The 2001 Supreme MolBeam Dream Team: Taking Physics Beyond its Limits
(not really...)

We started work this summer on Tuesday, May 29, 2001. For a peek at what we have done, check out our log page.

This summer's team includes:
Mike Bongard
Evan Frodermann
Katie Huber
Heather Tollerud
Class of 2004- Physics and Math major, Computer Science concentration Class of 2002- Physics and Math major Class of 2004- Physics major, Pre-Med Class of 2003- Physics and Math major


For a picture view of the MolBeam summer, check out the picture site!

Summaries

Katie:
How we managed to have an eventful and productive, yet sometimes slow, tedious and idle summer is beyond me, but it must be because the MolBeam team is so talented :) (Sorry, just a little self pat on the back.) Actually, nothing was unproductive because it let us know what we didn't want to do and what we were doing wrong. This summer problems constantly arose with the mechanics of the beam. On many occasions, leaks were detected in the pump system, and because of it, I got many showers. We soldered, we used leak detectors, we made new detector strips. It was fun. I also got the lovely task of always loading the salt into the source tube. So a lot of my time was spent with my face plastered against the plastic walls of the "dry box" using gloves that were way too big for my hands pushing salt into a little hole which would never cooperate with the salt funnel. All in all, it wasn't too bad. Then again, I'm the girl who sorts screws. I also did a lot of reading this summer. I needed to catch up on the physics and math that I was unfamiliar with so that I could get a grasp on the theory behind the MolBeam and our calculation procedures. Despite the huge amount of time it took, I really enjoyed the learning process. When I wasn't reading, much of my time was spent fitting data . . . either old data like KF and LiI6 or new data from RbBr and RbF. Although, I did not do as much of it as our "Master Fitter" Heather. With our frequencies, I created files for RbBr and RbF which only contained allowed transitions and their frequencies so that we could pick better frequency ranges. Ah, frequency ranges . . . many hours were spent picking out frequency ranges and appropriate RF, DC and Quadrupole voltages for scans. Many were futile attempts that lead us no where. I still say much of this is not my fault because we didn't know enough about RbBr or even just rubidium, for that matter, which would actually give us accurate frequency predictions. As I will hopefully be working on the MolBeam Team in the future, I've also started writing a "MolBeam for Dummies" explanation that will be available for those who aren't genius physicists with Nobel Prizes and want an explanation of how and why the MolBeam works that doesn't make their head spin. Overall, this has been an amazing, educational, fun, inspiring, eventful, wonderful summer despite the small frustrations and road blocks along the way. I would like to thank our advisors - Dr. Cederberg, Dr. Nitz and Dr. Olson - for their work and all the help they've given this summer. They made the experience all the more enjoyable. I would also like to thank the St. Olaf physics department for the opportunity to participate in this fabulous research experiment. Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank my amazing team members for all their hard work and the fun they provided me with. They are such a talented group of people who all brough valuable skills to our research team. Oh, and one last comment . . . Molbeam beats Radar any day.


Mike:
I still can't believe that the summer's already come and gone. I guess the time really flies when you're having fun! Coming into the project, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to end up doing or exactly what the Beam was. Upon the suggestions of Dr. Cederberg and Dr. Olson, I decided to take up C++ programming and help write some much-needed new software for the Beam. After about two weeks of bonding with C++ books, I felt like doing actual work on something. As such,I dove right into work on PUMPS, our new diffusion pump safety and control system. In the state I started in, a basic shell by Dr. Olson, the program would constantly crash and could only turn the pumps on or off. Sure enough, with enough hard work, head scratching, and caffeine, we were able to stabilize PUMPS' main operations, and allow me to work on the actual safety system. In its final form, the system can shut down all of our pumps if the temperature or pressure readings are too high for too long. In addition, the safety checks can be selectively overridden in the event of normal Beam maintenence, so we can still safely monitor the system when we're working on replacing things! And replace things we did -- soon after we had PUMPS up and running, we discovered that there were frequencies we just shouldn't look at (our mystery 'forbidden' zone). In this range of frequencies, RF pickup along our temperature/pressure thermocouples caused PUMPS to see dangerous temperatures, and thus shut down the system over a weekend. This caused the vacuum system to attain near-atmospheric pressures, ruining our detector filament. This forced us to make more filaments (with liquid nitrogen!). All in all, we ended up replacing the detector filament, refilling our source three times, patching leaks in the system, and even replacing one of our mechanical pumps. After all the physical work was completed on the Beam and we were up and running with data collection, I decided that it was time to do some more programming. My next project, WinBeam, was undertaken in an effort to bring our data collection program, BEAM v 11, into Win32. Hopefully that will make it somewhat longer-lived! Also, it should provide the opportunity for remote administration, so we can modify our scan settings or view our results from anywhere at St. Olaf. Unfortunately, WinBeam must wait for next year. Thanks are in order to Dr. Cederberg, Dr. Nitz, and Dr. Olson for all of their help this summer -- not to mention for picking me to work on the Beam this summer! I'd also like to thank the NSF for providing me with this opportunity. Of course, one of the nicest things about this summer is the knowledge that I'll be back next year. -- Mike Bongard


Heather:
As this was my first summer on the molbeam, I started by reading up on the workings of the molbeam and learning what exactly it tells us. Then I worked on finding scans that would help to identify which transitions we were looking at in RbBr. As RbBr hasn’t been done very much, this is a bit of a challenge; lines can be a long ways from where they are predicted to be. I worked out some good scans to continue RbBr by looking at the predictions, comparing them with what has already been found, and simulating the transitions to optimize the strength of the line. However, interference problems interfered with our RbBr work, and the frequency range that contained the best RbBr scans became off limits. Then we had to do a good bit of work on the beam before it was up and running again. After that work, which including finding leaks, making detector filaments, moving cables around, and playing with liquid nitrogen, we switched to RbF. I started working on 6LiI while the beam was down, and continued for the rest of the summer. Basically, I fitted for various factors so that I could find the frequencies that would induce certain transitions. I would’ve liked more time to work on it; this summer has gone by so fast! I learned quite a bit this summer. For one thing, I learned about the workings of a vacuum system, and about all the pumps it takes to bring the molbeam down to very low pressures. The ion pumps were especially interesting, as they can bore holes through titanium in time. The leak detector was interesting, as well, and the whole interface of the molbeam. I also learned about C++ programming, and a whole lot about mathcad and data fitting. And, of course, I had a lot of fun. Between learning about the molbeam, canoeing the Cannon River, finally getting lines to fit, and putting Katie in a straitjacket, I enjoyed my summer.


Evan:
Well the end is here. Ten weeks ago I was a brash, and crude researcher who was a little wet behind the ears and now... I am no better. I have learned one thing, the MolBeam is one cool machine. After spending most of my time either fixing the beam with everyone, watching dots change ever so slightly on a computer screen, making filaments with Mike (love the liquid N2) and working on the evil Mathcad program with Heather, I have found that research is rewarding. The rewarding part is not the research itself but the people you can work with. Anybody who can put up with me for 10 weeks is all right in my book. In between fixing the beam, I did manage to read 3/4 of Griffiths' quantum mechanics text. That was quite helpful in understanding the math behind the beam. The times that the beam did work, it yielded excellent information. Since I read 3/4 of the Griffiths text, this wasn't very often. The information on RbF that was started two weeks before the end of summer has given the team a foothold on theory for RbBr, which should be a wonderful molecule to look at. For anybody who happens to stumble upon this page and is thinking about working with the MolBeam, DO SO. The experience is wonderful and grand. Whether it is quantum theory, experimental, or physics mechanic (fixing the beam), the MolBeam is for you.
If you think that research is all fun and games, here are some results:
85Rb Q/ 87 Rb Q = 2.06684115. There you go!
p.s. Our pop can tower beat all pop can towers. It ruled
--Evan Frodermann