Wilcox, Walter M.Liu, Quan, 1986-2014-06-112017-04-072014-06-112017-04-072014-052014-06-11http://hdl.handle.net/2104/9079Two topics are discussed separately in this thesis. In the first part a semiclassical quark model, called the Thomas-Fermi quark model, is reviewed. After a modified approach to spin in the model is introduced, I present the calculation of the spectra of octet and decuplet baryons. The six-quark doubly strange H-dibaryon state is also investigated. In the second part, two numerical techniques which improve latice QCD calculations are covered. The first one, which we call Polynomial-Preconditioned GMRES-DR(PP-GMRESDR), is used to speed up the calculation of large systems of linear equations in LQCD. The second one, called the Polynomial-Subtraction method, is used to help reduce the noise variance of the calculations for disconnected loops in LQCD.en-USBaylor University theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact librarywebmaster@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.Thomas-Fermi quark model.PP-GMRESR algorithm.Polynomial subtraction method.ThesisWorldwide access