Sasha Bacon
Research Mentor(s): Timothy Chupp
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Department of Physics
Presentation Date: 08/03/2022
Presentation Type: Poster
Poster Number: 35
Session: Session I: 12:30 – 1:20pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Sasha Bacon, Dr. Timothy Chupp
Abstract
The electric dipole moment (EDM) of a noble gas atom arises due to forces within the atom that reveal physics at sub-atomic distances. The next generation experiment to search for the EDM of 129Xe in our lab requires an automated system to polarize and transfer the gas to the experiment. We are developing a system that uses a laser to polarize the gas, a magnetometer to make precise measurements of the gas, and tubing to connect each segment of the apparatus together. The location of the gas in the apparatus must be controlled with valves that an experimenter can open and close at will. The purpose of this research is to design an algorithm that will control the flow of polarized gas through a series of valves by applying voltage to them using digital signal output. All the work on this project was done in Labview: a visual programming language that allows for the creation of virtual instruments that can interact with sensors, circuits, and other real-world instruments by way of Data Acquisition Devices(DAQ) that are connected to both the virtual instrument and the real-world instrument. I’ve successfully created a program that can open a valve by generating a voltage on a given DAQ digital I/O port and can automatically close the valve after an amount of time that can be determined by experimenters. This program was originally tested on a simple circuit that included only an LED and a resistor and was successfully scaled for use with valves. In the future, this virtual instrument will be expanded to control multiple valves at once and to open valves in complex sequences by making the initial virtual instrument a subroutine that can be called within an even larger algorithm. Once completed, the control program (or virtual instrument) will be incorporated into the polarization and gas-handling apparatus, tested in the laboratory, and used for the next generation 129Xe EDM experiment.
