Dear Physics Community,

Today we were back at “work” – at home.  Up early and reading the New York Times to find a story on the MIT ventilator design that started 10 years ago as a student project, now with FDA approval.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Student work news – MIT has decided to make UROPs for credit an option for this summer (waiving tuition that is usually associated with course credit).  Also, seniors may be hired after graduation this summer and the Administration is working to make it administratively possible to have short term postdoc positions for those who defend their Ph.D.’s this Spring.

CP* – used to be CPW, was last week.  Very good turnout, 2,100 parents and students.  Lots of questions about what happens in the Fall, etc. that we cannot yet answer.  Early evidence is that yield will be higher this year than last.

Success coaches – well underway. 4,400 undergraduates and 1,110 graduate students have coaches.  Pretty good for a program that started as an idea about three weeks ago.

Discussions about the fall – have started.  There are three scenarios under consideration, depending on local circumstances:

1. Fully remote – no or few students in residence, all courses online
2. Some remote/some residential – what this means is not yet clear, but could be the case if visa problems prevent foreign students from entering the country.
3. Fully residential, with physical distancing.

Some interesting numbers: MIT has a total seating capacity of 13,000 in classrooms at any one time.  These classrooms have a total area of 260,000 sq. ft., so that is 20 sq. ft. at full capacity. If we require 6 feet between people at all times, each student has to be in the center of a 13′ x 13′ empty square, about 160 sq. ft.  Imposing this in classrooms lowers the capacity of 1,600 students.  To give you an idea, 10-250 would seat 15 students…

…we’ll have to see how this shakes out.

Physics Department

Graduate admissions – is largely complete.  It looks like the incoming graduate class next year will be 39-40 students, so it is a good year.

Summer UROPs – we are working on helping students connect for UROPs.  There will be a followup note from Cathy and Kimeee to the student who responded to the first message, so please respond quickly.

Los Endos

At times, I feel optimistic that we will take the things we learn from this time into our lives and things will change.  This poem, which appeared on my high school alumni page, gives me some hope.

And the people stayed home
And the people stayed home.
And read books, and listened, and rested,
and exercised, and made art, and played games,
and learned new ways of being, and were still.
And listened more deeply.
Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think differently. And the people healed.
And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways,
the earth began to heal. And when the danger passed,
and the people joined together again,
they grieved their losses, and made new choices,
and dreamed new images,
and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully,
as they had been healed.

– Kitty O’Meara, Irish March 2020

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here. Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.

Dear Physics Community,

Fineberg – writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Harvey Fineberg from Harvard explains what is needed to eradicate Sar-Cov-2.  Not easy, but doable.

Physics Department

John Conway – when I was young, the best was the math column in Scientific American by John Conway, who passed away this week.  Obit here.  He left behind a legacy of making match cool and interesting before almost anyone else.

LHC – is shut down right now but will come by with wicked intense beams.  Intense enough to make a detectable number of high energy neutrinos.  This paper considers what a detector and location in one of the more interesting things I have seen in a while.  Might be high energy enough to see the Glashow resonance.

Quantum networks – look more and more possible.  But why?

Los Endos

End of a much-needed break.  Tomorrow will again the contract between the banal and extreme that we have all be suffering.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

In the past week, there has been much discussion about how we re-open MIT and society at large.  This article from Science does a good job of laying out the issues and levers administrators and governments can pull.

There was no Academic Continuity Meeting today

Physics Department

Neutrino and anti-neutrinos work differently – has been shown by the T2K experiment in Japan at 95 % confidence level.  The paper is here.  There is a pretty good video explanation of the science here.

Ball lightning – a reported phenomenon in which a roughly 1-meter sphere of air ignites and remains glowing for several seconds.  I always thought the whole thing was b.s., despite a Physics Reports article on it. I just stumbled across a paper that claims to have measured the spectrum of ball lightning and shows the discharge is from elements found in the soil.  There is a Physics Focus article about the paper, with video.

Los Endos

I am now really intrigued by ball lightning.  Stay tuned.  Have a good holiday and stay safe.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

Today was a day of small challenges: mold in the clothes washer and flakey wireless in the house.  After reading this article Cathy sent, I did sit outside and listen for a while.  I’ve always found it remarkable how many sounds there are that I just tune out.

Physics Department

Physics Today – has a new Q&A with David Kaiser

Primordial Black Holes – I was going through references for an article today and found this paper by Hawking in which he considers black holes produced in the early universe.  I remember working through it when I first read it and learning a lot.

There is an industry of people, many scientists and not a few physicists, who spend time plotting data related to the current pandemic and prognosticating about what will happen.  Prediction based on statistics and modeling of this pandemic is very difficult and, as I have said before, hard to believe.  This article from the Atlantic is trying to make a point about statistical inference which I just found baffling.  Maybe someone can explain it to me.

Los Endos

I  wish everyone a good three day weekend.  I’m reacting to the sameness of the weekdays by trying to make the weekends special (succeeding about half the time).  I think tomorrow, I will get out my Marantz recorder and record the noises of Porter Square.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

Quiet today – no Academic Continuity Meetings until Tuesday and fewer zoom meetings than usual.

Physics Department

Donald Kuth – Who doesn’t love Tex for writing papers?  Simple, great-looking output, Turing complete.  Originally written by Donald Knuth to publish his own books on programming – masterpieces in their own right.  Quanta has his bio here.  If you can get away from zoom for a while, you could read his series, The Art of Computer Programming.

UROPs – the Department is working with faculty and undergraduates to create as many UROPs as we can.  They will be remote and MIT has produced a guide to help faculty learn how to make the most of remote UROP experiences.

Light-by-light scattering – after reading the ATLAS paper yesterday, I went and found the paper describing the first observation of the scattering of light by light.  The work was done by Robert Wilson, who later was founding Director of Fermilab.  The paper, here, is marvelous.  This could be a Junior Lab experiment.

Los Endos

This might have been the toughest week so far – living with lots of uncertainty, but having to make important decisions.  This three day weekend is most welcome.  Please enjoy it.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

MIT Activities Committee has a list of virtual activities here – thanks to Carol for pointing this out.

Physics Events

Odd-even staggering – The masses of isotopes of an element tend to stagger larger and smaller around an average value with increasing neutron number. Careful measurements of this effect can lead to a better understanding of nuclear structure and new physics.  Our new colleague Ronald Garcia Ruiz has a new paper out on a recent measurement.

Light-by-light scattering – in E&M, we teach superpsoition, which can be viewed as the notion that light does not interact with light.  Quantum mechanics tells us this is not quite true and photons can scatter off of each other, called Delbruck scattering.  If was surprised to learn this was observed three years ago at CERN.  A good writeup is here and the paper is here.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Commencement – We heard today a Virtual Commencement will take place on May 29. The schedule is

• 11 am – 12 pm – pre-commencement show with student productions
• 12 – 1 pm – Commencement with speeches from Pres. Reif, Chairman Millard, Prof. Dufolo (economist, 2019 Nobel Prize), and Adm. McRaven. Degrees will be conferred digitally, Corrallaries, ring-turn.
• 1 pm – 2 pm – production by the alumni association

Details to follow.

Remote instruction – Krishna has been arranging 5 minute presentations by faculty about how they are handling remote teaching.  These have been very interesting and today’s were excellent:

• Nicholas Monchaux – been at MIT for nine weeks, new head of Architecture.  He told use about architecture was about experiencing place and how to best bring that online.
• Polina Anikeeva (DMSE) – had produced high qualtiy videos of her lectures for 3.024 (which sounds like a great class) only to poll the students and find they prefered live “awkward” lectures. “They want to feel like the lecture is just for them – not the class of 2016, or 2024 – just for them.”  I think there is a great truth to this.
• Miroslav Kazakoff (Sloan) – broken down the “zoom experience” and showed some really interesting changes the make online more interesting and personal (black background, standing, …) Lectures are about “…not knowing what is going to happen in class.”

Really good – I hope Krishna finds a way of sharing these broadly.  They are very informative about what happens in a residential classroom, as well as remote.

Los Endos

Loosely speaking, a feature of particle physics is that matter interacts the same way as anti-matter.  Deviations from this have been observed in quark interactions.  A big question has been, “Do neutrinos interact the same way as anti-neutrinos?”  A nice Quanta article about how an experiment may be closing in on a hint of whether or not neutrinos and anti-neutrinos  are the same.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

Aside from being tax day, April 15 has a lot of other associations.

• RMS Titanic sinking in 1912.  The RMS Titanic had two sister ships – the Britannic and Olympic.  All met bad ends.
• Notre Dame de Paris burned just a year ago.  I was in Paris and saw it.
• Marathon Bombing in 2013.

Physics Community Events

Ryan and Christina have made a calendar for Department Events.  Here are instructions on how to get it.  Ryan also sends an email for each a few days before.

Physics Department

Sound waves in a strongly interacting fermion gas – Martin and Co. along with another group have measured sound waves in a deeply quantum mechanical system.

Event Horizon Telescope observed jets from a distant billion solar mass black hole.  Jets are the beaming of matter and radiation by an intense magnetic field around a compact object.

Many think the ecological disruption from climate change is exponential, like an epidemic.  We just lived through an exponential – everything was okay and then suddenly it wasn’t.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Most of the meeting focused on when and how the restart of research and teaching will happen.  There are two committees: one for 2020 and one for 2021.  From the discussion today, it is clear there have been no decisions made and the 2020 committee is working on when decisions will have to be made.

The research will start first because it is easier and can be earlier.  In the coming weeks, PIs will be asked to develop low-density operation options for their work.  Work may occur in shifts, those in labs will have to physically distance and wear PPE and there will be periodic PPE tests.

For residential education, I believe the lastest a decision can be made is July 1 for students to return in the Fall.  I think the decision will be earlier.  When and how the restart happens will also be determined by what the State and City do.

We will know much more in a week as the peak number of infections comes and goes, I hope.

Los Endos

I always wondered about the entomology of the word “byte“.

Dear Physics Community,

Walden, a game – various what-can-I-do-for-my-kids-during-the-shutdown articles have mentioned a game based on Walden by Thoreau.  I have always been surprised at the mileage he got out of his short economic treatise.  Still, in the game, you can walk around in the woods, unlike the real place nearby.

Physics Events

• Wednesday, April 15, 4-5 pm, Undergraduate Office Hour
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 4-5:50 pm – Colloquium – Mina Arvanitaki
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala and “Research Restart”, Peter Fisher
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Special Tuesday Lunch Talk Series

If you’d like to give one, contact Anna.

Physics Department

UROPs this summer – the situation is evolving: Cathy, Nergis, and I will meet tomorrow to make sure we are on the same page and you will hear something in the next day or two.

Freeman Dyson – passed away on Feb. 28, obit. in Quanta here.  His mind went everywhere.  My favorite papers: Eschatology (the end of the universe), a technical analysis of why using tactical nuclear weapons in Viet Nam would have been a bad idea, and a novel solution to the iterated prisoner’s dilemma problem.

Slack – if you are a member of the Physics Community and would like to be added to the Physics-MIT slack workspace, please email Christina.  It is what to cool young people using.

Academic Continuity Meating

Advisories:

• Thesis defense – you can request a nice room on campus for your thesis defense.

Los Endos

I had 7 hours of zoom meetings today.  Too much!

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

Reread Joan Didion essay from the 1970’s and found some resonance. I also looked at stuff here, which always brings a smile.

Physics Events

• Wednesday, April 15, 4-5 pm, Undergraduate Office Hour
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 4-5:50 pm – Colloquium – Mina Arvanitaki
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala and “Research Restart”, Peter Fisher
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Special Tuesday Lunch Talk Series

• Tuesday April 14, 12 pm noon, https://mit.zoom.us/j/632177654 BYOL
• Steven Silverberg – “Peter Pan” Disks: Long-lived Accretion Disks Around Young M Stars, and How Citizen Science Found Them
• Jinghui Liu “Vortices, space-time braids and loops in the membrane of a living cell”.

If you’d like to give one, contact Anna.

Physics Department

UROPs – the situation is evolving.  Cathy, Nergis and I will send a message later in the week.  The dates I gave were not right, but I believe there will be UROPs this summer. Stay tuned.  We can also talk about them in the Undergraduate Office Hours on Wednesday.

MC Escher – new exhibit in Trieste, Italy reminded me of the cool paper explaining the math behind his drawings.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Advisories

• Virtualizing Experiential Learning
• Letter from Prof. Reif

Medical support facility – open on campus in Johnson Ice Rink, place for members of the MIT community who have tested positive and need observation.  Not walk-in, need to be referred by a local hospital.  Observation and support only.  Burton-Conner serves this purpose for students.  EC used for healthy essential city personnel.

CP* – this coming weekend

Summer Travel: Different options under discussion probably essential research travel for graduate students only decided on a  case-by-case basis, decision probably this week. For faculty, a decision will be made May 15.

On-campus summer programs – no on-campus programs in June.  Options range from canceling everything to allowing MIT housing to be used.  Whether to cancel or not decided this week.  If not canceled, a decision about the use of housing for summer programs in May.

Los Endos

These days are tough – there is so much uncertainty, yet we have to go to classes, meetings, social events, all on zoom and act “normal”.  You can talk about how bad things are, but not too much and, at least for me, a lot of accumulated emotion gets stored up and has to be let out somewhere.

I don’t have good advice about what to do.  I read, run, cook with my family, do my job as well as I can most of the time.  I try to limit contact with problematic people and keep in touch with people I care about.  I try not to pretend that everything is or will be okay, without dwelling on what could happen (NB: Alain de Botton and the Stoics do not agree with this approach.)

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

A good Easter Sunday – warmish and quiet.

Physics Events

• Wednesday, April 15, 4-5 pm, Undergraduate Office Hour
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 4-5:50 pm – Colloquium – Mina Arvanitaki
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Special Tuesday Lunch Talk Series

• Tuesday April 14, 12 pm noon, https://mit.zoom.us/j/632177654 BYOL
• Steven Silverberg – “Peter Pan” Disks: Long-lived Accretion Disks Around Young M Stars, and How Citizen Science Found Them
• Jinghui Liu “Vortices, space-time braids and loops in the membrane of a living cell”.

If you’d like to give one, contact Anna.

Physics Department

I made a mess – the last two days, I wrote about UROP direct funding – the proposals are of course written by the students and approved by their proposed supverisors, what I wrote was incorrect.   Current UROP students: please get with your supervisors and write a proposal.  Supervisors: pleas reach out to your UROP students and encourage them to write a proposal.

We have heard there will be direct funding available and the deadline will be April 21.  This has not been announced as it is still not clear to what extent there will be campus access over the summer.  However, it does pay to be ready.  IN any event, UROP proposals will be needed for funding through PIs or the Department.

Anyons – Frank Wilczek invented the term because a pair of anyons can have any phase when interchanged, so they are continuously variable between fermions and bosons.  This paper claims to have actually observed them.  Is this a big deal?  You tell me.

Academic Continuity Meeting – canceled for Sunday

Los Endos

New cell phone – I cannot resist ordering one of these.