Dear Physics Community,

A tough week, but we are moving forward.

Here’s the word: we have been asked to submit our scheduled classes by July 7 and I have heard students will have until July 13 to pre-register.  This to me implies that we will know who is coming back for Fall by July 7, possibly earlier.

The Department has been working with SPS and PGSC to develop plans for combating racism and improving the climate.  Look for a new website in the next week.  In the meantime, Dan Kleppner suggests supporting black physicists by joining NSBP.  The ICEO is also hosting a reading group about Fredrick Douglass here.

Advisories

• Note from Maria Zuber about RAS hours over July 4
• Thesis submission guidelines for September 2020 degrees
• Immigration update
• Graduate return for graduate students here
• Note on remote appointments

Physics Department

• Community lunch talk, Thursday, 12-1:30 pm
• Graduate and undergraduate office hours, Wednesday, 4-5 pm
• New teaching tools: Canvas and Light Board here
• Science of COVID-19 from Pemo Hosoi here
• We call have dead AA and AAA batteries around, but it is hard to tell the good ones from the bad ones.  Here is a test to see which is which without a DVM.
• Never thought I’d see it category –  top quark production in heavy-ion collisions.
• The next collider – CERN puts a stake in the ground.

Have a good weekend.

Peter

Dear Wanderers,

We are slowly, grudgingly restarting MIT.  Every system we had has to be rethought and reconsidered.  A good time to do things better and more fairly, but still with huge uncertainties.  Meanwhile, we all wait to see what happens.  A good moment for mentors to reach out and friends to connect and see how each other are doing.  Once the word comes down, a lot will happen fast.  We are living history.

Physics

• New black hole merger – a 23 solar mass merged with a 2.6 solar mass.  LIGO/Virgo saw it right away..  Deepto and Kirshna are excited.
• The fundamental beat of the universe – theoretical results on the fundamental upper limit to the period of an oscillator.
• Blackhole merger – who cares?  LIGO/Viro sees these all the time.  but this one happened inside the accretion disk of a quasar.

Los Endos

The Lechmere T Station is going and they are pulling down the ramp from the viaduct down into the station and will replace it with a ramp into the new North Point Station on the other side of Rt. 28.  The history of the viaduct, with pictures, is here.

Was going to write out Invictus here, but jut not into it.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

We now know something about how the Fall will look like (Pres. Reif’s letter here).  While the picture is far from complete, the Department will begin planning Fall instruction in the coming weeks.  I expect our course offerings to be similar to what we planned in February/March and I will keep everyone posted of any upcoming major decisions.

I have split my messages into two streams: weekly Departmental communications and a stream for my personal Wanderings.  My latest Wanderings post is here and you can subscribe to an email for each post on the right side of that page.

Advisories and Announcements

• Message about the status of the research ramp-up and a new committee
• Juneteenth message from Pres. Reif, a good day to read about MIT and slavery
• Letter from OVC about support for graduate students
• Update from MIT Medical
• Summer making from OVC
• Letter from Pres. Reif on recent Supreme Court rulings.

Department News and Events

• The Heising-Simons Foundation has supported several of our factulty’s research and has just released a new film about racism and gender bias in science called “Picture a Scientist”, here. It costs $10.  There is also the possibility to host an institutional screening.  Please let me know if you are interested in hosting a screening in partnership with the Department.  Reviews are here and here.
• Fast Radio Bursts in MIT News
• COVID-19 Math – white paper on testing from Peko Hosoi
• Student office hours, Wednesday, 4-5 pm, Zoom address TBD
• Community lunch, Thursday, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm, George Elbaum, Zoom: https://mit.zoom.us/s/93326709025
• Claude M. Steele: The Science of Diverse Communities, Wednesday, June 24, 2020
  4-5 pm ET, registration info here

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

The weekly message comes at the end of a momentous week.  I participated in and heard tell of many stories, suggestions, and observations from the Strike last Wednesday.  All the Divisions and Labs had their sessions, and I am still hearing from them.  The Department will communicate back to the Physics Community through this message when we late this week of next.  There is much to do.  We will continue to engage, starting with Student Office Hours this Wednesday.  I’d also like to thank Dan Harlow and Tracy Slatyer for their roles in nucleating the Strike.

The research ramp-up starts Monday.  If you were put by your PI or supervisor on the access list should have received email instructions from the Administrative Officer of their Laboratory or Center.  If you did not, let your supervisor know.  If you still have problems, let me know.  The ramp-up is quite complicated and may go slowly or be confusing at the start.  All I can say is, please be patient.

Announcements and advisories

• Stellar stinks!  Canvas rules.
• Research Ramp-up phase 1 here
• Exceptions to the remap-up plans, here
• From the OVC, international students, here
• SoS Quality fo Life grants call for proposals
• Team 2020 report on restart options for Fall
• A moment of moral urgency

Commencement

• Grad celebration, thanks, Syd!
• Senior celebration, thanks, Emma!

Strike

• The 5 min thing that all white people should watch.
• The other most useful thing to watch, Intuitively Obvious
• My statement on Thursday lunch

Department Events next June 14-20, 2020

• Student office hours (Peter, Cathy, Nergis, Syd, Emma) – 4-5 pm Wednesday
• Community Lunch, “Avoiding COVID-19: A Qualitative Approach”, Rob Simcoe and Matt Evans, Thursday, 12-1:30 pm.

Peter

PS I apologize for being late with the message.  They should go on Friday, but I will still getting my thoughts together through the weekend.

• MIT Kavli Institute (Scott Hughes, Rob Simcoe) – ), 1:00 – 2:30 pm, zoom link, password 835025.
• The ABCP Division will hold a Zoom event from 10:00-11:00 am – a zoom link will go out later today.
• Physics Department open office hour for all grad and undergrad students (Peter Fisher, Nergis Mavalvala, Syd Miller, Emma Dunn, Cathy Modica) – 4 – 5 pm – zoom link, password: 349406 (Note to Students: please see Cathy’s message.)

Other events are being planned and will be announced later today by email.

(*) Non-Black People of Color

Strike – I will participate in the  Particles for Justice strike next Wednesday.  I am an administrator and I will not participate in any zoom meetings and spend the day educating myself from the resources here, write the MIT Administration, and offering comfort to those that I think need it.

Dear Physics Community,

Apologies for the resend – I am still working out how to sort between Departmental and personal.

Advisories

• Pres. Reif’s message about the vigil on Tuesday
• Results from Student Remote Experience Survey
• Upcoming TLL summer programming
• Process for Requesting an Exception to Phase 1 Research Ramp Up
• Tips for Difficult Conversations – COID-19 edition

MIT’s Response to Presidental Proclamation

The proclamation is here.  I was in contact with Dan Goldston of our Washinton Office and the following are from notes he sent.

• Through the higher ed assns., MIT is working to try to influence State Dept. decision-making and to make sure Congress is aware of how big a threat Friday’s Trump Proclama1on represents (and how untargeted it may be). MIT has also itself reached out to several key Cong’l offices about the Proclamation.

• MIT and the higher ed assns. are working constantly (literally) to counter proposals to unduly limit interac1ons with China and especially to counter proposals aimed at Chinese students. We have pointed out, to some effect, that there is liable evidence that Chinese students play a significant role in any ques1onable Chinese ac1vi1es, but they contribute a huge amount to the U.S., and the vast majority of them stay here. So going after students, has minimal impact on constraining China and maximum negative impact on us.

• The industry will have more impact on this debate than universi1es, and the higher ed assns. are working with industry groups and have put out some joint statements.

• The higher ed assns. worked with the Hill to get a letter from a number of House Republicans in support of the OPT program – the next likely victim of Administration policy, though the latest rumors indicate that the limits may be less. Draconian than originally feared.

Building Awareness about Racism

The events since the murder of George Floyd call for the building of awareness about racism.  Here are some resources:

• Anit-racist resources for white people – Thanks Pablo
• Particles for Justice Strike.  To see who I am striking, go here. Thanks Dan and Tracy!
• “These Truths” by Jill Lepore
• Goldwater Scholars Call for Action and Resource list.  Thank you, Megan!

Stay safe,

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

As I mentioned last week, I’m moving to a weekly message to the community.  I want to keep a separation between my personal communications and Departmental business.  The departmental business will go out to the community mailing list and my more personal communications will go on my blog roll at fisherfiles.com.

Academic Continuity Meeting

MIT COVID-19 Response – many people visit the MIT campus and this explains the policies around the different visits

Best version  – of two-semester option for the fall

Feedback  – to the 2020 team from the charettes here.

Status – of summer programs and sponsored travel here

Physics Department

Physics Community Lunch – tomorrow 12 – 1 pm.  We will resume our weekly lunches open to all.  Or Hen and I will handle the organization.  If your would like to give a presentation or make a suggestion, please let me know.  Look for a note from Ryan with the zoom link.

Conferences – in the time of COVID-19.

Los Endos

Thank you all for the comments, both positive and negative, about the daily message.  I learned a lot about the Department doing this.

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

To the memory of George Floyd, murdered on May 25, 2020, by four police officers in Minneapolis. MIT’s Vigil for George Floyd here.

Academic Continuity Meeting (Monday)

Advisories

• Use of common space during re-opening
• Major Immigration update from ISO – what we know about the Administrations’ shocking order from late last week.  I will find out what MIT is doing and report back.

Quiet room reservation – available during the summer.  Details here.

Campus space – “Office Hours” with Krystyn team about access to buildings. modifications for distancing, etc. here.

Two-semester options for Fall – some details about plans here. The presentation was followed by a wandering discussion.

Physics Department

Neutron star – finding the neutron star equation of state (EOS) has been a long quest.  A new paper indicates that the center of a neutron star weighing more than 1.4 solar masses could be purely quarks.  Stay tuned…

Unruh radiation – is the idea that an accelerating body has a black body temperature and radiates a black body spectrum.  There is a nice derivation here. I keep coming back to this paper about how you might see it at a storage ring, but can never quite get there.

Los Endos

What we need now: Monet.

Peter