In this thesis, I explore how the environments of both galaxy and cluster-scale strong gravitational lenses affect studies of cosmology and the properties of the earliest galaxies. Galaxy-scale lenses with measured time delays can be used to determine the Hubble constant, given an accurate lens model. However, perturbations from structures along the line of sight can introduce errors into the measurement. I use data from a survey towards known lenses in group environments to calculate the external shear in these systems, which is typically marginalized over in standard lens analyses. In three of six systems where I compare the independently-calculated environment shear to lens model shears, the quantities disagree at greater than 95% confidence. We explore possible sources of this disagreement. Using these data, I generate fiducial lines of sight and insert mock lenses with assumed input physical and cosmological parameters and find that those parameters can be recovered with ∼ 5-10% scatter when uncertainties in my characterization of the environment are applied. The lenses in groups have larger bias and scatter. I predict how well new time delay lenses from LSST will constrain H₀ and find that an ensemble of 500 quad lenses will recover H₀ with ∼ 2% bias with ∼ 0.3% precision. On larger scales, galaxy cluster lenses can magnify the earliest galaxies into detectability. While past studies have focused on single massive clusters, I investigate the properties of lines of sight, or "beams", containing multiple cluster-scale halos in projection. Even for beams of similar total mass, those with multiple halos have higher lensing cross sections on average. The optimal configurations for maximizing the cross section are also those that maximize faint z ∼ 10 detections. I present a new selection technique to identify beams in wide-area photometric surveys that contain high total masses and often multiple clusters in projection as traced by luminous red galaxies. I apply this technique to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and present the 200 most promising beams. Several are confirmed spectroscopically to be among the highest mass beams known with some containing multiple clusters. These are among the best fields to search for faint high-redshift galaxies.

The electronic structure and reaction dynamics of molecular and cluster anions in the gas phase has been investigated using negative ion velocity-map imaging photoelectron spectrometer. Photoelectron images provide important information about both energies and symmetries of the parent anion orbitals from which photoelectron originates. The symmetry and the ordering of several low-lying electronic states of neutral nitromethane (X¹A′, a³A″, b³A″, and A¹A″) are assigned based on a group theoretical analysis of the transitions angular distributions and the results of DFT calculations. The through-bond electronic coherence in meta- and para-dinitrobenzene anions is explored by recording a series of photoelectron images in 532-266 nm wavelength range. Photoelectron angular distributions for both isomers exhibit oscillatory behavior characteristic of the quantum interference effect, suggesting that dinitrobenzene anions retain their high symmetry electronic structures in the gas phase. Photoelectron imaging experiments on [O(N₂O)(n)]⁻, n =0–9 at 266 and 355 nm provide clear evidence of a switch from the cova)lent NNO₂⁻ cluster core to the atomic O⁻ core occurring between n = 3 and 4. The experimental results and theoretical modeling indicate that despite the greater stability of NNO₂⁻ relative to the O⁻ + N₂O⁻ dissociation limit, an O⁻ cluster core becomes energetically favored over NNO₂⁻ for n > 3, due to the more efficient solvation of the atomic anion. The photodissociation dynamics of I₂⁻ and IBr⁻ anions on the respective A' excited-state anion potentials is effectively unraveled in 780 nm pump - 390 nm probe time-resolve experiments. The time-dependent photoelectron spectra and classical trajectory calculations of the IBr⁻ dissociation provide the first rigorous dynamical test of the recently calculated A′ potential for this system. The photoelectron anisotropy cyclic variation observed in photodissociation of I₂⁻ is interpreted in the context of dual-center quantum interference model. The 390 nm pump – 390 nm probe experimental data reveal fast (≤100 fs) and delayed (~ 700 fs) appearance of the I⁻ channel in the photodissociation of I₂Cl⁻ and BrICl⁻ anions respectively. The difference in the reaction time-scales is attributed to the distinct dissociation pathways available for the anions to form I⁻ product.

Millisecond pulsars (MSP) are old neutron stars that have been spun up to high spin frequencies(as fast as 716 Hz) through the accretion of matter from a companion star. The extreme stellar densities in the core of globular clusters creates numerous accreting neutron star systems through exchange interactions; this leads to the formation of MSPs in larger numbers than in the galactic disk. Over the course of this project, we have collected over 17 TB of data on the 3 globular clusters M28, NGC6440 and NGC6441 plus 2 observations on NGC6522 and NGC6624 as part of the recently begun S-band survey using the Green Bank telescope. I have analyzed and conducted acceleration searches on 70% of the data and discovered 7 of the 23 new millisecond pulsars reported in this work. One year of timing observations of the pulsars in M28 and NGC6440 has led to the phase connected solution for 12 of the 15 new pulsars in those two clusters, 7 of which are in binaries. We have measured the rate of advance of periastron for two highly eccentric binaries and assuming this is purely due to general relativity, this leads to total system masses of (1.616 - 0.014)M and (2.2 - 0.8)M for M28C and NGC6440B respectively. The small mass function combined with this information imply that the most likely neutron star mass of NGC6440B is either very large or else there could be significant contribution to the advance of periastron from a nonzero quadrupole moment due to tidal interaction with the companion. Measurements of the period derivatives for many of the pulsars show that they are dominated by the dynamical effect of the gravitational field of the clusters. Finally, we have discovered the potential presence of a Mars-mass planet orbiting the pulsar NGC6440C with a period of 21 days. A dedicated timing campaign will be necessary to confirm the presence of such an object.

Galaxy clusters are powerful tools for studying various astrophysical principles. Gas accreting onto the cluster is heated to 10^7-10^8 K through adiabatic compression and shocks, making clusters highly luminous in X-ray imaging. Measurements of the gas density and temperature profiles can be used to calculate the gas mass fraction f_gas, which is expected to closely match the cosmic baryon fraction Ω_b/Ω_m. Recent observations have found entropy profiles in cluster outskirts that are shallower than predicted and values of f_gas that are higher than the Universal baryon fraction inferred from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Abell 133 was an ideal candidate for studying this phenomenon, since it had recently been observed in a wide (R≈30') Chandra mosaic with an exposure time of ∼2 Ms. The X-ray imaging was combined with existing optical imaging from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and spectroscopy obtained from the Magellan telescope, to search for any possible gas clumps and to study their properties. The photometric analysis yielded over 3200 red sequence galaxies to a depth of r'=22.5, which were used to create a Gaussian smoothed intensity map and a significance map of the cluster (compared to CFHT Legacy Survey data). About 6 significant overdensities were detected in the significance map, although these did not fully correspond to contours obtained from the X-ray image. Spectroscopy obtained on the cluster yielded ∼700 secure redshifts, of which about 180 were cluster members. This included data from the NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey (NFPS) and the 6 Degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS). We found a cluster redshift of z=0.0561±0.0002 and a velocity dispersion of σ=743±43 km/s. The dynamical analysis gave a virial radius of r_v=1.44±0.03 Mpc and a virial mass of M_v=(5.9±0.8)×10^14 M_sun. We also found values of R_500=1.21±0.07 Mpc and M_500=(5.3±0.9)×10^14 M_sun for γ=1/3 and R_500=0.99±0.05 Mpc and M_500=(2.9±0.5)×10^14 M_sun for γ=1/2, where γ is a parameter related to the assumed density profile and the velocity anisotropy. About 30 overdensities with a radius R_c≥30" were detected as gas clumps on the X-ray image. The galaxy distribution in these clumps was analyzed, both for the stacked signal as well as the individual clumps, in ten parallel colour-magnitude bands to find any significant red sequences associated with them. Most of these clumps appeared to be background systems, some consisting of 1-2 galaxies, others being small groups or clusters. Only 2-3 clumps appeared to be associated with the cluster itself. This suggests that the cluster density profile is actually quite smooth, which may not agree with recent numerical simulations. Further studies are required to determine if the cluster density distribution is consistent with what is predicted and the nature of the background systems.

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The presence of massive objects is detectable in observations via the gravitational lensing effect on light from more distant sources. From this effect it is possible to reconstruct the masses of clusters, and the distribution of matter within the cluster. However, further theoretical work needs to be done to properly contextualize any proposed projects involving, for instance, SALT data sets. Observational lensing studies use one of two techniques to recover the lens mass distribution: parametric (model dependent) techniques; and, a more recent innovation, non-parametric methods. The latter deserves further study as a tool for cluster surveys. To this end, we provide a comprehensive analysis of existing non-parametric algorithms and software, as well as estimates on the likely errors to be expected when used as an astronomical tool. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

The use of parallel computing is increasing with the need to solve ever more complex problems. Unfortunately, while the cost of parallel systems (including clusters and small-scale shared memory machines) has decreased, such machines are still not within the reach of many users. This is particularly true if large numbers of processors are needed. A largely untapped resource for doing some, simpler, types of parallel computing are temporarily idle machines in distributed environments. Such environments range from the simple (identical machines connected via a LAN) to the complex (heterogeneous machines connected via the Internet). In this thesis I describe a system for dynamically clustering together similar machines distributed across the Internet. This is done in a peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion with the goal of ultimately forming useful compute clusters without the need for a heavily centralized software system overseeing the process. In this sense my work builds on so-called "volunteer computing" efforts, such as SETI@Home but with the goal of supporting a #11;different class of compute problems. I #12;first consider the characteristics that are necessary to form good clusters of shared machines that can be used together effectively. Second, I exploit simple clustering algorithms to group together appropriate machines using the identified#12;ed characteristics. My system assembles workstations into clusters which are, in some sense, "close" in terms of bandwidth, latency and/or number of network hops and that are also computationally similar in terms of processor speed, memory capacity and available hard disk space. Finally, I assess the conditions under which my proposed system might be effective via simulation using generated network topologies that are intended to reflect real-world characteristics. The results of these simulations suggest that my system is tunable to different conditions and that the algorithms presented can #11;effectively group together appropriate machines to form clusters and can also manage those clusters #11;effectively as the constituent machines join and leave the system.

In this thesis, investigations into fabricating tin oxide hydrogen gas sensors from films assembled by the deposition of tin clusters are reported. The tin clusters were formed in a UHV compatible cluster apparatus by DC magnetron sputtering and inert gas aggregation. Through SEM imaging, it was found that the morphology of tin cluster assembled films deposited onto silicon nitride substrates was highly coalesced. The coalescence between the clusters was significantly reduced by reacting the clusters with nitrogen before they were deposited. This resulted in granular films with a grain size close to that of the deposited clusters. The coalesced and granular tin films were used to fabricate tin oxide conducti-metric gas sensors. This was done by depositing the tin films onto gold contacts and then oxidising them by baking them at 250°C for 24 hours. The sensors were tested using a purpose built gas test rig. It was found that the sensors with the granular film morphology were much more sensitive to 500 ppm, 1000 ppm, and 5000 ppm of hydrogen at 200°C in ambient air with zero humidity. This was attributed to the smaller grain size and the larger surface area of the granular films.

Integrated circuit (IC) technology has evolved rapidly but the continual development of transistors and interconnects (the connection between the transistors) is facing greater and greater challenges, which require new materials and new processes. Research in nano-particles (or nanoscale clusters) creates possibilities for both new materials and new processes. This thesis explores the electrical properties of amorphous antimony clusters and develops a new copper cluster deposition technique for application to transistors and interconnects respectively. For amorphous antimony clusters, an electron diffraction technique was applied to identify the phase of the clusters prior to deposition on electrically contacted samples. The deposition process produced uniform cluster films suitable for electrical measurements. A consistent percolation exponent for conduction (t=1.85) was obtained. After deposition, the resistance of the films continued to increase because of coalescence. Although it was previously reported that amorphous antimony films were semiconducting, from linear I(V) curves, a low temperature coefficient of resistance (10⁻⁴ K⁻¹) and no observable gate effect, it was found that the antimony cluster films in this study were not semiconducting, possibly due to the effect of coalescence. The development of the copper clusters for the interconnects application was very successful. Trenches of sub-200 nm widths, with different diffusion barriers and seed layers, and up to 5:1 aspect ratios have been completely filled with copper clusters. Due to the propensity for reflection of clusters from the planar surfaces between trenches, the process results in selective deposition into the trenches and bottom up filling is demonstrated. After annealing in hydrogen or in vacuum, the clusters sinter into a copper seed layer. The resistivity measured by a thin film four-point probe (1.6 - 2.3 × 10⁻⁸ Ωm) meets the requirement by industry (2.2 × 10⁻⁸ Ωm). The process is therefore promising for industrial application, but further testing and investigation of integration issues is required.