institute for gravitation and the cosmos internal advisory ... · • mission statement: the...

IGC Internal Advisory Board 5Dec16

Institute for Gravitation and the CosmosInternal Advisory Board Meeting

December 5, 20163:45 p.m. in 517 Thomas Building

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Proposed Agenda:

1. Brief Overview (Ashtekar)

2. New Faculty Appointments: a. Carmen Carmona (Cowen) b. Luiz de Viveiros (Cowen) c. B.S. Sathyaprakash (Ashtekar)

3. Report of Activities: Fall 2015 - Fall 2016 New Initiatives, Honors, Highlights of Discoveries, Workshops and Outreach (Gunaydin, Schneider, Cowen, Ashtekar)

4. Request for Advice: Enhancing synergy with Mathematics, Cyberscience infrastructure, Development

5. Any Other Business


Overview

• MissionStatement:TheInstituteforGravitationandtheCosmos(IGC)is a multidisciplinary institute of Penn State researchers dedicated to the study of the most fundamental structure and constituents of the Universe.

• CurrentComposition:IGChasthreeCenters:CenterforFundamentalTheory(CFT),CenterforParticleandGravitationalAstrophysics(CPGA)andCenterforTheoreticalandObservationalCosmology(CTOC).

Currently,IGChas31facultymembersinresidenceatPennState,1researchassociate,18post-docs,43graduatestudentsanda(variable)smallernumberofundergraduatesfromdepartmentsofAstronomyandAstrophysics,Mathematics,PhilosophyandPhysics.Sixofourcurrentfacultyarefromunder-representedgroups.Inaddition,facultyfromtheStatisticsdepartmentandISThavecollaboratedcloselyondifferentaspectsoftheAMONproject.TheIGChasoneadministrativeassistant.(Distribution:faculty:15inPhysics;12inA&A,3inMathematics;1inPhilosophy;1RA:A&A).

AbhayAshtekaristheDirectorofIGC;DougCowen,theAssociateDirector.PeterMeszarosisDirectorofCPGA;DonaldSchneider,ofCTOC;andMuratGunaydin,ofCFT.

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Highlights• The LIGO collaboration detected gravitational waves. In each of the

two detections, the waves were produced by binary black hole mergers. Chad Hanna’s team played a seminal role, especially in the second detection. To quote David Reitze, the LIGO Lab Director, “Chad’s group was right in the heart of LIGO’s second detection. The analysis codes [they] developed … identified the gravitational wave within a few minutes after it was detected by the LIGO interferometers. This ability … is the key to one of LIGO’s primary science goals in the future -- joint observations of high-energy astrophysical phenomena with LIGO and electromagnetic telescopes.”

• Inter-disciplinary activities that could not have been possible without IGC: Examples

• Astrophysical Multi-messenger Observatories Network (AMON)

• Philosophy and cosmology (Emily Groshholz)

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• Honors: Examples• Niel Brandt: Bruno Rossi Prize (High Energy Division of AAS)

• Ivan Agullo (former IGC post-doc): The IUPAP Gold Medal for Gravitational physics

• Sylvia Biscoveanu (IGC undergraduate): The Goldwater Scholarship

• Outreach: Examples • Miguel Mostafa’s TEDx Talk: Catching the fastest particles in the

Universe; 2016 (~1K hits)

• 43 minute Video: Before the Big Bang - Loop Cosmology Explained (> 129K hits) (Abhay Ashtekar & Ivan Agullo)

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Proposed New Members

• Carmen Carmona• Starting as Asst. Prof. winter 2017

• Research area: Direct Dark Matter Detection

• LUX and LZ liquid xenon detectors

• Led assembly, deployment and commissioning of LUX underground; was collaborator with most time spent on-site (4850’ underground at SURF in Lead, SD)

• LZ will start data-taking in 2018 and will have world-leading sensitivity to dark matter, reaching a fundamental limit (from neutrinos) with ~3 years of data

• Carmen will pursue detector development, with emphasis on improving LZ’s critical background veto system

• She will continue leading analysis effort for dark matter

• Direct dark matter detection has long been an area of interest for IGC and the Physics Department

• Fits in very well, complementing ongoing IGC efforts in particle astrophysics, fundamental theory, cosmology and high energy astrophysics

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• Luiz de Vivieros• Starting as Asst. Prof. winter 2017

• Research area: Neutrino Mass and Direct Dark Matter Detection

• Project 8: Neutrino Mass

• Cutting-edge project to measure mass of electron neutrino using new technique, Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy. Aim: < 50 meV.

• Leading electronics and data acquisition efforts, signal reconstruction, data analysis

• LZ: Direct Dark Matter Detection

• Rejoined in 2016, taking on tasks complementary to Carmen’s

• Focus on PMT characterization, detector commissioning

• Neutrino mass also fits in very well with ongoing IGC efforts in particle astrophysics (mass ordering, neutrino oscillations with IceCube), fundamental theory, cosmology



• B. S. Sathyaprakash• Bert Elsbach Professor of Physics (Since August 2016)

• Research area: Gravitational Wave Science (General Relativity, Astrophysics and Cosmology)

• Joined us from Cardiff where he headed the preeminent group in this field in UK. ~210 refereed publications; h-index 73.

• Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society, London; Institute of Physics, UK

• Leadership positions: Chair, Gravitation section, Institute of Physics, UK; Member, Executive Committee, International Society on General Relativity & Gravitation; Member, Gravitational Wave International Committee; Advisory Board, KAGRA (Japanese LIGO); Chair, Einstein Telescope Scientific Potential Working Group; VIRGO Science & Technology Advisory Committee; Numerous LQC committees; …

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Report: Center for Fundamental Theory

Murat Gunaydin (Physics)Director, CFT


CFT Activities

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• Discoveries/Papers to be highlighted: • M. Chiodaroli, M. Gunaydin, H. Johansson and R. Roiban. “Complete

construction of magical, symmetric and homogeneous N=2 supergravities as double copies of gauge theories,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 117 no. 1, 011603 (2016)

• A. Ashtekar, B. Bonga and A. Kesavan. “Gravitational waves from isolated systems: Surprising consequences of a positive cosmological constant,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, no. 5, 051101 (2016).

• M. Bojowald, S. Brahma and U. Buyukcam. “Testing non-associative quantum mechanics,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 220402 (2015).

• Grosholz, E. R. Starry Reckoning: Reference and Analysis in Mathematics and Cosmology, Springer Publishers (2016).


CFT Activities

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• Honors• Abhay Ashtekar was elected to the National

Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the International Society of GRG.

• Abhay Ashtekar: Editor in Chief of Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, and GeneralRelativity and Gravitation.

• Editorial Board of Scholarpedia

• Editor in Chief for the Series of Monographs: 100 Years of General Relativity

• Distinguished Visiting Research Chair, Perimeter Institute, Canada

• Presented Plenary lecture: 102nd Indian Science Congress, Bombay

• Indian Academy of Sciences Lecture, Bangalore


CFT Activities

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• Honors• Emily Grosholz was appointed to a named

professorship. She is now the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy, English and African American Studies

• Eugenio Bianchi:

• Appointed a visiting fellow at the Perimeter Institute in Canada.

• Appointed to Editorial Board, Classicaland Quantum Gravity


CFT Activities

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• Honors: Students• Aruna Kesavan won an Eklund prize; Kesavan held the

Frymoyer Fellowship (Ashtekar)

• Beatrice Bonga won the prize for the best student presentation at the 20th tri-annual General Relativity and Gravitation International conference; Bonga held the Mebus Fellowship (Ashtekar)


CFT Activities

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•Conferences• Higher Spin Theories, August 27-29, 2015

•Outreach• Ashtekar: Plenary lecture at the Gordon Conference

on Research and Education in General Relativity

• IGC postdocs and graduate students started a blog - http://www.igcscience.org/

http://www.igcscience.org/

Report: Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology

Donald Schneider (Astronomy and Astrophysics) Director, CTOC


CTOC Activities

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• Discoveries/Papers: highlights • CTOC scientists - published 339 papers in peer-reviewed journals, which have produced 15,466

citations (45.6 citations per paper). http://personal.psu.edu/dps7/ctocpapers.html Science Highlights include:

• CMB Stage 4 Science Book (arXiv: 1610.02743) (Shandera)

• Deepest ever images of the x-ray universe (Brandt)

• Analysis of entire data set of the SDSS-III BOSS, strongly confirming the standard cosmological model (Shandera & Schneider)

• Groundwork for HETDEX that will measure the expansion history of the universe before the dark energy started to dominate (Ciardullo, Gronwall, Jeong, Schneider)

• Using SDSS data to identify and monitor galaxies that have a massive black hole binary in their center; and understanding the fascinating “changing look quasars” (Eracleous)

• Monitoring hundreds of SDSS quasars to determine accretion disk size (Brandt & Schneider)

http://personal.psu.edu/dps7/ctocpapers.html

http://arXiv.org/abs/arXiv:1610.02743


CTOC Activities

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• Honors

• Prof. Niel Brandt:

• 2016 Bruno Rossi Prize

• Elected to AAS HEAD Executive Committee

• Appointed by NASA to X-ray Surveyor Science and Technology Definition Team

• Prof. Sarah Shandera is a Perimeter Institute visiting fellow (January 2016-December 2017).


CTOC Activities

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• Former postdocs: Nishant Agarwal - Faculty at UMass Lowell Bin Luo - Faculty at Nanjing University; Jon Trump - Faculty at University of Connecticut Greg Zeimann - University of Texas

• Workshops/Conferences

• 4th Neighborhood Workshop on Astrophysics and Cosmology (March 31/April 1); approximately 70 scientists attended, with a strong contingent of young researchers (grad students and postdocs)


CTOC Activities

• Brandt (lead instructor) - http://sites.psu.edu/piswa/cosmology-workshop-2016; Sarah Shandera contributed lecture

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OUTREACH

http://sites.psu.edu/piswa/cosmology-workshop-2016



Report: Center for Particle and GravitationalAstrophysics

Doug Cowen (Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics)Associate Director, IGC


CPGA Activities•Highlights and Discoveries

• LIGO:

• Gravitational Waves (Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 241103. 15 June 2016)

• Auger:

• Test of hadronic interactions at ultrahigh energies (Editor’s highlight, PRL 117, 192001, 1-9 (2016))

• AugerPrime (CERN Courier, 56, 29-31 (2016))

• Individuals:

• J. DeLaunay, D. Fox, et al.: Discovery of transient γ-ray counterpart to FRB (ApJ Lett. 832 (2016), in Nature News, Penn State News, and over a dozen other media outlets internationally)

• K. Murase et al.: Hidden cosmic ray accelerators... (PRL 116, 071101 (2016))

• Murase, Meszaros, Fox: Fast Radio Bursts... (arXiv:1611.03848)

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CPGA Activities• Workshops and Conferences

• MACROS Workshop, June 20-22, 2016

• PAX Workshop Dec 1-3 at Penn State

• AMON mini-workshops

• Penn State (following PAX)

• Cochem, Germany (following HAP workshop) Dec 10

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Organizers: Azadeh Keivani & Gordana Tesic


CPGA Activities• Honors:

• Profs. Stephane Coutu & Miguel Mostafa: Fellows of APS

• Asst. Prof. Chad Hanna: Freed Early Career Professorship, Kaufman New Investigator Award, Special Breakthrough Prize and Gruber Cosmology Prize (with LIGO)

• Asst. Prof. Kohta Murase: 2015 Young Scientist Award (Physical Society of Japan), 2015 Incentive Award of Cosmic Ray Physics (CRRC, Japan), Adjunct

• Miguel Mostafa: C.I. Noll Excellence in Teaching Award

• Prof. Doug Cowen: 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (with SNO Collaboration)

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CPGA Activities• Honors: Students and Postdocs

• Ugrad Sylvia Biscoveanu: Goldwater and Astronaut fellowships

• Ugrad Stephanie Brown: Erickson Discovery Grant

• Grad Alan Coleman: Helmholtz Alliance internship and Chateaubriand Fellow

• Grad Kelly Malone: DoE SCGSR fellowship

• Grads/Ugrads Cody Messick, Sydney Chamberlin, Duncan Meacher: Special Breakthrough Prize, Gruber Cosmology Prize (with LIGO)

• Postdoc Philipp Eller: Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship; IGC Postdoctoral Fellowship

• Postdoc Gordana Tesic: 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (with SNO Collaboration)

• Postdoc Foteini Oikonomou: IGC Postdoctoral Fellowship

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CPGA Activities• New Initiatives

• Asst. Prof. Yuexing Li (PI) and Cowen (co-PI) and others: $1.3M NSF MRI for high performance compute cluster

• Cowen (co-PI): IceCube Gen2 Phase 1 ($25M proposal submitted to NSF mid-scale program)

• Falcone (PI): $1.3M NASA grant to develop new hybrid CMOS X-ray detectors for future NASA

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CPGA Activities• Outreach

• Astrofest (Coutu): Cosmic ray displays

• Gravitational Wave Summer Camp (Hanna)

• TEDx talk at PSU (Mostafa): Catching fastest particles in the Universe

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CPGA Activities: AMON•Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON) (Mostafa, Fox, Sathyaprakash, Cowen)

• Two new papers (FRB; “Search for Blazar...” arXiv:1608.08983)

• Tighter integration with IceCube (transmitted five alerts publicly, two had real-time Swift followup)

• Swift followup leverages postdoc Keivani’s Swift Guest Investigator Grant (with Cowen)

• Growing network to include more followup observatories, LIGO, others

• Currently: 3 triggering observatories, ~20 followup observatories

• Applied to NSF for renewal grant this fall

• New NSF emphasis on multimessenger astrophysics makes us cautiously optimistic for successful renewal

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IGC: Initiatives

• IGC Post-doctoral Scholars: Provides $5K research supplement to up to 2 post-docs per Center per year. Have enabled us to attract high quality post-docs.

• Sabbatical Visitor hosted by 2 or more IGC faculty to promote cross-fertilization; Typically $5K/visitor. (Typically used once in 2-3 years; 2016-17: a gravitational wave expert visiting Hanna and Sathyaprakash.)

• Student/post-doc group travel to conferences

• Partial post-doc support for junior faculty (Typically partial support for a post-doc hired by 2 or more faculty; proposals have to be recommended by the Committee of Directors)

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• Enhancing Synergy with Mathematics Department

• Cyberscience Issues (Gravitational Waves Initiative: Infrastructure for Megadata)

• Development efforts (Presentation to the ECoS Board. Articles in the ECoS Magazine. Next step?)

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Request for Advice

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