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Thumbnail of Jupiter and Ring in Infrared from Webb
Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter's main ring was discovered in 1979 by NASA's passing Voyager 1 spacecraft, but its origin was then a mystery. Data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, however, confirmed the hypothesis that this ring was created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons. As a small meteoroid strikes tiny Metis, for example, it will bore into the moon, vaporize, and explode dirt and dust off into a Jovian orbit. The featured image of Jupiter in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope shows not only Jupiter and its clouds, but this ring as well. Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) -- in comparatively light color on the right, Jupiter's large moon Europa -- in the center of diffraction spikes on the left, and Europa's shadow -- next to the GRS -- are also visible. Several features in the image are not yet well understood, including the seemingly separated cloud layer on Jupiter's right limb. Celestial Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995)
Mount Timpanogos with sky above
Temperature: F
Rel. Humidity: %
Pressure: Inches Hg
Image for Dr. John Colton’s Sabbatical to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Dr. John Colton embarked on a six-month sabbatical at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado to explore the use of terahertz radiation in probing the chiral properties of hybrid perovskite materials, a research area previously unfamiliar to him.
Image for Nathan Powers, Updated labs and AAPT lab committee work
Dr. Powers initiated the effort to update BYU’s physics undergraduate lab curriculum in 2015. The revamped curriculum, aimed at teaching students how to construct knowledge from experiments.
Image for Study analyzes distant Kuiper Belt object with NASA's Hubble data
Using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a new study suggests that an object previously thought to be a binary system may be a rare triple system of orbiting bodies.
Image for BYU’s Rising Astronomers Take Center Stage at the Winter AAS Conference
In early January 2025, a group of 16 students from Brigham Young University’s Physics & Astronomy Department showcased their research at the prestigious American Astronomical Society (AAS) in National Harbor, Maryland.

Selected Publications

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By Mylan R. Cook, Kent L. Gee, and Mark. K. Transtrum (et al.)
Abstract:

The National Transportation Noise Map predicts time-averaged road traffic noise across the continental United States (CONUS) based on annual average daily traffic counts. However, traffic noise can vary greatly with time. This paper outlines a method for predicting nationwide hourly varying source traffic sound emissions called the Vehicular Reduced-Order Observation-based Model (VROOM). The method incorporates three models that predict temporal variability of traffic volume, predict temporal variability of different traffic classes, and use Traffic Noise Model (TNM) 3.0 equations to give traffic noise emission levels based on vehicle numbers and class mix. Location-specific features are used to predict average class mix across CONUS. VROOM then incorporates dynamic traffic class mix data to obtain dynamic traffic class mix. TNM 3.0 equations then give estimated equivalent sound level emission spectra near roads with up to hourly resolution. Important temporal traffic noise characteristics are modeled, including diurnal traffic patterns, rush hours in urban locations, and weekly and yearly variation. Examples of the temporal variability are depicted and possible types of uncertainties are identified. Altogether, VROOM can be used to map national transportation noise with temporal and spectral variability.

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By Jared R. Davidson, Benjamin D. Boizelle, and Emma Rasmussen (et al.)
Abstract:

Dusty circumnuclear disks (CNDs) in luminous early-type galaxies (ETGs) show regular, dynamically cold molecular gas kinematics. For a growing number of ETGs, Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) CO imaging and detailed gas-dynamical modeling facilitate moderate-to-high precision black hole (BH) mass (M BH) determinations. From the ALMA archive, we identified a subset of 26 ETGs with estimated M BH/M circle dot greater than or similar to 108 to a few x 109 and clean CO kinematics but that previously did not have sufficiently high-angular-resolution near-IR observations to mitigate dust obscuration when constructing stellar luminosity models. We present new optical and near-IR Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of this sample to supplement the archival HST data, detailing the sample properties and data-analysis techniques. After masking the most apparent dust features, we measure stellar surface-brightness profiles and model the luminosities using the multi-Gaussian expansion (MGE) formalism. Some of these MGEs have already been used in CO dynamical modeling efforts to secure quality M BH determinations, and the remaining ETG targets here are expected to significantly improve the high-mass end of the current BH census, facilitating new scrutiny of local BH mass-host galaxy scaling relationships. We also explore stellar isophotal behavior and general dust properties, finding these CNDs generally become optically thick in the near-IR (A H greater than or similar to 1 mag). These CNDs are typically well aligned with the larger-scale stellar photometric axes, with a few notable exceptions. Uncertain dust impact on the MGE often dominates the BH mass error budget, so extensions of this work will focus on constraining CND dust attenuation.

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By Trevor Reay, John Carmen, Taylor Barton, Richard L. Sandberg, and Shiuh-Hua Wood Chiang (et al.)
Abstract:

This paper describes a compact, highly scalable, low-power, and multi-channel charge digitizer (MCCD) designed for synchrotron beam profile monitoring. The MCCD utilizes charge amplifiers, voltage amplifiers, programmable-gain ampli-fiers (PGAs), and ADCs to amplify and digitize input signals. The MCCD also demonstrates a novel stackable PCB design to easily reconfigure the channel count. Laboratory measurement results show a sample rate of 200 Hz per channel, gain of 6.64×1011 V/C, noise of 1.36×105e−rms , and power of 97 mW/channel.

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By Spencer Hopson, Carson Mildon, Kyle Hassard, Paul M. Urie, and Dennis Della Corte
Abstract:

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) in the medical sector necessitate the development of AI literacy among future physicians. This article explores the pioneering efforts of the AI in Medicine Association (AIM) at Brigham Young University, which offers a framework for undergraduate pre-medical students to gain hands-on experience, receive principled education, explore ethical considerations, and learn appraisal of AI models. By supplementing formal, university-organized pre-medical education with a student-led, faculty-supported introduction to AI through an extracurricular academic association, AIM alleviates apprehensions regarding AI in medicine early and empowers students preparing for medical school to navigate the evolving landscape of AI in healthcare responsibly.

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Abstract:

The mathematical structure, description and classification of magnetic space groups is briefly reviewed, with special emphasis on the recently proposed notation, the so-called UNI symbols [Campbell et al. (2022). Acta Cryst. A78, 99–106]. As illustrative examples, very simple magnetic space groups from each of the four possible types are described in detail.

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By Emma Zappala and Benjamin A. Frandsen (et al.)
Abstract:

CrMnFeCoNi, also called the Cantor alloy, is a well-known high-entropy alloy whose magnetic properties have recently become a focus of attention. We present a detailed muon spin relaxation study of the influence of chemical composition and sample processing protocols on the magnetic phase transitions and spin dynamics of several different Cantor alloy samples. Specific samples studied include a pristine equiatomic sample, samples with deficient and excess Mn content, and equiatomic samples magnetized in a field of 9 T or plastically deformed in pressures up to 0.5 GPa. The results confirm the sensitive dependence of the transition temperature on composition and demonstrate that post-synthesis pressure treatments cause the transition to become significantly less homogeneous throughout the sample volume. In addition, we observe critical spin dynamics in the vicinity of the transition in all samples, reminiscent of canonical spin glasses and magnetic materials with ideal continuous phase transitions. Application of an external magnetic field suppresses the critical dynamics in the Mn-deficient sample, while the equiatomic and Mn-rich samples show more robust critical dynamics. The spin-flip thermal activation energy in the paramagnetic phase increases with Mn content, ranging from 3.1(3) ×10−21J for 0% Mn to 1.2(2)×10−20J for 30% Mn content. These results shed light on critical magnetic behavior in environments of extreme chemical disorder and demonstrate the tunability of spin dynamics in the Cantor alloy via chemical composition and sample processing.