Date of Award
5-2012
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Physics
Abstract
This paper is to address the need for better estimates of the ESR spectral parameters of biological systems. In this paper I focus on models of spectral lineshapes and will be applying these techniques to more complicated lineshapes. Multifrequency ESR is a powerful technique for identifying and characterizing dynamic modes in natively unfolded biopolymers in general and loop regions in particular. I will introduce the reader to properties of ESR, formalisms and common techniques in the field. A common result for a simple ESR line is a Lorentzian distribution that is characterized by a mode and width. Information about the structure of the sample is contained in the position of the Lorentzian distribution attained from ESR. The dynamics of the sample can determined from the width of the distribution. The Lorentzian distribution can be modelled using Student's T distribution by allowing the degrees of freedom in the T distribution to approach unity. Before applying Bayesian analysis to the T distribution I first verify that my proposed techniques will be effective by applying these new methods of estimation to the Gaussian distribution, which is the limiting case of the number of degrees of freedom going to infinity in the Student's t distribution.
Recommended Citation
Broderick, Troy R., "Techniques for Improving Parameter Estimation in ESR" (2012). Physics. 3.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/honorscollege_physics/3