Bard Physics Professor Shuo Zhang Presents Research on Supermassive Black Hole at 2022 American Astronomical Society Press Conference
Bard College Assistant Professor of Physics Shuo Zhang has been invited by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to present her most recent research on how surrounding molecular gas clouds offer insight into the activity history of Sgr A*, the now inactive supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
Bard Physics Professor Shuo Zhang Presents Research on Supermassive Black Hole at 2022 American Astronomical Society Press Conference
Though inactive nowadays, traces of a glorious past of Sgr A* can be found in the surrounding molecular gas clouds, which reflect incoming X-ray emission from Sgr A* up to a few hundred years ago. Therefore, by studying X-ray emission from molecular clouds at different distances from Sgr A*, we can reconstruct the activity history of Sgr A* in the past few centuries. Shuo Zhang and her post-bac researcher Nathalie Jones ’21 have focused their study on a particular Galactic center molecular cloud, the “Bridge”. Their analysis on archival data by the NuSTAR telescope during 2012-2020, and the XMM-Newton telescope data during 2000-2020 clearly demonstrates an epic 20-year-long X-ray brightening of the “Bridge” molecular cloud, making it currently the brightest diffuse feature in the Sgr A* complex region. Continuous monitoring of this molecular cloud and capturing its peak luminosity will tell us how luminous Sgr A* used to be a couple dozen years ago, which is essential to understand the activity cycle of supermassive black holes. This project is supported by NASA NuSTAR Guest Observation grant #80NSSC20K0035.
“It is amazing to have these molecular gas clouds as storytellers of past activities of the monster black hole in the center of our Galaxy,” says Zhang.
About the Annual Conference of the American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America, with a membership of 7,700 individuals with research and educational interests in astronomical sciences. The 239th meeting is the 2022 winter annual American Astronomical Society conference, which brings together the International astronomer community and shares the most recent discoveries and results in astronomy. Though the major meeting was canceled due to COVID situation, the press conference will take place virtually as planned.
Post Date: 01-11-2022
Bard College Appoints Astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva to Tenure Track Faculty Position in Physics Program, Effective Spring 2022
Bard College is pleased to announce that Clara Sousa-Silva has been appointed to a tenure track faculty position in the Physics Program. Sousa-Silva will join the faculty of the College in spring 2022 as a full-time assistant professor of physics in the Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing. Sousa-Silva is a quantum astrochemist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. She investigates how molecules interact with light so that they can be detected on faraway worlds.Bard College Appoints Astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva to Tenure Track Faculty Position in Physics Program, Effective Spring 2022
About Clara Sousa-Silva
Clara Sousa-Silva spends most of her time studying molecules that life can produce so that, one day, she can detect an alien biosphere. Her favorite molecular biosignature is phosphine: a terrifying gas associated with mostly unpleasant life. When she is not deciphering exoplanet atmospheres, Sousa-Silva works hard to persuade the next generation of scientists to become an active part of the astronomical community.
Sousa-Silva holds a doctoral degree in quantum chemistry from the University College London, and a masters degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Among her many achievements, Sousa-Silva is the recipient of the prestigious 51 b Pegasi Fellowship from the Heising Simons Foundation. The fellowship supports the growing field of planetary astronomy and exceptional postdoctoral scientists who make unique contributions to the field of astronomy. Her work and commentary has been featured in the BBC, WIRED, and the New York Times, among many others. Prior to joining the Center for Astrophysics, Sousa-Silva served as a research scientist at MIT.
About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard’s campus consists of nearly 1,000 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; graduate degrees in 11 programs; eight early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 161-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.
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(8/31/21)Post Date: 08-30-2021
Bard Physicist Hal Haggard Coauthors New Study on Fast Spacetime Dynamics in Quantum Gravity
Dynamics has altered forever the once static arenas of space and time. Physicists have even measured spacetime deform and undulate as gravitational waves propagate away from colliding black holes. Regrettably, these dynamics have incompletely invaded the granular world of quantum gravity. In a new study, Haggard and colleagues use computer simulations to show that dynamical grains of space can be built up into a complete picture of a small but evolving quantum spacetime.Bard Physicist Hal Haggard Coauthors New Study on Fast Spacetime Dynamics in Quantum Gravity
Post Date: 12-06-2020
More Physics News
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Bard Physics Professor Shuo Zhang Discusses Her Research on Galactic Center Filaments at American Astronomical Society Press Conference
Bard Physics Professor Shuo Zhang Discusses Her Research on Galactic Center Filaments at American Astronomical Society Press Conference
Bard College Assistant Professor of Physics Shuo Zhang discussed her current research and participated in a press briefing Tuesday, June 2, at the 236th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. In her presentation, “Revealing the Powerful Particle Accelerator in the Galactic Center,” Zhang discussed her research exploring the nature and origin of one of the most striking phenomena in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, the existence of dozens of filamentary structures that can be as long as hundreds of light years. In a series of papers, Zhang and her research partners propose that the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center, Sagittarius A*, is the engine producing energetic particles that eventually light up these filaments in the X-ray and radio wave bands.
Zhang says the theory is supported by recent gamma-ray and radio observations. “Using observations recently obtained by the Chandra space telescope, we see evidence for new X-ray filaments,” says Zhang. “My next goal is to conduct a systematic multi-wavelength search for Galactic center filaments and use their spatial distribution and spectral information to further test our theory.”
The American Astronomical Society is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America, with a membership of 7,700 individuals with research and educational interests in astronomical sciences. The 236th meeting is the 2020 summer annual American Astronomical Society conference, which brings together the international astronomer community and shares the most recent discoveries and results in astronomy. For more information, visit aas.org.
Shuo Zhang, assistant professor of physics at Bard, is interested in observational high-energy astrophysics, including supermassive black hole accretion and feedback, origin of Galactic cosmic-rays and dark matter searches. She studies outburst histories of the supermassive massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy and nearby galaxies, in order to understand supermassive black hole activity cycle, particle acceleration mechanism and physics under strong gravitational field. Recently, she initiated an original particle astrophysics project on probing Galactic cosmic-ray particles at MeV through PeV energy scales suing innovative methods, aiming to understand the origin of Galactic cosmic-rays and to reveal power particle accelerators at the center of the Galaxy. Zhang served previously as a NASA Einstein Fellow at Boston University, and a postdoctoral scholar and Heising-Simons Fellow at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. In addition to her research, she is a referee for Nature, monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and a panel reviewer for NASA’s Astrophysics Data Analysis Project. She is also a member of several scientific collaborations, including Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, eXTP Space Telescope Observatory Science Working Group, Chandra/ACIS Instrument Team, and NuSTAR Space Telescope Science Team, among others. Her work has appeared frequently in Astrophysical Journal and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Zhang earned a BS degree from Tsinghua University and a PhD from Columbia University.
Post Date: 06-02-2020
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Bard Connects: Faculty and Staff Get Creative to Provide Protective Gear to Regional Health Workers
Bard Connects: Faculty and Staff Get Creative to Provide Protective Gear to Regional Health Workers
“Life in the era of COVID-19, as in all times of crisis, amplifies our basic instincts. Do we become anxious or confident, selfish or generous, rigid or adaptable? The same applies to institutions. And right now, at this moment of national and global crisis, Bard College is demonstrating who we are: student-focused, innovative, entrepreneurial, and civically engaged.” —Jonathan Becker, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College
A broad network of Bard faculty and staff—including Ivonne Santoyo-Orozco and Ross Exo Adams in the Bard Architecture and Design Program; Maggie Hazen and Melinda Solis in Studio Arts; IT’s Doug O’Connor, Hayden Sartoris, and Christopher Ahmed; and the Philosophy Program’s Katie Tabb—has come together to produce face shields for frontline health-care workers who are grappling with a nationwide shortage of protective gear.
3D-printed face shield components.
With two 3D printers loaned by Bard physicist Paul Cadden-Zimansky, Exo Adams and Santoyo-Orozco set up a makeshift lab in Tivoli to fabricate reusable face shields for health-care workers. When the lab is fully operational, they expect to produce up to 50 shields per week. Hazen and Solis have begun a production line as well, using 3D printers purchased with proceeds from a GoFundMe campaign established by MFA alumna Luba Drozd ’15 that has raised more than $20,000. A small batch of shields has already been distributed to Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, New York, and the group is now looking for more distribution options in the Hudson Valley. Deliveries of face shields are also scheduled for Albany Medical Center and, in Dover, New Jersey, Saint Clare’s Hospital, where a Bard student’s relative works and on whose behalf the student made a request. Anyone interested in distribution or in assisting with the project should contact Doug O’Connor (oconnor@bard.edu), who is centralizing the distribution efforts with the help of CCS Bard students.
And in Annandale, members of the Fisher Center’s Costume Shop—together with Audrey Smith from Buildings and Grounds, Rosalia Reifler from Environmental Services, and Saidee Brown from the President’s Office—have sewn nearly 200 face masks for the essential College employees who remain on campus.
To learn more about virtual engagement opportunities at Bard, visit Bard Connects.
Post Date: 04-12-2020
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Professor of Physics Hal Haggard and Colleagues Receive Buchalter Cosmology Prize for Black Hole Research
Professor of Physics Hal Haggard and Colleagues Receive Buchalter Cosmology Prize for Black Hole Research
Bard College Assistant Professor of Physics Hal Haggard and his fellow researchers were awarded a 2019 Buchalter Cosmology Prize at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 6. The annual prize series, created by Dr. Ari Buchalter in 2014, seeks to reward new ideas or discoveries that have the potential to produce a breakthrough advance in our understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe. Professor Haggard and his colleagues were recognized for research testing the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of black holes.
The $5,000 Second Prize was awarded to Professor Haggard, of Bard College and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and colleagues from the Pennsylvania State University: Eugenio Bianchi, Anuradha Gupta, and B. S. Sathyaprakash (also of Cardiff University). The judging panel recognized their paper, “Quantum Gravity and Black Hole Spin in Gravitational Wave Observations: a Test of the Bekenstein-Hawking Entropy,” as “a remarkable test of the thermodynamic character of black holes, predicting the spin characteristics of an initial primordial population of black holes that thermalize in the early universe, and which could be detectable by current and near-future gravitational wave detectors.”
Haggard’s work is part of an ongoing scientific revolution in the study of black holes. Last year, scientists captured the first direct image of a black hole, less than four years after measuring, for the first time, the gravitational waves created by the collision of two black holes circling one another at nearly light speed. These waves directly oscillate space and time. Contrary to initial expectations, pairs of black holes crashing into each other give rise to most of the gravitational waves we can currently measure. Advanced facilities like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) are now observing and measuring black hole collisions about once a week.
Previously, scientists only knew about two main types of black holes: X-ray binary systems, which often contain one active star and a black hole, in the range of five to 15 times the mass of our sun, that “siphons off” mass from the donor star; and supermassive black holes, a class that includes the black hole imaged in 2019, which measures about 6.5 billion solar masses.
Prior to LIGO, physicists did not expect that the main class of binary collisions measured would be of two black holes, or that those black holes would have masses in the range of 20 to 80 solar masses. Most surprising of all, it now appears possible that most of the black holes measured through gravitational waves aren’t spinning at all before they collide. Scientists had thought that the majority of black holes were formed in the gravitational collapse of a rotating star.
Haggard and his colleagues’ paper shows that black holes formed in a different way, as part of the hot primordial soup of the early universe, could naturally have zero spin. The authors also find that these black holes would be expected to have masses of 10 to 100 times the mass of our sun. Their arguments are based on understanding how entropy and temperature determine the physical characteristics of a black hole, for example its spin.
“I’m delighted about this paper because it brings together so many of the strands of my work,” says Haggard. “Gravitational wave measurements are an exciting probe of the rich interplay between gravitational thermodynamics, black holes, and the early history of the cosmos. It is a rare point of contact between the ideas that go into a quantum theory of gravity, like black hole entropy, and experimental observations that are happening right now.”
The $10,000 First Prize was awarded to Jahed Abedi and Niayesh Afshordi for their work entitled “Echoes from the Abyss: A Highly Spinning Black Hole Remnant for the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817.” The $2,500 Third Prize was awarded to José Beltrán Jiménez of Universidad de Salamanca and colleagues for their work entitled “The Geometrical Trinity of Gravity.”
Dr. Buchalter, a former astrophysicist turned business entrepreneur, established the prize series in the belief that significant breakthroughs in the field of cosmology still lie ahead but might require challenging and breaking with accepted paradigms. “The 2019 prizewinners represent bold thinking that can help open up new frontiers in our understanding of physics and of the universe,” said Dr. Buchalter. The judging panel for the annual prizes is made up of leading theoretical physicists noted for their work in cosmology. The 2019 panel included Justin Khoury and Mark Trodden of the University of Pennsylvania and Lee Smolin of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Learn more at buchwaltercosmologyprize.org.
Post Date: 01-21-2020
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Underwater Laser Slicing of the World’s Thinnest Material
Underwater Laser Slicing of the World’s Thinnest Material
Bard Faculty and Students in Chemistry and Physics Collaborate on Newly Published Research
In recent years, scientists have developed a new set of techniques to thin down certain materials into sheets that are only a few atoms thick—the most famous example being graphene, a one-atom thin layer of graphite that holds the title of world’s thinnest material. Graphene and its thin cousins hold promise both for being implemented in new technology and in helping physicists understand the quantum properties of materials. In making prototype devices from them, researchers often need to shape these sheets into particular patterns with features measured in nanometers.
Noting that conventional methods for doing this require multistep processes that can damage the materials, Ethan Richman ’20 led a team of undergraduates working in the labs of Bard Chemistry Professor Chris LaFratta and Physics Professor Paul Cadden-Zimansky to pioneer a potentially cleaner and faster way of slicing graphene at the nanoscale by using a high-powered laser beam focused into a microscope. While a handful of other research groups around the world have tried using lasers for graphene slicing, the Bard researchers noticed that laser cuts in air can damage the graphene at the atomic level. Taking a cue from techniques used in industrial laser cutting, Richman tried modifying the cutting technique by submerging the graphene in water and found this improved both the quality and efficiency of the cutting. Their results are published in Optics Materials Express, with Cadden-Zimansky, LaFratta, and eight student collaborators as coauthors.
Post Date: 09-03-2019
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Bard Hosts Quantum Gravity Summer School for Students and Scholars from U.S. and Abroad
Bard Hosts Quantum Gravity Summer School for Students and Scholars from U.S. and Abroad
With Public Lecture “What Is Time?” by Carlo Rovelli, World-Renowned Scientist and Best-Selling Author, on Thursday, June 13
The Bard Summer School on Quantum Gravity takes place from June 9 to June 16. Fifty-two students from more than 20 countries will participate, plus Bard College students on campus for the Summer Research Institute. This program for undergraduate and graduate students features canonical and covariant approaches to quantum gravity and quantum cosmology. One unique feature of the program is an afternoon computing lab in which students learn a computational technique in cosmology or one in quantum gravity from scratch.
The Bard Summer School on Quantum Gravity provides free tuition and housing on the Bard College campus. The school received generous support from the Center for Gravitation and the Cosmos at Pennsylvania State University; the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics; the University of Waterloo; the Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing at Bard College; the Dean of Bard College; and the Bard Physics Program.
The eight faculty members are scholars at the top of their fields: Ivan Agullo, Louisiana State University; Boris Bolliet, Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics, The University of Manchester; Pietro Doná, Pennsylvania State University; Edward Wilson-Ewing, University of New Brunswick; Maïté Dupuis, University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics; Laurent Freidel, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics; Carlo Rovelli, Centre de Physique Théorique, Aix-Marseille Université and Université de Toulon; and Sebastian Steinhaus, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
Students in the Quantum Gravity Summer School at Bard College.
Carlo Rovelli, world-renowned scientist and best-selling author, will give a public lecture, “What Is Time?,” in Olin Hall on Thursday, June 13, at 7:00 p.m. as part of the weeklong program. Rovelli is a member of the faculty at Centre de Physique Théorique de Aix-Marseille Université et Université de Toulon, France. Rovelli writes of his upcoming lecture:Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored its meaning while scientists have found that its structure is different from the simple intuition we have of it. From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at a different speed in different places, the past and the future differ far less than we might think, and the very notion of the present evaporates in the vast universe.
The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Reserve a seat by emailing Hal Haggard (hhaggard@bard.edu). Doors open at 6:30 p.m. This event is sponsored by the Physics Program.
Jim Bardeen, Hal Haggard, and Carlo Rovelli, faculty members in the Bard Summer School on Quantum Gravity, weigh in on “White Holes: Black Holes’ Neglected Twins,” in Space.
— Further Reading —
Post Date: 06-09-2019
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Bard Alum, Physics PhD Candidate Ingrid Stolt ’15 on the Magic of Magnets
Bard Alum, Physics PhD Candidate Ingrid Stolt ’15 on the Magic of Magnets
At age seven, Bard alum Ingrid Stolt ’15 fell in love with the magnets on her parents’ refrigerator: “I used to pretend that one magnet was a magic wand that was causing the other to move back and forth and rotate through supernatural powers. Magnetism seemed magical because it was so mysterious, yet I wanted to understand how it worked.” Today, she's a fourth-year doctoral student in physics, helping to develop practical uses for superconductivity at Northwestern's Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory.
Post Date: 02-28-2019
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