider the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) extended by an additional singlet superfield feebly coupled to the other particles. This feeble coupling leads to a long lifetime for the next to lightest superpartner which can only decay via this coupling. The long lifetime of this decaying particles could lead to displaced vertices which provide a prominent signal for beyond the standard model physics. The phenomenology of the signals from this simple Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (AMP) model is investigated and compared to some experimental searches. The freeze-in mechanism may also constitute an alternative for generating the correct relic density for dark matter candidates whose predicted freeze-out abundance is too low due to a large total annihilation cross section. We show that although such a mechanism could explain why a dark matter candidate has the correct relic density, some candidates may still be ruled out because they would lead to a large gamma ray flux in dwarf spheroidal galaxies or a large elastic scattering rate in direct detection experiments. To investigate this scenario we examine neutralino dark matter in the MSSM. Collisions around black holes may provide a window onto very high energy physics. The geodesics of massless particles produced in collisions near a rotating black hole are solved numerically and a Monte Carlo integration of the momentum distribution of the massless particles is performed to calculate the fraction that escape the black hole to infinity. A distribution of in falling dark matter particles, which are assumed to annihilate to massless panicles, is considered and an estimate of the emergent flux from the collisions is made. The energy spectrum of the emergent particles is found to contain two Lorentz shifted peaks centred on the mass of the dark matter. The separation of the peaks is found to depend on the density profile of the dark matter and could provide information about the size of the annihilation plateau around a black hole and the mass of the dark matter particle.

The images which comprise the majority of these pages have been given the name Light Sculptures. They are not computer generated or hand drawn, they are photographs of the interaction between light and a reflective cylinder. Originally color transparencies, the Sculptures have been interpreted by the computer as inverted, greyscale images. What was once a black background is now white paper, and what were once lines of light are now lines of ink. The sculptures were synthesized through experimentation with the fundamental elements of architecture: Light, Material, and Geometry. Following the series of Light Sculptures are images of Objects through which materials, tectonics, and proportion were explored. The design and fabrication of each piece was guided by the intent to make something which functioned structurally, visually, and tactily as an integrated whole.
Master of Architecture

The artist discusses the work for his Masters of Fine Arts exhibition, Mind under Matter, held at the Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City, Tennessee. Exhibition dates are from March 27th through April 5th 2017. ‘Matter under Mind’ explores the balance of control and non-control within the art-making process. This technique creates an automatic dialogue resulting in abstraction guided by the subconscious. The title ‘Matter under Mind’ is a slight play on the phrase ‘mind over matter’ emphasizing how matter/material is manipulated by the mind through the making of artwork, and within the mind’s eye or imagination. The video installation featuring the work is accompanied by a soundscape to bring the viewer deeper into the creative process. The video symbolizes the idea of ‘solve et coagula’ or, dissolve and coagulate, destroy to recreate by revealing how the process of cleaning paint off of a surface creates artwork in itself.

Dans cette thèse j'essaye de résumer la phénoménologie de la Matière Noire (MN) dans tous ses aspects: Détection Directe, Indirecte et constructions de modèles. Il s'agit d'un domaine très prometteur, car la profusion de mesures de ces dernières années l'a rapidement fait progresser et l'a rendu très dynamique. En ce qui concerne la Détection Directe je passe en revue les principaux ingrédients et recettes pour le calcul des signaux dus à une diffusion WIMP-noyau. Je présente le traitement analytique permettant de calculer le taux théorique attendu. Avec un choix standard des caractéristiques du halo de MN et de la section efficace d'interaction, je présente les régions favorisées actuelles et les contraintes sur la MN. En ce qui concerne la Détection Indirecte, je fournis les ingrédients les plus avancés pour calculer les signaux d'annihilations et désintégrations de MN à l'échelle du TeV. Avec ces ingrédients et recettes, je calcule les contraintes sur la MN qui sont imposées par le fond diffus gamma. Je considère les données de FERMI (1ere année) et je les compare aux prédictions d'annihilation et désintégration de MN. Enfin, comme les annihilations de MN après recombinaison et pendant l'époque de la formation des structures déposent de l'énergie dans le milieu intergalactique primordial, j’enquête également sur les contraintes imposées par la profondeur optique observée de l'Univers. En ce qui concerne la construction de modèles, je présente deux modèles jouets de MN qui peuvent échapper aux contraintes actuelles de détection directe. Ils sont fondés sur l'hypothèse que les forces entre les deux secteurs pourraient ne pas être à courte portée
In this Ph. D. Thesis I have tried to summarize the Dark Matter (DM) phenomenology in ail aspects: Direct Detection, Indirect Detection and some aspects of mode! building. This is a very promising area as the profusion of ground and satellite-based measurements in recent years has rapidly advanced the field making it dynamic and timely. Concerning DM direct detection I review the main ingredients and recipes for Computing signals due to a WIMP-nucleus scattering I present the analytic treatment that allows us to derive the theoretical rate expected and, considering a standard choice in the features of the DM Halo and interaction cross section (point-like interaction), I report the current fits and constraints on DM properties. Concerning DM indirect detection, I provide the most advanced ingredients and recipes for Computing signals of TeV-scale DM annihilations and decays. Subsequently considering these ingredients and recipes, I compute the gamma ray constraints on DM properties that are imposed by the observed diffuse gamma rays. ] consider the data from FERMI first year observations and I compare them to the gamma rays fluxes predicted by DM annihilation and decays. Finally, as DM annihilations after recombination and during the epoch of structure formation deposit energy in the primordial intergalactic medium, I also investigate the constraints that are imposed by the observed optical depth of the Universe. Concerning model building, I present two DM toy mode 1s that can evade the current constraints on direct detection searches. They are based on the assumption that the forces between the two sectors might not be short range

During the past decades, the development of laser technology has produced pulses with increasingly higher peak intensities. These can now be made such that their strength rivals, and even exceeds, the atomic potential at the typical distance of an electron from the nucleus. To understand the induced dynamics, one can not rely on perturbative methods and must instead try to get as close to the full machinery of quantum mechanics as practically possible. With increasing field strength, many exotic interactions such as magnetic, relativistic and higher order electric effects may start to play a significant role. To keep a problem tractable, only those effects that play a non-negligible role should be accounted for. In order to do this, a clear notion of their relative importance as a function of the pulse properties is needed.  In this thesis I study the interaction between atomic hydrogen and super-intense laser pulses, with the specific aim to contribute to the knowledge of the relative importance of different effects. I solve the time-dependent Schrödinger and Dirac equations, and compare the results to reveal relativistic effects. High order electromagnetic multipole effects are accounted for by including spatial variation in the laser pulse. The interaction is first described using minimal coupling. The spatial part of the pulse is accounted for by a series expansion of the vector potential and convergence with respect to the number of expansion terms is carefully checked. A significantly higher demand on the spatial description is found in the relativistic case, and its origin is explained. As a response to this demanding convergence behavior, an alternative interaction form for the relativistic case has been developed and presented. As a guide mark for relativistic effects, I use the classical concept of quiver velocity, vquiv, which is the peak velocity of a free electron in the polarization direction of a monochromatic electromagnetic plane wave that interacts with the electron. Relativistic effects are expected when vquiv reaches a substantial fraction of the speed of light c, and in this thesis I consider cases up to vquiv=0.19c. For the present cases, relativistic effects are found to emerge around vquiv=0.16c .

This thesis studies strongly coupled phases of condensed matter physics using a combination of gauge-gravity correspondence and numerical methods. We examine holographic models of the condensed matter phenomena of: vortex formation in the spontaneously broken phase of gauge theories, spontaneous breaking of translational invariance by periodic modulation, properties of (non-)Fermi liquids, and metal-insulator transitions in systems with sourced periodic modulation. In Chapter 2, we formulate a criterion for the existence of a Higgs phase based on the existence of bulk solitons. This criteria is applicable when the microscopic details of the gauge theory are unknown. We demonstrate the existence of such solitons in both top-down and bottom-up examples of holographic theories and examine their thermodynamics. In Chapter 3, we construct inhomogeneous, asymptotically Anti-deSitter Space (ADS) black hole solutions in Einstein-Maxwell-axion theory corresponding to the spontaneous breaking of translational invariance and the formation of striped order in the dual 2 + 1 dimensional Quantum Field Theory (QFT). We investigate the phase structure as function of parameters. In Chapter 4, we continue the study begun in Chapter 3. On domains of both fixed and variable wavenumber, we find a second order phase transition to the striped solution in each of the grand canonical, canonical and microcanonical ensembles. We also examine the properties of the bulk black hole solutions. In Chapter 5, we consider a phenomenological model whose bosonic sector is governed by the DBI action, and whose charged sector is purely fermionic. In this model, we demonstrate the existence of a compact worldvolume embedding, stabilized by a Fermi surface on a D-brane. We study the bulk and dual QFT thermodynamic and transport properties. In Chapter 6, we analyze low energy thermo-electric transport in a class of bottom-up, holographic models in which translation invariance has been broken. As a function of our choice of couplings, which parameterize this class of theories, we obtain (i) coherent metallic, or (ii) insulating, or (iii) incoherent metallic phases. We use a combination of analytical and numerical techniques to study the Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current (DC) transport properties of these phases.
Science, Faculty of
Physics and Astronomy, Department of
Graduate

The development of interpretive criticism in the arts has raised doubts concerning the possibility for explaining the affective power of works of art within the same theoretical framework. Works of art provide pleasure; however, they also possess meritous properties that can be accurately assessed in terms of objective criteria. The object of this thesis is to investigate the institutional dimensions of artistic excellence and merit in order to outline the relation between aesthetic feeling, aesthetic value and aesthetic taste. Modern aesthetics has its origins in the 18th century British Enlightenment, specifically the works of Joseph Addison, Francis Hutcheson and David Hume. A detailed analysis of these philosophers' works on taste is undertaken in order to outline the historical foundation and original logic of aesthetic theory and the role that aesthetic taste plays within it. The main theme of this analysis is that the "middle-ground" view of aesthetic taste (between reason and the passions) developed by these philosophers is, in fact, untenable in the face of modern critical practices and theory. Two contemporary views of aesthetic taste are then assessed in order to show that even with the additional clarity provided by philosophical analysis, the middle-ground view is still flawed. The general architecture of this criticism is provided by an institutional view of art. A general appraisal of this view is undertaken with special emphasis on the role of art institutions as generators of standards and theories of critical evaluations. Lastly, two meta-critical theories are analysed to determine whether valid, non-affective theories of aesthetic evaluation are available. It is concluded that this approach to art is a valid development, in one direction, from the notion of taste developed in the 18th century, and that this approach is logically independent of that which seeks to explain the psychological dimensions of aesthetic perception.
Arts, Faculty of
Philosophy, Department of
Graduate

The removal of natural organic matter (NOM) is one of the main challenges facing water utilities in both the UK and the US. As a consequence of changes in land management and an increased carbon loss from solids, a greater amount of accumulated organics is now being flushed into the aquatic environment during increased surface run-off events such as snowmelt or heavy rainfall. Furthermore, whilst traditional treatment with trivalent coagulants has proven a successful strategy in the past, operational problems are now being reported during periods of elevated organic levels in the water. These include the formation of fragile flocs, a greater particulate carryover onto downstream processes and increased disinfection by product (DBP) formation. Resin adsorption techniques were employed to fractionate the water samples into their hydrophobic and hydrophilic components. This, coupled with raw water monitoring, revealed that NOM composition and characteristics can vary, even if the total organic concentrations appear stable. In particular, hydrophobic NOM fractions contribute the majority of the charge compared to the hydrophilic fractions, and therefore exert a greater impact on coagulation conditions. Comparison across different source waters, seasons, at varying experimental scales and under varying coagulation conditions, revealed that zeta potential monitoring during coagulation takes into account the changing electrical property of the water, and in general, maintaining a value between -10