Establishing a Community Business Association Operated by the Southwest and Behind the Rocks Neighborhood Revitalization Zone

New Britain Avenue (NBA) is the most concentrated area of commerce in the Southwest and Behind the Rocks neighborhoods of Hartford, CT, consisting mostly of small businesses. To better support both these businesses and the community, the Neighborhood Revitalization Zone (NRZ) of Southwest/Behind the Rocks (SW/BTR) has founded an NBA business group with a mission to “strengthen relations and communication between businesses on NBA, the community, and the City of Hartford.” I am aiding in this project by creating specific steps for the NRZ to follow to establish a long-term business group comprised of cooperative businesses with vested interest in the community. To do so, I have consulted the literature on best practices for interacting with, and providing resources for businesses, and interviewed a well-established administrator of a Hartford business association. Additionally, I have worked with the NRZ to produce their first quarterly newsletter and created a model for future newsletters, which will facilitate dissemination of information to small businesses in these neighborhoods

DEFINING TRUMPISM: WHERE DID THE MOVEMENT COME FROM AND WHAT IS ITS STATE TODAY?

Donald Trump came roaring onto the political stage when he announced his presidential candidacy in 2015. In the years that followed, he amassed a loyal following of motivated voters. During the Trump era, his followers have developed a reputation for loud bigotry, shameless xenophobia, and unmasked white supremacy. The movement has to come to strongly resemble the nativist populism that, until Trump, was generally confined to Europe. In order to better understand the motivation of Trump voters and their intense dedication to the 45th president, I surveyed 82 voters from the Midwest about their feelings towards politicians, policies, and political opponents. The Midwestern Swing District Voter Survey offers both qualitative and quantitative responses and suggests that Trumpism has redefined identity politics for Trump and Biden voters alike. I find that the great consequence of Donald Trump is not the mass movement of white working class Americans to the Republican party, it is the accelerated evolution of the identity of cultural whiteness that has come to bind together the Republican base

Comparison of beam generation techniques using a phase only spatial light modulator

Whether in art or for QR codes, images have proven to be both powerful and efficient carriers of information. Spatial light modulators allow an unprecedented level of control over the generation of optical fields by using digital holograms. There is no unique way of obtaining a desired light pattern however, leaving many competing methods for hologram generation. In this paper, we test six hologram generation techniques in the creation of a variety of modes as well as a photographic image: rating the methods according to obtained mode quality and power. All techniques compensate for a non-uniform mode profile of the input laser and incorporate amplitude scaling. We find that all methods perform well and stress the importance of appropriate spatial filtering. We expect these results to be of interest to those working in the contexts of microscopy, optical trapping or quantum image creation

Laser cooling with a single laser beam and a planar diffractor

A planar triplet of diffraction gratings is used to transform a single laser beam into a four-beam tetrahedral magneto-optical trap. This `flat' pyramid diffractor geometry is ideal for future microfabrication. We demonstrate the technique by trapping and subsequently sub-Doppler cooling 87Rb atoms to 30microKelvin.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Comparison of beam generation techniques using a phase only spatial light modulator

Whether in art or for QR codes, images have proven to be both powerful and efficient carriers of information. Spatial light modulators allow an unprecedented level of control over the generation of optical fields by using digital holograms. There is no unique way of obtaining a desired light pattern however, leaving many competing methods for hologram generation. In this paper, we test six hologram generation techniques in the creation of a variety of modes as well as a photographic image: rating the methods according to obtained mode quality and power. All techniques compensate for a non-uniform mode profile of the input laser and incorporate amplitude scaling. We find that all methods perform well and stress the importance of appropriate spatial filtering. We expect these results to be of interest to those working in the contexts of microscopy, optical trapping or quantum image creation

Practical Doppler broadening thermometry

We report initial research to develop a compact and practical primary thermometer based on Doppler broadening thermometry (DBT). The DBT sensor uses an intrinsic property of thermalized atoms, namely, the Doppler width of a spectral line characteristic of the atoms being probed. The DBT sensor, being founded on a primary thermometry approach, requires no calibration or reference, and so in principle could achieve reliable long-term in-situ thermodynamic temperature measurement. Here we describe our approach and report on initial proof-of-concept investigations with alkali metal vapour cells. Our focus is to develop long-term stable thermometers based on DBT that can be used to reliably measure temperatures for long periods and in environments where sensor retrieval for re-calibration is impractical such as in nuclear waste storage facilities.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, referees' comments incorporate

Cavity-enhanced frequency up-conversion in rubidium vapour

We report the first use of a ring cavity to both enhance the output power and dramatically narrow the linewidth (<1MHz) of blue light generated by four wave mixing in a rubidium vapour cell. We find that the high output power available in our cavity-free system leads to power broadening of the generated blue light linewidth. Our ring cavity removes this limitation, allowing high output power and narrow linewidth to be achieved concurrently. As the cavity blue light is widely tunable over the 85Rb 5S1/2F=3 → 6P3/2 transition, this narrow linewidth light would be suitable for second-stage laser cooling, which could be valuable for efficient 85Rb BEC production

Holographically controlled three-dimensional atomic population patterns

The interaction of spatially structured light fields with atomic media can generate spatial structures inscribed in the atomic populations and coherences, allowing for example the storage of optical images in atomic vapours. Typically, this involves coherent optical processes based on Raman or EIT transitions. Here we study the simpler situation of shaping atomic populations via spatially dependent optical depletion. Using a near resonant laser beam with a holographically controlled 3D intensity profile, we imprint 3D population structures into a thermal rubidium vapour. This 3D population structure is simultaneously read out by recording the spatially resolved fluorescence of an unshaped probe laser. We find that the reconstructed atomic population structure is largely complementary to the intensity structure of the control beam, however appears blurred due to global repopulation processes. We identify and model these mechanisms which limit the achievable resolution of the 3D atomic population. We expect this work to set design criteria for future 2D and 3D atomic memories