Internal Advisory Board Meeting

INSTITUTE FOR GRAVITATION AND THE COSMOS

INTERNAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING

DECEMBER 13, 2019 3:15 PM IN 519 THOMAS BUILDING

Report prepared by: Abhay Ashtekar, B.S. Sathyaprakash, Murat Gunaydin, Peter Meszaros, Donald Schneider and Miguel Mostafa (for AMON) PROPOSED AGENDA 1. Brief Overview (Abhay and Sathya) 2. Reports on Activities since September 2017 Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology (Don) Center for Particle and Gravitational Astrophysics and AMON (Sathya and Miguel) Center for Fundamental Theory (Abhay) 3. Request to add New Faculty (Sathya) Viktoriya Giryanskaya (Morozova) David Radice 4. Request for Advice from the Board (Abhay, Don and Sathya) Changing the name of CPGA Changes to the Internal Advisory Board New opportunities and the associated challenges Enhancing interaction with the Mathematics Department 5. Any Other Business

2 NEWS HIGHLIGHTS SINCE SEPTEMBER 2017 IGC@25

T HE MULTI-MESSENGER UNIVERSE

Celebrating 25 years of science with the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos

24 – 27 June 2019 • Penn State University Park

PLENARY PROGRAM

France Cordova (banquet speaker) Marc Kamionkowski Nima Arkani-Hamed Anne Kinney Eugenio Bianchi Badri Krishnan Alessandra Buonanno Miguel Mostafá Kipp Cannon Sheila Rowan Tom Gaisser Bernard Schutz Gabriela Gonzalez David Weinberg Donghui Jeong Rainer Weiss

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Abhay Ashtekar • John Beacom • Bernd Bruegmann • Caryl Gronwall Murat Gunaydin Zelijko Ivezic • Mansi Kasliwal • Kumiko Kotera • Charles Lawrence • Peter Mészáros David Reitze • Luciano Rezzola • B. Sathyaprakash • Donald Schneider • Mark Trodden

IGC

Penn State encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Randi Neshteruk ([email protected] or 814-863-9605) in advance of your participation or visit. This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. U.Ed. SCI 19-30. Poster created by Nahks Tr’Ehnl. IGC@25

The Institute celebrated its 25th anniversary with an international conference - Multimessenger Universe SOC: IGC Directors + 10 outstanding scientists who chaired Invited Panels Conference attracted ~ 150 attendees from all over the world France Cordova, NSF Director (former head of A&A), delivered the vision of NSF in the Conference’s after dinner speech Plenary talks by international leaders focusing on themes pursued at the three IGC Centers. Special plenary panel on Next Generation of Gravitational Wave Detectors chaired by Anne Kinney, panelists Dame Sheila Rowan, Bernard Schutz, and Rainer Weiss (2017 Nobel Laureate)

5 Top posts — #IGC25

TopTop postsposts —— #IGC25#IGC25Top posts — #IGC25

SOMETop postsSTATS — #IGC25 Top posts — #IGC25 ON IGC@25Top posts — #IGC25 FROM EBERLY COMMUNICATIONS [ 2,961 impressions / 27 likes ]

OFFICE ONLY [ 2,961 impressions / 27 likes ]

April 1–July 12, 2019 [ 2,961 impressions / 27 likes ] April 1–July 12, 2019 (#IGC25 campaign launched June 4) [ 2,961[ 2,411 impressions impressions / 27 likes/ 20 ]likes ] (#IGC25 campaign launched June 4) [ 2,411 impressions[ 2,961 / impressions20 likes ] / 27 likes ] Facebook Facebook• 13 posts • 13 posts [ 2,411 impressions / 20 likes ] • 12,001 impressions Total [ 2,411 impressions / 20 likes ] • [ 2,411 impressions / 20 likes ] 12,001• 271 likes impressions Total• 29 posts • 271 likes [ 7,207 impressions / 125 likes ] • 15 shares • •2930,587 posts impressions [ 7,207 impressions / 125 likes ] • 15 shares • 30,587 impressions • 321 likes [ 2,961 impressions / 27 likes ] Twitter • •32125 likesshares [ 7,207 impressions / 125 likes ] Twitter • 16 posts [ 7,207 impressions• 25 / 125 shares likes ] • 16 posts • 18,586 impressions[ 7,207 impressions / 125 likes ] • 18,586 impressions • 50 likes • 50 likes • 10 retweets [ 2,411!6 impressions / 20 likes ] • 10 retweets [ 2,961 impressions / 27 likes ]

[ 7,207 impressions / 125 likes ] [ 2,411 impressions / 20 likes ]

[ 7,207 impressions / 125 likes ] LOOPS 19 Loops XX - a series of bi-annual international conference on Quantum Gravity focused primarily on Loop Quantum Gravity that originated at IGC. Previous conferences: Asia & Europe The 2019 conference was organized by Eugenio Bianchi Attracted ~ 130 attendees from 18 countries Mostly younger plenary speakers, covered major developments since 2017 on conceptual, numerical and observational front Preceded by a Loop Quantum Gravity summer school at Bard College, co-sponsored by IGC (students from Asia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, US)

7 LOOPS 19

8 IGC WORKSHOPS

AMON - 6th Workshop in Chiba, Japan, May 21-22, 2019. Organizers: Cowen (PSU) and Yoshida (Chiba) Supergravity and M/Superstring Theory in the Ultraviolet and Double Copy, Sept 6-8, 2018. Organizers: Gunaydin and Roiban Dynamical Horizons, Binary Coalescences, Simulations and Waveforms, July 16-18, 2018. Organizer: Ashtekar

9 PAX WORKSHOPS

Physics and Astrophysics at the Extreme (PAX) series, started in 2016 by IGC Physics and Astrophysics at the eXtreme - PAX III, Feb 5-7, 2018 (State College), PAX IV May 2018 (Pune) Organizers Fox, Hanna, Meszaros, Murase, Sathyaprakash Physics and Astrophysics at the eXtreme PAX V/MM-19 Multimessenger Transients, Penn State, February 7-9, 2019 Organizers: Fox, Hanna, Meszaros, Murase, Radice, Sathyaprakash PAX VI was organized by B.S. Sathyaprakash and held at Pisa, Italy Organizers: Del Pozzo, Read, Sathyaprakash, Vitale 10 AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS Ashtekar awarded the Einstein prize by the American Physical Society Bianchi awarded the Schreyer Teaching prize Neil Brandt elected Fellow of the AAAS Murase received the Nishinomiya Yukawa prize Sathyaprakash elected Fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation; and the American Physical Society Senior Associate International Centre for Theoretical Sciences Shandera received the ECoS teaching innovation award

11 OUTREACH ACTIVITIES SPRING SEMESTER 2019 Cosmic Clues Frontiers of Science: Cosmic Clues Open New Frontiers in ANNIVER H SA T R 5 Y Space 2

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Open New Frontiers in Space P

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t c a S t e f L o e s c r tu tie re n Science Lecture Series, Jan 19 - Feb s on the Fro ScienceJANUARY 19 FEBRUARY 9 Cosmic Messengers from Probing the Universe Deep Space Launch a with Gravitational Waves 104 Keller Building FEATURED ON THE PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PARK New Era of Discovery LOCATION CAMPUS Berg Auditorium, 100 Huck Life Sciences Building 23, 2019. ON THE PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PARK CAMPUS BARRY C. BARISH Linde Professor of Physics Emeritus at the MIGUEL MOSTAFÁ California Institute of Technology Professor of physics and of astronomy The 2016 discovery of gravitational waves and astrophysics at Penn State launched the birth of a new era of astronomy The Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory research. Before, astronomers used visible light Network at Penn State aims to discover new and all other types of electromagnetic radiation phenomena by merging the world’s leading to reveal an amazing understanding of the observatories of weakly interacting neutrinos, universe and its evolution. Now, with gravitational strongly interacting nuclei, and wavelike waves, we can study these signals in a very different way, plus oscillations in the fabric of spacetime into a single we can observe new signals that never before could be studied. system for the first time. These linked detectors of astrophysical Nobel Laureate Barry Barish will reveal plans and prospects for this 25th anniversary of the series “messengers” complement detections by gamma-ray observatories. exciting new science. Learn how we now are probing the high-energy universe via all four fundamental forces. FEBRUARY 16 JANUARY 26 The Ghost Particle: Discovery of Pulsars: A New Tool for A Graduate Student’s Story Deep-Space Discoveries brought the “Cosmos” theme back Berg Auditorium, 100 Huck Life Sciences Building ON THE PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PARK CAMPUS Berg Auditorium, 100 Huck Life Sciences Building ON THE PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PARK CAMPUS JOCELYN BELL BURNELL DOUG COWEN Visiting Professor of Astrophysics at the Professor of physics and of astronomy University of Oxford, Professorial Fellow in Physics and astrophysics at Penn State Join us for a series of six free public at Mansfield College When Earth was new, 4 billion years ago, a lectures on Saturday mornings Jocelyn Bell Burnell received the 2018 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for distant, massive black hole fired an extraordinarily from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. her discovery of pulsating stars that emit intense powerful jet of photons and neutrinos directly on the Penn State University Park campus. beams of radio waves (pulsars) and for her to where the planet would be on September 22, from Year 1. 2017 —the day one of those neutrinos crashed inspiring decades of scientific leadership. She into a web of detectors buried under the IceCube The speakers are researchers who are will describe the accidental discovery of these stars when she was a graduate student. She also will describe some previous occasions Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. IceCube alerted telescopes expanding the frontiers of scientific when pulsars were almost discovered. Their discovery has been to trace the neutrino’s path, revealing the first known source of knowledge in their fields. described as “one of the biggest surprises in the history super-energetic neutrinos. Now you can learn more about this of astronomy, transforming neutron stars from science fiction historic discovery and the clues it reveals about our universe. The annual Penn State Lectures on the to reality.” Frontiers of Science is a free public FEBRUARY 23 series organized by the Penn State Eberly FEBRUARY 2 The Universe Beyond College of Science as an enjoyable and The Quantum Universe Speakers: Ivan Agullo, Jocelyn Bell, enlightening learning opportunity for Einstein: Lessons from residents of the Central Pennsylvania area in the Planck Era and beyond. Primordial Messengers and Beyond Berg Auditorium, 100 Huck Life Sciences Building ON THE PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PARK CAMPUS Berg Auditorium, 100 Huck Life Sciences Building ON THE PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PARK CAMPUS IVAN AGULLO Parking information is available at science.psu.edu/frontiers/ J. RICHARD BOND Assistant Professor of Physics at Louisiana State University Penn State encourages qualified persons with disabilities University Professor, Canadian Institute for to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate Current understanding of cosmic history rests needing any type of accommodation or have questions about Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto Dick Bond, Barry Barish (External); on Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It traces the physical access provided, please call 814-863-4682 or e-mail “Over the 25 years from the Planck Cosmic [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Microwave Background (CMB) satellite go-ahead the origin of the universe to the Big Bang, where space-time ends and physics comes to a halt. This publication is available in alternative media on request. to our 2018 Planck Legacy release,” Dr. Bond Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, says, “cosmology became a precision science But Einstein recognized that the Big Bang is an and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all that established our standard model, full of dark artifact of applying general relativity outside its qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, energy and matter as well as ‘ordinary’ matter.” domain of validity. Learn about exciting research, led by Penn State, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability on how to combine general relativity with quantum mechanics in or protected veteran status. U.Ed. SCI 19-50 MPC151213 His lecture will focus on the Planck maps of the ultra-early universe. “These reveal a remarkable simplicity in the quantum fluctuations order to probe what really happened in the early universe and to test that create the cosmic web of galaxies that we inhabit. In future this new paradigm using the cosmic microwave background. Doug Cowen, Miguel Mostafa (PSU). CMB experiments, we are in quest of ‘beyond the standard model’ physics, in more complex density-structures, and in gravity-wave fluctuations.” science.psu.edu/frontiers/ • [email protected] • 814-863-4682 12 OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

The story of Loop Quantum Gravity - From the Big Bounce to Black Holes. (Another video filmed during Loops19, to be released soon) https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1042&v=x9jYH5VIF9E (This video was released just before Loops19 and has over 168K views.) The Future of Gravitational Wave Astronomy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKrOy4mC4wg (This video was filmed during IGC@25 and already has over 105K views.) The Big Bang’s New Meaning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7kvjTRW-tw&feature=youtu.be (Part of this video was filmed during Loops19. Released two months later and has over 13K views.)

13 OUTREACH AND EDUCATION New initiative: Lectures on advanced topics on YouTube.

Targeted to advanced graduate students and postdocs. Already being used by researchers in other institutions.

14 SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

15 CENTER FOR THEORETICAL AND OBSERVATIONAL COSMOLOGY PUBLICATIONS

The Center has been in existence for 8.5 years produced 538 publications in peer-reviewed journals the publication list can be found at personal.psu.edu/dps7/ctocpapers.html garnered 36,572 citations, average of 68 per paper. 13 papers have received over 500 citations 72 have over 100 citations

17 LEADERSHIP IN LARGE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS Niel Brandt is the Chair of the Active Galactic Science Working Group of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and a key member of the NuSTAR science team Robin Ciardullo is the Observations Manager for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) Caryl Gronwall and Donghui Jeong are members of the HETDEX Survey Steering Committee (SSC) Donghui Jeong has been appointed as the Chair of the Science Working Group on Large Scale Structure for HETDEX Michael Eracleous is a member of NASA's planning committee for future space missions to investigate gravitational radiation Brandt and Eracleous are leaders in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV (SDSS-IV) program to monitor the time variation of a large number of quasars, and are members of the group planning the "Black Hole Mapper" program of SDSS-V, which will begin in 2020 Donald Schneider is a member of the HET Board, and is the Scientiﬁc and Technical Publications Manager and serves on the Advisory Council of SDSS-IV and V

18 SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Brandt and Eracleous continue ground-breaking studies of “changing look quasars” Gronwall is using the Swift satellite to investigate the ultraviolet radiation produced by nearby galaxies Using data from the SDSS Quasar Reverberation Mapping Project, Brandt, postdoc Catherine Grier, and students have published several studies of the physical sizes of the environments of black holes.

19 CENTER FOR PARTICLE AND GRAVITATIONAL ASTROPHYSICS RECENT PUBLICATIONS

23,720 citations, H-index of 45; 7 publications with 1000+ citations, (includes GW discovery papers) gravitational astrophysics (Hanna and Sathyaprakash) have authored 100 papers in refereed publications since 2016 Sathyaprakash wrote 4 Astro2020 white papers and was an author on Physics Brieﬁng Book (arXiv:1910.14259) on European Strategy for Particle Physics led LIGO-Virgo discovery papers, Detection Committee

21 LEADERSHIP: LARGE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

Sathyaprakash is a member of GWIC-3G Committee sub-committee of the Gravitational-Wave International Committee on next generation gravitational wave detectors he is also a co-chair of the GWIC-3G Science Case Team and Science Case Consortium he also serves on the international advisory committee of the Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detector projects Derek Fox and Chad Hanna lead the Penn State team for the NSF Scalable Cyberinfrastructure Institute for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (SCIMMA) ECoS Fellow Surabhi Sachdev leading the LIGO-Virgo paper on a new discovery paper Chad Hanna leading the LIGO-Virgo paper based on the 2nd catalog of detections made during the 3rd observing run Ryan Magee led a LIGO-Virgo paper on primordial black holes

22 SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS the 3rd observing run of the LIGO gravitational wave detectors began in April 2019 with O3 LIGO now issues public alerts of detections in very low latency so that they may be followed up by astronomical telescopes GSTLAL has been playing a very important role in the analysis of LIGO data and public alerts public alerts have already announced: a new class of neutron star-black hole binary mergers never seen before discovery of two binary neutron star 23 O3 science: public alerts link to monthly O3 PUBLIC ALERTS telecons with observers

restricted to L-V-K

EGO, Nov. 4, 2019 G.A.Prodi,24 STAC meeting 19 PRIMORDIAL BLACK HOLES

Hanna, Jeong and Shandera awarded a Kaufman Foundation grant to search for primordial black holes in LIGO-Virgo data graduate student Ryan Magee led LIGO-Virgo search for primordial black holes setting new limit on the abundance of primordial black holes in the Universe

25 AMON - WORKSHOPS Astrophysical Observatory Multimessenger Network AMON Sixth Workshop May 21-22 2019 Organizers | Chiba University, Chiba, Japan Doug Cowen Shigeru YoshidaPenn State Chiba Speakers i Gam Annual AMON workshops erm m Hugo Ayala F a Penn State, AMON -r Azadeh Keivani a y Columbia, IceCube/Swift followup Koji Kawabata S

Nobuyuki KawaiHiroshima, Kanata p a

Lu Lu Tokyo Tech, MAXI c

Chiba, IceCube e

Zhuo Li T N

Beijing University, SN/blazar A e

Tomoki Morokuma A l

Miguel Mostafa c

alternating Penn State - abroad Tokyo, Kiso observatory o p Masayuki NakahataPenn State, HAWC/AMON e

Kotaro Niinuma ICRR, SuperK Kouji Ohta Yamaguchi, VERA Takanori SakamotoKyoto, Okayama-3.8M

Nora Linn StrotjohannAoyama, Swift Masaomi Tanaka DESY, IceCube/optical followup Rob van der Meer Tohoku, SN-followup strategy Continue to expand the network Xiang-Yu Wang Nikhef, ASTERICS XianZhong ZhengNanjing University, GRB/TDE Purple Mountain Observatory, WFST MAGIC e.g., the Asian astro community http://www.icehap.chiba-u.jp/amon2019/

International Center for Hadron Astrophysics, Chiba University Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, Penn State National Science Foundation Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON), Penn State Grants-in-Aid for Scientifc Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 26 ICECUBE CASCADES

!27 AMON - NEWS 1 month of data example New real-time data streams: HAWC ANTARES Auger HAWC daily hotspots New �-� analyses: IceCube-HAWC ANTARES-Fermi LAT On-going analysis: GW-�, �-�-CR IceCube track-like events 28 AMON - PRODUCTS I Published analysis (2018-2019): “The Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON): Performance and science program,” Astroparticle Physics 114 (2020) 68 “A Search for Cosmic Neutrino and Gamma-Ray Emitting Transients in 7.3 Years of ANTARES and Fermi LAT Data,” The Astrophysical Journal 886 (2019) 98 “A Multimessenger Picture of the Flaring Blazar TXS 0506+056: Implications for High-energy Neutrino Emission and Cosmic-Ray Acceleration,” The Astrophysical Journal 864 (2018) 84 “Multimessenger observations of a ﬂaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A,” Science 361 (2018) 6398 “Coincidence Search for Cosmic Neutrino and Gamma-Ray Emitting Sources Using IceCube and Fermi-LAT Public Data,” The Astrophysical Journal 863 (2018) 64

29 AMON - “PRODUCTS” II Published analysis First MultiMessenger PhDs! (2019) Dr. Mónica Seglar-Arroyo

⊗ ⊗

(Galactic coordinates) LIGO simulated event HAWC exposure per 4 min GLADE galaxy catalog

30 AMON - “PRODUCTS” II Published analysis First MultiMessenger PhDs! (2019) Dr. Mónica–18– Seglar-Arroyo Dr. Colin Turley

Fig. 2.— Times of interest for Markarian 421. These times were selected in our initial 31 optimization as the most sensitive search for associated neutrinos (Sec 2.3). The selection 4 2 includes 45.6 days with a total -ray ﬂuence of 4.1 10 cm and yields an expected ⇥ background of 1.03 neutrinos. CENTER FOR FUNDAMENTAL THEORY

32 CFT - HIGHLIGHTS SINCE 2017

The workshop “Supergravity and M/Superstring Theory in the Ultraviolet and Double Copy” was held at Penn State September 6-8, 2018. This workshop brought together some of the world’s top theoretical physicists in the ﬁelds of supergravity, M/superstring theory and amplitudes working on unraveling the high energy behavior of supergravity theories in various dimensions and related topics.

33 2018 PAPERS PUBLISHED IN PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS Gauged Supergravities and Spontaneous Supersymmetry Breaking from the Double Copy Construction, Marco Chiodaroli, Murat Gunaydin, Henrik Johansson, Radu Roiban. Phys.Rev.Lett. 120 (2018) no. 17, 171601. Canceling the U(1) Anomaly in the S-Matrix of N=4 Supergravity, Zvi Bern, Julio Parra-Martinez, Radu Roiban. Phys.Rev.Lett. 121 (2018) no. 10, 101604. Small Magnetic Charges and Monopoles in Nonassociative Quantum Mechanics, Martin Bojowald, Suddhasattwa Brahman, Umut Buyukcam, Jonathan Guglielmon, Martijn van Kuppeveld. Phys.Rev.Lett. 121 (2018) no. 20, 201602. Volume Law and Quantum Criticality in the Entanglement Entropy of Excited Eigenstates of the Quantum Ising Model, Lev Vidmar, Lucas Hackl, Eugenio Bianchi, Marcos Rigo. Phys.Rev.Lett. 121 (2018) no. 22, 220602. 34 2018 PAPERS PUBLISHED IN PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Loops Rescue the No-Boundary Proposal. Martin Bojowald, Suddhasattwa Brahma, Phys.Rev.Lett. 121, 201301 (2018) Gravitational Waves from Binary Mergers of Sub-solar Mass Dark Black Holes. S. Shandera, D. Jeong, and H. S. G. Gebhardt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 241102 (2018) Quantum Transformation of Kruskal Black Holes. Abhay Ashtekar, Javier Olmedo, Parampreet Singh, Phys.Rev.Lett. 121 (2018) 241301. (Editors’ Choice & Viewpoint Highlight.)

35 OTHER CFT PUBLICATIONS HIGHLIGHTS

The paper “The complete unitary dual of non-compact Lie superalgebra su(p,q | m) via the generalized oscillator formalism, and non-compact Young diagrams” by Murat Günaydin and Dmytro Volin in Communications in Mathematical Physics: solves completely the problem of unitary dual of an inﬁnite family of noncompact Lie superalgebras. This is a ﬁrst both in physics as well as in mathematics literature. Emily Grosholz’s book “Starry Reckoning: Reference and Analysis in Mathematics and Cosmology” was awarded the Fernando Gil International Prize in a special ceremony in Lisbon in June 2018. The prize of 75,000 Euros honors a work of particular excellence in philosophy of science. Emily’s second Springer book, “Great Circles: The Transits of Mathematics and Poetry,” was published in November 2018. More than 1,000 copies have been sold so far. She was invited to speak about the book at Bridges 2018 Stockholm, and now again at Bridges 2019 Linz.

36 CFT HIGHLIGHTS AND OUTREACH

Ashtekar was appointed Evan Pugh Professor of Physics Ashtekar was appointed Divisional Associate Editor of PRL Nigel Higson 2019 lectures on non-commutative geometry at the Erwin Schrodinger Institute are available on YouTube and have already had over 500 views. Ashtekar featured in the YouTube video: Remembering Stephen Hawking. Eberly College of Science; March 14, 2018 (https://youtu.be/BxUkPKL7O9kO9k) Nigel Higson and Ping Xu led the joint Cornell-Penn State symplectic geometry seminar. YouTube video: Loop Quantum Cosmology Explained by Monica and Phil Halper featuring Abhay and his former post-doc, Ivan Agullo, has now had over 365,000 views and is being made into a book.

37 IGC RESEACH SUPPORT AND NEW FACULTY PROPOSALS (FOR APPROVAL BY THE IAB) IGC RESEARCH SUPPORT

David Woodward, joint postdoc of Carmen Benitez and Luiz de Viveiros, is supported at 33% by IGC, works on dark matter searches analysis coordinator for the LUX dark matter experiment working on the construction and commissioning of the dark matter LZ experiment Hugo Ayala Solares, AMON postdoc, is supported at 50% works on the analysis of neutrinos (ICE-Cube) and high energy gamma rays (HAWC) and gamma-ray bursts (Swift space observatory) PAX V was hosted and supported by the IGC Following visitors were supported by IGC K.G. Arun (IGC faculty associate, Chennai Mathematical Institute), Surendra Padamata (summer intern), Bernard Schutz (Cardiff University), Sanjeev Dhurandhar (IUCAA)

39 VIKTORIYA GIRYANSKAYA expertise: neutron stars, black holes and supernova state-of-the-art simulations research assistant professor, A&A graduated from Tashkent postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, IAS Princeton awards: young scientist award of Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)

40 DAVID RADICE expertise: supernova, binary neutron stars and black holes assistant professor of Physics and A&A graduated from Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Potsdam, Germany Walter Burke Fellow, Caltech; research scholar IAS Princeton awards Giulio Rampa Thesis Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematical or Numerical General Relativity, University of Pavia Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology

41 REQUEST FOR ADVICE

1. Change the name of the Center for Particle and Gravitational Astrophysics to Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics (Abhay) 2. Changes to the Internal Advisory Board: Larry Ramsey has expressed the desire to step down. Proposals for replacement and perhaps enlargement of the Board. (Don) 3. New opportunities and the associated challenges (Sathya) 4. Enhancing interaction between Mathematics and IGC (Abhay)